Inspired by a discussion GrahamRocks and I started having in another thread, this seemed worthy of its own thread altogether. A bit of what inspired it:
Graham would be a knight/cavalier/paladin, yeah. One who doesn't min/max and throw all their stats into strength and con, as well.
D&D...hm. It can be fun. But it can be a lot of number crunching and boredom, too. I'm an avid roleplayer, and while I got my start in D&D like many, I'm not really interested in it anymore. I've come to enjoy systems with less crunch and more character-focused mechanics (Unisystem and 7th Sea are my personal favorites). D&D also moved into the figurine-based gameplay in 4th edition which I don't enjoy at all. I don't want to count out spaces in my turn in battle like it's a board game. I want cool descriptions of slashing the bad guy with my sword, grabbing a curtain, swinging across a room and blasting someone with a spell. I don't want my adventure to be a series of rolls that add up on tests to see if advance the plot to the next point. I want my decisions in who my character is and what I do in a situation to shape the story that comes. And if I happen to miss the battle that could've happened, I don't want it to necessarily mean that we're done an hour early.
I RP with a great group of friends with great imaginations and improv experience, I know I'm spoiled. But for me, D&D doesn't deliver what I'm looking for anymore.
It CAN be good--great even! It depends on you and your group. But, overall, just be aware that if it's not your thing, there are a LOT of other RPGs (and other groups) out there, too. 
(Also, most gaming stores have places for looking for/recruiting for groups. Also try craigslist, or find a local forum or email list for the same, see who's recruiting, or also looking for a group, etc.)
Min/Max?
Con?
What do these terms mean?
Hmm... is it even possible for a group to play, say, an earlier edition of the game provided they have it? For example, what if I said, "Hey, can we play AD&D?" or is it, "No! There is a new edition out, you are forced to play this new edition! Forget about the older stuff right now!"
If it's possible to do the former then that might actually be really fun!
So to answer of these:
First up. In D&D, there are a set of basic stats that make the basis of your character's abilities. Other RPGs have similar ones with varying names.
Strength (Str): how strong you are
Constitution (Con): how tough you are
Dexterity (Dex): how fast you are
Intelligence (Int): how book-smart you are
Wisdom (Wis): how street-smart you are (or, how much common sense you have)
Charisma (Cha): how persuasive, able to lead, and likeable you are
In D&D, and other systems, but D&D's the focus here, you also pick a race and class. For example, a Human Fighter, Elven Mage, Halfling Thief, etc. Your race and class will give you bonuses to some stats and negatives to others. A Human is usually without either of these, but a Fighter will have more Strength and Constitution to reflect his training. A Mage will have higher intelligence but lower physical stats, to reflect theirs. A Thief will have a higher Dex, etc. Additionally, you end up having a bank of numbers to pull from to otherwise raise these stats when you create your character.
Min/Max: (I fixed they typo of 'minx') This is when a player puts points into their character's stats in such a way as to emphasize their strengths, and minimize weakness they plan on never using. So, let's go back to that Human Fighter. I make this guy because I want to hit things hard and kill 'em easy. Fighting my way involves more strength and con, so I maximize or "max" those. I don't plan on using Intelligence much or Wisdom, so I'm going to not bother with those, or maybe even pull numbers from there to bring up the other stats--in other words I minimize or "min" those.
Min/Maxing isn't on it's own necessarily bad, but it's often used by players to make a one-note character, and rather than playing out the fact that their Fighter is stupid as a bag of rocks, they just ignore the Intelligence factor altogether. (Doing this is also often called being a "munchkin" or "powergaming", which aren't good things to be known as.) (Also where the card game Munchkin gets its title, though that game pokes fun at this and is silly fun.)
Playing older rulesets: Yes, absolutely! People do that frequently, as well as creating house rules to adjust the system(s) to their liking.
The opinion above is indeed just mine--I kind of "grew out" of D&D and found other systems I liked better, as well as not liking the direction that 4th Ed has gone in overall. I know it's fully possible to have a grand old time in D&D still (a friend of mine has been playing an awesomely epic D&D campaign for years), it's just not what I'm up for in most cases.
It's very easy for a D&D game to become a numbers game, where everything revolves around the almighty die and squeezing out every bonus you can manage, because of the way the game is built. I've come to enjoy systems with a little more freedom in that regard, ones that actively encourage getting into character as a part of the system rather than just something extra. Unisystem, one of my favorites, involves taking "Qualities" and "Drawbacks" as part of character creation, things that describe who you are, your personality, background, hang-ups, fears, etc, in addition to what you are & what you can do, and you get rewarded for playing those up during the game, for example.
Topic: A Beginner's Guide to Tabletop Roleplaying Games! (Read 5555 times)
