Spin Off to the Spin Off: Who plays tabletop RPG's?

[veritech-z]

I can already hear the crickets chirping on this one...I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition with some fellow game developers for about a year now. Got the sourcebook for Rifts and Dead Reign, but nobody wants to learn a new system for some reason. I tend to roll up Rogues and Barbarians. Right now i'm playing a level 7 Gnome Rogue with a Bard multi-class that used to be a pirate, so he's got a pegleg and is missing an eye. Also, through an odd series of events, he has acquired a tentacle arm.

 

My backup characters are either this Warforged Barbarian:

 

Or this Dragonborn Fighter:

 

I mostly got into it as an excuse to draw characters, but i stay for the novelty dice rolling and copious amounts of mental arithmatic...

[auxilary]

the difference between playing MMORPGs like EVE or WoW and D&D is that when you play D&D, you interact with friends and real people

[veritech-z]

Very true. All of us at work play Team Fortress 2 or Left 4 Dead during lunch breaks (both of these games are total fail-status when it comes to indoctrinating new players, and I was very resistant to start playing TF2 at all). I won't play those games any other time because in general I absolutely can't stand your average faceless internet person. So abrasive and rude, the idea of being in a mmorp makes me shudder...I feel about multi-player online games the way I feel about Hondas and Mustangs: there may be nothing inherently wrong with them (in fact, they may be above average in many ways), but the culture that surrounds them is so obnoxious I won't have any part of it.

[Drax240z]

Some of the best laughs of my life came from RPG's and a group of good friends. We don't get together as a group more than once every few years anymore (too many of us, too spread out) but when we do, we usually do something similarly geeky, and laugh ourselves to tears for hours upon hours.

 

Those that write it off untried really don't know what they're missing, if you get the right group of friends together. I guess for our group it's become much more of a social activity than anything else... then again, we've been at it for about 18 years!

Edited August 5, 2009 by Drax240z

[SuperPickle]

I've been playing a number of games for years, and one of my hobbies is collecting every system out there. Except Rifts. That'd make me broke.

 

I couldn't get into 4th edition at all, as I thought every change made it worse or overly cumbersome. I do, however, commend your selection of a gnome rogue! We get the size bonuses of a halfling, with cantrips that can be quite handy.

 

Oh, and for Drax: http://theglen.livejournal.com/16735.html

 

It should keep you busy for a day or two.

[auxilary]

At lunch at work, we play street fighter 4 on hte 60" lcd w/ joysticks

[slown280z]

I'm not into MMORPGs or RPGs (video games) for that matter, but I do dabble in Munchkin (both cards and board game), Ninja Burger, and Arkham Horror (more a board game but still very RPG-ish) every once in a while with some friends.

 

One of my friend's tried teaching me Magic. It's so god awfully boring...

[veritech-z]

I couldn't get into 4th edition at all, as I thought every change made it worse or overly cumbersome. I do, however, commend your selection of a gnome rogue! We get the size bonuses of a halfling, with cantrips that can be quite handy.

I feel like I was the target audience for 4th ed, since I never played any previous editions of the game and was able to pick it up really quickly. The new power system really feels like magic the gathering, but with a spacial orientation element that matters. Most of my group pines for the "old days" of v3.5, so much so that our DM purchased the Pathfinder rule system which is sort of a community continuation of D&D v3.5 to see if it was something we'd be interested in trying out. The way Wizards consolidated the non-combat skills into a smaller list means that Endurance is a thoroughly useless skill to train-it never comes into play ever in our campaign, at least.. It also means characters that use Constitution to attack get hosed when it comes time to tally up your skill numbers since that's the only skill determined by your Constitution score. I like playing Rogues because a)they're the only class that gets to do big damage regularly and because Dexterity and Charisma factor into almost all the skills worth having (the exception being Perception) in addition to being your big combat modifiers. I feel like Rogues are a little broken in that way compared to some of the other classes. I went for the Gnome because they get a racial power that lets you turn invisible when you take damage until the end of your next turn.

 

I have to say that perhaps it's an artifact of our DM's dungeon layout style, but it feels like being locked into specific powers and not being able to "call shots" (I target the troll's eye with this arrow!) really discourages any of us from trying to do flamboyant things with the environment like swinging from chandeliers or pushing over statues onto enemies during combat. It makes it feel like a seperat game to be fighting stuff, or exploring/talking to people.

[skib]

One of my friend's tried teaching me Magic. It's so god awfully boring...

 

 

 

me too, I beat him every time and he wanted me to come play tournys with him but I was so mind numbingly bored playing that game. So I have him back his deck of cards and went back to skating the pool.

[BRAAP]

me too, I beat him every time and he wanted me to come play tournys with him but I was so mind numbingly bored playing that game. So I have him back his deck of cards and went back to skating the pool.

 

Rob,

Not really games, but probably just about as productive?!

 

I haven't been able to get to the rick shaw all week last week or this week! You interested in coming out to tinker on it?

[skib]

Rob,

Not really games, but probably just about as productive?!

 

I haven't been able to get to the rick shaw all week last week or this week! You interested in coming out to tinker on it?

 

 

ya, but you dont get bloody faces and broken bones playing D&D

 

 

Im down, just give me a call sometime

[h4nsm0l3m4n]

I'm a big fan of tabletop RPGs. My first encounter with them was back when I was real little my parents bought a game of HeroQuest. That game was seriously cool and very balanced. Definitely something I'd love to draw up some dungeons and campaigns for. I still remember the days of playing that game with my dad being the DM, I was sooo scared my character would die but it was so much fun.

 

After that game my next encounter was the game Shadowrun back in middle school and early high school. My friend introduced me to the game by setting me up with a character and doing a couple "runs." It was fun but the game was strangely organized and I grew to favor D&D, especially once 3rd edition came out. Later I made a comeback to the game, buying some books and running a couple small campaigns. Its good fun, but hard to get used to after playing D&D for so long.

 

I've played all versions of D&D from 2nd edition (this was called AD&D back in the day) all the way to 4th. 2nd edition was by far the hardest but the most rewarding. It felt like such an accomplishment, especially at low level. This game was not for the faint of heart. 3rd edition is where I spent most of my time. I did a lot of playing and DMing in this version and had a lot of fun. It was definitely much easier than 2nd, but it lost some of the challenge. Definitely much more mainstream. Inevitably I started to maximize my characters so it got more about making the perfect guy than playing the game and I mostly retired.... until I heard about 3.5. This was the best version yet. I think it did away with most of the 3.0 exploits people were using so it was much more balanced while still being extremely fun to play. They didnt change the game much from 3rd but it was enough that it freshened things up a bit... once again though I got a bit tired of it all and retired..

 

I've just recently (like 2 weeks ago) jumped into trying 4th edition. I'm enjoying the fresh feel of the game. I like the fact that all classes have "at will" abilities. Encounter abilities and healing surges were an excellent addition too. It seems they made the game much quicker and more exciting in combat. However, I feel the game is much more like something out of WOW. It feels like everything is much more "cookie-cutter" and there is a lot less room for DM innovation. This is one thing where I felt the tabletop RPG has a genuine advantage over anything else. The rules are more guidelines on how one MIGHT play a situation, but it entirely the DM's liberty to decide the course of events. This way theres always room for innovation in adventures. The game doesnt feel that way anymore. The game feels much more mainstream focused and in general seems to gravitate to being much easier to play. I'm going to be DMing a campaign in 4th edition so we will see if I warm up to it as I get more in tune with the rules.

 

My favorite class has always been the Barbarian. I think it was because that was what I played in HeroQuest when it all started for me, so I've always kind of stuck with it. In 3.0 and 3.5 the barbarian was an excellent choice for a character, especially at low level. He could do many things and still destroy stuff in melee, I always loved playing them. Inevitably though I often ended up playing a warrior with a vorpal keen scimitar... how I miss 3rd edition...

[veritech-z]

Stepan, if you're going to be DMing, I'd recommend making sure you explore the new minion mechanics. Our DM is all about the single large boss in a room, and it makes for really boring combat. Nothing sucks like having everyone be out of daily and encounter powers, and be forced to just whittle away at a damage sink with 1[W]+mod damage at will powers. Actually, I'd also suggest you try starting a Paragon level campaign (11th level to 20th). For me, the various Paragon Paths are what really make the characters interesting. The heroic level build options are really boring, and our DM doesn't give out as much XP as we would like (after a year in this campaign, some of us are at level 8...)

[kiwi303]

I've tended to stick to war recreations, War at Sea, generally playing the Allies, and other hex/turn based war games ranging from the desert War of Rommel vs the 8th army, the normandy breakout, the winter war. It's to big to play the entire WW2, but smaller battles and campaigns can keep one entertained

[h4nsm0l3m4n]

Max, I tend to get a little bored with single large boss fights myself, too much like computer games for me. When DMing I tend to focus as much of my campaign in "non-dungeon" areas as actually cleaving your way through the dungeon. I also try to mix things up as much as possible so there's never just a straight-forward encounter or whatever. This keeps it interesting and is where the tabletop rpg really shines since it really gives a lot of room for creativity. I will keep in mind possibly setting up a higher level campaign in the Paragon levels but I tend to focus more on setting up a very interesting world, story, and challenges for the players. This has not necessarily required higher levels and more abilities to be interesting in the past, but we will see how it goes. Its always a learning experience.

[veritech-z]

I personally I think the Paragon Paths are where the character creation process really starts to get interesting, because it's there that your backstory starts to come into play with what your character can do. At the Heroic level, I can *say* my Dwarven Rogue is a sniper, but he can't shoot any better or worse than any other race or class. But once I hit level 11 and choose the Sniper Paragon Path, it really feels like that choice has been validated by the game and has meaning now. They've gotten around that some by doing backstory bonuses since the release of Forgotten Realms and Player's Handbook 2, but it still isn't quite as good as what happens at Paragon Tier. I haven't gotten up to Epic Level at all, but the Epic Destinies are few and far between, and don't seem as well thought out as the Paragon Paths.