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PnP RPGs OT || Come play the REAL RPGs

Still buzzing from the first session. Plenty oof talking going on amongst the players too. The rogue had snaffled a journal that had important information regarding things that were important for the Gnome to find out; so he's apologised for reading it, give it to the gnome and offered to help in any way he can :)

Whenever rules uncertainity popped up we either used common sense or made a roll and a note to clarify it after the game. The focus was having fun and in that regard it was a success.
 
There's no argument to be made that it's "pretty terrible" and "make the problems that 3.5 had even worse" That's just crazy talk.

You're insane.

It is pretty terrible, because it has a terrible, unbalanced base!

Classes are wildly unbalanced. A magic user, congrats, you just won! A martial class? Sorry, you're consigned to being terrible.

Combat is a unbalanced mess in which HP etc are meaningless because all that matters is that the wizard casts the one spell that instantly wins the fight. And it's pretty bad for non combat things because, again, it's based off the absurd and broken 3e rules. And hey, again magic classes automatically win that too!

To top it off, Pazio is a pretty terrible company. Not only do they make their money stealing someone elses work through abusing a loophole, they actively lie about their competitors and cater to the concept that RPGs should be stagnant and backward.

If you want a "D&D experience" Then play Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. It's far better at the "kill monsters and take their stuff" thing then Pathfinder (Since the rules have some semblance of sanity and balance) and if you want some non combat social roleplaying, do a FATE based game.
 

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
You're insane.

It is pretty terrible, because it has a terrible, unbalanced base!



To top it off, Pazio is a pretty terrible company.
Not only do they make their money stealing someone elses work through abusing a loophole, they actively lie about their competitors and cater to the concept that RPGs should be stagnant and backward.

If you want a "D&D experience" Then play Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. It's far better at the "kill monsters and take their stuff" thing then Pathfinder (Since the rules have some semblance of sanity and balance) and if you want some non combat social roleplaying, do a FATE based game.
mark-wahlberg-shocked-gif.gif


Wow... Man that there is some real vitriolic fan boy madness.

Pathfinder is definitely the best version of 3.anything and the D20/OGL system.
but nothing wrong with liking other systems as well..
 

Keasar

Member
Found beneath a pile of books a classic of RPG comedy.
The Handbook Anthology by Åke Rosenius, a collection of swedish comic strips collectively named "The survival handbook in role and hobby games" that make humor of roleplaying and hobby gaming. Love these comics. Seems like the publisher have a archive of them on the internet but in kinda poor quality (hard to read the text).
informat.gif

Narrator: Do you happen to come across enemies that seem to know exactly what you are going to do?

Narr: Maddening it is, but how do they actually do this? The answer is simple. They got an informant!

Narr: Then the question is who? Actually there is only one person who has both a motif and a opportunity: the gamemaster!!
Think about it: He is always present when you are planning something right? And he asks ALOT of questions all the time.

Narr: There is only one effective way to fight his information leaks: Classification of secrecy!
GM guy: Which way do you go?
Player dude: Im not telling!

Not perhaps everybodys cup of tea, but I thought alot of this stuff was hilarious, as it was easy to recognise the situations when you used to play. :p
For anyone swedish in the thread, I recommend picking it up.
 
psychotic ramblings

"Pazio is a pretty terrible company"

A hahahahaha then he says play 4E. Ask WoTC how 4E is doing for them as they beg people to come back to DnD with their transparent attempts to be the company you just called terrible.

Settle down fanboy.


Actually on-topic:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/news/3...rob-heinsoo-making-their-own-5th-edition.html

Looks like there is more 5th edition competition coming from a creator of 3e with a creator of 4E.

"modular system" hehe
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
After seeing this thread a few weeks ago and watching a bunch of the RPG story vids on TheSpoonyExperiment since then, I really feel like I'm missing out and want to get my RPG on for the first time, specifically Savage Worlds, but I have no good friends who want to play in person or over the net, and I live in the middle of nowhere so theres not many people to begin with. So starting a game with friends/real people is probably never going to happen. That said Fantasy Grounds looks like the best online toolset for a beginner thanks to its simple UI and layout, though it isnt cheap.

So I guess if there are any gaffers out there who have Fantasy Grounds, or interested in getting it, and want to play Savage Worlds and maybe GM and help a beginner out I would be very interested and highly grateful. Ill post a topic I guess on Fantasy Grounds looking for a beginners game and maybe Spoony's site as well since he seems to have a decent meetup forum for RPGs.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Poking around looking for an online game, which is quite dire, and I came across a nice WIP Google+ Hangout App for running games and it looks pretty solid, just went into open Beta two days ago so its real new. Might be good for the OP.

Tabletop Forge 2.0


Beta Vid


General Features said:
  • UI flexibility. Most of the widgets in the application are both resizable and movable so you can layout things as you like them on your monitor.
  • Resizable and movable video canvas. This let you see whoever is actively speaking and you can place it wherever you want and resize it.
  • Windows can be minimized to bottom of screen or the title bar can be double-clicked to collapse the window.
  • Theming support. A dropdown menu of various themes to change the color and style layout of the text and widgets.
  • Map state, dice macros, combat tracker, and basic character info can be saved to the Google App Engine cloud and restored again in a later Hangout.





 

dude

dude
Poking around looking for an online game, which is quite dire, and I came across a nice WIP Google+ Hangout App for running games and it looks pretty solid, just went into open Beta two days ago so its real new. Might be good for the OP.

Tabletop Forge 2.0


Beta Vid

I don't see it in the OP, but http://nearbygamers.com/ may also be worth a look.

Added both to OP, thanks :)

I'm still thinking about how should I handle Kickstarters in the OP. Originally, I thought of having a list of all of them in the OP, but keeping it up to date too time consuming... So, any ideas?
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rileydutton/roll20-virtual-tabletop-gaming-that-tells-a-story

Roll20 Overview

Pretty slick looking virtual gaming tabletop.

I don't have an active group at the moment, but I might donate anyways, I can always get a group going eventually.

This and Tabletop Forge should merge. TF has all the mechanical and clerical stuff all figured out but is pretty weak on the presentation side, while Roll20 is all about the presentation, that page system is genius, but its barely there in terms of mechanical assistance and management/clerical systems.

Worst case scenario, or maybe best case, you use TF for the mechanics and Roll20 for the presentation, would actually be pretty awesome setup if youre rocking two or more screens, have Roll20 on one and TF on the other.
 

Tzeentch

Member
I write for GURPS, but if you have specific questions about it, the Steve Jackson Games forum is quite lively and willing to answer most things.

They make you jump through a few hoops to snag it, but the GURPS Lite quickstart is free and actually quite a useful guide even if you are pretty handy with how the rules work. If you're new to GURPS I would recommend starting with the excellent Dungeon Fantasy series of books - as those get you right into standard D&D-esque "Murder Hobos for Hire" and "Fantasy Vietnam" gameplay fast.
cover_sm.jpg
 

Songbird

Prodigal Son

Keasar

Member
Just put an order down for the core rulebook of the Shadowrun RPG. After reading the primer they released on the kickstarter page for Shadowrun Returns I was immediatly hooked on the setting.
 

dude

dude
Just put an order down for the core rulebook of the Shadowrun RPG. After reading the primer they released on the kickstarter page for Shadowrun Returns I was immediatly hooked on the setting.
I don't have any experience with the current Shadowrun, but the I found the older edition pretty horrible mechanics wise (like pretty much all of FASA's games.) The setting is pretty cool though.
 
I don't have any experience with the current Shadowrun, but the I found the older edition pretty horrible mechanics wise (like pretty much all of FASA's games.) The setting is pretty cool though.

Agreed. The setting is phenomenal, and I did have fun with the game, regardless of the rules. The early novels are great fun!

I picked up the Anniversary Hardcover though, for old times sake.
 

Keasar

Member
I sadly dont have any experience with Shadowrun whatsoever before, but after reading about the Shadowrun world and hearing about the whole "dice pool"-mechanic they use in the latest editions, I was quite interested.
 
I sadly dont have any experience with Shadowrun whatsoever before, but after reading about the Shadowrun world and hearing about the whole "dice pool"-mechanic they use in the latest editions, I was quite interested.

I hope the new version works out for you. If you're inspired by the setting, your game will be fun regardless of rules set! ;)
 

Songbird

Prodigal Son
Just put an order down for the core rulebook of the Shadowrun RPG. After reading the primer they released on the kickstarter page for Shadowrun Returns I was immediatly hooked on the setting.

I bought the pdf of the 20th Anniversary book a while ago and the flavour stuff is really cool. Definitely seems like a complicated system.
 
My next session of pathfinder is on the 29th. Sadly the monk player cannot make it and we'll be running with 3 players. I am going ahead because if I reschedule everytime somebody cannot make it we'd never play.
 

Danoss

Member
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rileydutton/roll20-virtual-tabletop-gaming-that-tells-a-story

Roll20 Overview

Pretty slick looking virtual gaming tabletop.

I don't have an active group at the moment, but I might donate anyways, I can always get a group going eventually.

Damn, if I was in a position to pledge, I'd jump on a Mentor account. That looks perfect for running games online, and surprisingly similar to the Google+ interface.

I'm still thinking about how should I handle Kickstarters in the OP. Originally, I thought of having a list of all of them in the OP, but keeping it up to date too time consuming... So, any ideas?

The only other option is to rely on the RPG Kickstarters tumblr account. If it wasn't so slow in adding them, it might be worthwhile.

The best I can think of is add them to the OP as people make note of them in this thread, but note the expiry date next to the link or whatever. This way it's easy to delete the completed projects later on, and people know how long left to go on them at a glance.
 

dude

dude
I recently got my hands on the old Deadlands books, and got around reading them yesterday, and we'll be playing it very soon :)
I'm very excited! But I have a question to those more experienced with Deadlands - Should we play the by the old rules or should I buy the new Savage World system books?


The only other option is to rely on the RPG Kickstarters tumblr account. If it wasn't so slow in adding them, it might be worthwhile.

The best I can think of is add them to the OP as people make note of them in this thread, but note the expiry date next to the link or whatever. This way it's easy to delete the completed projects later on, and people know how long left to go on them at a glance.
I hope to have some time to figure it out this weekend. Thanks :)

EDIT: Wait, were we moved to the Off-Topic forum...?
 

ChiTownBuffalo

Either I made up lies about the Boston Bomber or I fell for someone else's crap. Either way, I have absolutely no credibility and you should never pay any attention to anything I say, no matter what the context. Perm me if I claim to be an insider
So, I current DM at D&D ENcounters at Cat & Mouse Games in Chicago, every Wednesday night. But am putting together a Shadowrun Campaign if anyone is interested in the Chicago area.
 
My RPG choice these days is Dread: A Game Of Horror and Hope. It's really different but I think that makes it rather exciting to play, and the entry level is very low. There are two things that set it apart: no stats, no dice. Character generation is handled by probing questionnaires that allow the play to really focus on the character part of character generation. Ability checks are handled by Jenga. Yes, Jenga. If you attempt something the GM doesn't think you could easily do you have to make a pull from the tower. If the tower falls you die, or are otherwise incapacitated and removed from the game. Clearly characters are in constant danger and that is why Dread is an excellent horror game. It mainly lends itself to one offs but I'm sure a campaign system could be created with some tweaking. You can get some free basic rules and adventures, and character sheets here so give it a try:

Dread
 

dude

dude
PM Evilore.

We belong in Gaming.

PM'd him.

We shall not be banished from our rightful forum.


My RPG choice these days is Dread: A Game Of Horror and Hope. It's really different but I think that makes it rather exciting to play, and the entry level is very low. There are two things that set it apart: no stats, no dice. Character generation is handled by probing questionnaires that allow the play to really focus on the character part of character generation. Ability checks are handled by Jenga. Yes, Jenga. If you attempt something the GM doesn't think you could easily do you have to make a pull from the tower. If the tower falls you die, or are otherwise incapacitated and removed from the game. Clearly characters are in constant danger and that is why Dread is an excellent horror game. It mainly lends itself to one offs but I'm sure a campaign system could be created with some tweaking. You can get some free basic rules and adventures, and character sheets here so give it a try:

Dread
Sounds cute, I'll give it a look. Thanks!
 
PM'd him.

We shall not be banished from our rightful forum.



Sounds cute, I'd give it a look. Thanks!

It is! It starts off fairly light and silly but as the tower gets closer and closer to crubling the tension ratchets up so fast even gamers who tend towards the silly get drawn in. It has to be seen to be believed really, but it's a really great little game.
 

Danoss

Member
My RPG choice these days is Dread: A Game Of Horror and Hope. It's really different but I think that makes it rather exciting to play, and the entry level is very low. There are two things that set it apart: no stats, no dice. Character generation is handled by probing questionnaires that allow the play to really focus on the character part of character generation. Ability checks are handled by Jenga. Yes, Jenga. If you attempt something the GM doesn't think you could easily do you have to make a pull from the tower. If the tower falls you die, or are otherwise incapacitated and removed from the game. Clearly characters are in constant danger and that is why Dread is an excellent horror game. It mainly lends itself to one offs but I'm sure a campaign system could be created with some tweaking. You can get some free basic rules and adventures, and character sheets here so give it a try:

Dread

Yep, that would be one of my picks to list under the Indie RPG section in the OP. As funny as it sounds, replacing dice with Jenga is an incredible mechanic and works so well in mounting the dread players feel as the game progresses. If the GM does things right, the height of tension can be applied around the time the tower becomes unstable; 12 pulls is when it becomes unstable and at 18-20 pulls, someone's gonna die!

I really love the 'heroic sacrifice' move that the game has. Walking up and purposefully knocking the Jenga tower down is the in-game equivalent of doing that heroic act that saves the day. It always succeeds, but you die in the process. So good.

Even the player creation idea is fantastic. Horror games work well when you have certain archetypes in the group, and Dread does this perfectly. If you're creating your own game, it's quite a bit of extra work to create the player questionnaires, but it's a great way to get the characters you need whilst the players are still happy they have customised it to their liking, and feel the attachment they need.

I have heard many stories of people setting a great atmosphere for the game. Here's a couple.
  • Players are in a dark wood and the only thing helping them see through it and navigate their way out and deal with the predator within is one torch. This torch is pretty unreliable though, the contacts are worn, so you have to shake it a bit to make it work againe when it goes out. This was replicated by a GM having a dodgy torch, he'd turn out the lights and one player would hold the torch for the other who had to make the pull. The panic the players felt when that torch went out and they couldn't see a thing would be fantastic.

  • A terrible, intelligent unknown thing is aboard a submarine, it is cutting power reserves and isolating members of the crew from their mates. A dim red light throughout the submarine is all the crew has to see by, and only their radios to communicate with the others. A clever GM replaced the lighting in the game room with a red bulb to simulate the view the players had, making it harder to see the tower, heightening the tension on the pulls. When a player was isolated from the others, they would be sent into another room of the house with only a 2-way radio to communicate with the GM and other players.

Stuff like that is clever and another way to ramp up the tension for players, so they can enjoy their session even more. Dread is perfect for one-shots (though as mentioned, it can be adapted with some tweaks), if you want campaign play, I think there are better options available. I think Dread is something you pull out for a special occasion, because it sure is a special game.

Sounds cute, I'd give it a look. Thanks!

Do it, the game is amazing.
 
I do love Dread as a Halloween theme game, but not as much for a regular go to game.

Jenga loses it's pull when it's overused IMO.
 
Yep, that would be one of my picks to list under the Indie RPG section in the OP. As funny as it sounds, replacing dice with Jenga is an incredible mechanic and works so well in mounting the dread players feel as the game progresses. If the GM does things right, the height of tension can be applied around the time the tower becomes unstable; 12 pulls is when it becomes unstable and at 18-20 pulls, someone's gonna die!

I really love the 'heroic sacrifice' move that the game has. Walking up and purposefully knocking the Jenga tower down is the in-game equivalent of doing that heroic act that saves the day. It always succeeds, but you die in the process. So good.

Even the player creation idea is fantastic. Horror games work well when you have certain archetypes in the group, and Dread does this perfectly. If you're creating your own game, it's quite a bit of extra work to create the player questionnaires, but it's a great way to get the characters you need whilst the players are still happy they have customised it to their liking, and feel the attachment they need.

I have heard many stories of people setting a great atmosphere for the game. Here's a couple.
  • Players are in a dark wood and the only thing helping them see through it and navigate their way out and deal with the predator within is one torch. This torch is pretty unreliable though, the contacts are worn, so you have to shake it a bit to make it work againe when it goes out. This was replicated by a GM having a dodgy torch, he'd turn out the lights and one player would hold the torch for the other who had to make the pull. The panic the players felt when that torch went out and they couldn't see a thing would be fantastic.

  • A terrible, intelligent unknown thing is aboard a submarine, it is cutting power reserves and isolating members of the crew from their mates. A dim red light throughout the submarine is all the crew has to see by, and only their radios to communicate with the others. A clever GM replaced the lighting in the game room with a red bulb to simulate the view the players had, making it harder to see the tower, heightening the tension on the pulls. When a player was isolated from the others, they would be sent into another room of the house with only a 2-way radio to communicate with the GM and other players.

Stuff like that is clever and another way to ramp up the tension for players, so they can enjoy their session even more. Dread is perfect for one-shots (though as mentioned, it can be adapted with some tweaks), if you want campaign play, I think there are better options available. I think Dread is something you pull out for a special occasion, because it sure is a special game.



Do it, the game is amazing.

Those are amazing. I love the way the game inspires creativity like that. I must steal. And yeah it's not a weekly game, but pulling it out always feels like an event
 
I'd never run a campaign using Dread, but it's definitely fantastic as a one shot game.

I'd want to do a few linked sessions just to see if I could. Find a way to play out psychological traumas, long term injuries and the like.

Kinda like how some people turned the boardgame Catacombs in to a campaign. It's not designed for it but as a creative experiment it's kinda fun!
 

dude

dude
I recently got my hands on the old Deadlands books, and got around reading them yesterday, and we'll be playing it very soon :)
I'm very excited! But I have a question to those more experienced with Deadlands - Should we play the by the old rules or should I buy the new Savage World system books?

Where are all the Deadlands fans? :(
 

Woorloog

Banned
Possibly. I've seen it a few times in Gaming, and saw it got move to OT. subbing because I like watching people hate on 4th edition.

I love 4th edition

4th edition of what? I assume you mean DnD. Never got around to play SW Saga but based on the book, it looks way better than 4th edition (Saga was a prototype for 4th AFAIK). 4th edition looked nice but in practice i didn't particularly like it. I felt i needed all sorts of software aids, from modifying monsters to various other things (didn't sub to DDi(.
 

Vagabundo

Member
PM'd him.

We shall not be banished from our rightful forum.

I've seen Evilore defend PNP DND in gaming before. Maybe it was another mod?


4th edition of what? I assume you mean DnD. Never got around to play SW Saga but based on the book, it looks way better than 4th edition (Saga was a prototype for 4th AFAIK). 4th edition looked nice but in practice i didn't particularly like it. I felt i needed all sorts of software aids, from modifying monsters to various other things (didn't sub to DDi(.


I'm playing SW saga right now. We're in between adventure 3 and 4 of the Dawn of Defiance path and it is an amazing system. Yeah, better than 4e in some ways. I was hoping they would take lots of the good stuff from Saga for 5e, but it looks like they are going in a different direction.

It doesn't make 4e bad. I've DM'd it since the start for a few years and there is a lot to like in the system. I think they were just a little too inflexible with some of the mechanics and went a little crazy with feats, but it is my favourite version of DND all the same.
 
yep, 4e dnd. I noticed the argument going back and forth at the top of this page and was like "oh boy, this looks like fun". :D

4th was an interesting experiment, and I think it did a lot of things right (keeping the combat round to standard/move/minor, healing surges, crits, death saves, etc.) but also cocked a lot of things up (squished down a few too many skills, relied on software aids way too much, etc.). Ultimately it's my system of choice for now, but that's also because my games are usually about 25% RP, 25% dungeons and 50% combat. I like combat, and 4e does combat better than the previous editions did, I think.

Edit: also monsters was actually much much easier than in 3rd, just because you didn't have to go by a specific set of rules (since 3rd monsters were overgrown NPCs in their own right, with their own skills/feats/etc.), you have some baseline numbers to work with (in the DMG, or you can just look at other monsters for a good idea of where to start) then you just adjust to taste, add powers that you think would make sense/be cool.
 

dude

dude
I think I might actually be warming up to 4e.

But my official policy is still hating it to death until further notice.

Especially because of its added emphasis on miniatures, I can't stand miniatures.
 

Woorloog

Banned
I like combat, and 4e does combat better than the previous editions did, I think.

At the expense of roleplaying, i think. Our (me, my bro and a few friends) games are 20% combat, 20% thinking your next move in combat and 30-50% roleplaying and 10-30% screwing around. 4th edition combat took too much time, due to combat being a big focus on it and the system making us think way too much about what to do.
With proper houseruling it could work just fine though easier to make a homebrew system. We play almost always with homebrewn systems.
 

Vagabundo

Member
Edit: also monsters was actually much much easier than in 3rd, just because you didn't have to go by a specific set of rules (since 3rd monsters were overgrown NPCs in their own right, with their own skills/feats/etc.), you have some baseline numbers to work with (in the DMG, or you can just look at other monsters for a good idea of where to start) then you just adjust to taste, add powers that you think would make sense/be cool.

The DM/monster tools are amazing. It really made my life easier. The two DMG are brilliant, best DMGs I've seen around and as a supplement I'd recommend the DM articles by Chris on DDI. Not sure if they are subscriber only, but there is a big PDF- released around Christmas time - off a compliation of all the articles with some great ideas for DMing.
 
I think I might actually be warming up to 4e.

But my official policy is still hating it to death until further notice.

Especially because of its added emphasis on miniatures, I can't stand miniatures.

What particular things did you hate to death about it? I mean, I know as much as the next guy that 4th isn't a perfect system, but I think it does a lot of things right. And as far as minis go...well, until I found out a friend of mine has an obsessive desire to collect the things, I always just used tokens. Pennies, nickels, dice, whatever. The fact that there's no facing in 4e helps in that regard. :)

At the expense of roleplaying, i think. Our (me, my bro and a few friends) games are 20% combat, 20% thinking your next move in combat and 30-50% roleplaying and 10-30% screwing around. 4th edition combat took too much time, due to combat being a big focus on it and the system making us think way too much about what to do.
With proper houseruling it could work just fine though easier to make a homebrew system. We play almost always with homebrewn systems.

I can see where you're coming from. My opinion was always that RP always boiled down to two things in D&D: Talking, and skill checks. 4e cocked it up a little by boiling down the skills a little too far (eliminating professions is the biggie), but I never understood people who just NEEDED to have the rogue who could hide, but couldn't move silently. I mean really? Same with Spot and Listen. Combining those down to Stealth and Perception, respectively, was one of the better changes in 4e, imo.
 
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