D&D 5E What's fun?

[Charlaquin]

I think there's an argument (or at least what I was considering when I first thought about selecting it) for viewing it as giving ones self over to the rhythms of the games, or going along for the ride. Thinking of a classic style dungeon crawler, with a heavy procedure governing it. Sure, there's definitely still room for creative expression, but you know what's expected, you know what the actions you are likely to take as you progress, and finding the joy in that comfort.

Edit: Of course, after I hit post, I come up with Flow State as the better description.

I don’t think that’s submission as MDA defines it.

 

[Xamnam]

I don’t think that’s submission as MDA defines it.

It's a later term, so you're inherently correct, but I think it's the best analogue of any of the options, and were the MDA Framework to be restated in a modern context, I think it might be considered.

 

[tetrasodium]

I too voted Challenge, Fellowship, Fantasy and that surprised me. In the past I would have felt discovery was important enough to be in the top three & that challenge might not be too important since it's ok if the players really got going with fellowshipto roflstomp encounters. Eight years into seeing what happens to fellowship when challenge is completely removed to the point of the players being able to face roll their way through encounters they wtfpwn with certainty absent the slightest bit of coordination teamwork or fellowship has changed that though.

 

[Pedantic]

Challenge, Discovery, Fantasy. Give me problems, tools to solve them, and make both of those things distinct from my normal life.

 

[Hussar]

Nah, sensation in an RPG is found in the tactile elements. The feel of the dice in your hand, the sound of them clattering on the table, the spectacle of a beautifully painted miniature or piece of 3d terrain, the visceral thrill of being given a handmade copy of an in-game map… Players for whom sensation is a significant part of their enjoyment of the game tend to play in-person only, and they often collect fancy dice and take great care in choosing the perfect miniature to represent their character (even if the group plays TotM). DMs for whom sensation is a significant part of their enjoyment of the game likewise prefer in-person games and are likely to make heavy use of maps, minis, and handouts.

Not entirely sure I agree with that. I've been gaming online for a long time, and thinking about it, sensation is a big deal. The images I use for the game, use of differing fonts and colors in chat, voice chat, music choice, all play a very large role in my games. Gonna have to go back and change my vote, I think, because I hadn't quite grok'd the notion of sensation at first, but, for me, that's probably one of the biggest draws for gaming.

I spend an embarrassingly long time on finding/making images for my game. To the point where I've had to teach myself how to use GIMP to fairly good effect.

 

[Hussar]

/snip

My three are Fantasy, Challenge, and Discovery.

Whereas to me, Discovery is so low down the chain, that it might as well not even exist. I simply don't care enough about fantasy settings that I'd actually want to explore them. Exploration is the stuff that I try to skip as much as possible to get to the stuff that is actually interesting to me. What's behind that door or over that hill? Does it further the goals of the group or my character? No? Then I could not possibly care less.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Whereas to me, Discovery is so low down the chain, that it might as well not even exist. I simply don't care enough about fantasy settings that I'd actually want to explore them. Exploration is the stuff that I try to skip as much as possible to get to the stuff that is actually interesting to me. What's behind that door or over that hill? Does it further the goals of the group or my character? No? Then I could not possibly care less.

I get this feeling a lot when I play "open world" video games. I rarely have the urge to just go out exploring for exploration's sake-- for just seeing what is around. And even when I am out in the world... I usually am not really looking at the world for it's own sake-- more often than not it's to do one of two things... clear the Fog of War from my map, or turn that Question Mark icon the game gives me to tell me something is there into the actual thing it's symbolizing. My exploration is serving a purpose other than just exploring.

But I know that is wildly different than other people. Where I read stories and articles of people playing Elder Scrolls Skyrim and just "picking a direction" and then "just walking." I read that I think to myself "My god, people actually ENJOY doing that?" and it confounds me to no end... but I have to and do just accept it as true. Despite everything in my brain going "God no, please! Anything but that! Give me a STORY REASON to go wandering out there, PLEASE!" LOL. People like all kinds of stuff I don't, and I accept the fact that the game is made to please those people too.

And this is exactly why I can't ever get upset at WotC for ANY of the choices they make when making their D&D games. Because I know in my heart of hearts that everything they do is 100% correct for SOMEBODY, even if it's not me. And that's okay. And it's why I oftentimes push back on people here who make declarations that X rule WotC is adding or changing is an "unarguable" bad rule... when in point of fact it's merely just bad FOR THEM... not bad altogether. But people usually don't like being told when WotC isn't writing the game specifically for their personal sensibilities, despite the fact that the game has been that way since the very beginning.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not entirely sure I agree with that. I've been gaming online for a long time, and thinking about it, sensation is a big deal. The images I use for the game, use of differing fonts and colors in chat, voice chat, music choice, all play a very large role in my games. Gonna have to go back and change my vote, I think, because I hadn't quite grok'd the notion of sensation at first, but, for me, that's probably one of the biggest draws for gaming.

I spend an embarrassingly long time on finding/making images for my game. To the point where I've had to teach myself how to use GIMP to fairly good effect.

Fair point, I suppose sensation can be found in online games as well.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Challenge, Fantasy and Narrative I’d say, Submission is probably my fourth but not necessarily for TTRPG’s themselves, probably because they require so much attentiveness to what’s happening and processing that information you can’t ‘turn off’ as easily with them.

 

[Quickleaf]

Sensation (Game as sense-pleasure): Player enjoys memorable audio-visual effects.
Fantasy (Game as make-believe): Imaginary world.
Narrative (Game as drama): A story that drives the player to keep coming back.
Challenge (Game as obstacle course): Urge to master something. Boosts a game's replayability.
Fellowship (Game as social framework): A community where the player is an active part of it. Almost exclusive for multiplayer games.
Discovery (Game as uncharted territory): Urge to explore game world.
Expression (Game as self-discovery): Own creativity. For example, creating character resembling player's own avatar.
Submission (Game as pastime): Connection to the game, as a whole, despite of constraints.

What does "submission: connection to the game as a whole despite of constraints" mean?