Do you need to be intelligent and like to read to enjoy TTRPGs?

All my friends who play D&D with me are highly intelligent engineers, who are always talking about fantasy books and follow a very strong stereotype. I feel very alien when i play, like i am not allowed to love the hobby or like i am not able to fully appreciate it because i am not that smart and actually find the stuff that inspired the game very boring (for example i don't like to read fantasy, not even sword and sorcery). What's your opinion Veeky Forums? Can you help me change my perspective so that i can stop felling bad and alien about loving the game and just enjoy it?

I... um. Hrm.

Well, if you genuinely feel like you're not intelligent, just keep in mind that 99% of Veeky Forums have some form of complete mental retardation, so at the very worst you'll fit right in. At best, you might be the chosen one destined to lead us into a new age of enlightenment.

Good luck, either way.

We can't really tell you anything that you'll actually believe. Your problem is a result of your own lack of self-esteem.

I can tell this from the fact that you consider your friends highly intelligent, when really they're probably the same as you.
I can tell they're not intelligent at all, because they play D&D

If you don't like reading fantasy and scifi you won't be able to "fully appreciate" the hobby, the references, the in-jokes... but you can still have fun. Just enjoy yourself and the game, forget about the rest.

Lots of people in this hobby don't take it very seriously. It's not supposed to be work.

99% of Veeky Forums likely has above average intelligence (above average doesn't necessarily mean everyone's a genius, mind, m8. An IQ of 101 is above average too.), but an abysmal social intelligence.

“If you can think of times in your life that you've treated people with extraordinary decency and love, with pure uninterested concern, just because they were valuable as human beings. The ability to do that with ourselves. To treat ourselves the way we would treat a really good, precious friend. Or a tiny child of ours that we absolutely loved more than life itself. And I think it's probably possible to achieve that. I think part of the job we're here for is to learn how to do it. I know that sounds a little pious.”
― David Foster Wallace

Stop playing D&D. The average Veeky Forumser is going to coddle you with "as long as you're having fun" but you could derive the same amount of fun from a board game, or some video game you play with your friends. Forcing yourself to play fantasy when you have the romantic imagination of a rock is not going to be fun forever. You should find a game you can play that you are into as well. Your friends have already noted your lack of interest and either lack the tact or maturity to suggest a different activity.

Or, instead of listening to this cockfoster, you could recognize that many, many writers, artists, filmmakers, etc., were inspired in their love of speculative genre fiction by D&D itself—which, granted, doesn't lead to very original art, but that's beside the point here. It means that love of the genre need not precede gaming, but can in fact flow from it. You just need to be more self-aware in your efforts to discover why you love this game, with all its many genre conventions from novels that you can't be arsed to slog through.

Don't listen to this guy.
Do what you like OP. Most D&D fans are quite dumb and intelligence can even make you appreciate less the game by seeing his flaws.

>Lots of people in this hobby don't take it very seriously. It's not supposed to be work.
Not me. I can't stop reading rulebooks and game designers' blogs and source material for whatever kind of game I'm running at the time trying to figure out how to maximise the fun I get out of this hobby. I've headhunted and 'trained' players to be reliable and good roleplayers. We laugh and curse and have a great time for four or five hours a week, everyone tells me how great it was and how keen they are for the next session, the online chat is full of speculation on anticipations and I need it to be better.

On-topic: TRPGs are a predominately middle class hobby, that correlates with intelligence I guess.

I don't think you need to be smart if your friends really do care for you they won't really care if you don't keep up with them and will most likely help.

>for example i don't like to read fantasy, not even sword and sorcery

You could looking into a other game that you might like shadowrun off the top of my head is easy to get into but has is set in the future.


Either way tabletop games are made for a wide class of people to have fun with the main part is your gm & friends making sure everybody is having fun.

I have a reading/math/etc level of a 8-9 grader dropped out of school and I GM a game with people who I know are much smarter then me but it seems like we are still have fun. If there is something you don't understand all you can do is ask them and explain if they look down on you because of that then they are not "friends"

In my experience, tabletop players are a little bit knowledgeable about a lot of things, maybe enough to seem really smart or argue a point, but the second they come up against someone who knows their stuff they'll get their shit slapped.

I used to like to read. Now I like it terse. I don't have time for the fluff (which was never very good), just tell me what happened. I enjoy RPGs because you don't have to read, the DM is already terse unless discussion wanders into physics or engineering. Which is the cue to take a bathroom break before anyone else.

You have nothing to fear.

Also
>engineers
>"highly intelligent"

I wonder who could be behind this graph?

>Doesn't cite the study the graph was based on

I can't tell if the people who made this are idiots, or evil geniuses.

>/a/
>above Veeky Forums
But /a/ is full of NEETs who didn't go to college

More intelligent than wannabe-NEETs who did go to college.

Besides, with only four points between them, it's not that much of a difference.

No.
That said, I feel that being well-read and smart can help a person get into the story-telling and roleplaying side of things. If a player is well-read and intelligent they may appreciate a less kick-in-the-door style of rpg's.
That said, I've seen a fair number of people who read quite a few books who are Chaotic Neutral LoLRandumb arseholes when they sit down at the table.
Then again, they primarily read things like Game-of-Thrones books so I'm not surprised they roleplay dickhead characters.

Actually I find that every single person in my group other than my GM thinks they're really smart, but are actually fuckin dumb for the most part. They enjoy all that shit so there you go. Also, you don't have to be interested in the source material to enjoy the games. I don't read fantasy novels for the most part because I think they're bad, not because I can't understand them. Not all smart people like the same things and you not liking those things probably doesn't have to do with you not being very smart.

>friends barely read the rules, ask the same basic thing 5 times per session
>dont read up basic lore, same problem
>dropping his spear and charging the enemy with a dagger the moment i say they wear plate
>they never get themselves armor
>but throw out money for HQ weapons at the start
>cannot make up a name unless they have google translate
>cannot make notes for secondary calculated stats
>complain about doing math at all

patience and preparation and especially concentration are more important than intellect, but the factors you named do help a lot.
had a literal dyslexian at the table once, but he did far better than everyone else i had so far.

Absolutely not. In fact, one of my friends who is considerably less educated and not as well-spoken in my play group is one of the best players if only because he doesn't bother being a stickler for the rules and really makes me stretch and grow my DMing capabilities.

>dropping his spear and charging the enemy with a dagger the moment i say they wear plate
Not a bad tactic to be honest, were they using anything but a polearm.

Is this SoS or something?

Eh, nope, we are all pretty stupid around here in average. For every genius you have like a hundred idiots, including myself.

Also being highty competent at your job or what you like to do doesn't mean you are not an idiot at something else.

>Do you need to be intelligent

Any amount of time as a DM will reveal that "player" and "intelligent" do not belong together in the same sentence.

Plenty of idiots play RPGs. Fucking annoying shits that want to be able to say they play D&D to anyone that will listen but don't have the attention span or courtesy to skim the rules let alone read or study them so when ever its their turn they take 5 times longer to do anything because everything has to be explained to them over and over.

you use the dagger the moment you are sure to score a hit.

someone with a polehammer might still fuck you up because of the reach they get initiative on counterattacks

i dont play ROS by the way, only our shitty homebrew

No, no you do not.

Different people enjoy games for different reasons.

Some people like them because of the immersive setting and fantasy that entails. Other people like them because they like overcoming interesting problems. Still others like them because they get to hang out with their friends, and their friends are fun people to hang out with. There are more reasons besides.

If you like your time playing TTRPGs it usually doesn't matter why. It doesn't necessarily have to be the same reason your friends like them, as long as that doesn't lead to a way of playing the game you don't enjoy.

No, but you need to be intelligent enough to not be that guy.

if everyone here is above average, why are we jobless virgins?

Have you read this board?

Obviously not. On either count.

That's just a running joke.
I bet half the people here who claim to be jobless actually study arts or serve in the army or whatever.
Same thing for virginism or virgindom or whatever. People will say anything to fit in. Now what if the magic internet fairy enabled you to look at that same "sexless" user's fetlife profile. Bet you'd find all sorts of interesting posts.

>Need to get item from safe have plan to sneak in and blow safe then run
>Players all volunteer to do sneaking
>Be like okay sure
>They sneak in, everything goes fine
>"Oh btw I don't have demolitions"
> Wtf
>Turns out nobody else who volunteered had demolitions either
>Tell him to wait there start to sneak in
>He doesn't wait there
>Alerts the base
>Guards everywhere
>Player Dies
>I Die
>Party dies trying to salvage situation

HIGHER

INTELLIGENCE

Virgin because of the aforementioned abysmal social intelligence, jobless because they got bored in school and fucked it all up.