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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4732751" data-attributes="member: 19675">As a DM, I like to design interesting worlds/campaigns for my buddies to muck up.  I like the story that results.As a player, I like being in the more active side of the storytelling.As a DM, I like combat and roleplay equally, but as a player, I'm more about the roleplay.  I don't care if my PC is good in combat as long as he, she or it is interesting.  Some of my friends would even say that I get my biggest kick out of character design...and I can't say they're wrong.More the former than the latter.I do write stories (and have many other creative outlets as well), but RPGs give you a more immediate and direct feedback.Imagine, if you will, being an author who, just as he writes the final word of his story, has someone tell him- "Man, that changed my life!"  or "I really connected with the main character!"As a DM, you get feedback every session- the equivalent of that same author getting to talk directly to his fans right after finishing a chapter.Assuming it is something I wrote- a "homebrew" if you will, then I'm the owner of the world and the adventures.  The less I borrow from other sources, the more I own.The PCs would be the property of the players who created them.If I'm running a published adventure, then the adventure belongs to the publisher.  I'm just a ref, not a creator.I no more own that than a parent who reads a bedtime story to his kids.  My reading (a "performance") may be copyrightable- like the performance of a piece of music- but the underlying work belongs to the writer.I own my PCs.  Admittedly, I may have to excise certain parts to remove other people's creative content, but barring a complete lift of someone else' work, I'm the owner of that intellectual property.Both can impress me, but what matters most is the fun.But given the choice, I'm more impressed with originality because its by far the rarer commodity.You "win" only by having fun.  You may achieve certain goals, but there are really no traditional "victory conditions."They provide a system for dispute resolution.  IOW, they prevent things like the old argument from playing "Cowboys and Indians":"I shot you!""No you didn't""Yes I did!""Nuh-uh!"ad infinitum.It varies from session to session.Getting past any significantly difficult challenge- be it a tough riddle, getting just the right roll of the die to vanquish a foe, or roleplaying your way out of a tight situation- is a rush.Sometimes its a moment of heroism.  Sometimes its a bit of comedy.I have several- mostly about heroism in the face of staggering odds.I still remember my first game ever.  In the adventure's penultimate room, my fighter- the last surviving member of the party- almost killed a Purple Worm.  He and the Worm both had 4HP left, and initiative was simultaneous.  The Worm hit, he didn't.Despite his demise, that epic battle hooked me.A few years later, Bear, a fighter strong of body but weak of mind, held off the city watch while the Party escaped...because Bear's "best buddy" (the thief who tricked him with promises of friendship) had stolen something of great value.  The thief was later killed by the Party, and the loot returned...and they refused the reward.  That death sequence was so memorable that my fellow players made note of it, and it caused a permanent change in the campaign.Another PC managed to one-shot a Lich with a Mace of Disruption on a demi-plane of evil- so unlikely an event that her deity took notice of the event and rewarded her at that instant.  (The sequence of rolls was at such long odds that it was equivalent to winning a state lottery.)OTOH, a Dwarf PC of supreme toughness failed so spectacularly at a sequence of Constitution-based and anti-magic based saving throws that he died...polymorphed into a frog and ultimately reduced to ashes.  (The sequence of rolls was also at such long odds that it was equivalent to winning a state lottery.)  A death? Yes, but quite comedic.</blockquote>

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