I wanted to have a conversation about this. I have done both and feel each has its pros and cons.
Playing with friends is nice because you are, obviously, with friends. It is a comfortable atmosphere with people you by definition enjoy spending time with. However, the game can get a little side tracked here and there. Friends have a tendency to talk or gossip about things unrelated to d&d, and when they are focused on the game they have a propensity to bicker or talk over each other. I've seen sessions derailed over it.
Playing with strangers, such as random people at a gamestore on D&D night, or random pickups on roll20, is kind of the opposite. Games with strangers tend to be very focused, immersive, and cordial with little interruption or derailment. Everyone is there for one thing and one thing only- to play D&D. No strings attached. However, since you don't actually know these folks that "friendly" atmosphere is noticeably absent. Not that you can't be friendly with strangers of course, but I think you get what I mean.
Hard to say which is preferable. Anyone have an opinion?
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Well I think that playing with strangers would make for better role play because it’s easier to hide behind your PC. If you play with your friends then the DM might be able to make more specific campaigns for the group because the DM would have an idea of what the group wants
As someone who's done both, I will say that I've found much deeper roleplay moments playing with friends than strangers. With friends you have a much better idea of where the line is; what a player is and is not okay with. I know what I, as a player, should and shouldn't push for in my roleplay when I know who I'm playing with well. Conversely, with strangers you usually don't, and those lines can vary... wildly. I recently had an incident come up with a table full of mostly strangers where, because of my character's actions and a long string of very poor rolls, one character nearly died, and the rest of the group presumed he was dead. The player who nearly lost a character was fine with this, thought it was a roleplay moment that made a lot of sense, and we were cool. A third player, though, took enough offense that he temporarily left the campaign. I was more comfortable with the other player involved, and was pretty sure that he'd agree with what I did, but with the third player I've never gotten a feel for where the line was, and I wound up offending him and creating an issue between players.
In my other group, which I play with people I'm much closer to, I both know where their lines are much better and, because we have a lot more trust, those lines tend to be a lot farther back. In the 'strangers' group I'm concerned that if my character gets into an argument with another character and it gets too heated, that player could take offense and I wind up creating player issues instead of character issues. In my 'friends' group, if my character gets into a heated argument with another at the end of the session we're smiling and exchanging "dude, that was great". Because of that I'm willing to go for much more interesting moments with those players than the strangers.
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I wanted to have a conversation about this. I have done both and feel each has its pros and cons.
Playing with friends is nice because you are, obviously, with friends. It is a comfortable atmosphere with people you by definition enjoy spending time with. However, the game can get a little side tracked here and there. Friends have a tendency to talk or gossip about things unrelated to d&d, and when they are focused on the game they have a propensity to bicker or talk over each other. I've seen sessions derailed over it.
Playing with strangers, such as random people at a gamestore on D&D night, or random pickups on roll20, is kind of the opposite. Games with strangers tend to be very focused, immersive, and cordial with little interruption or derailment. Everyone is there for one thing and one thing only- to play D&D. No strings attached. However, since you don't actually know these folks that "friendly" atmosphere is noticeably absent. Not that you can't be friendly with strangers of course, but I think you get what I mean.
Hard to say which is preferable. Anyone have an opinion?
Derailment isn't necessarily a bad thing, though.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Well I think that playing with strangers would make for better role play because it’s easier to hide behind your PC. If you play with your friends then the DM might be able to make more specific campaigns for the group because the DM would have an idea of what the group wants
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As someone who's done both, I will say that I've found much deeper roleplay moments playing with friends than strangers. With friends you have a much better idea of where the line is; what a player is and is not okay with. I know what I, as a player, should and shouldn't push for in my roleplay when I know who I'm playing with well. Conversely, with strangers you usually don't, and those lines can vary... wildly. I recently had an incident come up with a table full of mostly strangers where, because of my character's actions and a long string of very poor rolls, one character nearly died, and the rest of the group presumed he was dead. The player who nearly lost a character was fine with this, thought it was a roleplay moment that made a lot of sense, and we were cool. A third player, though, took enough offense that he temporarily left the campaign. I was more comfortable with the other player involved, and was pretty sure that he'd agree with what I did, but with the third player I've never gotten a feel for where the line was, and I wound up offending him and creating an issue between players.
In my other group, which I play with people I'm much closer to, I both know where their lines are much better and, because we have a lot more trust, those lines tend to be a lot farther back. In the 'strangers' group I'm concerned that if my character gets into an argument with another character and it gets too heated, that player could take offense and I wind up creating player issues instead of character issues. In my 'friends' group, if my character gets into a heated argument with another at the end of the session we're smiling and exchanging "dude, that was great". Because of that I'm willing to go for much more interesting moments with those players than the strangers.