Why is DnD/Roleplaying the ultimate nerdy thing?

[V8 Ninja]

I guess it mostly has to do with the fact that DND requires a great amount of cooperation and knowledge for both the staging and execution of a game, with the rewards for doing so not even having pseudo-physical benefits. It's kind-of like an advanced mathematics club, only everybody involved is not messing with useful concepts but are pretending to be fantasy characters.

 

[DoPo]

I actually think it also comes from a lack of understanding. Many people don't know what DnD actually is, they just take that information on spoofs and comedies of the game they see on TV or the internet. Or some are just really conservative with religious backgrounds such as my mother. The first time I told her that I played Pathfinder, she said, "What?! That is some demonic stuff Josh, people have died playing that game"! Of course she was referring to those few incidents in the 90's were some guys from Europe took the game a bit to far, but I basically just had to explain to her that there was nothing wrong with, it was just a game of pretend with rules, and dice. Luckily I was 20 at the time and there was not a damn thing she could do about it, it's not like I was holding the events at her house.

Well, you should have just asked her to play with you. So she sees the real D&D. Like this

 

[Syzygy23]

All I know is the whole thing scares me. Every time someone talks about DnD I get the fuck outta there real fast. So many rules, so many names, so many editions... I don't even know.

You're missin' out man!

Also, if it alleviates things, the only editions at that matter are Pathfinder/3.5

Anything else, just do what you normally do.

I don't think so. I have no desire to play DnD, and believe me when I say it isn't for fear of being called a nerd.

I never enjoyed the DnD side of old CRPGs, I doubt I'd enjoy "proper" DnD.

Swords n' sorcery not your thing? How 'bout Cyberpunk? Not grimdark enough? Dark heresy'll get your back. Feel like fighting Cthulhu in a Mech? Cthulhutech is your book!

C'mon, there's gotta be some Tabletop RPG out there you'd be interested in!

 

[DoPo]

Nope, those all sound wholly unappealing, just because they're tabletop games and I don't like tabletop games.

Guess I'm not nerd enough!

You are dead to me! Wait, hold on *rolls dice* yes, I hit for *rolls dice again* 42 damage. You are really dead.



Not OT but nowhere better to put this - the new New World Order convention book came out like last week but I got it a couple of days ago. For the record, that's Mage: the Ascension (and old World of Darkness) and the NWO are one of my favourites there. I grabbed my new avatar from some of the new artwork as recognition

Spoiler: Full artwork

I just wanted to brag somewhere where it was remotely relevant

/offtopic

 

[Seneschal]

A couple weeks ago I played a roleplaying game for the first time. Since then, I've told a few people and there responses have varied from "really?!?" "Whaaaaat?" and "OMG". It's weird because I'm a pretty nerdy guy, I play videogames, I read comics, I fucking MAKE comics, but Roleplaying is the kicker. And I get that it's seen as a step beyond videogames anime ect, but I don't really know why. Do you?
Also, do you do non video game roleplaying? (not SEX roleplaying people! Okay sex, but I'm talking DnD stuff too)
What's your opinion on the games and the gamers?

It actually isn't very nerdy where I live, but - and here's the catch - it isn't well known. This might be the crux of the problem - almost all Americans know D&D by reputation, yet know very little about it. However, if you strip the nerdy stigma from the game, to onlookers it just looks like a board game, and attracts the same audience as, say, Risk or Monopoly. Me and my group have inducted several random people that were just curious and wanted to see what we were doing every Saturday.

 

[hooblabla6262]

Me and a couple buddies used to roleplay a modern d20 zombie game. We also has a modern cops and shadowrun, but zombies was the one I liked the most.

We would play late at night in the dorms of the university. I found it surprising how many people by the end of first semester were clamouring to get in on our games. Our original group wasn't what you'd call your typical nerds, and the crowd we attracted contained men and woman of various non-nerd backgrounds.
It was delightful.

I haven't roleplayed in over a year, but I've met a couple groups of people on random occasions who do. For instance, I met a group of d20'ers at a bar a couple months back, and my bestfriend's boyfriend also has his own little collective.
With the d20 episode of Community, I could see roleplaying becoming mildly more popular/accepted. It usually takes one good media portrayal to get the ball rolling.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Not to argue for the sake of argument, but is not the most nerdy thing collecting figurines, painting them and using them for Warhammer-like games? Because that just seems to me like it would be more...ultimately nerdy. In that you have to invest more time and effort.