I am a huge fan of tabletop rpgs, especially of the indie variety (PBTA et al.). I think it's one of the highest forms of gaming since it is so responsive to a particular group of people and the stories they want to tell, which creates a lot of potential for cool leftist gaming experiences and stories. However, I haven't been able to find time to run a game for a few years (and I struggle playing solo rpgs since it's basically just creative writing) so I wanted to hear from chapos that are (or have been) in a campaign so I can live vicariously through you.
What game are you playing? What's your character (or favourite NPC) like? Any highlights from your campaign? Are you living out a revolutionary power fantasy or playing a chill "beer and pretzels" type game?
The one and only reason I love 40k tabletpos are because they're already ridiculous. People take DnD and other sorts of High Fantasy things way too seriously and it's never fun. But you whip out Deathwatch where everyone starts at level 1 as 10 feet tall armored killing machines and everyone is having fun before the game even starts. Nobody takes it too seriously, and then they are free to explore a world of "what iffs" rather than getting bogged down in "what does decorum demand I do here". Forever ago I had some guy in a Deathwatch game put a grenade in his hand, pull the pin, punch it through the back of a truck into the driver's head, and then HOLD THE GRENADE THERE until it blew up in his hands killing the passenger. While the truck was driving. After he jumped into it using his jetpack. He did the math, it all checked out such that he could do this over 2 turns and not take any damage himself. This was the first session. Everyone was just dying of laughter it was so ridiculous and fun we still talk about it. Systems that encourage fun gameplay are what I look for, systems that have rules and explanations for how to do things but don't pigeonhole characters into only being able to do specific things because of the setting.
Yeah, D&D doesn't necessarily force people into a dry, video-game style of play but it certainly doesn't challenge it, so people treat it a bit like a tactics game at times. High-power settings and good rules have a way of breaking people out of that which is great.
I'll cop to being a power gamer more interested in the tactics, builds and crunch of a game. I struggle to roleplay but I loved that Pathfinder, for instance, had all kinds of flexible rules so you could flesh out basically whatever character you want and it'd be basically all legit.
it boils down to different play-styles, I can totally see the appeal in opting for battle-map-heavy, tactics-style play since even though it wouldn't be my main thing. Seeing number go up and feats being earned is lots of fun
True. I have played some good DnD games but the vast majority of them end in some weird blend of powergaming and "watch me play this setting PERFECTLY to the detriment of the party". I think partially it's because everyone is at least somewhat familiar with it, but also just because I think the DnD ruleset gets people into the mindset of "how can I optimize my turn" rather than "what fun thing can I do". Honestly if I had to boil it down to something it's, as you mentioned, the "video game" aspect of it, specifically the powers. It's all about "how can I use my powers effectively" not "what can my character do in this setting".