So I have been playing tabletop rpgs with a group pf friends for about 3 years now...

If you want serious, why do you play D&D? The mechanics will inevitably work against whatever game you're trying to play, so when the session becomes boring, tedious or absurd, of course people are going to break out the silly humor to try and salvage it.

Well that would be around 90% of players most the time. Finding the right group for these things is pretty hard.

You could try online but the quantity of trash players is really high so you'll need to search through a lot of shitty parties until you'll find what you need.

I play for, hmm, around 15-16 years and had 4 games that would probably match your criteria. And 3 more fell through.

I blame an overly-familiar relationship between GM and Player. As the GM, you can't feed the Player's bullshit.

For example, suppose the party kills an important future enemy early on. A bad GM makes a big deal of it (Oh... Shit. Wow. Ummm... You guys weren't supposed to do that yet *chuckles*. Uhhhh...). But a good GM keeps his cool - he can't let the Players know that they ruined his plan.

It's not limited to accidental derailing. Same goes for players that do stupid shit just to fuck with you ("I stab the innkeeper") or keep interrupting the game with stupid joke actions ("I put the sword handle up my ass"). Don't encourage their bullshit by overreacting to it.

Once you start to acknowledge their shit, it turns into a game of jokers trying to outdo each other at the game's expense. Sure, they'll have fun, but it won't be the kind of fun you set out to find.

I feel like part of the problem is that taking things seriously, showing you care, putting in the effort and getting invested has become uncool lately.

Now it's all about showing how aloof and non-chalant you are and how little you care about, particularly when it comes to entertainment. This isn't specific to tabletop games. If you care about a character or plot point in a game, you'll be met with cries of "it's just a game, bro." If you practice to get good at a competitive game (video or otherwise), you'll be called a try-hard. If you play a game that's hard to learn (Dwarf Fortress or whatever) you have no life and are probably an autist. Among movies, there's a general undercurrent of "turn your brain off and enjoy" movies being popular, and people who don't enjoy them are "unfun." Same with books and comics.

Basically, any form of entertainment that takes some actual effort to enjoy is derided. At least that's the general feeling I get.

i am never against a bit of seriousness, but i would always hold "fun" , whatever form that may be for you, as the most important part of any movie

its best to try to go with a bit of seriousness and a bit of hilarity, people in general do not like going overboard with seriousness

>build an epic story, how they were the inspiration for so many grand stories.

The vast majority of stories you hear about table top roleplaying on the internet are made up or heavily embellished. So I wouldn't feel bad that your group is like 99% of other groups in that you spend most of the time rolling dice, killing monsters and goofing off. The 'muh epic story's games don't really exist and when they do you don't hear about them as they're a boring as fuck railroad where the players basically sit and listen to the GMs shitty fan fiction.

>whatever form that may be for you
That's the problem, some people find enjoyment in more complex or harder movies, books or games. These people are derided and often told they're having fun wrong. This is present even on Veeky Forums, with it's frequent cries of autism.

>seriousness and a bit of hilarity
Serious is not the opposite of hilarious.

I'd suggest trying an online group. Talk about expectations and the kinds of stories you like beforehand; personally I think that's more important than the system that you run it on.

Playing a TTRPG as a thing to do with your bros is a very different experience from playing it with people whose expressed interest in it is to build an interesting story. Both have their place, but you really need to be on the same page about what you're trying to get out of it.

Have you finished a campaign? I'll admit i'm never happy with stories i run, but my group seems to enjoy them, and my fiancee runs kickass sweeping epics. it does take a while to get to the payoff, as our campaigns tend to span years.

I'm currently 6 months into an exalted campaign that's feeling pretty grand.

>how they were the inspiration for so many grand stories.

"Inspiration" is the keyword here. You don't get Record of Lodoss War from playing an RPG, you get a collection of stuff from which you can edit and distill the Record of Lodoss War afterwards.

>TLDR: nobody ever tries to make good stories from RPGs and thats fucking sad
Wait... my Dragonlance books were a lie?

I know what you mean.
When I read the Farthest Shore, I felt like it was about our society.
"Why spend effort and energy into making one great rug, when you can make 5 cheap rugs in the same time, with less effort, and sell them for more money?"
And thus, the art of making masterpiece rugs faded from the world.

Taking things seriously, applying dedication and earnest effort simply for the sake of doing something well gets you derided and mocked.
"Why make a compelling and interesting discussion thread? Don't you know you can get more (you)s by trolling with baitthreads?!"

I persevere anyway.

As far as OP goes...
>Finding the right group for these things is pretty hard.
This.
Everybody needs to be on board.
And some people simply aren't capable of it.
I played exactly one session of D&D with my dad and he turned every second of it into MST3K because there was magic, so it must be silly and nonsensical.
Never again.

>Problem with epic stories you need all players engaged and gripped by it. Or some of them will become bored and can break the mood. You need a really good GM for that.
This is another good point.
I've seen a lot more attempts at being epic, or even serious, than actual epicness.
(I've actually never had a campaign reach the end, but that's largely unrelated)

>Even when some of our other friends DM something like a horror or survival game it never lasts more than two sessions
I find that horror games work best as long one-shots.
Once you break for the end of the session, any aspect of actual tension and horror is lost.
After that, it's just Buffy and Angel hour.
Survival can work though, if it's more about pragmatism.

Making people care about the things that happen in your game is a special skill that not everybody has. Don't beat yourself up if you don't have it. Try to participate in more games with different people, and maybe some day you'll find someone who does have that skill, and maybe it'll help you understand what you're doing incorrectly.

>Talk about expectations and the kinds of stories you like beforehand; personally I think that's more important than the system that you run it on.
This is true.

>all RPGs can produce great stories and that includes shit like D&D
As is this.

D&D can totally generate serious, epic stories, even if it's in spite of the system rather than enabled by it.
I'm not saying another system wouldn't be better for Epic Adventure or just in general, I'm just poking holes in false claims stemming from D&D hate memes.

>D&D can totally generate serious, epic stories, even if it's in spite of the system rather than enabled by it.
You do realize that you're contradicting yourself?

System is irrelevant to this issue, it's just who you play with. You will probably never find a group that is totally serious all the time and makes no jokes. And if you did, they'd probably be horrible. But you can find people more interested in storytelling. It may take a lot of tries, and you may have to do it online, trudging through scores of people who don't work out, but you can find the right players if you put in some effort.

>>D&D can totally generate serious, epic stories, even if it's in spite of the system rather than enabled by it.
>You do realize that you're contradicting yourself?
I'm really not.
"A legless man can excel at american football in spite of his handicap rather than enabled by it."
(Actually, that's a bad example because his effectiveness was enhanced by his approach due to his handicap. But you see my point.)

Something succeeding in spite of it's nature does not contradict the idea that it can succeed with great excellence.

You've still not proven why D&D can't generate serious, epic stories. You've just assumed it because memes. Come up with an actual argument first.

Some player just aren't into that, its unfortunate but just because they're your friends doesn't mean they're a good group for you to roleplay with. Honestly, I would throw myself at the mess that is roll20. You'll find SO many shit groups, but I found a burning wheel group that has been playing every week, for four years. Good groups ARE around in there. Finding a group that fits is needle in a field of haystack bullshit, but it can certainly be worth it.

Good Advice.

>You will probably never find a group that is totally serious all the time and makes no jokes. And if you did, they'd probably be horrible.
This is a fine point as well.
A 100% serious, no humor allowed, campaign would be horrible unless it was an intentional grimdark sludge into darkness and misery just to do it.
The best drama and serious works are peppered with humor.
"Lovely Ladies" from Les Misérables is fine example of injecting humor into a serious scenario, just to break things up.

>You've still not proven why D&D can't generate serious, epic stories.
...I'm not trying to?

>D&D can totally generate serious, epic stories,
This was me.
I think you got turned around, user.

Unless you're referring to me saying "even if it's in spite of the system", in which case, I invite you to reexamine the word "if" in that sentence.

What is unfortunate is especially on Veeky Forums, if you have a game that is intense, draws the players in and everyone, GM and player, are really feeling the situation that the pcs are in, people here will start screaming "AUTISM HURR!", because this board is made up mostly of the people like OP's group.
Worse are the people who look at shit like Critical Roll and talk shit when in their games they are exactly the same, except with a third of the functional comedy.

>I persevere anyway.
Good man.

This is the thing. People in good games, the sort OP wants, stay in their good games. They rarely recruit, and they don't post about them here dude to inevitable derision. Thus if you want one you can either get very, very lucky or host it yourself.

>host it yourself
Sounds about right.
But how do you increase the likelihood of a good group?

By extensive communication and vetting.

Support your local cobbler.
Repair your shoes instead of buying new ones.

>vetting
Tips?

Run a one-shot for each batch of prospective players and see how they play, then ask them what they want out of the game. Then heft high thine mighty banhammer and get a new batch. Repeat until full group.

Friend of OP here (he showed me the thread after he made it)

He's more or less right about our group. Outside of of the 2 of us and maybe 1 other person (our group is stupidly large depending on the game and they don't want to split it, on one of our more popular games it was common to have 10 or so players) the group is a bunch of nerds who want everything to be wild and crazy and full of wish fulfillment (in dnd we literally have had access to free wishes on several occasions and have gotten access to basically infinite money)

Don't get me wrong they are all pretty decent people, but holy fuck do they have a boner for the absurd/anime.

attempts to play games that are not dnd or savage world have almost always fallen appart to to lack of wanting to learn rules or inability to keep interest in something even slightly more grounded that didn't involve Cthulhu fuck it up.

It's not that we don't like participating in the "fun". But sometimes its exhausting or just feels just feels like a pissing contest.

>10 or so players
>wonders why people don't pay attention

Just play smaller games and DISCUSS the type of game you want to play with the group. When people have more time in the spotlight, they have more player agency, which turns into investment into the game.

Especially if you occasionally enjoy the "fun", just start a more meaningful game on the side. Have your cake and fuck it too.

It's the people you play with, and chances are OP you're shit at roleplaying too.

Not trying to be a debbie downer, but I have had a lot of awesome experiences with epic stories and interesting character development.

(Generally speaking I find women are much better than men at this, and 70% of my group is women).

not everyone is present for every game, That one particular campaign was just the worst offender because it was DnD during the semester with the most popular DM.

The Problem of the groups overall Mentality exists even in the smaller games. The point of mentioning the 10 people was to point out that it persists throughout. If it was just the 2-3 of us wanting a more serious game in a group of 5 it would be easier to push for it.

Slight bump to see if this goes anywhere else.

I may be shit but at least I am not complacent in going on a 4 session long trip for the sake of a penis extension joke

And Yes that happened. The party Monk basically the monk wanted a big dick and off the party went because it was funny to them.... That dumb shit took 4 sessions. I am still fucking mad

>I am a faggot spammer who doesn't read anything but spams anyway

Kill yourself fag.

Ideally at least three years of play with each of the people in the group. And preferably games should be in different genres.

you're my nigga OP

D&D is shite though

>d&d is shite
d20 d&d yeah... classic 1st n 2nd edition, those are good systems

They're not. They're at least as bad, if not worse.

>but holy fuck do they have a boner for the absurd/anime.
There are game systems very easy to spin in that direction...

You sound like the LG paladin player who joins an in-progress game with a group of neutral characters, and then gets personally offended when none of the neutral characters takes your paladin's evangelizing seriously.

All of this, OP. You need to set the tone of your games, and if you're already doing a good job of that and still having problems, you need to stop playing with people who can't read a room.

And yes, women are better at this.

Yeah, like this is fucking shit. Part of the problem is not playing with people who share your sense of humor from the start. If you can't get into their comic relief it's just gonna be one long slog to you.

Nigga its not comic relif when its EVERY SINGLE SESSION

...

>You've still not proven why D&D can't generate serious, epic stories
Gonna argument myself.

Because D&D wasn't made to generate serious, epic stories. It was made to generate a roleplaying framework where fantasy, monster killing, and class optimization are a thing. It's better suited for dungeon crawling, and only very recently (5e) it has introduced SOME stuff to make more serious stories. The fact that GMs can use it for goofy or serious stories is a whole different thing and totally unrelated to the system itself.

There are other games that were actually made to generate serious stories. And guess what - those are the narrative heavy games.

I know these feels. My buddies kept pitching joke ideas for characters. The first two times is whatever. After the third time it's just annoying and not very immersive