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Message: <blockquote data-quote="steenan" data-source="post: 4732929" data-attributes="member: 23240">While I play D&D, it covers only a little part of my gaming needs and experiences. Thus, I answer your questions speaking of RPGs in general. If restricted to D&D, at least some of the following answers would be invalid.- to immerse in personality and culture much different than my own- to ask hard questions and to make moral decisions (that I won't have an opportunity to take or would rather not be forced to take in real life)- to imagine unique worlds, creatures and scenes; the exercise of imagination is, in itself, very pleasurable- to produce and feel strong emotions; to achieve catharsis- to overcome challenges by my skill and ingenuity- to create a story that is worth retelling- to play with numbers, find combos, optimizeNo system I know satisfies all these needs, but it is not a problem - in a given single session only two or three of them are my goals. I play many different RPGs and they cater to different styles of play.Both. Running and playing RPG teaches me creativity, but it also allows me to channel ideas I could not present in a different way. On the other hand, I do not play nor GM as a form of artistic expression (or, at least, it is not the highest priority) - this, I think, moves me more to the "creative for the sake of RPG" side.As I said above, artistic creation is not my main goal in RPG. What I aim for cannot be achieved without interaction - and freedom of interaction. This rules out both writing stories an creating computer games. Campaigns, seen as stories, are authored by the whole group. None of us would publish it in any form without the rest agreeing. Campaign backgroungs, locations, NPCs and items are mine own. I may use them as I wish, while others should ask my permission. Of course, I won't generally oppose when any of my friends wants to run something in "my" world and reuse some of my materials; it's nice when they ask, but I won't say no. If they wanted to use it in a published work, it is another story - I would have to see what exactly they make of it before I agree.Last time I ran a published adventure was more than 10 years ago. And I don't think I'm going to do it anytime in the future.Me. On the other hand, without the stories they took part in they do not mean much. It is the same as with GMing materials above - I would only care if someone wanted to use my PC in a published work. The best stories have some of both worlds. I'm impressed when I see a perfect mix.Too much familiarity and you get a cliche or a string of post-modern puns. Too much originality and you get a freak show. Stories (and roleplaying games) should be familiar enough to have meaning and original enough to surprise and fascinate.I win when an adventure (or at least a crucial part of it) I ran or played in is remembered for years. It can be caused by a unique, memorable character; by a plot twist that surprised everybody; by a great scene described and imagined; by a conflict, emotion and choices made; even by a cool one-liner. Sometimes it is a collective achievement, sometimes all credit goes to the GM or a single player.- to decide what can and what cannot be done in it (simulate, how the world works, so that a shared imagined space emerges)- to encourage the style of play the system and setting are designed for- to allow fair resolution of conflicts- to create opportunities for interesting decisions during character creation and in playIt is impossible to say. I couldn't even answer this question for a random session from my RPG experience, because some of them had several great moments and some were bland for the whole length. Answering it in general - just can't be done. I may only try to give a few examples, answering the next questions.There are many great memories and I don't feel I can decide which one is my favorite. Each one has a different feel, is seen from different perspective, has happened in a different game. To list a few:Three vampires (PCs) and a helpless girl, daughter of a vampire hunter we were using to lure her father into a trap and who was meant to be changed into a vampire herself after that. A discussion about plans, about value of free choice and living by own heart, about fate, about rules, about emotional wounds everyone had. Four extremely different points of view, four persons changed forever by what was said. And the final decision to let the girl go.A noble sidhe and a boy, no more than 8 years old, possesed by a demon. Confrontation both know to be final. Eyes fixed, power escalating, manifesting in gusts of wind, in flames, rising higher and higher. A few words, a short apology. A single strike.Party investigating the mysterious death of one PC's girlfriend, realizing that by following the events of her last days they walk the same path of initiation she went through. The greatest moment was when they saw how far they went; when it became obvious that not only social and moral, but even physical laws are not absolute, rather a mirage than reality. They talked, but had increasing problems with perceiving a coherent world they were used to, with seeing each other as humans. As an act of desperation one of them grabbed a newspaper and read an article, just to bring his mind back to human matters - and only after doing so realized that the newspaper was in a foreign language he never learned and should understand not a sentence of.An NPC telling the party who sent the blackmail they were investigating - and the angry roar of the players, realizing they knew everything that was necessary to figure it out for the long time, and still somebody had to help them.A powerful demon destroyed in less than a round by our party, after a series of extremely lucky rolls (as if all our luck waited for the whole adventure to show up in the climax).All contain powerful emotions, but the reasons are different. In the first, it is the moral choice, deciding on other person's life and fate - something we do in nearly every gaming session without a second thought, but in the scene I described we felt the whole weight of it. In the second one - determination; having a single goal that must be achieved and nothing else matters. In the third - leaving all that is known and understood, exploring what is alien. It was played perfectly by the group I ran the adventure for; I never saw inhumanity presented so well, without falling into a cliche. In the fourth - my own satisfaction from creating a mystery so simple and so hard at the same time (I never repeated such a plot, because I know it may be very frustrating for the players - but that single time is priceless). And finally the last one, just the joy of victory in a situation we perceived as very risky if not completely hopeless, joy of duty fulfilled, of being a real hero.</blockquote>

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