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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clavis" data-source="post: 3724838" data-attributes="member: 31898">I think the amount of roleplaying done in a group is function of the quality of the DM and the character of players drawn to a particular rules set.There are three ways to market a RPG: to the Drama Cub, to the Physics/Chess Club, or to the counter culture (metalheads/punks/goths. etc). If you think about it, most of us here were probably part of one of those social scenes in High School.The Drama Club people just want to role-play, and often view the rules as an impediment. Sometimes, they don't even bother to learn the rules, and just ask the DM to determine if something they want to do works. They will role-play their character under any condition, and their different characters are often completely unlike each other. Most of these people end up LARPing anyway, so no edition of D&D was ever aimed at them.The Physics Club people want intricate rules with many options, so that they feel intellectually challenged by the possibility of creating an mechanically optimal character, and solving tactical problems in play. They are often hostile to too much "acting" taking place at the game table. 3.5 Ed seems aimed mostly at this group. The Counter Culture people want to engage in their fantasies. They want a rule set that allows them to imagine a world were they are dominant and special. They want to play Vampires, Evil Clerics with armies of Undead, Half-Demon destroyers of worlds and the like. To them, the rules matter if they allow the player to act out their fantasies, and don't if they get in the way of the fantasy. They love to role-play their characters, as long as those characters are fulfilling their fantasies. They tend to create variations on a single character that they run over and over again.4 Ed seems to be shifting from a focus on the physics Club to the Counter Culture. It seems the new rules will support more role-playing, as long as your role-playing is of a particular sort. If you always wanted to pretend to be the misunderstood son of a demon, who just happens to to be able to kill everything around him, you're in luck. If you want to play out a long romance (with no fangs, Drow magic, or scales involved), nothing I've seen about 4 ed indicates that the rules set will encourage that sort of thing.</blockquote>

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