Like on one hand this is not the reason I have a certain amount of antipathy toward 5e outside of playing with friends. This guy tried other games and came to the conclusion they weren't for him. I'm fine with that! That is what I ask of the 5e only crowd.

On the other hand the attitude of not wanting to contribute beyond rolling dice is a bit mildly infuriating as the GM friend.

I think this is the type of thing that works well if you are actually friends beyond dnd and is probably deeply horrible-feeling if you aren't

It seems to me like this guy is asking for something entirely different out of rpgs than you or me

I like how half the reactions to this are "I don't agree with a single thing in this post, 10/10 upvote"

people are dumping a whole lot of frustration in the comments and i get why but the simple pleasure of Roll X To Do Thing, I Know Exactly What I Can Do It's On The Sheet is not to be underestimated

I feel like this dude would really enjoy a board game night.

It's just a social activity that happens to be a professionally published game

Board game night or Mario Kart

yeah like people are going OH SO YOU JUST SHIT ON THE GM'S HARD WORK? and its like i think the type of dynamic OP probably has going on with their gaming group is less "an elaborately crafted world" and more "yeaaaahhh fuck it whatever man"

like dnd IS kind of perfectly poised to be that sort of "fuck it i dont know what to do just roll dice" midpoint bridge

I feel like if nothing else that is probably his 5e only group, yeah, low key and running modules. It sounds like the other group has a GM who is trying to get more out of the table than just roll dice and ask for effect.

like yeah one of these folks at a table is fine if they're not being disruptive or completely clocked out

sometimes you just want to roll dice

In complete fairness this is also why I run D&D. It's a mental cooldown between games I have to honestly THINK about.

Between all the pre-made materials and the Everyone Knows This Already assumptions about its fantasy niche

The interesting thing is tgat this guy isn’t the non contributing “if you’re just here for the snacks than buy some” player that a lot of posters are making him out to be, the one that asks how to calculate whatcto add to each die roll every die roll

I’ve dealt with that player. Unlike that player This guy knows what to roll and when to roll with it.

He has a comfort zone and doesn't want to leave it, that's not inherently a bad thing

Yeah, he knows exactly what he wants out of the game, which is more than a lot of people I've run for.

I'm just not sure what he wants is 100% healthy for most tables.

just play a board game or a video game if you don't want to rp. smh