How Do You Enjoy D&D Away From the Table

[S'mon]

Reading/posting forums, blogs, and these days Facebook groups, even G+. But I generally
play (GM) several times a week too.
I don't routinely play as a player, but joining a couple new campaigns soon I've been working on my two barbarian polearm-wielding PCs - they are more different than you'd think from their stats.

 

[SirGrotius]

Talking with friends, reading the source books and other materials, browsing this excellent forum, occasionally going to the D&D website or even checking out a random youtube video. I still need to go to a conference.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I really enjoy not having D&D at my table anymore. It has opened a lot of opportunities for other game systems out there, and discovering new games that have quickly become some of my favorites in recent years! Plus, it's really nice to get away from the edition treadmill, the circular debates, the rehashed nostalgia, the dreadful d20...

Wait. Did I read that question right?

 

[Volund]

Besides being on this forum...
Painting minis until 2:00am on work nights
Adding to my minis wishlist on miniaturemarket.com
Random D&D crafts - dice trays, DM screens, dice towers made from scotch boxes
Planning characters or campaign encounters and maps while at work
Using the color copier at work after hours to print campaign materials
Checking out articles on the WotC website
Checking Warhorn.net for AL games to sign up for
Matt Colville's youtube channel
Convincing my wife that I am not spending too much time playing D&D
Grooming my 5yo daughter to be a future D&D player so I can call all of this "family time"
Occasionally regretting throwing all of my 1e D&D books, modules and minis in the trash when I moved about 10 years ago because I was tired of moving that same unopened box and had concluded that I would probably never play D&D again and I just needed to let that dream die and move on

 

[Guest 6801328]

Getting infractions at Enworld.

 

[i_dont_meta]

Divinity: Original Sin 2

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Not much these days - I spend a bit of time here, and at Paizo's forums.

For the last 20+ years - I spent hours reading books, including 3rd party books, building characters, designing house rules - For Pathfinder & 3.x. Did similar things with Hero too. But these days, I don't. I found 5E to be freeing that way - there isn't the huge amount of rules and options to engage with away from the table. So these days, instead of engaging with RPGs away from the table, I play board games or video games with the wife, read more fiction, watch more movies.

 

[MNblockhead]

Not much these days - I spend a bit of time here, and at Paizo's forums.

For the last 20+ years - I spent hours reading books, including 3rd party books, building characters, designing house rules - For Pathfinder & 3.x. Did similar things with Hero too. But these days, I don't. I found 5E to be freeing that way - there isn't the huge amount of rules and options to engage with away from the table. So these days, instead of engaging with RPGs away from the table, I play board games or video games with the wife, read more fiction, watch more movies.

With the free time 5e afforded, I picked up a few more TTRPGs. I'll fill the space created by efficiency and simplicity with more complexity.

:-/

 

[Lord Mhoram]

With the free time 5e afforded, I picked up a few more TTRPGs. I'll fill the space created by efficiency and simplicity with more complexity.

:-/

lol.

D&D is actually a secondary system for me - we play HERO every week - that is complex enough, and our other TTRPG is even lighter / less mechanical than 5E - Genesys (based on the FFG Star Wars system).

More than anything it came down to me and the wife not wanting to go to the work to GM each other, and play heavy board games with RPG elements (Shadows of Brimstone, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game) so that we both can just play.

 

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

Game prep, mostly. Writing up magic items. Making maps for my game. Getting everything set up in Roll20 - maps, character sheets, tokens, etc. World building and creating NPCs. Making custom stuff - spells, races/subraces, class options, monsters. Reading through the books, particularly adventure books like Tomb of Annihilation and Tales From the Yawning Portal. Listening to D&D-related podcasts or Twitch streams.

You can do a lot of D&D stuff even if you're not actually playing D&D. For example, we had to skip my Spelljammer game this week due to schedule conflicts, so instead I took that time to work on some custom monsters for next week's session. Instead of standard goblins, I worked up some custom goblins with different weapons and some cantrips.