Why do you roleplay, Veeky Forums? What about it do you find so interesting?

If you're being sincere, you're welcome, I guess. If you're not, feel free to go fuck yourself.

It gives me a creative outlet that takes all the effort of writing fantasy but with none of the transferable skills or career opportunity.

I'm being sincere.

Okay. Sorry for being suspicious, but this is Veeky Forums after all.

This is a lovely picture. Can you enlighten me on the story behind it?

Canto 25 in Dante Alighieri's Inferno.

No worries. Do you play with a group of friends or online? My hand is partly crippled, so I at least have a tiny idea of how you feel.

After Mechwarrior 3, Mechwarrior 4 was a disappointment, and the Mech Assault games were an outright slap in the face of anyone who liked the setting.

I started in the hopes to one day find a way to recapture or improve on the same atmosphere that Mechwarrior 2 provided. One thing was for sure - nether corporate studio nor mod community were helping.

That's why I don't buy in to much of anything else. I'll play, but not buy in. The BT collection however, has caused multiple bookshelves to bend under the weight.

Not that guy but it's an image made by an 19th century artist called Gustave Doré. He would often times illustrate literary works, this one in particular is from a bunch of illustrations he did after Dante's Divine Comedy. This particular image is from the first book (Inferno), 17th canto.
The monster is called Geryon, a monster from Greek mythology, but in the book it bears no resemblance to any of it's appearances in previous writings and Doré's illustration of the monster is also unique. It's supposed to be a giant with 3 heads and multiple limbs, not some kind of dragon lion with a man's head.

There's you history lesson for today.

The 25th canto is about snakes and shit, my dude. Pic related (bad quality, though).

Have you played MechWarrior online? :^]

It was doomed from "Online"

My thanks.

At first I wanted to act as someone else.
When I figured out people are garbage I do it because there is nothing else to do.

>For me personally, I enjoy it because it stimulates my love for the idea of the prelapsarian, European golden age of myth. It is akin to performing an occult ritual and bridging the lines between reality and fantasy -- eschewing our decadent modern age for the idealised high fantasy.

STOP
NOT
PLAYING
MYFAROG

...

Also

Between my job and RPGs, I can keep my megalomania in check. Building a world and tinkering with every little detail keeps me from spending my savings on some mercenaries and becoming an african warlord.

I try not to. I play TTRPGs the old school, proper way. A wargame where I control one and only one unit, and something to be calculated and won.

I play it because I'm simply amazed by these "little universes" and stories in it. It is just fun to get detached from reality for a few hours and live as someone else, but still as myself in another world, where tons of exciting things are waiting just for me. (I can also daydream with eyes opened, so it's double fun to participate in a game like that).

I used to love writing.

I used to love creating.

I don't anymore.

Roleplaying is the last vestige of that thing I used to love.

I sit there, part of a group of people, trying to have a good time but really I am just mourning for a dead love that will never return.

I find the real world boring.

Social activity with people I like and escapist fantasy.

Pretty simple.

>dat pic

Good show

Dead looks like he's really, really, REALLY into that Dracula comic

I always found it really weird that Veeky Forums loves to hate on Order of the Stick, but I don't think I've seen Erfworld mentioned more than twice. I often wonder if it'd be playable as a real game.

It gives me the opportunity to tell a story.
Most importantly, a story other people can be a part of.
I'm too dumb to write a book, but I can tell a story.

This, basically. I can't be everything that I wanted to be, so escaping from that soul crushing reality is nice. I think I'd still play roleplaying games even if I could though, because they're also just a fun way to immerse yourself in a role that nobody can do in reality simply because, say, running around a vaguely medieval world fighting monsters isn't a possibility.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

When I play it's nice to pretend to be someone who isn't crippled by (i'm quoting my doctor here) "A rather extreme case of anxiety disorder"

When I GM I get to see my friends once a week and they appreciate my games, so I put more effort into making them interesting and fun.

All in all it's escapism and entertainment mixed with socializing.

god complex, forever gm

i play for the fights, the blood, the anxiety, the elation when a big bad and worthy foe gets fucked, castles demolished, invasions thwarted, damsels rescued, dragons slain, barmaids seduced, innkeepers annoyed, kings beloved... a cool heroic story where regular or slightly above average schmoes use good luck and good plans to defeat a bigger force

also fun times with friends and good puns

As an almost-forever-DM it's equal parts tellin a story with my friends, and getting to see their enjoyment of whatever thing I've throw at them this week.

Seeing the look on everyone's expressions when they accidentally wake a dragon, when the face successfully negotiated for double their fee.
The look on everyone's faces when Light of the Force quietly swells up as the Jedi player sits and crafts her first lightsaber.

That's why.
It's fun to tell a story and build it with my friends but mostly, it's fun to see them enjoy writing it with me.

The same reason that anyone else reads a book, watches a movie, or takes part in any hobby...a distraction from our lives. I love my life but life would certainly not be as enjoyable if I didnt have hobbies.
I have some really memorable moments and greats laughs with my mates playing RPG's! For me, RPG's give an entertaining, fun and socially engaging way to experience a freedom with friends but with no real consequence.

As a player I enjoy the wide range of possibilities that can be done in and out of combat, to act out as different people with different goals and problems, and to leave a mark in a random story, just for a bit of fun. Overcoming challenges and seeing how a story unfolds is cool too.

As a GM, it allows me to put almost all my creative loves into practice. Writing up a setting, its history, people, and events. Preparing a campaign or one-off to entertain my players, and then searching for interesting music to go along every now and then, draw maps, and draw characters. I never really knew how much I enjoyed setting up a different world and displaying its story but by bit as players live and interact within it, and as their choices begin to change what's around them and then they leave their own mark and stories in my worlds. Every time I prepare a game I look forward to see what I won't expect.

Beacuse it's fucking amazing. Tabletop RPGs are the only game where I can get my fix. I can eat a huge plate of beans beforehand, fart continuously, and the ambient music will mask the sounds. When people inevitably notice the smell, I can say that just because I've been creating worlds and characters with a mexican background doesn't mean they can smell beans and farts. That's only their subconscious racism at play. By making accusations of that sort, I can score virtue points. It's amazing.

Me too user, me too

Because it's all about spending a good time with people I like.

Because it's a good way to gather friends around some food, alcohol, stories and dice.

I love to tell stories and being told stories, I love to think about new worlds and their inhabitants, I love to tell me "what if". And I love the fact my girlfriend enjoys doing it with me.

I love to write. When I was a wee bab, I wanted to be an author who wrote he next Chronicles of Narnia (my favorite series at the time, and also I knew I couldn't write the next LoTR).
Unfortunately, I suck at actual writing. Character development, dialog, it all evades me. What I am good at, however, is worldbuilding and evoking feelings in terms of describing a place or thing. So, I use RPGs as ways to experience my worlds. Perhaps it's a bit selfish, but by the same token, I really enjoy it when my players have fun.
One of my most happy moments in my life was in my freshman year of college, when my group had to end because of scheduling problems (and a "that guy" who we had tolerated for too long). The grognard of the group, who had been playing since AD&D, told me "You know, you probably create some of the most interesting settings I've played in." Almost brought a tear to my eye.

you me?
so who i?

Kristian pls go.

I wish I couldn't empathise with this.