Roleplay is more important for players for me. Mechanics are fine, but one of the worst consequences of having "mechanics first" players is that entire session preps get spent just trying to balance encounters around players breaking them. 5e, for all of its massive benefits over previous editions, is still susceptible to some balance exploits that can make me suffer psychic damage when part of the party is on min-max juice and part isn't, and the power gamer part doesn't care about fun at the table and play over the rest.
Obviously, players should have a grasp of basic mechanics, but they have a DM there to adjudicate rulings and handle mechanics for them. However, I cannot roleplay for the party. I can set up scenes, introduce NPCs, work with backstories, and all that jazz, but unless the party is interested and engaged in roleplay it does nothing. On the other hand, if players are bad at mechanics, I can help them with that easily by clarifying rules, referencing source books, and (since I use Foundry VTT) automating the player mechanics as much as possible. That's not to say that every player needs to be a world class voice actor or have Tolkien-esque backstories, but an absence of interest or participation in roleplay makes it impossible for a DM to run immersive stories.
I also assume that, by roleplay, you also mean that the party actually wants to roleplay their characters instead of just playing a game. One of my DM pet peeves is when someone only plays D&D to use their character's mechanics (so they don't actually care about their character lives in the world). If you want that, there are plenty of CRPGs or other systems only options that can scratch that itch if you skip all the dialogue. There's a reason when "problem players" are discussed it's usually murder hobos and psychopathic characters that get a bad rep- it ruins world building and storytelling if everything is rubble and corpses.
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Roleplay is more important for players for me. Mechanics are fine, but one of the worst consequences of having "mechanics first" players is that entire session preps get spent just trying to balance encounters around players breaking them. 5e, for all of its massive benefits over previous editions, is still susceptible to some balance exploits that can make me suffer psychic damage when part of the party is on min-max juice and part isn't, and the power gamer part doesn't care about fun at the table and play over the rest.
Obviously, players should have a grasp of basic mechanics, but they have a DM there to adjudicate rulings and handle mechanics for them. However, I cannot roleplay for the party. I can set up scenes, introduce NPCs, work with backstories, and all that jazz, but unless the party is interested and engaged in roleplay it does nothing. On the other hand, if players are bad at mechanics, I can help them with that easily by clarifying rules, referencing source books, and (since I use Foundry VTT) automating the player mechanics as much as possible. That's not to say that every player needs to be a world class voice actor or have Tolkien-esque backstories, but an absence of interest or participation in roleplay makes it impossible for a DM to run immersive stories.
I also assume that, by roleplay, you also mean that the party actually wants to roleplay their characters instead of just playing a game. One of my DM pet peeves is when someone only plays D&D to use their character's mechanics (so they don't actually care about their character lives in the world). If you want that, there are plenty of CRPGs or other systems only options that can scratch that itch if you skip all the dialogue. There's a reason when "problem players" are discussed it's usually murder hobos and psychopathic characters that get a bad rep- it ruins world building and storytelling if everything is rubble and corpses.