Reply To: [unofficial weekender] Gaming outside the comfort zone

[blinky465 17178xp 0]

playing RPG with minis is wrong mate

I mean, we’ve already seen that the original D&D rules included tabletop minis, so we don’t need to re-fight this battle 😉
But I am wondering if this is part of my issue with RPG – and why I feel more comfortable with miniatures-based gaming.
I really didn’t get on with RPG. It just felt a bit weird. And it’s only now, many, many years later, trying to understand why, I think this very discussion might finally be shining a light on it.

I got absolutely no enjoyment from RPG. It felt like I was expected to “become” the character. I had to experience the game as if I was the character. And I really struggled with that. Whereas with miniatures based games, it’s very easy to confer a character onto an avatar. It’s not “me” moving around the dungeon, or running through the grassy glades or whatever – it’s me controlling the character who has to perform these actions on my behalf.

Almost like a god-complex, I guess!
To some it might feel like an abstraction that makes no sense, or has little to no consequence.
But when I’m playing my tabletop games, I think I prefer the “god-view” looking down over all the characters (third-person) and deciding their fate, rather than playing the game and “looking through the eyes of the character” (first person).

You’re probably quite right about playing RPGs with minis being “wrong” for introducing this layer of abstraction. But that’s my comfort blanket. I’m really out of my comfort zone without it!