Grounded or Gonzo?

[Ralif Redhammer]

A middle-ground for me as well. I want wild and strange magic items and the PCs to attempt crazy swashbuckling feats. I want players to be able to get creative with their characters. Magic should feel magical. I don't want things to lose coherence or for the PCs to be able to roll really well and be able to break reality. I don't want someone to come to my table with an Air Genasi named Airry Prodder that speaks like a surfer.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

When I play an RPG its a chance to escape from the trials and tribulations of modern day life. It's already hard enough getting through 2020 with my sanity intact, I don't want to devote my game time to a "misery simulator".

I prefer my heros to be heroic and my action to be cinematic.

 

[MNblockhead]

I wish I had more time to play both and everything in between. My current campaign is borderline gonzo: Rappan Athuk, the killer kitchen sink mega-dungeon homage to old-school play. My first DnD campaign when 5e came out was more grounded--for a DnD game.

But really, to get full gonzo or full grounded experiences, I would look outside of DnD.

Yet...while I run and play other systems, they usually are only one-shots or mini-campains. My DnD campaigns are the ones that run for years. DnD just has the right mix of chocolate in my peanut butter.

 

[Ace]

I run and play in both but have a preference for grounded.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I live in grounded. I live in a world where the bad guys win ALL THE TIME. I live in a world where people are constantly looking backward to the comfort of conformity and not toward progress and the possibility of the fantastical. So the only question that I ask myself is: Why would I want to do all of the above...FOR FUN?

Yeah, NO.
Same reason that I don't want to play games in historical settings. That's not fun for me. AT. ALL.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Give me grounded, any day of the week. I'd rather spend my mental energy on dealing with the goings-on within the world, than on trying to understand how the world works in the first place.

That doesn't mean "grounded" in reality, necessarily. A game can be grounded in the fundamentals of the fantasy genre, or in some other well-established setting. The point is just that it provides a stable place to stand, that I don't have to spend energy on understanding.

 

[Lanefan]

I like a grounded world where somewhat-grounded characters perform gonzo actions that I don't see coming.

 

[Davies]

Grounded. As with adding humor to a setting, it's not necessary to be too gonzo; the players will come up with enough weirdness without your help.

 

[glass]

A middle-ground for me as well.

I was going to say "somewhere in the middle" too. But if the OP considers Eberron to be gonzo then I am definitely on the gonzo side of things by their definition. So I voted as such.

_
glass.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Grounded with occasional explosions of gonzo.