How Do you Game? First Person or Third Person?

[Mallus]

I veer like a drunken writer between 1st and 3rd person, both as a player and DM.

I do try to avoid using the 2nd person, that is, until I run a campaign based on Bright Lights, Big City but set in Lankhmar.

Part of what I enjoy about RPG'ing is the tripling that occurs during play; I am my PC, my PC is a character I am writing and performing, my PC isn't me at all, they're game pieces I control in a quasi-board game.

 

[maddman75]

Always first person. I've never gamed with anyone that did third person, it would be strange and offputting to me.

"Hogar glares at him and makes a threat"

I want to know what Hogar says!

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Second person. I'm very bossy.

 

[shinmizu]

What, no second person as a player for when I brandish a sword and tell the GM exactly what he should do and how he should make the NPCs behave?

EDIT: Dang it, ninja'd.

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

Player: 1st person
Keeper: Both

It might be novel to try 3rd person.

 

[howandwhy99]

As a player, always first-person.

As a DM, always third-person.

Strange, I'm maybe 10-20% first-person as a player and always in the first person as a GM when running NPCs.

 

[fba827]

Both; depends on my mood and flow at the moment.

 

[coyote6]

Both, as player; third person as GM. Though I do say the NPCs' dialog in first person; something like, "Bowman shouts, 'Run! It's a trap!'"; once a PC is involved in a conversation with an NPC, I won't preface dialog with "NPC says" -- it's self-evident, usually.

As a player, it's almost always first person -- I cuss him out, I pick the lock, "You won't be running this time", etc. However, I sometimes slip into third person for narrative effect.

But in the game where I'm currently playing, I'm running two characters (3 players, Age of Worms game, somebody better run an extra character), so it's almost always third person, That way everyone knows whether it's Delgar the fighter or Torril the beguiler trying something.

Also, I think that speaking speaking in first or third person is a different question than whether or not you actually say dialog in character, or summarize. You can say, "Delgar threatens him", or "Delgar says, 'Snivelling dog, talk or bleed!;'" -- both are third person. Or you can say, "I threaten him", or "Talk or die like your friends, bandit scum" -- both first person.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I'll use both; as a DM I'm much more inclined to try to distance myself and use the third person, however. It's important to me to convey that the NPCs are not acting the way a character I was playing would, and that I'm as much of an impartial observer and referee as I can be.

 

[Fifth Element]

Second person. I'm very bossy.

Railroader!