How do you like your RPGs?

[ororo]

Hi girlgamers!

I'm currently in two very different D&D games. One has a DM that runs games with almost 100% role-playing. We have games where we barely throw a die. We're putting together an interesting story, but when some of us ran into a random encounter (ah, 3.5), I was almost relieved.

Don't get me wrong, I like roleplaying, its part of the fun. Ianthe is a very interesting character--a sorceror and a nightmare-spinner. I'd like to get into more combat, though the episode with the black pudding was not very pleasant and she almost lost her familiar but anyway.

The other campaign is coming from 4th edition modules. Almost totally hack -n- slash. I'm not sure if that's because the DM isn't used to using modules, but while he's trying to get us to role-play more, a couple of the players aren't into it. I had to go online and print off a list of Shakespearean insults for the bard to use for his vicious mockery.

I've never run a game, but I might consider trying. Tricks? Tips? What kind of games are y'all in and what would you change?

Comments

[animeshon]

I have to admit I definitely preferred 3.5 for actual role playing, but a good DM can get around the hack'n'slash-ness of 4th ed. Our current DM works really well with this. Usually in a 4-5 hour session we will have 1 maybe 2 encounters and the rest of the time is role playing. We have had a few sessions where we do nothing but role play however he is careful to mix it up a bit. The key thing with DM-ing is to be prepared. If you haven't had an encounter in a while then don't be afraid to throw one in just to break things up. It is tough when people aren't into the role play. We have a new player who is like that, he complains if we don't have an encounter, but he's missing out on half the fun!

[jack_of_none]

4e is a dream to run -- I have serious GM-phobia and I actually look forward to running my weekly 4e game. There's loads of actually good, basic advice in the Dungeon Master's Guides. Making interesting fight scenes is a total breeze, which was always the hardest part for me, and I can always generate ideas for the rest of it just by flipping through some of the books.

I love roleplaying, but generally speaking I don't like the 'never throwing a die' way of doing it. I kind of prefer to have mechanics to play off of, even in non-combat situations. (Case in point -- I'm currently in a pretty bizarre game of Exalted, and while I do love the game, I wish the GM would use the mechanics more often. I paid XP for these stats and abilities, you know?) D&D has always taken the opposite approach -- mechanics for combat and pure RP, maybe with the occasional skill roll, for virtually everything else) -- which is fine, just not generally my style. I do like D&D4e a lot, though.

As for what games I'm in, er:

A D&D 4e sky pirates game
As mentioned earlier, a really odd modern Exalted/Old World of Darkness crossover game (it's more of an Exalted game, really, but oWoD is there)
My D&D 4e game, about swashbuckling librarians

My favorite RPG is actually kind of obscure -- Weapons of the Gods, a wuxia RPG that I think is just brilliant -- along with D&D4e (not a big fan of any previous edition, though I still have some nostalgia for 2e), Exalted, Don't Rest Your Head, Spirit of the Century, Adventure!, Unhallowed Metropolis, and Castle Falkenstein.

.....er, I really like RPGs ^^;

[miss_haitch]

Firstly, kaptainvon has a post on advice for DMs, which I really enjoyed reading.

For roleplaying vs combat, I enjoy a mix. Like jack_of_none, it feels a bit of a waste if social stuff never involves rolling a dice -- if I've spent XP and statted a character who is good at socialising, I like it to pay off ingame. The same for combat, really -- if you've got a character designed for combat, it's fun and satisfying to be in that situation. My favourite DM tends to let us roleplay a social situation for a short time and then, if it's plot related (or even if it's not) we roll dice to gauge the success of the interaction.

I've not run 3.5 but I have run 4th ed, and found it very fun to organise. I really like the way the fights can be set up, and the balancing works like a dream. It's also fairly flexible -- the game I ran was set in the Full Metal Alchemist universe and things slotted in nicely. On the other hand, I don't find 4th ed as rewarding for social/non-combat stuff. There are skill challenges, but the stats don't lend themselves to a combination of roleplaying and dice-rolling.

As for the games I'm in -- most of them have fizzled out one way or another, but the thing I would have changed about them was content I felt uncomfortable with. I enjoyed hanging out with the players, I enjoyed the characters, but there were aspects of the plot I didn't feel comfortable with. In one there was also a strong sense that the plot and DM did not want the characters/players to succeed, which gave rather a bleak tone to the whole thing. Which is fine in small doses, but can make playing rather depressing.

My big piece of advice about running a game is consult with your players openly about what you and they want from the game. Even for a one-game story, this opens up an atmosphere in which people feel confident airing concerns, stating boundaries -- and indeed expressing their enjoyment. It was only recently that a group I was in decided to do this, and it's made a huge difference.

[darth_azura]

It really depends.

The last major campaign I ran I had a lot of both. Heavy on the RPG because the players were into it. I love RPG, too, but I came from the old school of bashing down doors in endless mazes and bashing monsters and looting treasure. So I had some hack and slash served up. Interesting situations that made the players think and use their skills kept their attention. But I saw they did not really get into the endless dice rolls, so I dropped a lot of hack and slash that was not integral to the story.

In short, if the monsters were part of the scheme that played into their RPG experience, they were happy with a lot of combat. But random monsters and dungeon decoration meant little to them. Which was a relief anyways to get rid of a lot stuff to streamline the game.

[temporalhiccup]

4th ed modules tend to be very very hack-and-slashy D: way too many combat encounters i think. i tend to run module free.

my boyfriend and i both DM, but we both have very different tactics. he likes to plan well in advance, and he uses modules a lot (though he tones down the encounters significantly).

i like to think about it every once in a while (write down the occasional note), and then cram the night before the game and then go very very spontaneous from there.

for me personally, i don't like planning out plots, events, etc. because almost always, my players will do something unexpected and break whatever plot i had in mind. so i just work with this:

1) what do my players want to do? (i.e. which one likes roleplay, which one wants to test out minion-sweeping abilities, which one wants a particular item?)

2) what monsters do i want to play with? (i dreamt about a giant sky squid that would attack an airship for DAYS) what NPCs do i want to create? (i needed to make a ziggy startdust inspired character) what kind of story do i want to tell? (i usually favor huge prophecy things, big mysteries, or horror.)

once i put all that together it's just:

1) lay out a scene for my players
2) offer motivation, reward, incentive, etc.
3) solidify what the NPCs and villains and monsters are doing, and why.
4) let her rip!

in action:

1) there is a labyrinth existing in between dimensions, and at the center of it, an elder god is about to be brought into this world.

2) their friend asterion the runepriest has been dragged into the center of the labyrinth. the cultists mean to unleash the monster in him and then offer his sanity to the god.

3) wayland thurton is a professor from the university who has been living in the labyrinth, and he's looking for his twin brother. he has slowly been driven insane as he researches on the true nature of the elder god. the cultists mean to do their duty and then kill themselves joyfully. the elder god wants to kill things and eat them.

4) my players fell in love with wayland, and they had been going through so much crap (they walked straight into three encounters, one after the other, and were of low spirits). i decided to not include the wayland-being-insane-and-eventually-betraying-them part. when he got left behind in that dimension and helped the party return home, it really depressed my players though D:

anyway, that is overly long, but i hope it helps :)

[ororo]

That's fabulous! and Ziggy Stardust for the win. Will there also be spiders from Mars?