Quote from: jibbajibba;585199Much like life there are loosers and then there is everybody else.

Tighters?

Quote from: LeSquide;585187(Off topic: Philotomy, is your site down or is it just me?)

Not just you; it's down.  I was going to update it and switch to a new hosting provider, and just haven't gotten around to it.

Quote from: Monster Manuel;585208Tighters?

Lol.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;585177D&D is not a game to keep score between the players.  This attitude among some people that they must have the most powerful character of the group, and that they must "win" every encounter is a blight upon our hobby.

Sorry to break it to you but they been around since.. well forever. I remember a handful of players who were notorious for ganking PCs and take their stuff in the early 80s. What made it worse was the fact that players with their characters campaign hopped a lot in those days.

Flash forward to the 90s and I started playing boffer LARPs and they are still there.

So it doesn't surprise me this is still around in one form or another.

The best way I found to deal with this is to run my setting "realistically" and require everybody to speak in first person as their character when interacting with NPCs or the setting.

By realistically I mean present the setting as a living breathing place with a life of its own. The whole reason I got onto sandboxes and realism back in the day so I had a fair way of dealing with the gankers that plagued our games back then.

... unless you're Charlie Sheen.

This isn't a new thing.  Outside of Estar's examples the classic 'Spotlight Hog' is another guy that has to "Win at D&D" in a roleplaying context even.  This is even tolerable sometimes if the player's character is the party leader or face, but more often than not this isn't the case.

I don't agree that it's a team 'win' if one guy is carrying everyone else though.  Sometimes that is tolerable in-character, but a lot of the time you wind up with in-character situations where this "team" only exists because everyone is friends irl, which is not an ideal situation for me as a player.  My characters usually don't have any reason to accept liabilities in the form of subpar team members.

Its perfectly natural to be honest. People want to be the ninja. The trick is to work with it by creating situations where the other characters' strengths can shine. Or alternately play something where wizards aren't one man tank battalions.

Quote from: TristramEvans;585207How to win at D&D:

Step 1: Play D&D.

Step 2: Do not allow this to affect your hygeine, fashion sense, or social skills. Date lots of girls, have lots of sex, and get a job you enjoy and pays well enough for you to live comfortably.

Step 3: Win!

This person has it right!

Quote from: TristramEvans;585207How to win at D&D:

Step 1: Play D&D.

Step 2: Do not allow this to affect your hygeine, fashion sense, or social skills. Date lots of girls, have lots of sex, and get a job you enjoy and pays well enough for you to live comfortably.

Step 3: Win!

Don't end up being the sad sack whose niece sells your books on ebay (ie you die young with no progeny).  I have seen that happen too much on my adventures on ebay.

Get in shape, get married, have kids and be quick about it!

Jesus, why would you do that. Nothing is more depressing than seeing coworkers married at 22.

Quote from: vytzka;585290Jesus, why would you do that. Nothing is more depressing than seeing coworkers married at 22.

...and divorced at 25. Listen to the wisdom of vytxka!

(One does not "win" at marriage any more than at D&D.)

1. Play
2. See what happens
3. Repeat

On the other hand, it's very possible to lose at an RPG. Sit there and don't try to play, and you'll obviously lose; you're wasting your time and a seat that could go to someone else. But if your character can't bring anything useful to the team (Be it through poor play or poor character building, and I've done both), and they're unable to contribute meaningfully, you'll lose too.

Quote from: KenHR;585194I'm pretty sure that was the point of the OP.

No, that's the opposite of the OP. He claimed there was no winning and then went off on some tangent about dumbass parties trying to compete with themselves instead of their opponents. He also threw in a random rant about Wizards which is only really relevant because in a weak party it likely IS the Wizard carrying the entire party as they are the only ones that can, and in the better groups there is more than 1 PC and 1 class capable of doing something and is only noteworthy because the conditions required for a non weak party to exist are extremely unlikely to occur in many of the this board's posters' games.

Regardless it is just that, a tangent.

I like to win at D&D.

Now, 'winning' is a party thing, but I usually like to contribute to the party's successes.  I like to recognize an opponent's weakness and play upon that.  I like to 'win' by a landslide.  I like to destroy my enemies without letting them even land a blow.  It's exciting - maybe death isn't on the line with each fight, but trying to defeat a powerful opponent with a 'flawless victory' is difficult in it's own right.  For that reason, I like to try to use effective tactics.  I like the opponents to be played intelligently and to use their abilities effectively - but I don't want to just 'grind' out victories by simply charging in and trading blows until one side is out of hit points - that gets boring for me.  No, outsmarting your opponents is how I 'win'.  

I love it when a plan comes together.

Quote from: Mr. GC;585321No, that's the opposite of the OP. He claimed there was no winning and then went off on some tangent about dumbass parties trying to compete with themselves instead of their opponents. He also threw in a random rant about Wizards which is only really relevant because in a weak party it likely IS the Wizard carrying the entire party as they are the only ones that can, and in the better groups there is more than 1 PC and 1 class capable of doing something and is only noteworthy because the conditions required for a non weak party to exist are extremely unlikely to occur in many of the this board's posters' games.

Regardless it is just that, a tangent.

Shut up, you're wrong, and go back to TGD MGuy.

It wasn't some random rant against wizards because more often than not, when the player is going around saying, "I win in this encounter!" and "I'm the most special character, so you all need to do whatever I want or need."  it's the wizard player.

I can tell you right now that if you came to my table and expected the rest of the group to rest whenever you felt like it regardless of whatever else was going on, or if you started claiming how you specifically are winning, they tell your entitled ass to go find another group.