DangerousPuhson
My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Inspired by the latest browbeating-for-playing-D&D-wrong post on Blackrazor - https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2025/10/dear-jb-mailbag-44.html
To clarify -
This is roleplaying:
"Greetings my lady, I am Sir Farkburg of Jorst, at your service!" *I slyly wink at her* "I have come to understand - through no small effort mind you - that you are in need of assistance. Might I offer my services in problem-solving? I come highly recommended!" *I do a small bow, while trying to avoid gazing over to my thief companion behind her*
This, by contrast, is specificity:
*I greet the lady with all the courtesy befitting to her station and offer my assistance as a distraction - meanwhile, the thief is trying to sneak around and rifle through her handbag, which he attempts to do using the custom magnetic gloves we just purchased*
Lastly, this is how JB explains that the game should be played ("Just good, hard, solid D&D", as he calls it):
*The thief is going to pick the woman's pocket*
Like it's a game of Zork or something - "GET FLASK" indeed.
My premise: providing details and describing procedure is NOT the same as roleplaying. It is merely being specific, which is and always has been a part of "proper D&D" (think back to the Tomb of Horrors, and the maze of doors that requires you to open each of the doors in specific ways - lifting one, pushing another, opening one by the hinges, etc.). Roleplaying is not describing how one swings a sword, or how one picks a pocket - that is specificity, something that has long been in the game. How many AD&D modules have traps that require you not step on certain parts of a big floor, or locks that open when the key is turned counter-clockwise instead of clockwise, or monsters that can be placated with particular bait? Those instances demand specificity; they have nothing to do with roleplaying.
Conversely, how detrimental is it really to your game of quote-unquote "proper" D&D to speak in a dramatic manner? How does pantomime and voice-work detract from your game in any way whatsoever? How is your game so fragile that it can be derailed just because your players choose to speaketh through ye olde-time mannerisms? Is it not still "playing D&D"? Is it "incorrect", and per whom? Are the D&D police going to arrest them and confiscate their PHB?
If you're around JB, I'd sure love for you to expand your position on this, because it makes no fucking sense.
As a side note: you can't anthropomorphize characters and NPCs, silly - they are already ascribed human characteristics by virtue of being humanoids. You anthropomorphize animals and objects, which unless you're playing some sort of Beauty and the Beast scenario, doesn't exactly happen all that often (ok, ok, newfangled warforged notwithstanding).
To clarify -
This is roleplaying:
"Greetings my lady, I am Sir Farkburg of Jorst, at your service!" *I slyly wink at her* "I have come to understand - through no small effort mind you - that you are in need of assistance. Might I offer my services in problem-solving? I come highly recommended!" *I do a small bow, while trying to avoid gazing over to my thief companion behind her*
This, by contrast, is specificity:
*I greet the lady with all the courtesy befitting to her station and offer my assistance as a distraction - meanwhile, the thief is trying to sneak around and rifle through her handbag, which he attempts to do using the custom magnetic gloves we just purchased*
Lastly, this is how JB explains that the game should be played ("Just good, hard, solid D&D", as he calls it):
*The thief is going to pick the woman's pocket*
Like it's a game of Zork or something - "GET FLASK" indeed.
My premise: providing details and describing procedure is NOT the same as roleplaying. It is merely being specific, which is and always has been a part of "proper D&D" (think back to the Tomb of Horrors, and the maze of doors that requires you to open each of the doors in specific ways - lifting one, pushing another, opening one by the hinges, etc.). Roleplaying is not describing how one swings a sword, or how one picks a pocket - that is specificity, something that has long been in the game. How many AD&D modules have traps that require you not step on certain parts of a big floor, or locks that open when the key is turned counter-clockwise instead of clockwise, or monsters that can be placated with particular bait? Those instances demand specificity; they have nothing to do with roleplaying.
Conversely, how detrimental is it really to your game of quote-unquote "proper" D&D to speak in a dramatic manner? How does pantomime and voice-work detract from your game in any way whatsoever? How is your game so fragile that it can be derailed just because your players choose to speaketh through ye olde-time mannerisms? Is it not still "playing D&D"? Is it "incorrect", and per whom? Are the D&D police going to arrest them and confiscate their PHB?
If you're around JB, I'd sure love for you to expand your position on this, because it makes no fucking sense.
As a side note: you can't anthropomorphize characters and NPCs, silly - they are already ascribed human characteristics by virtue of being humanoids. You anthropomorphize animals and objects, which unless you're playing some sort of Beauty and the Beast scenario, doesn't exactly happen all that often (ok, ok, newfangled warforged notwithstanding).
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