The Nerdy Roll

[cloneof]

So, now after decades of time, I'm asking you the ultimate question.

Wich one is cooler?

I say go with the roleplaying part...

[adciv]

What makes you think they are mutually exclusive?

[Rorschach]

Neither. Both are magnets for fat, sweaty social inadequates.
Not the guys here, I mean they're cool. But generally.

[kymagic]

I haven't actually played any table-top RP games, though I'd like to give some a shot. I just don't know anyone who plays the game already

The closest to a wargame I've played is Diplomacy via email. I can't really comment on this one.

[document]

I haven't played table-top for a long time...well, since I got married (conincidence?)...but I always loved them more than any other game.

[Bigity]

I enjoy both. Sometimes the amount of destruction you want to unleash on little plastic figures scales with the kind of day you had.

Good day? Let's kill a troll or two or maybe an orc band hiding in a cave, while solving puzzles with inter-party dialog and creative ideas.

Bad day? Let's unleash the God-Emperor's wrath down onto a planet-full of heretics and their devious alien allies.

[Shyknight]

As a tabletop roleplayer, I don't understand why war games are played on a tabletop.

You can buy dozens of expensive miniatures and paint them, then move them around on a board and roll some dice.

OR, you could do the exact same thing in a multiplayer videogame version of the board, and wouldn't have to buy/paint all those miniatures.

Since you and your friends aren't roleplaying with each other anyway, why bother gathering around the same table?

[StruckingFuggle]

OR, you could do the exact same thing in a multiplayer videogame version of the board, and wouldn't have to buy/paint all those miniatures.

Well, as far as major games go ... there might be some indie ones, but there's no major game that has the intricacies of some tabletop games, except maybe some historical wargames, so if you don't want to be limited in options by what represents history, you can generally do more at the tabletop than with computer games, I think.

Since you and your friends aren't roleplaying with each other anyway, why bother gathering around the same table?

...Socialization. Company. You know, the other big reason people get together and game, right next to "the experience of the game".

---

Incidentally I find wargames an interesting distraction and a fun challenge but I prefer roleplaying of the sort where you can go several sessions without even much of a battle, more. But then, that's not the answer of "roleplaying" as it's only one kind of roleplaying;

THOUGH, while avoiding the so-named Stormwind Fallacy (incidentally, <3 TempestStormwind), I'd like to point out what I think he's getting at is, is your fundamental preference in "tabletop" to focus on combat, or to focus on the narrative?

IF so, I would say "the narrative", but comment that combat can be fun (especially if challenging), but I don't like it being the focus (yet, oddly, I play dnd), and challenge the use of terms in the original question.

[Bigity]

SF is right, playing a RPG around a table with some buds is something that can't be recreated on a computer screen.

Sure, you might get the game on a computer, and accurately to boot, but that's only a part (and sometimes a very small part) of the experience.

When I remember games from years ago, I barely remember the characters or the system or what the party did, but I do remember that time Soly's character traded a scroll of cloudkill to a skanky mage from an NPC party for sexual favors. Or when Tony's character killed my character (they were brothers) because a doppleganger took his form and Tony flipped a coin to see who to attack. Oh man I still give him shit about that to this day.

[Springy]

Mage: The Ascension ftw.