Tabletop games: Why are they fun?

[RaikuFA]

The other day, I was reminded of the crap I endured trying to play these in the first place. I took a look online and it looks very boring. When I tried playing, the character creation took eons which seems to not have changed. Then there's the whole shitty DM thing I hear still happening(DM's making sure one or more players suffer just for the lulz). Can't you usurp a DM if he's acting like this?

Maybe it's just the fact that I hate playing with other people due to other people are just horrible in general, but looking online, tabletop games are still boring with spreadsheets and the fact that it takes 2 hours till you yourself can do something. So I'm asking, why do people consider these games fun?

 

[Zhukov]

I imagine a lot of it comes down to the people you're with.

My sole tabletop experience consists of being roped into a game of DnD by a friend. It, uh... didn't go so well. They were all hardcore about it while I couldn't stop laughing whenever a grown man referred to himself as 'Fildoour the Elf'. The DM trying to do character voices did not help. I tried not to laugh, I really did, but have you ever heard a nasaly nerd try to talk in the voice of a demonic warlord? Yeah...

They never did invite me again. Can't think why.

 

[BQE]

See when you said tabletop games, I thought you mean a thing you play with people on a tabletop. This includes boardgames like City of Horror or Smallworld as well as Warhammer 40k and the conventional RPing you're discussing.

A lot of the problems you describe stem from a poor group. I've played a few and my roomates have played tons and still do. If the character creation is boring to you, ask the DM to use a prefab, but part of the appeal is someone creating a character that's all their own.

As far as the spreadsheets thing, I couldn't guess which model you're referring to. The best DMs have players involved and interested, and I've found that having to look up rules, and dice rolls can slow the game down quite a bit so often good roleplaying well supercede the need for dice. That just may be anecdotal evidence however.

If I had to guess from your post though, I would hazard that there isn't much anyone will say that will convince that is isn't boring. It probably just isn't for you, I found that it really wasn't something I wanted to constantly do in my life but I tried to be sure. I would recommend the same at the very least.

 

[Rack]

Yeah it's all about the people you're playing with, ultimately it's a social experience. That said for me a good part of the fun comes from the fact I'm not playing D&D or Pathfinder, the system itself can do a lot to sabotage the game and if you're spending too much time rolling dice and looking up tables it can be the source of a lot of issues.

 

[RaikuFA]

See when you said tabletop games, I thought you mean a thing you play with people on a tabletop. This includes boardgames like City of Horror or Smallworld as well as Warhammer 40k and the conventional RPing you're discussing.

A lot of the problems you describe stem from a poor group. I've played a few and my roomates have played tons and still do. If the character creation is boring to you, ask the DM to use a prefab, but part of the appeal is someone creating a character that's all their own.

As far as the spreadsheets thing, I couldn't guess which model you're referring to. The best DMs have players involved and interested, and I've found that having to look up rules, and dice rolls can slow the game down quite a bit so often good roleplaying well supercede the need for dice. That just may be anecdotal evidence however.

If I had to guess from your post though, I would hazard that there isn't much anyone will say that will convince that is isn't boring. It probably just isn't for you, I found that it really wasn't something I wanted to constantly do in my life but I tried to be sure. I would recommend the same at the very least.

Isn't Warhammer though a rich mans game? Where just one figurine can cost about $20, even if it's a grunt or something? I don't even know what City of Horror or Smallworld is.

 

[BQE]

See when you said tabletop games, I thought you mean a thing you play with people on a tabletop. This includes boardgames like City of Horror or Smallworld as well as Warhammer 40k and the conventional RPing you're discussing.

A lot of the problems you describe stem from a poor group. I've played a few and my roomates have played tons and still do. If the character creation is boring to you, ask the DM to use a prefab, but part of the appeal is someone creating a character that's all their own.

As far as the spreadsheets thing, I couldn't guess which model you're referring to. The best DMs have players involved and interested, and I've found that having to look up rules, and dice rolls can slow the game down quite a bit so often good roleplaying well supercede the need for dice. That just may be anecdotal evidence however.

If I had to guess from your post though, I would hazard that there isn't much anyone will say that will convince that is isn't boring. It probably just isn't for you, I found that it really wasn't something I wanted to constantly do in my life but I tried to be sure. I would recommend the same at the very least.

Isn't Warhammer though a rich mans game? Where just one figurine can cost about $20, even if it's a grunt or something? I don't even know what City of Horror or Smallworld is.

Warhammer is a game where the publishers absolutely hate the players for no adequate reason, it's hideously priced for no defendable reason. City of Horror and Smallworld are just board games.

 

[The Madman]

It's about social interaction and just having fun. Every once and awhile my friends and I get together for a night of board games and have a blast each time, hell we've even dabbled in D&D although I suspect if anyone serious about D&D were to see how we play they'd ban us as heretics for not taking any of it seriously.

So yeah, fun, talking with people, ordering some pizza and a few drinks, making dumb jokes and generally just enjoying one anothers company. For me at least that's what it's all about... I'm surprised this even needs to be said, isn't that what they're for in the first place?

It's nice to turn off the TV and computer monitor every now and again.

 

[RaikuFA]

See when you said tabletop games, I thought you mean a thing you play with people on a tabletop. This includes boardgames like City of Horror or Smallworld as well as Warhammer 40k and the conventional RPing you're discussing.

A lot of the problems you describe stem from a poor group. I've played a few and my roomates have played tons and still do. If the character creation is boring to you, ask the DM to use a prefab, but part of the appeal is someone creating a character that's all their own.

As far as the spreadsheets thing, I couldn't guess which model you're referring to. The best DMs have players involved and interested, and I've found that having to look up rules, and dice rolls can slow the game down quite a bit so often good roleplaying well supercede the need for dice. That just may be anecdotal evidence however.

If I had to guess from your post though, I would hazard that there isn't much anyone will say that will convince that is isn't boring. It probably just isn't for you, I found that it really wasn't something I wanted to constantly do in my life but I tried to be sure. I would recommend the same at the very least.

Isn't Warhammer though a rich mans game? Where just one figurine can cost about $20, even if it's a grunt or something? I don't even know what City of Horror or Smallworld is.

Warhammer is a game where the publishers absolutely hate the players for no adequate reason, it's hideously priced for no defendable reason.

So what's the point of playing them? One seems like a horror game while the other seems like its about superheroes.

 

[RaikuFA]

It's about social interaction and just having fun. Every once and awhile my friends and I get together for a night of board games and have a blast each time, hell we've even dabbled in D&D although I suspect if anyone serious about D&D were to see how we play they'd ban us as heretics for not taking any of it seriously.

So yeah, fun, talking with people, ordering some pizza and a few drinks, making dumb jokes and generally just enjoying one anothers company. For me at least that's what it's all about... I'm surprised this even needs to be said, isn't that what they're for in the first place?

It's nice to turn off the TV and computer monitor every now and again.

I've never had fun playing with others. Whenever I played with others it ended up with me being fucked over and being the laughingstock.

 

[The Madman]

I've never had fun playing with others. Whenever I played with others it ended up with me being fucked over and being the laughingstock.

So what? We play games like Munchkin and RISK regularly, those games are pretty much designed specifically to force playing to screw one another over. Point is you're supposed to have fun doing it and be good enough friends with everyone else that you don't mind when it happens to you.

Hell, now that I think about it I don't think I've ever won a game of Munchkin and RISK tends to end badly since one buddy of mine and I have the habit of self-destructing against one another, generally resulting is someone else triumphing over our dead corpses. That happens so often I'm pretty sure we don't even get to call ourselves good at the game anymore since we rarely win, but who cares? It's funny.

Worst case scenario you lose and have to sit back, munching on pizza and laughing over others misfortune till the game is done or everyone gets bored and we do something else.

I don't even consider myself a very social person but it's just fun to hang out with friends and play board/card games.

 

[RaikuFA]

I've never had fun playing with others. Whenever I played with others it ended up with me being fucked over and being the laughingstock.

So what? We play games like Munchkin and RISK regularly, those games are pretty much designed specifically to force playing to screw one another over. Point is you're supposed to have fun doing it and be good enough friends with everyone else that you don't mind when it happens to you.

Hell, now that I think about it I don't think I've ever won a game of Munchkin and RISK tends to end badly since one buddy of mine and I have the habit of self-destructing against one another, generally resulting is someone else triumphing over our dead corpses. That happens so often I'm pretty sure we don't even get to call ourselves good at the game anymore since we rarely win, but who cares? It's funny.

Worst case scenario you lose and have to sit back, munching on pizza and laughing over others misfortune till the game is done or everyone gets bored and we do something else.

I don't even consider myself a very social person but it's just fun to hang out with friends and play board/card games.

It's kinda hard when it's pretty much "gang up on the loser cause it's funny".

 

[Dryk]

As the others have said it mostly just sounds like you've been playing with shitty people. Get better friends and tabletop gaming is great because it's a lot less constrained than a video-game is.

 

[Smooth Operator]

It's 90% about playing with friends and the rest is on the game, if your friends suck or you haven't got any then that would be one very bad experience.

And I noticed from the posts here that the concept of friendship is not known to all, so there is that added requirement.

 

[The Madman]

It's kinda hard when it's pretty much "gang up on the loser cause it's funny".

No offense but if that's what happens regularly then problem isn't the board game, it's who you're playing it with.

I don't know where you live obviously, but I know there are various hobby shops around me that have the occasional open game night. Maybe try getting into something like that around where you live and finding some fun people to play with? Because your regular group clearly isn't working for you.

 

[RaikuFA]

It's kinda hard when it's pretty much "gang up on the loser cause it's funny".

No offense but if that's what happens regularly then problem isn't the board game, it's who you're playing it with.

I don't know where you live obviously, but I know there are various hobby shops around me that have the occasional open game night. Maybe try getting into something like that around where you live and finding some fun people to play with? Because your regular group clearly isn't working for you.

I don't know of any hobby stores. And even if I did, it's not gonna magically change everything. I can still go in and be treated just as badly.

 

[The Madman]

I don't know of any hobby stores. And even if I did, it's not gonna magically change everything. I can still go in and be treated just as badly.

...Or alternatively you could find yourself having fun with a great group of people and enjoying yourself immensely while meeting new future friends?

But I'm also starting to think board games might also just not be for you.

 

[RaikuFA]

See when you said tabletop games, I thought you mean a thing you play with people on a tabletop. This includes boardgames like City of Horror or Smallworld as well as Warhammer 40k and the conventional RPing you're discussing.

A lot of the problems you describe stem from a poor group. I've played a few and my roomates have played tons and still do. If the character creation is boring to you, ask the DM to use a prefab, but part of the appeal is someone creating a character that's all their own.

As far as the spreadsheets thing, I couldn't guess which model you're referring to. The best DMs have players involved and interested, and I've found that having to look up rules, and dice rolls can slow the game down quite a bit so often good roleplaying well supercede the need for dice. That just may be anecdotal evidence however.

If I had to guess from your post though, I would hazard that there isn't much anyone will say that will convince that is isn't boring. It probably just isn't for you, I found that it really wasn't something I wanted to constantly do in my life but I tried to be sure. I would recommend the same at the very least.

Isn't Warhammer though a rich mans game? Where just one figurine can cost about $20, even if it's a grunt or something? I don't even know what City of Horror or Smallworld is.

a squad basic units is 25-50$ depending on what you are getting. If you get one of the special versions of the basic units like the Death Korps of Krieg that sets you back big time, and those are the 50$ because of the tarrifs and the import costs if you aren't British.

Vehicles are 30-100$ again depending on what you are getting. The really big, limited, and experimental vehicles can again set you back big time.

Basically: anything from forgeworld is highly expensive and limited.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/#&panel1-1

Everything else is cheaper. A crack addiction is still cheaper though. The reason the board game is still loved is because video games just can't match the freedom of it. It doesn't have the special rules like ork color coding or the way it plays out. The games don't even match the customization aspect of the game. Its the same reason board game RPGs tend to be awesome because you aren't limited by what game developers can make in a short amount of time.

Yeah, but I also don't have to play by the DM's rules, I can play when I want to without talking to others.

 

[SonicWaffle]

It's about social interaction and just having fun. Every once and awhile my friends and I get together for a night of board games and have a blast each time, hell we've even dabbled in D&D although I suspect if anyone serious about D&D were to see how we play they'd ban us as heretics for not taking any of it seriously.

So yeah, fun, talking with people, ordering some pizza and a few drinks, making dumb jokes and generally just enjoying one anothers company. For me at least that's what it's all about... I'm surprised this even needs to be said, isn't that what they're for in the first place?

It's nice to turn off the TV and computer monitor every now and again.

I've never had fun playing with others. Whenever I played with others it ended up with me being fucked over and being the laughingstock.

Well, that's either the others, or it's you. Generally when someone gets ganged up on, there's a reason. Are your friends assholes? Are you an asshole? Or is there a reason for doing so within the bounds of the game?

Like, amongst my group of friends who play Magic: the Gathering, one of us has a card-trading business on the side and is far more into it than anyone else. He always bought better cards than anyone else had, and we knew his deck had the capability to drop down 30 or so 2/2 Zombie creatures in a couple of turns plus some heavy hitters. As a result, the unspoken guarantee was that everyone else swung for him as hard as possible, so we could get him out of the game as soon as possible and cut him off before he built up a head of steam.

Nowadays things have changed, because I (half by accident, half by design) have built an incredibly powerful deck which when it fires off properly gives me infinite creatures. So these days I'm the target when playing with that deck, because everybody wants to put me out of the game before I become overpowered. Other times everyone will just build their own forces, and the first one who ventures out to attack someone else becomes the target of the group for exposing a minor weakness.