[Talk] Game vs. Narrative

Do you feel you roleplay with a more narrative-centric approach/as a means of storytelling, or do you treat roleplays more like a game?

As an example to clarify what I mean, in a Pokemon roleplay, do you try to accumulate levels/badges as quickly as possible, or do you tend to prioritize your characters' stories, whether it be writing more slice of life-type posts, or having your characters lose from time to time for narrative purposes?

I know it may also heavily depends on the character you are writing - if your character is, by nature, very competitive and good at battling, you would write them very differently from a character you've planned out to be a more new and inexperienced trainer.

I mainly had Pokemon roleplays in mind in asking this question, particularly journey/badge collection, but if this is applicable to other roleplays too, written or tabletop, please chime in on those topics also!

As much as I do absolutely love game aspects in a roleplay, I in fact have a tendency to blow them off in favor of narrative. I use them, I love having to cede and react to game aspects as a limitation or even prompt for my narrative, but I don't angle for them for the sake of The Game. I won't speedrun, I won't find every excuse to max out my levels, I won't collect every item, or do any prompt that isn't required if I think it doesn't work with my narrative.

tbh I even have written two characters that were in it to play the in-universe game, to win and collect badges and all of that, but they still move through the space at the pace of the narrative! I don't think I would mind playing in an RP that was more reliant on mechanics and advancing based on a Game, but knowing myself I would quickly end up still ceding to my own narrative ^^;

I definitely prioritise narrative. I'm interested in the collaborative storytelling aspect of RP more than anything, it's a really unique experience that you don't really get anywhere else. That being said, it's kind of a spectrum because the gameplay side of things does become more relevant to me in d&d. That being said, my number one priority is always story. The best part of any kind of RP for me is seeing how characters grow from interacting with each other and how they impact and are impacted by the world around them.

Aquacorde said:

As much as I do absolutely love game aspects in a roleplay, I in fact have a tendency to blow them off in favor of narrative. I use them, I love having to cede and react to game aspects as a limitation or even prompt for my narrative, but I don't angle for them for the sake of The Game. I won't speedrun, I won't find every excuse to max out my levels, I won't collect every item, or do any prompt that isn't required if I think it doesn't work with my narrative.

tbh I even have written two characters that were in it to play the in-universe game, to win and collect badges and all of that, but they still move through the space at the pace of the narrative! I don't think I would mind playing in an RP that was more reliant on mechanics and advancing based on a Game, but knowing myself I would quickly end up still ceding to my own narrative ^^;

Click to expand...

See this? I think I still have the opposite problem - when mechanical aspects are inserted into a roleplay, it would feel strange not to use them to your advantage, right?
Then again... I'm trying to change this. I've found myself not always able to justify my character's actions with narrative, that's become increasingly important in my writing, and so... yeah. Guess I'll have to prioritize narrative now haha ^^;