D&D General What tone do you prefer for D&D?

[Sacrosanct]

I'd probably be a bigger fan of this model if the dm's I play with don't immediately get disinterested the minute the pc's do anything heroic, and start talking about resetting to zero.

Zero to still zero is not fun for me.

Wouldn’t be fun for me either. Goes back to the contrast I was talking about. Without being able to do heroic actions at some point, the gritty realism would have no meaning. Being able to look back and say, “man, it was a rough journey and we overcame x and y challenges with just our wits, but look at us now” is a lot more fun than “what are we even doing this for if it’s just gonna be rough all the time and we can’t ever do anything awe inspiring?”

 

[Lord Mhoram]

My most played and GMed genre is Superheroes - so that tone (people doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do and/or power/responsibility correlation - tends to be what I like in D&D.

 

[Ogre Mage]

65% heroic adventure, 35% comedy.

I cannot stand gritty realism in RPGs.

 

[Tallifer]

Hmm ... I voted for "heroic adventures" which to me mean zero-to-hero with an emphasis on "hero" as in as little murder-hoboing as possible and no necromancers etc. All set in a pseudo-mediaeval world with all due reverence to Tolkien and le Morte d'Arthur.

I do like to have some unusual and imaginative elements such as pumpkin spice dragons and clothforged, but those are just fun riffs on dragons and warforged, not gonzo spaceships or (in my opinion) silly anachronistic pop-culture references.

 

[Lanefan]

Voted for 'gritty realism' but if some heroic adventure and-or silly cuteness happen to wander by now and then I won't complain. Maybe I'm after silly heroic realism with some grit to it?

I've no use for paragons of virtue, and grimdark is fine but only in rather small doses.

 

[Reynard]

I do like to have some unusual and imaginative elements such as pumpkin spice dragons and clothforged, but those are just fun riffs on dragons and warforged, not gonzo spaceships or (in my opinion) silly anachronistic pop-culture references.

Pumpkin spice dragons don't qualify as an anachronistic pop-culture reference? I mean, to each their own of course, but that's the kind of cutesy/silly thing that pulls me right out of a game.

 

[Fenris-77]

I didn't vote because none of the options felt quite right. Heroism is important, for sure, I want characters striving for moments of greatness, even if they fail. For me, I want a lot of grey and darkness woven into the background so the characters have some thing to shine against, but that's not the same as gritty realism. I mostly don't like or use the mechanics associated with gritty realism. I don't know what the term is for what I like to run. Pulp dark moralism? Grimbright? Who knows...

 

[Minigiant]

To me I see tone as more of the relationship or ratio of the players to their expected challenges.

To me:
Grim means roll success is low. Victory is hard and always with major loss. Every enemy is a big threat.

Gritty means roll success is even. Victory is possible and usually with some loss. Every enemy is a threat.

Heroic means roll success is good. Victory is usually assured. Only boss or tactical enemies are threats.

Paragon means roll success is high. Victory of some level is assured except in rare cases. Only named characters are threats.

Any of these can be high power or low power. High level or lower level.

 

[Reynard]

To me I see tone as more of the relationship or ratio of the players to their expected challenges.

To me:
Grim means roll success is low. Victory is hard and always with major loss. Every enemy is a big threat.

Gritty means roll success is even. Victory is possible and usually with some loss. Every enemy is a threat.

Heroic means roll success is good. Victory is usually assured. Only boss or tactical enemies are threats.

Paragon means roll success is high. Victory of some level is assured except in rare cases. Only named characters are threats.

Any of these can be high power or low power. High level or lower level.

I don't think roll success has anything to do with it. It's more about moral tone, but how hard the rest of the world is certainly feeds into it. Grimdark is bloody and mean and treacherous and so are the PCs. Paragons of Virtue always do the right the thing and generally live in a world that makes that possible, evil if it is inhabited by evil.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I opted "heroic", but that could really span from, "hero - like a good teacher or a fireman in real life is a hero" all the way to Hercules and Gilgamesh and demigods. I like SOME sense of grittiness in my heroism so that it's not all just Greek epic. E6 has come to be my ideal where the PC's are clearly above and beyond "normal" folks that plow the fields but even PC's have their limits. Even 1HD orcs never cease being at least a nominal threat and large, epic, and DANGEROUS creatures will ALWAYS be large, epic and dangerous no matter how long you've been playing that PC.