Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tuft" data-source="post: 6155250" data-attributes="member: 60045">A number of years ago, I changed gaming groups, and by doing this I suddenly became able to play the characters I *wanted* to play, rather than the characters my previous DM thought I *ought* to play.In one of the first campaigns with the new group, I suddenly ran into a conflict between the wants of me as a player and those of my character. Excuse me for the sin of anecdoting: We were visiting a pseudo-Aztec city, where my druid made friends with the local children, playing with them and learning their language. The city had a sacrificial pit which we investigated and slew the monsters that lived down there. Climbing up again, depleted on spells and HP, we found out that the city had been overrun by hobgoblins. We hid just under mouth the sacrificial pit, discussing what to do, when the Hobgoblins started throwing the very children my character had been playing with into the pit...Now, this was a new group, and I did *not* want to rock the boat. Several other players were very much "optimal tactics, no rash moves, play it as chess" players, and had warned me about how other players' impulsive, chaotic moves had gotten them kicked from the group. So, my desirs as a player was very much to follow the lead of the others, stay put, and recover. But my character just did not allow me to do that... so I, low on HP and without spells, charged the Hobgoblin chieftain.I had been playing RPGs for a decade before that, but it was the first time I really, really experienced deep immersion - and what a powerful feeling it was to me!To me, that anecdote summarizes the difference between immersive roleplaying and "merely" constructing a narrative.(And yes, after a nailbiting fight we *did* defeat the hobgoblin leaders and save the children. With the help of the survivors from that city we later cornered the market on chocolate in the local kingdom...)</blockquote>

Verification