What makes a fun game?

[SaintLamech]

Im a DM about to start a new campain and I was wondering what has made games you've played in fun?

What styles of games do you enjoy? Hack and slash or role playing focus?

And how was the game constructed? Open ended sandbox approch or strong plot lines?

[CoDzilla]

SaintLamech wrote:

Im a DM about to start a new campain and I was wondering what has made games you've played in fun?

What styles of games do you enjoy? Hack and slash or role playing focus?

Neither and both. If there is a conflict between the two, if the DM even thinks there is a conflict between the two, then I've already lost interest. Both matter. Both are important. Both should be emphasized.

Quote:

And how was the game constructed? Open ended sandbox approch or strong plot lines?

Depends, primarily on level. Higher level games are more sandbox prone, lower level games more plot line. The key though is plot line. Not railroad. If the goal is "Defeat organization x" it shouldn't much matter how we do it, as long as we do it. The simplest way is to kill them all, but how about cut off the head and the body dies? How about other methods of defeating them? I'm not expecting my plans to automatically succeed here, but if they automatically fail because the DM doesn't like my choice of action then I will soon find I don't like my choice of game and make alternate arrangements. This also extends to the smaller scale, with things like bad DMs arbitrarily declaring that a save or lose fails because he can't stand his precious BBEG (who didn't make himself immune) being one rounded for being unprepared.

[voska66]

I like a interesting story with problems to solve. Those problems may involve role playing and skills or pure hack and slash combat but the story has to be there. I'm not one for randomly entering dungeons just to make cash to buy items so I can enter more dungeons.

[Varl]

SaintLamech wrote:

Im a DM about to start a new campain and I was wondering what has made games you've played in fun?

The unexpected. As an example, in our last AD&D game session, we had a demon lord and his pet "dogs" attack the city we were staying in. The alarms were rung, the battlements readied, and the guards placed. Then, as expected, they charged, but what caught all of us completely by surprised was these "dogs" this demon lord had under his command phased right through the town walls as they charged! We expected them to have some kind of incredible, unearthly springing ability, but they didn't. They passed right through the walls instead.

These kinds of things are what keep the game fresh, fun, and exciting for me.

Quote:

What styles of games do you enjoy? Hack and slash or role playing focus?

Plenty of both.

[Herbo]

I love to interact with interesting NPC's (both from a GM and player perspective). Not every shopkeeper has to have a 500page autobiography but it's nice to occaisionally grow attached to what would, in mechanical game terms, otherwise be an insignificant being. In the same vein I like it when descriptions and interactions with monsters transcend their stats. I've been terrified of wolves in the wilderness as a player before...even though they're really not that threatening mechanically.

Riddles are awesome non-mechanical ways to protect secrets, and really anything else.

Scavenger hunts are fun for investigative adventures. Especially if the peices are non-linear (clue A is independent of clue B).

I also enjoy consequences as a player. It sounds weird but, as a player I like my choices to have meaning. If I bust my hump to rescue Princess Toadstool from Koopa I want more than "Here's your loot and gold." I also don't want to be allowed to really fudge up on choices and have the dragon decide not to cast desintegrate on me that round because I'm a PC.

It must also be noted that I played Cthulhu for several years as my only non-GM experience and had a ball going mad and generally being rewarded with a quick death for a session's brilliant thinking.

[The Brute Squad]

To crush the PCs, to see them re-rolled before you, and to hear the lamentation of the players!

Wait... what was the question again? >:D