The Tabletop Roleplayer & Gamer Check-in Thread

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Forbidden Snowflake

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We like:

Mage Wars
Carcassonne
Android Netrunner
Pandemic
Lost Cities.

My partner isn't a fan of Dominion but I quite like it.

And I'm eyeing Twilight Struggle as the next thing to acquire.


Question: Can you get into Pathfinder, never having played any D&D and only being two people?

We don't know any board gaming people, nearby, yet.
 
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Maggie Maxwell

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Question: Can you get into Pathfinder, never having played any D&D and only being two people?

We don't know any board gaming people, nearby, yet.

I'm gonna say "yes." D&D and Pathfinder are better suited for groups, but it's completely possible to play with two people. You'll just have one person DM and the other play. IMO, Pathfinder's actually easier to pick up and learn than D&D. The character sheet is more streamlined, the characters themselves more balanced, and the exp and leveling system more player-friendly. My group was practically D&D 3.5 exclusive (We've tried White Wolf games and Battletech, but we kept going back to D&D as the only one we all could agree on) and we've switched entirely to Pathfinder.
 

frimble3

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The basics I've got nailed down.



Each PC is based around their aptitudes, features and flaws and organizations. Those aptitudes are: Heroic Potential, Physical, Social, Mental, X.

HP is your race's luck and pluck factor. Physical, Social, Mental are all self explanatory. X is your ability to interface with and use Power artifacts (which are everywhere.)

Features and Flaws are just what they sound like: They determine whether your race is arboreal or aquatic, naturally telepathic or shapeshifters, that sort of thing. Each feature is paired with a flaw, but you don't need to take both.

(E.G, Charismatic's Feature gives you a bonus to Diplomacy missions as your race is so likable. The Flaw makes your Fringe events more likely to be dangerous - due to how charismatic your malcontents are.)

A PC's organization is essentially their "Skill", and like an attribute, it is rated between 1 to 5, with 2 being the average. Organizations, though, are player named and played mandated to handle one or two linked tasks.

(E.G, humanity has an Org called Starfleet that handles exploration and defense. It has a rating of 3 - it is well trained, but not the best in the galaxy.)

So, when a PC wants to accomplish an action, the GM determines how long it will take, and the PC combines a stat and organization to give them a pool of D6s. You roll, the D6s explode on a 6, but the limit to how many times it can explode is your Hero Potential. Any roll that shows a 4, 5, or 6 is a success.

But this is only HALF of the game, you see!

The other half is the Movers!

Each Player Civilization gets 4 "movers", which are basically hero units, like Commander Shepard. They're astoundingly effective and have their own statline (essentially, you start with your racial stats, then add a number of bonus points equal to your HP to your Mover...so, for example, if human's statline was HP: 5, P: 2, M: 2, S: 2, X: 2, then your Movers would have 5 points to distribute among their 4 stats - modeling human flexibility and such.)

Movers also benefit from the bonuses and negatives of their race's Features and Flaws - if your race are arboreal, your movers are Arboreal.

So, Movers are used in two ways: Firstly, they can be used to enhance a task roll. So, if you want to do something REALLY fast and REALLY well, you put a MOver on it.

But the second and far more interesting way that Movers are used is in Flashpoints. These are events caused by the GM's various mucking about, and represent major events in galactic history. When Flashpoints begin, each civilization nominated a Mover that would logically be involved, and they send them in.

The game then focuses down to a more standard RPG - but set in the context of the larger game.

Other rough ideas that I have come up with!

1) Diplomacy and treaties let the players make in universe rules and make sweeping proclamations at each-other.

2) Passive espionage allows you to ask direct questions about enemy plans, while Active Espionage lets you act in enemy areas.

3) When fleet actions occur between two PCs, everyone participates via having everyone take command of at least one ship involved in the action.

4) Technology is bought with XP, to prevent super smart races from beating everyone by just getting the best tech.

5) Wars are possible, and can be encouraged, but wholesale extermination and slavery should be avoided - need to find rules to encourage this.
.
Re: the bolded bit. If I may suggest, make the 'wholesale extermination and enslavement' affect stuff like Aptitudes, Features, and the Fringe factor.
A rep for extermination and slavery makes others shun and distrust you, less likely to ally with you, and more likely to break agreements, because, hey, you're dangerous.
And, the Fringe factor: slaves mean an increased chance of rebellion and treason. If you put more people on slave control, that's fewer people for everything else. Terrorism will go up, because other players would be wary of starting a full-on war. However, if other players do decide to go to war (or are pushed into it), they'll be desperate, fight-to-the-last man fighters if they know there's no mercy, not for themselves or their families.
Do you have such a thing as 'negative charisma or diplomacy' points?
 

CrastersBabies

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Big gamer here. Started with D&D. Loved Cyberpunk, Empire of the Fading Suns, Star Wars RPG. And World of Darkness too. Still have the original soft cover 1st release of V:TM.

I worked for White Wolf for 3 years on one of their Sword and Sorcerey lines.

Stopped buying new D&D materials after 3.5. Have pretty much reverted back to AD&D and 2nd edition when I do run.

I prefer playing in and running intrigue/story-heavy games. Loathe pure hack and slash.
 
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Jack Oskar Larm

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I haven't had an opportunity to play RPGs for decades. As a teen in the 70s, I was thoroughly hooked on AD&D. I can get quite sentimental thinking about those years spent playing (and neglecting homework). Computers and maturity seemed to put a spanner in the works. I might see if I can get something happening again when I'm in a nursing home ... ;)
 

Zoombie

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I recently got the game Monsterhearts.

Or as I call it: "Now kissssssssssssssssssssss!"

Basically, you play as teenage monsters at high school. Love triangles are a game mechanic!
 

Jack Asher

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I've been trying to put together a Paranoia game for a couple of years, but it's really hard to get people interested in it when you hand them the book and say, "Now only read the 'Red Clearance' section."

Playing with a bunch of people who have read the "Ultra Violet" section just kills the game.
 

Zoombie

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That's a big problem with some RPGs. For example, my favorite RPG of all time, Aberrant, puts a major plot revelation that 99% of the PCs won't know at the start of the game TWO PAGES after setting up a red herring that they're supposed to know about!

Like, I love the way the backstory is told (all via in universe magazine clippings), but it does dump secrets on PCs...(and Aberrant is a conspiracy game, basically)
 

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Ooh! Me! Me!

I'm a pretty hardcore gamer; the novel that I'm submitting to agents right now is actually based on a storyline in a five year game that my husband ran using D&D and then later Pathfinder. I get a lot of my writing inspiration from games. I also LARP from time to time, not as much anymore as I used to, but occasionally friends tempt me to cameo in their games. I like vampire LARPs because I love playing politics, and I'm good at it.

Anyone who's into World of Darkness and wants a place to play might consider checking out MUSH. MUSH is an online persistent world, like a MMORPG, but it's all text, no graphics. It's GREAT writing practice, because you have to write out everything your character does, and you're encouraged to do so with descriptive prose. I've also learned a lot about telling stories by being in situations where other people had the power to dictate where the story goes. It really gets you out of your box and out of your comfort zone. The one I play on, off and on, usually has 100+ people connected at any given time, playing everything from vanilla humans to vampires to mages to demons, all mixing in a fictional city. Here's the link to their wiki, which has information on how to get started. If you're interested and have questions, I'd be happy to reply in PM. I would LOVE to have more serious writers on the game, because y'all tend to give it a lot more depth than it would otherwise have.

On the wiki, you can also check out a page with links to pages for a lot of the active characters. Leila is one of mine.
 

RedRajah

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I like the folks I'm playing Deadlands with, but I have to admit, the GM has been fairly railroady. :-/
 

PrincessOfCats

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I like the folks I'm playing Deadlands with, but I have to admit, the GM has been fairly railroady. :-/

True story: The first Deadlands game I played in, the entire game (one whole session long) took place on a railroad. One of the players was a screaming idiot and blew up the train with dynamite.

At the end of everything, everyone but me and him were dead. I had enough chips saved up from doing stuff that the GM thought was awesome/hilarious (I was playing a grumpy hired gun) that I was able to negate most of the damage that I took. He was pretty beat up, but still on his feet. So the GM was like: "Okay, well, two of you made it, so..." And I had my character go over to crazy dynamite guy and shoot him in the head, then looked at the GM, and said: "One of us made it."

Anyway, that was the end of that game.

Not the same railroad as you're talking about, mind, but I do recommend dynamite as a way of breaking out of it. :p
 

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If there's one thing I've learned from RPGs, it's that there is practically no problem that cannot be solved by...
  • Setting something on fire.
  • Blowing something up.
  • Pretending to be drunk.
  • Headshotting it with a sniper rifle from a half-mile away.
  • Or running away really fast.
 

RedRajah

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Not the same railroad as you're talking about, mind, but I do recommend dynamite as a way of breaking out of it. :p

Sadly, we've two problems with that...

a) The character who knows how to use the dynamite is taking some time off until she adjusts to her new work schedule.

&

b) [more frustratingly] The villains have plot armor anyway.
 

PrincessOfCats

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Sadly, we've two problems with that...

a) The character who knows how to use the dynamite is taking some time off until she adjusts to her new work schedule.

&

b) [more frustratingly] The villains have plot armor anyway.

You could always do the thing that always seems to happen in my games:

GM: The villain is over there! Look, he's twirling his mustaches!

Players: Ooh, something shiny.

GM: The villain is over... where... where are you going?

Players: What's over here? OOH! I found a thing. Hey, a monster. Let's kill it.

GM: BUT THE VILLAIN IS OVER THERE

Players: Yeah, whatever. Hey, what's this way?
 

Tyler Silvaris

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Stopped buying new D&D materials after 3.5. Have pretty much reverted back to AD&D and 2nd edition when I do run.

I prefer playing in and running intrigue/story-heavy games. Loathe pure hack and slash.

That's because AD&D and 2nd ed. are the ones that matter. lol

I grew up in a household that had housed a game night for my dad and his friends for years. He picked it up in late '80s. I learned from scratch on 2nd edition, learned some tricks of the trade by going back to the more basic Dungeons and Dragons sets before taking what I learned back into 2nd. I've never moved on.

Tried some runs at Vampire: The Masquerade and a few others, but my gaming circle has always just preferred 2nd edition. The fact that we own thousands of dollars worth of accessories and modules for AD&D and 2nd might factor in.

Currently, we don't game like we used to. My wife and I have a campaign that's been running longer than our marriage, but the levels hit a point where they didn't much matter and now it's all about the role-playing. We hardly ever touch the dice and just focus on the story.
 

Forbidden Snowflake

I'm quite put out.
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We just bought Twilight Struggle this weekend. Trying to wrap my head around the rules :D
 

Forbidden Snowflake

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We played Twilight Struggle for the first time last week. Highly recommend this board game. Easy yet difficult and a lot of strategy and depth to be found.
 

Celimlodyn

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MUSH is an online persistent world, like a MMORPG, but it's all text, no graphics. It's GREAT writing practice, because you have to write out everything your character does, and you're encouraged to do so with descriptive prose. I've also learned a lot about telling stories by being in situations where other people had the power to dictate where the story goes. It really gets you out of your box and out of your comfort zone.

I love mushing. I've never had a chance to play table-top games, though I always thought it would be fun. Then I found online writing games. :) It's the stories and the writing that really make it for me. Mine's a Tolkien one though, 4th Age, not World of Darkness.
 

D.M.L

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I started out on D&D 2E, but unfortunately due to scheduling constraints, that game never materialized. I switched to 3.5E when I got to college, which I've stayed with every since: we've tried 4E, but found that we liked 3.5E better, and my crew had a lot of material for 3.5E that we couldn't carry over to 4th edition and didn't want to lose.

I also do GURPS, I used to do Dark Heresy, and for a while wanted to get into Rolemaster but couldn't find anyone else who was into it.

My big break started when a buddy of mine introduced me to World of Darkness, and I decided to run my own campaign with him and a few other of my college friends. We hit it off well and that campaign lasted for just around a year before we managed to reach the end-game and finish it. Over the course of the game, we added houserules, omitted content, and in general modified the game until it didn't resemble itself anymore.

Nowadays, I'm a homebrewer, and I'm doing my own 'verse which at first glance appears superficially similar to World of Darkness, but is very different: focusing more on the mundane aspects, and is much more realistic and focuses less on conspiracies and being dark or 'gothic' for the sake of it, and tends to emphasize much more realisic horror, rather than fantastic horror. I tend to like to focus on political and corporate corruption, and the grim and cynical side that money is a much greater force in the world than magic is. That's most of my games in a nutshell these days. I have a very small group of players who've stuck with me for years now, so we're in a groove we mostly like. We're in the process of constructing our own system that uses a dice base that I did the calculations for myself, and aims to be on the far, far side of being more like a simulation rather than feel gamey.
 

GingerGunlock

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My husband and I play D&D and Shadowrun...

Who here has heard of Shadowrun? If you haven't, check it out. I prefer it over D&D to be honest.

We've got a weekly Shadowrun game going on right now and I. Am. In. Love.

The storyteller (what is it officially called in Shadowrun? Not DM, I'm sure) premade the characters, because nobody had much played, so it was kind of a toss around game to see if we like it. Well, that was this summer. We had a couple months break after August, but we've been back on for a couple of weeks now and it's just awesome. We use a Facebook group (private) for group messaging, job selection, etc. and since I'm playing the decker, that just adds to the flavor for me.
 

RedRajah

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Well, I'm currently back in the GM seat with a new 7th Sea game and I've got 2 players new to the system.
 

D.M.L

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It's great seeing so many other people play tabletop games here. Do any of you guys write your own?
 

Melanii

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I would love to start with table-top roleplaying! I have the friends who are ready for it, which I know from when we play those board games based on Dungeons & Dragons. Like the "The Wrath of Ashaladon".

I probably butchered his name; it's not in front of me right now. We were thinking of using that as a base to start customizing heavily. I haven't gotten around to doing it, though.

I wish it was a bit less expensive. None of us have the money to do it seriously. ;_;
 
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