Sense of Wonder: What is it to you?

[jdrakeh]

People often talk about that Sense of Wonder that they had when they first entered into this hobby and that has since dissipated -- bust just what is this mysterious Sense of Wonder? What things fostered these feelings in you? For me, personally, there were a few things that really did it. . .

Open Campaign Settings

Way back when, in the days when D&D was a lone box set and Runequest was a single rulebook, settings were nebulously defined, at best. The expectation of adherance to canon didn't exist because there wasn't much of it -- Bob's world of Greyhawk might be entirely different than Bill's, save for the minor details disclosed in the original Gazetteer and the three D&D core rule books. The first look at Glorantha came via Apple Valley and Snakepipe Hollow -- there was no all-encompassing body of setting material and, again, Jill's Glorantha was almost certanly nothing like the world that Greg Stafford would reveal in the years to come. Even the FR 1e material was painted in extremely broad strokes, with plenty of map left to fill in as one saw fit. No two persons versions of a given campaign setting were ever remotely identical, which meant that there were always surprises.

Character Driven Campaigns

The very first (and arguably the very best) AD&D campaign that I played in was entirely player-driven. The DM came up with a basic concept, molded it to the characters that we created, and then had the world react accordingly -- there were no rails, no pre-scripted plot that we had to adhere to, and no expectation on our part that we were moving steadily toward Final Conclusion A. There were many side quests and unintentional adventures, much skullduggery within the party, and ultimately a lot of fun. If module structure or Big Epic Plot had infringed upon this campaign, I suspect that it would have come to a grinding halt.

Point-based Character Gen

Yeah, really -- being forced to make the best of some randomly rolled character isn't very appealing when the option of building exactly the character you want exists. While I've played and had fun in many games that utilize random character generation (such as the aformentioned AD&D campaign), without exception, those that let me build my character from the ground up were always more entertaining.

 

[Wik]

"Sense of Wonder" is, to me, surprise over the nature of the game itself.

"Wait... I can do.... ANYTHING?"

It has nothing to do with rules, character creation, or any of that. It is, simply, a sense of wonder with the idea behind RPGs itself. Otherwise, we would have a "sense of wonder" each time we started a new RPG.

And, while that "learning phase" in any new RPG can be a lot of fun (such as when we switched to the d6 system for about four months last year), it's an entirely different entity than the sense of wonder you will get as a new RPGer.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

Interesting topic, thanks for bringin it up!

"Sense of Wonder" is, to me, surprise over the nature of the game itself.

Q.F.T.

"Sense of Wonder" is when everything is new and wondrous, a blank slate, and anything is possible. (Remember meeting your first metallic dragon? "WHAT? He's FRIENDLY?)

"Sense ofWonder" is, to me, something that is INCERDIBLY hard to (re)capture as an adult.
I've been pleasantlysurprised over the years, but never really had what I would call a "Sense of WOnder" about it.

Sadlty, as we get older, we try (IMO) to impose unnecessary order on a system that doesn't necessarily need it. And this, as much as anything else, helps to curtail that sense of wonder, IMHO.

Of course, this is all just my 2 Gold-Pieces.

 

[the black knight]

I'm fighting monsters! In a dungeon!

 

[Teflon Billy]

The very nature of the game itself.

My first serious DM was my friend Joel's big brother, and while he came from a wargaming background, he loved the idea of roleplaying and enforced it pretty heavily.

So the first clunky steps were essentially a lot like chess where you had to pretend to be a rook (most of our early roleplay was nothing more than battle cries and threatening one another), but after awhile we were still moving pieces around the map and my God if actual characters didn't start appearing

I don't think you can get that twice

 

[jdrakeh]

So. . . what I'm getting so far is that, for many foolks, Sense of Wonder isn't a tangible thing but just a feeling of awe that they had upon experiencing D&D (something new and different) for the first time in actual play. It wasn't that for me, I guess (though I can draw a direct parallel between that SoS and another leisure activity that once consumed my free time, so I 'get' it). For me, Sense of Wonder was the result of some very specific approaches to actual play, rather than the mere act of actual play in and of itself. . .

I was first introduced to D&D around 1985 (when I was 8 years old) and didn't think much of it. It was all kinds of new and different, as I'd never played a tabletop RPG before, though I was having more fun with Gateway to Apshai on my dad's C-64, creating the world in my mind's eye as I hacked my way to freedom. D&D just wasn't holding my interest.

When I was re-introduced to the hobby via AD&D in 1995 (by way of the aforementioned AD&D campaign), the lack of an intricately defined setting and the entirely character-driven game play really made an impression. You couldn't pry me away from that game and ,since then, I think I've only played in one game just as fun (see below).

The point-buy character gen didn't really get me excited until I played in my friend Keith's expanded Star Wars universe campaign, a campaign which also benefited from an open setting and character-driven play. This campaign is nearly tied with the above AD&D campaign for me where 'Sense of Wonder' is concerned.

For me, Sense of Wonder wasn't a product of D&D (or any game, for that matter), rather, it was a product of how those games were run. I've had that Sense of Wonder more than once, so I know that recapturing it can happen

 

[Brazeku]

I get it all the time. It has to do with experiencing a strange world, such as coming across an unusual location or people in game. I get it as a GM when I'm creating and running the places if the imagery is vivid enough.

 

[cmrscorpio]

"Sense of Wonder" to me is when the DM describes a location, an event, a scene, or a precarious situation and the player does an unintentional imitation of Neo in the first Matrix when Morpheus leaps across the top of the buildings. "Whoa."

And, yes, as we get older it gets harder and harder to pull off simply because we've seen more and more things before, but it does happen.

 

[DragonLancer]

For me it was the ability see everything so clearly in my minds eye the first first time I played. It was just so real that when I closed my eyes as the GM described where we were and everything that happened, I could see it there as though it was right in front of me.

Sadly, that is something that slowly faded the more gaming I did. While its still there I cannot regrasp that sense of wonder and the feel of it again.

 

[jdrakeh]

For me it was the ability see everything so clearly in my minds eye the first first time I played. It was just so real that when I closed my eyes as the GM described where we were and everything that happened, I could see it there as though it was right in front of me.

Sadly, that is something that slowly faded the more gaming I did. While its still there I cannot regrasp that sense of wonder and the feel of it again.

Yeah, I feel you -- I have trouble with seeing things in my mind's eye as I grow older, too.