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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nytmare" data-source="post: 6809815" data-attributes="member: 55178">I'm not saying that it's wrong, but in my experience the majority of D&D gaming groups (and that's in games I've run, played in, watched, and in countless conversations both online and in real life) don't look at party design by asking "who would be here" or "why is this group together."  Granted there are definitely campaign settings (like Ptolus) that very specifically build a world in which specialized almost militarized adventuring groups are the norm, and there's nothing wrong with saying that you can't decide to play a game where you're a crack team of professional dungeon delvers.  But for a significant chunk of the games that exist the decision is a metagame decision where they throw a handful random strangers into a tavern and who all accidentally fit a very specific tank/healer/aoe/ranged profile.These aren't new definitions, they're textbook definitions that have existed prior to RPG communities grabbing hold of them and turning them into insults.  People who are playing in an RPG are playing a role playing game, regardless of whether they're method actors or they're wargamers who don't even bother to write character names on their sheets.  Those tactical wargamers aren't doing it wrong, they're just doing it differently than a person who would write up an eight page character history.  A professional basketball player can say that the one on one game in a parking lot isn't a "real" basketball game all they want.  It doesn't make it true.[TANGENTIAL SIDE NOTE] There used to be a game here in Pittsburgh that adopted an "Order of the Stick" kind of view of the world for their game.  It was a dramatic, heavy RP world, but instead of sweating and trying to separate all the meta knowledge from the game, they just folded it all in and ignored that it was strange.  People in the world referred to themselves by their classes and their level.  People talked about things in character with regards to mathematical bonuses.  And the fourth wall barely existed, the characters (both PCs and NPCs) knew that they were just pawns in a game moved by invisible hands.  I never got to see it in action (and don't know if it still even exists) but it's a freaking brilliant idea.</blockquote>

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