Reduced enjoinment playing RPG
Rocco:
Hi to all
my name is Rocco and I'm an Italian player, from Bologna. I'm writing here because recently (in the last year and half) my enjoinment playing RPG reduced greatly and, having recently approached the Forge and finding your theories really interesting, I would like to receive some input from you all. I want to apologize in advance if my english is not so clear and fluent. If something is unclear, let me know and I will try to explain myself better.
First a bit of history: I started playing RPG when I was 20 years old, at the University. The only game I have played is D&D 3 and D&D 3.5, mostly in the Forgotten Realms setting. Now I'm 28 years old, happily married and working.
Now the bad part: As I said earlier, in the last year and half the pleasure i usually got from RPGing diminished significantly. At first I thought that the problem was with the GM, having some personal issue and then not really "tuned" on the game. But, having found your essays on the argument I'm thinking that most of the problem originates from a different creative agenda that I have with respect to the other players. Considering our long years of playing in retrospect I'm thinking that 4 of 6 players (GM included) have a strong tendency toward Gamism, in that they approach the game from the point of view of "passing over the obstacles", without any consideration of the context in which the obstacles are placed.
To better explain myself here is what I dislike about our play:
1) Every action doesn't have a clear impact on the setting, nor a clear origin (the GM may know why some things are happening but this is usually outside our knowledge)
1.1) This has the consequence that every action my character makes to modify the setting from an "in-character" perspective almost always fail (and/or is addressed through GM Fiat).
2) Although the combat system is at least "minimally" rewarding, every action outside combat (and in this I especially underline social actions) is not consistently resolved but is usually associated with GM Fiat, again. This lead to some players obtaining more from a given situation arguing with the GM and bending and stretching the rules (this means that a lot of character efficiency rely upon player's ability to discuss and argue). On the other hand I consider the rule as a way to express the "ability" of my PC, that may be (and usually is) different from myself and my own ability.
3) I usually consider my character "integrated" in the setting, with motivations of his own, with his own goals that he wants to accomplish inside the setting. The other players don't care too much about motivations, acting as your character (and not you) should act, and about planning something for your PC that goes beyond doing the next GM-proposed adventure or killing some monster or doing some mayhem in a certain location of the setting and then moving to another one.
What I have said in these points means (from my still newbie approach to your theories) that I and my fellow players have different Agendas but also different Stances. Considering all of this I understand that the problem is not solvible inside our gaming group but that my position and style of play seems unreconciliable with that of the rest of the party.
What am I asking then from you? Some advice on 2 matters:
1) What kind of creative Agenda best suites me? This is better done by someone outside of you.
2) What kind of System could be good for someone who has my creative Agenda?
That's what I'm asking from all of you!
So, to give you more information, here is what I like in a RPG:
1) Create different kinds of character, usually competent in combat but not centered on it.Moreover I like to explore the mindset of my character, how he can react to different situations and planning on why he is doing what he does. Find some meaningful motivation to explain his actions.
2) Ground this characters in the setting in which I'm playing, coming up with a meaningful background on why he is THAT character and not another one.
3) When playing, I like to consider the consequences of my PC actions on the setting. I like to understand the world I'm playing in from the point of view of my character.
4) Have interesting discussion about the setting (usually in a In Character perspective) with the other players.
5) Have a team-work approach to the game, not some kind of solo-adventure.
6) I would really like that the game-world (and the game in general) proceeds in a coherent manner.
Thank you all for your attention!
P.S: just as a side note, I recently bought the Exalted 2nd Edition manual, finding it interesting but with some issue, and the A Song of Ice and Fire (Green Ronin), where i like the setting (or maybe the Color) but I don't have a strong grip on the rules themselves.
Rocco
Alfryd:
AFAICT, your preferences sound largely Simulationist in emphasis, possibly with some mild Nar inclinations mixed in (specifically when you talk about wanting your actions to have a larger impact on the setting.)
* GURPS and FUDGE are reasonably solid-but-bland, season-to-taste Sim systems.
* Burning Wheel/Burning Empires are excellent Sim/Nar hybrids with a heavy emphasis on characterisation, motives, and emotional development, (but perhaps more complicated than they strictly need to be. Mouse Guard is the 'lite' version.)
* True20 is a reasonably simple Sim system clearly derived from/inspired by d20, so it might be easier to get into from a D&D background.
Those are the examples I'd be passingly familiar with. I'm sure other folks would have a more extensive catalogue.
Rafu:
Rocco,
you can only discover you own preferences by trying out a variety of different (coherent) games and by playing with a variety of people. It's likely that you just glanced at the tip of the iceberg of what roleplaying as an activity has to offer you. The luck is, you live close enough to some of the currently most active roleplaying communities in Italy: plenty of gaming occasions to reap, so we'll sort something out.
Rocco:
@Alfryd
Rocco:
@ Alfryd
Thank you very much for your suggestion. I will look into the system you proposed.
@ Rafu
Thank you a lot. I'm going to respond to you on "Gente che gioca".
@ All
This is the last session we played (D&D 3.5 - Setting Forgotten Realms):
Our group passed through a magical gate leading to a different dimension. Here we explored for a bit, understanding that time and space were functioning differently that in our own dimension. However this feature was only comestic, not having any real impact on the situation we were going to play (I can say this in retrospect).
We arrived to a strange building, made of a black stone that seemed "different" (this was the word of our GM). I tried to examine the stone but two things happened:
1) The other players decided to enter through a metal door, without waiting for me to complete my investigation.
2) The GM just said "mmm, ok, you examine it, it looks different". And that concluded my analysis of the stone because the GM (probably) wanted to move forward.
Then followed a tiring exploration of this building with a small combat in the middle. But because the exploration was quite boring one of the my fellow player said to the GM: "Ok, we will go through every room, search everything. Just take us to the end of this exploration." The GM followed the advice and two minutes later begun the Big Combat with some "apparently" nasty creatures. The combat was over in 15 minutes. The the session ended because it was too late in the night.
The session lasted for 3-4 hours. And the only thing moderately interesting was the last combat.
Completely unsatisfied I asked to my fellow players, when going back home: "Did you enjoy the session of tonight". The responded "Yeah, the last combat was really interesting". And when I noticed that we had really played for only 15 minutes out of 3 hours the said " That's true but you have to admit that the combat was fun." I replyed "yeah, ok" and stopped the discussion there.
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