D&D 5E What aspects of play do you most enjoy?

[FormerlyHemlock]

What aspects of D&D do you most enjoy, as a player or as a DM? Combat, exploration, social, or some combination?

I find that I enjoy playing combat, but I enjoy running exploration: creating things to do and see in a fantastic world. Sometimes exploration includes combat, but not necessarily in a fair-and-balanced way. One of my favorite game sessions involved the PCs stumbling across a githyanki war party, fighting a gith champion in single combat, and then winning so thoroughly (via Dominate Person, the mage gestured once and spoke a word of command and then forced the gith to hack himself to pieces--it was very impressive) that the gith acted friendly and even gave them some information on an 80,000-year-old piece of biotechnology from the twilight of the Second Hegomony (Aboleth times) which the PCs subsequently used to modify themselves in crazy ways. When I do combats, I take joy in creating combats which are hilariously unbalanced in one direction or another by DMG rules: either crazy difficult by DMG rules or else so average/easy that it becomes mostly a social encounter which doesn't even ever use full combat rules (like the Gith fight) and serves to highlight that the PCs are no longer regular mooks who are afraid of orcs and hobgoblins.

I find I don't spend much of my time thinking up cool NPCs for them to talk to, so the social pillar of my game is a distinct last.

 

[Ashrym]

TBH, what I enjoy the most is creating the concept for the character and building the mechanics to match the character. Variety and being able to play that concept regardless of pillar is how I have fun.

 

[DaveDash]

As you can probably guess, I enjoy the combat pillar of the game the most. I also do enjoy exploration. Not really a fan of social, although I usually end up doing a lot of talking, despite playing characters with 8 charisma.

 

[Jester David]

Storytelling and worldbuilding

 

[AverageCitizen]

This is going to be interesting. I enjoy social interaction, but not because I like talking to the shop keeper, but because I like story-arcs and resolution. The combat and exploration are mini-games that keep the story fun (for me).

 

[Sacrosanct]

I enjoy creative role-playing solutions to overcome challenges, which can be done in all 3 equally. So I couldn't really just vote on one

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I enjoy creative role-playing solutions to overcome challenges, which can be done in all 3 equally. So I couldn't really just vote on one

It's multi-select so you can choose all three if you want.

 

[Wik]

Personally, I like being completely side-swiped by a clever player plan (either side of the screen) and having to think fast to come up with a fun response. This happens most frequently in the "exploration" part of the game, and it's always been my favourite part. Combat can be done in a minis game or a board game, and social can be done in improv theatre, but exploration just seems uniquely D&D.

(I realize that's not an entirely convincing argument, but shut up. I'm jes' saying what I like, y'know?)

 

[Pickles III]

I am not sure what exploration really means but I think it must be something I dislike while I like interaction & combat, i lose interest in mapping or tracking rations pretty fast.
I also tend to run a lot of games with something that is neither but does not readily fit with exploration. For example a crime campaign where the players are organising heists. Some of their planning involves negotiation & when things go awry there is often combat but much of the other stuff they do is not really exploration.

 

[JeffB]

Most enjoyment is by far exploration, but I need and want all three aspects every session.