How to Identify a D&D "rpger".

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Some of the most obvious signs that someone plays D&D and or crpgs is shyness. If they are not outgoing and simply dont talk alot. What would you say are some other signs?

 

Excuse me, whom do you call shy?!

They don't talk a lot?

Oh well, some people just don't really have a life - or have one, but are deep into the world of fantasy and RPG.

A typical PNP roleplayer, however, is afraid of women, never washes himself, changes underwear when it falls of him, last washed his hair two months ago, is able to eat EVERYTHING and doesn't know the meaning of the word 'tidy'. Homosexual, suicidal and satanic tendencies are also strong

 

unless they are female

I think most roleplayers seem out of place, sort of like, in a class they will be the ones with a couple of friends and usually just sit together and have a laugh. While everyone else talks around them, they tend to be quieter I think, but the net is like their real home. And they talk then

 

Me for one talk a lot and talk loud. Most people in my school knows who I am, and onver 700 people go in that school. And I've only been in the school for one week now.

 

While that may be a popular stereotype I have found it most definitely not to be true. For every introverted nerd player I have met I have also met at least one player who is a wild and crazy extroverted party animal. For the most part I have found that the average player is not really different from the average non-player.

If I were to come up with a list of distinguishing characteristics that are present in the role playing game players that I have met they would be

(1) they often (but certainly not always) tend to read more for pleasure then other people

(2) they tend to read/watch/enjoy more fantasy and science fiction literature, tv shows, and movies

(3) they tend to be of at least average and frequently above average intelligence (but again this is definitely NOT universally true)

and
(4) the majority tend to be male. From my experience I would say that only ten percent of the RPG players that I have met have been female.

Of course it could be that there is a vast underground society of universally shy female nerd players that I have never had contact with but somehow I don't think so.

 

I tend to find them at the book store ... standing and staring at the D&D source books. That's a pretty good hint!

 

Look in their pencil case Kovalis . If there is a D20 or d8 down there, it is pretty safe guess he or even she is a D&D player.

PS; Chevalier don't waste all of your life in here. You know there is a middleway. Ease up a little. Seeing that you are just next to Tal in that #sorcerers list and you have 2000 posts in 9 months, just scares me. A lot. Get a real life! or do I have to use nasty words in a PM?

[ August 26, 2003, 15:27: Message edited by: Nobleman ]

 

They have alter egos, and they think mysterious, dark-skinned people are cool.

 

@ Oaz

So...does that mean Eminem plays DnD?

 

Eminem has fantasies of killing people, and raps about it frequently.

Of course.

 

The correct term would probably be 'RPers', not 'RPGers'.

And as for telling who one may be, I have no idea.

 

If they're not "givin' so much for it" it ain't easy to identify them, but yet, some of them are......

 

My first post was dealing with the typical D&D player. Obviously not all of them are like that. Far from it, myself included.

 

A characteristic of a RPer is that he has that sparkle in his eye showing he sees in almost everything something more than a non player.
RPGs really changes the way you see the world around you

 

Food for thought. I was pretty outgoing when I first started D&D, I didn't show the typical warning signs of a true D&D rpger. However, my characters were real mild manner and shy. College has past and I'm starting to get back into D&D a couple years later, now I'm more reserved (cuz of work) and not as outgoing as I was but my characters are now very outspoken and talkative. I know I'm not the only one that breaks the D&D stereotype.

I want to test this theory. A lot of more popular people (potheads/dealers) and atheletes that I've played with who are really well-known or outspoken tend to play quiet go-with-the-flow characters. Any thoughts?

 

I don't know how to identify and RPer but I know how to identify a bunch of RPers...

They mostly talk to each other and rarely to anyone else who is not RPer. Their talk is almost always about D&D or their experiences in a game session. They are not afraid of talking in public or even in class and don't care if people hears them say all these D&D things like: "And I rolled a 20 and then tadaaa! a critical hit!... you should imagine the goblin's face when my sword cut off his head" or "hey, you remember when my 20 level wizard killed a demon with a disintegration spell?". They are usually computer geeks.

That's all for now.

 

New thought from me:

Some of them are pretty obvious cases:

You always know when you get a true DND worshipper - he will lose himself in the exegesis of a core book sentence that isn't held determinative, let alone unconditional, by its author.

There's also the village sage type - plays an omniscent oracle and doesn't know a crap of the rules that even he himself invented some time ago when showing off his fountains of wisdom. In foreign countries, they also assume the role of final authority on translation and pronunciation (*coughs heavily* "Excuse my interruption, but what language are you currently speaking?") of original fragments.

Some of them also seem to derive sexual fulfilment from throwing numbers at one another. In case of gays and rare male-female combinations, it adopts the shape of corrupt and perverted foreplay. They are also capable of supplying random dice values.

 

They've basically got to look like us.



Oh maybe if one was to enter the bar he'd roll some d20 to see if he makes a successful spot check?

For example
Lad walks into the pub and has a look around *rolls d20 and gets an 11*

"Aha! I can see that this pub is filled with many people"

And so on and so forth

 

I take the C.S. Lewis approach when he talks about Narnia and the people who've been there, "Oh, you'll know all right. Odd things they say -- even their looks -- will let the secret out." People who play D&D just tend to recognize each other, there's just something about the things they say and the way they act that lets it out. But D&D players are very very different from one another. I mean I know the geeky, anime-loving type who either get hung up on the rules or ignore all the rules in general. And then you just have those secretive types that unless you knew them (or played D&D), you wouldn't suspect they played because they're almost embarrassed of it. (Kind of like the way some Trekkies brag about being Trekkies and others try to keep it a secret but all Trekkies recognize each other)

But you can usually tell if a group of friends plays D&D because they hang out together more than other groups will and seem much closer knit. That and they will constantly bring up things like, "Remember that battle of the 20th level characters? I still say a ranger-cleric should be able to beat a wizard." And they'll have more inside jokes than normal, "Gazebo!!" or "Where's the beer?" Things that almost seem normal but have this strange fantasy aspect to them. "The first time I died, I got mauled by a troll. But the fifth time I died I got burned by a salamader. It's a good thing my character always died when everyone else survived."

So as C.S. Lewis says, "Keep your eyes open." After all, he should know. He and Tolkein started the first big fantasy group -- closest thing to the very first D&D group especially when you consider that many of the original D&D rules were based off of Tolkein's books.

 

But do you ever, say when your looking for something...along the lines of needle in a hay stack and end up finding it. Then spout out "Whoa, someone rolled a 20 on their spot check" Just a thought...