August 26: What hobbies go well with RPGs?
I'd have to go with reading and playing video games. I think reading helps because it gives you ideas and general structures that you can use for a campaign. It helps the DM/GM to come up with motivations for his villains and NPCs and it helps the players to do the same for their characters. Surrounding yourself with readings from a particular genre helps you to get a feel for the tropes that are expected. The group can then follow or go against them. In short, reading will inspire the group to hopefully look forward to creating their own stories and characters at the table.
The same holds true for playing video games. I particularly like the Neverwinter game even though it's not all that in terms of game play because they put a lot of the locales and personalities from Forgotten Realms into the game. It's cool when those things come up at the tabletop after I've seen the 3-D modeled version. There are bits and pieces of lore from those games that can be used as to create a story as a part of the tabletop game or just as a way to help some players visualize what's happening while they are role playing. In addition, I would put video game RPGs as an option three for people who can't find a tabletop group to play with--option two being a virtual tabletop like roll 20. They aren't quite 'there' yet in terms of giving me the satisfaction that I get from the other two options, but if there's no other choice, they at least give the player a chance to play through a story in the style of what they would find at the tabletop.
One more good thing about video game RPGs is that it helps to recruit players to the tabletop. If someone has played through a videogame RPG they know about stats, hp, exp, and in a very broad sense the goals of the tabletop. Some games, like Mass Effect for example, give the player choices for dialogue response that directly affects the game. It's only a short jump to understanding that your character at the tabletop can say anything that they want with direct implications both good and bad.
Other good hobbies that go with RPGs would be writing, map making, painting and building terrain. Playing opens up tons of creative things that a person can do with their spare time...the only thing it can't do is give us more spare time to do those things.
I'd have to go with reading and playing video games. I think reading helps because it gives you ideas and general structures that you can use for a campaign. It helps the DM/GM to come up with motivations for his villains and NPCs and it helps the players to do the same for their characters. Surrounding yourself with readings from a particular genre helps you to get a feel for the tropes that are expected. The group can then follow or go against them. In short, reading will inspire the group to hopefully look forward to creating their own stories and characters at the table.
The same holds true for playing video games. I particularly like the Neverwinter game even though it's not all that in terms of game play because they put a lot of the locales and personalities from Forgotten Realms into the game. It's cool when those things come up at the tabletop after I've seen the 3-D modeled version. There are bits and pieces of lore from those games that can be used as to create a story as a part of the tabletop game or just as a way to help some players visualize what's happening while they are role playing. In addition, I would put video game RPGs as an option three for people who can't find a tabletop group to play with--option two being a virtual tabletop like roll 20. They aren't quite 'there' yet in terms of giving me the satisfaction that I get from the other two options, but if there's no other choice, they at least give the player a chance to play through a story in the style of what they would find at the tabletop.
One more good thing about video game RPGs is that it helps to recruit players to the tabletop. If someone has played through a videogame RPG they know about stats, hp, exp, and in a very broad sense the goals of the tabletop. Some games, like Mass Effect for example, give the player choices for dialogue response that directly affects the game. It's only a short jump to understanding that your character at the tabletop can say anything that they want with direct implications both good and bad.
Other good hobbies that go with RPGs would be writing, map making, painting and building terrain. Playing opens up tons of creative things that a person can do with their spare time...the only thing it can't do is give us more spare time to do those things.
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