How much Roleplaying does your group actually do?

[BluSpecs]

every gamer seems to have a different style. Some are pure dice hack and slash and others are few dice intesive roleplayers.

Ours has an even mix, generaly very investigative as well.

Whats your group like?

[Wizard]

Well, half our group is on the boards, so I'll go over the other half. But I'll give each of them "gamer names."

Wizard---the name fits. I play wizards all the time, I love spellcasting, and I disdain combat classes as boring. Pretty good RP'er--I think so, anyway.

Jevva---also fits. The guy's been a psion or a psychic warrior since birth. When psionics aren't available, he goes ranger, the next closest thing. Has died twice from the same poorly-aimed spell in the same campaign from the same character (me). Also a good RP'er, though somewhat unimaginative (but so am I, so who am I to point fingers?)

CS-----stands for Chaotic Stupid. Actually ran through a village screaming, "Your women! Where are your women!" Terrible RP'er. Nice guy, but a munchkin\CS mix.

Rock Star---named for an ill-fated attempt to join the village festival's musical line-up----banging rocks together. He was a half-orc. Died eventually, then played a paladin in the same campaign. Later died to my burning hands when he was charmed. How was I to know it was temporary? My character thought he'd gone traitor. Also a terrible RP'er---characters have the same personality, no matter the class or alignment.

CIA---so named because he disappears for hours at a time, leaving no one a clue as to where he is. Once had a 5-hour "lunch." Died to the same burning hands that killed off Rock Star. Good RP'er---way too good. Does some weird stuff IC sometimes.

thrawn86---not so easily caricatured. Just read his posts, I guess.

[Cel]

my group.. hmm..

there's Player1, he's not a bad RPer, usualy gets beat up by monsters...
there's his friend, he joined not long so he's not that great, but he's trying.
there's another dude who just joined, didnt play yet so i cant tell..
and there's me. the DM ;D . (i'm alot better as DM then player..)

there WAS someone called SHPOOLTZ. that's some nick name we gave him at school.. he was dumb, doing shit IC.
and there was another player. he was GOOD, but.. kinda fucked up in the head. we couldnt play once and he left cuz of it...

[K Man]

Since this is a DM specific question, and I DM, I figured I would post about my "group".

*Wonders how much beratement will fly his way for airing out the dirty laundry*

(I'll try to remember as many players as I can.)

BluSpecs aka John - Best friend of 12+ years and the man that introduced me to the game. A good, well-rounded player that likes to develop unique characters. Loves pirates and pirate settings. Very supportive of everything I do and write. His only flaw, doesn't like epic level stuff. His ideal campaign would take 3 years to reach 3rd level and you might get a potion or two by then.

Merovingian - Another best friend of 8+ years and was there the first day I played. Excellent role-player and deep thinker. I enjoy having him in my games because he provokes alot of debate and brings up moral issues that most wouldn't think of. Very smart as well. (I don't think I've found but one or two things in 8 years of playing with him that have stumped him.) Only flaw, debate can slow down a game and you can only take a paladin's moral speech so many times.

Japic aka Jacob - Good friend of numerous years and has grown greatly as a role-player. Enjoys the game with all his heart and has a great imagination for the scenes I put him in. I don't know how many times he bursted out in character with gestures and mimicking the explosions of spells. Adds life to the game for certain. Only flaw, can be a bit brash on " deciding" things for the party...usually with force. (Anyone else wanted to ask the prisone....never mind, Jacob just stabbed him.)

Stan aka The "Searcher" - Met early in my DM-Hood and has been a good friend every since. Older than the rest of the group, so he comes from a different generation than the rest of my table-top clan. Known for never playing anything but a rogue or ranger. Has managed to pilfer many items for the party, sometimes with dire consequences. Only flaw, pilfering can bog down the game as a DM and one experience also doesn't do much "role-playing". Just wants treasure and experience.

Rob - Recently met this guy and have become friends quickly. Very nice, usually brings snacks and food for the rest of the group. Haven't had much experience but also a very intelligent man and excellent puzzle-solver. (He's actually a launch manager for Lockheed Martin. Imagine my suprise, first time playing with him when he says something smart. I respond with, "What are you a rocket scientist?" and he says "Yes". ) Only flaw, was the first to develop the relational link between movie scripts and my adventures...it hasn't died yet. †

A few other players from my days -

John M. - Former friend that used to play occasionally. WAY too into Lord of the Rings, perhaps why I developed a distaste for the series. Until a year or so ago I had no idea why he though his ranger character, "Strider" was so cool. (For those of you that don't know, I have not read the LotR series and I don't intend to.)

Larry - Hardcore DM I played under a few times last summer. Some examples of his games. We go down a tunnel , get hit by a weapon and armor dissolving slime, nearly die and have to recoup in a hole before heading back out, only to have our cleric get turned to stone a few steps after the slime and have to leave to get him fixed...like I said, hardcore.

Sean - The best DM I've ever seen...EVER. Friend of Merv and BluSpecs that I was introduced to. Loved Darksun and allowed me to graciously play in his games a few times. He was so good at describing things, it once took us over an hour to figure out the beast in the dwelling was a horse. (Someday I want to be that cool.)

Nate - Once good friend of Merv and BluSpecs that I was introduced to and played with a few times. Had this fetish for playing over-sized, under-brained barbarian types. Funny since he himself was a 6'5", 350lb football player.

Alex - In a word...interesting. Friend of Nate that played mysterious and dark characters...but played them well. I never really did get a grasp on who Alex was before he took his presence from my influence. Said a few things during his time that had me flat out perplexed and worried.

There have been countless others, but unless asked, I won't talk about them. Just had to share the more memorable ones.

† For those of you that don't know, my table group constantly tries to find what movie script the current adventure most closely resembles. It was Rob that first brough it up, it hasn't died since. It's actually rather funny now, having become more of a classic joke than a belittling event.

[TheUdjat]

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I play with two groups. Here they are.

Group A or, the Friday Group. I usually run these games, though a few others do as well - They all tend to focus more on interaction over mechanics, though.

Mark - Mark is cool guy a few years older than me. I met him through a job I had, and when I discovered he and some friends were getting into D&D, I latched onto their group like some parasite - At that point in time, I had no steady group to play with. Mark is a very easy-going, almost empathic person - But he can be surprisingly twisted and deranged in games he plays in or runs, and has a particular knack for using ancient lore in practical terms. Especially if it's Egyptian. However, Mark has a pretty poor grasp of mechanics, since he doesn't care much about him, so it often frustrates him when he's trying to figure out how to do something in game terms.

Maeghan - A cool gal and a friend of Mark's. They went through school together. She's a Renn Rat and an insanely dedicated one at that. She also loves to roleplay, but doesn't run anything but occasionally. And when she does, she uses no system whatsoever, or very little. Her characters are incredibly interesting, especially the ones in CofC - From an Asian Medical student stripping her way through college to a Bosnian resistance fighter and so forth. Her D&D ideas are just as crazy, but perhaps more in place in that setting. A good player overall, but I'm not fond of her GM style - Plus, in games she can get more than a little unpredictable...

Lauren - My ex but still a good friend of mine. She only plays with us from time to time, because although she's a very good player, she's a very picky player - She only likes modern setting games and generally with as loose rules as possible. Really, she's more of a freeform player, if she had her way. But when she plays, she's great - She has a special tendency to play characters that are intentionally weak, flawed, handicapped, slightly deranged, and so forth. Just to make things interesting. Which it always does. She doesn't overdo it, just enough to make things more realistic. Quite pleasant.

Nick - Nick is a good friend of mine - we went through high school together, and met slightly before that when working Ren Faires together. Nick likes to play combat characters, but usually those that try to outwit their opponent before, you know, gutting them. Like snipers, rangers, etc. His style would typically make him lean towards mechanics, but Nick is only fair at grasping mechanics, so he winds up being more of a roleplayer simply by default. But I prefer it that way. Nick also has some pretty odd characters - He especially likes to make short-but-massively-strong types, probably because he's 5'3" tall but built like a professional wrestler.

Tai - Tai occasionally plays with us. Very occasionally. He flies in the face of everything I thought I knew about roleplayers. I can't even really begin to describe it, except to say that he's a perpetual rebel, always challenging the status quo, always testing the mechanics by indicence, and unfortunately being pretty vocal about it. He has some problems cooperating with groups, and a very hard time going with the flow of a game. But he's certainly an interesting player to have around, from time to time.

Unfortunately, all his characters remind me of Spike from Buffy. He's a little too limited in his view.

Group B or, the Saturday Group. I very rarely run games for this group, since most of the guys in it are in the roleplaying generation directly before mine. And they have an incredible grasp of the rules, which I find a bit initimidating. Or did, I'm catching up on things. Anyway, I'm happier playing in games, for now.

Kimball - We call him Kimball. He's actually a Chris, and Nick's older brother (Nick also occasionally plays in this group). Kimball is sorta a founding member, and the undisputed master of mechanics in the group, or that I know. It's frightening, his grasp of things. but it makes him a valuable asset for keeping things in balance. The odd thing about Kimball is that I find him a much better GM than a PC - In game, he tends to exploit his knowledge of mechanics to make, well, better characters. They're not quite munchkin-esque, but sometimes they come close. A good GM can reign it in, ofcourse. However, when he runs things, Kimball uses his extensive knowledge of systems to keep anyone else from doing the same thing, thus limiting cheesy gaming while he runs things. Which I find nice, 'cause I don't aim to do it anyway.

Drew - Drew is a strange guy. He's the quiet and intelligent type, but has a certain silent authority. He doesn't show up as much as he used to, unfortunately. He tends to be very good about keeping games on track, and is pretty good about balancing character power and roleplaying. Unfortunately, he also likes to run games a lot, which is not very conducive to his personality type.

Ted - Ah, Ted. Poor, doomed Ted. I have never in my life seen someone roll quite as bad as Ted. Only a few weeks back, in fact, he managed to roll 5 straight 1's on a d20. He just plain sucked. It was sad. What's sadder, is that luck like that is not outrageously unusual for him, despite the impressively small chance of rolling like that. No, Ted just has really, really bad dice problems. On the other hand, he's one of the best GMs in the group, on par with Kimball (And his dice, ofcourse, work opposite when he runs games). He's also more into roleplaying and character development than almost anyone in the group (aside from my wonderful self, ofcourse). Sadly, he now lives in Maryland, and it's increasingly difficult for him to make it down for games.

James - Of the younger crowd, and close to my age. James... has his good and bad points. On the one hand, he's quite into making and building characters, and generally very good about staying in character. On the other hand, he has a bad habit of trying to cheese out his characters (which is okay, because he doesn't usually have complete success). The thing that makes this suck, is that he can't stop talking about either A. How great his character is/will be, or B. How badly he's doing, if the dice are not with him. But James is the type of guy that has very good luck, so it's more of the former. He means well, though.

Josh - I take credit for dragging Josh into the group. He's a youngen, but very very bright for his age. I think it's a side effect of his parents both being psychologists. This also makes him a little twisted, i.e. perfect to stick in Cthulhu games. He's usually more character-focused than ought else, but I've seen the horrible near-munchkin he has the capacity to become when someone let him play a Half-Ogre Frenzied Berserker. *sigh* He needs to be trained appropriately...

Chris - The thing is, there's actually 3 Chris's. Two older, one younger. This is Chris the younger. He's a conspiracy theorist with a wild imagination and very vocal points of view. Usually pretty good, but there are times that I want to reach over a smack him.

Chris, the older - Drew's brother, nearly the same age. He went off to the military for a bit, and only recently returned. Immaculate luck, this fellow. I have never seen so many twenties. He's more into the group hanging out, though, than the roleplaying itself. Seems he only gets half into things. But he's a good player anyway, and is good about not causing problems. A little comedic, too, which is a bit nice.

Jemar - Jemar is perhaps the only black man I've ever roleplayed with, but I don't think that's why he brings such an interesting perspective to the table. Jemar is... strange. Bizarre. Not twisted, like some of the others. Just a loon. He's very amusing, usually in an intentionally self-deprecating manner. But he has cool character concepts, and a very relaxed style of play, which I totally dig. It's a shame the guy has to work almost non-stop to have rent money. I also went to school with him, so there's a bit of a connection there. Cool dude.

Lem - Lem is from the older crowd. I don't know too much about him. I knew him briefly in school (he was a senior while I was a freshman). He moved away for a while and I never really got to know him. He makes cameos, now and again, and seems pretty good when he's about. Shame about the lack of consistency.

Tai - Also plays with this group. Sometimes. He went to school with the older group, but he gets into regular quarrels with them, usually over mechanics and the wild actions he tries to make in-game. They clash, frankly. But he still provides a unique take on any given game.

Phew! I think that covers everybody. The Saturday Group is big, you might've noticed - In fact, we currently split the games into two sessions, starting, well, tomorrow. A Cthulhu game and a Werewolf game. I'm thinking it'll be quite cool. Much better than also those insanely large D&D games we've kinda plowed through.

[K Man]

I'm jealous Udjat...you have players of the female persuasion. My girlfriend is understanding of playing, but doesn't really want to pick it up after hearing me bitch about the $$ I have tied up in the books.

Much different than the Hormel Sausage fest I've been privy to with my groups for the last 2+ years.

Get them on the boards man! Specifically this Maeghan. I'm in need of another CoC player and she sounds like just the thing. I put an ad on Yog-Sothoth.com and no ones responded..I don't know who else to turn to.

Seriously dude...get some of these people on here.

[TheUdjat]

I'll try. Most of them don't do online rpg stuff much. Maeghan's usually tied up with her job, but I'll mention it to her and Mark tonight (when I run them through the next stage of my Dragonlance game. Muahaha...) I already know Nick's not interested. As well as being mechanically inept, he's basically a horrible typist. Both spelling, grammar, and speed. He'd get frustrated pretty quickly.

Some of the guys in the Saturday group might be into it, but I don't know. You have a good eye for the best candidates, basically. They're just not as much of online junkies as myself.

[K Man]

Awesome, I appreciate the effort to get KMans Adventures spread around like low-fat margerine.

Tell them, when they sign up, they can PM me and mention your name. They get their choice of a free toaster, microwave or a sarcastic reply if they do!

As for Nick, don't worry about it. There's no spelling feature on this board, and as long I can phonetically make the word out, I'll understand what he means. He's welcome to join and no one will care about his computer skills.