Pen and Paper Anyone?
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Apprentice
Member # 3428
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written Monday, May 14 2007 16:44
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Any P-n-P gamers on here? Basically anyone who frequently engages in table top RPGness. :3 Tell us your favorite systems, your favorite settings, your favorite source and companion books! Any favorite campaigns or characters you've had would also most likely be interesting. It'd also be interesting to hear from people modding or writing their own core rules sets. I'm currently working on a rules set/setting for something I like to call "Memories of Aura", its fun, but unsuprisingly, more work than I thought at first. :P [You have to so throughly flesh out so many things if you're actually writing a setting.] I'll offer up more details if anyone's interested, but get your prespectives and experiences out here! -------------------- HIHI!!!! *hugs indescriminantly* take that, FEEL THE LOVE!!!! Posts: 47 | Registered: Wednesday, September 3 2003 07:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 4682
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written Monday, May 14 2007 17:13
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I love pen and paper gaming. There are so many more possibilities than using a computer. I use the Dungeons and Dragons books. I haven't played long enough stories to have any character stand out in my mind but I am starting another game soon with my sister DMing. I am expecting one of my friends to make a James Bond character, since he is obssessed. -------------------- Do not underestimate the power of the mechanical pencil. Join the Dark side. We have cookies. Played in: Fiddler on the Roof Bye Bye Birdie "Hey, Patrick, feel this random pipe. It's squishy"-Nils Posts: 834 | Registered: Thursday, July 8 2004 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6785
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written Monday, May 14 2007 17:19
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When I was in college I played mostly pen and paper games since personal computer games were still new. Advance dungeons and dragons (1st and 2nd ed.), GURPS and it's older version of Advanced melee and wizard, Boot Hill, Space Opera, Traveller, Car Wars, and a few others that I can't recall the names. Of course graduation and moving ended that. Now I don't have time to get together for a real game. I did get the books for Hackmaster and AD&D (3rd ed.) to play some of the modules. Not as much fun as playing with a group. I did have one random encounter where a Hackmaster battle mage single handedly destroyed a young adult dragon. Didn't do much for his meglomania quirk from a previous spell mishap. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 3428
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written Monday, May 14 2007 17:28
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I'm familiar with d20... the white wolf system, I've played gurps a few times, and I was intruiged by Shadowrun, but never really got into it. I also play Jadeclaw and Albedo, by sanguine, nice dice system, minimal mathematical stat magic, fast paced when it needs to be. [It is however a bit of an acquired taste >^,^< :P ] I'm also working on my own system, and currently trying to streamline the rules. the most interesting d20 campaign I've played was a BESM one where I got to play the "mad scientist's assistant" [morphic feline of course.] -------------------- HIHI!!!! *hugs indescriminantly* take that, FEEL THE LOVE!!!! Posts: 47 | Registered: Wednesday, September 3 2003 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Monday, May 14 2007 17:55
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Ah, a topic I can relate to. Mostly D&D for me. I've done d20 Modern, but didn't like it as much due to the wealth system and how bad low level games of it sucked. Put in better classes and drop the Wealth System(which makes no sense), and Modern would be okay. Star Wars d20 wasn't bad, though. I've also played GURPS(which sucked) and RIFTS(a really big headache). Overall, I like the d20 system the best. It's easy to make stuff for(fairly easy to balance, despite not having much in the way of clear guidelines for making stuff). Since the basic version of it's open source, I'm thinking of modifying the system some to make my own RPG out of it. -------------------- "I don't understand a word you just said. Try speaking American. It's the only language I understand." Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Monday, May 14 2007 19:39
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I have to confess I was only at a single table in my entire life. That was The Dark Eye, and must have been around 2000 or earlier. Interestingly, that would place it even before my introduction to Exile III (though not Albion), let alone the internet and online RPs. But I very much enjoyed it, and would play it regularly if given the opportunity. I also think it would be interesting to try again from the changed perspective of having played text RPs so long... -------------------- Encyclopaedia Ermariana • Forum Archives • Forum Statistics • RSS [Topic / Forum] My Blog • Polaris • I eat novels for breakfast. Polaris is dead, long live Polaris. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2238
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written Monday, May 14 2007 19:39
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Funny you mention it. I've been working with some friends on an indie-flick about some D&Ders. I know, I know... done to death. But we're just trying to have fun with it. So, yeah, we've been revisiting D&D and Vampires. Brings back memories... Oh, and our DM is an old-school hardcore player, so he loves writing our own campaigns. I think he's actually written some famous ones, but I can't get him to fess up. [ Monday, May 14, 2007 19:42: Message edited by: demonslay3r ] -------------------- DEMON PLAY, DEMON OUT! Posts: 1582 | Registered: Wednesday, November 13 2002 08:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 4537
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written Monday, May 14 2007 22:11
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I played a few sessions of D&D3 via IRC a long time ago. They didn't really go anywhere, but I am an avid reader of rules and settings. So far I think my favorites are point-buy systems. I've also played the video game adapations of Shadowrun and a few D&D Gold Box games, but honestly I don't really like Shadowrun's concept of essence loss with cybernetics. If I ever played it or anything similar, I'd love to ignore that rule and play a Decker who used magic inside the 'net. What's the general feel of your setting, exactly? [ Monday, May 14, 2007 22:13: Message edited by: Whyte Shadow ] -------------------- http://whyte-shadow-neko.deviantart.com - My drawings! Waka Laka love and fantasy~ Posts: 147 | Registered: Sunday, June 13 2004 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 3428
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written Monday, May 14 2007 22:33
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My favorite characters in various systems were... My Fallen Angel Priest in whitewolf [they over power the vampires so much, or it may of been my DM, he's a vampy-freak *******.] My sword dancer Black Leopard in Jadeclaw [OMFG Dualwield finess fighter!] I played a "Spec-Ops" Feline in Albedo [sci-fi], so I got my daily alloted dose of sniper rifle-y goodness and hacking. And I've already stated my favorite d20 character :3 I like to get creative with my skills, so I like systems that encourage it. I also like systems that encourage teamwork and combination attacks. [Jadeclaw was fun for this. I team-played with a soft-sword user and an archer-elementalist... very interesting combination attacks since we had two sword wielding martial artist and a spell caster/ranger :P ] The system I'm currently working on is intended to be classless, but I'll probably write up predefined skill templates... It lends itself well to teamwork, as well as "epic" storylines, and heavy player involvement in the campaign world. [I like to leave single campaigns open ended, the system itself is designed to make that easier.] [ Monday, May 14, 2007 22:35: Message edited by: Ezrah, Kitty of Wonder. ] -------------------- HIHI!!!! *hugs indescriminantly* take that, FEEL THE LOVE!!!! Posts: 47 | Registered: Wednesday, September 3 2003 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 8596
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written Monday, May 14 2007 23:24
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I've played all sorts of games for pen and paper. Off the top of my head, let's see... AD&D D&D 3rd/3.5 (Bring back Sundered World! :.() Battletech Mechwarrior Any given oWoD Exalted and Exalted 2.0 Mutants and Masterminds 3rd (I miss you Applica. ._.) BESM 1st-3rd Deadlands i believe that's all of it. Imban's GMed for groups I've played in before, as well. Just so long as it's not a BoEF game. Teehee. <3 [ Monday, May 14, 2007 23:26: Message edited by: Imban's Cat-Eared Maid ] -------------------- ni~pah Posts: 28 | Registered: Friday, April 27 2007 07:00 |
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Shake Before Using
Member # 75
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 01:20
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I've played, uh, AD&D, 3e D&D, Exalted 2.0, Mutants & Masterminds, oWoD, and a homebrew system or two. Oh, and all versions of Big Eyes, Small Mouth except d20. I just don't like to talk about that on account of its being severely terrible. Posts: 3234 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 4248
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 04:07
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I too like pen & paper RPGs, although it's been some time when I last managed to get our group together. Most of the time I'm the GM, which sometimes annoys the hell out of me. Luckily, one of my friends has been picking up some skills lately, so hopefully I'll get to be a player more often. I'm currently pondering about creating a system based on a deck of normal playing cards, but haven't gotten much anywhere. I've also tried world-creation on several occasions, which has resulted in finnish texts of immense lenght. I've been pondering about resurrecting one of my older projects, maybe to couple with the new system. I have considered translating what I've got to english, too. Here are the games I've played so far: D & D : the 1st edition. My god, it's awfull! Elhendi, a naive finnish roleplaying adventure in elven realms. Successor to R.A.P.I.E.R. Middle-earth roleplaying game and Rolemaster. So many rules, SO MANY TABLES! Praedor, another weird finnish roleplaying game, made by Burger Games and based on a comic made by Petri Hiltunen. Try searching google for their homepage, their site has an "in english"-option as well. Several dozen home-brewn systems. Some were pretty good, some just plain sucked. I've considered reviving and translating one I made with my little brother, it was quite imaginative. And then there was Paranoia. I only played it once, but oh my what laughs I got out from the book... I also have several books and systems at home I haven't been able to test yet. I hope I'll find time for it someday soon. -------------------- I have nothing more to do in this world, so I can go & pester the inhabitants of the next one with a pure concscience. Posts: 617 | Registered: Tuesday, April 13 2004 07:00 |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 04:26
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My fave probably is 2nd Edition AD&D, and my favorite setting is the World of Greyhawk, for its less magic-infused nature. My favorite character ever probably was a thief named Honor, for whom I rolled an 18 charisma, and had loads of fun roleplaying, especially when he got into late mid levels and so became much less powerful than the other PCs, proportionately. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 6670
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 06:37
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D&D 3.0 and AGOT d20. Only one major campaign with D&D that has gone on for years (all the other campaigns usually last a three, four sessions before petering out, if they take place at all). DM is taking a break, so we're doing AGOT d20 over the summer. Had our first real session a week ago, which was decent. And my going to B.C. this weekend is going to make me miss a weekend bash with someone from Winnepeg. Oh well. -------------------- I like to skate on the other side of the ice. - Steven Wright Posts: 1509 | Registered: Tuesday, January 10 2006 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 08:28
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The d20 point buy system sucks. I'm better off taking my chances with cursed dice than using that PoS. We usually go with the d6 + 12 system. Not only is it powerful, but it's lazy too. As a DM, though, I would go with a 90 point system(min 8, max 20. before racial adjustments). Not that it'll matter much in the future, unless I start running games, which I may have to. Reason: Our main DM moved. Our second best DM is going out of the country for the summer. We haven't seen our best DM in months. That only leaves me and one other guy as choices to run the local games. The other guy is one of those nerds who thinks he knows much more than he really does. I've gotten into more arguments with him over basic rules than all with almost another other DM I've played under combined. 'Course, I don't win them all, since I'm not always right. However, he's run more games and played for longer than I have, so I really don't get why I win(or more accurately, why we have) so many of them. On a sidenote, as I mentioned a while back, I'm willing to play D&D in a chatroom if enough other people want to do it, too. -------------------- "I don't understand a word you just said. Try speaking American. It's the only language I understand." Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 11:01
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Most point buy systems give higher cost for higher bonuses in D&D, you know. A 90 point buy with flat cost would give you 15 in everything, which is, well, absurdly high-powered. Not that there's anything wrong with high-powered games, but the balance requires a little more work with that. As this may indicate, I'm fairly familiar with D&D/d20. I've also played 2nd edition AD&D, Unknown Armies, and some poorly assembled White Wolf disaster. I wouldn't say I really know what I'm doing with any of those. —Alorael, who considers himself a rules connoisseur. He doesn't really play that many tabletop games, but he enjoys reading about the mechanics. Some designers are very clever. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 12:16
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quote:Not in 3.5 it is. Straight 18s or better would be, but not all 15s(or three 16s & three 14s). I've done the math. Under the official point buy, you can only get about 1 or 2 decent stats and everything else sucks worse than a 10. That's all fine and good if you want your players to die every 5 seconds and not stand a chance in hell. Now, try to think about it like this. A commoner has 10s in everything and they're supposed to suck. Under the point buy, using the "high powered" points, you can get two 16s, and a 14 with the rest being 10s. Oh yeah, you're really going to survive a high powered game with those stats(actually, there are ways to do it, but it really limits your class selection). Hell, the lower powered will get you a single 15 with the rest being 10s. I hope you're fighting nothing but house cats until lv 20, cause if not then you're going to die. A 10 is completely useless, unless you're counting the fact that it doesn't give you a negative modifier. You can't lift much or ever hit anything at low lvs with a 10 strength. You might as well put on the heaviest armor you can afford and forget about making a reflex save with a 10 dex. Go for a high hit-dice, high fort if you've got a 10 con, cause you'll die way too easily if you don't. You can't cast higher than 0 lv spells with a 10 in a casting stat. So 10s suck. 12s aren't really any better. You can scrape by by with a 14, but it will be hard(don't even bother trying if you're a caster). 16s aren't bad and you can work with those. And 18s are about as good as you'll get normally, and you should do good with one or two, provided your other stats don't completely suck. A problem I see is that too many people over estimate the value of a stats in the 20 or lower range. Unlike the guys at Wizards and some others, I understand that simple fact. The point of games like D&D is to have fun, not have to make characters every five minutes cause you slipped on a banana and broke your hip at lv 5. -------------------- "I don't understand a word you just said. Try speaking American. It's the only language I understand." Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 247
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 12:41
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Wow!? -------------------- The Knight Between Posts. Posts: 2395 | Registered: Friday, November 2 2001 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 16:14
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That depends on how your DM runs thinks, doesn't it? Most people I've talked to prefer lower scores. I tend to agree with you that higher is more fun than lower, but it's for much the same reason that I think games shouldn't start at level 1 (and probably even why Jeff complains about starting out pathetic). —Alorael, who thinks a lot of that system is built around D&D's assumption that all your abilities will be boosted by magic items. Actually, that may be one of the few ideas started by D&D and not Tolkien, Vance, or company. The walking magical armory is definitely a game mentality. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 17:31
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Then you're at your DM's mercy for letting you have stuff. In my experience more often than not, you'll have less than adequate gear. Once me and some people I normally don't play with did a game where we were lv 20 and had the starting gear of about a lv 4 character. Stuff that should've been easy kills nearly tore us apart. Later, I had a game with another group where the DM made the one of the guys have a massive herd of sheep and cattle. Why you might ask? Because the DM was "tired of everyone always buying rings of sustenance." Which is funny cause half the group didn't think to buy one anyway. So this player went through all the game sessions with a huge herd of live stock that cost that cost more than a ring of sustenance. DMs being jerks aside, another problem setting up a game to require players get tons of magical gear just to survive is that items are easy to destroy. I once had a character who fought a dragon and her cloths and equipment got destroyed by the dragon's acid breath. For several sessions afterwards, my character was wearing a sack for clothing. Even after my character got money and bought more gear, she never could find anything like her original equipment for the rest of the game's duration. Replacing Magic Items is expensive as hell. And if you had to depend on those items just to get by, then your SoL. At least with some decent stats the players would have some vague chance at surviving until they get some more money. -------------------- "I don't understand a word you just said. Try speaking American. It's the only language I understand." Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6785
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written Tuesday, May 15 2007 20:27
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The point system of character generation for AD&D 3rd ed. goes back to pre D&D where it was less about using stats and more about roleplaying. It really does suck since you can have at most two decent stats and the rest are 10 or less so you have to limit yourself. I tried some simulations and I had to plan out my character for the first 8-10 levels in order to decide what each class would have for the start. Even then I used racial bonus to make the best for each class using the standard point system. I've played AD&D 2nd ed. where the GM was stingy with magic. Stats are the only way to compensate, well that and running a thief. Eventually you steal something nice even if it's from another player. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Wednesday, May 16 2007 06:18
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On a less stat-related note. Due to the flakyness of some of the DMs I've played under and playing with so many different(though most of the same people) groups, I've had a lot of characters(and some character replays). Unlike some people, I don't like to play what is basically the same character every time I play. So here are my top 5 characters and what they did. Cole Turner(I plead the 5th on where I got that name) - a demonic lawyer, Cole roamed the land as part of some quest to unlock some mythical treasure of the ancients. Along the way, he and his ninja buddy made money doing questionable business deals. Once they tricked a barbarian chieftain into giving up his people's land for basically nothing. Later, they sold people on the idea of hammering caltrops into their own hands. Before the game was over, they ended up owning a deity's soul. Cyan(he got beat up a lot when he was a kid) - a generic anime shinobi, Cyan roamed the land with a blind monk in search of his long lost girlfriend. While doing this, he was constantly being followed by a woman, whom he never actually saw because whenever he looked that way, she hid(that was his girlfriend, by the way). She was hiding, hoping to kill this mystery woman Cyan was looking for. Every monster and/or evil group Cyan ever ran away from, his girlfriend wasn't able to. As a result she was epic by the time he was like lv 8. Then our DM did something stupid and Cyan and his monk buddy became virtually impossible to touch. Hide(not pronounced how it looks) - able to see people's auras, Hide roamed the land with his buddy Lee in search of a way to bring his fiance back from the dead so her ghost would stop nagging him constantly. But first, they had to a ninja to avenge the death of their teacher and the destruction of their monastery/restaurant/mob-front... legitimate business establishment. So at like lv 8, they happen to stumble the lv 20 ninja, chase him down, and break him in half. After that they brought chick back from the dead and of course she still nagged Hide constantly. Then they managed to end up Hell(I really don't know why), which they did surprising well at. Later Hide and Lee were hired to steal some fruit that makes the person who eats it immortal from a tree that was guarded by a powerful demon. Some running and a Ray of Frost later, they had more fruit than they were hired to get. I'll post the last 2 later... -------------------- "I don't understand a word you just said. Try speaking American. It's the only language I understand." Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, May 16 2007 08:13
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I was a DM for years, using AD&D with a lot of house modifications. It was a lot of fun: I wish I still had time for that sort of thing. How important were the rules, really, anyway? There had to be some rules, so that people could decide what to do with some sort of confidence. After years of experience, I was mostly using the rules to tell my stories, not asking the rules to create the stories. I rarely consulted rulebooks, and a lot of my monsters were just made up, so the players could never really gauge how tough something would be by recognizing it from the manuals. But I had the same group of players for years, and I guess they got to know my style enough to have some idea of what was going on. They were generally pretty shrewd. In fact that was the main issue with the rules. The players would quickly exploit whatever opportunities they offered, so the trick was to make sure that the advantageous strategies were actually fun to play, and didn't let any one class or character hog the stage too much. We had a lot of debates, between games, over such eternally vexing questions as what the heck an illusion actually is. Is it a hologram or a hallucination? The challenge was to find a ruling that left the illusionist and the mage in the group different but balanced. And sometimes the rules did create stories. Somebody tried something reckless, got lucky, and performed a legendary feat. The really memorable moments, from all those years of marathon games, were the ones where my best plots got shifted by some cunning or lucky player tactic. -------------------- We're not doing cool. We're doing pretty. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Wednesday, May 16 2007 08:29
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As I recall, the creator of D&D originally made the rules somewhat vague so that people could figure out what they wanted to do for themselves most of the time. This didn't go over very well; most people wanted a defined ruleset from which they could then stray. I used to read P&P RPGs sometimes. I actually had a copy of the original D&D Expert rules (back when there was Basic, Expert, and Advanced, which I'm told is before I was born) and the original Keep on the Borderlands, and I read through them (but never played). I enjoyed reading Pendragon a lot. The game got me into reading lots of King Arthur stories. At one point, in middle school, we tried to put together a D&D campaign, but it only lasted about two or three sessions and then died, and that's been my only experience actually playing these things. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2080
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written Wednesday, May 16 2007 08:57
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I remember when I first did D&D. It was in PE. We didn't get to have dice and books for very long and the coach made us have to walk the entire time since we weren't doing any other physical activities. Comedic and fun those games were(even without the proper materials). Good times... -------------------- "I don't understand a word you just said. Try speaking American. It's the only language I understand." Posts: 1918 | Registered: Sunday, October 13 2002 07:00 |
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