What would YOU do with no dice?

Good question huh?  After reading a few different blogs here and there over the past week or so I decided to combine some of what I’ve been reading; infused with my own opinion, of course!  

Role-playing for different people really does mean very differing things.  To some role-playing is all about the shoot-em-up & bang-em-up, others it’s about the looting or even for some it’s all strictly dialogue.  Then for, what I belive to be most of us, others it’s a combination of all those things.

After my readings this week I have broken it down into 5 differing groups.  I am sure there are many more but I thought these would be good ones to talk about.

1.  Roll & Kill

     Pretty much exactly what it says.  These are people who love combat.  I must admit that combat is my favorite part of the game.  There is no shame in enjoying going into a room and finding pure bliss in destroying a group of skeletons, minions of some sort or a worm priest… then of course searching their corpses to find and take what they possessed… Hey maybe there is even a chest with some goodies somewhere in the room to be had as well.

2.  Strictly Talk

     This group loves roll playing just for the conversation.  The game itself is truly all about playing another character.  It has nothing to do with gold, xp, looting, raiding, killing.  It’s about developing a great, fulfilling, and deep story as a group.  This is a great social activity.  I don’t find myself very strongly in this group simply because I get too awkward trying to play someone else like that.  In my games I do just as much dialogue as absolutely needed and usually started with a sentence like “my character says…”

3.  No Dice?

     Well there are some dice it is an RPG after all.  I read of this on Fear The Boot.  Seemed like a strange concept to me.  It is a typical game in all regards except that the GM is the only one with them.  He rolls for your initiative, your perception checks, your attacks.  Now, I can see how this might be fun… the GM rolls for you behind a screen to see what you perceive in a room.  He tells you that you see nothing… does that mean there is nothing to see or does it mean that the roll was bad and therefore you missed something?  It gives another aspect to the game.  On the other hand, I LOVE ROLLING DICE.  It’s a big part of my fun and I would miss it a lot if I didn’t have my beautiful little set sitting in front of me on the table

4.  Large Group Games

     Some people like to play with lots of other players.  For the sake of this description I am going to say that is between 6-7 players at one table.  This has positives and negatives.  For a positive, if you have a group that works well together there can be a lot of team play and the team could really accomplish awesome things.  On the other hand, it takes a lot longer for it to be your turn and if you’re in combat you do run the chance of not having much to do, especially if you’re at the bottom of the initiative chain.

5.  Small Group Games

     For this one I am speaking of 1-2 players.  I have done this before and it can be a lot of fun.  The challenge really goes up when you’re playing this kind of game.  You have to do more role-playing (the talking kind) and combat usually takes a little longer and you find yourself having to be a little more cleaver in your choice of attack.  But this can really create an intimate game setting.  Not to mention that when you don’t have many people and much time or space this can really work out.

Well folks there you have it.  My views on different times of gaming groups.  I think they all have their benefits and drawbacks.  What about you?  Have your groups ever done something unique?  How did it work out?