Dungeons & Dragons

[n0Mad]

Rather than put up a poll, I'll just ask a few questions and have you answer it in text to be more open ended and detailed.

Who here plays D&D?

What version(s) do you play and why?

What version(s) do you refuse to play and why?

What style(s) of game do you like best (hack & slash, Monty Hall, intrigue, romantic, adventure, exploration, political, etc.) and why?

What style(s) aren't you too fond of and why?

Are you more into story and character development or rules lawyering, min-maxing, etc. or a bit of everything, and how do you slide on the scale?

Group cohesiveness working together, constant infighting, or something in between?

It's all about the game and distractions should be kept to a minimum? It's all about the socialization and hanging out with friends and the game is secondary? A bit of both?

What races and classes do you prefer and why?

Anything else I forgot to ask that you'd like to share.

I'm trying to introduce the game to a few newbies and I'd like some different perspectives so I don't influence anything with my bias. Thanks for your input.

[Engine]

I play D&D

We play 3.5 because 4th edition sucks massive dicks.

4th edition. They released everything too fast, changed too much, didn't think too much through and overall made it a headache to play.

Depends on what kind of character I'm playing, but usually I like hack and slash/adventuring most because I can't just go into a cave and start to kill shit in real life. Well, I could, but then I'd be fucking weird/in prison.

Not sure what "style" means here

I'm a 'powergamer'. I like to make my character as strong as possible, but that doesn't mean I won't do things for roleplayings sake. I find roleplaying to be much more challenging and fun at specific times than actual combat situations.

Usually I like a cohesive group, but it is always fun to have someone or someones that go against what everyone else wants to do so that it's not always the same approach to how things are done.

It's a social interaction with me. There have been times where the group and I have gotten together and played football until daylight was gone, then headed down in the basement to play and chitchatted it up for hours almost forgetting the original reason we came to play in the first place. It's not that we don't enjoy the game, because every one of us love it, but we all do it for the company and camaraderie. Not to mention a way to evade our girlfriends/wives for a day, because yes, every single one of us is in a relationship or married.

Depends again on what I plan on doing more. I usually pick my race as a complement to my class and my intention on the amount I'm going to roleplay.

[Nienna]

Who here plays D&D? ME

What version(s) do you play and why? 3.5 because our group is more familiar with it, and we have the books already.

What version(s) do you refuse to play and why? I don't refuse to play anything really.

What style(s) of game do you like best (hack & slash, Monty Hall, intrigue, romantic, adventure, exploration, political, etc.) and why? Intrigue. Our group is headed by a masterful tale spinner. He challenges us mentally and it makes for a more dynamic game than just hacking and slashing.

What style(s) aren't you too fond of and why? All of any one style is boring. It should always be a mixture.

Are you more into story and character development or rules lawyering, min-maxing, etc. or a bit of everything, and how do you slide on the scale? Rules lawyering sucks, though it is needed to keep things fair. A good game needs action AND story to keep my interest.

Group cohesiveness working together, constant infighting, or something in between? It depends on the game. Our group is full of great players who really get into character.

It's all about the game and distractions should be kept to a minimum? It's all about the socialization and hanging out with friends and the game is secondary? A bit of both? If we're in game, we're in game. Socializing happens when we go out to smoke or yell at children.

What races and classes do you prefer and why? I like to mix it up and try to challenge myself.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Rather than put up a poll, I'll just ask a few questions and have you answer it in text to be more open ended and detailed.

Who here plays D&D?

What version(s) do you play and why?

What version(s) do you refuse to play and why?

What style(s) of game do you like best (hack & slash, Monty Hall, intrigue, romantic, adventure, exploration, political, etc.) and why?

What style(s) aren't you too fond of and why?

Are you more into story and character development or rules lawyering, min-maxing, etc. or a bit of everything, and how do you slide on the scale?

Group cohesiveness working together, constant infighting, or something in between?

It's all about the game and distractions should be kept to a minimum? It's all about the socialization and hanging out with friends and the game is secondary? A bit of both?

What races and classes do you prefer and why?

Anything else I forgot to ask that you'd like to share.

I'm trying to introduce the game to a few newbies and I'd like some different perspectives so I don't influence anything with my bias. Thanks for your input.

2nd Edition... because I like to play AD&D not this crap fest they have turned it into with 3 and up... Plus I have all the books... I mean all of them and 7 boxed sets.

3 and up... because it's not AD&D

Style varies depending on the players and the campaign.

Monty Hall is my least favorite but it has it's place. My campaign starts out kinda Monty Hallish.. but tapers off fast.

Way into story and charactor development. without it, it's just a game of dice.

Working together is encouraged in my campaigns... if you don't, there is no one left alive to not help.

Socializing and playing are equal.. we are social animals after all.

When I am actually playing rather than DM'ing... Human Invoker with the Militant Kit. Why? I like to blow shit up.

My campaign is horror based but not RAvenloft... pretty sure it could be fit into a Ravenloft campaign setting but I avoid it.

[StormKnight (1)]

Used to. I only play AD&D/D&D at RPGA events/Gen Con.

First Edition AD&D when I did. I have most of the books (missing only the Cthulhu/Melnibonean edition of Deities and Demigods and the Oriental Adventures.) To me, this was the one and only, where all the good modules came out (Dragonlance, the Demonweb series, etc.) To me, people were having fun with the game at TSR instead of just profit margins.

Given a choice, I will avoid anything second edition and later. When they tried to make it a multigenre system in 3rd and beyond, they forced the flavor of the genre into a D&D mindset. Star Wars d20 felt more confining than the original West End Games version. Nowadays for fantasy, I tend to want to play Warhammer FRP, GURPS, Earthdawn, and Stormbringer. I tend to be more future/science fiction games anymore.

I tend to be a more action-adventure player. I like the heroic feel. Going through all the original Dragonlance modules was a blast. Kind of vents the frustration of the week when you can go and beat the crap out of something big, even if it is with dice.

I never liked the Ravenloft world setting, as to me it forced the game to be horror story than a high fantasy game. And I refuse to go into Spelljammer. Forgotten Realms was OK. If playing, I do prefer Greyhawk and Dragonlance.

We used the 4d6 rule for character generation, (roll 4d6, take the highest three,) and assigned them to whatever stat you wanted. We were all out for a good time, and wanted to play mostly ourselves. If the rules got in the way of fun, we would kind of toss them aside.

All about the teamwork. There can be some intergroup strife, but we put that aside for the goal. Being social and around friends, gamer food, times of laughing, are what I liked about roleplaying games, (hence I can not see how video games, even on a network, can be considered real roleplaying games.) I leave strong intergroup conflict for something like Paranoia, where it can be taken in humor.

I usually preferred elves or magic users, or both. I have been know to play a fighter type or two.

[zaphier]

Lets see here i play 2nd to 4rth. still play forth. but that's an online one using maptools. I like 3.5 the best. 4rth is better for when you cant get everyone together in the room at once. My gm moved out of stated but wanted to keep it going. But over all i like playing 3.5 more it has great character options.

The game styles i like are: hack and slash, adventure, and exploration. But i love games that put a great balance of every thing in them for all players play styles. It just makes for a better game play to me.

I think the story should shine. End of discussion.

The group working together is great but there need to be some inter group fighting its just normal. Not ever one will get alone.

It's all about the socialization if it was not there would be no game. lol no really every 1 one there to have a good time. so if i feel indifferent to this one.

And as for races/classes i have really preference they all have there ups and downs.

[Musashi]

Who here plays D&D? I used to, but haven't in a long time. Haven't been able to find a good group that wants to take the time (I so would)

What version(s) do you play and why? Haven't played since 2nd edition. But I would play whatever. Back in those old days, rules would be changed/omitted/added to fit the story and what we were doing. Sometimes the epic scale of the story and who/what the characters were would demand changes. The books IMO are guidelines. Nothing is set in stone and the limit is whatever you want it to be.

What version(s) do you refuse to play and why? Don't refuse to play any version specifically. Just don't know much about 3+

What style(s) of game do you like best (hack & slash, Monty Hall, intrigue, romantic, adventure, exploration, political, etc.) and why? I like a mixture of everything. Things have to be kept fresh. Good action is a must. My old DM (DGN's own Darkmatter) would play out fight scenes based on our rolls even. Roll a 20 and get a neat looking (in the imagination of course) sweet move you just pulled off that saved your (characters) life. All elements of a good story are needed I think. And it needs to be flexible with the ability to change depending on the characters and where the story takes you.

What style(s) aren't you too fond of and why? As long as a DM doesn't try too hard to stick to a "style" by sacrificing the quality of the campaign, whatever is great.

Are you more into story and character development or rules lawyering, min-maxing, etc. or a bit of everything, and how do you slide on the scale? If I had to choose, I would saystory and character development. But you can't neglect the things that make it an "RPG". I may love that my favorite character was a half-insane dark elf with limited powers over creation, but man it felt good to get a new awesome weapon with some crazy stats or quirk to it.

Group cohesiveness working together, constant infighting, or something in between? Again, whatever to fit the story. I remember having to kill a friends character permanently (I was another player, not a DM) because he was a chaotic evil psychopath and the only way to stop the things he was doing was to kill him. We had worked together when we needed to, but eventually someone had to die. That's just the way the story went. And it was cool (plus he had started growing tired of his character, as cool as it was, so he wasn't too heartbroken). So sometimes working together works for whatever reason the characters are doing so. Sometimes you just gotta kill an old friend who lost his way.

It's all about the game and distractions should be kept to a minimum? It's all about the socialization and hanging out with friends and the game is secondary? A bit of both? Both for sure. Sometimes everyone is in the gaming zone and are their character for the night. Sometimes the game gets played some but mostly everyone's just hanging out. Either way, fun is fun.

What races and classes do you prefer and why? I usually end up playing an elf of some sort. But Human's aren't too bad either. I like the agile fighter, or some sort of badass martial artist/fighter. I don't like it to be too confined by a rule or boxed sets theme. Too many rules on a class limit potential for development. I do also like playing some kind of cool mage class. The favorite character I ever had was a chaotic neutral dark elf fighter/thief/mage. He was more about who he was rather than what he was though (like any good character should be). He later had a 2nd incarnation where he was just a fighter. Lacked his thieving and magic at the beginning of the campaign, but was still the same person.

The races I really wont ever play though are things like dwarves, or gnomes, or halflings. Any of the peck races. Just couldn't take em seriously.

Anything else I forgot to ask that you'd like to share. May have been covered in styles, but as far as campaign settings go, sticking to one can limit things. Like some people will stay in spelljammer, or ravenloft, or (ugh) Dragon Lance. That's why I loved Planescape. It allowed for a more epic scale (unlimited really) of story, It allowed the setting to completely change without really changing (planescape officially covers any and all D&D campaign setting and is it's own as well), and it gave both the DM and players more things to think about in general. We might be mountain climbing one day in Forgotten Realms, then get sucked into the lower layers of Hell the next. Or stuck in Ravenloft. Y'never know!

[Darkmatter]

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Copy Musashi's post pretty much. I would totally DM or play a campaign as long as people could ROLE-PLAY well. I was spoiled by some very imaginative , intelligent , fun people , and have since not been able to put together a group with their kind of synergy. So I lost interest.

But I'll always be looking for a group like that again.

[Queen of Foxes]

I do

2.0-3.5 They're the most challenging, and we don't have to mess with the idiots who like to take things easy and ruin the games.

4.0... Way to easy... and most, Most of the people tend to be Gits that do play it.

romantic, adventure, exploration, and Finding ones Self. They seem to bring the most out of My friends and I.

Political...and Hack and Slash.. Political is just boring, and Hack and Slash without having a build up, takes away the moment.

Character development

Well Since I play a Were Fox, aka a Foxen (2.0 Reference) I tend to like to start trouble.. So I need some conflict in the game.. Chaotic Neutral should explain it.

A Bit of both.

Usually the Were's, Were Foxen, and I've always been a Rouge...Thief and an Assassin Technically. I go By Aeds.. "Omg Aeds Struck Again!" Well just the signature I leave behind after Killing people

Thats about all I can think of..Other then I locked a friend in a room of Mind Flayers, and he got raped..but thats a story He'd Shoot me for telling Lol

[TheGimp]

played D&D twice...wasnt sure what version we played...but i would love to play again

Edited November 6, 2010 by TheGimp

[prick]

I havent played since the 80's but liked it and would like to again.

[Musashi]

Yay, chaotic neutral! My best character ever was a chaotic neutral drow fighter/thief/nage. In a later incarnation just a fighter. His nickname was Kain the Madman. He quite literally ended up being a physical manifestation of pure chaos. Pretty much was chaos itself (long story). Darkmatter was DM...we've been wishing we could find people and start a game up one day. The version only matters in so much as a point of orientation really. Rules are made-up and discarded as the flow of the game dictates. Not as loose as it sounds, but makes for flexible game mechanics and gives things a bit more of an organic feel. Thing is, I've never actually FINISHED a campaign. As in story is over. The End. Group always craps out just when we're starting to get to the low to mid teens levels. I would love to find a group that wants to really get a serious campaign going. I already have a DM even! A good one! Though I think he should leaf through a few newer monstrous manuals (we just have the old 2.0. The Only ta'nari are balor and merilith, so..yeah.) and maybe some random other infos. Best thing about it being the future is that we can get it all on teh interwebs!

[DJ Nocker]

white wolf for liiife!

lol

[TheGimp]

when i played 2 years ago i had the chaotic neutral halfling he he was bomb until everyone quit then i got sad my char was strong and quick but he had like 2 intelligence which sucked...it blew having a character that was strong as hell but dumb as an ox