What is it about TTRPGs for YOU?

[Reynard]

There are lots of ways that we can spend our time -- most of them requiring less effort than playing TTRPGs.

So, what is it that keeps you, personally, coming back to playing TTRPGs? What about TTRPGs makes you put the work in,compared to playing board games or video games, or doing any number of other things with your limited free time and disposable income?

Also, if you kind of gave up on TTRPGs (but still engage with the community, obviously) as a past time, why and what replaced them?

 

[Morrus]

It's about people for me.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I like exploring the nuances of different characters in heroic stories.

 

[Reynard]

It's about people for me.

There is DEFINITELY something special about the human interaction that occurs in play, that no other kinds of game can quite match. Humans telling stories together is as old as, well, humans and I think TTRPGs do a really good job of motivating us to do that thing.

 

[nyvinter]

Making things up with friends.

 

[jdrakeh]

Two things: Having fun with friends (also, making new friends) and exploring fantastic worlds.

 

[Reynard]

Two things: Having fun with friends (also, making new friends) and exploring fantastic worlds.

How do TTRPGs do this better/different than other kinds of games, for you?

 

[jdrakeh]

How do TTRPGs do this better/different than other kinds of games, for you?

Well, the first thing is, admittedly, something that I can get from other entertainment mediums (board games, card games, etc). The latter, however, is really something unique to RPGs, for me. I don't get the same depth of fantasy world exploration from, say, playing Twilight Imperium that I do from playing D&D (or any other RPG, really). Some board games get a little closer (e.g. HeroQuest), but still don't approach the level of immersion possible in most RPGs. Likewise, some war games (e.g. Frostgrave) are almost there, but not quite. What RPGs do is give me both of these things at once, in spades.

 

[Distracted DM]

You can spend time with other people many ways. You can even play board or video games with them.

But a TTRPG is different from a board game is different from a video game. Is it the shared experience? You have that in other games. Maybe it's the imagination? The engagement? I know "telling stories together" is thrown around a lot, but the way those stories emerge is through action, reactions, random dice results, decisions, consequences... Tough to nail it down, exactly.

For me specifically, the question would have to be why I enjoy GMing, since that's what I like best about a TTRPG nowadays. It's because I like finding out what's going to happen. Emergent stuff- those consequences I talked about. It's one reason I love random tables, you don't know what's going to show up and you have to figure out why, or it inspires something else better. I enjoy improvisation, I get into my flow in the moment, and being GM means you are always "on," like performing or standing-up. Exhausting but rewarding. It's definitely about the people too, because I like forming relationships... For that reason I don't love running random one-shots for random people at a convention. I want to sink time in with individuals.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It has kind of a peanut-butter-and-chocolate thing with me where I can indulge my roleplaying/actor-writer urges and some of my wargaming tendencies all in one bucket. Nothing else quite hits all those buttons.