Why do you play RPGs?

[HeavensThunderHammer]

I agree with the sentiment that I don't drink, smoke or do any other recreational drugs, and really like complete detachment from reality for a little while. I really like immersion, and I really like being able to visualize a world.

I also really like storytelling (I'm usually the GM in my group) and also really like playing (with good GMs.)

 

[howandwhy99]

I play and run RPGs as reality puzzle games. I like them because they have the same payoff as other pattern finding games, those with win/loss conditions and lots of analysis like Chess. It's fun for me when memory, insight, and intelligence matter in the performance of a game. And being pushed to remember what has, is, and may happen in an imaginary world flexes my mental muscles, while immersing me within it.

Not to mention all the great skills RPGs improve in players: defining and achieving goals, planning/prioritization including having a plan B, C, D, etc., teamwork and organization, communicating clearly and improving vocabulary, note taking, journal keeping, inventorying, and mapping, time management and scheduling, observation skills like being detail oriented, while retaining the big picture, critical and creative problem solving, high concentration and focus, quick thinking, learning when to go it alone rather than with the team, self-restraint, maintaining a working memory, emotional control, proactive task initiation, personal flexibility, and stress tolerance.

I'm sure there are more, but the rules/code I use behind the screen is geared towards pushing players in the above.

 

[Oryan77]

I don't even really like RPGs. I only play them because I'm in the witness protection agency and my cover is that I'm to pretend to be a Dungeon Master. I go by the alias Oryan O'Brian & I have never talked to a real girl before, except for my mother, who lives upstairs. She's not my real mother though, it's part of the act.

So far I think I've managed to assimilate myself within the RPG community quite well.

 

[Umbran]

There's a whole stack of reasons.

I think the one I'll mention here is that it is something often lost as we get older: imaginative play with others.

 

[Wik]

I don't even really like RPGs. I only play them because I'm in the witness protection agency and my cover is that I'm to pretend to be a Dungeon Master. I go by the alias Oryan O'Brian & I have never talked to a real girl before, except for my mother, who lives upstairs. She's not my real mother though, it's part of the act.

So far I think I've managed to assimilate myself within the RPG community quite well.

Hunh, bum deal. When *I* was thrown in the witness relocation program, they made me a fighter pilot. Named "Lance Hardwood".

***

As to the question at hand... I game because it's a good way to get my friends together once a week and hang out. And to be honest, I really wouldn't care if we all spontaneously quit gaming and instead played board games. Or poker. It's not really the game that's important.

 

[Mallus]

Well, for starters, my local amateur theater groups don't have enough wargaming in them (and vice-versa).

 

[Sunseeker]

We're all fat and dazed from Thanksgiving (those of us in the U.S. anyway). It's a time for hazy reflections. When you let your mind wander to the realm of RPGs and images start popping into your head, what do you see? Why do you like RPGs?

Viscerally, at the gut level, what do you seek when you think of gaming, whatever the genre?

If you do fantasy RPGs, is it the chance to talk to a dragon, rescue a damsel, carve an empire, see strange lands, bash heads open that appeals? If you do science fiction settings, is it the chance to play with neat high tech stuff, travel the galaxy, see truly strange aliens?

In a nutshell, yes.

I don't like to treat RPGs as an "escape" from reality, I find reality terribly entertaining, I don't have a desire to "get away" from it. I do however, enjoy having the option to go somewhere else. For me, RPGs are no different than going on a sight-seeing trip(distinct from a vacation, as those are escapes, hence the root-word 'vacate'). I play RPGs to see, do, and be a part of things I can never have in real life. It's not escaping, it's adding to it, like going to see Mount Rushmore or going on a African safari.

The latter are things that exist, that most people will likely never see or do. RPGs for me are similar, they are things I will, in my day-to-day, never see or do. And so they are fun because I enjoy doing things that are outside of my daily routine.

 

[Jacob Marley]

I play and run RPGs as reality puzzle games. I like them because they have the same payoff as other pattern finding games, those with win/loss conditions and lots of analysis like Chess. It's fun for me when memory, insight, and intelligence matter in the performance of a game. And being pushed to remember what has, is, and may happen in an imaginary world flexes my mental muscles, while immersing me within it.

Not to mention all the great skills RPGs improve in players: defining and achieving goals, planning/prioritization including having a plan B, C, D, etc., teamwork and organization, communicating clearly and improving vocabulary, note taking, journal keeping, inventorying, and mapping, time management and scheduling, observation skills like being detail oriented, while retaining the big picture, critical and creative problem solving, high concentration and focus, quick thinking, learning when to go it alone rather than with the team, self-restraint, maintaining a working memory, emotional control, proactive task initiation, personal flexibility, and stress tolerance.

I'm sure there are more, but the rules/code I use behind the screen is geared towards pushing players in the above.

This would be reason #2.

As to the question at hand... I game because it's a good way to get my friends together once a week and hang out. And to be honest, I really wouldn't care if we all spontaneously quit gaming and instead played board games. Or poker. It's not really the game that's important.

This would be reason #1.

 

[MortonStromgal]

I like to be able to make a morally interesting choice and see the effect it may without actually doing it in real life. It helps me define my own morality better.

 

[ggroy]

Since I got back into rpg gaming, it was a nostalgia trip down memory lane.

Though lately I've been feeling "burned out" on 4E D&D, and 4E Essentials hasn't been doing much to revive my interest in D&D.