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Playing RPGs


Insanity

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Was curious as to whom here currently plays, or has played, RPGs? I am not referring to the online MMORPGs , which are often just simply hack-n-slash styles, but table-top RPGs, using such things as paper, a pencil, physical dice, and being able to speak directly to the other players in the group face to face. Even using virtual tabletop software such as Fantasy Grounds counts in my opinion.

Just had a D&D 4E game go into indefinite retirement due to the DM's changing life situations. We all hope it will return in the future. Most of us in the group played for close to three years.

I currently run a Call of Cthulhu RPG, some of the same folks from the D&D game. Most of them just died recently, a blunder on their part. The setting is in 1925, and they just arrived in Cairo, Egypt following a clue concerning the murder of a friend. No one speaks or understand Arabic, so should be interesting.

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I played Cthulhu twice or so...Shadowrun was pretty cool. Played original D&D and 2nd ed. A friend of mine had a game Battlelords published. The Sci-fi thing didnt suit me. Then we all got married and had kids. Kinda ended all our gaming nights.

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I played Cthulhu twice or so...Shadowrun was pretty cool. Played original D&D and 2nd ed. A friend of mine had a game Battlelords published. The Sci-fi thing didnt suit me. Then we all got married and had kids. Kinda ended all our gaming nights.

Battlelords, as in Battlelords of the Twenty-Third Century? Ironically I am gearing up to run a game for this. Sometimes I get bored with the fantasy settings and need to have pulse cannons and plasma grenades in the mix.

Battlelords as a small, but dedicated following from what I know, though I have always had a hard time finding players in my area.

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Battlelords, as in Battlelords of the Twenty-Third Century? Ironically I am gearing up to run a game for this. Sometimes I get bored with the fantasy settings and need to have pulse cannons and plasma grenades in the mix.

Battlelords as a small, but dedicated following from what I know, though I have always had a hard time finding players in my area.

thats the one. Larry even gave me a play-testing credit in one of the modules.

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Nifty, it's actually one of my favorites, even if I can't get a group together that often.

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Was curious as to whom here currently plays, or has played, RPGs? I am not referring to the online MMORPGs , which are often just simply hack-n-slash styles, but table-top RPGs, using such things as paper, a pencil, physical dice, and being able to speak directly to the other players in the group face to face. Even using virtual tabletop software such as Fantasy Grounds counts in my opinion.

I've been playing since 6th grade, some 32 years ago. I still play with a group of guys from college, some 6 to 8 of us in the group. We even have a Yahoo Group. We called it GPA, because we were in college and thought we were real smart.

We rotate games every couple years, mostly D&D3.5E, Champions (Hero System), and D20 Modern (Spy games and Dr. Who style).

Just had a D&D 4E game go into indefinite retirement due to the DM's changing life situations. We all hope it will return in the future. Most of us in the group played for close to three years.

I hate when that happens. Someone moves away or otherwise has to quit. :cry:

I currently run a Call of Cthulhu RPG, some of the same folks from the D&D game. Most of them just died recently, a blunder on their part. The setting is in 1925, and they just arrived in Cairo, Egypt following a clue concerning the murder of a friend. No one speaks or understand Arabic, so should be interesting.

With *** it is just a matter of time, isn't it. I've played it 2 or 3 times. Once the Sanity Points start to get low the game begins to get desperate. Learning to read any ancient language iin the game is an invitation to insanity. :innocent:

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One of the players who died had become the Mythos expert, and had taken the time to read a few of the tomes they had come across, and learned a spell, but was too afraid to use it. I had only told him the mechanics, and that it simply summoned 'something'. He did not know what, and I wasn't saying. The description of it was 'Call Forth Invisible Servant', to which one of the others, being a D&D player mostly, suggested to summon it so it can carry stuff for them. He never did, but if he had, a Star Vampire would have arrived. Would have been fun.

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He never did, but if he had, a Star Vampire would have arrived. Would have been fun.

A servant to some beings is a new Master to others.

The only games I've GMed are d20 StarWars and Rolemaster. Both ran for years. It is a real shame when such a long running game comes to an end.

I bought several of the D&D4E books,and made several characters, but we never actually got long term game going. :cry:

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I had mixed feelings with 4E, it is fun, but the combat took forever to resolve. Too many Conditions can be applied, and need to be tracked. It was more an attempt to get some online experiences to a tabletop I felt.

Still the game was fun with the group we had.

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I've played an assortment of RPGs over my few years of actually liking them. I've played D&D 3.5 and 4e, the new World of Darkness (a supernatural themed RPG), All Flesh Must Be Eaten (a personal favorite, a zombie themed RPG that also has some amazing expansion books), and currently I'm learning about a homebrew RPG based around the comic Homestuck that's centered around D&D 4e rules, but has enough differences that I think of it as a different system. I've both DM'd and been a player character in each of these settings, though at the current moment I'm DMing a AFMBE game and the Homestuck RP I mentioned.

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W8 w8, so you re-create the settings in the books, games etsc?

And how do you play this?

In real life?

I'm not trolling, it's just i've never come across something like this...

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The books have rules that everyone follows and ways to create characters by filling out character sheets. Everything in the game is usually decided by a die roll. That's pretty much the gist of it, though I'm sure someone else can describe it better.

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The Dungeon Master (or DM, the person who runs the storyline) will lay out the quest, something maybe along the lines of something as simple: 'your group is looking for a rare talisman, the local baron has asked you to retrieve it for him from a cave, but this cave happens to be guarded by goblins'. Then the characters will pick it up from there. One may suggest: 'Let's hit up the shop, my Charisma score may be able to get us lower prices'. Another may suggest: 'Nah, we have enough supplies, I have my sword and shield, and that's enough'. Sometimes you can settle disputes in a group with a few die roll or none lethal combat.

Then they'd head out on the adventure, the DM will fill in the scene, people the towns and the outplaying area with none player characters, and the players will get to enjoy the story and get to adventure and struggle against the odds the DM throws at them.

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It's quite awesome, especially when you get to play a character and just go crazy with them. One of my characters was a dark elf, or a Drow, who happened to be a Ranger class which allowed me to have a animal companion. I picked a cat size spider which my character then wore like a backpack

Another time, a friend of mine had a Monk class character, later on he picked the prestige class of Drunken Master, whenever he'd fight, my friend would actually get drunk, it was hilarious to say the least.

Edited by Hasina
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Haha, but for me it's impossible to play because there are no GM-s here and no1 even heard about it. Heck, i heard about it like an hour ago!

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Find some of the books at a book store and introduce the concept to your friends. I learned about it my senior year in high school from a friend, since then I've been a huge fan of tabletop RP's.

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I've played RPG's since 1975, Original D&D... Then the next year a new game - Empire of The Petal Throne - came out and I never really went back to D&D...

SInce then I've played (mostly GM'd) a host of RPG's... mostly:

Aftermath! ***

HarnMaster ***

Traveller

Space Opera ***

Mechanoids ***

Boot Hill

Powers And Perils

Pirates and Plunder

Bushido

Call of Cthulhu

Star Wars

Tunnels and Trolls

Empire of the Petal Throne (and it's replacement Adventures on Tekumel)*******

(the games with *** I really recommend)

I even played "Macho Women with Guns" and it's two suppliments "Renagade Nuns on Wheels" and "Bat Winged Bimbos From Hell" (just for laughs - and yes - these are real games)

Now my friends and I (We've been gaming together since the early 80's) have designed our own RPG and we play that exclusively...

This is all part of my plan to stay young for as long as I can - it's working..... so far...

Edited by Taun
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Was curious as to whom here currently plays, or has played, RPGs? I am not referring to the online MMORPGs , which are often just simply hack-n-slash styles, but table-top RPGs, using such things as paper, a pencil, physical dice, and being able to speak directly to the other players in the group face to face. Even using virtual tabletop software such as Fantasy Grounds counts in my opinion.

Just had a D&D 4E game go into indefinite retirement due to the DM's changing life situations. We all hope it will return in the future. Most of us in the group played for close to three years.

I currently run a Call of Cthulhu RPG, some of the same folks from the D&D game. Most of them just died recently, a blunder on their part. The setting is in 1925, and they just arrived in Cairo, Egypt following a clue concerning the murder of a friend. No one speaks or understand Arabic, so should be interesting.

I've been hoping to find some people here in Seattle to play "Call of Cthulhu" with but the closest group seems to be a pretty big drive outside the city on the other side of the sound... Was thinking about setting up a meetup.com group for it but it seems kind expensive to do that just to find out that nobody responds.

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W8 w8, so you re-create the settings in the books, games etsc?

And how do you play this?

In real life?

I'm not trolling, it's just i've never come across something like this...

It's very much like being part of an ongoing story. The Dungeon Master, Game Master, or whomever by whichever title, narrates the story and events. You and other players take the role of various characters, and there are other characters whom the DM dictates. The story progresses is influenced by the actions you and other players take, and by the events narrated by the DM. It's not so much a game to "win" at, as much as it's a toy, in the sense you just keep playing it.

The rules are there to say how certain things are resolved, from combat, to skills or magic. Many systems, while being of a similar setting, be it fantasy sword and sorcery, sci-fi, modern or historical, will differ on the rules. That being said, the rules don't make the game, the players and the Game Master do. I have never subscribed to the idea that one game system is any better then another, its about who you play with that makes the game great.

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SInce then I've played (mostly GM'd) a host of RPG's... mostly:

....

Traveller

....

Boot Hill

....

Call of Cthulhu

Star Wars

Loved the original Boot Hill, and Traveller. *** was always too deadly for us to do long term games.

I GMed a Star Wars game for years, but you might be talking about the West End Games version, which was also very cool.

This is all part of my plan to stay young for as long as I can - it's working..... so far...

What I think is cool is that several of my 40+ year old friends now have kids who are getting old enough to game with us and it puts a new feel to the game when the youngsters have such enthusiasm and energy.

It's very much like being part of an ongoing story.

My friend calls it Cooperative Storytelling (with dice).

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A feature I put into the game my friends and I created was "Plot Points"... A character gets three when first created, and can use them to change an outcome... For example:

The character is attempting to leap across a chasm (over lava naturally :tu: ), but fails the die roll hideously dooming them to a long fall and a quick barbeque... Using a Plot Point the player can "cinematically" describe how the character at the last moment catches a tree root (or some such) and manages to pull themself up to safety...

I have found that it really enhances the storyline when the players have limited GM type influence....

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I have played RPG's for a good portion of my life, haven't played for the last few years as I have not had the opprtunity. However do not let the fact that you may not live near other players hold you back if you really want to play. We live in an online world where you do not have to actually be face to face to interact with other gamers. There are many tools out there were you could set up online gaming session with relative ease. With a 30 second google search I found a website that lays out all sorts of tools for setting up online RPG play.

http://rpgvirtualtabletop.wikidot.com/

This combined with the free program Ventrilo (online voice chat). You could play with anyone in the world. So if you cannot find local players go online and find some people that would be able to play at the times you can play. Heck you may be able to find some people on here even ;)

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A feature I put into the game my friends and I created was "Plot Points"... A character gets three when first created, and can use them to change an outcome... For example:

The character is attempting to leap across a chasm (over lava naturally :tu: ), but fails the die roll hideously dooming them to a long fall and a quick barbeque... Using a Plot Point the player can "cinematically" describe how the character at the last moment catches a tree root (or some such) and manages to pull themself up to safety...

I have found that it really enhances the storyline when the players have limited GM type influence....

Holy guacamole, I love that idea! Usually I just find a way to work around a terrible roll (unless it's AFMBE where the theme is your survive as long as you can in a zombie infested world). I'll have to implement this the next time I DM or suggest it to my friends who are. Brilliant!

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