D&D General Poll: Combat or Roleplay?

[rgoodbb]

Roleplay, then Exploration and then Combat. Although I don't mind combat.

 

[iserith]

Combat is roleplaying.

 

[andargor]

Wasn't the concept of D&D as a combat game really introduced in 4E? The whole miniature-centric philosophy of it. Otherwise, it's always been an RP game with combat elements.

 

[Oofta]

Wasn't the concept of D&D as a combat game really introduced in 4E? The whole miniature-centric philosophy of it. Otherwise, it's always been an RP game with combat elements.

It started out as a wargame with magic. Adding in RP was kind of incidental. The balance between RP and combat has always been up to the group in my experience.

 

[andargor]

It started out as a wargame with magic. Adding in RP was kind of incidental. The balance between RP and combat has always been up to the group in my experience.

Well, if we bring out Chainmail and Braunstein as the genesis of D&D, then "both" is probably still the right answer.

 

[Stormonu]

Battling monsters is a big draw for me and why I like having dozens of monster books, but without the roleplay, it's just Descent, Wrath of Arshadarlon or Warhammer Quest. I can enjoy playing such boardgames, but only for short bursts at a time. The roleplay and story elements of D&D is what keeps it from just collecting dust on the shelf. At the same time, if it was just roleplay, with no combats - I wouldn't like that either. I need me some action.

 

[LordEntrails]

Is 50.1% "focus"? We probably remember and get more excited over combat, but we usually spend more time on roleplaying than we do on combat. So... It depends?

 

[schneeland]

I could probably do without combat (not that I wanted to completely discard it), but not without conflict in TTRPGs.
That being said, I'm happy with only a fraction of the mechanics that modern iterations of D&D offer.

 

[practicalm]

It depends on the group you are playing with. Or if you are playing in AL.
I may be unlucky but the AL games I've been in have rarely allowed the kind of RP that I enjoy.

I prefer RP but I've seen a lot of groups just focus on the combat and leveling up treadmill and I generally don't continue in those groups.

 

[Oofta]

It depends on the group you are playing with. Or if you are playing in AL.
I may be unlucky but the AL games I've been in have rarely allowed the kind of RP that I enjoy.

I prefer RP but I've seen a lot of groups just focus on the combat and leveling up treadmill and I generally don't continue in those groups.

I would say your experience with AL is pretty typical. Mods (generally) need to be run in a constrained period of time and there is often no guarantee of a consistent table. You can certainly run the equivalent of a home campaign that is recorded as an AL event but it doesn't happen that often in my experience.