When I first started playing I had no idea what to expect. I had heard friends talking about their adventures and the stories were like a drug.
I wanted to play too.
The world was my plaything and there was adventure at every turn.
Over the years rules accumulated, expectations solidified and the sparkle faded.
I've tried to recapture the freshness of the original games by trying to introduce little known setting and "loose" rules but one player with
"the baggage of expectations" brings the current jadedness back.
Can it be done? Can the freshness be recreated?
=
Sure. It's not exactly the same, but I've definitely caught lightning in a bottle again when it comes to viewing things with new eyes. Probably more recently than any other time.
The key to refreshing new experiences are making sure they are refreshing and new.
If you have a player who will be upset if things don't work a certain way then convince the player to lose those expectations or get new players. Strange or alien settings, unfamiliar rules, and most importantly, an attitude of just accepting the unfamiliar are all you need for a fresh experience.
There is little you can do about expectations except enjoy that blank stare of confusion as the players slowly begin to realize that they don't know shit.
As a general rule, like a fine wine, my gaming experiences only seem to get better over time.
Try different games with different groups. Think hard about what works for you and what doesn't. Maybe something will click for you.
Exploderwizard got it in one. To bring back the sparkle you have to kill the metagame expectations, and you have to be upfront with players that is exactly what you are doing. And then steep them into your world like a long infusion for tea...
Recapturing the feel of the unknown and the mysterious is key. When the rules knowledge takes a backseat, the sparkly wonder of the game world comes back into view.
(shrugs) I'm never going to be 18 years old again. I'd just as soon create new memories and have new experiences than pretend the years didn't happen and that my tastes and preferences haven't changed over time.
Quote from: Greentongue;824852I've tried to recapture the freshness of the original games by trying to introduce little known setting and "loose" rules but one player with "the baggage of expectations" brings the current jadedness back.
Okay, two things:
One, you may well to have to lose that one player. Essentially he's exercising veto power over your and the other players' experience, and that's not actually something you can solve by jollying him along or upping your own game. I'd give him one very plain and explicit conversation about what you're trying to do - not rude, friendly and upbeat, but not in any way subtle. Because it's been my experience some gamers don't get hints, and some gamers who think they're being polite aren't saying what they think they're saying, and there's no way to tell which is which on the internet. So give that one shot, but be ready to drop him.
Two, I don't know exactly what you mean by "loose rules", but I can easily see it being part of the problem for your one gamer. Does the same action resolve the same way every time, or differently depending on how you feel? Are npcs working off the same rule set as pcs? Are you ignoring dice rolls for the sake of the story? Any of those will -understandably- bug a certain subset of gamers, and call into question your own impartiality. On the other hand, if it's just that he's still trying to play under whatever your previous game was, and you've come out and told him "hey, I'm running a home brew of my own devising, and it's gonna be black-box until you see it in play", then see #1 above.
I'm with Omnifray. I'm having the best gaming of my life now, and I've been playing for a long, long time.
-clash
To be honest, I'm the same. The gaming I've done since I got back into it a couple of years ago is FAR better than what I was doing when I was a teenager; that said, I had so much more time to game back then! These days I'm lucky if I get a session in every couple of months. It may just be that work/family is a sort of a perfect storm at the moment. New baby/PhD final year. Not a good combination for gaming. But there are days like this when I'm so frustrated to not be playing that I just come on here and hang out a bit for a break.
I think one of the key things to getting the thrill back is also to bring in newbies. I know that seeing the eyes light up when I introduced a couple of new players last year was a pretty special moment, and brought back my early years to me, except that I feel like me GMing for them now is giving them a far better play experience than what I had starting out. There is a certain innocence that you lose, but to my mind experience brings with it all sorts of advantages. If nothing else, you know a lot more about what you like, and what you want to bring to a game. And I find that I'm much less likely to participate in games with people who I don't really like. I used to do a lot of that, and it ended up putting me off near-permanently.
Bringing back that initial spark could be something as "easy" as a totally new and unfamiliar system. I'd argue that Rifts, for example, is a lot like old school AD&D in all but setting. But DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes was VERY different. The idea that you could spend points to affect dice rolls and such was so refreshing and exciting. More than just the setting changed there.
Quote from: Saladman;824881Okay, two things:
Two, I don't know exactly what you mean by "loose rules", but I can easily see it being part of the problem for your one gamer. Does the same action resolve the same way every time, or differently depending on how you feel? Are npcs working off the same rule set as pcs? Are you ignoring dice rolls for the sake of the story? Any of those will -understandably- bug a certain subset of gamers, and call into question your own impartiality. On the other hand, if it's just that he's still trying to play under whatever your previous game was, and you've come out and told him "hey, I'm running a home brew of my own devising, and it's gonna be black-box until you see it in play", then see #1 above.
By "loose rules" I mean like back at the beginning where there was not an explicit rule/skill for every possible thing.
Less, "Do you have Climbing Skill? You don't? Sorry you'll have to find another way up"
and more "Roll a 10 or better adding any Strength and/or Dex pluses."
=
Writing my own RPG really brought back that spark for me. I managed to recapture the bang pop wow! factor that I initially experienced whenever I began playing WFRPG and D&D.
You can never cross the same river twice. Even when using a bridge.
Quote from: Greentongue;824916By "loose rules" I mean like back at the beginning where there was not an explicit rule/skill for every possible thing.
Less, "Do you have Climbing Skill? You don't? Sorry you'll have to find another way up"
and more "Roll a 10 or better adding any Strength and/or Dex pluses."
=
Fair 'nuff. But I'm not ashamed to ask, because I've known people to use language like that in widely differing ways.
So, back to option 1 then. Is there a conversation you've already had with the player, or have you been hoping he'll take the hint?
Quote from: Greentongue;824852When I first started playing I had no idea what to expect. I had heard friends talking about their adventures and the stories were like a drug.
I wanted to play too.
The world was my plaything and there was adventure at every turn.
Over the years rules accumulated, expectations solidified and the sparkle faded.
I've tried to recapture the freshness of the original games by trying to introduce little known setting and "loose" rules but one player with
"the baggage of expectations" brings the current jadedness back.
Can it be done? Can the freshness be recreated?
=
Yes.
How it is done will be different for each GM, Player group, and game system though.
Quote from: ZWEIHÄNDER;824917Writing my own RPG really brought back that spark for me. I managed to recapture the bang pop wow! factor that I initially experienced whenever I began playing WFRPG and D&D.
It's like this for me too, only different.
I got a shiny new RPG setting out of the deal, designed for the most enjoyable rules set I could find. And in so doing, I ditched a whole bunch of baggage that I'd accumulated.
What's different now are all the things that are
better.
Like actually knowing what the hell I'm doing. When I started out, I had absolutely no idea.
And all the great people I've met who helped me out over the years. Cuz I was pretty much on my own when I started.
And the maturity to just shrug it off when some random maladjusted troll - online or in real life - tries to bring me down. Publishing your own game really thickens your skin.
In some ways, the whole project took me back to the beginning; in other ways, it was actually an improvement.
Quote from: Greentongue;824916By "loose rules" I mean like back at the beginning where there was not an explicit rule/skill for every possible thing.
Less, "Do you have Climbing Skill? You don't? Sorry you'll have to find another way up"
and more "Roll a 10 or better adding any Strength and/or Dex pluses."
=
Isn't this mostly predicated on the game system you choose to run?
If I am using Savage Worlds, climbing checks a' plenty.
If I am running AD&D, mostly just going to make a judgment call on Str/Dex, class, race, and secondary skills whether the character can climb something. Maybe have them roll something.
Quote from: Saladman;824919Fair 'nuff. But I'm not ashamed to ask, because I've known people to use language like that in widely differing ways.
So, back to option 1 then. Is there a conversation you've already had with the player, or have you been hoping he'll take the hint?
It is not just "a player". It seems every time I retry a "reboot" there is at least one. It is not always easy to get people to try something that is not main stream, and when they do, they miss it.
I suppose new shiny rules have a better chance than dusting off the old stuff, no matter if it was "good enough" back then.
=
Quote from: Greentongue;824852When I first started playing I had no idea what to expect. I had heard friends talking about their adventures and the stories were like a drug.
I wanted to play too.
The world was my plaything and there was adventure at every turn.
Over the years rules accumulated, expectations solidified and the sparkle faded.
I've tried to recapture the freshness of the original games by trying to introduce little known setting and "loose" rules but one player with
"the baggage of expectations" brings the current jadedness back.
Can it be done? Can the freshness be recreated?
=
Not while players are on Facebook during a game. Game time has become too geek-ish and too casual now. They are more like get-togethers than role-play game sessions.
For me it was when we tried new games. Not every one, but it happened twice after the initial with D&D.
Cut my teeth with D&D. Got that really fun first time type experience again when we played call of Call of Cthulhu. Such a different game, especially when I was younger and hadn't played too many games. Same thing happend again with Shadowrun.
Watched it happen with a group of board gamers that I introduced to call of Cthulhu. Didn't tell them it was that game though. Told them that it was a mystery themed role playing set in 1920s New England with a hint of horror. I also minimized die rolling for them.. Worked great for me because I really had to reinvent how I GMed to adults that have never gamed before.
I'm getting that old Sense of Wonder running Mentzer Basic/Expert for my 7 year old son, running a bunch of sandbox Basic Fantasy stuff along with old b/e adventured. Seeing things through a child's eyes is really amazing that way, especially as he 'gets' the game much more intuitively than older jaded players, eg he instinctively pokes & prods stuff without prompting and often guessed what is going on from subtle cues the adventure writer had put in but I hadn't noticed!
It probably helps that I never played b/e much myself, so the elegance of the system is new to me too - I was gming 1e ad&d with ua back in the day, a far clunkier and less elegant take on d&d.
Quote from: Greentongue;824852When I first started playing I had no idea what to expect. I had heard friends talking about their adventures and the stories were like a drug.
I wanted to play too.
The world was my plaything and there was adventure at every turn.
Over the years rules accumulated, expectations solidified and the sparkle faded.
I've tried to recapture the freshness of the original games by trying to introduce little known setting and "loose" rules but one player with
"the baggage of expectations" brings the current jadedness back.
Can it be done? Can the freshness be recreated?
=
Dungeon Crawl Classics did it for me. The use of the Zocchi dice, the spell tables, there was a lot of stuff in there that reminded me of when I first started playing rpgs. I can't say DCC specifically will work for everybody, but I think there's gold to be mined in how DCC approached the idea.
There's an intrinsic assumption baked into the premise of this thread that what you did at the start was in some way better. I wouldn't touch any of the shit I did back then with a barge pole, it has pretty much no nostalgia value or resonance with what I want to do today. My games of now are vastly more enjoyable than my games of then.
Quote from: Kiero;825154There's an intrinsic assumption baked into the premise of this thread that what you did at the start was in some way better.
I wouldn't touch any of the shit I did back then with a barge pole, it has pretty much no nostalgia value or resonance with what I want to do today.
My games of now are vastly more enjoyable than my games of then.
I my case it is more the "going where no man has gone before" feeling.
Looking back the "game play" may not have been "better" but the feeling of "exploring the unknown" was certainly stronger.
Using new rules may improve the "game play" but that doesn't give me the feeling of "exploring the unknown" I want.
New game settings are more likely but if it isn't "easy to relate to" few people are interested.
The ease is provided by familiarity, which goes counter to providing a sense of newness.
=
I play the same systems I did when I was younger, and have more fun with them because I'm less uptight about things. But...playing with brand new players really does bring back that feel.
Inigo Montoya did.
Quote from: Kiero;825154There's an intrinsic assumption baked into the premise of this thread that what you did at the start was in some way better. I wouldn't touch any of the shit I did back then with a barge pole, it has pretty much no nostalgia value or resonance with what I want to do today. My games of now are vastly more enjoyable than my games of then.
Amen.
Quote from: Greentongue;824852When I first started playing I had no idea what to expect. I had heard friends talking about their adventures and the stories were like a drug.
I wanted to play too.
The world was my plaything and there was adventure at every turn.
Over the years rules accumulated, expectations solidified and the sparkle faded.
I've tried to recapture the freshness of the original games by trying to introduce little known setting and "loose" rules but one player with
"the baggage of expectations" brings the current jadedness back.
Can it be done? Can the freshness be recreated?
=
I dunno, I never left the beginning. The sparkle has never faded for me.
Maybe its just time to get rid of that one player.
Quote from: Greentongue;825174I my case it is more the "going where no man has gone before" feeling.
Looking back the "game play" may not have been "better" but the feeling of "exploring the unknown" was certainly stronger.
Using new rules may improve the "game play" but that doesn't give me the feeling of "exploring the unknown" I want.
New game settings are more likely but if it isn't "easy to relate to" few people are interested.
The ease is provided by familiarity, which goes counter to providing a sense of newness.
=
Freshness, like novel-ness or uniqueness is vastly overrated. Same goes surprise. I couldn't give much of a toss about the feeling of exploring the unknown, I'd rather be certain I'm going to get something I enjoy because I've done it before.
The sparkle only fades for me when I'm dealing with jerks or game materials I'm forcing myself to deal with because of trying to fit into someone else's idea of fun.
I find that when I avoid those two factors, everything is as fantastic as the summer afternoon in 1983 that I GMed Palace of the Silver Princess for my friends. Of course, that was about a year and a half past when I first played, and nothing in that true beginning time is anything I'd ever want to go back to.
I started playing D&D when I was 10. Exploring underground labyrinths, battling monsters, and finding magic loot blew my mind.
No, I can't ever get that buzz back. I can't put myself in the mind of a 10-year-old exploring a dungeon. I can have other RPG experiences that I wasn't capable of then. But I can't get that special glow back. Of course, I can't get it back with reading, or a lot of imaginative activities either. We grow up, we change.
Quote from: Kiero;825437Freshness, like novel-ness or uniqueness is vastly overrated. Same goes surprise. I couldn't give much of a toss about the feeling of exploring the unknown, I'd rather be certain I'm going to get something I enjoy because I've done it before.
Perhaps for some it does not.
But as a terribly jaded mandarin mere competence, narrative, or success induces ennui in me. Being surprised is so rare nowadays that where I used to use CCG hand spy cards for competitiveness, I now savor the brief periods of not knowing. Same applies to RPGs, or pretty much any entertainment, nowadays.
Victory means nothing to me, lost to a fantastical present means something.
However, you've never stated what brings that sparkly feeling to you. Care to share?
Quote from: Opaopajr;825456Perhaps for some it does not.
But as a terribly jaded mandarin mere competence, narrative, or success induces ennui in me. Being surprised is so rare nowadays that where I used to use CCG hand spy cards for competitiveness, I now savor the brief periods of not knowing. Same applies to RPGs, or pretty much any entertainment, nowadays.
Victory means nothing to me, lost to a fantastical present means something.
However, you've never stated what brings that sparkly feeling to you. Care to share?
Appropriate emulation of the tropes of the genre; a sense of an organic world moving and changing in response to what the PCs do and don't do; actions having logical consequences; doing the right thing, especially when it's also the hard thing; the PCs being lifted above mere avatars of their players' urges and desires.
I think it helps to play the actual original games. Most things written in the last 20 years have a kind of self awareness that takes away from the mistique, and conform to expectations of efficiency, clarity and completeness that make them all play pretty much the same. It is a lot easier to get yourself in the mindset of your fondly remembered 1970's games if you are playing games written in the 1970's! For this sort of mental and emotional time travelling, I'ld even recommend the originals over retroclones. Except for DCC, of course, which is brilliant and its own form of mental and emotional time travel!
The feeling I remember most about the first sessions I played in was that sense of 'mystery' that others have mentioned. Not knowing what to expect, not knowing what the full spectrum of possibilities were.
I was in control of what my PC did and that was it... the rest was a black box.
I still get that with some GMs and they're the ones I seek out. The ones who are still excited to play and aren't doing it out of habit or lack of options for how to spend a Saturday night.
A while back I left a group because, among other things, they seemed burned out and were just going through the motions. No surprises... no questioning of rote approaches to the same games in the same settings they'd always played.
No.
Growing up is a one-way street.
Quote from: Kiero;825520Appropriate emulation of the tropes of the genre; a sense of an organic world moving and changing in response to what the PCs do and don't do; actions having logical consequences; doing the right thing, especially when it's also the hard thing; the PCs being lifted above mere avatars of their players' urges and desires.
Good ideas on the whole (appropriate emulation of genre tropes eventually delving into subjective hairsplitting, IME). However, I expect most of those. Expected quality thresholds don't really leave me all sparkly and tingly. They just prevent me from arching a lone eyebrow.
The idea of competence as something that would leave me all sparkly-tingly...
:hmm:
Quote from: Opaopajr;825619Good ideas on the whole (appropriate emulation of genre tropes eventually delving into subjective hairsplitting, IME). However, I expect most of those. Expected quality thresholds don't really leave me all sparkly and tingly. They just prevent me from arching a lone eyebrow.
The idea of competence as something that would leave me all sparkly-tingly...
:hmm:
To be honest, I can't say as I remember ever getting a sparkly-tingly feeling from gaming. It's primarily with reference to whether or not it feels like a worthwhile expenditure of my valuable free time.
Quote from: Kiero;825648To be honest, I can't say as I remember ever getting a sparkly-tingly feeling from gaming. It's primarily with reference to whether or not it feels like a worthwhile expenditure of my valuable free time.
:hmm:
Sorta doesn't blend with the OP's euphoric state comments of "like a drug," or "world was my plaything," and its comedown state remarks of "sparkle faded," or "recapture the freshness."
Do you have interests that imbue you with ecstatic and/or entranced states? That seems to be the state sought to be "recaptured." Not everyone slips into those states, or like that headiness for fear of loss of control. But if you did, that'd be closer to what's being asked.
Quote from: Opaopajr;825650:hmm:
Sorta doesn't blend with the OP's euphoric state comments of "like a drug," or "world was my plaything," and its comedown state remarks of "sparkle faded," or "recapture the freshness."
Do you have interests that imbue you with ecstatic and/or entranced states? That seems to be the state sought to be "recaptured." Not everyone slips into those states, or like that headiness for fear of loss of control. But if you did, that'd be closer to what's being asked.
Not really, no. I've never prioritised or sought loss of control or an altered state of mind. That's one of the myriad reasons I've never experimented with drugs, and don't like being drunk.
Martial arts, exercise generally; sex all give that buzz of feeling completely alive and in touch with my body. Can't say anything I do sitting-down-calmly really compares to the visceral, blood-pumping thrill of physical activities.
Gaming is an entirely sedate, cerebral exercise for me. There's nothing ecstatic about it.
My experience is that this issue is a lot like listening to music that was important to you at some earlier point in your life. You relate to those songs throughout your life, both because out of pure nostalgia and because they continue to touch something in you. A cleaned up remix might be barely acceptable, but is more likely to just piss you off.
Quote from: Kiero;825660Gaming is an entirely sedate, cerebral exercise for me. There's nothing ecstatic about it.
When you read, do you get any emotional stimulus? Any empathetic connection with the story?
===
I think the ever expanding selection of creatures in various Monster Manuals is an attempt to provide/re-introduce some level of unknown.
When players know every detail about the opponent they face, there is not the same level of tension as when it is something they have no sure idea about.
=
What worked for me in the past to get new sparkle and freshness has been to switch groups. I've done so twice and each time it worked out fairly well.
I'm full of sparkle after my awesome online 5e D&D swords & sorcery Wilderlands game this morning. :D
Also looking forward to starting Mentzer Classic D&D at the Meetup tomorrow.
Quote from: Greentongue;825700When you read, do you get any emotional stimulus? Any empathetic connection with the story?
Nope, can't say that I do. Reading isn't immediate or visceral enough for that; sometimes film or TV shows do, but really it's linked to the use of music.
Quote from: Kiero;825660Not really, no. I've never prioritised or sought loss of control or an altered state of mind. That's one of the myriad reasons I've never experimented with drugs, and don't like being drunk.
Martial arts, exercise generally; sex all give that buzz of feeling completely alive and in touch with my body. Can't say anything I do sitting-down-calmly really compares to the visceral, blood-pumping thrill of physical activities.
Gaming is an entirely sedate, cerebral exercise for me. There's nothing ecstatic about it.
Hmm, no, it's still more to it than mere physicality. It can and often does happen in such activities, but not everyone can or let themselves do. An example would be the ecstatic, almost liminal, state during a sparring match with a well matched equal. Similar with dancing, or passionate romance, or orgy of whatever.
There's this period of time distortion, heightened senses, loss of control, anxiety, euphoria, etc. It is a state of dancing upon the edge and crossing boundaries. A time and space to lose control to a higher state and watch magic unfold.
Just about anything can be ecstatic and sparkly. Immersion into intoxicating reverie is a very real thing and is often sought out (even across species). But it isn't for everyone and probably explains why your topical replies seemed out of place to me.
Quote from: Opaopajr;825784Hmm, no, it's still more to it than mere physicality. It can and often does happen in such activities, but not everyone can or let themselves do. An example would be the ecstatic, almost liminal, state during a sparring match with a well matched equal. Similar with dancing, or passionate romance, or orgy of whatever.
There's this period of time distortion, heightened senses, loss of control, anxiety, euphoria, etc. It is a state of dancing upon the edge and crossing boundaries. A time and space to lose control to a higher state and watch magic unfold.
Just about anything can be ecstatic and sparkly. Immersion into intoxicating reverie is a very real thing and is often sought out (even across species). But it isn't for everyone and probably explains why your topical replies seemed out of place to me.
Well, yeah, an ecstatic state where you go off into your mind is pretty much the opposite of the hyper-present state I seek in physical activity. I have no desire to lose control or experience euphoria.
Quote from: flyingmice;824884I'm having the best gaming of my life now, and I've been playing for a long, long time.
-clash
I'm guessing it's partly because as a game designer you're constantly striving for that perfect game (perfect for
your tastes, of course), and if you keep striving towards something, odds are you're going to get at least part-way there, or at any rate closer than you were to start with.
In my case it's also partly to do with mixing in new techniques and things I have learnt and transferred from experiences with a broader range of RPGs and related sorts of games - mostly live roleplaying games, partly a variety of tabletop RPGs including freeform tabletop, and in some fringe cases even storygames.
Quote from: ZWEIHÄNDER;824917Writing my own RPG really brought back that spark for me. I managed to recapture the bang pop wow! factor that I initially experienced whenever I began playing WFRPG and D&D.
See above - the payback for all those hours spent poring over rules, playstyle and setting details as a game-designer is that even if you don't make the megabucks, at least you get a better game for your own tastes.
Quote from: Kiero;825660Can't say anything I do sitting-down-calmly really compares to the visceral, blood-pumping thrill of physical activities.
Gaming is an entirely sedate, cerebral exercise for me. There's nothing ecstatic about it.
Tabletop can be a euphoric experience for me, but foam-sword LARP is much more reliable in that respect. Every gamer should try foam-sword LARP at least a few times (a few different sorts of LARP too, with different crowds of people). As I've pretty much said to you before, it engages the whole person - intellect, emotions, physicality, everything. It's a total experience.
Quote from: Kiero;825437Freshness, like novel-ness or uniqueness is vastly overrated. Same goes surprise. I couldn't give much of a toss about the feeling of exploring the unknown, I'd rather be certain I'm going to get something I enjoy because I've done it before.
But if you never do something you've never done before, you'll never push the boundaries of what you can do with RPGs and how much enjoyment you can get out of them. Everything you ever do you once did for the first time. Every tweak and modification you once made for the first time.
Anyway, tastes differ, and in my case "something I enjoy" and "the feeling of exploring the unknown" are often one and the same thing. Predictability can numb my enjoyment of games, TV shows etc. Sometimes there are exceptions. Point is, I imagine many feel similarly.
Quote from: Omnifray;825959Tabletop can be a euphoric experience for me, but foam-sword LARP is much more reliable in that respect. Every gamer should try foam-sword LARP at least a few times (a few different sorts of LARP too, with different crowds of people). As I've pretty much said to you before, it engages the whole person - intellect, emotions, physicality, everything. It's a total experience.
I did boffer LARPs once, I thought it was lame. It didn't feel like roleplaying at all; taking it away from the tabletop completely ruins any suspension of disbelief I might have had; same issue with all LARPs for me.
Furthermore, I'd rather do full-contact sparring than faffing about with padded weapons with people who don't actually know what they're doing.
Quote from: Omnifray;825959But if you never do something you've never done before, you'll never push the boundaries of what you can do with RPGs and how much enjoyment you can get out of them. Everything you ever do you once did for the first time. Every tweak and modification you once made for the first time.
Anyway, tastes differ, and in my case "something I enjoy" and "the feeling of exploring the unknown" are often one and the same thing. Predictability can numb my enjoyment of games, TV shows etc. Sometimes there are exceptions. Point is, I imagine many feel similarly.
I really couldn't care less about "pushing the boundaries of what I can do with RPGs", that's not why I play them. It fulfils a particular entertainment need, that's it. Reliable beats novel every time.
Quote from: Kiero;825970Reliable beats novel every time.
That's what differs vastly from person to person. For me, generally, new experiences, unexpected experiences, are much more thrilling than reliable ones. I guess it's the difference between P-types and J-types if you have any patience for Jungian personality theory / MBTI / socionics, or it might be something to do with openness to experience on the Big Five personalty thingy, which seems to have quite a following these days. You are more averse to the risk of a crappy game than the near-certainty that a game will not exceed your expectations; I am the other way round. I love the highs and see the lows as a learning experience; you loathe the lows so seek the certainty of at least the middle ground. Or something like that. But even so any generalisation like that can probably only be true up to a certain point.
I'm doing the best gaming of my life, right now.
As am I; unfortunately its not with RPGs, as such, its with Braunsteins.