Is Being a Trope a Bad Thing?

I’ve just finished a conversation where I went on at length about how the orcs of Fletnern aren’t just tropes, but are instead a decently thought out society, that is both interesting and makes sense.  Briefly - The various orcish tribes inhabit the Wembic Empire based in the Gold Mountains.  The problem is that while called the Gold Mountains, there is no gold left in them having been mined out by the dwarves centuries ago.  The various tribes are different cultures; as different as American Indians are/were.

So, OK, these orcs aren’t mindless raiding morons who simply attack until some adventurers or other mercenaries come along and kill them.  That’s great, for those who want characters with depth and back story and some manner of goal beyond acquiring a high number of gold coins on their character sheet.  But what if you aren’t one of those?

I bad mouth “gold farmers” all the time, you know, those “role-players” who simply don’t put themselves into the minds of their characters but instead just adventure for the experience points.  But sometimes, it’s OK to be the orc killer - to just be a big, hulking warrior, who never bothers to use his brain but instead just wades through the bad guys hacking and slashing.  Why is this good?  Because it’s only a game (sacrilege, I know) and sometimes it just needs to be a release.

Most of us have been found, mouth slightly open, dead look in our eyes, focused on a screen of some sort killing dozens if not hundreds of bad guys in some rather mindless “adventure” game.  Usually we’ve lost all track of time and someone is trying to bring us back into reality.  We “zone out” because we can.  We zone out because we need it.  Lots of people have ways to check out of reality and stop thinking for a while.  Some drink, some read, some binge watch The Walking Dead.  We’re gamers; we do other things.

I am not going against everything I have ever written to say that you should go out and just slaughter-fest your way through a campaign filled with enemies and plots, but every once in a while, it’s kind of nice to just play an easy character - one without any baggage and without any drama.  You don’t have any friends outside the player characters and you just go adventuring.  The only thing you really want to find is the next dungeon, before you have to solve some riddle.  Maybe you’re the only “mindless” one in the party - that’s fine.  The rest can figure things out.  This week, you’re going to kick back and eat pretzels until one of them tells you to roll for initiative and then you get to kill things.  It’s kind of like therapy - only a lot cheaper.

During your next play session - Play a more mature character in a more mature way, but every once in a while, GMs should let the players just kind of go through the motions.  I can’t be the only one who needs to remind myself every now and again to relax and unwind.