Yeah, this is super annoying. I want to try out roleplaying and get into character and all that, but in some tables you have people like the following:
The involved roleplayer who, despite their intent otherwise, takes control of the narrative. They try to involve you, but it always feels like you’re a side character in their story.
The funny guy, who tries to crack jokes and make the whole game feel light-hearted and silly. I get we’re all here for fun, but sometimes I’d like a bit of meat to bite into.
The GM’s friend, who derails the game into taking about that cool dog that they had when they flat shared last year. No seriously, it’s a cool dog. Let me find a picture on my phone.
That guy whose character is a reference to that show you don’t watch. They keep making references to it, and a few other people get it, but you have to awkwardly nod your head.
… Wow, sorry, kind of went on a rant there. I guess I have a bit of frustration at going to play a game, and most of the session being taken up by not playing said game.
Sounds remarkably similar to my group, but in our latest session it was a kpop video, not a dog
I long for a normal Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a nerdy elf wizard and a sneaky halfling rogue and a chivalrous human knight and a devout dwarven cleric being an adventuring party instead of a loose collection of ideas and concepts with no depth or cohesion. I want to be able to ask someone why they’re with the party and get an in-character answer instead of the player saying they need to be for the story to happen. I want the possibility of a TPK because the DM understands the characters and give us appropriate challenges, I don’t want any semblance of a challenge disappearing because the DM feels bad about dealing damage to his girlfriend’s character
Reading your list makes me better understand why I get kicked out of groups… I never realized that being the jokester actively harmed people’s ability to enjoy the game. Thank you for that.
In my experience, having a person who turns the game into a joke makes it less funny than if it was just played straight. The game is naturally funny and absurd in ways that are best highlighted when the narrative is taken somewhat seriously.
There’s a group that would be annoyed by immersion-breaking 4th wall jokes, and there’s another group that would be relieved by the tension and pressure to perform being broken. Everyone’s going to have slightly different comfort levels so there’s always some compromise on the tone of a campaign.
A session zero is basically a meeting where the DM and players talk about what kind of campaign they will play, the setting, whether the game will be more combat or RP heavy, whether it will be serious or humorous, topics or themes they’d rather avoid and those they’d like to explore, and maybe a bit about the player characters and how they fit into the story. It’s a good chance to get to know the other players and see whether you’re a good fit for the group.
I’d personally want to support making the player characters during session 0 (maybe not the full character sheet, but at least personality/background and class).
I’ve done campaigns where everyone came into the session 0 with their characters all ready to go and the idea of the characters being adjusted wasn’t really brought up but more the rest of the aspects you mentioned. Differences and some antagonism between characters can make things really interesting, but at least in one of them two of the characters fundamentally wouldn’t ever be in a party together. One of the players felt some cognitive dissonance in wanting their character to stay in the party, but not being able to find a rational reason they would, and kinda had to retcon their character.
Yep, that makes a lot of sense. Making an entire character can take quite long, so I try to do it outside of group sessions especially with new players, but some aspects should be talked through with the group.
To be clear, it’s fine to be light hearted and jokey, perhaps most of the time depending on the group.
Knowing when to turn on and off Serious Mode is a skill that can be hard to develop, and IMO it’s perhaps the GMs job to gently say when they want things to be serious.
I guess for me in my last campaign, it was less that I was trying to be a jokester and more that actions which seemed somewhat reasonable to me and high-risk/high-reward were not welcomed by the rest of the group and I didn’t realize how serious people were going to be. We were playing in the world of Firefly and I tried hailing an approaching ship to see what they wanted and if I could negotiate.
The fact that the DM was shocked should have been a hint that I was doing the wrong thing, but at the time I thought that I found a plot hole and was doing such a good job that the DM was blown away. I was wrong and my character has incapacitated by another member of the crew, which continued until I realized that I probably wasn’t welcome to continue campaigning with the group. When I realized this, I genuinely felt really bad that I’d probably upset the group, but it wasn’t until now that I realized how seriously people take this.
I’ve never before played with the specific intent of keeping my character alive, but I think that was more of a videogame mentality. Other folks in the group aren’t exactly excited that I’m putting their characters lives on the line because people obviously invest real time and care into this. My realization was less that I joke too much and more that I don’t take things seriously enough.
That honestly doesn’t seem that bad. It might not be a smart thing to do in the grand scheme of things, but I can see it being an action that a naive member of the crew would do. I think if that truly was the wrong thing to do, then the GM should have stepped in and said something like “Are you sure about that? This region of space is notorious for having lots of pirates around”. Being shunned from a group for something like that feels a bit unreasonable, IMO.
I’m sure there was more to the story than that, but I’m an awkward person. Oh well. Live to try again another day, hopefully better and with more patience for people like me next time. Thanks again!
Yeah, this is super annoying. I want to try out roleplaying and get into character and all that, but in some tables you have people like the following:
… Wow, sorry, kind of went on a rant there. I guess I have a bit of frustration at going to play a game, and most of the session being taken up by not playing said game.
Sounds remarkably similar to my group, but in our latest session it was a kpop video, not a dog
I long for a normal Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a nerdy elf wizard and a sneaky halfling rogue and a chivalrous human knight and a devout dwarven cleric being an adventuring party instead of a loose collection of ideas and concepts with no depth or cohesion. I want to be able to ask someone why they’re with the party and get an in-character answer instead of the player saying they need to be for the story to happen. I want the possibility of a TPK because the DM understands the characters and give us appropriate challenges, I don’t want any semblance of a challenge disappearing because the DM feels bad about dealing damage to his girlfriend’s character
You’d hate me. I’m somehow all of those points simultaneously
Reading your list makes me better understand why I get kicked out of groups… I never realized that being the jokester actively harmed people’s ability to enjoy the game. Thank you for that.
In my experience, having a person who turns the game into a joke makes it less funny than if it was just played straight. The game is naturally funny and absurd in ways that are best highlighted when the narrative is taken somewhat seriously.
It harms THAT SPECIFIC PERSON’S ability to enjoy the game. Your group probably enjoys you if you guys play together regularly.
Yeah it’s a “read the room” kind of thing.
There’s a group that would be annoyed by immersion-breaking 4th wall jokes, and there’s another group that would be relieved by the tension and pressure to perform being broken. Everyone’s going to have slightly different comfort levels so there’s always some compromise on the tone of a campaign.
Nah, depends on the group. And the jokes.
Should have session 0 to set a baseline tone.
Please explain! This sounds fascinating
A session zero is basically a meeting where the DM and players talk about what kind of campaign they will play, the setting, whether the game will be more combat or RP heavy, whether it will be serious or humorous, topics or themes they’d rather avoid and those they’d like to explore, and maybe a bit about the player characters and how they fit into the story. It’s a good chance to get to know the other players and see whether you’re a good fit for the group.
I’d personally want to support making the player characters during session 0 (maybe not the full character sheet, but at least personality/background and class).
I’ve done campaigns where everyone came into the session 0 with their characters all ready to go and the idea of the characters being adjusted wasn’t really brought up but more the rest of the aspects you mentioned. Differences and some antagonism between characters can make things really interesting, but at least in one of them two of the characters fundamentally wouldn’t ever be in a party together. One of the players felt some cognitive dissonance in wanting their character to stay in the party, but not being able to find a rational reason they would, and kinda had to retcon their character.
Yep, that makes a lot of sense. Making an entire character can take quite long, so I try to do it outside of group sessions especially with new players, but some aspects should be talked through with the group.
https://slyflourish.com/running_session_zeros.html
There’s a ton of really useful stuff on this page and some links that are worth a read, especially Monte Cooks’ consent in gaming pdf
To be clear, it’s fine to be light hearted and jokey, perhaps most of the time depending on the group.
Knowing when to turn on and off Serious Mode is a skill that can be hard to develop, and IMO it’s perhaps the GMs job to gently say when they want things to be serious.
I guess for me in my last campaign, it was less that I was trying to be a jokester and more that actions which seemed somewhat reasonable to me and high-risk/high-reward were not welcomed by the rest of the group and I didn’t realize how serious people were going to be. We were playing in the world of Firefly and I tried hailing an approaching ship to see what they wanted and if I could negotiate.
The fact that the DM was shocked should have been a hint that I was doing the wrong thing, but at the time I thought that I found a plot hole and was doing such a good job that the DM was blown away. I was wrong and my character has incapacitated by another member of the crew, which continued until I realized that I probably wasn’t welcome to continue campaigning with the group. When I realized this, I genuinely felt really bad that I’d probably upset the group, but it wasn’t until now that I realized how seriously people take this.
I’ve never before played with the specific intent of keeping my character alive, but I think that was more of a videogame mentality. Other folks in the group aren’t exactly excited that I’m putting their characters lives on the line because people obviously invest real time and care into this. My realization was less that I joke too much and more that I don’t take things seriously enough.
That honestly doesn’t seem that bad. It might not be a smart thing to do in the grand scheme of things, but I can see it being an action that a naive member of the crew would do. I think if that truly was the wrong thing to do, then the GM should have stepped in and said something like “Are you sure about that? This region of space is notorious for having lots of pirates around”. Being shunned from a group for something like that feels a bit unreasonable, IMO.
I’m sure there was more to the story than that, but I’m an awkward person. Oh well. Live to try again another day, hopefully better and with more patience for people like me next time. Thanks again!
Meanwhile I just want to hit things with my greataxe. I don’t care about RP or rules so much. Just let me hit things with my orc barbarian please.