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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aaron L" data-source="post: 7761217" data-attributes="member: 926">I am sure the author of this post would despise the kinds of campaigns my friends and I prefer; our ideal games consist of about 50% combat, 50% roleplaying, and never use miniatures, battlemats, or physical icons of our characters.  It is entirely theater of the mind.  Our last game session, the beginning of a new campaign, lasted 6 hours, 5 1/2 of which was pure roleplaying and only 1 1/2 hours of which was combat.  This is because when maps and miniatures are used games descend shift from roleplaying games into tactical wargames, with players planning out moves and actions for their characters from a perfect omniscient god's eye view, at a level far above what a person in the midst of actual combat would be able to do, and end up making decisions as if they were moving game pieces on a board (because that is what they are actually doing) rather than trying to portray a character, and they stop trying to think in terms of what that flawed, imperfect character would do in that situation in favor of coming up with the most tactically flawless maneuver they can perform.  Using miniatures on a map for combat adds yet another level of abstraction between you and your character, an undeniable physical representation right in front of you separating you even more from your character, and, however much you may believe you can avoid it, changes your mindset from one of roleplaying your character into one of playing a game of chess.  Dimwitted barbarians and foolish thieves suddenly become tactical geniuses when the battlemat is laid out and the minis set up, giving a perfect overhead view of the action for all to see, the fog of war is completely dispelled, and every foolish or confused decision that would have been good roleplaying totally befitting the character instead becomes an inexcusable tactical blunder on the part of the player.  I suppose our style of gaming absolutely could be described as "it's all about me," albeit for every character, sequentially.  Ideally, every character gets the spotlight at different times, and yes, we absolutely do love to show off to the other players and do cool things to get our "check this out, look at me!" moments; this is one of the most important elements of the game for us, and we all love it, as it creates great, memorable scenes that are talked about for years after.  We play D&D as working to simulate the characters and events of a great pulp fantasy novel, with each of the characters as the protagonists of their own stories, all coming together to share in each others' stories.  We don't try to hog the spotlight because we know everyone will get their chance to shine, we appreciate seeing each others' spotlight time and accompanying joy almost as much as our own, sometimes even more, and we each actively try to enhance the spotlight moments for the other characters/players, as the best improv actors do.  And I really can't imagine what at all is wrong with that style of play.  To do otherwise, to my mind, makes it really inexplicable why one would even bother playing Dungeons & Dragons at all rather than a tactical wargame.  Instead of a roleplaying game, portraying a D&D party as simply a military unit in a series of military engagements turns the game into a wargame with a bit of roleplaying tacked on.  It just baffles me.</blockquote>

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