I know it may be a stretch, but maybe half priced books would have them at some point? Or maybe amazon used? I know there are some online book sites (yearly fee type deals) that carry the Force and Destiny books.
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PnP RPGs OT || Come play the REAL RPGs
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I know it may be a stretch, but maybe half priced books would have them at some point? Or maybe amazon used? I know there are some online book sites (yearly fee type deals) that carry the Force and Destiny books.
Megalosaro
Banned
It's tax refund season and I want to blow some cash on some stuff for DND.
What are some cool things that you think had a layer of ba to your games?
What are some cool things that you think had a layer of ba to your games?
Bear Force One
Banned
Got a true blue game of AD&D coming up the first week of February! I guess the DM has fused a bit of 2E into it as well although I don't know the extent.
Playing a high elf wizard and I believe they are at third level. I had him make my character and I'll edit and add the personality when I arrive.
Way hyped for some old school!
Quin'daelin Brightbond at your service. 🌙⭐️✨
Playing a high elf wizard and I believe they are at third level. I had him make my character and I'll edit and add the personality when I arrive.
Way hyped for some old school!
Quin'daelin Brightbond at your service. 🌙⭐️✨
Megalosaro
Banned
I bought some trees from a railroad place today.
Fuck these things. They're so hard to get right.
Fuck these things. They're so hard to get right.
EYEL1NER
Member
I've been reading about Deathwatch and Only War recently and badly wish I could play them. I keep fantasizing about a campaign combining mechanics from those two with parts of Dark Heresy that would lead to IG, Inquisition, and Space Marine play. Like a couole Grey Knights and an Inquisitor are allying with a squad of Guardsmen (to include a Commissar and a cog boy or two) to survive on a Daemon Planet they are investigating that has emerged from the Warp (which is pretty similar to Ben Counter's second GK book "Dark Adeptus," minus the Inquisitor. I will be lucky to even be able to play an D&D again in the future though, let alone find a group playing the 40K RPGs anywhere around me.
benicillin
Banned
I did not realize there was a PnP RPG thread on GAF! This is really exciting. I got into tabletop early last year from stumbling on Geek and Sundry's Tabletop show (and subsequently Critical Role).
Are there a lot of folks who play Numenera / Cypher system games? I'm running a game of The Strange right now and I'd love to hear from others who have played / ran it. Also been playing a Numenera campaign that's about to come to a close (my first one ever!) and it's been a total blast.
Are there a lot of folks who play Numenera / Cypher system games? I'm running a game of The Strange right now and I'd love to hear from others who have played / ran it. Also been playing a Numenera campaign that's about to come to a close (my first one ever!) and it's been a total blast.
Megalosaro
Banned
Man.
Thank god for basic rules. My friends came over to play tonight and I couldn't find my mm or my prepped adventure. Luckily the monsters I had planned were in the free rules.
I had to basically improvise the whole session. Luckily half the session was buying stuff.
The rest of the session was improved out.
Thank god for basic rules. My friends came over to play tonight and I couldn't find my mm or my prepped adventure. Luckily the monsters I had planned were in the free rules.
I had to basically improvise the whole session. Luckily half the session was buying stuff.
The rest of the session was improved out.
TonkatsuAddict
Member
There's a Humble Pathfinder Bundle available right now. It's a pretty fantastic deal, $17 for very nearly all the Pathfinder you could ever need. Just don't expect to be able to download any of it yet. Paizo's site is super slow due to the extra load.
Yeah, I'll be snagging that.
Nice find, I wish the had a killer deal like this for miniatures.
TonkatsuAddict
Member
To be honest, the later Beastiaries are more niche anyway. The first two cover the classics pretty thoroughly, so 3 and 4 have to branch out. For example, I think it's 4 has a lot of Lovecraft stuff, like Cthulhu, which isn't going to be appropriate for nearly as many games as things like goblins and giants and dragons. Not saying they aren't worth having, but I can understand why they passed on those books in favor of others.
And bought. Nice tip, thanks mate!
benicillin
Banned
Monte Cook Games just started running their Worlds of the Cypher System Kickstarter for new books for the Cypher System - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/montecookgames/worlds-of-the-cypher-system
I've really enjoyed playing Cypher System games over the last year - Numenera, the Strange, and a homebrew campaign my friend made using the generic Cypher System rulebook. Really solid ruleset that is easy for new players and their products are all really high quality. Check it out!
I've really enjoyed playing Cypher System games over the last year - Numenera, the Strange, and a homebrew campaign my friend made using the generic Cypher System rulebook. Really solid ruleset that is easy for new players and their products are all really high quality. Check it out!
super-famicom
Member
I'm gonna start a new campaign with my current group and the DM will be home brewing a campaign based on Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. I know for sure we will be using the classes, but am unsure if we'll be using the entire system, or just adapting the classes to DND 5E. I'll find out more when we meet up and make our characters in a couple of days.
Anyone have any experience with this?
Anyone have any experience with this?
With what, exactly? Adapting stuff to 5e?
super-famicom
Member
Sorry, I meant to ask if anyone had experience with using the entirety of the Fantastic Heroes and Witchery system (no adaptations).
Hey, everyone. I've barely played d&d when I was much younger. Looking to get back into it. Found a game store near me that runs an adventure league. Will probably go there tomorrow with a wotc premade character and some dice.
Any tips for essentially a newbie? Any rookie mistakes I should try to avoid?
My biggest fear is being that dude who slows everything down and keeps funding up the rules.
Any tips for essentially a newbie? Any rookie mistakes I should try to avoid?
My biggest fear is being that dude who slows everything down and keeps funding up the rules.
Listen, D&D has more rules than the tax codes, even seasoned players can fudge them up. Not to mention these types of games are usually accustomed to newbies and will probably try and make the experience as accessible as possible.
Just go with the right attitude and try to have fun
Bear Force One
Banned
5th edition DnD is a simplified rules base more akin to a streamlined 2nd edition so don't worry. If you wanted to you could download the Basic Rules for free and scope them out. But AL is well suited for new players so you'll be great. Let us know!
Megalosaro
Banned
My party wantsto trick a young green dragon. I kinda want to see them succeed.. but I want to make it difficult.
The set up is this: previously they were in thundertree. They are searching for a magic tome that is in venomfang's tower. They unleashed a demon to fight the dragon, but the demon is about to lose.
The group took care of some cultists that heard venomfang roar in distress and just as they did so, the dragon flew up through the hole at the top of its tower. The session ended there.
Last night I was painting with two players and they were discussing their plan.
According to one player, the dragon is only aware that he was attacked by a demon. The party knows that the cultists are trying to court the dragon, so they want to try to suggest they are part of the cult and are coming to their assistence.
Meanwhile, their halfling rogue is going to run up the staircase to the top of the tower and raid it for the tome.
I think it's a bad ass plan. How should I handle this
The set up is this: previously they were in thundertree. They are searching for a magic tome that is in venomfang's tower. They unleashed a demon to fight the dragon, but the demon is about to lose.
The group took care of some cultists that heard venomfang roar in distress and just as they did so, the dragon flew up through the hole at the top of its tower. The session ended there.
Last night I was painting with two players and they were discussing their plan.
According to one player, the dragon is only aware that he was attacked by a demon. The party knows that the cultists are trying to court the dragon, so they want to try to suggest they are part of the cult and are coming to their assistence.
Meanwhile, their halfling rogue is going to run up the staircase to the top of the tower and raid it for the tome.
I think it's a bad ass plan. How should I handle this
Jest Chillin
Member
I'm no DM and I'm not super familiar with Dragons but from what I gather, they're typically quite intelligent, crafty, and have really good senses. They're also very protective of their horde right? So why not play it straight? And by that I mean.. if the Party can reasonably pass themselves off as the cultists, then well done but I would assume the Dragon would still be a bit wary/cautious and would definitely be mindful of any strange sounds coming from it's tower (anything shattering, breaking, falling.. as a result of a failed acrobatic check or an attempt to brute force a door). I'd also figure it wouldn't necessarily want to be away from it's tower for too long.
That's the general way I'd imagine it playing out in terms of giving them a shot at succeeding without just handing it to them.
Managed to scare up a group of interested players at work, so I get to DM my first game soon. I have a campaign in mind, it'll be interesting to see how far off the rails they can drive it.
I recently got Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat as gifts. I leafed through them, but they were pretty "meh." I don't have much inclination to run an adventure anyone can just go buy off a shelf themselves, but at the very least it gives a little insight into the conduct and structure of one. But I had hoped for maybe more magic items, feats, etc. Princes of the Apocalypse has a bit more of that, I guess?
Kind of disappointed on that front. I don't know what Wizards of the Coast's game plan is, but I'd much rather have expansion materials supplemental to the PHB than pre-baked adventures.
I recently got Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat as gifts. I leafed through them, but they were pretty "meh." I don't have much inclination to run an adventure anyone can just go buy off a shelf themselves, but at the very least it gives a little insight into the conduct and structure of one. But I had hoped for maybe more magic items, feats, etc. Princes of the Apocalypse has a bit more of that, I guess?
Kind of disappointed on that front. I don't know what Wizards of the Coast's game plan is, but I'd much rather have expansion materials supplemental to the PHB than pre-baked adventures.
Megalosaro
Banned
From their research, most people seem to be pleased with the pace of Content for 5e. General Consensus is that so-called splatbooks hurt 3e and 3.5e
Jest Chillin
Member
WotC's answer is http://www.dmsguild.com/ where they've put up their supplemental stuff (across all editions) as well as given the players an official place to upload their own creations and profit share off of it (if they choose). Lots of new classes, adventures, maps... just a ton of stuff. There's also various websites that host homebrew stuff like Sterling Vermin, Middle Finger of Vecna, and others I'm sure. Most of that stuff is new classes but the features of some homebrew classes might satisfy your desire for more feats. Don't know of any sources for magic items outside of the DMG though. Most that I've played with hardly use even those (for various reasons) and anyone else just makes up what they like.
Megalosaro
Banned
Curse of strahd is officially out.
Anyone pick it up? My copy is arriving today.
Anyone pick it up? My copy is arriving today.
No but i'm curious about it. Hope it reviews well.
Megalosaro
Banned
All the impressions I've heard are that it's the best 5e campaign yet. They're saying it is an amazingly high quality release.
Speaking of the Pathfinder bundle above, which I totally got and probably have managed to get my old (nowadays long distance) gang up for trying a Roll20 session with it, I noticed this interesting Kickstarter.
Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder
Amazingly cool. If my gang manages to stick to playing I'll definitely pick this up at release to see what it's about. We've mostly played Cthulhu previously.
Anyway, I'm super excited about trying out a game over Roll20. I've been toying with it this last week and while some things are a bit obtuse it has some pretty neat features. Most of all it's going to be fun to run something, again.
Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder
Amazingly cool. If my gang manages to stick to playing I'll definitely pick this up at release to see what it's about. We've mostly played Cthulhu previously.
Anyway, I'm super excited about trying out a game over Roll20. I've been toying with it this last week and while some things are a bit obtuse it has some pretty neat features. Most of all it's going to be fun to run something, again.
Got a big storage bin to put all these Pathfinder bestiary pawns I've got into it and had the idea of making a catalog of the unpunched sheets to flip through for reference since I can't keep them all in mind.
But of course I didn't think to scan them *before* punching them all out and of course such scans are not freely available online since Paizo sells the PDFs for $25 bucks.
Shoot.
But of course I didn't think to scan them *before* punching them all out and of course such scans are not freely available online since Paizo sells the PDFs for $25 bucks.
Shoot.
Megalosaro
Banned
One of my players said one of the most magic things ever today.
"I wanna try dming sometime."
As a forever dm, that was magic to my ears. I haven't played as a pc in years.
"I wanna try dming sometime."
As a forever dm, that was magic to my ears. I haven't played as a pc in years.
Oh man, that's awesome.
I was also a forever-DM, until a couple of years ago. Now there's a more healthy mix, and I get to play a PC quite a lot. It takes some getting used to - My main trouble was in deciding on a character to play, it's was weird committing to one character instead of a 1000 shallower NPCs. But there's something magical about exploring one character more deeply.
It's also magical to see a DM take his first steps. Good luck to you and your player/maybe-future-DM
Megalosaro
Banned
Yup. Pretty stoked.
I broke my rule of not showing my pcs what's behind the curtain last night in order to start empowering him on my dm philosophy.
I didn't spoil anything. But I thought it'd be a good idea to show him what sort of work and thought processes go into establishing a session
He was pretty excited.
I broke my rule of not showing my pcs what's behind the curtain last night in order to start empowering him on my dm philosophy.
I didn't spoil anything. But I thought it'd be a good idea to show him what sort of work and thought processes go into establishing a session
He was pretty excited.
Huw_Dawson
Member
My best behind the screen moments are when the campaign goes off script, you improv an an amazing character moment happens that you had little to do with.
Team PC in my campaign has done that quite a few times.
I think being able to roll with a scenario, read the room and still deliver an effective session is the best thing about being a DM. Players have so much power. It's rewarding as hell to be able to share an open campaign with a party of hooked players.
BTW did you guys see the crazy 7th Sea kickstarter that pulled crazy money? I kinda feel like I missed out. 13th Age is fun but it'd be nice to have a second system to look forward too.
Speaking of 13th Age: I'm thinking of GMing a second campaign at some point. I might target it at NeoGAF if I do... not sure if anyone's actually played it here though.
Team PC in my campaign has done that quite a few times.
I think being able to roll with a scenario, read the room and still deliver an effective session is the best thing about being a DM. Players have so much power. It's rewarding as hell to be able to share an open campaign with a party of hooked players.
BTW did you guys see the crazy 7th Sea kickstarter that pulled crazy money? I kinda feel like I missed out. 13th Age is fun but it'd be nice to have a second system to look forward too.
Speaking of 13th Age: I'm thinking of GMing a second campaign at some point. I might target it at NeoGAF if I do... not sure if anyone's actually played it here though.
I've always played my dragons based on their age. An older dragon would be more difficult to fool, or "trick", as they have a lot more wisdom and life experience than a younger dragon of the same type. No easy task, but a party member with good rolls and the right skills would be able to pull one over on the young dragon. An adult dragon, would be a MUCH higher difficulty check lol.
I usually review my playing party's skill stats, and guess what they will try and do in the given scenario. Then I build DCs I think are moderate, difficult, etc. But for me. Sometimes a huge win for the party on a interesting idea or plan, will beat their actual rolls (within reason). My main goal at all times is to make it the most badass fun, at all times. If it were me, even if they rolled slightly lower than planned, I would probably let it succeed as an overall morale booster. I like to encourage out of the box thinking and unique plans.
Megalosaro
Banned
I spend a decent amount of time scouting real world locations to use for reference in my DND campaign. For my money, I cant think of a location more rip for adventure than the Aegean Sea. Look at this map from Providence scale.
It has all you need. Mountains. Forests. Deserts in the east. An ocean full of islands to visit.
http://i.imgur.com/YROJZY6.jpg
You could transpose this exact same map and wouldnt need to change anything
It has all you need. Mountains. Forests. Deserts in the east. An ocean full of islands to visit.
http://i.imgur.com/YROJZY6.jpg
You could transpose this exact same map and wouldnt need to change anything
Bear Force One
Banned
Had to share this excellent DnD 5E character sheet that was made to look like the old retro sheets from AD&D.
https://rpgcharacters.files.wordpre...ool-fifth-edition-character-sheet-4-pages.pdf
From Dyson Logo's amazing site (he does hand drawn maps that are to die for for free), and it was made by Billy Logino, so credit where credit is due.
Check out Dyson's maps here - https://rpgcharacters.files.wordpress.com
https://rpgcharacters.files.wordpre...ool-fifth-edition-character-sheet-4-pages.pdf
From Dyson Logo's amazing site (he does hand drawn maps that are to die for for free), and it was made by Billy Logino, so credit where credit is due.
Check out Dyson's maps here - https://rpgcharacters.files.wordpress.com
Megalosaro
Banned
Two of my players are calling out this week so I was thinking of running a one shot for my other two players. Any suggestions?
One shots are pretty awesome, we used to do them pretty regularly. I'd go with a very tightly focused campaign, DM-written pre-made PCs and some very light-variation of a system everyone is comfortable with or even free-form it. One shots took me a good while to figure out, because it's so easy to lose precious time on bullshit. Also, I keep combat to the bare minimum possible (both in quantity, but also in mechanics, it's usually over in 15 minutes or less.)
Finally ran the Pathfinder game over roll20 with my friends, and it was very fun to get back into GM'ing. First fantasy game with tactical combat that we've played so we were a bit rusty both with having to move combat tokens and doing it at a good pace to not make combat boring, haha. Seems like it should be really fun once we get into the game proper and can take off the learning wheels.
Now I'm having fun thinking about the next session, and whether or not I should mix in a shorter quest with a larger to make the session a bit more flexible for them. And which monsters they should be eaten by, ke ke ke.
Now I'm having fun thinking about the next session, and whether or not I should mix in a shorter quest with a larger to make the session a bit more flexible for them. And which monsters they should be eaten by, ke ke ke.
Bear Force One
Banned
http://www.financialpost.com/m/wp/b...-imagination-found-within-pen-and-paper-games
Really great write up on why video games cannot approach tabletops in some areas.
Really great write up on why video games cannot approach tabletops in some areas.
ElectricThunder
Member
Eh, the fellow might want to wade in on Dwarf Fortress Adventure mode at the very least before painting with such an absolute, even if justifiably broad on margin, brush.
It is true that the interplay between P&P Tabletop, cRPGs, and Roguelikes has been one historically not taken advantage of to an appreciable degree vs other things---though part of that was hitting the tech ceiling pretty damn hard in the 80's/part of the 90's alongside the sort of demands in terms of systems and narrative that would certainly be challenging from an artistic perspective and not exactly conducive to the business side concerns.
In other words, it ain't walls so much as layers...and layers can well become permeable especially at this point in time so long as folks apply themselves and more of a general tech base gets situated.
It is true that the interplay between P&P Tabletop, cRPGs, and Roguelikes has been one historically not taken advantage of to an appreciable degree vs other things---though part of that was hitting the tech ceiling pretty damn hard in the 80's/part of the 90's alongside the sort of demands in terms of systems and narrative that would certainly be challenging from an artistic perspective and not exactly conducive to the business side concerns.
In other words, it ain't walls so much as layers...and layers can well become permeable especially at this point in time so long as folks apply themselves and more of a general tech base gets situated.
TonkatsuAddict
Member
I think part of the reason is this absolute need for games to be graphically "next gen". You're either an indie dev who can get away with weaker graphics, but don't have the budget or manpower to create a truly expansive game, or you're a AAA developer who will get thrown under the bus if you dare to release something that isn't graphically revolutionary. I think it'd be really cool if a big, AAA dev created a game with indie-level sprite graphics, and dedicated the thousands of man-hours normally dedicated to physics and graphics engines and 3D modelling and instead put them toward creating a truly expansive world with very detailed and fine-grained interaction. Unfortunately, given the expectations of the average gamer today, I doubt we'll see it.
Until those expectations change, though, thankfully we have our PnP RPGs to fill that niche.
Until those expectations change, though, thankfully we have our PnP RPGs to fill that niche.
ElectricThunder
Member
That's part of the great disconnect and outdated walling off though---you'd actually need the lion's share of those jobs covered in a bid to do things right by and large, only applied in a more intent fashion.
Physics? You'd need that cranked to the hilt to handle much of the heavy lifting and emergent interactions lest you be crushed by the weight of explicit message logs and the like in a more overt Maths Hell
Graphics? Considering the volume of data and general threads you'd need to communicate, a robust nightmare of U/I/ and GUI concerns awaits as well as probably needing to grasp from both 2D and 3D disciplines if only to best contend with making the most of very finite screen real estate and resolution. I suppose this is one of the Forbidden Fruits dangling in the wind with the present ascent of VR and AR doings---but still. Same deal with the Machine Learning/Deep AI/etc getting fed an ungodly amount of AAR's and whatnot specific to a given ruleset to venture into GM territory spiked with procedural elements.
Even then, all of these things are drinking from the same hose simultaneously in terms of raw resources for whatever platform---to hit the point of sharply diminishing returns on all fronts as things stand would be....interesting...to say the least.
Still, expectations are there to be changed and challenged given that's how they themselves got cemented in the first place---the limitations of the 80's/90's in terms of what folks reckon to be the spheres each can operate in are a construct through and through from when history and priorities went awry. Not so unlike how the CYOA line failed to reach out preemptively to the future by embracing the then freely available Diskmag tech to bridge the paper to digital crevasse----a solid couple decades of What Might've Been...
Physics? You'd need that cranked to the hilt to handle much of the heavy lifting and emergent interactions lest you be crushed by the weight of explicit message logs and the like in a more overt Maths Hell
Graphics? Considering the volume of data and general threads you'd need to communicate, a robust nightmare of U/I/ and GUI concerns awaits as well as probably needing to grasp from both 2D and 3D disciplines if only to best contend with making the most of very finite screen real estate and resolution. I suppose this is one of the Forbidden Fruits dangling in the wind with the present ascent of VR and AR doings---but still. Same deal with the Machine Learning/Deep AI/etc getting fed an ungodly amount of AAR's and whatnot specific to a given ruleset to venture into GM territory spiked with procedural elements.
Even then, all of these things are drinking from the same hose simultaneously in terms of raw resources for whatever platform---to hit the point of sharply diminishing returns on all fronts as things stand would be....interesting...to say the least.
Still, expectations are there to be changed and challenged given that's how they themselves got cemented in the first place---the limitations of the 80's/90's in terms of what folks reckon to be the spheres each can operate in are a construct through and through from when history and priorities went awry. Not so unlike how the CYOA line failed to reach out preemptively to the future by embracing the then freely available Diskmag tech to bridge the paper to digital crevasse----a solid couple decades of What Might've Been...
Possibly a pointless comment, but all the things he talks about with open-endedness don't just automatically come with role playing games, you need to have a pretty fantastic GM for that to happen. I can remember plenty of my early GMing attempts that were constructed entirely from ironclad railroad tracks of the finest quality. Not to say we didn't have fun but I tended to just emulate video games with branching paths and "decision points" and simple stuff like that. Nowadays I try to be much more open ended and the games are far better for it; changing systems helped us there too.
Bear Force One
Banned
If I had the time I would join up. But unfortunately I'm running my own campaign that leeches most of my free time. GL with your game! After some time, you won't be flippin through the PHB anymore, as the rules will be instilled in your brain