Do you think there's a difference between the two and if so, how does this difference play out in your games ?

Regards,
David R

To my mind, an adventurer explores and takes risks because exploration and risk-taking are goals in themselves.

A hero does something for others.

Characters can be one, both or neither.

Some genres (particularly, again to my mind, Victorian Pulp and certain Space Opera settings) make adventurers inherently heroic:  they posit that the act of exploring and taking risks will always benefit others.

In my games PCs are Heroes & Adventurers.

I define a hero as:  a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, and ability.

Adventurer as: a seeker of fortune in daring enterprises; soldier of fortune.

So to me they (The characters) are both, but they can be different things. Some games , like AFMBE, have the option of playing an adventurer who is not really Heroic in ability.

Adventurers can be heroic, certainly, but that's not any sort of a requirement for a lucrative career.

"After a while, there's a 'thunk' as your shovel hits wood. You clear away the last of the dirt, and open the coffin lid (naturally, it makes a creepy 'squeeeeeeeek' noise). Inside you find pretty much what you'd expect -- a grinning, rotting skeleton in old-fashioned wizard's robes, with a large iron key on a silver chain around its neck. Holding your breath, you carefully pick up the key, wincing when the skeleton's head falls off. Then you notice a piece of paper clutched in the skeleton's hand, and hork that as well. Then your adventurer's instincts kick in, and you start poking around the body for hidden pockets and gold fillings."

(From The Kingdom of Loathing.)

A hero is what an adventurer becomes in retrospect when the dust settles, if he/she happens to be on the side of whoever happens to be telling the story about the campfire.

Yes, there's a difference. Selfless sacrifice seems like a good definition of a hero, and even within heroic parties, not everyone would qualify.

I don't particularly like games where the characters are heroes, yet not adventurers.

Being a hero is really just a matter of doing the right thing at the right place and the right time for the right reasons.

An adventurer is just someone who roams the world in search of excitement.

They aren't really mutually exclusive in any real sense.  The latter is not precluded from being the former, nor the other way around.  

I don't necessarily make characters with heroism in mind, it just sort of is expected to happen in play in certain situations.  Sometimes I do make characters who're explicitly not intended to be heroic, but even they can fall into heroism in the right circumstances.  

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the topic is far from something as black and white as the title implies.

Possible interesting factoid (or not): up until the middle fo the 20th century or so, "adventurer" was actually a derogatory term for dodgy opportunistic grifter types. As used in the title of the 1930s novel "Shanghai: the Paradise of Adventurers".

The appropriateness of this term for grave-robbing mediaeval travellers with a history of violence, I leave as an exercise for the reader...

In Star Wars terms, Han Solo is an adventurer who becomes a hero after the trench run.

Quote from: CaudexPossible interesting factoid (or not): up until the middle fo the 20th century or so, "adventurer" was actually a derogatory term for dodgy opportunistic grifter types. As used in the title of the 1930s novel "Shanghai: the Paradise of Adventurers".

The appropriateness of this term for grave-robbing mediaeval travellers with a history of violence, I leave as an exercise for the reader...

Ha, you beat me to it! Well, then...
Possibly interesting factoid #2: The original meaning of "hero," derived from the Greek, refers to a larger-than-life figure, possibly of divine ancestry, who on account of his great accomplishments in life is worshiped as a god after his death. Indeed, hero cults were quite popular throughout antiquity, and some of the earliest known temples from archaic Greece are actually heroa, or hero shrines. Well known examples include Herakles, Theseus, Asclepius, et al. Brings new meaning to "hero worship," no?

Don't you mean "brings an old meaning to hero worship"? :haw:

Quote from: J ArcaneI guess what I'm trying to say is that the topic is far from something as black and white as the title implies.

You're probably right.

Okay, how about this. As a GM* do you create adventures for heroes or adventurers?

* As a player do you think your GM creates adventures for heroes or adventurers.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RYou're probably right.

Okay, how about this. As a GM* do you create adventures for heroes or adventurers?

* As a player do you think your GM creates adventures for heroes or adventurers.

Regards,
David R

It occured to me after posting my previosu response that there is a certain sense in which the dichotomy presented is not a false one, one that occurs in the gamer parlance found in many online discussions.

This is the tendency to use "heroic" to refer to rather high-powered and/or cinematic campaigns.  While this does, as Black Flag points out, have some basis in the history of myth, I think it is rather a misnomer in terms of the word's modern usage, a clear example of almost Forge-like "You keep using that word, but it does not mean what you think it means" type jargon.

In that sense, especially paired with the implication of "adventurer" in it's connection to D&D-style countryside roaming swords-for-hire, could be seen as setting up a dichotomy of power level behind those two terms.

But as I said, that's largely a result of unclear language and words not being used to mean what they actually tend to mean in real English as the rest of the non-gaming world speaks it.

As for you question in this post, my answer again remains both.  My gaming experiences have ranged from being nothing more than a bunch of scrabbly mercenaries, to being conscripted from the get go for heroic deeds, and every possibility in between.  I have quite varied tastes when it comes to my gaming, and the games I've been in and the characters I've played tend to reflect both that, and the realities of taking whatever gaming happens to present itself as appealing at the time.

I'm pretty much answering along the same lines as everyone else: Both, at varying times each has their own use, and while they often coincide they don't always coincide.

Quote from: David ROkay, how about this. As a GM* do you create adventures for heroes or adventurers?

I almost always create adventures for adventurers. Inserting a characters' personal morality into a setting or situation has to be their own choice, as well as accepting the ultimate consequences of behaving heroically. This sort of thing requires a degree of open-endedness on my part, and a willingness to make sacrifices on the part of the players. Heroics often end on a bittersweet note.