The R in rpg

[Sunseeker]

If you are playing D&D 4e, at the very least you are Roll-Playing. The mechanics are 100% those of a tactical game about small scale skirmishes in a fantasy setting.

How much roleplay you'll piggyback on that system (both during and between encounters) is up to you. I try for a fair bit because I want to care about my PCs struggles.

ALL D&D editions are roll-playing games. Yes, 4e is probably the most dice-intensive of them so far, but it doesn't ignore the role-playing aspect.

 

[MrMyth]

As always, these discussions - and some of the opinions that crop up amidst them - tend to really frustrate me.

Being focused on either extreme of roleplaying or rollplaying doesn't inherently mean anything bad. Captain Killcrazy - described as the guy who tries to kill everything no matter what - isn't a bad player because he's all about the numbers. He's a bad player because he's being disruptive and not trying to work with the rest of the party.

Same thing with the roleplayer who obsesses over every element of the experience. The problem, again, is not how they are causing a disruption and monopolizing the game, but the fact that they are doing so in the first place.

Some people just aren't team players. They don't contribute well to the experience of gaming - whether because they don't know any better or because they are just jerks. Blaming that on their specific inclinations within the game itself is missing the point, and trying to extrapolate broad generalizations based on their specific behaviors... well, it ends up just casting everyone in a bad light, honestly.

Sometimes, yes, you will end up with people at the same table who are looking to get different things out of it. That can genuinely happen. But most of what is being discussed here is simply disruptive players causing trouble, something that will always be an issue regardless of how those players are actually disrupting the game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Being focused on either extreme of roleplaying or rollplaying doesn't inherently mean anything bad. Captain Killcrazy - described as the guy who tries to kill everything no matter what - isn't a bad player because he's all about the numbers. He's a bad player because he's being disruptive and not trying to work with the rest of the party.

Same thing with the roleplayer who obsesses over every element of the experience. The problem, again, is not how they are causing a disruption and monopolizing the game, but the fact that they are doing so in the first place.

Sounds about right to me.

The main difference I see between the two extremes- besides relative rarity- is Killcrazy is like a car's accelerator stuck to the floor while Olivier, Jr. is like a break & parking brake on simultaneously.