I freaking love DnD 5E.

[Garage Trashcan]

I hear you like free things.

dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

[SOC_Tessa]

I think Fire Wraith hit the big nail on the head. The OGL was a brilliant masterstroke when Wizards introduced it. Suddenly anyone and everyone could publish content for their d20 system and it opened the floodgate to a new world of collaboration. The game was no longer some proprietary rule set, but something that everyone could play with. Sure, the system had its flaws (and every system does), but it was massive and built to last.

4E really did feel like corporates slamming to door on that and seeing a market opportunity to repackage and resell the material (because all the money is made upfront with the core books and tapers off more and more with each new splat blook). Did 3.5 need a massive overhaul? Judging by the success of Pathfinder (often affectionately dubbed 3.75E), it apparently didn't. 4E catered to the MMO crowd and had all the earmarks of a "subscripted" service - involving playaids that were either a painful custom solution or used their online program service (none of this from my experience, but reading of it secondhand).

Now with 5E, the ship may have already sailed. There is a healthy population that jumped over to Paizo's boat. Wizards "needs" 5E to straighten things out again following 4E, but I'm more leery than ever at the often joked about annual updates to the ruleset.

[The Red Mage]

I have a question. How do people roleplay in their tabletop campaigns? Do you narrate your character in third person, or do you go for it in first person?

I have the bad habit of narrating "what my character would do". For instance, I may switch between narration in dialogue.

"What do you want adventurer?"

*Talks over with party who is the best to speak with NPC*

"I feel like my PC would ask this."

"That old cave? Yeah, I know of it."

Then I'd go into first person maybe. I have a really hard time staying in first person when roleplaying, and I blame my horrible accents. Haha. What do tabletop DMs prefer? A party that stays in first person, or a group that narrates their characters omnisciently?

I was playing Mugwort in a Campaign recently, and my answers would always be something like,

"Mugwort would likely do these things" or "My character would say something like this..."

[Garage Trashcan]

Nov 4, 2014 11:18:20 GMT -5 The Red Mage said:

I have a question. How do people roleplay in their tabletop campaigns? Do you narrate your character in third person, or do you go for it in first person?

I have the bad habit of narrating "what my character would do". For instance, I may switch between narration in dialogue.

"What do you want adventurer?"

*Talks over with party who is the best to speak with NPC*

"I feel like my PC would ask this."

"That old cave? Yeah, I know of it."

Then I'd go into first person maybe. I have a really hard time staying in first person when roleplaying, and I blame my horrible accents. Haha. What do tabletop DMs prefer? A party that stays in first person, or a group that narrates their characters omnisciently?

I was playing Mugwort in a Campaign recently, and my answers would always be something like,

"Mugwort would likely do these things" or "My character would say something like this..."

For me, it's a bit of both. It can be very hard to say exactly what your character would say (since you are not this person), so paraphrasing happens a lot. You're also really tempted to make very poor impressions of the accent you think they'd have.

Honestly, I prefer paraphrasing like, "I ask the merchant if he has any information," because it can go a bit faster and players won't be stuck up on phrasing everything the way they think it should be phrased. One of the reasons I actually really enjoy the online RP that CD provides is because I have time to actually think out my reaction and how it can be said. Especially if you play wildly different characters who speak very differently.

If you can do the full acting, great, and I know a few people who do it very well and it's very entertaining to be involved with. But if I play a dwarf, I'm going to be really tempted to use a Dwarven accent and everyone's ears will bleed. It's overall better for my immersion to just paraphrase than to make shitty accents or not "act" the character right.

One thing 4E did very well, I think, was in the DMG it explained all the different types of players that you might run into (probably 5-6 types) and how to make them feel involved in your campaign. If you can balance it well, you can make sure that the actor, the dungeon crawler, and guy with unadulterated bloodlust all feel entertained.

[Edge]

My group mostly sticks to first person if they're doing dialogue (yes often complete with accent), and varies between first and third person if they're describing their actions (sometimes they'll say "I shoot the ogre", sometimes it's "s/he shoots the ogre"; there doesn't really seem to be a constant, even from individual to individual).

[SOC_Tessa]

I encourage my players to speak in character when conversing among themselves or with NPCs, but it isn't a big deal with less important or non-pivotal dialogue ("I ask if he has any neat magical items in stock"). It's more immersive on the whole. Of course, we have collectively nudged players out of using accents at the table if they're horribly ear-grating.