What is it about TTRPGs for YOU?

[Edgar Ironpelt]

I play TTRPGs[1] largely for the power fantasy: For the opportunity to vicariously do things that I cannot, ought not, or dare not try to do in real life.

I GM TTRPGs largely because I love world-building and character creation. Those are the parts of fiction writing I find fun and easy.[2] GMing lets me indulge and show off my work while avoiding the parts I find hard when I tackle writing my read-only fiction. When running a game I don't have to set up complete plots; I just have to provide initial situations and then let the players deal with working them out.

[1] I'm old and grouchy enough to resent the need to specify "Table Top" Role Playing Games. TTRPGs should be the unmarked form: Just "RPGs," with the computer games being the marked form: "Computer RPGs," "CRPGs" or some such, rather than the unmarked "RPGs" (And get off my lawn!)

[2] Which is why I always run my own settings rather than published ones, as well as why I avoid writing fanfic.

 

[TwoSix]

Several factors.

1) History. I've been playing TTRPGs since I was 12. I've been posting on this site for almost 25 years. Thinking about TTRPGs is carved into my brain at this point.

2) Social factors. At heart, I'm an introvert, but I enjoy small groups of people. 5-7 people is an ideal social situation for me, which TTRPGs naturally provide.

3) Thespianism/expression. Outside of large groups, I tend to be a bit of a showboat. TTRPGs are a much better medium for expressing my personality than something like board games (although I love them too.)

4) Complexity. I've moved away from character building being my primary focus, but I still figuring out a good crunchy system. All sorts of games can hit the spot here, but TTRPG systems are generally more fun to mess around with mentally.

 

[Meech17]

For me, TTRPGs feel like an evolution of something I've always enjoyed. I like telling stories with friends.

As a little kid on the grade school playground, my friends and I would pretend to be characters from video games or cartoons and act out little stories we'd imagine up ourselves.

My brother and I used to play Risk, and we'd pretend to be these old timey generals and warlords, giving out orders to our troops, and negotiating peace treaties.

Fast forward to middle school and I got a hand-me-down computer. I used to spend hours and hours in Yahoo! chatrooms, or online forums role-playing with others. I played a lot of EverQuest, and EverQuest2, and often on the RP servers.

At one point myself, my brother, and his (at the time) wife made up our own dice based RPG system with a bunch of D6's stolen from the same Risk set. I think we knew D&D existed but we had no idea how to get into it. Once a family friend offered to run a game for us though, it was love at first roll.

I really like telling stories, and I find a lot of joy in telling a story in collaboration with someone else. I think part of it is that I'm just not particularly good at it.. I've always wanted to write a novel, or a screenplay or something, but I've never been able to get more than a few pages into any attempt.

With TTRPGs a few pages is usually more than enough. I can come up with the bones of a story, and then I get to fill in the gaps with the players at the table.

 

[Umbran]

Hm. Good question. In no particular order...

1) Cooperative play, rather than antagonistic play.
2) Play going beyond tactical decisions.
3) Playing a character more as a person than a pawn. Thespianism, someone said above. Sometimes attempting emotionally inhabiting the character.

 

[payn]

For me, TTRPGs feel like an evolution of something I've always enjoyed. I like telling stories with friends.

As a little kid on the grade school playground, my friends and I would pretend to be characters from video games or cartoons and act out little stories we'd image up ourselves.

My brother and I used to play Risk, and we'd pretend to be these old timey generals and warlords, giving out orders to our troops, and negotiating peace treaties.

Fast forward to middle school and I got a hand-me-down computer. I used to spend hours and hours in Yahoo! chatrooms, or online forums role-playing with others. I played a lot of EverQuest, and EverQuest2, and often on the RP servers.

At one point myself, my brother, and his (at the time) wife made up our own dice based RPG system with a bunch of D6's stolen from the same Risk set. I think we knew D&D existed but we had no idea how to get into it. Once a family friend offered to run a game for us though, it was love at first roll.

I really like telling stories, and I find a lot of joy in telling a story in collaboration with someone else. I think part of it is that I'm just not particularly good at it.. I've always wanted to write a novel, or a screenplay or something, but I've never been able to get more than a few pages into any attempt.

With TTRPGs a few pages is usually more than enough. I can come up with the bones of a story, and then I get to fill in the gaps with the players at the table.

Im seeing a lot of this in the thread and can totally relate. I fancy myself a bit of a story weaver with world building and political intrigue interests. I want to interact with others and have them engage my creations. I also know im not author material, and as an extrovert I want collaborative aspects anyways. TTRPGs allow me that outlet without having to put in the work of being a full blown author or fanfic writer.

 

[GrimCo]

First and foremost, it's hanging out in person with my friends. For those 3-4 hours, we unwind and act as kids again, playing the game, spewing cheesy one liners and bad puns. It recharges batteries. Also, it's therapeutic on some level to get away from being responsible grown adult and just hang out with the boys. It recharges batteries in a manner of speaking.

Second, it's my creative outlet. Love writing, creating lore, characters, making maps and minis. Most of all, i like story telling. It reminds me of childhood and my late grandpa who was excellent improvisational story teller. Now i get to do it with my friends.

Third, open end with no clear victory condition. Unlike board games, with clear end game goal, rpgs are open ended. You start with set parameters and then game and players choices take over. Even if you defeat bbeg, story doesn't need to end. Also, it's not competitive. There isn't a winner in rpg. You "win" the game by having fun.

 

[Autumnal]

For me it’s the fact roleplaying is innately an impure, hybrid activity. It overlaps with war gaming and bots games and different kinds of storytelling and immersive imagining and good times with friends and other things, and you can shift the mix around for very different experiences that are still all roleplaying games. That’s good, because my needs and wants change, but still have things in common.

 

[Gradine]

 

[Committed Hero]

Like sporting events, RPGs are played within a framework of rules, but within that framework there is room for unlikely outcomes. The effect is even more pronounced for RPGs, since the GM and players can tap their imaginations to come up with more situations than can happen an athletic event.

 

[radiothief]

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?

So my fun comes from three things:
1) i love worldbuilding and then having players run around in that world
2) hanging out with my friends, and gaming
3) i generally enjoy reading RPG books, new systems, new settings, new rules, its all fun.