cRpgs & Rpgs and our hobby life

[Wulfric Pinewood]

I wonder today how important part of your free time/hobby life belongs to Roleplaying activities. In my case, im over 30 years old, with wife, children, job and all that jazz. Besides painting and literature, rpgs are one of my favourites. I just love that games from late 80's to this day titles (mostly in fantasy settings), but i also spend a lot of time in tabletop Warhammer FB, reading and playing with books from Forgotten Realms, or just wondering about adventures in fantasy worlds. Ive found it very relaxing, i even designed room in my freshly builded house for this hobby ( for pc, table for Wfb,small workstation, and bookshelves etc. ). I like to seat there and just sail away with some naive fantasy book, or spend some time with friend rolling dices. Ive spent and spending still about 6-18hours a week with that hobby for already about 20years ( not always ofc, but often). How it looks with you?p

 

[Sranchammer]

Why aren't you out there slaying pussoir?

 

[dragonbait]

I wonder today how important part of your free time/hobby life belongs to Roleplaying activities. In my case, im over 30 years old, with wife, children, job and all that jazz. Besides painting and literature, rpgs are one of my favourites. I just love that games from late 80's to this day titles (mostly in fantasy settings), but i also spend a lot of time in tabletop Warhammer FB, reading and playing with books from Forgotten Realms, or just wondering about adventures in fantasy worlds. Ive found it very relaxing, i even designed room in my freshly builded house for this hobby ( for pc, table for Wfb,small workstation, and bookshelves etc. ). I like to seat there and just sail away with some naive fantasy book, or spend some time with friend rolling dices. Ive spent and spending still about 6-18hours a week with that hobby for already about 20years ( not always ofc, but often). How it looks with you?p

Greetings Wulfric,

That's cool that you've created an rpg-cave of sorts in your your house. Is your wife badgering you about it? Don't think anything of it. An interest in RPG/CPRG games just doesn't disappear once you've reached a certain age, or at least I don't think it does. Why would it? Do sports fans lose interest in sports once they've reached an older age? Nope. Isn't any different in RPG fans. Once a fan, always a fan. I enjoy reading good RPG style fantasy books, and like to keep track of new old school rpgs/crpgs also. I don't think 6-18 hours a week is too much for something you enjoy doing. If you enjoy it, do it.

 

[Grape_You_In_the_Mouth]

I've gone through phases where I quit games to try and focus on learning skills and being social, and then revert back to games at least within 2 years. I play a good 20 hours a week on average, with some dry spells of wasted time on the internet and others being busy with women or social gatherings. There are few things that make me truly fulfilled, and those things are essentially the same---they either make me feel skilled and cool, or they supply a philosophical appreciation for life. In games I use MOBAs/FPS for the former and CRPGs for the latter. I recently ended a relationship with a woman who could end up being the best sex I ever have, and a big part of the exit was that she wanted at least 3 days a week with me, which isn't always possible if she doesn't supply something other than great sex+love. She definitely would not be the type to hang out and watch a MOBA or Fallout:New Vegas, but for some reason she thought sitting in a tube on the river all day was fun.

Something I've been thinking a lot about is the trade-off of fun experiences and productivity. Should we build and sustain civilization to make more civilization, or to enjoy fanciful diversions? What really makes things interesting to me, is that it seems as if people learn more about life from their diversions than their productive efforts, which--if true---makes our diversions productive. Socrates said we should all be productive now so our children can be artists. Are we at the point where we should be artists if we want? It's hard to imagine life getting easier and richer than it is now.

 

[SophosTheWise]

I'm still a student and thus should have a lot of freetime. Hah, nope, no freetime, at least not enough that I can get comfortable with playing a really long game. Besides studying, working and trying to build a gaming site there's little to no time left to really dedicate myself and sometimes I really hate it, but ultimately my social life and my relationship are priorities. And sometimes my other hobbies cancel gaming and RPGs out, sometimes it's the other way around. At least I've got a game of Pathfinder going on every week, so that's pretty sweet. All the other activities in my life aren't really scheduled so I can't really just organize everything properly. It stresses me out sometimes, but yeah.

 

[Lemming42]

I don't really play videogames very much, so no problem there. As for tabletop RPGs, I'm sure if I had any friends who cared enough to play them with me I'd spend ages on them, but none of my friends are sad cool enough to be interested.

 

[Tigranes]

I play less as time goes by, but I think that's because it took me a while to exhaust the best CRPGs throughout history, and now I'm waiting for new ones. There is still no RPG that I can replay again and again like I could BG2 or Fallout. I did go through a phase where I tried a wider range of games, but generally I don't think I like them very much and I'd rather move on to a new hobby if we stopped getting good CRPGs.

 

[Nihiliste]

I don't like any games that aren't cRPGs and there aren't that many good ones out there so it really doesn't take up too much of my time. Which is good in one way, because between work, wife, household stuff, side businesses, more productive hobbies (sports/music) I have limited time these days for RPGs and complaining about the decline on the internet. But still playing a brilliant game like BG2 or PS:T still brings a different type of enjoyment I can't get anywhere else. I have only a couple hours a week to play on a normal week so I have to keep a log of what I was thinking/doing at the time I stopped playing so I can remind myself and get right back into it when I have a chance to play next.

 

[Sranchammer]

I've converted to grognardism

 

[felipepepe]

I haven't played any P&P RPG in almost a decade, since I moved to São Paulo to study... CRPGs are still my main hobby (especially now with the book), but I also love music and collect vinyl records.

They go together well, as my record player is right next to the PC, meaning I can play old classics while listening to old classics.

 

[Lhynn]

i DM a table by monthly and play a mmorpg every day, also enjoy the ocasional new RPG, or try to dig up something old but good. I codex a lot at work, but my interest on the site are restricted to gaming.

 

[Kahlis]

My interests have always been seasonal. When I have too much free time to myself (especially summers) I start waxing poetic about old RPGs and modding and other stupid computer shit, but in college (I'm a librul arts major yes) it's suddenly all about real world stuff. The past few years have really made me a much more social and outgoing individual than I'd have ever thought possible for someone like myself. And all my older high school friends are pretty much either console grognards or that 8-bit tie/bacon/steampunk breed of nerd who has no actual interests beyond that of charting his own mental fragility. Now I really don't want to be anywhere near that.

It's weird, because I've come to realize that I'm never going to become more focused as an individual. Just perhaps more well-rounded and adaptable. But I sure as hell expect my first job out of college to fall back onto the kinds of tech/design interests I've had since high school, even though that aspect of me has seen little actual exercise since high school. And I'd much rather do mundane day-to-day things with folksy hipster people, who've at least already realized (if overly self-statedly) how doomed they are, than try and keep up with half the people I've met who explicitly identify with my nerdier interests. Thanks to things like boardgames, you can kind of bridge the gap between those with an eidetic memory of stupid metafictional quirky shit who have to act out all the time and those who like human interaction.

Oh, but actual CRPGs. I was an overzealous Bethsoft forum poster at one point and just utterly gave up on that community after Oblivion and Fallout 3. Never really saw anything wrong with playing older games because I was big on Abandonware and the like due to how bad my computer was. Had even played some of the (then pretty recent) classics like FO1 before the reaction against the next generation of vidya, thanks to the internet or Gamespot or something. But after that I felt a need to go back and play tons of older CRPGs - Arkania, Krondor, etc. This summer I don't really feel that need anymore, even though there's many others I haven't gotten to. I think for the time being I have a pretty reasonable grasp on/reverence for it all. It doesn't feel like something I have to constantly maintain. Though there are those times when a mod or some really compelling pixel art makes me kind of miss when that was all I'd lose myself in.

I would, however, like to continue developing my fantasy setting. It's just a question of what the hell I'm supposed to do/will eventually do with it.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Other reason why i love rpgs is that i sometime just want to stay at home, far from the world outside . I spend even more time now with crpgs than in high school or college, not to mention first years of real job. Being on my own boat in terms of work , gives me ability to manage time in more personal way. Other thing is that my job is architecture and im spending many hours a week at home study, creating projects , drawings etc. on pc, and often after job is done i open folder with shortcuts to my crpg collection and just travel to other world be it Ultima, FR, Fallouts, Krondor, M&M etc. . As for wife etc. my family already knows that this hobby is part of my small, sickness with no cure possible . Crpgs/rpgs are also very inspiring, and when i get free time like 4-7 hours in a row, i get my canvas and paint with oils some landscapes or other crazy shit that i imagine after swimming in rpg sea of creations. In short always after journey into rpg i felt refreshed when come back on real ground of life. I think only literature may be comparable to this, or maybe music when it is possible to gather regular band when you are near 40 ).

 

[RK47]

I think I'm OK alone.
I don't need anything else.
People in RL are so troublesome.

 

[Konjad]

I play a lot of cRPGs, not because I love them so much, but because I have no life

 

[eremita]

I love RPGS, board games (Descent and shit, even the fucking Talisman), videogames and even though I don't play Tabletop RPGs, I try to read upon them cause I'm overall fascinated with game mechanics... Unfortunately, not many people knows about that cause they would think I'm a fucking loser. So I do all this shit when I'm alone and although it makes me happy it also makes me think I'm a gigantic faggot. Naturally, it makes me think all of you here are gigantic faggots too... But who gives a shit, at least I'm not living in some shitty country where people behead themselves for jerking over different kind of religious bullshit...

 

[eremita]

I think I'm OK alone.
I don't need anything else.
People in RL are so troublesome.

I wish I were a BRIAN in a jar hooked up to a PC with internet.

Obviously, you underestimate the importance of having a dick

Spoiler

or vagina or whatever

.

 

[Shadenuat]

When new good RPG comes out I swallow it whole spending 10+ hours a day if possible until I am satisfied and become completely disinterested in it. Then I do other things and basically play nothing, maybe visit some old game for an hour like running small SMAC game, but that's it.
I paint&play 40K but I am very slow painter and basically allow my mood to tell me if I want or not.
Been years since I played tabletop, because I end up DMing instead of playing, so I just don't into tabletop or internet forum games or any other pnp games.

 

[abnaxus]

I shoot birds at the airport.

 

[epeli]

For me, it's just cRPGs. Tabletop RPGs (and LARPing, oh god) are for weirdos... other kind of weirdos. Not my cup of tea.

I got into cRPGs during late 80s / early 90s, but I honestly lost a lot of faith in the genre after the golden age.
I spend much of the last decade playing MMORPGs with friends, as far as RPG hobby goes. After trying over 40 MMO titles, I'm finally convinced that WoW killed the genre.
But now I'm back at the start, there are some really promising upcoming cRPGs like Underrail.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS I PLAYED SOMER TABLETOP SHIT AS A KID

I WAS INTO CRPGS OFFA ND ON OVER THE YEARS USUALLY INTERE3ST WAS SPARKED BY A PARTICULARE GAME FOR EXANMPLE I THINK I GOT INTO A REAL OBSSESSION WHEN I FISTRS FOUND FALLOUT

BUT BROS LOOLLOLOL WIFE AND FOUR KIDS AND A JOB FUCKING EAT A TON OF MY TIME

 

[Curious_Tongue]

People speaking of managing hobbies, work and families reminds me of this gem.

It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day!