Recently I had occasion to consider the kind of player I am, and the kind of DM I was playing with. I think ordering the following four terms in order of preference will help you figure out what to expect, or where you have to watch out.
My style:
1. *Interaction* – talking with people; I enjoyed playing in a MUSH, so as far as I am concerned, we could be role-playing a wedding and I’d still have fun. 8D I’m trying to introduce more dice rolling into this, in order to spare players lots of talking if they don’t enjoy it as much as I do. They roll the dice, and if they make their skill checks, I just give them the result of the talk. Somehow using indirect speech seems to work as a compromise.
2. *Politics* – making friends & alliances, outmaneuvering enemies; my current campaign (Kitsunemori) is the first campaign where I’m really trying to push this element. There are several interest groups, none clearly good or evil, and befriending one automatically aggravates another. ❤ ❤
3. *Combat* – I understand that many of my players enjoy combat, so I’ll provide a fight per session, but I have to watch my combat commentary. It would be nice if I could spice up combat using better descriptions. There’s actually more to this section: Rolling the *dice*, *tactics*, and *strategy*. Tactics can be fun, if they don’t involve a lot of rule lawyering.
4. *Riddles* – I don’t enjoy them. I want MutualInspiration, not an alternative to playing chess. I detest scenes that destroy my suspension of disbelief. Many old-school riddles do that. They’re basically some thinly disguised form of “intelligence” test. Blech! 🙁
#RPG #thoughts