der_kluge
Adventurer
I've played with a lot of people. I've played at conventions, and I've had at least 5 groups that lasted more than several years.
In all those games, and with all those people, I've met actually very few hard-core role-players.
It's a special treat when I do, though. We're talking - people that speak in character the whole time, add in a crazy accent, or aren't afraid to get up to act out some important scene or something.
Most, I say _most_ of the people I've played with are more into the game for the rules and dice-rolling. I like that, too, but a lot of people are just "what do I see? Ooh, that's cool. I cast detect magic, what do I get? Oh, that's awesome." That kind of gamer. They're there because they like the story, or they like the interaction, but their idea of role-playing usually consists of "My barbarian looks really upset, and slams his fist on the table, and then cusses loudly." They refer to themselves in the 3rd person. Or, they do one of these (one of my pet peeves): "I ask the bartender if he has heard of any brigand activity recently". To which I reply, "well, ask it. Say what your character would say."
Which brings me to this poll. In my current group, most of the players, who are all good people, mind you, aren't really hard role-players. They like the game, they follow the story, they pay attention, and they know the rules. I couldn't ask for a better group, really. We all get along, and the players all work well together. But, when it comes to really hardcore role-playing, there's very little. One of the players is pretty dominant, and tends to dominate all NPC conversations, and the others are quite happy with that, and there is another that is a pretty strong role-player, too, but a lot of his in-character comments go unnoticed because no one follows up. For instance, his character made some comment like "It's just like the blue sash", and no one said anything about it. He commented about it later saying, "I figured someone would have asked about it, or commented 'blue sash?'", but he got nothing.
This kind of group has specifically encouraged me to run a more combat-oriented, dungeon-crawl, interesting story with riddles and mysteries and history, kind of game. It has very few NPCs, and less demand for strong role-playing encounters. I did this because I knew my players would prefer the former rather than the latter. The next game, is going to be different, though. We're going to play low-level, gritty, and I think it will really stretch everyone's ability to become a strong role-player. I'm excited to see if it can be pulled off.
But this leads me to the question (and maybe some in-depth discussion) - how many strong role-players do you have in your group?
In all those games, and with all those people, I've met actually very few hard-core role-players.
It's a special treat when I do, though. We're talking - people that speak in character the whole time, add in a crazy accent, or aren't afraid to get up to act out some important scene or something.
Most, I say _most_ of the people I've played with are more into the game for the rules and dice-rolling. I like that, too, but a lot of people are just "what do I see? Ooh, that's cool. I cast detect magic, what do I get? Oh, that's awesome." That kind of gamer. They're there because they like the story, or they like the interaction, but their idea of role-playing usually consists of "My barbarian looks really upset, and slams his fist on the table, and then cusses loudly." They refer to themselves in the 3rd person. Or, they do one of these (one of my pet peeves): "I ask the bartender if he has heard of any brigand activity recently". To which I reply, "well, ask it. Say what your character would say."
Which brings me to this poll. In my current group, most of the players, who are all good people, mind you, aren't really hard role-players. They like the game, they follow the story, they pay attention, and they know the rules. I couldn't ask for a better group, really. We all get along, and the players all work well together. But, when it comes to really hardcore role-playing, there's very little. One of the players is pretty dominant, and tends to dominate all NPC conversations, and the others are quite happy with that, and there is another that is a pretty strong role-player, too, but a lot of his in-character comments go unnoticed because no one follows up. For instance, his character made some comment like "It's just like the blue sash", and no one said anything about it. He commented about it later saying, "I figured someone would have asked about it, or commented 'blue sash?'", but he got nothing.
This kind of group has specifically encouraged me to run a more combat-oriented, dungeon-crawl, interesting story with riddles and mysteries and history, kind of game. It has very few NPCs, and less demand for strong role-playing encounters. I did this because I knew my players would prefer the former rather than the latter. The next game, is going to be different, though. We're going to play low-level, gritty, and I think it will really stretch everyone's ability to become a strong role-player. I'm excited to see if it can be pulled off.
But this leads me to the question (and maybe some in-depth discussion) - how many strong role-players do you have in your group?
