Umm, *Things* That Roleplayers Say

[kaulesh]

Pretty much every time my group would play Shadowrun, it would devolve into the first GURPS joke. In fact, I think a few of us had larger dice pools.

[Bruno]

On the two-handsfuls-of-dice thing - that's actually sort of our standard Werewolf:tA joke. Less so Vampire, but really any of the World of Darkness.

But we did have a 12d12 damage moment on Saturday (critical hit with a D&D 4th edition Vorpal enchanted high crit weapon on a character very heavily invested in critical hits). We made jokes about Vampire while he was rolling damage ;)

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Jeffr0

(What should the GURPS joke have been, though....? GURPS doesn't make you roll that many dice.... I guess it was comedic shorthand for "this is complicated.")

I think they just never played GURPS, so they didn't have a real joke.

Originally Posted by Jeffr0

The bit about roll/role playing... ugh. People that say that too often know nothing about either. That is definitely... uh... one of the *things* that roleplayers say, though.

Oh come one, I say it all the time, I'll play both types of games and they're fun in different ways, but there's a clear difference between sitting down at a table where you run a character's sheet in a tactical environment, and sitting down at a table where you play a character.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Bruno

On the two-handsfuls-of-dice thing - that's actually sort of our standard Werewolf:tA joke. Less so Vampire, but really any of the World of Darkness.

But we did have a 12d12 damage moment on Saturday (critical hit with a D&D 4th edition Vorpal enchanted high crit weapon on a character very heavily invested in critical hits). We made jokes about Vampire while he was rolling damage ;)

At least in Storyteller, you never have to add up 12 dice. It's less about how many dice you roll, and more about what you do with the dice to "read" the roll.

And of course familiarity. GURPS players become expert at reading exactly 3d6. Hero System players acquite that expertise too, but a bit more slowly, but also develop a knack for performing the special dice read of "adding up BODY damage". And for adding up large d6 totals.

Customized dice also helps, when that can be done, e.g. in newer versions of Storyteller. Or the HeroQuest board game.

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Classic Uncle Sam

Funny! The Call of Cthulhu schtick is spot on.

I'd say the first GURPS joke is more apt to the Hero System, specifically Champions.

No G &H both use 3d6 to hit. Massive dice for Attacks are WoD things. I think the people who made this play D&D, Vampire and used rumors about the other games.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Captain-Captain

No G &H both use 3d6 to hit.

Yes, but 12d6 for damage is pretty much the standard in a self-respecting Champions game. Frankly, it's part of the appropriate aesthetics; of course superbeings roll buckets of dice for damage. Then you get the sorting out the 1s and 6s. But as someone said earlier, you learn to do the job quickly.

[tg_ambro]

Originally Posted by Jeffr0

(What should the GURPS joke have been, though....? GURPS doesn't make you roll that many dice.... I guess it was comedic shorthand for "this is complicated.")

Appearently "I grew up on GURPS:Supers, which had a ton of dice back in the day...just mentally replace is with Star Wars D6 :)" is the reason for the lame dice joke.

Other jokes that would work:

1: GM: "I'm gonna make a vehicle for tonight's session" . . .
[7 hours later]
GM: "Alright cool, I made a car!"

2: GM to his players: "So, your characters are: a Cyberpunk heteroflexible hacker/ninja chick; a pacifist hunter/killer robot who's looking for a soul; Napoleon's clone who, thanks to a parachronic accident, grew up in the stone age; And a Psionic Blueberry Muffin that can attack the entire universe at once . . . another Infinity World's game then?

3: Player: "WHAT! I have to do some basic math! This game is sooooooo complicated!"

I'm sure there are more. But I'm tired.

[Jeffr0]

Originally Posted by tg_ambro

I'm sure there are more. But I'm tired.

That's more like it!

[Jeffr0]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

Oh come one, I say it all the time, I'll play both types of games and they're fun in different ways, but there's a clear difference between sitting down at a table where you run a character's sheet in a tactical environment, and sitting down at a table where you play a character.

Whoops.

I am generalizing from one horrible experience. I just can't be objective anymore; it was that bad.

It's the saying of the cliche as if it were some deep, serious thought that is the tip off, I think.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Jeffr0

I am generalizing from one horrible experience. I just can't be objective anymore; it was that bad.

It's the saying of the cliche as if it were some deep, serious thought that is the tip off, I think.

As a player experienced in multiple systems that include oWoD, I think I can shed some light on this one:

The "roleplay vs rollplay" dichotomy is one that is recognized and acknowledged by RPG enthusiasts across the system board, but it is especially popular among fans of the Storyteller system. This is because a) these games encourage in-depth characterization over the simple achievement of arbitrary goals, and because b) despite the undeniable appeal of the bundled setting, the game system they're used to dealing with has never been used extensively without extraordinary house-ruling because it sucks so hard it could create a black hole. It is therefore a point of pride among the fans of the system to use the system despite the obvious and absurd drawbacks of doing so, regardless of how much it F's up the game they would otherwise be enjoying.