Dungeons and Dragons

People have been recommending to me basically since I was old enough to play a game that I should play Dungeons and Dragons. And don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like the idea, or even that I don't particularly want to. The problem is more in the kind of people - at least that I know - that like to play it. And even then, not necessarily all of those people. It's just a couple, but if I were ever to want to get a group together to play it, there's no way in hell I'd be able to pull it off without one of those people getting in on it.

I wrote a little while ago about stats, and how I'm not a big fan of micromanaging them when I'm playing a game. I don't want to permanently sink points into stats that I might regret down the road, and be unable to reallocate. I'm inexperienced in these types of games, and while I've played quite a few, that doesn't necessarily mean that I know what kind of character I want to play. From a giant tank of a man who takes and deals damage like nobody's business, to a mage who dies in a single blow by the weakest foe, but can destroy an entire battlefield from a distance, I enjoy playing all kinds of characters. And a lot of times, half way through a game I'll change my mind on how I want to play.

But the kinds of people I'm talking about - who, I should point out, I'm not saying are bad people, I just really don't want to play DnD with them - have been playing for years. They know exactly what they are doing. But they know it too well. They're so used to playing the game that they're already thinking six fights ahead of where we are in a single instance, while I'm still trying to catch up to what's going on. And because of that, they're trying to plan all of the steps they need to take to get there. They know what they're going to need way down the road, but they have to decide how to get there.

That means that, while I may take a minute deciding what to do now because I'm trying to keep track of the consequences, they take five minutes deciding because they want to make sure that they are doing the exact right thing in every situation so that they can get all of the experience they need, while conserving as many resources as possible, in the most efficient way possible. And there's nothing wrong with that - when you're playing with yourself. But when you're playing with a group of five people, and each of them individually have to take a turn that may take some time because it's a very precise and elaborate game, taking as long to take your one turn as it takes everyone else to take all of their turns...

The game just takes so long. So, so long. By the time I get to take a single turn, I feel like I could have made ten times as much progress in any other game I have ever played. And if I have so much time to be thinking about what else I could be doing with my time, well... I'd rather just be doing those other things.