I admit to only passing discovery of the "Poison'd" threads, mostly because I neither care for the games themes I've seen mentioned, or, really for Vincent Baker's other "magnum opus" DITV, neither one spoke to the gamer in me about what I wanted.

So what is it, I want, from role playing as an experience?

Primarily:
I want to play heroes. I want to make a difference in the campaign world for good. Whether its one fictional person's "life" or reshaping the entire hemisphere we're playing on. I want to play the good guys. They can be conflicted, they can be a little shaky on the moral stance, but when it boils down to it--these characters care for their friends, and often other people beyond their friends, so work to make a difference.

I don't mind characters who WERE morally corrupt, but now have turned around and are working towards their own salvation.

Secondly:

I want to explore the world of the character, think as best I can from his or her or its point of view (as I see it anyway), and act and react in make believe events and actions from that POV.



Thirdly:

I want cool stuff. I want supernatural enemies, magic in the pc hands, superpowers, shape changing, starships, rayguns, whatever--I want something  "different" in reality from the here and now.  Yes, I want special powers (even if that just means my PC is just really good shot with a bow, or fancy fencer who faces down dark monsters)

Now I'm alright with brief excursions into history, if it is an exciting, time to play in, but in time I get bored and want to go back to the special powers, weird alien tech, monsters in the sewer, what have you aspect of gaming.



Lastly:
I mostly GM, so to that, I play bad guys a lot. How does that jive with my first point? Easily. I make them corrupt, evil, dark, sometimes redeemable, sometimes not, and expect my player's to live up to the challenges I present. I ENJOY their successes as much as my own when I'm a player, I also enjoy their failures, likewise, similarly. I find the whole thing fun, to watch, and shape.

I want to spend an afternoon or evening as co-creator of a world. Or maybe just beat shit up and take it stuff. Sometimes I run, and then I want to engage peoples' attention and entertain them.

Fun.

Settembrini put it best:

QuoteI want mysterious places, insidous traps, intricate scheming, ressource management, being there, play my character, act out my character, make a speech, roll for diplomacy, build a trade empire, be imprisoned, build my starship, draw deckplans, explore new worlds, be awestruck by the might of the Emperor, be a Hero, be a Villain, have a party, be terrified, fall in love, learn to hate, seek revenge, seek reconciliation, roll a crit, die, live, find a magic sword, destroy the precursor artifact, learn about magic, destroy a planet, study fake histories, make history, be history, travel back in time, travel to the future, fight the future, see the aliens, prove they don´t exist, receive gifts, be poor, be rich, help the those in need, become a god, become mortal, win, fail, struggle, hack a computer, build an arch, be an arch, destroy the arch, bomb the palace, find the terrorists, use a minigun, fly a helicopter, ride a dragon, slay a dragon, kill Kyuss, and take his place, mock the Lady, see the Planes, save the planes, teleport the fighter next to the enemy Magic User, raise dead, slay living, talk to trees, surf on a ley line, survive Nuclear attacks, die from radiation, rebuild civilization, use a shotgun, drive a tank, be a tank, meet Han Solo, play a Ninja-Dragon, laugh about Ninja-Dragons, be immortal, be a commoner, learn about history, forget reality, learn about my fellow humans, mock my fellow humans, spend time with friends, pwn n00bz, help out n00bz, munch my crackers, recite the Conan introduction, use my death grip, high five with my friends when it works, be impressed by my friends, impress my friends, stop the Old Ones, or die trying, shock the DM, lickspittle the DM, curse his dice, cherish mine, make a new character, level up, roll save vs. death, play the character I rolled up, roll up a new one, cause I didn´t made the survival roll, spend a brownie point, receive a brownie point, be a Vargr, fight the Sollies, fight the Impies, strategize, dramatize, be a part, be seperate, uncover the plot, cover up the act, bomb Dulinor, talk to Splynncrith, see the desert of despair, travel the mockerson gap, defend Constantinople, be a machine gunner, play an instrument, be smart, use player knowledge, abstain from using it, read a spoiler, stop after first sentence, flip through books, look at illustrations, talk about books, buy books, shove around minis, do without, be a juggler, kill the mime, see the seer, ride a magic carpet, be rational, eat big kahuna burgers, meet at a tavern.

In short: Gimme adventure! Where does theory help me? In no way, I say.

first, fun!

second, a health dose of escapism.  doesn't matter what setting.

Mostly I want the freedom to play my character as I see fit, and not have the rules try to legislate my moral position.  I don't mind rules, however, that help track my moral position (if the game has an alignment system that actually works and doesn't impose a moral code, then that'll do).  

Second I want a fascinating World to tromp around in.   Something unexpected.  Sci-Fi, Fantasy, whatever.  I'm not a big fan of horror or goth, but even that will do if its done with class.   I'm looking for worlds that have depth and reveal something fascinating from the World Weaver's mind that I may never have thought of.  

Third I want to play with a bunch of people who are fun, interesting, and willing and able to role play with style.  

That does it for me very nicely.   Thanks.

EDIT:  Oh yeah, and Pizza.

ass-kicking craziness.

A good time hanging out with friends, playing a fun and somewhat intricate game, and running them through a scenario which they find interesting and with which they are engaged.

-O

Sett's answer on this topic still stands.  But above all, have fun with friends (a mickey-mouse answer, but a good one, I think).

Here's the three things I want. I'm deliberately ignoring the Cheetoist "have fun with buddies" angle, because seriously, who doesn't have that on their list of priorities?

1: To feel as if I'm exploring a consistent world. That isn't to say I'm some sort of hardcore simulation junkie. I don't mind what tricks the GM gets up to behind the curtain, so long as the curtain doesn't get brutally pushed aside and suspension of disbelief is constantly screwed with.

2: To feel relevant. My criteria for relevance is simple: if, in my mind, the situation of the PCs and the world as a whole at the end of the session would have been more-or-less the same whether or not I turned up to the session, I feel as though I've been irrelevant that session (and I'm probably bored out of my skull). If the entire campaign would have come to the same conclusion whether or not I'd played, I've been very fucking irrelevant, and I'm nigh-certain to be pissed. Similarly, I need to feel as though my choices and my character's choices matter. If I realise that the same damn thing was going to happen in the session regardless of what we chose then I'm going to be mad. If the GM did a little bit of illusionism to render our choices irrelevant (say, by making sure we encountered NPC X whichever route we took to get to location Y), I'd prefer not to know, just as I'd get rapidly bored at a magic show if the magician carefully described how he did each of his tricks as he performed them.

3: Closely related to 2, I want my input to the gameworld be respected - and that means making sure it's important. If I decide my character cares about X, Y and Z, and is a member of A, comes from B, and is married to C, then X, Y, Z, A, B and C had better all end up being important elements of the game - otherwise I was just wasting time writing that character background in the first place.

I want to have fun with my friends; more specifically, I want the fun of the game to highlight and emphasize what's awesome / creative / insane about my friends.

Vicarious thrills.

Well, the fun part is a given, but the question being asked is what makes it fun?

I'm with silverlion on most points.

I like to be able to play a believable character, who is relatively well defined in terms of background, personality, and characteristic. Someone I can see as a main character in a movie or novel. Also someone with a different skill set than me.

I like to have an impact on my surroundings. I like to know that my decisions affect the game. That if I screw things up, things won't "just work out in the end" because that's the way the GM wants the story to end. I want to know that if I choose option A, things will be a lot different then if I chose option B.

I want to figure things out. Not puzzles per say, but plot mysteries, NPC motives, behind the scenes conspiracies. Who killed Amanda? Who is the killer working for? Is there a connection between her brother and the Yakuza?

I like meeting memorable NPCs. Someone with a personality that is believable but not too campy.

I like going to cool places. Those kinds of places that remind me of movies I've seen or make me visualize a new movie scene based on the GMs description. The Cavern of Lost Souls better be something more than a cave with an encounter in it. There should be some sense of awe attached as well.

I like cool powers or at least to be well above average. Regardless of the setting, I want to have a something above and beyond normal like magic spells, a laser gun, a magical sword, a superpower, or to be able to give James Bond a run for his money.

Fun and socializing are trivial reasons, so I'll leave them out.

First and foremost, I want interesting tactics. Give me an interesting playground, give me interesting tools to accomplish the goal of the week and give me interesting obstacles, and I'm happy, whether I think about the best maneuvers to put down these 5 orcs or whether I plan my way through a riddle of a high-security complex.

Moreover, I want to care about what's happening. CRPGs force me into a lame prescripted story with prescripted PCs - P&P RPGs really shine and play out their strengths when you make the who and what into your own thing that you care about.

Cool stuff to get, use, encounter and accomplish is also good, although not as essential as the two points above.

What I absolutely can't stand is any "feel like you live there" stuff forced up on my throat. A good characterization scene, an interesting choice from in-character POV or an inter-party clash of PC personalities is fun every now and then, but only if it happens incidental in the course of normal gaming. If you force any of this stuff upon me all 5 minutes I'll wander off from your game.

Quote from: jrientsSettembrini put it best:

Quite, I can't top that, fun with friends doing that stuff.

What I don't want incidentally is an out of character route into world creation when I'm playing, it makes the game less fun for me.  It's not a total funkiller, but it makes it less fun.

Say it loud, grognard and proud!