Sense of Wonder: What is it to you?

[Brazeku]

I figure I'll chime in here again. A little tip about the whole visualization thing, I find that miniatures in general make it a lot more difficult. The fewer distractions and visual representations you have, the better- it feels more like a world and less like a game.

 

[DragonLancer]

I figure I'll chime in here again. A little tip about the whole visualization thing, I find that miniatures in general make it a lot more difficult. The fewer distractions and visual representations you have, the better- it feels more like a world and less like a game.

It's only recently that I've had to go to miniatures. For years I refused for the very reasons that you state. Makes the combats feel more like chess. At tonight's game I brought some D&D mini's to the game and we used those. Helped visualise combat better but it's just not the same.

 

[Piratecat]

I strive for it all the time, I get it periodically -- and the better I can imagine the scene in my head, the more likely it is to grab me and not let go.

In Sagiro's campaign, at one point we had disappeared from our world and appeared, without memories, in a bizarre city with odd physics and artificial boundaries. We had many subtle clues as to what it was, but were still mystified. Then three days later I was taking a shower and it suddenly dawned on me that we were in a city inside a bottle.

It's hard to describe how cool I thought that was, or how happy I was to have figured it out instead of having it spelled out for me.

I try for those moments of epiphany in my game. I love when I reach them. Generating a sense of wonder in my players is half the fun.

 

[Treebore]

Its the "doing what you can only dream about" in real life.

Its the magic.

Its the super heroic deeds you can accomplish without feeling real pain or death.

Its Excalibur, and being the one who wields it.

Its the Dragons, and being the one who rides them.

ITs the piles of gold, and being the one who owns them.

Its the Diamonds, Rubies, and Saphires the size of your fist, and being the one who owns them.

Its being powerful enough to impact the world, to rule, to do whatever it is you want to do.

Its the way I run my games.

 

[Ulric]

For me, it's all about possibility. To feel like there are no limits; to feel like magic is infinite, that my warrior skills can develop forever, that I can trade and barder until I have artifacts that take me to another level, and another level, and more levels after that.

It's stepping out of the limited, into the limitless.

I (my character) still has to fight and strive for it, but it is possible.

Like the psionics title: Unlimited Potential.

I think that's what "Sense of Wonder" is all about.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

What really did it for me was just the appearance of a product that let me uncork my imagination and draw maps upon graph paper. I would spend hours in my parents living room the summer after I got my first boxed set making maps. This went on for several years after too. (Not too many people gamed.) You can still get it later. It's more elusive - you have to work harder to find the feeling - but it's definitely there.

 

[kaomera]

For me it's when you find a magic sword and the first thing that pops into your head isn't "what plusses has it got?"

 

[Hussar]

Sense of wonder are the key words to lengthy threads about nostalgia.

Heh. Honestly, I was far too much of a gamist to really get much of a sense of wonder about the game. I like killing stuff and taking its treasure. Always have. I've had great DM's and I've had bad ones. I've had tons of fun and I've had some pretty piss poor times. But a time when I sat back and went "ooh ahhh" about someone's imaginary world? Not so much.

 

[MerricB]

I get a Sense of Wonder out of the game whenever something unexpected happens - mostly these days it's because my players are really inventive. Either a combination of preexisting rules I didn't realise would work like that, or something else entirely they've thought up.

Cheers!

 

[Melan]

Unreality and surrealism versus ecology and detailed societies. Mosaic-like worlds versus systematic building. Gameplay based on a desire to adventure and see wondrous things versus following a set "epic" story. Exotic stuff.

Sense of wonder is a common thing in my game - hell, it is probably more common than it used to be. Nothing to do with nostalgia, although a lot to do with how a lot of "old" games were set up. There was a sense of wonder associated with discovering gaming for the first time, true, and that is gone. But there are other sources to get it.