How in depth do you role play + rant

[yoippari]

Im new to pen and paper rpgs. So far my experiance has not been too good but I am keeping with it because I know where the problem is.

My current DM is a little experianced but gets things wrong constantly. He hasn't set down any real house rules so we just assume he is following the books, which he does until he pulls some thing out of his a$$ such as werewolves liking grave yards and vampires dusting when they die (buffy).

The thing that really irks me though is that he won't let us role play. I'm not talking in character/ooc RP, that is pretty casual mostly ooc. I'm talking there is no point in buying food because he doesn't require that we eat (it is assumed that we do this when we rest). He doesn't let us dress dead animals and take the meat and skin for food and sale (well, hes let us but no one will buy it and he never gives us the chance to cook, because eating is assumed). He doesn't have us buy any thing on the adventuring gear page of the PhB except mount gear and lanterns.

Ok, done whinig about my dm.

Do any other players have this problem?

How much do the DMs out there require their players RP?

 

[Telperion]

The things that you described aren't all about roleplaying. Eating, taking care of your mount and stuff like that are more about upkeep than roleplaying. However: if he isn't allowing you to sell items you have crafted (such as deerskins, bearskins, etc.) then this is something to complaing about.

If you do not have any skill in curing hides and such stuff then there's a good chance no one really wants to buy your stuff. Without skill any real skill it isn't likely you are producing quality stuff.

As to the getting things wrong part: where does it say that vampires do not turn to ashes when the instant they hit 0 hitpoints? Where does it say that werewolves do not frequent graveyards? Even if such information was printed somewhere your DM can change any and all parts of the game if he feels like it.

If you feel that you need something from the general items section in the PHB aks your DM the following: is it assumed that you are carrying all the "necessary" stuff that you need on your adventures? It could simply be that your DM doesn't want to burden you with upkeep. Personally I demand that my players keep track of every trail ration and arrow they carry, but that's just me.

There are a whole lot of things that characters can spend their money on. Should your DM feel that common items aren't important enough to merit attention there's a section in the DMG that talks about static upkeep. For example: if you are living by eating average food, using average lodging (when available) and using average tools then there's a sum of money you remove from your funds once per month, week, etc. That way you get the feeling you are consuming resources, although you don't have to worry about the actual upkeep.

Personally I think you should talk about these things with your DM and see what he thinks about them.

 

[BSF]

First off, welcome to the boards!

Secondly, there is nothing wrong with saying that Werewolves like graveyards. Perhaps the base human has a fetish or something.

Thirdly, what's wrong with a vampire turning to dust when it dies? I do all sorts of little things like that to spice up the game.

Fourthly, your rant about not being able to RP might be legitimate. Do the other players have problems with not going into the detail you are describing? Has the group been around a while before you joined? Most importantly, have you spoken with the DM about it?

It could be that the DM or the group has decided to bypass these issues and is not even aware you would like to delve into that detail. There are quite a few groups that want to skip to the exciting parts rather than account for minute details. The other players might be included in this. Or the DM may have encountered such groups previously.

I would suggest talking with the DM and hashing out the middleground that everyone can agree will be fun to play.

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

My games are kept online, but my DM's have always required role-playing. In the longest lasting game I'm in (running now for about 4-5 years), we can go 2-3 sessions of about 2-3 hours each without combat. Its RPing, whether between PCs or with NPCs concerning the game. I thoroughly enjoy it.

 

[Li Shenron]

I agree with pretty much everything Telperion wrote.

First of all, there's nothing wrong with the DM adding his own view on monsters and various creatures, as much as he can do with cultures and people in the fantasy world. Sometimes the twists introduced by the DM disappoint the players, but when it happens it is usually because they have an in-game tactic consequence that the players didn't expect after getting familiar with the Monster Manual.

In general my opinion is not only that the DM has all the rights to colour her fantasy world as she likes, but that it is actually a good thing to keep the game different over time. After all, players are always excited by meeting new monsters, why shouldn't they be to meet an unexpected werewolf?

Second, about the upkeep or off-adventure situations. This really depends on the gaming group preference: some players love detailing what their character do when they are not fighting monsters, while others just want to go to action and skip the rest. There's no better or worse, just that the first like seeing their character's full life (like perhaps in a Tolkien's book), while the second want to focus on the drama (like in a movie).
Your group should discuss about this facts and decide how much to bother with the off-part, but also remember that it may require extra care from the DM, who may already find his job difficult enough (although in general it requires much more from the players, rather than the DM).

 

[diaglo]

first off players shouldn't be reading the monster manual.


secondly welcome to the boards.


thirdly, some DMs are like that. they don't want to bog the game down with what they consider small details. (personally, i like the small details)

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I like small details, too. But like diaglo said, there may be a difference between walking through things like 'eating dinner' and 'seducing the waitress.'

As a DM I do not go through every aspect of the characters' lives but at least once a session I will have them actually role play their trip to the shop, the conversation at dinner, or a meeting with some townsfolk who want to talk about their prixed cow. The reason for this is because on occassion one of things will be important and will provide good foreshadowing. If I only role played though events that ended up having an impact, it would be hard to sneak one by the PCs when I want to use it as a clue later.

 

[Umbran]

Do any other players have this problem?

How much do the DMs out there require their players RP?

One person's problem is another's blessing. But perhaps the "problem" doesnt lie where you think it does....

It sounds like your DM has made a few small cosmetic changes to the behavior of some monsters. This is no big deal, and doesn't qualify as pulling anything out of a bodily orifice. Player characters don't necessarily know all the details of every monster as presented in the rulebooks, so the DM is under no onus to tell you about every such change beforehand.

On some of your role-play issues, I think your DM is trying to "cut to the chase". It sounds like he'd prefer to not spend much time on relatively mundane topics like what characters eat, so that he's got more time to spend on more adventure-y stuff. This isn't too unusual. Lots of folks feel similarly, that the game ought to be about events less ordinary than hunting and selling. While they may add flavor, these things are not terribly dramatic.

As an aside - compared to the wealth available to adventuring PCs, the money you can earn by hunting and selling meat and hides is a mere pittance.

So, at first glance your problem seems to lie merely in a difference of expectations. Yours differ very slightly from your DM's. They can probably handled by having a talk with your DM about why he chooses to do some things.

 

[yoippari]

The DM changeing the monsters a little bit wouldn't be so bad except that he said that he would follow the books. He never said anything about special house rules let alone that he would change monsters.

About the players reading the monster manual I at first assumed that DnD would more closely follow vampire lore than buffy lore. I didn't check the manual until after he put a pile of dust in a rough human shape on the ground, which he expected us to know was a vampire.

Oh and keep in mind that our DM is really just a semi experianced player. The getting things wrong expands to simple stuff like how to figure out how much a paladins Lay on Hands heals

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Like other posters in the thread, I think monster behaviour is something the DM is free to change. It's also not something that your character is likely to have to worry about - even if they do have ranks in some kind of relevant Knowledge skill, the DM determines what creatures are like in his setting.

As for the minutiae of day-to-day existence, such things are very commonly glossed-over and I would suggest that most D&D players are not interested in playing Survival: the Upkeep. However, it's not unreasonable for your character to want to make a bit of spare change out of furs and whatnot, assuming they have the skill.

But none of the problems you raise are about role-playing per se. Role-playing is about personalities, assuming the point of view of another person. That can be immersive, like playing a part on stage, like writing a character in a novel, like controlling a character in a video game - but it's not significantly about things like buying food and equipment.

Some people enjoy that level of detail but most find it utterly unnecessary.