Pen & paper or PC? Which one packs more fun?

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i'm a member of the "Vampire Heart" pen & paper role playing game community.I'm also a huge fan of everything related to the Forgotten Realms universe.Yet,I dare to ask you if having a beer and a chat about girls with your best mate while you roll your d20 is more fun than playing a PC RPG locked in your room...Ha?is it?

[ October 14, 2006, 00:47: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Unfortunately, I live in a small town, when everything related with that type of entertainment is´t very popular, but I agreed with you in the beer and girls part(despite of the reason that make you get out of your house and hang out in a place full of real people)

 

PC DnD is more fun, because I don't think I would actually enjoy the company of most people who play real DnD (no offence intended to those of you included in that statement), plus real DnD would be far too time consuming.

 

I must agree hith HB! The few people I know that plays PnP RPG games wouldn't be too fun spending hours with. It's also not too fun to count everything each time you make a single move. PC DnD is better.

 

I, for one, disagree with Harbs & Mudde. It's so much more lively meeting up with pals and having a six-pack and some pizza while mashing up kobolds.

PnP campaigns are creative, intricate, filled with side-plots, let you personalize characters even more (my Lizardman Barbarian/Rogue, for instance), and can be great for meeting new people.

Of course, there's stuff like the 'I attack the darkness' jokes, but I'm willing to look over that if the DM's skillful enough. There's nothing like having fun in groups, after all.

 

I'm sure they are. But that's not enough to make me want to hang out with people who are probably going to be a bunch of powergaming uber-nerds. Plus, as Mudde points out, PnP DnD is too much hard work, constantly having to roll dice and work out saving throws and hit rolls and armour class vs missiles and how much time is left on your Divine Shell and that kobold commander's bonus to hit against elves and the penalty from the Doom spell etc etc etc. No thanks.

 

Then you're hanging out with the wrong people in the first place. A good idea would be to find some forumers in your sector, hook up with them and start playing. I did that a few years ago and our group lasted a long time.

Another good tip is to have fun. If you're tired to always to factor in the +4 AC bonus that dwarves get against Giants, then don't. So what if you don't get the exact amount of experience points or your flanking bonus because you forgot about it?

I was lucky to have a great DM who wasn't such a rule-whore. He'd rather focus on character development and plot than the number of gnomish soldiers and the precise equipment of the four NPCs with them.

You make it sound like it's a chore. Last I checked, people played games to entertain themselves. If you find PnP boring, then you're better off playing IWD2 and writing up those stories on the forums.

 

I love all the detailed statistical calculations involved with designing your characters and getting the tactics right for each encounter. I'd just rather have the PC do all the grunt work in working it all out for me.

 

Pen&paper is great for socialising and having good time with friends. And they make gooD memories for every participiant. It is also good to meet and know people with same interest, and you can learn lots of new things/tips&tricks/insights from different people!

PC games are fun when you are alone, when your friends are unavailable for a play, or your friends just do not get AD&D.

IMHO, PC games are somewhat special and unique for the person, and thus each game has different meanings for every player.

You know what, personally, I do not even like playing BG2, IWD or IWD2 if some friend of mine is watching me...I really can not enjoy it if some one else watches me and criticises/comments...I feel uncomfortable and that the game is not mine alone anymore.

A friend of mine watched me as I beat Improved Bodhi (gasp) in BG2, after three reloads (due to chunky deaths happened ) it was fun, but when my friend was away, I reloaded and played the whole fight by myself, and it felt so much better for some reason. I did not forget to take cool screenshots this time too!

I don't know. What do you think about this? Do you like it when you have a friend with you when you are playing a single player CRPG?

 

Thanks for answering my question guys.Ziggyveld,i respect your opinion regarding this subject.

 

I played PnP back when I was a teenager. This was the '80s so computer D&D was quite primitive, i.e. Ultima 1 on a Commodore 64.

PnP was quite slow at times with all the number crunching and looking stuff up in books and charts. And then there were the various rules arguments we'd get into.

I remember dreaming of a bright future when a computer could handle all the number crunching and die rolling, not to mention realistic graphics. Thankfully that day has arrived.

The PnP group I played with had a very hard core Dungeon Master. I mean he'd keep track of the weight of every stinking arrow and gold piece we carried. We'd typically get through about 3 rooms of a dungeon and be completely weighted down with loot. Not even good loot, mind you, just a few hundred gold coins and a suit of Chainmail +1 or something, and we'd have to hike back to town to sell it. Rinse and repeat. It could get very tedious.

 

Well, for a bunch of people on a D&D themed website, there don't exactly seem to be hordes of us our there playing PnP D&D.

 

You need to have a good group for good P&P D&D. But if you find that, it's much better than any cRPG.

 

I used to but when I moved 450 kilometres away from my old group two-three months ago, I didn't find a new one. Had about 20 PnP books, and that's just D&D. Had Neo-Tech, Mutant 2e, SW20, WoWD20, Oriental Adventures D20, and more.

 

I agree that a good group/DM can make P&P much better than any CRPG, save planescape torment, i just haven't found any group/DM that has been just *THAT* good yet.

 

I have seen great games of PnP and I've seen it at it's worst, but I still vote for PnP. I find that computer D&D is just too limited...

 

My PnP group recently broke up with a Yoko stealing our DM away, but before we had to worry about realworld responsibilities so much it was some excellent times. A girl joined our group mid-campaign once playing a bard, and she actually would sing battle hymns with her guitar while we did battles just adding that much more to the atmosphere.(rotating PC policiy from one guy dying of Leukemia)

All of the people in the group were people I spent time with socially without d&d, and even though our campaign ended and dm won't be dming anymore we still get together to watch football, basketball, or soccer. Guess what, sometimes we go outside and play those sports too. As much as I play crpgs, none of them can come close to the fun I had becoming the king of the goblins while my dwarven fighter companion cackled in disbelief across the table. (I had a human sorcerer going.) Pnp gets my vote.

 

I find it interesting than the complaints against PnP are about problems specific to D&D - not tabletop play in general...

 

My comment about not wanting to hang out with sorts of people who play D&D probably also applies to any other type of role playing game . . . . .

 

PC for me thanks. The closest thing I'll get to PNP role playing is Magic: The Gathering.