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<blockquote data-quote="Set" data-source="post: 4368966" data-attributes="member: 41584"><p>It's just a taste thing. Neither is wrong, really.</p><p> </p><p>Most of the people who GM for me have no interest in the two pages of backstory that comes with my character, and any character goals or role-playing tips I provide invariably get in the way of whatever the plot intends, since stepping outside of the very straight path set before me just flusters and annoys the unprepared DM, who may say something like, "It's a freaking desert. There's nothing to the south. The adventure is to the north. You get lost and end up going north." They disinterestedly look at my character sheet, pick at the math, question some of my choices, and say, 'sure' or 'hell, no' and make me hand them one of the other six characters I've brought to the game.</p><p> </p><p>And then, quite often, I sit bored as I am confronted with endless combat encounters and NPCs named 'Bob,' because they really didn't care enough to have a world constructed, even loosely, around the combat encounters. Right, rescue Bob's son, Bob, Jr. Return to the cheering masses of Bobville. Collect reward. Whatever. If the DM clearly doesn't give a rat's bum about the game he's running, then what compels me to give a rat's bum about the scenarios he's presenting?</p><p> </p><p>If the DM seems to actually *care* about the world he's running (or perhaps even has created himself), then I'm going to be invested in playing in it. If he's giving me 10%, he's gonna get about 50% back from me, because I'll be skimming through game books making new characters, looking up to roll attack and damage and saves as necessary, since that's all the engagement that he *wants,* is dice-rolling and completing his script.</p><p> </p><p>And if the other players just want to kill something, that's a fine way to spend an evening. I prefer playing Warhammer Quest for that sort of gaming, instead of bothering to whip out all of my D&D games to play a game with all the social complexity of Axis & Allies, but hey, to each their own.</p><p> </p><p>Yeah, there are those who go too far in the other direction, I've heard, and end up reading descriptive text forever, but I've never actually seen such a game, never had to play one, and, in my experience, DMs who just breeze through descriptions and say, 'They're ghouls. Roll Initiative.' are way, way more common.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Set, post: 4368966, member: 41584"] It's just a taste thing. Neither is wrong, really. Most of the people who GM for me have no interest in the two pages of backstory that comes with my character, and any character goals or role-playing tips I provide invariably get in the way of whatever the plot intends, since stepping outside of the very straight path set before me just flusters and annoys the unprepared DM, who may say something like, "It's a freaking desert. There's nothing to the south. The adventure is to the north. You get lost and end up going north." They disinterestedly look at my character sheet, pick at the math, question some of my choices, and say, 'sure' or 'hell, no' and make me hand them one of the other six characters I've brought to the game. And then, quite often, I sit bored as I am confronted with endless combat encounters and NPCs named 'Bob,' because they really didn't care enough to have a world constructed, even loosely, around the combat encounters. Right, rescue Bob's son, Bob, Jr. Return to the cheering masses of Bobville. Collect reward. Whatever. If the DM clearly doesn't give a rat's bum about the game he's running, then what compels me to give a rat's bum about the scenarios he's presenting? If the DM seems to actually *care* about the world he's running (or perhaps even has created himself), then I'm going to be invested in playing in it. If he's giving me 10%, he's gonna get about 50% back from me, because I'll be skimming through game books making new characters, looking up to roll attack and damage and saves as necessary, since that's all the engagement that he *wants,* is dice-rolling and completing his script. And if the other players just want to kill something, that's a fine way to spend an evening. I prefer playing Warhammer Quest for that sort of gaming, instead of bothering to whip out all of my D&D games to play a game with all the social complexity of Axis & Allies, but hey, to each their own. Yeah, there are those who go too far in the other direction, I've heard, and end up reading descriptive text forever, but I've never actually seen such a game, never had to play one, and, in my experience, DMs who just breeze through descriptions and say, 'They're ghouls. Roll Initiative.' are way, way more common. [/QUOTE]
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