When it comes to roleplaying games (RPGs), I have some particular tastes.
No, I’m not saying that I’m super picky, or any sort of elitist when it comes to gaming. I’m not. I’m just sharing what I like the best when I game.
- I like players who really get into character. No, they don’t need to dress like their characters, but I do like it when they attempt to really get into character and show us what makes them tick. Some players have taken an initial character/racial archetype and run, developing something new and exciting, beyond my starting point. It’s a joy to see, and can be amazing co-op fiction creation.
- I like players who are team players. I also like it when a player chooses to do something because it benefits the game itself, rather than saying “well, my character would never do that.” I challenge my players to find ways to make the game fun for all of us… and sometimes that means a little compromise.
- I like mystery. As a gamemaster, I seem to be drawn to mystery in one way or another. I like presenting a mysterious thing, and letting the players figure it out… perhaps months later. I guess that it’s because I feel that the world is a mysterious place, and I enjoy a sense of wonder when those mysteries are uncovered. (And sometimes the mysteries are just that; the unknown.)
- I like action-adventure. I also like it when the shite hits the fan, and the action is fast, crazy, and maybe even dangerous. Yep, if the world seems dangerous, you can bet that it probably is.
- I like humor, but not corn. I love it when something odd happens, or someone says something funny, and we have an in-game joke to laugh at from time to time. Laughing is good, and heck, we play for fun, right?
However, I don’t like gaming in corny, fakey, cartoony worlds. Yeah, sure, Monstru IS a cartoon, but I like to think of it as a gritty world of odd monsters and beasts. I just draw them this way, because this is how I draw. Don’t expect Toon from Monster Commute. Expect Brazil but with monsters.
- I love trying to paint a vast, interesting world. I put a lot of effort into making the world make sense and be a rich place of many details. I appreciate a gamemaster who can describe a world that engages my imagination, and I try to do that as a GM myself.
- I like to have a good time. Gaming is about hanging out with your friends and having a great time, above everything else. I like gaming with people who share this ideal, and who really attempt to bring some fun to the game themselves, instead of waiting to be entertained. If we all sit there waiting for fun, it’s not going to happen. We’ve gotta make it happen.
- Daniel
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I have a lot of the same likes as you when it comes to gaming. I’m gonna have to kidnap you for gaming one of these days…
Dan,
You missed a good evening last weekend up here in Spokane. The crew liberated a massive hoard of gold in a seeminly to easy robbery from the villans and then charmed it to look like local coinage long enough for them to head down to the downtown shopping district and unload it all in a three hour billionare style shop fest. Throw in a couple shyster Ogra with a incling to demolish local buildings with their hand canyons and a failed attempt to prevent the assassination of a a local politician that left one of the party dead (he got better thanks to the extra fine 3rd Age Viitrae referenced on the Agyris.net website). In either case, everybody played along, had fun, had a number of good laughs, and blew up most of a mansion trying to fight some assassins. Next session I’m going to take a side step and put them in the role of the assassins as they foil the company. should be great fun to see them make fools of their characters.