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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 3990389" data-attributes="member: 54707">Whereas I agree entirely with Reynard, and suspect that I understand pretty much exactly what he means (his intent and also what he is probably implying), I also agree with you here:I think much of this depends on the adaptability of the group, the players, and the DM.When a game is going seriously, and then the mood changes, for whatever reason, and some players insist it must remain morose or pedantic to the end, then that is not necessarily helpful to the game, or to the players. In real life, even in terrifically serious moments, funny things happen, and when that occurs, it should be exploited like any other event. And the reverse is true as well. Even in a very informal, relaxed, or comedic game serious things might occur and it would be silly not to exploit that potential just because everyone stubbornly clings to a preconceived notion of "nothing really matters, it's all goof off."In other words, in my opinion, one should be free and flexible enough to take advantage of any opportunity, and one doesn't have to be always serious, always goofy, or always anything at all. Some days it's a bear hunt in a dark cave where nothing goes right, at other times a fishing trip on a sunny day when nothing can go wrong, and sometimes a whole variety of things happen over the course of just one game. That's living. One has to be flexible and adaptive and think not only of one's self, but also of how all are interacting.I will add that I suspect (after all language does have limitations and it can sometimes be easy to misinterpret the intent of another) I agree with most everything said by both Reynard and the commentators here, because I don't see any of these things as being mutually exclusive. Merely mainly foci of personality differences in individual players.As for me fun (and I am using the term very broadly), or the most fun, comes from any activity, be it real or imagined, in which I feel I can gain advantage, have gotten something useful from the activity, enjoyed myself, can relate the activity in a meaningful way to the real world and to real life, was tense, challenged or pushed, solved complex problems, laughed, and spent my time well. (Among other things of course.)If all or most of those things are consistently absent then I personally won't waste my time engaging in that activity. But I don't have a personal formula for how any particular element of fun is best exploited per se, or how much time must be devoted to each component of an activity.By that I mean very serious and extremely useful things to me are a great deal of fun as far as I'm concerned and are very advantageous, and humorous and frivolous things are fun to me and also advantageous, but for very different reasons of course. One is fun because it will lead to an advantage which I can profitably exploit in the future in real life, the other is fun because of the enjoyment of the moment, and because of the social and psychological value of comradeship, friendship, and mutual interest in-game.</blockquote>

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