In part one of this series, I gave an introduction to the RPG Elite philosophy, one of the pillars of the RPG Elite Network. Within that philosophy are ten qualities every RPG Elite has, and they have all ten of them. Not eight. Not nine. All ten.
After laying a foundation, I covered the first two qualities of an RPG Elite. That is where we ended.
Today, we’ll work our way through four more qualities.
RPG Elite Quality #3 – RPG Elites Are Not Rules Police
RPG Elites won’t nitpick the the rules to make sure we cross every T and dot every I. That doesn’t mean we ignore the rules (see Quality #6). It means we won’t allow the rules to derail the story because more than anything, playing a tabletop RPG for an RPG Elite is about the story.
So we’re not fastidious about that stuff. Plus, many times (many vets know this), some rules just get in the way. When that happens, we chuck it.
The rules are a guide. A framework. A skeleton. Rules that don’t support the story we want to experience we either tweak or eliminate. This doesn’t matter if it’s a particular group, table, or solo play. It’ll go like we want so we can have a more immersive, enjoyable, and meaningful tabletop RPG experience, which is what it’s all about.
RPG Elite Quality #4 – RPG Elites Roleplay. We Believe It’s Required
RPG Elites look at role-playing differently.
What I’ve done with this quality in a series of videos is broken down roleplaying into three different levels dimensions. I will go into much detail on this when we hit this particular quality. I suggest watching those videos and there’s one linked down below in this post.
This is a requirement for RPG Elites. You should roleplay. In a roleplaying game. I know that’s a novel idea, but it’s been a thing since the inception of roleplaying games.
This is not saying you should be good at it. It’d be nice if you were good at it, but that’s not what this is concerned with. This is about mindset. Attitude. You should attempt to do it, not ignore it or treat as something that’s less than or optional.
If you’re not good at roleplaying, don’t sweat it. You’ll get better the more you attempt to do it. That repetition makes it to where you get better at the thing you are repeating.
This is one of the biggest and lamest excuses people give for not role-playing in a role-playing game: “I’m not good at it.” Then you ask these people if they actually role-play or if they have ever role-played and they will either say no or not much.
It’s this simple — you’re not good at it because you don’t exercise the muscle. Exercise the muscle, the muscle will get stronger. That’s how that works.
Another popular one is “I feel uncomfortable doing it.” If you’ve hardly done it or never have, that’s just laziness, nonsense, or both.
Going back to the muscle analogy, when you want to grow a muscle, there’s pain and discomfort that goes along with that. You literally are tearing your muscles to make them stronger. Despite the pain, there’s a benefit to lifting weights. So you endure it and it is better for you.
Role-playing makes you better creatively. It strengthens your imagination, which is the foundation of your creativity.
I play an MMORPG called City of Heroes. I’ve been playing that game since it came out in 2004. It is where I go to flesh out character ideas and come up with backgrounds for them. The game was shut down in 2012 but it made a comeback in 2019. Since that time I’ve created 32 characters and the juices just keep on flowing.
I’ve been asked where I come up with so many ideas for characters and stories (I have written five novels). The answer to that would be that I constantly put myself in the shoes of those characters and I act them out. In other words, I roleplay.
But it’s been going on much longer than this.
I’ve been playing tabletop RPGs since the 1980s. There was not one time where I thought I should play it like a board game. I always thought from day one I should inhabit and play the character. No one had to prompt me to do it or explain it. Role-playing was a natural fit for me and to have a game where that was the point was fantastic.
To be fair, I came from a background of high school drama club and singing. I wrote screenplays by hand on scrap paper. That bug was always in me.
That being said, I don’t think you have to have the bug in you to know you should roleplay in a role-playing game. C’mon son. It’s in the name.
My point is you have to start and keep doing it. Your skill will increase over time.
RPG Elite Quality #5 – RPG Elites Will Not Play With Any and Everyone
All right. This one is a big ’un.
There are three RPG Elite qualities that are at top of pile. For other RPG Elites, it might be other ones, but this is most certainly one of the top three of the ten for every RPG Elite.
We just don’t play with any and everybody. Just don’t.
I have been playing for four decades. I am telling you that I can see the landscape of a table just by the people sitting around it. I know the vibe in the first five minutes. I can get a feel right away whether I will play with those people. Nine times out of ten, it’s a no.
So, I will extricate myself from the situation. And if they ask me, I’m like, “Nah, I’m good, man. Go ahead and do your thing.”
There is a popular phrase you hear in the tabletop RPG space, and that is, “Everyone is welcome at my table.”
RPG Elites never say that. Never. Everyone is not welcome at our table.
Everyone is welcome to try out at our table. We’ll extend the olive branch that far. But nothing is automatic. You do not get to sit at our table by virtue of your existence. That has to be earned because we all have to be on the same page.
There are far too many tables where there is no vetting process and you get this mishmash of individuals at the table who are all going in a different directions and expecting a different experience from the game.
People are more concerned about optics instead of the actual experience that could transpire at the table. They care more about what people may think of them if they exclude others and have a standard in reference to who will get to sit at the table.
Because they let everyone sit at their table, they are the ones who always have the problems at the table. They are the ones who will not fix problems or address them because they don’t want to be seen as mean. They make it about them instead of making it about the experience for everyone at the table.
When people read what I’ve just written, they take it personally. They think it is a judgment on their or someone else’s character. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with expectations.
Whenever you sit down at a table, there should be a general expectation of what everybody wants from the experience when playing a particular tabletop RPG. When that is not communicated at all, the experience becomes tense and very unmanageable in some cases, and just downright ghastly in others.
You can go over on YouTube right now and type in “tabletop RPG horror stories” and will get a plethora of videos on the topic. Now why is that the case? Because people did not perform their due diligence in vetting the people who would be at their table.
RPG Elites don’t make that mistake.
However, there’s an exception to this rule. That’s with new people.
If you’re new, I probably would play with you because I’m going to teach you your RPG Elite philosophy. Hey. No shame here. I will teach you from this perspective because it works and will save everyone a ton of headache.
This is one of the reasons I don’t go to tabletop RPG conventions. I simply will not play with any and everyone, and I’m not alone in this.
RPG Elite Quality #6 – RPG Elites Know the Rules of the Game They Play
One of the things that’s will your life so much simpler if you’re playing with a group of people is to know the rules of the game.
Why would I say that? You would think this would be a given. It’s because you’d be surprised at how many tables don’t prepare their people to play a tabletop RPG.
Back in the day this was more difficult because it required everybody to have a copy of the game and everybody couldn’t afford that. However, today, you can give everybody access to a PDF online they can open on their phones anywhere and set players up for success in learning how to play whatever tabletop RPG you’re playing.
When everyone knows the rules of the game, it makes your session flow more smoothly. No cap.
If you don’t learn the rules of the game, people have to tell you the same rule over and over in every session that you should have learned the last time they old you from the previous session. Add to that the problem of not taking notes, and it brings gameplay to a crawl.
RPG Elites take the initiative to learn the rules of the game. We learn the main mechanics, not every detail. This is how this is different from RPG Elite Quality #3.
We focus on our character more than anything. How does this talent work? How does this skill operate? What does this power do? We discover how to do all of these things because this is the character we will inhabit.
It’s really thinking about everybody else who’s at the table. When you’re playing with other people, you don’t want to waste their time by rehashing the same thing over and over again form the rules.
We covered six out of the ten qualities of an RPG Elite. In our next post in this series, I’ll attempt to wrap it up. I say attempt because I will wax poetic on RPG Elite Quality #8, the most important quality out of all of them.
Catch ya on da flip. Peace 5000. ✌🏿😎
