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[ranmafan]

I've always found PnP RPGs fascinating and always wanted to give them a shot. Especially after watching the D&D cartoon when I was a kid and playing Shadowrun on the SNES. I was able to get a few people to try out D&D with me, but alas it didn't last long. One day I want to try again, but where I am in my corner or Japan, I doubt I'll find enough people interested. Still its a goal of mine to start a game of D&D or Shadowrun sometime.

 

[dude]

I've always found PnP RPGs fascinating and always wanted to give them a shot. Especially after watching the D&D cartoon when I was a kid and playing Shadowrun on the SNES. I was able to get a few people to try out D&D with me, but alas it didn't last long. One day I want to try again, but where I am in my corner or Japan, I doubt I'll find enough people interested. Still its a goal of mine to start a game of D&D or Shadowrun sometime.

I can't help you much with finding a group in Japan - But I'll advice you to focus on D&D because 1) Shadowrun is dead, you're much more likely to find a D&D group and 2) Shadowrun is complicated, it's a lot less beginner friendly than D&D and you will have a hard time starting a first-timers group with it.
Goodluck anyway though!

 

[ranmafan]

I can't help you much with finding a group in Japan - But I'll advice you to focus on D&D because 1) Shadowrun is dead, you're much more likely to find a D&D group and 2) Shadowrun is complicated, it's a lot less beginner friendly than D&D and you will have a hard time starting a first-timers group with it.
Goodluck anyway though!

Yeah thats what I've read about elsewhere too. When or if I'll ever get a game running over here, Ill pick D&D for those reasons. And thats fine, D&D is my first choice.

 

[dude]

Bumping to not I've added a list of relevant Kickstarter projects to the OP.

V20 Companion Deluxe Edition - A new Vampire: The Masqurade book!
Untitled Black Guard Press Project
Rusty Axe Dungeon Tiles - A new gaming aid.
Avarice Industries RPG - A Game of Dreams and Profit
Rogue Mage Roleplaying Game and World Book

If you know of anything that's missing, let me know and I'll add it.

 

[Sophia]

What I wouldn't give to play another World of Darkness game with real people. We tried to organize a GURPS online with my WoW guild, but it didn't really go anywhere because of not enough participants. :\

 

[peakish]

I just recently started GM'ing Call of Cthulhu for a few friends, we all suck but it's been fun so far (at least for me). I'm not very fond of the rule system, it works but I don't think it elevates the experience. I'll keep using it as a crutch until I'm good enough to implement house rules.

Nice thread! Love the logo.

 

[dude]

What I wouldn't give to play another World of Darkness game with real people. We tried to organize a GURPS online with my WoW guild, but it didn't really go anywhere because of not enough participants. :\

There sure seem to be a lot of people itching for a game - Why not organize a GAF one? It's not really relevant to me, because of time differences, but for gaffers of the same area this could work.

I just recently started GM'ing Call of Cthulhu for a few friends, we all suck but it's been fun so far (at least for me). I'm not very fond of the rule system, it works but I don't think it elevates the experience. I'll keep using it as a crutch until I'm good enough to implement house rules.

Nice thread! Love the logo.

Which Call of Cthulhu is that, the d20 one?

And thanks
The logo is an art piece from the RPG Lamentation of the Flame Princess BTW.

 

[Sophia]

There sure seem to be a lot of people itching for a game - Why not organize a GAF one? It's not really relevant to me, because of time difference, but for gaffers of the same area this could work.

I'm tempted. But I'd rather be a player than a GM. I might bite if someone else organizes a WoD game.

 

[disappeared]

Need an emphasis on a GOOD GROUP

It doesn't matter what system you are using. A good group will be fun no matter what.

Finding a good group is the single most difficult thing about PnP gaming. It only takes one person to ruin everything. I am positive almost every PnP player has experienced this.

We had one guy come into our campaign who argued with our DM over every fucking thing. To make matters worse he was an avid spell-caster and would constantly argue about things like area of attack and whether or not things like trees or pillars or even fucking traps were getting in his way. I specifically remember one night, just due to his arguing, one battle lasted about an hour longer than it needed to.

 

[Kritz]

Is there a good client for facilitating P&P DnD over the internet? I've got a group of old HS friends that would love to try it out but we're scattered all over the states.

AusGAF use Wizard's official Virtual Table. Note that the DM has to be a Wizard's subscriber which costs like ten or fifteen bucks a month. All other players get a beta invite from the DM, and can then play for free with that DM.

We've been using it for 4th edition, and it does a really good job of simplifying combat (which some people may dislike) to the point of choosing an ability, rolling the Attack dice respective to that ability, then the damage dice should it hit. It will account for all character bonuses and stats, which can be made or recreated via the character creator. Note it has a bit of a problem with any character that has been rolled (eg, not using stats from an array) as those rolls can be too high or low for the program to properly accept.

Downsides include a very dumbed down map creation tool, relying on a selection of about 100 pre-selected tiles with no way to import your own images for tiles. It also has a very limited amount of PC and NPC tokens, again without the ability to import your own.

It does allow for a pen tool at the least, so if all else fails you can get "creative".

But if all that sounds like everything is simplified too much, I suggest RPTools which was previously linked. It's the best free, all around tabletop we tried out. Users can create their own macros (instead of relying on the VT to calculate everything from your character sheets with the ability of adding more yourself after).

Also RP tools allows for custom textures and is much better on the DM / creation side, and at that, it's not as restricted game wise as the Wizard's VT is.

 

[dude]

One of the things that has always held me back from using these kind of programs when playing online was the fear of their infelxiability. I've never played a system by the book - We always modifiy or ignoring some rules - especially in D&D, because, well... There are just too damn many rules. If I'm useing something like RPTools, can we use our own house-rules? Can we ignore rules we don't like?

 

[Kritz]

One of the things that has always held me back from using these kind of programs when playing online was the fear of their infelxiability. I've never played a system by the book - We always modifiy or ignoring some rules - especially in D&D, because, well... There are just too damn many rules. If I'm useing something like RPTools, can we use our own house-rules? Can we ignore rules we don't like?

RP Tools is just like

• a texture drawing tool to make maps
• some tokens that anyone can move around but if you want you can restrict some to specific users
• a pseudo-random number generator

It doesn't even support rules. It's just some things on a map that you move around with a dice roller. So it supports, well, anything. Could play monopoly on the fuckin' thing probably. It does have some more in-depth features such as fog / visibility / some really bad character sheets, but those aren't really things that you'd, um, use.

By comparison here's something you'd draw in RPmap tools with a bit of time:

Basically, go the Wizard's VT if you want to play DnD ruleset. Apart from easier rolling, you can still do houserules and everything else.

Go RPTools if you don't want to play a Wizard's game, or you want more flexibility with DM tools and stuff.

EDIT: Note that you have to manually track a lot more stuff in RP tools. And by a lot more, I mean literally everything. You'll need a separate google docs or notepad document with player health, character sheets, xp dolled out, etc. The Wizards tool is so much more accommodating in terms of stat tracking.

I suggest trying an online game in RPTools first, and just seeing how your group likes it. See if they have trouble or are annoyed with how long it takes someone to work out their +2 racial bonus and +1 gear bonus and +2 half level and wait did I forget to add the... (etc).

 

[Qwomo]

I always find these mapmakers - RPTools, Dundjinni, etc. - suuuper confusing and hard to learn. I've lost count of how many times I've tried to make something with them and just completely and utterly failed to make anything resembling quality. I'm usually stuck with photoshop and markers.

 

[peakish]

Which Call of Cthulhu is that, the d20 one?

Nah, the standard 6th edition based on BRP. It's simple and easy to get, but there's too many similar or filler skills and no standard rules for varying difficulty of skill checks. I've already started handing out bonuses and affect outcomes by degrees of success which works but I think the system should work with the players and GM on this.

Edit: Also I think I'll be trying this character lite system once the current investigators all die horrible deaths.

 

[dude]

Tracking info in notepad and such is what I do already when we're playing, so it's not a big deal... I onced used a share google-doc to track everyone's HP and such, sort of worked, but usually it's notepad or paper. That's the reason we prefer simplified systems or free-form for online play.

I don't think I'll get into RPTools, seems like too much of an hassle to actually build all those maps, and our group never actually needed any of that (we never play with miniatures or such when not playing online.)

Nah, the standard 6th edition based on BRP. It's simple and easy to get, but there's too many similar or filler skills and no standard rules for varying difficulty of skill checks. I've already started handing out bonuses and affect outcomes by degrees of success which works but I think the system should work with the players and GM on this.

Edit: Also I think I'll be trying this character lite system once the current investigators all die horrible deaths.

Oh, don't have much experience with that - I've only played the d20 system. But I agree thata system should give you answers where it can.

 

[peakish]

Oh, don't have much experience with that - I've only played the d20 system. But I agree thata system should give you answers where it can.

The D20 system makes it easy to vary DC, right? Maybe I should have checked that out instead :lol

 

[dude]

The D20 system makes it easy to vary DC, right? Maybe I should have checked that out instead :lol

It's as easy as it is in D&D, so yeah, pretty easy. But I didn't like it very much... I think Cthulhu needs a much lighter system than the statistics-heavy d20. Not to say that it's bad - I enjoyed my limited experience with it, but that was despite the system and not because of it.

 

[krypt0nian]

Tomorrow night marks our 4th Pathfinder session set in Golarion.

Interesting party so far:

I'm playing an old school Halfling Thief
a Gnome Druid with a cheetah companion
a Half Elf Bard with noble ties to the town we're in
a Human Paladin that is a bit suspicious of my Halfling

And I believe this session we add two new people, with Jay playing a sorcerer, and Meghan playing a cleric, I believe.

Playing every other week seems to be working out great, everyone is either singing or acting at Disney or Universal parks.


Last session was a cool old school crypt crawl, with tons of wild traps and locked doors that kept my thief busy. I came within 2 hp of permanent death so it was tense and exciting.

 

[dude]

Tomorrow night marks our 4th Pathfinder session set in Golarion.

Interesting party so far:

I'm playing an old school Halfling Thief
a Gnome Druid with a cheetah companion
a Half Elf Bard with noble ties to the town we're in
a Human Paladin that is a bit suspicious of my Halfling

And I believe this session we add two new people, with Jay playing a sorcerer, and Meghan playing a cleric, I believe.

Playing every other week seems to be working out great, everyone is either singing or acting at Disney or Universal parks.


Last session was a cool old school crypt crawl, with tons of wild traps and locked doors that kept my thief busy. I came within 2 hp of permanent death so it was tense and exciting.

Sounds nice!
In our long running (sort of long, session #11 right now) we're also in an old-school dungeon (which they'll hopefully finish this weekend.) Their rogue died twice so far.

We're also starting one-timer nights every other week with rotating GMs - We're playing one tomorrow for the first time!

 

[cj_iwakura]

How would you go about organizing a PBP game here?


Neither off topic nor gaming seems quite appropriate for it.

 

[dude]

How would you go about organizing a PBP game here?


Neither off topic nor gaming seems quite appropriate for it.

I think gaming is better...

I think a WoD or V:tM games has a high chance of succeeding in gaming - Bloodlines is a very popular game around these parts, I'm sure a lot would like to check it out.

 

[peakish]

Does anyone have some tips for running actual campaigns? My group generally plays self contained scenarios with only the PC's carrying over between sessions, but I feel like it could be much more than that. It'd be optimal if I could give the PC's some sense of having actual lives but that's hard since the focus always lies on the plot.

In the last session I did a few things to combat this:
- I let them roll for some occupational skills to see if they had made their living without any real difficulties since their last adventure (all succeeded with this).
- Before giving the hook for their next plot I let them spend a day just going on with their lives, among other things introducing one neighbour in a brief conversation with one of the players (who I think thought that character would play a part in the upcoming scenario, Chekhov's Gun and all that :lol). I kept the day short but thought it worked well.

To other GM's bother with this stuff, and if so do you have any advice? Like I said, my goal is to introduce non-plot details in their lives, give them some NPC friends (which may or may not be killed at random later) and in general fill out a world.

 

[finalhour]

Anyway, good thread. Though it needs more mention of Savage Worlds.

I love Savage Worlds! Anyone who feels overwhelmed or weighed down by DnD should check it out. So much simpler to play, but it still handles the important stuff really well.

 

[dude]

Does anyone have some tips for running actual campaigns? My group generally plays self contained scenarios with only the PC's carrying over between sessions, but I feel like it could be much more than that. It'd be optimal if I could give the PC's some sense of having actual lives but that's hard since the focus always lies on the plot.

In the last session I did a few things to combat this:
- I let them roll for some occupational skills to see if they had made their living without any real difficulties since their last adventure (all succeeded with this).
- Before giving the hook for their next plot I let them spend a day just going on with their lives, among other things introducing one neighbour in a brief conversation with one of the players (who I think thought that character would play a part in the upcoming scenario, Chekhov's Gun and all that :lol). I kept the day short but thought it worked well.

To other GM's bother with this stuff, and if so do you have any advice? Like I said, my goal is to introduce non-plot details in their lives, give them some NPC friends (which may or may not be killed at random later) and in general fill out a world.

It's funny, because usually in our games there's not much difference between every-day mode and adventure mode. If my players finish a scenerio, they know that they have something to do after that and what to do, so they just carry on with what they have to do... Here are some tips I could think of though:

1. Have the sceneriops connect into one another. Build your stand alones scenerios into a bigger arc or plot. That'll let you players have clear motivation - If they discove the bad guy was part of a bigger plan etc. They won't feel like they're just waiting for the next thing to happen to their characters, they'll try and do thing to discover what's going on and how's everything connected.

2. Generally speaking, unless they have a clear motivation for something to do, playing day-to-day life is rather boring... You need them to either have something personal to do during that time (Like, if someone is trying to ressurct their dead wife, they'll probably want to activley work on that during that time) - Which I usually one-on-one with the relevant player, or to let them free-roam and discover shit that's related to the overall bigger plot or arc during that time (If they found a mysterious omnious item in the Big Bad's lair, they'll want to use their everyday occupation and contacts to find out what it is). They should have something on their mind, "going to work on monday" is usually not very interesting.

3. If there's nothing of interest that could go down between scenerios, I usually use the "fast-forward to interesting event" function. If you want to go into more detail, play out key scenes of their everyday lives, have them describe how they intract with their life and how what they're doing in as much as they want or stuff like that.
Generally, I'd say the "in-between" time should be as long as the players want it to be - and to make it longer you need to have players interested in that in-between time. Also, make the difference between "in-between adventures" time and "adventure" time less clear.

 

[Qwomo]

I love Savage Worlds! Anyone who feels overwhelmed or weighed down by DnD should check it out. So much simpler to play, but it still handles the important stuff really well.

Fist bump. Does realistic settings so well.

 

[dude]

I'd be up for a GAF group, depending on the day and time. I'd play any game, as I have very little experience, I'm just eager to play and learn with a good group. WoD always interested me, and DnD 4th ed. seems like an easier transition from playing games, so either would be great. I have a GURPS book lying around, would that be useful to read to get some universal concepts down or would that just confuse things?

If you've never played and don't know what RPGs are like at all, reading the GURPS book might help. Otherwise, if you're not planning on playing a GURPS game, I don't see how it's going to help.

BTW, I'm going to reming everyone of this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/v20-companion-deluxe-edition?ref=category
If we manage to get it to 100k before it ends we'll get a much better annonate PDF. If you have any interest in old WoD, do consider it! Its seems like a very cool book.

 

[Diomedeskun]

I've always found PnP RPGs fascinating and always wanted to give them a shot. Especially after watching the D&D cartoon when I was a kid and playing Shadowrun on the SNES. I was able to get a few people to try out D&D with me, but alas it didn't last long. One day I want to try again, but where I am in my corner or Japan, I doubt I'll find enough people interested. Still its a goal of mine to start a game of D&D or Shadowrun sometime.

D&D over skype with friends in the states has worked quite well for me in my corner of rural Japan.

 

[peakish]

It's funny, because usually in our games there's not much difference between every-day mode and adventure mode. If my players finish a scenerio, they know that they have something to do after that and what to do, so they just carry on with what they have to do... Here are some tips I could think of though:

1. Have the sceneriops connect into one another. Build your stand alones scenerios into a bigger arc or plot. That'll let you players have clear motivation - If they discove the bad guy was part of a bigger plan etc. They won't feel like they're just waiting for the next thing to happen to their characters, they'll try and do thing to discover what's going on and how's everything connected.

2. Generally speaking, unless they have a clear motivation for something to do, playing day-to-day life is rather boring... You need them to either have something personal to do during that time (Like, if someone is trying to ressurct their dead wife, they'll probably want to activley work on that during that time) - Which I usually one-on-one with the relevant player, or to let them free-roam and discover shit that's related to the overall bigger plot or arc during that time (If they found a mysterious omnious item in the Big Bad's lair, they'll want to use their everyday occupation and contacts to find out what it is). They should have something on their mind, "going to work on monday" is usually not very interesting.

3. If there's nothing of interest that could go down between scenerios, I usually use the "fast-forward to interesting event" function. If you want to go into more detail, play out key scenes of their everyday lives, have them describe how they intract with their life and how what they're doing in as much as they want or stuff like that.
Generally, I'd say the "in-between" time should be as long as the players want it to be - and to make it longer you need to have players interested in that in-between time. Also, make the difference between "in-between adventures" time and "adventure" time less clear.

Thanks for the input. Maybe I'm overthinking this stuff a bit, it'll probably come more naturally after some more sessions.

 

[krypt0nian]

Last night's Pathfinder session was a shorter one as we played Munchkin while waiting for two of our players to show because of work.

Still a blast and I'm loving my Halfling Rogue so much. Most of the session was a denouement from last adventure, and the seeds of a new story. We ended up traveling to our Bard's home city in order to pass the bad news of the previous town's elder adventurer/Paladin's death to his estranged daughter.

Mostly roleplaying at the funeral before we left town, with a really cool random encounter with a tough Assassin Vine, considering we were only 4 in number. Went our way in the end due to some good rolls, and the Bard's cool idea to grease the Druid's animal companion so she could finally break the vine's grasp/constriction. I love getting the death blow with a sneak attack!

So far so great! I can't wait to find out the daughter's story, and her inevitable complications!

 

[dude]

Last night's Pathfinder session was a shorter one as we played Munchkin while waiting for two of our players to show because of work.

Still a blast and I'm loving my Halfling Rogue so much. Most of the session was a denouement from last adventure, and the seeds of a new story. We ended up traveling to our Bard's home city in order to pass the bad news of the previous town's elder adventurer/Paladin's death to his estranged daughter.

Mostly roleplaying at the funeral before we left town, with a really cool random encounter with a tough Assassin Vine, considering we were only 4 in number. Went our way in the end due to some good rolls, and the Bard's cool idea to grease the Druid's animal companion so she could finally break the vine's grasp/constriction. I love getting the death blow with a sneak attack!

So far so great! I can't wait to find out the daughter's story, and her inevitable complications!

Nice. I always enjoy hearing about other people sessions.
Our game had to be canceled this week due to work and such - things always come up. We did play a short game last week and that was pretty fun.

 

[Lonesome_Raod]

I am looking to trying to get back into paper and pen gaming after a long break. I have bought some pathfinder books and hoping to get some of the old group back together. It will be difficult as people are leading their own lives now but I figure I will aim for one good session evey three weeks.

I also found some of my old miniature collection that somehow survived the big 'sell off' when I needed money to buy a house. I will look to add to this over time. At the moment I am building the corner of a world for them to explore and try to run a campaign if my old rusty DM skills are up to scratch. I really hope this gets off the ground. I would rather play but nobody really wants to DM.

 

[krypt0nian]

I am looking to trying to get back into paper and pen gaming after a long break. I have bought some pathfinder books and hoping to get some of the old group back together. It will be difficult as people are leading their own lives now but I figure I will aim for one good session evey three weeks.

I also found some of my old miniature collection that somehow survived the big 'sell off' when I needed money to buy a house. I will look to add to this over time. At the moment I am building the corner of a world for them to explore and try to run a campaign if my old rusty DM skills are up to scratch. I really hope this gets off the ground. I would rather play but nobody really wants to DM.

Keep us updated. Good to have new blood in the RPG thread.

If your mini habit flares up, Paizo is doing some excellent prepainted minis with Wizkids.

Here's some of their work - http://pathfinderminis.com/
He updates it as the previews hit, or the set is released.

 

[Mik2121]

I used to play A LOT of D&D back in the mid-late 90's with my brother and his friends. It was so damn awesome... After that we played also a lot of Cyberpunk, which was so goddamn awesome and I still have one of the books here to use as resource for new ideas as an artist (I use the text, not the pics )

 

[hoverX]

Ahh, nice to have a real thread. We can close the casket on my old one now.

If any of you are software developers you may find this interesting:

"We'll have more information on the GSL as it relates to the next edition in the near future. Personally, I have a copy of 'The Cathedral & the Bazaar' on the shelf at work From my days as a programmer and as a freelance RPG designer, the bulk of my work involved open platforms which did a lot for a game that relies so much on individual creativity." - Mike Mearls.

If you haven't read it, here is a link to a web version of the book

 

[krypt0nian]

Ahh, nice to have a real thread. We can close the casket on my old one now.

If any of you are software developers you may find this interesting:



If you haven't read it, here is a link to a web version of the book

If they go OGL, I'll be shocked. Would be the best thing for the industry and grow the whole shebang again, like the glory days of d20.

Shutting it down for 4E was one of the main hate generators for the edition at first.

 

[PKrockin]

Spoony's Counter Monkey videos have actually got me interested in D&D. I can't actually play in person or over Skype due to my job right now, but at some point I'd like to give it a shot.

(subscribing)

 

[Keasar]

Oh goody, I was just wondering if there would perhaps be a PnP RPG-thread here on Neogaf.

I have been playing PnP RPGs on and off for a while. Mostly swedish ones like Drakar och Demoner (often confused with Dungeons & Dragons, not the same though by far and sadly now discontinued as the creators are shutting down) but also lately Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition and now my friends have been interested in the Pathfinder RPG.

 

[HaRyu]

Going to ramble a bit, since I love PnP RPGs...

My game group primarily does all sessions online (since we're scattered all over the place and not in one general area). Hard to get everyone together at an appointed time to play, but we manage. Luckily, one of the players has just returned from an army stint in Afghanistan, so it looks like the group might start up again. (we havent played much since he's over there, w/ a connection made of suck).

Lessee.. we've used lots of different things online to play, although we tend to prefer the simple things, like MSN messenger. We loved using Google Wave, but that's gone. We've been debating about maybe using Google+ to run a session (involving webcams and such).

Out of our group of... i think its 6 people, on average, we can usually get 5 of us to play, and sometimes bring in a extra person or two. We tend to take turns as to who's the GM, and what systems we play, but I tend to be the primary GM for the group.

We've played... DnD4th Ed, Shadowrun, Maid RPG (yes, don't laugh, awesomely stupid game), to name a few. Also have run some homebrew rules here and there.

Great, now I have an urge to play soon.... I'll need to look through all my rule books and choose a game system to play. I have been annoying the group to play some Paranoia... but they seem to be deathly afraid of playing it, if I'm the GM for some reason.

 

[thefil]

Just recently got to jump back into PnP for a single session with Burning Wheel. It's a really cool system for anything where you want social interactions to be as important as combat. Character motivations and backstory are made concrete as stats, and there are rules for rewarding RP and following through on character. Plus, there's an awesome Duel of Wits system for resolving a social conflict between any two characters (even PCs). I really recommend giving it a try if you, like me, got tired of dungeon crawling PnP.

Unfortunately, I probably won't get to run any more games since we're all in our last term of University and have a lot of work on our plates. In the future I'd like to pick up something silly like Inspectres or Fiasco.

*edit* Burning Wheel would also be super easy to run online. All you need is dice rolls, no miniatures or anything.

 

[echoshifting]

Much like thetrin my group was obliterated by one bad player...and it was my own fault, honestly, as I really wanted to get the player group up to 5 and therefore pressured my players to find one more person. That person was just totally wrong for our group in every conceivable way. Over time he dragged another who had always sort of teetered on the edge into his Cavern of Jaded Bullshit and everything that had been fun about running the game just seeped out.

It really does suck that one person can fuck up the whole thing...but it says a lot about how fun these games can be that many don't ever give up hope that they'll find a way to get back into it. I've recently reunited with the "core" of the group to play cards, and we've already started talking about the possibility of returning to PnP, almost two years to the day since the last game collapsed.

In particular we've been looking at the Palladium games...the rules are pretty unwieldy but I prefer improvisation anyway, and the settings are so fucking out there.

 

[krypt0nian]

Much like thetrin my group was obliterated by one bad player...and it was my own fault, honestly, as I really wanted to get the player group up to 5 and therefore pressured my players to find one more person. That person was just totally wrong for our group in every conceivable way. Over time he dragged another who had always sort of teetered on the edge into his Cavern of Jaded Bullshit and everything that had been fun about running the game just seeped out.

It really does suck that one person can fuck up the whole thing...but it says a lot about how fun these games can be that many don't ever give up hope that they'll find a way to get back into it. I've recently reunited with the "core" of the group to play cards, and we've already started talking about the possibility of returning to PnP, almost two years to the day since the last game collapsed.

Hopefully the time away was a palette cleanser and they are ready to jump back in.

 

[echoshifting]

Hopefully the time away was a palette cleanser and they are ready to jump back in.

Yeah, I think they are. It's always been an unsaid understanding among the four of us, I think, that all of our best sessions happened to land on those days when the other two guys weren't around. It was just one of those situations where it was socially impossible to extricate either of them from the game. The difference was night and day.

I'm not running 4E again, though. I'd gladly play if someone else wants to DM it, but I'm done with running that system. Maybe Essentials-only, I dunno.

 

[Riposte]

How do you guys feel about Eberron? Personally it is my favorite thing to come out of DnD.


About "5E": If most systems are optional (let's say "extra") that probably means two things: players who don't use them will be closed off from optimal choices or the players who do will be toying around with systems that pretty meaningless (basically it becomes character sheet masturbation).

 

[krypt0nian]

How do you guys feel about Eberron? Personally it is my favorite thing to come out of DnD.


About "5E": If most systems are optional (let's say "extra") that probably means two things: players who don't use them will be closed off from optimal choices or the players who do will be toying around with systems that pretty meaningless (basically it becomes character sheet masturbation).

Heart Eberron so hard!

On your second point, that's where their mythical balance is so important. I hope for the best but it seems like they will have to move mountains for this to work IMO.

 

[dude]

How do you guys feel about Eberron? Personally it is my favorite thing to come out of DnD.


About "5E": If most systems are optional (let's say "extra") that probably means two things: players who don't use them will be closed off from optimal choices or the players who do will be toying around with systems that pretty meaningless (basically it becomes character sheet masturbation).

Eberron is cute - Not really for me, as I really dislike this sort of high fantasy... I liked that they went in a different direction, though, change is always good. It's just that I can't take a world with magic robots seriouly... Can be fun for an extra pulpy campaign, I guess.

As for 5e - I'm guessing they're not aiming for a player with a very simple character sheet and a player with every "extra" they have to play side by side, as I don't see how that's possible really... I'm guessing much of those "extras" will come bundled with settings (Dark Sun will probably necessate the Psionics "extra", a martial arts setting might include a specific system for martial arts etc.) so that it'll never be completly meaningless.

 

[hoverX]

If they go OGL, I'll be shocked. Would be the best thing for the industry and grow the whole shebang again, like the glory days of d20.

Shutting it down for 4E was one of the main hate generators for the edition at first.

I think there has to be a good common ground. Allowing them to protect their property but at the same time keeping things open and inviting to the indie content creators.

 

[krypt0nian]

I think there has to be a good common ground. Allowing them to protect their property but at the same time keeping things open and inviting to the indie content creators.

I agree. I just will need hard proof this time. They talked a good gme with 4E, delaying and delaying the release of the GSL until it was utterly worthless in comparison to the OGL, which is still benefitting the PnP industry as a whole. They seem to want to make amends for what they did both with the licensing last go round and the way they forced 4E down everyone's throats with the "we know best" nonsense.

I'm open to see what they bring to the table, especially since I LOVE new systems, but I have to admit that on my best day I am cautiously guarded.

 

[Keasar]

Decided to dig through the bookstash and find my old Drakar och Demoner books and by god, this art is so lovely. The cover on the revised 6th edition remains one of my favourites. Love the nordic theme of runes, the Bauer inspired trolls and so much more.

Managed to find a gallery from one of their artists, couldnt find a gallery though for one of my favourites called Tapia.
http://perkan-arts.com/galleries/dod/dod.html


I gotta start reading up on the rules for this game again. This game wasnt so much about combat as it was about the atmosphere and magic of the forest and its mystical inhabitants (very heavy focus on forest settings in contrast to most PnP RPGs that focus on dungeons and castles), though the rules for combat were still pretty damn complex.

 

[dude]

Decided to dig through the bookstash and find my old Drakar och Demoner books and by god, this art is so lovely. The cover on the revised 6th edition remains one of my favourites. Love the nordic theme of runes, the Bauer inspired trolls and so much more.

Managed to find a gallery from one of their artists, couldnt find a gallery though for one of my favourites called Tapia.
http://perkan-arts.com/galleries/dod/dod.html


I gotta start reading up on the rules for this game again. This game wasnt so much about combat as it was about the atmosphere and magic of the forest and its mystical inhabitants (very heavy focus on forest settings in contrast to most PnP RPGs that focus on dungeons and castles), though the rules for combat were still pretty damn complex.

Was it translated to English? It sounds nice.

 

[peakish]

Decided to dig through the bookstash and find my old Drakar och Demoner books and by god, this art is so lovely. The cover on the revised 6th edition remains one of my favourites. Love the nordic theme of runes, the Bauer inspired trolls and so much more.

Managed to find a gallery from one of their artists, couldnt find a gallery though for one of my favourites called Tapia.
http://perkan-arts.com/galleries/dod/dod.html


I gotta start reading up on the rules for this game again. This game wasnt so much about combat as it was about the atmosphere and magic of the forest and its mystical inhabitants (very heavy focus on forest settings in contrast to most PnP RPGs that focus on dungeons and castles), though the rules for combat were still pretty damn complex.

Haha, I have the second edition of this, published in 1985. As a kid it was my first contact with RPG's (my brother got it from a friend) though I never did play it very seriously. At that time I think it was more or less a Nordicised version of D&D, before focusing more heavily on actual Nordic myths and stuff?

I just went down to my basement and dug up all this stuff. There's like seven published scenarios in my box, maybe I should actually GM them now, haha.

Edit: Haha, young me has peppered the rule book full of house rules to clarify stuff I either couldn't understand at the time or thought were cool. I've added tables for handedness (right, left, ambidextrous), special abilities giving bonuses to skills (roll for one after every adventure), etc. Totally awesome.

Edit 2: I also had the old version of Mutant, but I remember throwing it away after a few years when it was just collecting dust. IIRC the new edition of that is pretty cool with a nice, Swedish Steam Punk world.

Edit 3: Man, this also uses BRP