Let's pretend for a moment. Something I'm guessing people here will be good at. Let's say everyone that drives you bananas politically. morally, spiritually... just disappeared. No more shenanigans. No more screaming, purity tests, outrage screeds... people are suddenly compelled to understand each other and let one another enjoy life they way they want. You have no more online enemies, no more local detractors, just wide-open RPG spaces for parsecs in every direction.
What do you LOVE about this hobby? What got you started? Why are tabletop RPGs so damn awesome and why do you keep playing them?
Rules:
1) No politics. At all. Remember, the controversy outrage debate no longer exists.
2) No shitting on RPGs you don't like.
3) No passive aggressive shitting on fellow posters.
Inquiring minds want to know.
What does a bird love about flying? A fish, swimming? A snake, slithering? A monkey, swinging? A bear, pooping? Two cats, yowling, as if being skinned alive, outside the bedroom door at 3:30 in the fucking morning? A bald eagle, sprinkling its genetic patriotism throughout the natural world? A man, finding the will to squeeze into his now-too-small pants every morning? A squirrel, conducting itself as a vile, contemptible little tree-rat?
... sorry but it's really a very complex question which merited an equally complex answer... :cool: :p
I love the way that running/playing the game is this strange mix of improvisation, myth, tall-tales, story-telling, pretending to be an elf, OOC jokes so stupid they are funny, tactics, strategy, flipping back and forth between the characters and the players (almost by the millisecond), acting, narration, refereeing, and much more. Plus, despite all that, each one of those things is not quite correct as a description, maybe because of all the gravitational pull of all the other things?
When it works, it's magic. When it only partially works, it's still fun that you can't get any other way.
Quote from: Antiquation!;1120121A bear, pooping?
In the woods?
That moment around the table when a player comes up with a great idea out of left field, and succeed or fail, everyone is entertained by playing it out.
It's the only thing I've encountered where it occupies my mind completely when I'm engaged in it - WITHOUT any limitations in expression except for what I can conceive.
Other activities such as playing music, even writing fiction, or wrestling etc. Inherently give me limitations which might be physical, age-related, form-related. And while I may get great fulfillment in pursuing these things, I find the creative aspect of the hobby, as a designer and GM to be pretty fantastically liberating, right up there with writing fiction.
But what really makes it for me is the the social aspect of it can transcend the solitary pursuits of either. If you're skilled and lucky with the right people.
Quote from: Thornhammer;1120126In the woods?
Depends if anyone is around to hear it... :eek:
More seriously, my answer is somewhere close to Steven Mitchell's. Each individual activity roleplaying is comprised of can be entertaining in its own right, but the collective experience is greater than the sum of its parts. When you reach your stride and the everything clicks into place, you can feel it.
The things that got me started with RPGs was the cross over of DnD Basic, The Dragons of Autumn Twilight and too much damn time on my hands.
And to be honest I have not looked back since.
JdrD30 sums up well why I stay in the hobby.
[video=youtube;QRLGPRBLRfI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRLGPRBLRfI[/youtube]
I just love getting together with my friends face to face, and being genuinely creative with each other's ideas in a way that doesn't feel weird or confrontational.
There are a lot of things I love about it, but a lot of them I also get from other activities (ie; tactics and "gamist" stuff I get from other tabletop). Even after all this time though, I REALLY love how ttrpgs CAN (depending on the GM/system/campaign/table) give me the feeling of experiencing and interacting with another world and as a different person. No other hobby or form of media comes close for me in this respect. I enjoy different types of ttrpg-ing too, but that elusive "You are this person, in this world, you can try to do anything, what do you do?" is what really makes me love the hobby.
Quote from: Ratman_tf;1120127That moment around the table when a player comes up with a great idea out of left field, and succeed or fail, everyone is entertained by playing it out.
Yeah! Definitely this. Creative problem solving with fantastic elements in play. And trying to think like someone else, and how someone else would react or solve a problem.
I like the interaction with the world, poking it to see what happens. It's a cool sort of mini model of how sociopolitical actions tend to happen.
On a related note, using dice and randomness and systems of rules to model/constrain and provide interesting (if artificial) decisions to make and things to attempt. I guess it's that mini model idea again.
I also like the "building/experiencing history" model of RPGs. We know he's just ("just") Jayne, but to that town, he's the Hero of Canton.
And on a related note, how characters accumulate layers and detail over time, often in unexpected ways. And form in-character friendships or rivalries.
And just rolling big fistfuls of dice and reading books and arguing about events/lore/history.
Just got back from a 4-day con which reminded me exactly why I love the hobby. I get to hang out with a bunch of great people who are interested in the same sort of things as me, as well as being from widely dissimilar backgrounds. I get to play games with the same people and their enthusiasm rubs off on me. I get to entertain and be entertained by them during the games, whether the plan comes together perfectly or it's a complete train- (or coach- in our case) -wreck. I get to imagine myself as a hero/villain/everyman/king/whatever and it's not just my imagination at work. I love it when the entire table can't talk (or breathe!) because we're all laughing uncontrollably at some "you had to be there" comment. And I get to do it from the comfort of my own chair.
Quote from: spon;1120173I get to entertain and be entertained by them during the games, whether the plan comes together perfectly or it's a complete train- (or coach- in our case) -wreck.
RPGs are one of the very few activities where failure can be as much fun as success.
Hosting a good game for a small group of adventurers in my games room or at a RPG convention. I enjoy it the most when the players are enjoying themselves, when there's action for everyone, and everyone is actively working to survive and succeed. I always like having a few surprises or plot twists which bring out the best in the players at the table.
You know you are doing it right when the game takes off and the players get busy planning their next moves in the fantasy or sci-fi world. I'd say that's the best, when we are all happily entertaining ourselves, and having fun at the same time.
Being suprised or suprising the GM. When your players outsmart you its a fantastic feeling.
Getting to watch a world i created in motion is a big one for me.
As someone who mostly GMs, I like that there is both the social experience of sitting down and playing with friends and the process of creating the campaign world and planning the adventures. They both appeal in different ways, but they're both part of the same hobby.
Seeing a table full of people having tremendous fun; wrestling scenarios from ideas
I actually like most gamers I've met. Not all of course, but on average, I enjoy the company of my fellow dice tossers. Or at least those crazy enough to let me GM!!!
Quote from: trechriron;1120118Let's say everyone that drives you bananas politically. morally, spiritually... just disappeared.
Oh fuck! Now I'm out of players!!!!
Seriously. Dude, you just nuked my table.
And that's something I love about RPGing. If vastly different people or even total strangers want to sit down and become a fellowship of rogues or heroes for the next 4 hours, RPGs make that shared fantasy possible. If the players want to step out of themselves and join a mighty band of brothers, you can do that, play for a few hours in harmony, fun and joy and when it ends, everyone can go back to their whatever life.
Quote from: Spinachcat;1120234...
Seriously. Dude, you just nuked my table.
...
YE GADS!!! :-D Good response. I was more considering external factors that might color someone's response to be politically motivated... I just wanted the gaming perspective.
I love running long campaigns. Getting to develop a world in play until its a real place.
Quote from: trechriron;1120118What do you LOVE about this hobby?
The ability to play "Let's pretend" in a more formal way.
I can play a Character that is not me, but is me, to see where the story goes.
Quote from: trechriron;1120118What got you started?
First year at University, one of the students on our Floor in the Halls of Residence said "Hey, I play a game where you can play the part of other people, sort of like being in a play, want to give it a go?", so we played Gringle's Pawnshop in Apple Lane and the next weekend I bought a copy of the RQ2 Rules and never looked back.
Quote from: trechriron;1120118Why are tabletop RPGs so damn awesome and why do you keep playing them?
They are a form of escapism.
Have you ever watched a TV Show or Film and shouted at the screen, "Why are you doing that?" or "Well, that wouldn't work, I'd have done this instead"? Tabletop RPGs allow you to do exactly that, to play the part of that character and try what you wanted to do.
Double Post
I like gathering around a table and having fun playing a game together. I like RPGs, in particular, because of the creativity and freedom that is involved. I like being surprised by how the game unfolds. I like the shared experience and memories created. Also, I've recently been DMing for a group of "new to RPG" players, and it's been cool seeing them embrace the game, especially those that weren't too sure what to do or how to act when playing the game.
Quote from: trechriron;1120118What do you LOVE about this hobby?
Being able to create a whole world or playing in one someone else created.
Quote from: trechriron;1120118What got you started?
My rich cousin got WEG Star Wars and I was part of his ginnea pigs.
Quote from: trechriron;1120118Why are tabletop RPGs so damn awesome and why do you keep playing them?
I get to pretend to be someone else living in a different world/time having wild adventures with my comrades at arms.
I get to build worlds where others pretend to be someone else. . .
Both of those are much better than just consuming fiction IMHO.
Quote from: trechriron;1120118What do you LOVE about this hobby?
What got you started?
Why are tabletop RPGs so damn awesome and why do you keep playing them?
I love that I can sit with my friends around a table and just shoot the shit, make up silly stories, roll dice, drink coffee and/or whiskey, maybe even burn a few blunts, and in general have a great time making our little Barbies and Kens fight for our amusement.
I went to California to stay with my dad as an exchange student for a year, and that's when I first learned about RPGs. A classmate of mine had an odd book with maps and obscure numbers, and I asked him what it was. As it turns out, it was Chaosium's Thieves World and it was for his D&D campaign... I didn't actually get to try playing D&D in the US but a few months after I'd returned to Denmark, a guy in my school knew all about D&D and set a game up. And that, as they say, was that.
As for what's awesome, apart from the stuff mentioned in my first paragraph, is that it has kept a surprising large circle of friends together for more that 30 years now. We play twice a week and have a great time. :)
That moment of magic when everything comes together. The best RPG experience I've ever had was a Traveller game where it was just character interaction between a human woman and a human man where the woman teases and scolds her boyfriend over breaking a dinner date while secreting out why he had to mobilize with the Imperial Navy so she could pursue her own in game goals. It just flowed. We weren't an overweight grey-haired white guy who was Refereeing an NPC and a skinny gay black man playing a female character, we were the characters in that moment creating the fiction of a nuanced relationship. I live for that shit.
After finally being forced (due to Covid concerns) to run my first ever online session, I can say that (even with literally the most cohesive best gaming group I've ever seen) it confirmed many of my ideas of its limitations.
But relevant to this topic, I'll say that it also reinforced for me that one of the things I love about RPGs is the social aspect of people physically coming together to create this shared world in a shared physical space.