So I searched for a thread and I was shocked there wasn't one. I don't know how many traditional game nerds there are here on TL, but I figured since the community is so big there might be quite a few. So here's the D&D General Thread! I've played since 3rd edition, mostly dungeon mastering but occasionally playing PC's. (Generally Wizard, since magic tends to confuse most people and a good wizard is sooooooo essential)
Epic Sorcerer
First of all, the big question is, what edition do you prefer to play? It's been soooo long since I've played but me and my friends really prefer 3.5 over the new 4th edition (a bit more user friendly but a more limiting experience imo).
i think 3.5 is definitely better than 4th, but it's a matter of taste. personally, i don't like the idea that in later levels the skills and total attack bonus for every class converges. they basically took away two ways for a character to distinguish itself and called it a playability improvement. i guess some people look at it akin to removing THACO in favor of a base attack bonus from 2nd to 3rd, but i think it's a much different change than that.
one thing 4th is good at though is introducing people to the game.
Never was a big fan of D&D though. When it comes to mechanics then World of Darkness is pretty good, easy to grasp and works fine, the only problem is that skills etc. they have are complete bullshit (but the sole mechanics are fine). When it comes to story and general playing experience I believe that Call of Cthulhu is king, followed closely by WFRP and Inquisitor (now called Dark Heresy, have to check it out because the universe there is god damn awesome but Inquisitor mechanics were seriously flawed, even with my x-teen experience with various RPG systems I couldn't quite grasp it).
Edit: When it comes to D&D though, I was always a fan of Dragonlance setting. Was really neat.
On November 27 2009 18:02 DoctorHelvetica wrote: I've played since 3rd edition, mostly dungeon mastering but occasionally playing PC's. (Generally Wizard, since magic tends to confuse most people and a good wizard is sooooooo imba)
Fixed.
Class balance is a joke after about level 10 or so (7 being about the breakpoint where Wizards/Clerics cross the line of "somewhat better" into "strictly better" than everything else). Not that it SHOULD matter, but the disparity is so great that I remember having a player once who got pissed at the fact that the Wizard and Cleric could resolve virtually every encounter, regardless of whether it involved combat, while all he would do is occasionally hit things when the Wizard blinded/stunned/Black Tentacled them.
4E is kind of a fix for it, but all in all, doesn't feel like a very versatile ruleset. I prefer homebrews to fix the class issues.
On November 27 2009 21:53 Manit0u wrote: When it comes to story and general playing experience I believe that Call of Cthulhu is king,
Agreed.
On November 27 2009 21:53 Manit0u wrote: Edit: When it comes to D&D though, I was always a fan of Dragonlance setting. Was really neat.
Eh, I always had a thing for Dark Sun, and Planescape, though it does bring up a point about how WotC basically discontinued every non-Forgotten Realms lorebase. IMO FR got popular through people who WEREN'T playing games with it (Salvatore's novels and whatnot, though I will grant that they are worth a read), because most of the people that I've talked to that have played the old editions preferred other settings.
4E is kind of a fix for it, but all in all, doesn't feel like a very versatile ruleset. I prefer homebrews to fix the class issues.
I've heard that Druid class is the new Wizard class in 4E. At level 7 it gets way better than others and then just increases the gap. But I may be wrong, I'm not really into D&D.
On November 28 2009 08:35 iCCup.Raelcun wrote: Does pathfinder count towards this thread? It's a 3.5 mod that makes a lot of good improvements a lot of people refer to it as 3.75.
I'm assuming this thread has room for everyone's d20 system variant of choice.
The changes to Sorcerer and many individual changes to spells in Pathfinder are very nice I like the 'system' a lot it's not a completely different system it's more of just taking 3.5 and 'fixing' it a bit so to speak.
I play 3.5 Never really got into 4e at all, and I don't think I will. The huge amount of sources out for 3.5 and the fact that many people think 4e sucks is enough to keep me with 3.5.
I'd post a picture of my norwegian translation of DND 1st edition, but there's none on the internets and I can't be arsed finding my mobile cable. Such an awesome translation of an awesome game - using words that barely exists in the norwegian language in places where it really doesn't fit. That book alone is a good read for laughs - playing it using their translated terminology is even more hillarious!
Anyhow, I've mainly played 2nd and 3rd ed the last few years, but I'm not very fond of the d20 system. The entire thing seems built for mathfreaks, statbalancers, munchkining and level-hunting, not roleplaying. I generally use homebrews based off Cyberpunk 2020, Mutant Chronicles or something completely different altogether rather than using the d20 system.
I switched from 3.5 to 4.0 mainly because my older brother insisted that we do so and I found the battle system to be much better. I know an elderly DnD player who has been playing since 1st edition and he told me that whenever a new edition came out, everyone hated it and viewed it as the arrival of the Antichrist. I do not have a problem with people preferring 3.5 over 4.0 since they are already established, but the people who say 4.0 is unrealistic can go fuck themselves.
Always wanted to get back into DnD. I heard about 4th and waited for the online virtual table. I think it was called DnDi or Dungeons and Dragons Inside. I don't remember if that ever came out or not. Haven't played in over 15 years and that was with 2nd ed.
Now I play 1 shots of Call of Cthulhu twice a year. A lot more fun than number crunching.
I played 4th edition, but just couldn't get into it. It just feels like it lacks the variety of 3.5. Fights actually feel like playing an MMO on paper :/
On November 28 2009 09:55 plated.rawr wrote: I'd post a picture of my norwegian translation of DND 1st edition, but there's none on the internets and I can't be arsed finding my mobile cable. Such an awesome translation of an awesome game - using words that barely exists in the norwegian language in places where it really doesn't fit. That book alone is a good read for laughs - playing it using their translated terminology is even more hillarious!
Anyhow, I've mainly played 2nd and 3rd ed the last few years, but I'm not very fond of the d20 system. The entire thing seems built for mathfreaks, statbalancers, munchkining and level-hunting, not roleplaying. I generally use homebrews based off Cyberpunk 2020, Mutant Chronicles or something completely different altogether rather than using the d20 system.
I think the advantage of d20 is how flexible and easy to learn it is. Although I try to get my groups to go more toward roleplay, the munchkin aspect has its merits as well.
While, I confess that 3rd Edition was a pretty drastic jump from 2nd, it was still a logical evolution of the game, keeping the core elements that made D&D what it was.
4th edition was such a drastic change that it no longer feels like D&D, but rather a generic modern role playing game. I'll never warm up to it.
On November 28 2009 19:06 mawno wrote: 4.0 is more balanced and the combat is much more varied and fun. It feels very mmorpgish though...
It speaks volumes about the system if the only improvement that can be said about it is improved combat.
D&D has always been overly combat-centric among RPGs. I don't consider something that exacerbates that problem a good thing. IMO that's one of the things that 3.0/3.5 did right: skills being universalized to all classes let everyone, not just Wizards and Rogues, have a hand in non-combat adventures. 4.0 seems to put skills and noncombat magic in the background.
By the way. Let me ask you guys this few questions:
1. How does min-maxing look like in D&D now? Is it even possible? 2. How does D20 mechanics work out for you all?
Asking this because I'm getting with a bunch of friends who're hardcore RPG gamers who always like to abuse the system and I love to hurt them as DM (or whatever else equivalent there is) by creating stories which make their chars suffer hard for being highly specialized on low levels. Currently I'm working on a story in Star Wars RPG (which is D20) that requires a lot of flying around, talking, repairing etc. and knowing them, they're gonna go some crazy gunslingers or combat-oriented Jedi who don't bother to get any piloting/social skills (I like to do that from time to time, makes them think more when creating new chars). Don't really know if you have any social/technical skills in D&D so I'm not sure if my questions are relevant.
I used to play a lot of D&D 3.5 and Star Wars d20 back in high school. Had great times with both. Haven't really been looking around for anyone to play with in college so far (I'm pretty busy lately), but I read the 4th Ed handbook, and I have to say that it looks absolutely terrible. It's like they're trying to make World of Warcraft into a pen & paper game. Kill enemies with cooldown abilities (with ridiculous fruity-sounding attack names), loot enemies, sell gear, buy gear. Snooze.
My friends and I would always just house-rule patch up D&D 3.5 a bit to make (everyone except Wizards/Sorcs/Monks/Clerics) stronger later on. Worked great for us. We would also slightly nerf Jedi noncombat abilities in Star Wars d20 (stuff like the Friendship force ability was just completely removed).
The best setting imo is Planescape, but that setting only works well if your players aren't min-maxing combat-munchkins.
On November 29 2009 08:30 Hinanawi wrote: My friends and I would always just house-rule patch up D&D 3.5 a bit to make (everyone except Wizards/Sorcs/Monks/Clerics) stronger later on. Worked great for us. We would also slightly nerf Jedi noncombat abilities in Star Wars d20 (stuff like the Friendship force ability was just completely removed).
Random question: why monks? Monks are awful. The only core base class worse than the monk is Paladin (and only because a Paladin is a philosophical nightmare for both the player involved and the DM). Druids are probably a bigger concern, seeing as they are just as powerful as Wizards/Clerics until level 17.
@Manitou: I'm afraid I don't know that much about Star Wars SE, though I'm told that there's less min-maxing to do than in prior d20 systems. Just stick to the core book, so you don't have to comb through a bunch of sources to make sure your players aren't abusing something. Also, check the numbers for the diplomacy system. That was one of the most flawed things about the d20 system, which was that a 10th level character focusing on diplomacy could make a lifelong worst enemy neutral to him on an average roll.
On November 29 2009 08:30 Hinanawi wrote: My friends and I would always just house-rule patch up D&D 3.5 a bit to make (everyone except Wizards/Sorcs/Monks/Clerics) stronger later on. Worked great for us. We would also slightly nerf Jedi noncombat abilities in Star Wars d20 (stuff like the Friendship force ability was just completely removed).
Random question: why monks? Monks are awful. The only core base class worse than the monk is Paladin (and only because a Paladin is a philosophical nightmare for both the player involved and the DM). Druids are probably a bigger concern, seeing as they are just as powerful as Wizards/Clerics until level 17.
@Manitou: I'm afraid I don't know that much about Star Wars SE, though I'm told that there's less min-maxing to do than in prior d20 systems. Just stick to the core book, so you don't have to comb through a bunch of sources to make sure your players aren't abusing something. Also, check the numbers for the diplomacy system. That was one of the most flawed things about the d20 system, which was that a 10th level character focusing on diplomacy could make a lifelong worst enemy neutral to him on an average roll.
Our Monks never had any problems keeping up...it's been a while since I played, but they get insane spell resistance later on (Diamond Soul, I think it was) to shrug off a lot of magic (combine that with a couple +spell res artifacts and it gets crazy), and their punch flurries/ki abilities later on do great damage too. Combine this with most of them having great acrobatics scores and they're pretty good.
We buffed Paladins quite a bit because nobody likes having to play Paladin Lawful Good (which may as well be called Super Lawful Good). Even then, people preferred playing slightly weaker Warriors/Barbarians just to avoid all the rules that Paladins came with. Also, our parties always had bad habits of having our Paladins die off...usually to fellow party members. Playing one was having a target painted on your back saying 'insert dagger here in my sleep'.
We never had any problems with Druids because none of us ever played a Druid. I think it was the one class none of us ever touched.
As far as diplomacy goes, in D&D and Star Wars, we would just completely ignore the 'diplomacy rules' and use common sense instead. There are some situations you just can't talk your way out of by rolling a 16, no matter how many points in it you have.
I haven't played a sustained game since AD&D 2nd edition, which was at once a lot of fun to play and a nightmarish system at times. I did try a demo of 4th edition, and that seemed OK. As far as campaign settings, the one that was the focus of our games of old was, of all things, Mystara - one that was only fleshed out in modules and Gazetteers. It was pretty good.
I've since moved on to playing World of Darkness games (read: being pretentious), but being really keen on particular story genres, I've been really into 7th Sea (swashbuckling!) and Paranoia (madcap comedy!) over the last few years.
I haven't played since high school... I used to DM. I'd use the 2nd edition system for some things, but mostly I'd just wing it. We had some great games --- my favorite PC was an Elven Pilot called Fantaggio Harley.
I have had the opertunity to play both 3.5 and 4 for a while now and i enjoy them both. the roleplay of 3.5 is alot better than 4 (as in the out of combat stuff). but the combat in 4th is alot better, the power system works well and it is very balanced. basicaly i am just waiting for 4.5 and hoping they don't screw it up.
First edition was the shit. All weight measured in money-equivalent? Hell yes. EXP based halfly on kills, halfly on treasures looted? Awesome! Elves, dwarves and hobbits as individual classes instead of races? Radical! Rust monsters making you cry as they ate all your hard-earned gear? Legendary!
These days though, I find DND to be too much based on book-keeping and game mechanics, and far less on roleplaying - not my cup of tea.
I still play 2nd Edition, have done for about 12 years now - Same homemade campaign we play on all these years (No restart or anything) our DM is putting quite abit of time into it
Played for about 15 years and started 20 years ago when 2nd Ed first came out. My thoughts are that while it had (many) flaws, 2nd Ed had more "flavour" than 3rd ed. 3rd onwards they homogenised the game far too much and this led to many imbalances and turned the game into far too much of a min/max fest, although it did make it easier to create a more "customised" character and have the customisations reflected more fully within the ruleset
The 3.5 and 4th ed's were IMO merely an attempt to add back in the "flavour" that 3rd Ed took out and never truely added much into the game.
As far as customising the game and adding more "complexity and realism" dont forget that 2nd Ed had a plethora of added supplements and 20 years worth of Dragon magazine to fall back on (not to mention any house rules a group creates)
My one gripe about the whole D&D franchise are the rules regarding Spell memorisation. I understand the concept, but dont agree with it personally. A spell stamina system eg Shadowrun or a spell point system would be far more logical and not require the creation of a whole new class (Sorceror) just to add some flexability to a Mage
I'm currently in the midst of a decent length 3.5 game. Largish party (6 PCs) though a full 3 of them don't really pull their weight most oft...
Just finished a undead castle on the grey wastes. Big bad boss was a over CRed Vampire Fire Giant. He came damn close to oneshotting everyone and the GM managed to gain a couple skulls on his dm screen during the fight.
Yo guys, so I'm just starting a D&D (4th edition) with some of my friends, and none of us have ever played it before. I just got a Red Box and started looking through all the rules and stuff, and I have a pretty solid grasp on all of that jazz. What would you recommend that I do in particular - such as, is it more fun if the DM just adds lots of narrative into it, or if the DM makes the players do a bunch of stuff, or if maybe I just make up some of the rules as I go?
Awesome, I wonder why I never searched DnD before on TL. I've been playing uhh, twelve years now I think.
I prefer either beat em up types, whether beefy or fragile that deal lots of damage. Or Clerics that focus on tank/healing, no real damage output but crazy ac and healing abilities for my buddies.
I started as a player, but I don't think I could handle being one anymore (other systems are fine) but I like having control of the entire world, all the npcs, creating characters and making the PCs dance in my palm like puppets. I just started an online game as a test (never having done one online before) and its going well so far
On March 07 2011 06:06 ProfessorCold wrote: Yo guys, so I'm just starting a D&D (4th edition) with some of my friends, and none of us have ever played it before. I just got a Red Box and started looking through all the rules and stuff, and I have a pretty solid grasp on all of that jazz. What would you recommend that I do in particular - such as, is it more fun if the DM just adds lots of narrative into it, or if the DM makes the players do a bunch of stuff, or if maybe I just make up some of the rules as I go?
If you've never played before maybe use a pre-constructed adventure?
As for the other things, its a matter of balance. You want enough descriptions and things that your players can well enough picture what places look like and to feel immersed, but if you do it all the time they may get bored listening waiting.
Guiding them along with things to do may help with learning the game, but railroading the players to where they feel they have no freedom is generally bad. They need enough freedom to do what they want, and enough direction that they follow the story line without knowing it, or enjoy the plot hooks enough to follow it on their own. This can be harder in the beginning, once you know your players and their usual kind of actions makes it much easier to manipulate them.
I'd stick with the rules if you're new. Again, this comes with experience, the more you play and know the game and your players, the more you will know when to bend, break or fabricate rules to your or your players benefit or to just fit the scenario.
On a end note, two things to keep in mind. 1. I have never played 4th Ed. 2. A great quote No plot or storyline has ever survived an encounter with player characters
Yeah I'm using a pre-constructed adventure for now at least, the Red Box manual and DM manual come with their own adventure for a while. After that gets done, if everyone still wants to play after that's all done, I'll probably go buy all the necessary books including another campaign and all the other necessary jazz.
Also yeah, balance seems to be the trickiest thing. I enjoyed Archangel's advice of simply asking the other characters, I would have probably been too nervous to do that, haha.
I'll keep the stuff all you guys posted in mind, thanks a lot! Anyone else, feel free to help me out too.
I've always wanted to play some D&D, but never really had the courage, it's such a huge beast :/
I have a regular playgroup with whom I play boardgames etc, and I am thinking about suggesting D&D. None of us have any previous experience except maybe some knowledge about some rules thanks to Baldur's Gate etc.
What exactly do I need to play? The pre-constructed adventures mentioned above sound great to begin with. Do I just pick up one of those and a rulebook and we're good to go? Since I am a huge fan of Neverwinter Nights (Which is based on 3.5th Ed. I *think*) and have played it extensively, should I go with 3.5th or 4th Edition or have they butchered the ruleset enough in the computer games for my knowledge to not matter in the pen and paper version?
On March 07 2011 18:14 kuresuti wrote: What exactly do I need to play? The pre-constructed adventures mentioned above sound great to begin with. Do I just pick up one of those and a rulebook and we're good to go? Since I am a huge fan of Neverwinter Nights (Which is based on 3.5th Ed. I *think*) and have played it extensively, should I go with 3.5th or 4th Edition or have they butchered the ruleset enough in the computer games for my knowledge to not matter in the pen and paper version?
Any recommended adventures to go for?
D&D is complex, but very simple at its fundamental mechanics. Everything basically comes down to "roll a die, add or subtract a number and compare it to some other number to see if you succeeded". Every rule in the game is basically only there to tell you what you can or can't do, what die you should roll, what number you should add or subtract and what number you should compare your result to. Although it takes some getting used to ,once you get the hang of one mechanic (say, combat as a melee character) it gets increasingly easier to learn other mechanics. I will help if there's someone you know that has previous experiece with the system.
I'd personally advise against playing 4th edition if you're a fan of the NWN system (which is indeed based on 3.5). For 4.0, Wizards of the Coast butchered all extisting mechanics and made a completely new gamethat plays more like a Hack & Slash or a computer mmorpg like World of Warcraft than a Traditional Tabletop RPG. The 3.5th edition is a decent system in itself, but it's not entirely without its flaws, inconsistencies and stupidities. The Baldur's Gate games I believe were based on AD&D, which operates slightly differently, but is still comparable to the 3.5 system.
What I would advise you to play, though, is the Pathfinder RPG system developed by Paizo Publishing. When Wizards of the Coast released 4th edition of D&D, they discontinued printing of all non-4th edition material, including the original 3.5 sourcebooks. This didn't go down well with may people, including the writers of several of the better 3.5 supplements (such as the Complete series). So a team of such people got together, took 3.5 back to the drawing board and created a game system that is a worthy successor of and improvement over 3.5. It plays just like 3.5, but is more streamlined, customizable and in my opinion more fun to play.
As for adventures, I've only gamemastered or played in campaigns that were custom-made by myself or my DM. I do know that Paizo has several adventuring modules available, so I suppose you'll be able to find something decent.
To play a d20 game, you'll need a bunch of dice to work with; namely a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 d% and a d20. It's advisable to have several d20's ready for multiple attacks and at least four d6's, as you'll need these to roll up a character. As for books:
- - - - - -
Pathfinder
If you're going for Pathfinder, it suffices pick up the Core Rulebook. This book contains all the rules necessary to play the game, along with equipment, spells, magic items, traps, etc. and contains a chapter on running the game. However, it doesn't contain monster statistics so you might need to pick up the Bestiary if you need those. Familiarize yourself with the rules, have your group roll several characters and pit them against eachother in combat. Keep it simple and play a few single-session campaigns before you get started on something bigger. These two books are all you need to play the game, although there are several great supplements available. The Advanced Player's Guide covers additional classes and rules that allow for more diversity and choices while the Gamemastery Guide is a book dedicated to teaching you to be a better Game Master.
D&D 3.5
If you're going for 3.5, you'll need both the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide for a complete set of rules while monster statistics are found in the Monster Manual. Same thing as above applies here, start small before you start a big campaign. These books are currently out-of-print and you'll probably have to scrounge ebay to find a complete set. There are lots of really good supplemental books for 3.5, but they suffer the same problem
D&D 4.0
4.0 books have the same names as 3.5 books and the same logic applies to them apart from the fact they're still in print.
On March 07 2011 18:14 kuresuti wrote: What exactly do I need to play? The pre-constructed adventures mentioned above sound great to begin with. Do I just pick up one of those and a rulebook and we're good to go? Since I am a huge fan of Neverwinter Nights (Which is based on 3.5th Ed. I *think*) and have played it extensively, should I go with 3.5th or 4th Edition or have they butchered the ruleset enough in the computer games for my knowledge to not matter in the pen and paper version?
Any recommended adventures to go for?
D&D is simple, yet complex; everything basically comes down to "roll a die, add or subtract a number and compare it to some other number to see if you succeeded"; every rule in the game is basically only there to tell you what you can or can't do, what die you should rull, what number you should add or subtract and what number you should compare your result to. Although it takes some getting used to ,once you get the hang of one mechanic (say, combat as a melee character) it gets increasingly easier to learn other mechanics. If you've played NWN, the 3.5 system will be very familiar; the Baldur's Gate games I believe were based on AD&D, which operates slightly differently, but is still comparable to the 3.5 system.
I'd personally advise against playing 4th edition if you're a fan of the NWN system, which is indeed based on 3.5. For 4.0, Wizards of the Coast butchered all extisting mechanics and made a completely new gamethat plays more like a Hack & Slash or a computer mmorpg like World of Warcraft than a Traditional Tabletop RPG. The 3.5th edition is a decent system in itself, but it's not entirely without its flaws, inconsistencies and stupidities.
What I can advise you to play, though, is the Pathfinder RPG system developed by Paizo Publishing. When Wizards of the Coast released 4th edition of D&D, they discontinued printing of all non-4th edition material, including the original 3.5 sourcebooks. This didn't go down well with may people, including the writers of several of the better 3.5 supplements (such as the Complete series). So a team of such people got together, took 3.5 back to the drawing board and created a game system that is a worthy successor of and improvement over 3.5. It plays just like 3.5, but is more streamlined, customizable and in my opinion more fun to play.
As for adventures, I've only gamemastered or played in campaigns that were custom-made by myself or my DM. I do know that Paizo has several adventuring modules available, so I suppose you'll be able to find something decent.
- - - - - -
To play a d20 game, you'll need a bunch of dice to work with; namely a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 d% and a d20. It's advisable to have several d20's ready for multiple attacks and at least four d6's, as you'll need these to roll up a character. As for books:
If you're going for Pathfinder, it suffices pick up the Core Rulebook. This book contains all the rules necessary to play the game, along with equipment, spells, magic items, traps, etc. and contains a chapter on running the game. However, it doesn't contain monster statistics so you might need to pick up the Bestiary if you need those. Familiarize yourself with the rules, have your group roll several characters and pit them against eachother in combat. Keep it simple and play a few single-session campaigns before you get started on something bigger. These two books are all you need to play the game, although there are several great supplements available. The Advanced Player's Guide covers additional classes and rules that allow for more diversity and choices while the Gamemastery Guide is a book dedicated to teaching you to be a better Game Master.
If you're going for 3.5, you'll need both the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide for a complete set of rules while monster statistics are found in the Monster Manual. Same thing as above applies here, start small before you start a big campaign. These books are currently out-of-print and you'll probably have to scrounge ebay to find a complete set. There are lots of really good supplemental books for 3.5, but they suffer the same problem
4.0 books have the same names as 3.5 books and the same logic applies to them apart from the fact they're still in print.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Wow, thanks alot! This is exactly what I needed
The Pathfinder system seems really good, seeing as it can be played standalone and there isn't huge amounts of stuff for it yet according to wikipedia, making it a bit easier to grasp for me, while still having backwards compatibility to give us the option for more content. I think I will go for Pathfinder.
I will do some more research and discuss this further with my playgroup, thanks again!
On March 07 2011 19:18 kuresuti wrote: Wow, thanks alot! This is exactly what I needed
The Pathfinder system seems really good, seeing as it can be played standalone and there isn't huge amounts of stuff for it yet according to wikipedia, making it a bit easier to grasp for me, while still having backwards compatibility to give us the option for more content. I think I will go for Pathfinder.
I will do some more research and discuss this further with my playgroup, thanks again!
You're welcome. I'm always glad to help new people get into Tabletop Roleplaying. Again, if you have any questions you think I can help you with, drop me a line.
Edit: Also, there is a very good Pathfinder SRD (System Reference Document) online at http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ . This contains all the statistics and several rules provided in both the Core Rulebook as well as the APG and both Bestiaries.
We got together this weekend and tried out some PvP with Pathfinder. I haven't purchased the books yet so we used the SRD linked above. It was a slow process at first (there's so much stuff you just can't click away once you've started reading something ), but still fun. After a few characters we started to get the hang of it.
We had some problems with some fighting mechanics, such as range and at which speed some actions happened (It seemed relevant to me, but I don't know). We just ended up doing it turn based, deciding who goes first by initiative rolls. I'm pretty sure we did stuff wrong, but it's a learning process right ?
Either way, it was a lot of fun and we're gonna try an actual game the next time we get together.
On March 14 2011 19:36 kuresuti wrote: We got together this weekend and tried out some PvP with Pathfinder. I haven't purchased the books yet so we used the SRD linked above. It was a slow process at first (there's so much stuff you just can't click away once you've started reading something ), but still fun. After a few characters we started to get the hang of it.
We had some problems with some fighting mechanics, such as range and at which speed some actions happened (It seemed relevant to me, but I don't know). We just ended up doing it turn based, deciding who goes first by initiative rolls. I'm pretty sure we did stuff wrong, but it's a learning process right ?
Either way, it was a lot of fun and we're gonna try an actual game the next time we get together.
PvP isnt the point of D&D because the classes have very different advantages and disadvantages. Teamwork and getting synergy rolling is more important. This obviously doesnt include D&D 4e because that edition has been designed to make every class "balanced" with the others. Sadly that also makes them bland and boring because every class feels the same as all the others ... just with another color.
Dont worry about rules too much and let your fun be taken away by dragging the game down through ruleslawyering and checking stuff. Just go by DM decision OR choose randomly between several equally reasonable options.
One thing to do to increase your players immersion is to come up with a background story and fears and weaknesses of your characters.
Oh and definetely watch The Gamers and The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising. Both are pretty good and once you have had a few years of gaming you will recognize these scenes from your own campaigns.
On March 14 2011 19:36 kuresuti wrote: We got together this weekend and tried out some PvP with Pathfinder. I haven't purchased the books yet so we used the SRD linked above. It was a slow process at first (there's so much stuff you just can't click away once you've started reading something ), but still fun. After a few characters we started to get the hang of it.
We had some problems with some fighting mechanics, such as range and at which speed some actions happened (It seemed relevant to me, but I don't know). We just ended up doing it turn based, deciding who goes first by initiative rolls. I'm pretty sure we did stuff wrong, but it's a learning process right ?
Either way, it was a lot of fun and we're gonna try an actual game the next time we get together.
Good to hear you enjoyed yourselves! After all, that's what playing the game is supposed to achieve. As for the rules, the SRD is exactly what it says, a reference document, so I figure you haven't been able to read up on a lot fo the basic stuff. It's explained in the core rulebook pretty well and is essentially identical to how it works in D&D 3.5. I'll give you a short rundown on the rules:
- At the start of combat, you roll for initiative; roll a d20 and add your initiative bonus (dexterity modifier plus any other initiative-specific bonuses). The person with the highest result goes first and all the things his/her character does in its turn happen instantaneously. This may seem unrealistic but trust me, it makes for a lot more streamlined play.
- At its basic form you get two actions in a round: a standard action, which generally involve combat-related actions such as making a single attack, casting a spell or drinking a potion; and a move action, which generally involve non-combat-related actions such as standing up, moving your speed, opening/closing a door, drawing a weapon or reloading a crossbow.
- You can decide to turn your standard action into a second move action to get around faster or merge your standard and move action into something called a full-round action. A full-round action generally entails casting one of the more awesome spells or making multiple attacks (characters with a Base Attack Bonus of 6 or higher get additional attacks and the Rapid Shot feat allows an archer to fire an additional arrow when using a full attack).
- If you have not used a move action to move, your character can make what is called a 5-foot-step to move one square.
I hope this helps. If there's anything else you're struggling with, just ask.
On March 14 2011 19:36 kuresuti wrote: We got together this weekend and tried out some PvP with Pathfinder. I haven't purchased the books yet so we used the SRD linked above. It was a slow process at first (there's so much stuff you just can't click away once you've started reading something ), but still fun. After a few characters we started to get the hang of it.
We had some problems with some fighting mechanics, such as range and at which speed some actions happened (It seemed relevant to me, but I don't know). We just ended up doing it turn based, deciding who goes first by initiative rolls. I'm pretty sure we did stuff wrong, but it's a learning process right ?
Either way, it was a lot of fun and we're gonna try an actual game the next time we get together.
PvP isnt the point of D&D because the classes have very different advantages and disadvantages. Teamwork and getting synergy rolling is more important. This obviously doesnt include D&D 4e because that edition has been designed to make every class "balanced" with the others. Sadly that also makes them bland and boring because every class feels the same as all the others ... just with another color.
Dont worry about rules too much and let your fun be taken away by dragging the game down through ruleslawyering and checking stuff. Just go by DM decision OR choose randomly between several equally reasonable options.
One thing to do to increase your players immersion is to come up with a background story and fears and weaknesses of your characters.
Oh and definetely watch The Gamers and The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising. Both are pretty good and once you have had a few years of gaming you will recognize these scenes from your own campaigns.
I will check those out. Unfortunately none of us have any previous experience, so the Dungeon Mastering will take some time to get used to, we'll start off with some adventure packs, thanks for the advice!
On March 14 2011 19:36 kuresuti wrote: We got together this weekend and tried out some PvP with Pathfinder. I haven't purchased the books yet so we used the SRD linked above. It was a slow process at first (there's so much stuff you just can't click away once you've started reading something ), but still fun. After a few characters we started to get the hang of it.
We had some problems with some fighting mechanics, such as range and at which speed some actions happened (It seemed relevant to me, but I don't know). We just ended up doing it turn based, deciding who goes first by initiative rolls. I'm pretty sure we did stuff wrong, but it's a learning process right ?
Either way, it was a lot of fun and we're gonna try an actual game the next time we get together.
Good to hear you enjoyed yourselves! After all, that's what playing the game is supposed to achieve. As for the rules, the SRD is exactly what it says, a reference document, so I figure you haven't been able to read up on a lot fo the basic stuff. It's explained in the core rulebook pretty well and is essentially identical to how it works in D&D 3.5. I'll give you a short rundown on the rules:
- At the start of combat, you roll for initiative; roll a d20 and add your initiative bonus (dexterity modifier plus any other initiative-specific bonuses). The person with the highest result goes first and all the things his/her character does in its turn happen instantaneously. This may seem unrealistic but trust me, it makes for a lot more streamlined play.
- At its basic form you get two actions in a round: a standard action, which generally involve combat-related actions such as making a single attack, casting a spell or drinking a potion; and a move action, which generally involve non-combat-related actions such as standing up, moving your speed, opening/closing a door, drawing a weapon or reloading a crossbow.
- You can decide to turn your standard action into a second move action to get around faster or merge your standard and move action into something called a full-round action. A full-round action generally entails casting one of the more awesome spells or making multiple attacks (characters with a Base Attack Bonus of 6 or higher get additional attacks and the Rapid Shot feat allows an archer to fire an additional arrow when using a full attack).
- If you have not used a move action to move, your character can make what is called a 5-foot-step to move one square.
I hope this helps. If there's anything else you're struggling with, just ask.
Ahh, we only used one action each round (full-round action) and thought it felt a bit weird.
I guess I'll go pick up the core book this week!
I'd like to ask, what character sheets do you guys use? We just printed out a few copies of the sheet created by Paizo for Pathfinder, which worked fine for us but would you recommend something else?
I personally play 3.5 and have a nice collection of books for it. But as said most are out of print since the introduction of 4.0 . However all books can be downloaded and also a lot of out of the box adventures if you first want to try out how it plays before buying a lot of stuff / having to spend a large amount of time discovering how everything works. There are also a lot of 3rd party resources from companies like Green Ronin.
I personally mostly play a brawler like a Half-Orc or a magician of some sort but when needed can play almost everything to fill any gap in the group of adventures. To bad I haven't played for about a year and a half. Reading this made me itchy again.
On March 07 2011 06:30 mikku wrote: A great quote No plot or storyline has ever survived an encounter with player characters
This is so true. I myself have been responsible for a lot of derailed storylines. I also once played a campaign where we derailed the storyline set by the DM so many times (not on purpose) it became a sport to go way outside the box wherever we could to further bring the DM to (and over) the edge of despair.
Wasn't there gonna be some kinda web client thing for AD&D. I remember seeing a preview years and years ago about it. I don't really give a fuck anymore about it, just wondering if AD&D ever went online.
On March 15 2011 18:24 kuresuti wrote: I'd like to ask, what character sheets do you guys use? We just printed out a few copies of the sheet created by Paizo for Pathfinder, which worked fine for us but would you recommend something else?
We use sheets that automatically calculate the bonuses from from stats for our 3.5 campaign, but you need a pretty new version of Acrobat Pro for it. Look around on this site to see what works for you: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/character-sheets.
D&D is very personal, so try to find out what your party likes to do. A good start is to do some premade adventures while alternating DM before starting a big campaign. Some parties like to do lots of RP, some like to do combat. Some parties like a structured campaign in a complete setting (like Forgotten Realms), some like to decide what to do on the fly etc.
The longlasting campaigns are the ones where every party member AND the DM is happy. Our current campaign is over 6 years old
Use your imagination and above all, have fun! The rules in the books do not need to be religeously followed. Sure, they povide a frame or structure under which you can play and handle the "mechanics" of play. But at no time should one think "well, if it''s not covered by the rules, then I cant try it" Also, if your group dislike a rule... change it. It is after all your game, played in your home. You dont have to worry about server limits, eula agreements or balance/imba discussions with D&D.
Ahh, the memories of 2nd Ed where there were no official improvised weapon rules and having a player in my group beat a (small) dragon to death with a pipe wrench. Or the jokes about making a player roll dice when he went to attend a "call of nature"... roll a 1, fumble and therefore "loose" his "equipment" for 1d6 rounds.
On March 15 2011 18:24 kuresuti wrote: I'd like to ask, what character sheets do you guys use? We just printed out a few copies of the sheet created by Paizo for Pathfinder, which worked fine for us but would you recommend something else?
Ahh, the issue of character sheets; it comes down to what you want to record. You can find a good Character sheet database here .
Paizo's character sheet works well enough for recording basic stuff, but I'd recommend Treyu's character sheet which allows you to jot down everything relevant for your character.
If you're not yet quite comfortable with the mechanics, there are several sheets that do calculations for you. You just fill in, say, your Strength score and the sheet calculates all relevant bonuses for you. This will probably slow down your learning process, but can help you get things right. There's a good one in Excel format and an editable Paizo Sheet.
If you're feeling fancy you can go for Happy Camper's character sheets, whose documents contain 3-page character sheets tailored to each individual class.
Edit: On a sidenote, so many Dutchies in this thread! :D
On March 15 2011 18:24 kuresuti wrote: I'd like to ask, what character sheets do you guys use? We just printed out a few copies of the sheet created by Paizo for Pathfinder, which worked fine for us but would you recommend something else?
Ahh, the issue of character sheets; it comes down to what you want to record. You can find a good Character sheet database here .
Paizo's character sheet works well enough for recording basic stuff, but I'd recommend Treyu's character sheet which allows you to jot down everything relevant for your character.
If you're not yet quite comfortable with the mechanics, there are several sheets that do calculations for you. You just fill in, say, your Strength score and the sheet calculates all relevant bonuses for you. This will probably slow down your learning process, but can help you get things right. There's a good one in Excel format and an editable Paizo Sheet.
If you're feeling fancy you can go for Happy Camper's character sheets, whose documents contain 3-page character sheets tailored to each individual class.
Edit: On a sidenote, so many Dutchies in this thread! :D
Oh I like that Happy Camper's Character sheet very much!
One thing I didn't like about the one I used was that I couldn't find where to put down character classes and levels. I'll check these out, thanks again!
On March 15 2011 19:37 ShatterStorm wrote: My advise for new players...
Use your imagination and above all, have fun! The rules in the books do not need to be religeously followed. Sure, they povide a frame or structure under which you can play and handle the "mechanics" of play. But at no time should one think "well, if it''s not covered by the rules, then I cant try it" Also, if your group dislike a rule... change it. It is after all your game, played in your home. You dont have to worry about server limits, eula agreements or balance/imba discussions with D&D.
Ahh, the memories of 2nd Ed where there were no official improvised weapon rules and having a player in my group beat a (small) dragon to death with a pipe wrench. Or the jokes about making a player roll dice when he went to attend a "call of nature"... roll a 1, fumble and therefore "loose" his "equipment" for 1d6 rounds.
2e and GURPS bring a tear to the eye if you consider how much you can let your fantasy work up rules. The longer I spend away from the game the more I'm sad that I didn't dedicate enough time to playing 2e. Plus I love happy hardcore and you could very easily build something like a crossover with a 4e bard spouting soundwaves of pure goodness.
For anyone interested in trying out 4e you might want to read some of Justin Alexanders articles on it first. He has written some modules and gaming books himself and is quite analytical in these essays. I found the reasoning behind them very solid ... http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/playtesting-4th.html
To all the new players I can only give my personal observations on "player progression". There are several phases through which you will be progressing and they might be longer or shorter depending on who else is playing. Dont worry, just keep an open mind about other styles of playing.
The first phase most gamers start with is the "Monty Haul" phase where the DMs tend to give out loads of magic items just as the module says. My first character had an extra sheet for all the items he had ... and obviously that was wayyyyyy too much.
The second phase is the "ruleslawyering" phase where you tend to obey the rules as written and where players try to find "broken combos of ultimate uberness" just to be the most powerful character ever created.
The third phase starts when you dont care much about power and magic items anymore and start actually playing your character. One of my fondest memories is playing a female wizard from a different country and since the language of that country was french I got to talk in a fake female french accent all the time. Quite hilarious, but it is things like these which draw you into the game and make you behave like the person you are playing.
The last phase is quite rare - I hope - and it consists of players who manipulate the other players through everything they say, even through non-game-realted stuff. I have only met one person who qualifies for this phase and he was guildmaster in my WoW guild (which was formed by 25 people who knew each other IRL). I like to call this the "politician phase" because manipulation includes lies and deceit.
So there you have it ... my heads up as to what awaits you out there. All phases (apart from the last) have their shining moments of glory, but the first two should get boring eventually and only phase 3 has "unlimited potential" (because you arent limited by the rules / rolls of the dice as much if you solve problems through dialogue). You might encounter problems if your players are in different phases however.
On March 16 2011 05:33 Rabiator wrote: For anyone interested in trying out 4e you might want to read some of Justin Alexanders articles on it first. He has written some modules and gaming books himself and is quite analytical in these essays. I found the reasoning behind them very solid ... http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/playtesting-4th.html
To all the new players I can only give my personal observations on "player progression". There are several phases through which you will be progressing and they might be longer or shorter depending on who else is playing. Dont worry, just keep an open mind about other styles of playing.
The first phase most gamers start with is the "Monty Haul" phase where the DMs tend to give out loads of magic items just as the module says. My first character had an extra sheet for all the items he had ... and obviously that was wayyyyyy too much.
The second phase is the "ruleslawyering" phase where you tend to obey the rules as written and where players try to find "broken combos of ultimate uberness" just to be the most powerful character ever created.
The third phase starts when you dont care much about power and magic items anymore and start actually playing your character. One of my fondest memories is playing a female wizard from a different country and since the language of that country was french I got to talk in a fake female french accent all the time. Quite hilarious, but it is things like these which draw you into the game and make you behave like the person you are playing.
The last phase is quite rare - I hope - and it consists of players who manipulate the other players through everything they say, even through non-game-realted stuff. I have only met one person who qualifies for this phase and he was guildmaster in my WoW guild (which was formed by 25 people who knew each other IRL).
So there you have it ... my heads up as to what awaits you out there. All phases (apart from the last) have their shining moments of glory, but the first two should get boring eventually and only phase 3 has "unlimited potential" (because you arent limited by the rules / rolls of the dice as much if you solve problems through dialogue). You might encounter problems if your players are in different phases however.
That's a pretty good assessment of play styles. I will say though that problems arise more out of a DM not being able to accommodate players in different phases, more than the players themselves being in different phases--if you can present interesting scenarios to all the players, their differing interests should be able to come together.
Personally, I think the place where you want to be is somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd phase. The 3rd phase is definitely where "true" roleplaying comes in, but it's important to not allow "talking out" and "playing out" your character be too disjointed. A player who's engaged in the vocal acting, but not in the intricacies of the PC's increasing supernatural power as the campaign progresses can even detract from the surreality of the high fantasy setting (obviously how big of an issue this is depends on how fantastic your setting of choice is). That said, as a DM I'd much rather have a player that errs on the side of phase 3 rather than phase 2.
On March 07 2011 19:27 Nawyria wrote: Edit: Also, there is a very good Pathfinder SRD (System Reference Document) online at http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ . This contains all the statistics and several rules provided in both the Core Rulebook as well as the APG and both Bestiaries.
Ever since the whole "4e vs. Pathfinder" situation came up I thought that 4e was the clear loser because some of the rules didnt make sense. Justin Alexander called it "dissociated mechanics" because a power was declared to have "effect X" in the rules, but there was no reasoning given why it was doing so.
After looking through the Pathfinder SRD I have found something which seems similar in the form of "Cockatrice Strike", which "turns a target to stone with a critical hit". I would have had no problem with a physical attack paralyzing a target with a critical hit, but "turning to stone" is a magical effect and that seems a bit unreasonable as an effect for a non-magical attack with a weapon which doesnt need to be magical at all.
Thus I would advise all beginning DMs to keep the world somewhat logical, because you need to explain less if it behaves like the real world. Be prepared to explain or change things like the one I mentioned above.
It is also harder to guess the "danger level" of a human opponent compared to "Monster X which got copied exactly from the Monster Manual". This will - hopefully - make players try diplomacy over violence every once in a while to solve a challenge.
On March 18 2011 18:46 Rabiator wrote: After looking through the Pathfinder SRD I have found something which seems similar in the form of "Cockatrice Strike", which "turns a target to stone with a critical hit". I would have had no problem with a physical attack paralyzing a target with a critical hit, but "turning to stone" is a magical effect and that seems a bit unreasonable as an effect for a non-magical attack with a weapon which doesnt need to be magical at all.
Every system has it's oddities and Pathfinder is no different. This feat is clearly designed for players playing a Monk, a class I've never really been able to fit into any of the campaigns I've run. It's also worth noting that it comes from the Advanced Players Guide, which is to say a supplement. These have a history of detailing rather... unusual abilities and variant options that should generally be taken with a grain of salt.
If anyone wants to play dungeons and dragons over skype, im willing to start a group, although i havent played a single game yet i no the basics, and probably cant dm yet then but my name is g4mr_nub on skype, so anyone can contact m eif they want to get a group going, its hard to find groups nowadays
I started a 4e game in Central Massachusetts if anyone in the area wants to come out to Leominster Ma. Having a lot of fun so far and I'm glad I got back into it after not having played since AD&D 2nd. Does anyone have a DNDinsider account they'd like to share?
Skype D&D? Interesting. Sounds tough though, it´s like getting together a group on time, just the location that stops being a problem, but with different timezones, the time in the day becomes an added problem.
My biology teacher told me all about DnD as well as Call of C'tulu, and I became very interested. The podunk town I live in doesn't have any players besides him, and he said that Skype and online DnD is only acceptable when you have played the real thing in person. Therefore, I will be playing in College.
Anyone here in FSU that plays DnD/SC? If so, you are my hero.
Figured I'd bump this to try to get the discussion going again.
I used to play, then wound up taking a long break due to various IRL circumstance and started playing again a few months ago. I'm currently running a game in the Mass Effect setting using my own roleplaying system (yes, Bioware gave the okay =p), and playing in a 3.5 game where I play a wizard/warmage/ultimate magus with split personality disorder.
I'm starting up a 4E play by post game online and have room for another player as well if anyone is interested, starts at level 11 (paragon) with the theme being of a Devil invasion, send me a PM if that intrigues you at all.
Ooh, I've completely missed this. I am DMing a 4E game in FR-settings but I got stuck writing the setting for a town the PCs will pass through. I have no good ideas for a town layout and the whole deal seems ardeous to construct. Any ideas how to overcome this writers block? Any ideas on how to create good towns?
On August 18 2011 14:44 Cuddle wrote: Ooh, I've completely missed this. I am DMing a 4E game in FR-settings but I got stuck writing the setting for a town the PCs will pass through. I have no good ideas for a town layout and the whole deal seems ardeous to construct. Any ideas how to overcome this writers block? Any ideas on how to create good towns?
Well, most of FR is written for you if you pick up the supplement appropriate to the area, but my method for town creating is to first ask what purpose the PCs are going there for. If there's something plot related going to occur there, I start with the plot and build around that, until it looks something like a town. If there's nothing plot related, I build around what purpose the PC's have. If they are just passing through or just stopping briefly, I usually don't bother other than cursory descriptions.
2nd Edition AD&D was my favorite. Was a long time ago though but recently got nwn2 which re kindled a lot of good memory's. Still not as good as the pen n paper version but a close 2nd imo.
Our 1st campaign feels very mechanical which I at first blamed on the edition, but the guy DMing the 2nd campaign encourages role-play a lot more and keeps the story moving, so it feels less hack n' slash.
Ultimately the edition number is irrelevant, its so dependent on the DMs style, though I still kinda prefer 3rd Ed.
Our 1st campaign has become a bit frustrating, just combat with hardly any role-play. I'm in a party of 6 characters and my Halfling rogue feels kinda useless cause he's so dependent on at-wills for his DPR, and cant really contribute much with so many encounter and daily powers flying around.
The DMs character is a min-maxed Avenger that can deal about 100 damage in a round, the characters so ridiculous that the guy DMing our 2nd campaign banned us from playing Avengers.
On August 18 2011 22:16 Spitfire wrote: I've been playing in 2 campaigns, both 4th ed.
Our 1st campaign feels very mechanical which I at first blamed on the edition, but the guy DMing the 2nd campaign encourages role-play a lot more and keeps the story moving, so it feels less hack n' slash.
Ultimately the edition number is irrelevant, its so dependent on the DMs style, though I still kinda prefer 3rd Ed.
Our 1st campaign has become a bit frustrating, just combat with hardly any role-play. I'm in a party of 6 characters and my Halfling rogue feels kinda useless cause he's so dependent on at-wills for his DPR, and cant really contribute much with so many encounter and daily powers flying around.
The DMs character is a min-maxed Avenger that can deal about 100 damage in a round, the characters so ridiculous that the guy DMing our 2nd campaign banned us from playing Avengers.
There's nothing wrong with the avenger, and its hardly overpowered, but it sounds like your DM from game one is kind of a gaming tool. Any striker that is min-maxed to the absolute limit can dish out stupid amounts of damage in that game, but you almost have to cheat to mix-max that much.
On August 19 2011 07:24 Whitewing wrote: So, is anyone interested in joining a 4E play by post game? I've got room for another player in my campaign that I'm starting up.
Depending on timescales etc I would be. Shoot me a PM.
Me and my friends play an extremely house-ruled version of the game cuz 75% of them have short attention spans. It's good though we do some hilarious things that would probably be pretty unrealistic with normal rulesets. :D
at one point there was a war going on between 2 of the guys castles, and they were acting out the roles of generals/kings. One guy was wrecking the others castle by using a trick where you line up several peasants, and pass a staff or something to the next guy in the line as a free action. What happens is that the staff technically passes along hundreds of feet instantaneously, and when the staff leaves the hands of the last peasant it is propelled at insane velocity toward the target. It was going good until the other player began thinking with portals and redirected it back toward the peasant line, piercing a hole through every single one in the single file line.
Other than that, our games can be summarized by saying 'vorpal spoon shenanigans'
On August 19 2011 11:17 Warpath wrote: Me and my friends play an extremely house-ruled version of the game cuz 75% of them have short attention spans. It's good though we do some hilarious things that would probably be pretty unrealistic with normal rulesets. :D
at one point there was a war going on between 2 of the guys castles, and they were acting out the roles of generals/kings. One guy was wrecking the others castle by using a trick where you line up several peasants, and pass a staff or something to the next guy in the line as a free action. What happens is that the staff technically passes along hundreds of feet instantaneously, and when the staff leaves the hands of the last peasant it is propelled at insane velocity toward the target. It was going good until the other player began thinking with portals and redirected it back toward the peasant line, piercing a hole through every single one in the single file line.
Other than that, our games can be summarized by saying 'vorpal spoon shenanigans'
Haha, I've got another shenanigan like that. 3rd edition, take an epic level character with the epic feat Distant Shot (sets your maximum range to your line of sight). Look up into the sky, and pick a point in space a really nice distance away (say 10,000 light years). Now, according to the rules, it takes 6 seconds (one round) for your attack to reach its target. Boom, your arrow flies 10,000 light years in 6 seconds. Recoil destroys the earth and everything on it.
On August 19 2011 04:36 Whitewing wrote: There's nothing wrong with the avenger, and its hardly overpowered, but it sounds like your DM from game one is kind of a gaming tool. Any striker that is min-maxed to the absolute limit can dish out stupid amounts of damage in that game, but you almost have to cheat to mix-max that much.
He gives himself powerful items that optimize his character. Its quite funny actually, he's like that one character from Gamers: Dorkness Rising if anyones seen that movie.
On August 19 2011 04:36 Whitewing wrote: There's nothing wrong with the avenger, and its hardly overpowered, but it sounds like your DM from game one is kind of a gaming tool. Any striker that is min-maxed to the absolute limit can dish out stupid amounts of damage in that game, but you almost have to cheat to mix-max that much.
He gives himself powerful items that optimize his character. Its quite funny actually, he's like that one character from Gamers: Dorkness Rising if anyones seen that movie.
Yeah, that's not a reason to ban the class, but that sounds like cheating to me.
On August 19 2011 11:17 Warpath wrote: Me and my friends play an extremely house-ruled version of the game cuz 75% of them have short attention spans. It's good though we do some hilarious things that would probably be pretty unrealistic with normal rulesets. :D
at one point there was a war going on between 2 of the guys castles, and they were acting out the roles of generals/kings. One guy was wrecking the others castle by using a trick where you line up several peasants, and pass a staff or something to the next guy in the line as a free action. What happens is that the staff technically passes along hundreds of feet instantaneously, and when the staff leaves the hands of the last peasant it is propelled at insane velocity toward the target. It was going good until the other player began thinking with portals and redirected it back toward the peasant line, piercing a hole through every single one in the single file line.
Other than that, our games can be summarized by saying 'vorpal spoon shenanigans'
Haha, I've got another shenanigan like that. 3rd edition, take an epic level character with the epic feat Distant Shot (sets your maximum range to your line of sight). Look up into the sky, and pick a point in space a really nice distance away (say 10,000 light years). Now, according to the rules, it takes 6 seconds (one round) for your attack to reach its target. Boom, your arrow flies 10,000 light years in 6 seconds. Recoil destroys the earth and everything on it.
I like it O.o Seems vaguely more legit than our trick
On August 19 2011 11:17 Warpath wrote: Me and my friends play an extremely house-ruled version of the game cuz 75% of them have short attention spans. It's good though we do some hilarious things that would probably be pretty unrealistic with normal rulesets. :D
at one point there was a war going on between 2 of the guys castles, and they were acting out the roles of generals/kings. One guy was wrecking the others castle by using a trick where you line up several peasants, and pass a staff or something to the next guy in the line as a free action. What happens is that the staff technically passes along hundreds of feet instantaneously, and when the staff leaves the hands of the last peasant it is propelled at insane velocity toward the target. It was going good until the other player began thinking with portals and redirected it back toward the peasant line, piercing a hole through every single one in the single file line.
Other than that, our games can be summarized by saying 'vorpal spoon shenanigans'
Haha, I've got another shenanigan like that. 3rd edition, take an epic level character with the epic feat Distant Shot (sets your maximum range to your line of sight). Look up into the sky, and pick a point in space a really nice distance away (say 10,000 light years). Now, according to the rules, it takes 6 seconds (one round) for your attack to reach its target. Boom, your arrow flies 10,000 light years in 6 seconds. Recoil destroys the earth and everything on it.
I like it O.o Seems vaguely more legit than our trick
Heh =p. There are a whole bunch more tricks. I remember when I was younger I hung out on the WOTC boards and helped min-max a bunch of the most powerful 3.5 character builds that existed. I remember helping make the hulking hurler character that could do 10^26 d6 damage + str at level 20, that was fun. At one level higher he can throw planets across the galaxy in the blink of an eye. The scary thing? An epic monk can catch it and throw it back.
I also created the psionic sandwich, and was one of the guys helping give ideas to Khan The Destroyer when Pun-Pun was made.
Hey guys, Major D&D noob here with a quick question:
Me and my friends have played a few scenarios of AD&D 2nd ed and we're continuing to run it on a weekly/biweekly basis. Should we keep playing AD&D 2nd ed, or should we move up to 3.5 edition? (4th ed looks bad). I've played neverwinter nights 2 and KOTOR and I liked the system a lot :3
On August 19 2011 11:17 Warpath wrote: Me and my friends play an extremely house-ruled version of the game cuz 75% of them have short attention spans. It's good though we do some hilarious things that would probably be pretty unrealistic with normal rulesets. :D
at one point there was a war going on between 2 of the guys castles, and they were acting out the roles of generals/kings. One guy was wrecking the others castle by using a trick where you line up several peasants, and pass a staff or something to the next guy in the line as a free action. What happens is that the staff technically passes along hundreds of feet instantaneously, and when the staff leaves the hands of the last peasant it is propelled at insane velocity toward the target. It was going good until the other player began thinking with portals and redirected it back toward the peasant line, piercing a hole through every single one in the single file line.
Other than that, our games can be summarized by saying 'vorpal spoon shenanigans'
Haha, I've got another shenanigan like that. 3rd edition, take an epic level character with the epic feat Distant Shot (sets your maximum range to your line of sight). Look up into the sky, and pick a point in space a really nice distance away (say 10,000 light years). Now, according to the rules, it takes 6 seconds (one round) for your attack to reach its target. Boom, your arrow flies 10,000 light years in 6 seconds. Recoil destroys the earth and everything on it.
I like it O.o Seems vaguely more legit than our trick
Heh =p. There are a whole bunch more tricks. I remember when I was younger I hung out on the WOTC boards and helped min-max a bunch of the most powerful 3.5 character builds that existed. I remember helping make the hulking hurler character that could do 10^26 d6 damage + str at level 20, that was fun. At one level higher he can throw planets across the galaxy in the blink of an eye. The scary thing? An epic monk can catch it and throw it back.
I also created the psionic sandwich, and was one of the guys helping give ideas to Khan The Destroyer when Pun-Pun was made.
Haha, I seen the Hulking Hurler when I was a lot younger and then used the build for one of my low level characters. Well I wasn't planning to break the game but the idea of a guy that always has one attack with a huge boulder and does huge damage appealing at the time :D
If I remember correctly HH could destroy Earth with his boulder after few strikes.
BTW, if anyone is interested in some 4e turn based hack and slash, check out Heroes of Neverwinter game on Facebook. The game is awesome if you don't look for roleplaying but just some relaxing combat :D
On October 13 2011 19:54 TempusDESU wrote: Hey guys, Major D&D noob here with a quick question:
Me and my friends have played a few scenarios of AD&D 2nd ed and we're continuing to run it on a weekly/biweekly basis. Should we keep playing AD&D 2nd ed, or should we move up to 3.5 edition? (4th ed looks bad). I've played neverwinter nights 2 and KOTOR and I liked the system a lot :3
Sorry for the bump btw
For sure don't move to 3.5e. If you plan to "upgrade" from 2nd edition go for pathfinder (that is 3.75e), much more fun and balanced then 3.5e.
Biggest difference between 2nd and 3.5/pathfinder is more freedom when creating characters as well uniform rules for XP for classes, no max levels for classes based on the race, simpler combat stats (but more complex combat maneuvers except in pathfinder where they tried to again make it more simple then 3.5e).
But 3.5e/pathfinder also allows players to min/max like crazy if they so wish.
On August 19 2011 04:36 Whitewing wrote: There's nothing wrong with the avenger, and its hardly overpowered, but it sounds like your DM from game one is kind of a gaming tool. Any striker that is min-maxed to the absolute limit can dish out stupid amounts of damage in that game, but you almost have to cheat to mix-max that much.
He gives himself powerful items that optimize his character. Its quite funny actually, he's like that one character from Gamers: Dorkness Rising if anyones seen that movie.
This is far more a problem with the DM trying to godmode than it is a problem with the class. These kinds of DMs are trash.
On October 13 2011 19:54 TempusDESU wrote: Hey guys, Major D&D noob here with a quick question:
Me and my friends have played a few scenarios of AD&D 2nd ed and we're continuing to run it on a weekly/biweekly basis. Should we keep playing AD&D 2nd ed, or should we move up to 3.5 edition? (4th ed looks bad). I've played neverwinter nights 2 and KOTOR and I liked the system a lot :3
Sorry for the bump btw
2e for fucking life bro! That's where the true hardcore players live.
But seriously, 4e is garbage. Pathfinder is closer to what you're looking at.
On August 19 2011 07:24 Whitewing wrote: So, is anyone interested in joining a 4E play by post game? I've got room for another player in my campaign that I'm starting up.
Check out OpenRPG or any of the other virtual tabletops. I know play by post games are the likes of which you can fit into any schedule and that's often what sells them, but doing a real campaign in real time over the internet is more like playing IRL.
I personally love DnD 4th. It has a really cool combat system that actually is fun and works. In 3.5 combat felt more like a bother to me, especially as low level wizard or any basic attack char. And if your DM is any good, it's just as good for roleplay and improv.
I think because combat is actually fun, 4th edition has the major pitfall of being too combat centric, but this is really a problem of the DM and not the ruleset.
I heard alot of good things about pathfinder though must check it out some time.
On August 20 2011 17:06 Whitewing wrote: I remember helping make the hulking hurler character that could do 10^26 d6 damage + str at level 20, that was fun. At one level higher he can throw planets across the galaxy in the blink of an eye. The scary thing? An epic monk can catch it and throw it back.
I'd actually be down to start an OpenRPG Pathfinder or Basic Roleplaying campaign (or I guess 4e lol since this is specifically a DnD thread and not general roleplaying. :p) if anyone else is interested.
On August 20 2011 17:06 Whitewing wrote: I remember helping make the hulking hurler character that could do 10^26 d6 damage + str at level 20, that was fun. At one level higher he can throw planets across the galaxy in the blink of an eye. The scary thing? An epic monk can catch it and throw it back.
Heh, yeah, the range limit is actually line of sight at level 21 (epic feat distant shot), and by the rules the attack hits in the same round it is launched, so no more than 6 seconds to hit the target. So the level 21 hulking hurler can throw rocks the size of planets to the edge of the observable universe in 6 seconds flat.
On August 20 2011 17:06 Whitewing wrote: I remember helping make the hulking hurler character that could do 10^26 d6 damage + str at level 20, that was fun. At one level higher he can throw planets across the galaxy in the blink of an eye. The scary thing? An epic monk can catch it and throw it back.
Heh, yeah, the range limit is actually line of sight at level 21 (epic feat distant shot), and by the rules the attack hits in the same round it is launched, so no more than 6 seconds to hit the target. So the level 21 hulking hurler can throw rocks the size of planets to the edge of the observable universe in 6 seconds flat.
Can you say recoil?
Wait a minute, but doesn't physics say....
Magic.
I know, but I mean it's supposed to be somewhat realistic so....
On August 20 2011 17:06 Whitewing wrote: I remember helping make the hulking hurler character that could do 10^26 d6 damage + str at level 20, that was fun. At one level higher he can throw planets across the galaxy in the blink of an eye. The scary thing? An epic monk can catch it and throw it back.
Heh, yeah, the range limit is actually line of sight at level 21 (epic feat distant shot), and by the rules the attack hits in the same round it is launched, so no more than 6 seconds to hit the target. So the level 21 hulking hurler can throw rocks the size of planets to the edge of the observable universe in 6 seconds flat.
Can you say recoil?
Wait a minute, but doesn't physics say....
Magic.
I know, but I mean it's supposed to be somewhat realistic so....
MAGIC.
Well yeah, but...
MOTHERFUCKING MAGIC!
Lol yeah, that's the 'minmaxer's/gm's quandry' set in motion. Stuff like that and Chuck E. Cheese can't really be demonstrable in any universe that obeys physical law because they can't exist in such a universe. Best to ignore pesky things like recoil and physics altogether.
Also one can't see to the edge of the observable universe, only to the eons old light generated by now-dead celestial bodies. That doesn't count IMO.
On October 14 2011 15:23 BLinD-RawR wrote: am I the only one who feels that D&D is too big for just one thread?
Eh, no reason to break it up. This thread took damn near two years to break 5 pages, so I'd say in this context, no.
Is the subject matter interesting and deep? Yes. Is there enough aggregate interest in it to justify creating an entire child forum to it on TL.net? Proly not IMO.
On October 14 2011 15:36 youngminii wrote: I've always wanted to play D&D but literally no one I know has even heard of it.
Then the way to do it is to just ask your friends one day "Hey guys, I've always wanted to try this game, would you guys be willing to try it with me?" If they say yes, great, you get to play it. If they say no, don't be discouraged, go visit some gaming sites that feature D&D and make a post asking about people in your area that play. Put posters up in your school or something, and start a facebook group or whatever. You just need to figure out a way to reach people in the area that you don't know yet, and give them a way to contact you.
The most fun i've ever had with DND was a 1 day oneshot run buy a guy who is an amazing DM
We didn't have to roll any of the dice, we didn't level up or have to pick our skills - he just told us what kind of stuff we were capable of He had a list of about 10 characters and 7 of us and we were allowed to pick the ones we liked - he gave us a background to each char, and for each of us dragged us into a secret room to tell us extra stuff about the charas
It was amazing - there was no dicerolling and it was basically story telling for 7 hours haha
edit: the DM rolled for us. For example, i rolled a 2 on an arm wrestle, so i lost to some big human when i was the scary orc D:
Can someone help me figure out augments in 4e for psions? I told my players to use whatever they wanted and ended up with a monk that csn read minds and a psion changling. This is hard.
some people on my hall at school played last year / over the summer, so they're DMing a game for me + a bunch of other newbies from our hall. Fun stuff, though we've only done 3 encounters and have yet to fight the first boss (which will be next encounter)... the main problem is that it takes so damn long I really enjoy playing though ^^ (though RPing is hard when you're coming from video games where RP is basically done for you...)
Awesome! I like the combat but the most fun is becoming whatever you want. It's DragonAge x10. The more into it you get the more fun (and nerdy) the game it. If you want to go crazy join the drama club too. Improv is so fun!!
Hey, I wasn't sure if it was a better idea to post a new thread or bump this, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips for a group of people completely new to this game to get started. I've been looking at this starter set http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/244660000 as possibly a good way for us to learn the basics, but I wanted to check if maybe anyone else had any advice for some other set I should consider buying.
Edit: Also the reason I'm kind of hesitant on the set in the link is that there are six of us, and that set specifies 1-5 players.
I don't recommend 4E D&D personally. You could probably find used 2E/3E Players Handbooks/DM Guides/Etc. really cheaply.
Other great tabletop games: Dark Heresy (If you're into Warhammer) Shadowrun (cyberpunk) Cthulu D20
I suppose 4E is alright for complete beginners to tabletop games but it's not a great system. They overcomplicated combat and made the books focus way more on the adventuring/combat element of the game rather than the roleplaying and DM Creativity. If you can't find the 3E or 3.5 books and some dice at a better price then you might as well get this I suppose.
The Pathfinder game is an updated version of D&D 3.5 without the stuff that makes a lot of gamers hate 4E: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/
Really good SRD/Online stuff for that. Having a physical book is best of course though and if you enjoy tabletop I highly recommend going back to an earlier edition, checking out some different games that are available that aren't D&D derivatives, and getting yourself a battle mat. The battle mat is one of the best tools for a DM/tabletop group to have: http://chessex.com/mats/Battlemats_MegamatsReversible.htm
Wet erase vinyl grid maps (1 sq = 5sq ft in game). Use the water soluble markers to essentially draw the game world on the mat quickly. Quickest and easiest way to draw rooms/obstacles/etc and they're very portable and easy to clean.
Whoa, that battle map looks awesome, will definitely be getting that. Also, as for the pathfinder game, if I print out all those pages (or at least all the ones I think I'll need), get some dice, and a battle mat, will that essentially be the same thing as owning a D&D set?
Well, I recommend buying a DM guide if you wanna run an adventure. Dungeon Mastering is very different from playing.
Tabletop RPG's need a game master. This is the person who roleplays the part of all NPC's, describes and maps out the environments, and has complete control over the game world. Essentially the GM is the game that the players are playing. Because it is not a video game with preset environments and algorithms that determine what happens in the game world, the GM must describe the environments and determine what occurs in the world on his own.
I recommend looking for pre-made adventures written by professionals or by very talented writers/DM's to start with. If you're interested in DMing learn as much as you can from them.
The DM tools you get from a DM guide are things like: wealth tables (how much money/value should your players get from an encounter) experience tables random encounter tables combat modifiers (weather/environment mods) lists of traps, magic weapons, treasures, events, adventure hooks, etc. lots and lots of random generator tables (generate an NPC, generate a town, generate a dungeon, etc.) advice from professionals
Once you get a feel for mechanics and balance and what your players like you can go outside the premade stuff and create your own settings, storylines, items, monsters, etc.
If you print everything I would organize it into different sections, perhaps in binders. Label one as "PLAYER INFORMATION" or Player's Handbook, whatever you want
that should include (exclude all the 3rd party material to keep things simple): Basics & Ability Scores Alignment & Description Races Classes (just include Core and Base classes for now) Feats Traits Equipment Magic
Then make a separate folder/binder for the DM and include: Gamemastering Magic Items
Also separate out the Beastiary. This contains all the stats for the various monsters that will be encountered.
It's a bit difficult for an entire group of noobs to run a game by themselves, it's overwhelming for someone who has never played before to DM a game or even totally get the concept. Most games shops have D&D groups that play there regularly and some participate and some participate in RPGA which is a Wizard run sort of organization for shared D&D campaigns. This is the easiest way to jump into a game with an experience GM.
To finally answer your last question: D&D is a game of imagination. You need as much as is helpful to you. Dice, paper, and having the rules on hand are pretty essential in my opinion. Miniatures, mats, and other things are very helpful especially to new players but are not completely needed. I've played D&D with army men on graph paper and it was fine. Look on ebay or amazon for a good cheap set with tons of bundled dice. Don't buy into the fancy flashy dice that cost 30 dollars for one set, DwarvenWorkshop or whatever sells dice that cost like 35 bucks just for gold speckles and the color designs. So shop around and always look to see what you can find used or online first. Good luck with your first session!
http://chessex.com/Dice/poundofdice.htm - pound of dice is a good deal if you and a few friends split the cost and then split the dice up so everyone has their own set or two and it's hella cheap that way. Look for maybe a used bunch of miniatures too if you plan on getting the mat, lots of the minis are basically valueless and you could probably find bags of em at a good price if you looked around.
A word of advice for newbies, focus on your to-hit bonuses when building a character. 4E is all about tactical combat. If you're DMing, consider giving out Expertise feats for free, as IMO they're a feat tax. The first 4E campaign I played with friends had some really close scrapes with a bunch of heartbreaking misses. I think the DM ended up bailing us out of a few fights. The thing that surprised me was we weren't completely terrible characters, just a couple points short of optimized, but it showed. The second time around, with characters focused on hitting first, and doing cool stuff second, the table experience was a lot more enjoyable.
Hey, something I'm really missing in 4ed is the random loot generator. Does anyone know of a good way of doing this?
I want to define the level of the encounter and how many players are in the party and I want to know how much loot I should give them (I think this is in the DMG) but I also want to randomize the specifics of the loot.
On March 10 2012 17:39 Cuddle wrote: Hey, something I'm really missing in 4ed is the random loot generator. Does anyone know of a good way of doing this?
I want to define the level of the encounter and how many players are in the party and I want to know how much loot I should give them (I think this is in the DMG) but I also want to randomize the specifics of the loot.
I basically hate every D&D game, not matter what kind it is (role play, Baldurs Gate, ect.). My best memories from the past are from Warhammer RPG and Call of Cthulhu. We had few games in AD&D 2nd edition, and I remember how colorfull world was, and class levels reaching 99 (i think..). Warhammer was always more interesting to me in terms of world and mechanics. And all that THAC0 thing... Bleh;)
Anyway, don't get me wrong. Everyone have their own favorites. I am really glad there are some players that still are able to play that kind of games (no matter the system). I think they shaped me more then anything else in my youth. Without them I would propably be different person atm.
I think the biggest issue with D&D now (and what makes AD&D superior) is the lack of focus on storytelling/role play and the focus on MMORPG like perks/minmaxing and combat. People worry about making the strongest character and not the best narrative in my experience, it's backwards. I think it's just how the video game generation thinks.
On March 10 2012 17:39 Cuddle wrote: Hey, something I'm really missing in 4ed is the random loot generator. Does anyone know of a good way of doing this?
I want to define the level of the encounter and how many players are in the party and I want to know how much loot I should give them (I think this is in the DMG) but I also want to randomize the specifics of the loot.
Hey me and my friends were looking out to try playing this i was wondering if anyone has links and some info how to get started out playing and what to buy etc.
On March 11 2012 07:34 unnar wrote: Hey me and my friends were looking out to try playing this i was wondering if anyone has links and some info how to get started out playing and what to buy etc.
Look at the top of this page, you'll find some solid advice there.
I've been DM'ing for 10 years or so (3rd and 3.5, and most recently Pathfinder). IMO this system is far superior to 4th edition, which feels like World of Warcraft with dice. 3rd edition is flexible enough to have epic storytelling moments. You probably want Pathfinder or 3.5 Edition: Pathfinder is a community-made "revision" of 3.5.
New DM's and players should probably start with a prewritten adventure as a starting point. Some of the old ones are very very fine. You are always free to embellish as much as you want, but just starting out it's sometimes hard to know how to design combat encounters and monsters and so on. Let someone else do the work, and you can focus on storytelling and bringing the world to life. A couple of good ones to start with might be Sunless Citadel and The Forge of Fury for 3.5; I don't know about Pathfinder, although the adventures are cross-compatible since the rules don't change that much. The great granddaddy of 3.5 adventures, and one which I highly recommend if you are ambitious, is Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It is an awesome balance between exploration, puzzle-solving, roleplaying, and fucking awesome combat.
You don't need to buy lots of stuff. There is the Player's Handbook, which you need a couple of copies of; the DM's Guide, of which you need one, and the Monster Manual, which you will want one copy of, plus maybe a second if you have a druid PC. All of the information is online, though -- see http://www.d20srd.org/ (3.5 edition) or http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ (Pathfinder).
The best thing that you and your players can do is to read adventure logs to get a feeling for how D&D plays, and the sorts of awesome things that can happen. The best one I know of is Andorax's log from Return to the Temple, which lives at http://www.zansforcans.net/page21/5/573_1.html. (DO NOT READ THIS if you are going to be a player, not a DM, in this adventure!) Note that this is on an archive site -- to change pages you have to go back to the main page and select another page, not use the links on each page itself.
In Return to the Temple, the players explore the crater of a dormant volcano that's filled with water, with an island in the center. The rim of the crater is full of mining tunnels, and in those tunnels are four temples devoted to the evil aspects of the classical elements. It turns out that they're all actually working for Tharizdun, who is a Lovecraftian deity of madness, entropy, and annihilation: the higher-ups, the clerics of Tharizdun and their strongest lieutenants, are on an island in the middle. There are four doors, one for each element, that lead inside the island; there are three bridges across the lake. (Water doesn't have a bridge, for obvious reasons.) To get in, you need a key attuned to that element. They figure this out while they're traveling through the mines and slaughtering the residents of the elemental temples. By the time they decide to head to the island (called the Outer Fane), they've got the Fire, Air, and Water Keys, and are ready -- after a year and a half of real time! -- to go down a bridge. They choose Fire. It's a quarter-mile span with a 20-foot-wide door at the end. There are flying sentries, so they cross the bridge under cover of invisibility. They don't use their sorcerer's clairvoyance spell to peek on the other side of the door, or use any protection from fire spells -- they just open the door.
Bad idea. The door takes three rounds to lower slowly, and once it does, they see ... a giant pile of coins with a depression in the middle.
The party's rogue, who's fallen victim to a curse that makes her greedy and evil, gets googly eyes -- but her reverie is broken when their world turns into an inferno. Turns out all this loot belongs to Chymon, an elephant-sized red dragon (a relatively small one), who has been recruited as a guard for the Fire Door. (Dragons are quite rare in D&D, but they are Serious Fucking Business.) She heard them coming (dragons have fantastic hearing), and cast invisibility on herself when she saw the door starting to lower. The PC's failed their Listen check to hear the spellcasting over the grating door.
Once the door lowered, Chymon used her dragon breath -- an absolutely devastating attack, for 12d10 damage. I'd squirreled away a dozen ten-siders in advance, and tossed them all on the table; the PC's had never seen such a ridiculous damage roll before. Against blast attacks you get a Reflex "save" for half damage. The party's sorceress fails and goes from full health to DEAD in one shot. The remaining party members (6 of them) fight Chymon, both of them taking damage ... but the party has nobody who can withstand her for long at close range for more than a round. She's roaring and bellowing, and some of the other Temple guards and residents come to see what is going on. Two dark elves -- who it turns out are ambassadors, and who are cruel and twisted folk -- just come out of their rooms to watch the fun. The party's monk takes a swing at one of the clerics, who uses a touch spell that has the potential to insta-kill ... but keeps whiffing against the agile monk with it. Worse than that are a number of elite ogre guards who come charging out, and a cleric wearing a symbol of Tharizdun comes charging in in full plate armor with a mace. We have two PC's dead at this point, nobody above 40% HP, and the monk and sword-wielding ranger are cut off from everyone else at the back of the room. Finally Chymon gets low enough that she has to flee, flying out of her lair and out of sight over the lake, but the party is pretty clearly going to get overwhelmed. The cleric of Tharizdun has been clumsily trying to bash the monk with his mace, and in doing so knocked two wands with little scraps of parchment wound around them.
So the monk and ranger are cut off. Everyone else runs away, with the rogue -- who picks this moment to show her true, corrupted colors (because of a cursed item she wound up with) in some brilliant roleplaying -- chucks the corpse of the sorceress into the lake.
Having nothing else to turn to, and the ogres and the drow fighting them and more reinforcements on the way, the monk picks up one of those wands that the cleric of Tharizdun knocked off his belt.
The scrap of paper has "Break this. Say darkness" hastily scribbled on it. Unsure of what to do and out of options, she does... and is teleported somewhere.
Upon seeing his companion disappear, the ranger figures anywhere is better than here and dives for the other one.
They appear in a small bedroom, lit by a peculiar violet glow coming from gemstones scattered around the room. They can hear the ogres bellowing from what sounds like a few hundred feet away through the door, so they know they're nearby. There are some violet robes hanging from a peg (violet is Tharizdun's color), along with a crystal ball covered with a cloth. They had been being periodically scried (possibly by a crystal ball) for a while -- is this who'd been doing it? Perhaps they've just gone from the frying pan into the fire. They are terrified to leave while all the guards are still running around, so they stay put -- both are seriously injured, the ranger is strength-drained a bit by magic, and they'd not do so well in a fight.
With nothing else to do while they wait for whatever is going to kill them to come back and do it, they keep searching the room. The monk (a half-elf) sticks her hand under the mattress, and feels something metallic. She pulls it out.
It's a silver emblem of the crescent moon...
... the symbol of the (good-aligned) elven god Corellon. Apparently not everyone in here is against them!
After about fifteen minutes the resident of the room -- Varachan, the mace-wielding cleric of "Tharizdun" comes back, and reveals that he's now looking to take down the cult, having had a stroke of remorse and guilt, and has been watching their progress for a while with his crystal ball. He can't fight: he's got no spells since he no longer worships Tharizdun in truth, but has hidden this from everyone else in the cult. But he tells them what the cult is up to, and it's *far* worse than they had thought... and they're closer to achieving it than they'd believed.
Ive found some red box starter set but i think its 4th gen and ive heard that is not as much fun as the earlier versions shout i get the red box or keep looking for 3rd og 3.5 starter sets?
On March 10 2012 20:21 DoctorHelvetica wrote: So you hate the D20 system?
I think the biggest issue with D&D now (and what makes AD&D superior) is the lack of focus on storytelling/role play and the focus on MMORPG like perks/minmaxing and combat. People worry about making the strongest character and not the best narrative in my experience, it's backwards. I think it's just how the video game generation thinks.
Thats the easy way to play D&D -_-. Roleplaying takes a lot of things that pure number crunching won't. I was more of a numbers player myself. But I understood that you should build a character from the personality up, its just that my roleplaying skills weren't as good as my ability to maximize a character. I think its a much harder aspect of D&D, takes time how to learn to roleplay well, usually what happens is a person learns how to roleplay one type of character and they just stick to that over and over. Actually learning to develop your own characters personalities and act them out correctly is the hardest part about the game.
I've been lucky that most of my experience with roleplaying games has been with really experienced roleplayers or people who are professional actors. So it was obvious to me what they were doing, why they were doing things. But at the same time, being that way yourself is not easy. Its much easier to act out on your own personality than your characters . The best way to get most people into the game is also from a purely #'s perspective, thats probably why so many people skip the roleplaying aspect.
I like 3.5 ed my self. But I also like Champions, L5R d10, Cyberpunk, Deadlands, Cthullu, pretty much every genre of Roleplaying game.
On March 12 2012 04:31 unnar wrote: Ive found some red box starter set but i think its 4th gen and ive heard that is not as much fun as the earlier versions shout i get the red box or keep looking for 3rd og 3.5 starter sets?
Pathfinder has a starter set that i have heard good things about. Get that. (pathfinder is the same as 3.5 pretty much)
I'm thinking of throwing in a short Puzzle dungeon in my campaign, anyone have any good ideas of what to put in there? The rooms has to be round, btw (its a tower).
One room I'm considering is the 8 queen puzzle and each piece placed spawns a banshee-esque mob and the piece can't be removed from it's placement until the banshee is dead.
Another one is a room with 4 doors set in N, S, E and W directions (round room remember). PCs enter the room through S door. Entering a door will lead to the S door, so that a player that enters the N, E and W doors comes out through the S door again. At the same time the PC step through, they will spawn a dark copy of themselves and the copied player will be mentally bound until said copy is destroyed. The only way out of the room is back through the S door which will now lead to the part of the tower.
But I need more! Preferably, they should be easy to solve but demanding the PCs to think outside the box.
If anyone is itching to play a Starcraft campaign based on Star Wars Saga ruleset I have be doing a conversion for couple of years now (ever since Sc2 was first announced) little by little. Currently it is in playable state with all basic classes finished and their options there. It lacks prestige classes and a number of standard units from BW and all from SC2 although the basic rules to create many such opponents are there.
So I played my first pen and paper D&D type game ever today (Path Finder) while babysitting my cousin and his little friends (10-12yr olds, all very new to the game as well) and I have to say it was rather entertaining and was wondering about online table top communities, I don't really want to jump into buying a dozen books as I don't know anyone else that plays nor do I want to hang out with my cousin's friends more often than I have too.
TLDR
Total newb looking for online table top gaming group.
On April 05 2012 16:18 NotSorry wrote: So I played my first pen and paper D&D type game ever today (Path Finder) while babysitting my cousin and his little friends (10-12yr olds, all very new to the game as well) and I have to say it was rather entertaining and was wondering about online table top communities, I don't really want to jump into buying a dozen books as I don't know anyone else that plays nor do I want to hang out with my cousin's friends more often than I have too.
TLDR
Total newb looking for online table top gaming group.
online is not great
It's actually really easy to get started playing IRL! Look on yelp/google for any hobby/game shop. Most shops that sell tabletop games have groups that go there regularly, "world campaign" style D&D days, and you can meet people usually who are looking for people in their group. I have 2 hobby shops near my house that have bi-weekly events where you can find groups.
You can also look on meetup.com for groups in your area.
If you want to play online though you can search for play by post websites or use things like maptools to start an online group. I was actually thinking about starting a TL pathfinder group with maptools but I don't have the time to DM rn
I've called the local hobby store but their hours don't really work for me mostly middle of the day during the middle of the week, since I'm generally training and have my kids all day I figured an online group would be best, something towards the evenings over skype video calls or whatever software is out there. If you get that group together I would like to try it.
On April 05 2012 16:18 NotSorry wrote: So I played my first pen and paper D&D type game ever today (Path Finder) while babysitting my cousin and his little friends (10-12yr olds, all very new to the game as well) and I have to say it was rather entertaining and was wondering about online table top communities, I don't really want to jump into buying a dozen books as I don't know anyone else that plays nor do I want to hang out with my cousin's friends more often than I have too.
TLDR
Total newb looking for online table top gaming group.
There's a table top gaming forum over at Penny Arcade. They have a bunch of people doing play by post games with new ones popping up all the time. I lurk there and read through some of the campaigns. Worth a look if you're interested in seeing how some people play online. http://forums.penny-arcade.com/categories/critical-failures
I've been trying to read up a bit on forums and pdf rule books about 3.5 and Pathfinder, and I don't even understand what half of them are saying, I end up spending more time googling aberrations for different game mechanics than anything.
Anyway, I'm going to a game room this weekend and was looking for a solid beginner build for a Ranger (Prefer long range bow user) so I can focus on learning to play the game rather then spending the whole time worrying about if I picked up a bad feat or whatever.
You shouldn't worry too much about minmaxing and building the most efficient/best character. Pick feats/skills that make sense for your characters personality. A good DM knows your character and will not create situations that they can not overcome i.e. crafts the adventures FOR you.
I like to rotate encounters so that each person in the party gets to shine, including players with lots of non-combat related skills.
Don't worry too much about picking a bad feat. This isn't WoW, each DM has the opportunity to craft a rich and unique story/encounter around your characters personality and ability.
I would be willing to help organize a 3.75 (Pathfinder) group if anyone is interested in getting together. Send me a PM and I'll get a list and go from there.
I've never played DnD before but I've always wanted to try it out. Unfortunately the nearest shop is 45 minutes away and none of my friends are down to play.
On April 07 2012 04:50 DoctorHelvetica wrote: You shouldn't worry too much about minmaxing and building the most efficient/best character. Pick feats/skills that make sense for your characters personality. A good DM knows your character and will not create situations that they can not overcome i.e. crafts the adventures FOR you.
I like to rotate encounters so that each person in the party gets to shine, including players with lots of non-combat related skills.
Don't worry too much about picking a bad feat. This isn't WoW, each DM has the opportunity to craft a rich and unique story/encounter around your characters personality and ability.
I find the topic of DM philosophy incredibly interesting. I've been DM'ing for 13 years now, and I've always been passionately against crafting adventures/stories for my characters. I've always been of the idea that I should be creating a world that they are a part of and can take actions in, not create a world FOR them. It's given my campaigns a more natural feel (at least to me).
On the flip side, once in a while I'll get people complaining that they haven't found any kind of good items that they can use (all the loot they've found isn't what they use) or once in a long while I'll get someone that's pissed off about dieing (even though dieing very rarely happens in my campaigns). I'll also get complaints from people that essentially try to create and alter the world I'm making on their own, on the fly, but I don't let that shit go down. Just too much of a nuisance.
On a different topic, what's everyone's favorite edition of D&D? I personally feel like as the editions continued, we lost customization/roleplaying emphasis and got more emphasis on just combat and user friendliness. I've decided that I've liked 3.5 the most. While there are a lot of problems with it (mostly in terms of power balancing/effectiveness), I feel like the main strength is the versatility and customization options. It also has both solid roleplaying elements and combats elements while at the same time being easy enough for beginners to understand. The one thing I miss about AD&D is the huge emphasis on roleplaying that so many rules had. Keep in mind I'm just wondering about D&D editions and not Pathfinder or anything else.
On April 09 2012 12:25 PaqMan wrote: I've never played DnD before but I've always wanted to try it out. Unfortunately the nearest shop is 45 minutes away and none of my friends are down to play.
yea pretty much same, shop is like 30mins from here, but I heard they have nights where a good amount of people come in and group up so was just gonna go and see if I can join up with some more experienced people, none of my friends will try it
There's definitely a level of crafting the world for your players that gets inappropriate (railroading) such as designing quests specifically for certain players to do certain things. But I definitely take into account their abilities when designing encounters. If a player takes some strange transmutation spell or something, I want to reward that player by giving them encounter/story opportunities to use those abilities. It's frustrating to choose an ability or spell outside of your typical damage dealing shit and then never find it useful.
On April 09 2012 14:50 DoctorHelvetica wrote: There's definitely a level of crafting the world for your players that gets inappropriate (railroading) such as designing quests specifically for certain players to do certain things. But I definitely take into account their abilities when designing encounters. If a player takes some strange transmutation spell or something, I want to reward that player by giving them encounter/story opportunities to use those abilities. It's frustrating to choose an ability or spell outside of your typical damage dealing shit and then never find it useful.
Well I'd say that if characters are just choosing damage-dealing spells and don't get to use anything creative, either 1) the players aren't being creative, or 2) your encounters are too simple. You don't necessarily need to make an encounter FOR them in order for them to have varied, creative experiences that let them use their skills to their full potential.
On April 09 2012 14:50 DoctorHelvetica wrote: There's definitely a level of crafting the world for your players that gets inappropriate (railroading) such as designing quests specifically for certain players to do certain things. But I definitely take into account their abilities when designing encounters. If a player takes some strange transmutation spell or something, I want to reward that player by giving them encounter/story opportunities to use those abilities. It's frustrating to choose an ability or spell outside of your typical damage dealing shit and then never find it useful.
Well I'd say that if characters are just choosing damage-dealing spells and don't get to use anything creative, either 1) the players aren't being creative, or 2) your encounters are too simple. You don't necessarily need to make an encounter FOR them in order for them to have varied, creative experiences that let them use their skills to their full potential.
I think it's just a difference in DM philosophy. If a player takes a spell like stone to wood, then I want to introduce opportunities for them to use that spell and feel rewarded for their choices (also to feel like they have use in their non-combat skills as players often focus heavily on combat). I like to take advantage of the opportunity I have to create some content based on knowing what my players like and are able to do, but the majority of content I make is unaffected by that.
I might GM a maptools game but it could take a minute to get off the ground or I'd want someone to help DM it as I'm into the writing/world builing aspect of GMing but very lazy and unorganized
I can use maptools barebones and can't do anything fancy with it so players need to use their imaginations a lot. Wanna start out with just irc/maptools chat and maybe move to skype. I'd not mind doing Pathfinder or D20 Modern System. D20 Modern is pretty bad by itself I think so I'd probably add a lot of things to it, the only thing I really like about it are the wealth rolls and stuff.
I can roll your characters for you very quickly. I focus much more heavily on roleplaying/puzzle scenarios than combat typically but I try to keep a good balance when I can. I'm just really bored lately and it'd be something to do.
I have tons of dnd crap upstairs in my "gaming room." All I've ever gotten for birthdays and Christmas from everyone I know is gaming stuff. Just about every game system you can imagine is up there even wierd and not so great ones, like the old Star Wars D6 game. Before I knew there was such a thing as dnd my friends and I created a very basic rpg like game where you run through a maze, get treasure and spells and such. A teacher caught a group of us playing in the library and told us we weren't allowed to play Dungeons and Dragons at the school. The only Dungeons and Dragons that I'd ever heard of was the cartoon. Went to a KBToys store that day and bought the DnD boxed set (not the original but I do have that one now). Jumped right in by creating my own game for myself to play in. Created a fighter named Aramil. Rolled for HP and got a 1. Awesome. This opened Pandora's box for me. I fell in love with gaming and worked on my own game system that we my uncle helped with when I found out he was a DnD junkie as well. Our game system was very similar to the Grim'n Gritty setting for 3e except it used a mana system instead of spell memorization and you could have individual levels with different weapons and skills similar to Skyrim. God that was fun. As a kid, and even an early adult, I took gaming pretty seriously and would spend hours upon hours coming up with new and interesting ways to entertain my friends. They still talk about some of the more interesting encounters. However, my game always focused more on politics and roleplaying that actual combat, though it did come to that sometimes. When 3e came out, there was suddenly a rule for everything. Need to find out if your character can get a deal on that warhorse he's wanted, roll Diplomacy or Bluff. Roleplaying was no longer an essential part of the game but a thing you could add in if you felt like it. It became a giant cesspool of min/maxing. The skill system was horrible, making it possible to make characters with huge advantages in almost all situations or that could do amazing things. As a DM, if you wanted to make the king a strong warrior who is an excellent judge of character, you couldn't because Sense Motive isn't a class skill and fighters don't get enough skill points to spend on other things. It was so easy to skew things in favor of the players that unless you specifically designed your major NPC's in the campaign world with the idea that they will one day face the characters and give them abilities and powers that are only really useful in defeating that specific kind of character build, they will be so easy your players will yawn and stare at you blankly rather than get sweaty palms when they think of the evil baron who kidnapped the beautiful princess. I hated 3e but played it anyway because it was what most of my friends wanted. I actually had a lot of fun with some of it but it always felt more like a board game that a roleplaying game. I used to play 2-3 times a week. Now it just takes too much god damn work. I miss the days when you could create an adventure or even run one off the top of your head without needing to pour over hundreds of different books to make sure that the treasure in this adventure keeps in check with how much money characters of their level should have in order to keep the CR system as accurate as possible. Give too little treasure and all the sudden that CR 5 monster kills your whole party, give too much and your players laugh at him. The game encourages way too much min/maxing and makes it much harder to play something because it is interesting rather than just powerful. The best example I can use is the famous Drizzt Do'Urden from the Forgotten Realms setting. An extremely interesting character. Described as a great fighter who in the early years of his life was extremely gifted and far above the rest of his peers. He is a fun, interesting concept. There's only one problem, he sucks. Badly. Our great, gifted fighter in the early part of his career has a negative to his attack modifier up until something like level 4 before he is finally at a +1. Because there is a rule for everything, it makes it harder to use your imagination and come up with rules with the dm that allow for more creative characters.
On April 24 2012 22:47 gTank wrote: what are/is maptools? ^^
It's basically a chatroom that has a grid map built into it. The DM can place objects/characters on the map to create a realtime representation of what is happening in the game rather than relying on just descriptions which can be difficult when determining positioning/movement
Me and my friends have been thinking about getting into a table-top rpg. Based on the recommendations in this thread, and from what I've read in other places, it sounds like we'll be getting into pathfinder in stead of 4e.
So, after about a year of inactivity, my old 3.5e (that and AD&D are the only versions I play, largely due to laziness regarding buying new books) group got back together. It was my turn to DM, and I had a campaign idea that had been sitting in the back of my mind for some time. I pitched it to the players, and they were all on board. It goes something like this:
In the world of Wyweria, four great civilized nations vied for power, wealth, and prosperity. The human nation of Sternen, ruled by the great horse-lords, stretched over the plains. Its people great erected castles of stone and became legendary horsemen, covering the open space from the great sea to the worldspine. The elven nation without a name (for in Elvish they are just "the people" and they are not so organized as to be a state) shared the woods with all manner of fey and sylvan creature, and in time grew rich and prosperous with the crafts of the elves. The dwarven states, disunified under a feudal system, nonethless convened their capital in the depths of the mountainhomes, and crafted such weapons as the world had never seen before. The fourth nation was Lerka, and it was settled in the wetlands to the south, populated by humans and other creatures of the swamps. The poorest nation by far, it found itself at often at war with its neighbors.
---
There were other nations and states, of course-- the merpeople, the lizardfolk, the goblinoids (scattered as they were) and the orcs all had their place, but not in the bosom of civilization, that fertile stretch of land from the worldspine to the Great Sea. So when the Prophet (and what else would you call a man bearing a prophecy) came to the Avatar preaching tales of doom, many lauged at him. The Avatar, however, the Champion of St. Cuthbert, was not a man of laughter. The Prophet spoke the truth: it was Kobolds who would bring down the great order, Kobolds who would crumble the civilizations of Wyweria to dust, Kobolds who would spell doom for the civiilized peoples.
The Avatar was not alone in his forknowledge, for as he struggled to raise an army and unite the lands against the Kobolds, champions emerged from each country, and for the first time in the great history of Wyweria, the Four Nations stood together in one alliance. Leading the army of the Mountainhomes was Urdol, the First DwarfLord, who by birthright and by diplomacy and by bloody combat had united the dwarven states into a single political entity. Leading the army of the Forest was Rotuvius, the immortal sage, said to be as old as Elvenkind itself, who called down lighting and fire to smite his enemies before him. Leading the fourth army, the army of the Lerka, was a famous adventurer named Bloody Jack, whose renown and glory united the fragile adventuring bands and armies of the country for war.
The Four Armies marched and the kobolds fled before them. The kobolds, you see, were not ready for war. And as the great forces swept through the rivers and mountains of Wyweria, no Kobold was left alive. The underground campaign was brutal and bloody, with both sides suffering brutal losses. But at last, after years of strife, the final underground kobold city fell, and all that was left was to pick off the straggling camps of kobolds, a task easily accomplished by adventurers over the course of the remaining months.
The armies returned home, and the prophets were silent. There were no more living kobolds. Their civilization was shattered, their people murdered, their god Kurtulmak silenced. With noone to pray to him, he was fading fast from this realm. His heart was filled with vengeance, but with no servants he could do nothing. Kurtulmak looked on with deep sadness as the souls of millions of newly killed kobolds struggled to reach the afterlife, but, finding the entrances clogged with other kobolds, extinguished before they could leave the material plane.
----
Kurtulmak was filled with anger. Not for himself, for he knew one day he would die, even as a God. Not for even the deaths of his worshippers, for all kobolds face death someday. It was for the death of his poeple, and the oblivion their souls faced in the too-crowded transition from life to death as they were erased so quickly from the material realm. There was no justice in this world, and Kurtulmak knew it. Oblivion for so many innocent Kobold souls...
He realized, suddenly, that not all was lost. There were still 4 kobold eggs, fallen into a hole and forgotten about. It was too cold for them to hatch, but they were alive-- alive, and well. He reached out to bless them, but found he had no power with which to do so. Even now, his final worshippers were being hunted down in their caves and their hovels and put to the sword.
With the greatest of sadness, he turned to the kobold souls trapped in this realm, facing oblivion instead of afterlife. With a scream of deific frustration, he began to consume them, to eat them. He absorbed the very souls of his people, destroying them utterly, and drawing from them their knowledge, and power, and magick. Every kill pained him as he sentenced another dead kobold not to an afterlife of suffering (for even that would be preferable), but to nonexistence itself. He destroyed their souls.
He took the meager power he gathered from the consumed souls of a million slain kobolds, and shaped it, channelling it into the four eggs. For 10 long years, the eggs were held in stasis and filled with the divine energy of a dying good, with the last gasps of a dying people. They inherited the hopes, dreams, passions, experiences, and memories of their civilization and their deity.
At last they were born, not as infants, but as fully grown kobolds. They were born with the memories, the experiences, and the history of a murdered people. They were born with strength and magick and power. Their god gasped his last breath as he created them, his final children. The only thing they ever heard from him was the only thing they knew they wanted out of this cursed life fed from the very souls of their ancestors: "seek vengeance"
Vengeance upon the Four Champions. Vengeance upon the four Nations. Vengeance upon the civilized people of Wyweria for all that had come to pass.
A fitting start to an ECL 15 Evil Kobold campaign :D
I got into playing D&D (specifically pathfinder); about 6 months ago--because this guy I knew in high school invited me to play. The entire experience was pretty awesome; sadly it came to a close all to soon (only got to like level 8 from level 1; though we only played 2 times a week for 3 hours), and my friends eventually convinced me to try my hand at DM'ing, after a few weeks of prep, I was ready, and in that time I got a group together. I had about 7-8 friends who wanted to play (none of them had played before, so they were all super excited to try it), but I didn't want to go over 6 PCs, because then shit would take forever. I've had this group going since august; all has been pretty well, and it has been fun learning how to DM. The game world I used was the same one I played in as a character, except I advanced it 10 years, and placed the old characters of my friends around the place.
At this point I'm wanting to create my own world (which maybe I'll post about once it's more than stray thoughts); and two of my friends want to create a Star Wars based D20 game, using the pathfinder rules. So I ask you TLers, do you have any recourse, or know of any similar efforts that could help them out with creating this?
omg this is fucking bullshit. my good friend of a long time tells me he is starting a live game and wants me to join cause he doesn't have enough people and the other people arn't that good. im like well i live in a different city now bro i wont be able to make it live very often and im super duper busy. hes like w.e. you can just play on skype its cool plz plz plz i need you. im like okay ill help you out. spend 10hrs making my ballin character in pathfinders. orient my time scheduled for weeks to be online when they are playing. save the parties ass a couple times
then he fucking cuts me mang. another person shows up that can play live and hes like oh well skype is a pain and someone complained so your out.
fucking heartlessly cruel man. this is my friend for more than a decade. we were friends before the first game of dnd i ever played.
I had better shit to do with my time then relearn pathfinder and make a try hard character for an "epic campaign" then blow off other plans to listen to shitty players fail and try to save them only to get cut out of this universe i began investing in.
Hey, I am so lucky to find this thread. A friend of mine and I have been trying to play D&D (4e), and the DM is another friend who offered to do it for us. But after one failed campaign and another we just started, its clear that he is as interested as we thought he would be. We finished making our character sheets and got about 5 hours into the game before he said "Break time" and promptly ditched us. Since we are fairly new to 4e, (as well as the DM himself) and I am here to ask if anyone would be interested on DMing the session for us. If it is too hard to pick it up from were we left, we wouldn't mind starting from scratch, as we just want a game where we can play regularly (Every day or other day) for a few hours (3-5) or till we get exhausted. Of course we also play games such as SC2 and LoL. This only wouldn't be a good chance to start a DnD group but make a new friend that would play games with us whenever possible.
In case you guys were not aware, D&D 5th Edition aka "DnDNext" has just been released to a general warm-reception and critical acclaim. 5th Edition is generally considered a mish-mash modular version combining the best parts of the previous versions. The differences between previous editions vary greatly, so it might pay to search the 5e Reddit for suggestions on the differences between your edition.
If anyone is interested in trying out the new edition, I'd love to host groups or individuals for one-shots (or potentially longer campaigns). I'm a long-time 4e DM (if a 4e DM can be considered long-term that is...) that is making the switch over and would love to play-test the new mechanics and feel. Feel free to PM me if you're interested!
Yea, I really liked how they gave extra effort to finally fix problem classes from 3.5e: Monk, Sorcerer, Bard, Ranger. Each of them feels awesome and unique and they don't feel like weaker version of some other class (or just weaker in case of Bard).
Has anyone been watching Critical Role on twitch.tv/geekandsundry (Thursdays 7pm PST, 10pm EST). A group of Hollywood voice actors get together and play D&D 5e. It's really awesome. I've never had an interest in pen and paper gaming and now I'm gathering up all the nerds I can find to play.
I have a good reason for necroing - only the last few posts even mention 5e, which is a huge edition upgrade. A lot of the rules have been simplified, the death mechanic has been improved, classes have been changed(Bard is actually useful), etc. This is the first edition I've really enjoyed playing DnD - my friends and I have been doing sessions weekly, and are having a blast. It's extremely easy to drop into any non-spellcaster class(casters still need to know their spell list) and simply roll with the system. The general rules are very intuitive, and they have handled edge cases very well.
My only real complaint is that Dex is too strong and Int is too uncommon/weak. Almost everyone except Cleric and Fighter gets Dex second.
All told, though, this is a great edition, and definitely worth checking out/considering moving up to.
As an aside, Critical Role is great to watch. The voice acting helps make it a lot better, Matt Mercer is an amazing DM, and the story has been very interesting.
All told, though, this is a great edition, and definitely worth checking out/considering moving up to.
As an aside, Critical Role is great to watch. The voice acting helps make it a lot better, Matt Mercer is an amazing DM, and the story has been very interesting.
I'm re-bumping your post because I could not agree more and I'm honestly surprised no one else has jumped in to say exactly that. 5e is a home run, an unequivocal success at healing the decade-long rifts in community. The strengths of all the editions have been distilled down to the essentials and those essentials are completely customizable at the group's behest. As am improvisatory DM, the freedom of 5e is such a breath of fresh air. My rules-lawyering players easier to please in this edition somehow...it's just kinda magical.
On November 19 2015 07:57 WarSame wrote: My only real complaint is that Dex is too strong and Int is too uncommon/weak. Almost everyone except Cleric and Fighter gets Dex second.
Interesting! I hadn't thought about it, but I kinda have to agree. If your DM doesn't actively incorporate skill checks that involve intelligence, the stat pales in utility if you just look at the rule set... I'm going to make a point of adjusting how I approach skill checks to include int/wis.
In my experience, there hasn't been a whole lot of Intelligence checks. It's almost everyone's dump stat aside from Wizard's, so when they do show up they're very difficult to do. However, Investigation is an extremely good check, and the main redeeming factor of Intelligence. It kinda bothers me that almost everyone runs the same stat set, though. Casters are all Casting Attribute > Dex > Con > Wis > Cha > Int > Str. Warriors are all Attacking Attribute > Str > Con > Wis > Dex > Cha > Int.
In general though, this edition is amazingly well done. It's a real pleasure to play.
Also, I made a character roller app for anyone who has to roll characters frequently(i.e. lots of one-offs, etc.): here.
As a very enthusiastic Pen and Paper Gamer, i feel the need to mention that there are also a lot of other PnP RPGs out there. I am always sad that i often get the impression that a lot of people never see any other part of the hobby than DnD and often just assume that that is all there is to it.
There are so many different amazing games for all sorts of playstyles and settings that it feels criminally negligent not to mention that they exist, especially since you are already discussing the advantages of certain edition over others, which naturally leads to discussing the advantages of different games over one another. That is not to say that there is anything wrong with DnD, and should you choose for that game to be your favorite game, that is absolutely valid. You just should be aware that other games exists (Especially since you mentioned being an improvisational gm, in my experience there are games that suit that kind of playstyle a lot better) (There are also settings beyond Fantasy )
I am currently a great fan of the FATE System in pretty much any iteration, either generic in FATE Core or FAE, or themed in stuff like Atomic Robo or Dresden Files. Very fun and incredibly narrative-driven, though possibly quite a far step from something classic/simulationist like DnD.
A bit more classical would be something like Savage Worlds, a fun generic ruleset for a fast-paced and rather pulpy style of game. Possibly something you can actually sell to players who aren't really into the whole "narrative" aspect of gaming that much.
Powered by the Apocalypse Engine is also quite fun, but you need a specific type of player for it to work well, people who are more interested in creating a compelling narrative as opposesd to "winning". Quite a few setting variations for this exist once again, from post apocalyptic in Apocalypse word, Fantasy in Dungeon World, to really weird stuff like Worldwide Wrestling RPG.
Call of Cthulhu is an all-time classic, but breaks the "Heroes that slay evil" tropes of DnD very intensely, since with it being a Lovecraftian Horror game, failure is not the exception, but the norm, with most CoC characters eventually succumbing to insanity or being devoured by some unspeakable eldritch abomination.
And then there is other popular stuff that i could never get quite worm with, the whole White Wolf line with stuff like Vampire, Werewolf, Mage in which you play the games namesakes in a well-thought-out darker version of the modern times.
Shadowrun for your rules addicts.
And god knows how many other systems i never even heard about. Take a look around. DnD is a good game, but don't think that it is the only game in that genre that ever existed.
Well it is heads and shoulders above the others in terms of recognition, so it's wayyyy easier to get a party for it started than others. I feel like most of those other games form by converting DnD groups to other systems together.
Thanks for the reviews! If we get bored of DnD at some point then that gives us a lot to play with.
Any TL'ers interested in forming DnD groups on the TL discord and playing over Roll20 or something? I wanna get into DnD but have a hard time finding people to play with. I know a couple other TL'ers that would be down for this too, we're trying to organize something and find a DM. Even if we don't get groups going a DnD chat channel where we talk about this stuff would be cool.
Everyone's always trying to find a DM! It seems like they're in super short supply so I'd recommend one of you try it out. Maybe get a DM for a one-off or short arc and learn from that.
Well the gaming group I'm in has a tabletop with quite games running with most of them being 5e. I'd give the site out, but I'm not sure if TL has any policy for advertising other sites.
On December 15 2017 11:26 WarSame wrote: Everyone's always trying to find a DM! It seems like they're in super short supply so I'd recommend one of you try it out. Maybe get a DM for a one-off or short arc and learn from that.
In my experience, that is mostly a D&D problem. The more indie you go with your game, the higher the DM/player ratio becomes. In my current Unknown Armies group, at least 4 out of 6 people are capable and willing of running games.
And generally speaking DM shouldn't be a separate class from players. If you have 4-5 people who want to play something and no DM, just be the DM. Tell the people it is your first time, and if they are still hard on you, get better players, because they are assholes anyways.
I know one guy who might have time to try DM'ing after the holidays, but I don't really know anyone else that would be into it. Most people I know including myself just wanna try playing.