Seriously considering dropping the hobby

[ShinHakkaider]

But riddles and puzzles that only smart players can solve depend on the players' abilities, not those of the characters they're supposed to be playing. YMMV, and apparently does.

QFT.

In my experience "riddles and puzzles that only smart players can solve" grinds games to a halt just as much as a complex combat encounter can and isnt nearly as fun. If your group is into that sort of thing, great. But when you have issac the barbarian solving the puzzle while ted the wizard stands to side stumped all because issac's player has a knack for puzzles, how is that role playing again?

I mean the WOTC designers even mention the puzzle thing (solvable by players or their characters) in thier last podcast.

 

[molonel]

Last year, the rest of my gaming group (of 14 years!) decided that World of Warcraft satisfied all of their roleplaying needs, so they abandoned tabletop play for keyboards and headsets. Unfortunately, I couldn't spend hours a day on an MMO, so I wasn't able to join them. Now we're not even friends any more. I feel like a friggin' game ate five of my friends.

MMORPGs can do that. I've lost friends to WoW. I even have a couple that I stopped calling on the phone for a while, because I would experience these distracted half-conversations where I would hear swords clashing and things dying in the background. I'd say something, and then half to repeat it, and not really get an answer.

There are games other than D&D. Maybe trying something else would recharge your batteries. Even something non d20 <gasp!>

*the audience gasps*

Heretic!

 

[molonel]

In my experience "riddles and puzzles that only smart players can solve" grinds games to a halt just as much as a complex combat encounter can and isnt nearly as fun. If your group is into that sort of thing, great. But when you have issac the barbarian solving the puzzle while ted the wizard stands to side stumped all because issac's player has a knack for puzzles, how is that role playing again?

I love it when people act like playing D&D should be a combination of an acting class at the Julliard School, and a qualification exam for MENSA.

You just want to say, "Guys, I do problem-solving at work all week. Can we just kill some orcs, and order some pizza? Pass the Mt. Dew."

 

[Greenstone]

Good grief

Your sentiments echo my own position so strongly it's scary...

I'm 39, been playing since '84 (Red Box D&D, then 1e, then 2e, then a homebrew system, and as of last year, 3e), and I find myself battling more and more each week to get the inspiration to get the session material ready.

I've DM'ed my whole career, and feel pretty burned out, especially as one campaign (with the homebrew rules sytem) ran with 4 core players for 10 years.

Now I'm left with 2 core players plus 2 maybes, none of whom know 3e very well, and so fail to see the benefits of this feat or that, or this class combination or that (the fact the group has 1 fighter, 1 cleric, 1 thief and 1 sorcerer illustrates the point!).

Every time I get a new adventure (just got the new Ravenloft hardcover) my initial excitement soon seems to pale (hate the new encounter format, just seems so clinical and designed so that each adventure is one miniatures battle after another)... and the time from that initial 'rush' to that let-down feeling gets shorter and shorter with each purchase.

So what to do....

Well in my case I'm starting a campaign with my kids this year (ages 12 and 8), running the first adventure I ever played (B1 - thank goodness for the 'net and pdf downloads!), and I'm hoping that their enthusiasm will re-ignite my passion for the game....

... if watching them fight the giant rats at the first crossroads battle (those who know B1 will be smiling right now)... doesn't excite me, then nothing ever will, and I'll be playing Texas Hold'em every Thursday night.... .

But I'll tell you one thing..... even if that happens, I'll still smile every time I flick through my battered old Basic D&D rules and see the Haunted Keep map, or the pic of Emirikol in the cities section of the 1e DMG, or read the intro page from the Birthright boxed set... but as they say...

Nostalgia just ain't what it used to be...

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I love it when people act like playing D&D should be a combination of an acting class at the Julliard School, and a qualification exam for MENSA.

You just want to say, "Guys, I do problem-solving at work all week. Can we just kill some orcs, and order some pizza? Pass the Mt. Dew."

YOU UNDERSTAND.

 

[LordofIllusions]

I feel your pain.

I'm 38 and I've been playing RPGs in one form or other for thirty years now. Although that includes a long layoff in the nineties.

I have found it well-nigh impossible to find gamers my age and at my station of life. I was the oldest in my last group; the rest were all in their twenties. I'm married; none of them were. I have a child; none of them do. I'm wanting to talk about my daughter's latest escapades at preschool; they're all talking about how cool kung-fu movies are.

The other problem I've found is that RPGs just aren't worth the work anymore. I love video games and board games, and I'm starting to think that since my time is at such a premium (especially with a four year old child) that I'd rather stick with those for my gaming pleasures.

On that note: last week some friends came over for a five-hour session of ARKHAM HORROR, the Call of Cthulhu boardgame. No rules bickering, no uber-powered characters gleaned from umpteenth source books, no hours of prep for me ahead of time (I usually DM). Instead, we set up the game and had a hell of a good time gaming. Instead of twenty minutes of fun spread out over five hours (which is what D&D 3.5 sessions often become), it was five hours of solid gaming goodness.

Now THAT is what I've been missing.

The other day I took out the old Nintendo GameCube and started playing through Resident Evil 4 again. Damn, was that fun. Give me THAT anyday over debating about attacks of opportunity with some egghead who has more rules knowledge than social skills.

To get my D&D fix, I'm starting to consider the boardgame Runebound. I suspect it may very well offer the best of both worlds.

Anyway, the tabletop RPG hobby is dying. Fewer and fewer people look at the 1000+ pages of rules and say, "Why?"

It's getting harder for me to answer that same question.

Yup, it sure is. The main reason is not really the ruleset but the social air which is destroying the game. Since when do we let corporations be the end all know all in our games? I remember playing with my 2E DM, it was so FUN! I even recall when I first started DMing under 2E(The Ravenloft Boxed Set). I had so much enthusiasm because the players and the company behind the game were about providing a good time for everyone as opposed to "just selling books or getting their way."

You always have the optimists that will ignore anything negative and claim the game today is just as good as it used to be and the social air has not changed. I believe that is largely a lie however.

~~~

 

[LordofIllusions]

MMORPGs can do that. I've lost friends to WoW. I even have a couple that I stopped calling on the phone for a while, because I would experience these distracted half-conversations where I would hear swords clashing and things dying in the background. I'd say something, and then half to repeat it, and not really get an answer.

I used to have a player like that. The only difference was I wanted him gone. He was argumentative, childish, insane, and just plain petty. I got sick of his attitude and so did my other gamers.

When my other players explained what kind of person he was to other games; People that had never even met him began to hate him.

~~~

 

[LordofIllusions]

I've played anough WoW to know that it is a *very* social game. All the social interraction that used to take place at the table is still very much present.

Just sayin'

No it's not. I have played WoW several times and it is extremely cheesy. I don't even play anymore.

~~~

 

[dpetroc]

LordofIllusions and Greenstone hit the nail on the head for me! I'm just waiting for my son to be old enough (6). I've gamed for over 28 years. Right now, I have four players -- one really committed, my wife, and two guys who let me know on a friday night if they can make a Saturday game. One of them can't remember what happened 15 minutes ago if it didn't happen to his character and didn't involve rolling dice -- yet he's our resident rules lawyer/ Chief Metagamer. Nice guys, just a gaming style I can't adopt. Recruitment from outside my peer group (not too many admitted gamers) has proven next to impossible (I've never SEEN so many stereotypical gamers -- bad hygiene included). My solution - run the game to the people who show up and PLAY, not to those who just show up. I run a few PBEM games with far away friends, and a separate, solo Conan RPG game with my wife whenever we feel it. Not a huge fan of computer games -- I like the social element of D&D --including the side conversations, hackneyed Monty Python quotes, and general BS. Despite what many have said about MMORPGS not taking tabletops over, they have influenced them in a subtle way. We've always had minmaxers, munchkins, rules lawyers et al. But now so many people incorporate those lovely traits with all the artificiality of online gaming. 's funny...I would have expected that from the younger gamers, but its prevelant in older gamers as well.

 

[Ulrick]

One day last year, I woke up and looked at all my D&D/RPG stuff on my three bookshelf, glanced at the boxes of minis (both painted and unpainted), the binders that I kept notes and adventures of my various campaign, and figured that I'd probably spent over $5,000 over 18 years since I began playing D&D.

Then an image of the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons walking down the street came into mind. "But Aquaman! You can't marry a human female! She doesn't have gills!" And then a nuclear missile came flying into his face. "Oh! I've wasted my life!"

Eventually I got over that depressing feeling and realized that this hobby is part of who I am. I love telling cool stories. I love being in cool stories. RPGs is just a vehicle to express that conviction.