N and Imagination

[stellar renegade]

There's this dude at work who often talks about his experiences playing Dungeons & Dragons, and I told him I thought it was funny how he conveys his stories as if they're about events that actually happened.

Example: "I jumped up from my seat and ran to the troll threatening me on the other side of the tavern, pulling my knife out on him, but I accidentally dropped my wallet and while I was gone from my seat the gnome who was seated next to me stole it."

The detail in which he tells his stories is intriguing.

He said that he had the ability to imagine the events really happening while the game was being played.

I thought this was pretty amazing. Is that typical of Ns?

I'm pretty sure he's either an ENTP or ENFP, not sure which.

 

[The_Liquid_Laser]

The detail in which he tells his stories is intriguing.

He said that he had the ability to imagine the events really happening while the game was being played.

I thought this was pretty amazing. Is that typical of Ns?

Yes, that is pretty typical. To me D&D is a game about imagination. I've played it with S's before, but I always wonder what they get out of it. They don't seem to engage the game in the same way that the N's do. The N's are imagining the events happen to them (or some are imagining their character as real and seeing the story unfold from the character's perspective...depends on the N).

 

[stellar renegade]

Yes, I played it once before and it was boring as all hell for me. I just didn't get it.

Even making my character beforehand was boring. Basically I just picked a few attributes I thought might work and sat around waiting for everybody else to finish. haha.

 

[jenocyde]

I am loathe to admit it but D&D was once my lifeblood. Yeah, I used to get into it. Waaaaay into it.

 

[Totenkindly]

It depends on how SP you are I guess. I've played with N's AND SP's all at once, and all of them seemed able to immerse themselves. However, there's a practicality and a sense of reality that permeates the S's (i.e., they still see it as a game unless they're on drugs, lol), and it's the N's who can get incredibly ethereal about it, especially NF types.

NTs tend to gravitate towards memorizing and understanding the ruleset in order to construct new things or leverage it, and SPs are great at leveraging rules for max benefit... they look for loopholes.

I definitely can project myself into a character and view it in context of the world I am playing in but didn't really feel comfortable acting things out, I'd still generally have some detachment from my characters.

I loved it, but what I loved most of the time was (1) learning and understanding the ruleset / world dynamics and (2) creating unique quirky characters. I tended not to play much, I would just be alone and design characters and scenarios and add things to the system to make it better or more diverse... talk about 'architect'!

 

[jenocyde]

NTs tend to gravitate towards memorizing and understanding the ruleset in order to construct new things or leverage it, and SPs are great at leveraging rules for max benefit... they look for loopholes.

I definitely can project myself into a character and view it in context of the world I am playing in but didn't really feel comfortable acting things out, I'd still generally have some detachment from my characters.

Yes, exactly like me.

 

[Gloriana]

Don't know if it has anything to do with the "N", but I used to watch the Star Wars trilogy when I was little, invent characters for myself, and 'play along' while the films were on the television.

I write, and if anyone makes the mistake of asking me about my characters, I will talk about them like they are family until I dehydrate. If I get an idea for a story going full steam in my head, I will be sucked into my imagination to the point the world around me just falls away. I also did Improvisational theater and when I was up on stage as a character, I simply WAS that character for the duration of the scene.

Imaginations rock so hard.

 

[TopherRed]

*looks sidelong at Jenocyde*

I played a L.A.R.P. (Live Action Role Playing) game 1 time. It was stupid...but mostly because our mods were stupid. The only way I would ever want to do this again is with my theoretical future wife in a log cabin by the ocean faaaar away from prying eyes.

 

[Gloriana]

Only time I tried playing a role playing game it was some D&D knock-off (can't remember the name) and I got kicked out of the circle because I wanted to build a crack house in the enchanted forest and create "Wizard Pimps".

RPG players think I'm an asshole.

 

[FlamingMask]

Well intuition is supposedly a right-brained trait. If iNtuition in the the MBTI sense is also right-brained (and I think it is, as they are similar), it would make sense that Ns would often be strongly visual.

NTs tend to gravitate towards memorizing and understanding the ruleset in order to construct new things or leverage it, and SPs are great at leveraging rules for max benefit... they look for loopholes.

I agree with everything else you said so I'm going to single this out.

Most Ss I've had the fortune to play any rules-heavy game with don't seem to be in favor of looking for loopholes or manipulating the rule set. In fact, they often refuse to alter the rules altogether for any reason.

[Ex: I was playing Monopoly and we read all the rules beforehand. I was in favor of "having different rules as long as we agree with them before the game starts and are consistent in following them." The Ss completely rejected that idea with the argument: "But those are the rules! If you don't follow them, you're not playing Monopoly! Then you're playing something else!"]

Now, I didn't mean to imply that Monopoly is as serious business as D&D. But that is a situation I've encountered several times with Ss. It's possible they were SJs though, so I might just be explaining why SJs don't play.

By the way, is this the most popular smiley for describing SJs?

 

[stellar renegade]

Nice, Fuzzcrossed.

I actually wouldn't mind LARPing as much, haha. Even though that's supposed to be way more incredibly nerdy, it would be something I could wrap my mind around better. Even better if you used collapsible swords.

I mean, I could play D&D and imagine it a little, but I always suck at visualizing it perfectly. Same thing when I'm reading books and trying to visualize scenery. The descriptions confuse me because I'll be thinking of it one way and then a later description will totally mess that visualization up.

Oh well. I got mistyped as an N a long time ago, but glad I know better now.

 

[stellar renegade]

Only time I tried playing a role playing game it was some D&D knock-off (can't remember the name) and I got kicked out of the circle because I wanted to build a crack house in the enchanted forest and create "Wizard Pimps".

RPG players think I'm an asshole.

Nice!

Most Ss I've had the fortune to play any rules-heavy game with don't seem to be in favor of looking for loopholes or manipulating the rule set. In fact, they often refuse to alter the rules altogether for any reason.

[Ex: I was playing Monopoly and we read all the rules beforehand. I was in favor of "having different rules as long as we agree with them before the game starts and are consistent in following them." The Ss completely rejected that idea with the argument: "But those are the rules! If you don't follow them, you're not playing Monopoly! Then you're playing something else!"]

Now, I didn't mean to imply that Monopoly is as serious business as D&D. But that is a situation I've encountered several times with Ss. It's possible they were SJs though, so I might just be explaining why SJs don't play.

By the way, is this the most popular smiley for describing SJs?

I have no problem with changing an established rule as long as it's clear what's being changed. Otherwise you don't really know what you're doing because there's no consistency. Like Calvinball, except I would actually love that game because of the constant activity.

I'm pretty good at finding loopholes since I take things literally and if it's not specifically outlined against, I will do it. haha.

 

[The_Liquid_Laser]

I definitely can project myself into a character and view it in context of the world I am playing in but didn't really feel comfortable acting things out, I'd still generally have some detachment from my characters.

My experience is this sort of thing depends on the group you are playing with. I'm very comfortable acting things out (I minored in Theatre), and an INTP friend of mine is most interested in developing the game's story (other than say game mechanics or puzzle solving or whatever). Between the two of us we encouraged/berated the other players to engage the game more. I've played with other groups though and I've found this sort of thing is pretty rare.

To me the big difference is when a person truly starts speaking in character. Example:
GM: A butler greets you at the door. "Good evening."
Player 1: "Good evening."
Player 2: I say, "Good evening."

When a person consistently speaks in the player 1 style instead of the player 2 style, they really seem to have set aside inhibitions and truly engaged the game.

Only time I tried playing a role playing game it was some D&D knock-off (can't remember the name) and I got kicked out of the circle because I wanted to build a crack house in the enchanted forest and create "Wizard Pimps".

RPG players think I'm an asshole.

Lol, that's awesome! You would have fit right in with my old group. We were more about telling stories with our imaginations, than we were about doing some kind of tactical simulation. And yes sometimes those things were pretty warped, lol. (In one game I GM'ed a player's paladin got raped by an ogre. I didn't plan for it to turn out that way, but that's what spun up on the big wheel for the Underdark gameshow.)

 

[01011010]

I have no idea, but I love D&D.

 

[Laurie]

I need to find a D&D group around me.