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Post by michellestamper on Nov 3, 2017 7:46:15 GMT
I want to see how many forum members are interested in RPG games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Warhammer, and the like.
What was your first class/race and how did you take to your experience(s) to these games?
What was your favorite character to play?
What are some tips (for those who are GM's) that you would offer to players, new and old, who want to start their own campaign?
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Post by MOK on Nov 3, 2017 9:20:26 GMT
Heh. My first RPG character ever was rolled on 3d6, six times, in order. He had everything over 16 except Charisma, which was 3. I made him a Fighter and called him Conan. Besides that, all I remember is getting thrown out of a brothel on account of his face, and swearing bloody vengeance on Bargle (if you know what I'm talking about, you know)... That was a long time ago. Since then it's been RuneQuest, Cyberpunk 2020, Paranoia, Amber Diceless, d20 Modern, FUDGE, Fate, Savage Worlds, Mutants & Masterminds, Blue Rose the AGE, various iterations of D&D and OSR derivatives, a handful of internationally obscure Finnish games, many many others and an unguessable number of more or less half-assed homebrews... And actually, just yesterday I got my kickstarter rewards package for Planet Mercenary!
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Post by RickDastardly on Nov 3, 2017 11:39:49 GMT
LOL - BAD Bargle!
Used to RP a lot back in the day. I gradually lost touch with the groups I played with for one reason or another over the years. I've often wished there was a local group around here.
My main game was AD&D; that seemed to fit me the best. Also did some Warhammer and dabbled in others. Even LARP for a year or so, running around in stinky barbarian furs.
My first two, and favourite characters (both AD&D) were a Neutral-Good Ranger and a Chaotic-Neutral Conjurer. The Mage was rolled with 18 intelligence and was quite innovative; he loved developing new magic and magical items for combat. Unfortunately his relatively low wisdom meant they quite often blew up in his face, or in the faces of his fellow adventurers. He got a good kicking more than once for this in the early days. Was great fun!
Can't give any specific tips for DM'ing really; never did that much as I far preferred to be playing. From my point of view as a player though, I like a DM that's fair but firm, knows the rules inside out and when to ignore them and just wing it, and who orders pizza.
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Post by Faldarin on Nov 3, 2017 13:58:25 GMT
Well, that's an interesting question. My first race/class would have been human and DM.
Ahem... all jokes aside. My first time playing D&D was a second edition starter set - and no one had played before, so I adventurously volunteered to DM. It was a little bit of a spastic time, because I'd only read the rules a bit beforehand. We did what the kids these days are calling 'theater of the mind' and used relative distances/positions in the room rather than minis. Miniatures can create dramatic moments all by themselves - but I don't recommend minis and grid-based movement if you're just starting to DM.
That evolved into campaigns I ran for years - I don't have that kind of time now, unfortunately.
My first time as a player instead wasn't even D&D - oldschool Earthdawn. Think fantasy Shadowrun. I had an Elf swordmaster who was basically a musketeer-styled fellow. His tongue was as sharp as his sword. Arimas Starseeker - yeah, I wasn't super creative with names especially half my life ago. I believe he was my only character who has ever been through a long campaign - enough to get a reputation, and essentially a suit of armor-but-not-armor implanted into his body via blood magic. That alleviates all of those 'sleeping in your armor?' concerns. (Unfortunately his reputation was mostly for BARELY surviving lethal encounters, but that's a story that would take many posts to tell.)
Tips for a new DM? This isn't going to be super-neat, more of a stream of consciousness, but here we go: The aforementioned one about miniatures. I would not start with miniature/grid movement. Make sure to describe rooms in detail, and maybe even have a sketch so players get the scale of the room and starting positions - work with it in your mind from there. Don't be hard about your players on weight and such, starting out, unless they try to carry something that is far beyond their means. Try to keep players engaged - bored players = mayhem or contagious boredom. If someone's stacking dice, unless it's a nervous habit, that's probably not good. Might want to straight up ban smartphones at the table - that wasn't a problem when I was younger, but I've seen it now. When someone 'barely' misses an enemy, by one or two target numbers? In most cases, don't describe it as a miss. Say that they connected, but their hit bounced off of the scales, or armor, or the opponent deflected their blade. Make sure that they don't roll damage, so that they know they didn't roll high enough.
Here's an important one - especially if you're wanting to run a longer series of sessions/campaign: Make players write out backstories for their characters. This is super-important, because for a longer campaign, you need something other than 'the lure of adventure' to motivate characters. Something from their past should come back to haunt them, or anything else like that. Even if players don't know the setting well, most should know enough fantasy tropes to come up with a good backstory. Even the farmboy who wants to become a hero more than anything at least gives you as the DM some threads to pull.
The last important one, and I know this is hard. Describe, describe, and describe. Good room, monster, and NPC descriptions draw players in faster than anything. Don't write a book, but small details get people's attention. Misses and hits in combat should be narrated. When a player scores the killing blow on something, if you're comfortable with it, let them describe the takedown. If you're not, then do it yourself, and give them something satisfying and/or character appropriate.
Jumping back up to an earlier question - I had no experience at the time. In current days though, I'm much better at describing hits and 'misses' with what I know about historical weaponry.
Speaking to my earlier comment of writing a book - I'll stop writing now. There's a lot more tips and tricks out there, and places to find them. I'm just a random person on the internet.
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Post by Faldarin on Nov 3, 2017 14:00:12 GMT
... And actually, just yesterday I got my kickstarter rewards package for Planet Mercenary! Awesome! I was hoping I wasn't the only one who went to bat for this. Sometime, I'm at least going to run a few oneshots of PM. I don't have local friends who know the Schlockverse, but enough of them are sci-fi nerds that it won't take much.
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Post by RaylonTheDemented on Nov 4, 2017 2:20:51 GMT
Tips for a new DM? This isn't going to be super-neat, more of a stream of consciousness, but here we go: The aforementioned one about miniatures. I would not start with miniature/grid movement. Make sure to describe rooms in detail, and maybe even have a sketch so players get the scale of the room and starting positions - work with it in your mind from there. Don't be hard about your players on weight and such, starting out, unless they try to carry something that is far beyond their means. Try to keep players engaged - bored players = mayhem or contagious boredom. If someone's stacking dice, unless it's a nervous habit, that's probably not good. Might want to straight up ban smartphones at the table - that wasn't a problem when I was younger, but I've seen it now. When someone 'barely' misses an enemy, by one or two target numbers? In most cases, don't describe it as a miss. Say that they connected, but their hit bounced off of the scales, or armor, or the opponent deflected their blade. Make sure that they don't roll damage, so that they know they didn't roll high enough. Here's an important one - especially if you're wanting to run a longer series of sessions/campaign: Make players write out backstories for their characters. This is super-important, because for a longer campaign, you need something other than 'the lure of adventure' to motivate characters. Something from their past should come back to haunt them, or anything else like that. Even if players don't know the setting well, most should know enough fantasy tropes to come up with a good backstory. Even the farmboy who wants to become a hero more than anything at least gives you as the DM some threads to pull. The last important one, and I know this is hard. Describe, describe, and describe. Good room, monster, and NPC descriptions draw players in faster than anything. Don't write a book, but small details get people's attention. Misses and hits in combat should be narrated. When a player scores the killing blow on something, if you're comfortable with it, let them describe the takedown. If you're not, then do it yourself, and give them something satisfying and/or character appropriate. Jumping back up to an earlier question - I had no experience at the time. In current days though, I'm much better at describing hits and 'misses' with what I know about historical weaponry. Speaking to my earlier comment of writing a book - I'll stop writing now. There's a lot more tips and tricks out there, and places to find them. I'm just a random person on the internet. Based on my experience, couldn't have said it better, excellent write up. I have played, more or less in that order: Middle Earth RPG as DM, campaign lasted almost 10 years, on and off with long breaks between 'chapters'. The in-between were filled with: Cyberpunk 2020 playing multiple campaigns and characters. Also Rolemaster, both as DM and player, variety of characters and classes. Dipped a bit in D&D as a player, it was mostly a flop and I dropped from game after I got tired of the DM picking on me and my Ranger's beard. Amber Diceless RPG was a big find given our group had all enjoyed the books, mosly been DM but had some good experiences as a player too. I ran a campaign in three parts that put together must have lasted over 2 years. One of my top three most enjoyable character was in one of these campaigns. Tried a few more games like GURPS, Bubblegum Crisis, Warhammer, Battletech, always came back to my deepest roots that were MERP, RM and Amber. Two of my top 3 characters were developped playing my brother's RM universe which is still running when we get the time. Played a lot at WH Fantasy and WH 40K tabletop games, which I abandonned maybe 7 years ago, mostly due to starting playing EVE Online which ate a lot of my free time for a while, lol. Totally enjoyed my time as both DM and player since I was 18. Yep.
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Post by strigoil on Nov 4, 2017 18:28:18 GMT
Been playing DnD near every weekend with more or less the same group for 5 years now, started with 3.5 and moved into 5e once that came out. I'm lucky to have landed in a very RP heavy group where no one complains if we go a session or two without any combat, even if we do love throwing our characters into danger.
My first character was a Half-orc druid which ended up being swiftly brutalized a few sessions in because our DM was as new to DnD as we were, he misunderstood challenge rating rules and thought CR should equal all players levels combined, and that is how we ended up in a completely dark room surrounded by zombies and zombie ogres chain paralyzing us to death, at level 2, good times!
My favorite character is one I am currently playing, a full orc druid named Berengar, having thrown away his savage ways as a young orc he came into a trio of druids who raised him, he is now a peaceful hippie-type druid who wishes nothing but good upon anyone. He grows some potent psychedelic mushrooms in his beard which he regularly eats. He also keeps a pet chicken that we found on our travels, nearly killed by our bard but rescued and cared for by Berengar, her name is Sparkles and he has long had the goal to use the spell Awaken on Sparkles, we recently leveled to 9 where Berengar gets access to this spell and I have the ingredients, casting started last session and will be completed next time, needless to say I am excited.
For those who don't know, Awaken is a spell that gifts the target with sentience and an intelligence score of 10, making it on par intelligent with your average human, as well as granting it understanding of a language the caster knows, it will be absolutely glorious.
I do also DM, and I feel this advice is relevant to all players myself included, make your characters as deep as you can, love them, have fun with them but know that they will most likely die, this is the course of DnD and part of what makes it exciting, there is no reload button and what happens happens, it creates a tension most games can not replicate so when your character dies it is sad and things can feel hopeless, you have spent maybe 100s of hours playing a character, but feel what you need to and shake it off, it is an opportunity to make a connection with a new, exciting character and personality!
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Post by michellestamper on Nov 6, 2017 5:41:05 GMT
This sounds exactly what my BF does with his campaigns Faldarin. Once we hit level three in Pathfinder we will have the option to run multiple campaigns and based on a vote we will pick which one we will do. I'm planning on running a campaign with all five players playing monks, the option to use archetypes and multiple classes will be available and I will start them at level two just for that purpose (level one characters can do damage but....monks), This will be my first campaign after playing two half assed campaigns with friends from school, a short pirate campaign and currently a guild campaign.
My favorite but short lived character was a Goliath sorceress, though she is tied with my Ifrit Gunslinger "wench" from the pirate campaign which may be picked back up.
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Post by michellestamper on Nov 6, 2017 5:43:52 GMT
Sorry I didn't respond as quickly as I should, Working in a furniture warehouse can get pretty gruesome especially when stores are ordering their Black Friday stuff (Pallets full of Promos) almost three to four weeks in advance, most of it to the Warehouses in Nevada and Idaho.
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Post by MOK on Nov 6, 2017 7:12:31 GMT
... And actually, just yesterday I got my kickstarter rewards package for Planet Mercenary! Awesome! I was hoping I wasn't the only one who went to bat for this. Sometime, I'm at least going to run a few oneshots of PM. I don't have local friends who know the Schlockverse, but enough of them are sci-fi nerds that it won't take much. Honestly, I don't even expect to ever get to play this, at least face-to-face. No gamers where I live. I just backed it because I wanted to see it made, I had money at the time, and the feelies in the Company Commander package looked cool (and they are).
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ChrisA
Member
Senior Forumite
Posts: 1,240
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Post by ChrisA on Nov 6, 2017 15:10:43 GMT
Besides that, all I remember is getting thrown out of a brothel on account of his face, and swearing bloody vengeance on Bargle (if you know what I'm talking about, you know)... I know. I dm'd AD&D for several years, many many years ago. My best advice for running a game is always remember your job is to make sure the players have FUN. Whatever that may be depends on your group, so ask them, listen to what they say, and do your best to give them the stories and gaming experience they want. Anything else is not so important.
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Post by dchisenh on Nov 6, 2017 16:00:55 GMT
I've always wanted to play an old school in-person d&d game with a group, but I don't know anyone else who would want to play that, so I've stuck to video games. A few months ago I started looking into online d&d/pathfinder platforms and while I liked the pathfinder stuff, I didn't see any easily accessible way to engage it. I looked into Roll20, but it's pretty technically intimidating, so I gave up on that.
Currently enjoying Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin 2.
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Post by strigoil on Nov 6, 2017 16:22:14 GMT
I've always wanted to play an old school in-person d&d game with a group, but I don't know anyone else who would want to play that, so I've stuck to video games. A few months ago I started looking into online d&d/pathfinder platforms and while I liked the pathfinder stuff, I didn't see any easily accessible way to engage it. I looked into Roll20, but it's pretty technically intimidating, so I gave up on that. Currently enjoying Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin 2. you should give Roll20 another go man, it's not bad once you get used to it, most pen and paper RPGs will seem very overwhelming at first but you wrap your head around it eventually, and as a player on ROll20 you really just deal with your character and I would say it is simpler than a paper character sheet as it often autofills a lot for you.
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Post by Faldarin on Nov 7, 2017 0:29:29 GMT
Once we hit level three in Pathfinder we will have the option to run multiple campaigns and based on a vote we will pick which one we will do. That's actually an interesting idea. If the players are tolerant of that, and you have a group willing to stick around? That's a good way to get started. And obviously don't worry about a 'slow' reply. I would rather not think back to the days I worked factory jobs - but I managed to stay out of the late shifts most of the time. Good luck with that.
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Post by Faldarin on Nov 7, 2017 0:31:58 GMT
Awesome! I was hoping I wasn't the only one who went to bat for this. Sometime, I'm at least going to run a few oneshots of PM. I don't have local friends who know the Schlockverse, but enough of them are sci-fi nerds that it won't take much. Honestly, I don't even expect to ever get to play this, at least face-to-face. No gamers where I live. I just backed it because I wanted to see it made, I had money at the time, and the feelies in the Company Commander package looked cool (and they are). Well, I don't expect to run it with anyone else either, except maybe one-shot sessions. I might pick one up if my current DM needs a break. I did... admittedly back it for the books. The core book is a treasure trove of lore and a hilarious read for fans of the comic (I still haven't gone cover to cover.) But seriously.... seriously. The 70 Maxims of Effective Mercenaries was the best.
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Post by michellestamper on Nov 8, 2017 13:41:51 GMT
Once we hit level three in Pathfinder we will have the option to run multiple campaigns and based on a vote we will pick which one we will do. That's actually an interesting idea. If the players are tolerant of that, and you have a group willing to stick around? That's a good way to get started. And obviously don't worry about a 'slow' reply. I would rather not think back to the days I worked factory jobs - but I managed to stay out of the late shifts most of the time. Good luck with that. My current DM (My BF) came up with that idea based on an observation he did or something on another DM who hosted his campaigns for a very long time. I chose the graveyard shift because it paid a dollar more than the others. Will be going on mandatory 5 days starting next week due to the holidays and maybe working as late as 7am on a few. not going to be pleasant, but its better than what I did at UPS.
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Post by Faldarin on Nov 8, 2017 14:07:48 GMT
That's actually an interesting idea. If the players are tolerant of that, and you have a group willing to stick around? That's a good way to get started. And obviously don't worry about a 'slow' reply. I would rather not think back to the days I worked factory jobs - but I managed to stay out of the late shifts most of the time. Good luck with that. My current DM (My BF) came up with that idea based on an observation he did or something on another DM who hosted his campaigns for a very long time. I chose the graveyard shift because it paid a dollar more than the others. Will be going on mandatory 5 days starting next week due to the holidays and maybe working as late as 7am on a few. not going to be pleasant, but its better than what I did at UPS. Back when I worked factory - I probably would have tried the graveyard shift if it paid a dollar more than what I was doing... I think it was only a quarter more back then. I hope it's better than UPS or Amazon. I also hope your campaign goes well. I've not played Pathfinder myself. Right now, I'm the most clumsy and unlucky cleric ever of Tymora (goddess of luck) in a 5th edition campaign. He is - surprisingly not dead yet.
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Post by spikeynorman47 on Nov 8, 2017 19:41:08 GMT
I've played 5th edition D&D and AD&D. I dabbled in some Savage Worlds games. I played in Star Wars, WW2 and Fallout savage world games. In AD&D my first character was a human fighter named Koop Inglehoffer. Yes he's named after mustards I found in the grocery store I played mostly fighter types in my Dad's AD&D games. My favorite was a moon elf cavalier named Sir Terakas Taranth. He eventually became a vampire. His horse had magic horse shoes that allowed it to run not touching the ground. Recently I just retired my paladin Sir Trystan Merrick,Sword of the Morning in the 5E D&D module Storm Kings Thunder. He was a paladin of Lathander and had a magic longsword named Dawn which glowed with a magic white fire. Oh and he retired with a Griffon who I named after a dead comrade NPC from the game. I really want to play as a ranger in a game because I feel like that class fits me best IRL but I always end up a fighting type character. I would absolutely love to get into LARP but there are no good ones near me ):
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Post by michellestamper on Nov 9, 2017 11:22:12 GMT
my second campaign for 5th edition I played a rather unfortunate Goliath Sorceress, the DM felt so bad in the beginning of the campaign that he had me roll again a few times because I kept on getting Critical fails on my saves. Pathfinder is actually 5th edition compatible, the only difference between the two is that Pathfinder tends to give more options on what you can be and what you can do. BF blends the two together more often than not.
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