Are you a roleplayer? If not, why not? [Archive]

Gaelforce

08-06-2010, 05:25 PM

Thequeerjock

08-06-2010, 05:31 PM

Do you mean like in Role Models?

I guess I'm a bit self-conscious. This year will be the first time I've ever even tried to dress up and go to a con.

That, and I don't know many black LARPers, and I think I'd be a tad intimidated.....

UltimateFactor

08-06-2010, 05:42 PM

Huh, I've never done the all out Role play thing, though I'm heavy into online, text based, chat room role play. I've been using it as my daily writing exercise for almost thirteen years now.

Dream

08-06-2010, 05:48 PM

I think it's cool you do that.

I guess where I just don't know many people who are down to do that.

I met this guy while working at a Halloween store last year and I guess he was a HALO Larper- dude had a 10000 dollar costume with night vision, infra-red, made fro mreally sturdy military material, and with sensors like they use in laser tag so he and his buddies can play or whatever.

Gaelforce

08-06-2010, 05:52 PM

Role Models is a sub-set of roleplayers called LARPers (Live Action roleplaying). There are LARP organizations all over the place like that where you create one character and play it over a long period of time while in costume and engaging in mock combat.

We don't dress up for our weekly roleplaying and we play in the privacy of our own home. My friends come over, we hang out, order lunch and then sit around the table pretending to be characters we created. One person runs the game by creating scenarios and storylines along with the supporting cast and opponents. You create a different character for each game.

Dungeons and Dragons is the oldest and most famous RPG which is based off of Tolkien's work. Nowadays, name a genre and there's a game for it, from superheros to secret agents, vampires to noir detective stories.

At GenCon (and other gaming conventions), a gamemaster creates a storyline as well as the characters that attendees then play for about four hours at a time. For example, the game I played yesterday was based off of the movie Sky High and we all play students attending the school for superheroes and dealing with the strange goings-on there.

Games can have different tones as well as genres - from light hearted comedy to dark drama. When done well, it can be very intense and a lot of fun :)

Darque_Angel

08-06-2010, 05:54 PM

I am a pen and pencil role-player and PbEM role-player. My brothers, some friends and I have been playing champions for as long as I can remember.

We are also currently playing a D&D game once a month at a local store to introduce my nephews and some younger kids to the game. Its 4th ed which I don't really like but its whats out and it helps the store sell stuff. The older players sort of rotate in and out of the game depending on which of us are available that weekend and we play more seasoned adventurers acting as mentors to the kids characters. Lots of fun to see the enthusiasm and excitement they have for every little aspect of the game.

Thequeerjock

08-06-2010, 05:54 PM

Role Models is a sub-set of roleplayers called LARPers (Live Action roleplaying).

Oh, I was talking about the movie. You know, the one with Sean William Scott?

trypr

08-06-2010, 05:56 PM

Hey Sue ^_^

As well as playing online, I still play semi-regularly with my friends from school: mainly boardgames, WFRP and Call of Cthulu. I've done a bit of LARPing and played a number of other PnP systems, but we always come back to tales of impending doom from beyond the stars, along with a healthy dose of history and satire :)

It's always been a fun way to frame a social evening and to take a break from "adult" life ^_^ Only a couple of us are really into comics, but everyone seems to enjoy reading trade paperbacks of old Conan tales (where he is, very often, like a panther). I'm the artist, so I get mapping duty, but I can always get my own back making character sketches ^.~

Gaelforce

08-06-2010, 06:00 PM

Oh, I was talking about the movie. You know, the one with Sean William Scott?

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. The movie is about a fictionaly LARP community and LARPing is a type or roleplaying :)

Gaelforce

08-06-2010, 06:03 PM

I am a pen and pencil role-player and PbEM role-player. My brothers, some friends and I have been playing champions for as long as I can remember.

Awesome! I ran the official Champions tournament at GenCon and Origins for years back when the game first came out, and I'm out here at GenCon now running Champions events. By far and away my favorite game system. Our face-to-face game has expaned into some fun PbEM as well.

We are also currently playing a D&D game once a month at a local store to introduce my nephews and some younger kids to the game. Its 4th ed which I don't really like but its whats out and it helps the store sell stuff. The older players sort of rotate in and out of the game depending on which of us are available that weekend and we play more seasoned adventurers acting as mentors to the kids characters. Lots of fun to see the enthusiasm and excitement they have for every little aspect of the game.

I don't have kids, but it's been great seeing my friends kids grow up and join games from time to time. One of my oldest friends is out here with his son now who helped him run that Sky High game.

DungeonMasterJim

08-06-2010, 06:32 PM

I don't get to play D&D as much as I would like these days but I consider myself a role-player. But I'm only a pen and paper player. Can't say I've ever had much desire to dress up and Larp - just not my thing. Besides, I'm not sure I could pull off Larping a female drow very well, especially since I'm a dude.

I gotta have my combat or I get bored but I'm no cheese weasel. I always get annoyed when a player with a character with low charisma and or intelligence scores decides that they will do all the talking and the DM doesn't really make them pay for it. To me, it kinda renders those stats somewhat useless in the game.

DM Jim

AndrewCrossett

08-06-2010, 07:26 PM

I've been playing D&D off and on since 1978. Finally dropped it when 4th edition came out and switched to Pathfinder instead.

Shurato2099

08-06-2010, 07:39 PM

I've been a pen-and-paper RPGer since ... gads ... 8th grade where I was introduced to the D&D Basic and Expert Sets. Yeah, they were a gateway. From there I went into Top Secret, Star Frontiers, Boot Hill, Star Fleet Battles (never got but so into that as I never could afford all of the minis), and then in my Junior year of high school I got hooked hard by Champions which combined my love of gaming with my older love of comics. From there I went into GURPS, Noir, pretty much the whole spectrum of White Wolf's World of Darkness (I was a tester for Vampire the Masquerade when it first came out), and when I hit college MUSHes were just starting to come about. The Hero System (ala Champions) has become my system of choice due to long experience and I'm presently involved in three separate games being run over Jabber with players spread out between Seattle, Washington and Miami, Florida.

It is kind of an odd thing but most of my online characters tend to be female (not all, of course, but most of my better ones) while my in person characters are invariably male. And every so often I truly enjoy role-playing the villain.

Shurato2099

08-06-2010, 07:41 PM

Superior Kiai

08-06-2010, 08:10 PM

I've been a pen & paper roleplayer almost 7 years now. I began with Dungeons & Dragons and am now currently preparing for my first ever campaign of Mutants & Masterminds.

I'm all excited about it.

CutterMike

08-06-2010, 08:26 PM

I did some pen-and-paper gaming when I was in college many years ago (It was a good way to hang out with the Smith College geek-girls).

Unfortunately, the DM was one of those types who wanted to be god AND the hero -- playing NPCs that could get the neos out of trouble when we ran into the threats he threw at us that were well beyond our level "so we could build up experience points quicker".

That and some of his other habits annoyed me enough that one night I simply had to utterly crush his spirit. Which I finessed without giving him anything that he could reasonably get angry about. And everyone knew it.

He never ran a game for us again.

But the ladies were highly amused and we still hung out together afterwards, so it was all good!

The Crushtacean

08-06-2010, 08:38 PM

Yup, been playing pen and paper RPGs for 26 years now. I used to go to GenCon every year, but not so much anymore.

AthenAltena

08-06-2010, 08:47 PM

I only just got to play my first game of D&D this last Tuesday, and I gotta say I love it so far. I found a cool group of queer women and so far it's been a blast.

Shurato2099

08-06-2010, 09:38 PM

I only just got to play my first game of D&D this last Tuesday, and I gotta say I love it so far. I found a cool group of queer women and so far it's been a blast.

A good group is key for gamer happiness. That and a DM that isn't out to kills the players' characters off. :)

McIntyre

08-06-2010, 09:38 PM

I don't, though I've always meant to give it a try one day. I don't actually have any friends that are interested in tabletop RPGs though.

Probably for the best, at least for now. Between comic books, novels, and videogames, I've got enough expenses.

Benel Germosen

08-06-2010, 10:14 PM

Huh, I've never done the all out Role play thing, though I'm heavy into online, text based, chat room role play. I've been using it as my daily writing exercise for almost thirteen years now.

Ditto. I've been PbP/Chatroom RPing since I was thirteen (mostly Marvel and DC, but recently expanded into things like Firefly and True Blood) and have been tabletop gaming since I was 16 (D20, specifically D&D). Two of my Exs I've met thorough RPing.

Tyr

08-07-2010, 12:00 AM

I've been reading Forgotten Realms the War of the Spider Queen saga, and now I'm joansing for a game....stupid war of the spider queen saga! :furious:

Reverend Smooth

08-07-2010, 12:17 AM

Larime and I are both roleplayers. :)

I used to pen-and-paper greyhawk, D&D (several editions), Elfquest, um, WoD, Shadowrun, etc.

I still roleplay now and then on LJ communities, but haven't done so in a while, have felt drained of creativity. I used to MUSH a lot, I miss it.

Ryan Elliott

08-07-2010, 12:31 AM

I don't think I'll ever LARP. Not my thing.

I AM considering going to a con, a big con like SDCC, and spending one day in a costume(as of right now my body type will only allow for DKR Batman or a funny character like Sergeant Hatred). Also thinking about building a costume for a Renn Faire. Something Viking themed.

I've only recently begun to be interested in table top RPGs. Specifically Lovecraftian ones like Arkham Horror(I wish I knew more nerds in this town that were into this kind of stuff, I'd love to get a game of Innsmouth Horror expansion going).

So yeah. All that.

Bedlam66

08-07-2010, 02:52 AM

I've got almost all the D&D 3.0 stuff but I don't really have people to play with in my Area. I used to play alot though. now days I've been spending alot of my time playing Champions online and star trek online.

DonovanMore

08-07-2010, 09:24 AM

I have role-played since I was in my early teens, mainly D&D. I drifted away for most of my 20s. The past few years I RP'd on World of Warcraft. That's actually how I met my wife. I am not playing WoW right now but she and I still RP over instant messengers even though we are sitting in the same room.

bert

08-07-2010, 09:28 AM

Hi, my name is Sue and I've been playing pencil and paper roleplaying games for thirty four years.

(Gamers Anonymous response: Hi Sue!)

I am an admitted roleplaying junkie - not dice rolling or treasure hunting or monster killing but full out, spend a day with friends pretending to be someone else and enjoying the hell out of it roleplaying.

I'm out here in Indianapolis for GenCon having a blast with some of the best roleplayers I've ever known. It's my 28th visit here and I can't imagine a year going by where I'm not surrounded by 30,000 gaming geeks all out to have a good time.

So I was wondering - are there any other roleplayers/LARPers who hang out here?

More to the point, for those of you who don't roleplay, is there a reason you don't?

I was wondering this because it seems to me that a lot of comic book collectors I've known also tend to be some of the most creative people I've known. There are artist and writers (and would-be artists and writers) who all have their own creative outlets, and it would seem to me that a lot of you would enjoy creating your own character and then seeing how that character interacts with other people's creations.

So how many of you are roleplayers or would-be roleplayers? And how many of you aren't interested and why? (please try not to hurt my feelings with that answer ;) )

nope. .never have been.

just not my thing (of course, I'm not a Videogamer or cardgamer either, and never got into Dungeons and Dragons).

my friends trying to teach me how to play "Munchkin" gave up in disgust, because I simply coldn't get into it enough to learn how to play properly.

it's just how I'm wired I suppose.

but I have great friends who are gamers.

and my Ex was way into RP and LARP. . hehe. . I remember once he invited me to game night and we played BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth), and I spent every turn drinking beer and watching porn in my armor. Except for the one time I pointed at the ground and shot off my nukes -- we needed to get down to a cave. The friends were HORRIFIED, but my Ex thought it was a move that a non-gamer would make and thought it was funny.

:)

Benel Germosen

08-07-2010, 09:43 AM

LARPing sounds vaguely sexual.

bert

08-07-2010, 09:50 AM

LARPing sounds vaguely sexual.

I suspect most LARPers are virgins

(from those I know, that's definately the case)

so . . um. . . no, not sexual at all.

:)

Hate_Prime

08-07-2010, 10:30 AM

I roll the ol' d20 now and then.

I have a tendency to be the party's rogue-ish type guy who somehow sucks at rogue-y things.

I like half-orcs and hate elves. *shakes fist at d&d 4th ed*

UltimateFactor

08-07-2010, 10:41 AM

I suspect most LARPers are virgins

(from those I know, that's definately the case)

so . . um. . . no, not sexual at all.

:)

I have a few friends who LARP and they are on the other end of that particular spectrum. :rofl: Not that I'll get into it here. Though I'll say they are the only group who've ever gotten me REALLY interested in joining. :surrend:

bert

08-07-2010, 10:46 AM

I have a few friends who LARP and they are on the other end of that particular spectrum. :rofl: Not that I'll get into it here. Though I'll say they are the only group who've ever gotten me REALLY interested in joining. :surrend:

LOL

the LARPers I know from Dragon*con?. . they're pretty much the only ones not screwing anything that shows the slightest bit of interest. .

LOL

but yeah, unfair to paint w/ a big brush (I was just trying to make w/ the funny).

AthenAltena

08-07-2010, 11:54 AM

Actually this reminds me to get some dice of my own so I don't have to borrow other people's... Now I know what I'm doing Saturday!

adam_warlock_2099

08-07-2010, 12:18 PM

I've never tried this kind of roleplaying. I suspect it's much different. I am not sure I have answer for you as to why I haven't tried it. Maybe because I don't know anyone locally that does.

Sagafan

08-07-2010, 12:27 PM

I was a pen and paper RPGer back when AD&D 2nd Edition was around. I always gravitated towards dwarven characters. I stopped playing when I moved away from my childhood home. I never LARPed. To self-concious.

AthenAltena

08-07-2010, 12:50 PM

I've never tried this kind of roleplaying. I suspect it's much different. I am not sure I have answer for you as to why I haven't tried it. Maybe because I don't know anyone locally that does.

That was my problem for a long time, until two weeks ago by pure chance I was volunteering at my local ASPCA and wearing a shirt with a Labrys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrys) on it, which clued in a woman who was their with her girlfriend looking for a cat that I was of the same persuasion. We chatted for a bit until she asked me if I was a gamer, and then I got invited to the D&D session that she's the GM for!

I do have another friend (incidentally a gay guy) who does D&D too, but since I'd be the only female in his group I never felt comfortable inviting myself along, especially since I'm a total n00b.

Endy52

08-07-2010, 02:27 PM

Played a lot of D&D back in high school and college (early to mid 70s) but drifted away when the majority of the group moved away for graduate work.

Haven't role-played since I was a kid, but the examples we used were Legion of Super-Heroes, Lost in Space, Star Trek, and Justice League.

As a matter of fact, DC came out with a 4-issue "Realworlds" series and one of them was JLA. That was a LOT like what I did as a kid ... minus the Bill Gates surrogate. Look 'em up; the Batman issue was drawn wonderfully by Marshall Rogers, the Wonder Woman dealt with blacklisting in the 50s, and the Superman had a "rebel without a cause" slant complete with tattoo.

Tyr

08-07-2010, 03:59 PM

Is it just me, or is LARPing big with geek ladies? I don't like dressing up much less LARPing.

Jenna

08-07-2010, 04:45 PM

Is it just me, or is LARPing big with geek ladies? I don't like dressing up much less LARPing.

Cosplaying's big with geek girls too, maybe they figure they might as well go all the way and LARP as their characters?

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I was really into online play-by-post RPing when I was maybe 12-14 and I'm actually really glad I was...it definitely helped me with my writing ability and it got me into graphic design. I don't really do it anymore because I don't have enough time or interest, but I do still occasionally check out what's going on in the online RPG world.

And I'd love to LARP...I'd just have to convince my friends to join me and I bet at least some of them would be up for it! We're all over-achieving nerds anyway, what reputation do we have to lose?

Scott Mateo

08-07-2010, 08:20 PM

I played D&D table top in the 80's, and owned the FASA Dr.Who and Star Trek RPGs and both the Mayfair and West End Games DCU RPGs, but could never get anyone to play them with me.

In the 90's I got started playing Vampire The Masquerade from the World of Darkness by White Wolf. I moved from pen and paper to LARP when I started college at USF, and found more women were into White Wolf RPGs.

About 20 of us played at night on the campus (Tampa by Night), and since it was a modern RPG, there wasn't any real need for costumes. And the times security came by, we told them we were rehearsing a scene for the drama department.
I suspect most LARPers are virgins

(from those I know, that's definately the case)

so . . um. . . no, not sexual at all.

:)...and you couldn't more wrong.

More than a few players took their roles a bit seriously and got pretty freaky. In fact when I was in my late 20's in St. Petersburg, I had to stop LARPing at Eckerd college because there were guys my age doing it just so they could nail young girls who were into VtM.

With the big vampire craze today, I could really see LARP getting huge again in the colleges across the country like it use to be.

Anyway...I later did some RP in the AOL chatrooms (around AOL 3.0) when you could type dice commands in the rooms. Around the early 2000's it turned into more like story tag than RP, and I got tired of waiting 30 mins for someone to post.

I did a few message board RPGs, but they also weren't moving fast enough for me.

Finally, through Yahoo I joined several DC and Marvel PbEMs (Play by Email RPGs), in which I'd bein a group and have emails sent every time someone posted so I could respond. It was great for a few years until the splinter continuity from the main universe got so complex and confusing new players were hesitant to stay after a campaign.

These days when I have the time, I do a bit of RPing when I play Anarchy Online - a free PC MMORPG. Still, I have a lot of fond memories of all the collaborative brainstorming I've done with others - and remain really good friends with my online RP friends - whom I've met since in person,and even attended a wedding between two of them.

Good times :)

Gail Simone

08-07-2010, 09:05 PM

Guapo Mendez

08-07-2010, 09:06 PM

Sure am.
Started with City of Heroes, then moved to World of Warcraft and then got into play-by-post 3.5 D&D. Been playing it for 4-5 years. Like it, love it, would love to play a live round with local players, but sadly D&D ain't that popular around here.

coveredinbees

08-07-2010, 09:10 PM

No. I bought a book, but didn't like the people I knew who roleplayed. Being around them made me unhappy. I did try online once, but I couldn't get into it.

Gaelforce

08-08-2010, 05:05 AM

Man, I would *love* to run a Champions RPG for folks at NYCC :) I ran back to back events last night from 5 pm til 1 am and haven't had that much fun in years!

As to LARPers being virgins, I do beg to differ and refer you to this:

Top 25 Vacation Destinations a Nerd Can Get Laid (http://www.airlinecreditcards.com/travelhacker/top-25-vacation-destinations-where-a-nerd-can-get-laid/)

Note #11 among others - a purely LARP event that takes place in MA every year. Unlike all the other events, it's tiny - maxes out at around 2-300 attendees ;)

CougarTrace

08-08-2010, 05:26 AM

used to love to play when I was younger.

now I'm just don't anyone who plays to start playing again

Dragonbat

08-08-2010, 05:48 AM

I'm involved in an rp on livejournal. Playing Dick Grayson in a DC game.

Previously, I was rp-ing Jim and Babs Gordon in a 1st Century Rome AU. That was fun... til it fizzled.

Calvin Government

08-08-2010, 11:11 AM

I was the President of my gaming club in college. We would play for 4-5 hours Friday nights and roughly 12 hours on Saturday (noon to midnight). It ended up breaking down to four four-hour blocks of games per week, though most of us also played a game or two outside the club.

I started off playing D&D in high school, but it never really satisfied - everything is so geared towards combat that it's almost impossible to building a genuinely satisfying character. Most of my friends shifted from that to Old World of Darkness, then to Exalted and New World of Darkness. Those were the most common games I played, as it was generally easy to find a group.

The more we moved away from D&D, the smaller our groups got until we were playing games with 2-3 players, things like Nobilis or, often enough, games that we had created ourselves.

It remains my favorite hobby on Earth, but one that I haven't really indulged in much. When I still had a little bit of money last year, I drove 150 miles to Columbus to game for a day, then 150 miles back every other weekend, just because that's where all my gamer friends moved. Now that I can't afford to keep that up, though, I haven't really gamed at all. It's almost impossibly hard to find a good gaming group - mostly, all I've found are just combat-centric dungeon-crawls, which I just can't get into.

I loooooove role-playing, but too often it just gets knocked down to roll-playing.

Shurato2099

08-08-2010, 12:49 PM

I used to love paper RPGs. We played all of them, even the dumb stuff like Toon. But my favorite was Empire of the Petal Throne. Also loved Call of Cthulhu so so much.

Everyone I played with moved away!

All good ones. A favorite of mine for a while in college was Teenagers From Outer Space (TFOS for short). I loved how we could just go wild with that game, too bad the campaign folded; comedy is hard to pull off on a weekly basis.

Cassandra

08-08-2010, 05:28 PM

I love table-top gaming, always have! Up until recently I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons with a group of close friends but we've just taken a break from that to play the Star Wars role playing game. It's turning out to be heaps of fun, it was easy to cross over to because it also uses the D20 system.

Scott_Stone

08-09-2010, 12:51 AM

Played some 3rd edition, and 3.5 back in high school, had some fun with that though didn't quite fit in well with my group, we had one guy always playing a half elf ranger, another who prefered elven MU's, and our DM favored inserting human rangers or monks as his 'voice' NPC. I just sort of bounced around everywhere, though I tended to favor support roles, as well, fighting in that group got pretty boring, very quickly.

Other than that, in the past few years I've gravitated more towards pbem and forum based roleplaying. Creating characters, or recreating known characters is just a thrilling experience for me.