RPG-ers herein?

[Magnus]

After a circa 5 year absence from any tapletop roleplaying games, the marvelous new 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons rules by Wizards of the Coast recently got me back into it. I run it on the world of 'Hârn' put out by Columbia Games - in my opinion the most 'realistic' fantasy world there is.

Any other players or gamemasters here?

 

[TrailblazingScot]

The 3rd edition makes D&D a bit better...but I won´t be going back to D6D...losing Armstrong was too much for this kitten to bear.

Armstrong is alive and well, but I am not allowed to take him adventuring again.

He died when an italid -or something- sucked his brain out in an underground city when my character was brave...this was after I failed to kill fazole having cut the rope he was on -he fell 300 ft and survived!

Armstrong is alive because his bodyguard -a paladin player- took his body home to his VERY rich family in Raven´s Bluff.

I will be gamemastering and playing shadowrun and paranoia by way of rpgers...D&D is just too overpowered and unrealistic.

[This message has been edited by kittenOFchaos (edited July 13, 2001).]

 

[xeven_god_of_helsibahr]

I've play Super Heros Unlimited. That's about all.

 

[GenghisK]

Ok you want my RPG CV?

_ Stormbringer (brutal but fun, especially when you are Pan Tang or Melnibon/0
_ Middle Earth + Rolemaster (fought Chelob once...)
_ Star Wars (didn't play it long)
_ Rune Quest (idem)
_ Warhammer classic (of course)
_ Paranoid
_ Call of Ctulhu
_ Classic D&D 2nd edition.

Pfeew, that reminds me the good old time, when I was young and dumb. People will say I am still dumb. True. But at least I gave up playing D&D (an elfe that is stronger than a dwarf.... that's the 2nd edition

)

------------------
<IMG SRC="http://www.ifrance.com/genghisk/GKultima.gif" border=0>

 

[FearlessLeader2]

I still play. Last night I ran a party of three(w/one NPC) players. One 16th level monk(Toammar, son of Sir Tormod Townburner, Herald of Tranios), one 6th level paladin/10th level consecrated harrier(Sir Erevan, Knight of Ergos), and one 7th level psion/10th level pyrokineticist(Prince Xaen), and the paladin's mount Elizia, a young adult silver dragon.

They were going up against the frost giant Jarl after alerting his forces with a brief foray into his rift(killed the ogre magi emmissaries(the ogre magi wouldn't fight fair though, kept them in the dark and stayed invisible, and flew above their heads using magic the whole time, while they were being assaulted by frost giant guards. They only survived because Toammar has Spider Climb from a MI and could battle them, and Sir Erevan did an anti-magic effect to dispel the darkness on the ground.) One frost giant(the one who ran for reinforcements) described the entire party, and their apparent powers, to his jarl. Grugnir, being no-one's fool, made some preparations for their certain return. His witchdoctor used spilt blood from the battle, and some discarded broken weapons, to track the party's movements, and scry them(none took the skill, so they totally blew their detection rolls).

Two weeks later, the party used the teleport chain from the hill giant steading a second time, and appeared in a custom-tailored ambush. As soon as they appeared, I shook my head sadly, and said: "Geeze, you guys didn't even put yourselves in a defensive formation for the teleport. You just have no respect for intelligent opponents, do you?"

Six giants and three white dragons(they met and drove the dragons off in an earlier encounter, so I figured the dragons would make a temporary alliance with the giants to kill the PCs, (after a single dragon ran away, and she and her mate fled again, so they called grandma, dad, and the cousins) had the teleport area surrounded, and got the drop on them.

In the first round, the giants killed both Sir Erevan(two hits, one a triple damage crit(87hp), failed his Fort save(rolled a 1)) and Elizia(four hits, two of them criticals), and one of the dragons managed to pin Toammar with a crush. In the second round, they finished off Prince Xaen in the first attack, dropping him to 0 hp. Toammar (now very scared and lonely) Abundant Stepped to the top of the dragon's head that was pinning him.

It bit him and flung him off. In his second action, he was raked by the dragon, and all the other enemies moved toward him(he had initiative fortunately). He used the first wish on his ring of 3 wishes to attempt to change a past event("Uh, Nate, I wish we never left the inn this morning."), and it fizzled.

Third action, monk wished for the enemies to go away. Dragons all failed their SR checks, and he was left alone with his dying and dead comrades. He used some MI's to revive the paladin and the pyrokineticist, and the last wish to revive the dragon.

That's when they noticed the other four dragons, with frost giants riding on their backs, heading for their location. Yep, Grugnir, his wife(a 6th level priestess of Virtul(god of giants and battle)), and two of his best guards were flying combat air patrol, and the ambush group had an orc slave who sounded a horn at the onset.

After a dogfight, and some really lucky dice rolls on the party's part(I use the old Good Hits and Bad Misses tables from an old Dragon magazine for critical hits, and Toammar got an IK on on of the dragons, and managed to make his save by 1 for the massive damage from the fall(lost 85hp though). He drank a heal potion, and moments later, found himself battling Grugnir, who had fallen off his dragon after fumbling during a boulder throw. (Grugnir rolled low for falling damage, and made his save easily.) Prince Xaen did a Flaming Burst a la Legend of Dragoon onto Grugnir's head, killing him (and nearly the pyro as well) after Toammar managed to take him down a peg, nearly getting himself killed in the process.

One of the other dragons died instantly when Sir Erevan leaped onto its head, sword out, and the pyro got past the other two's SR(I use it for psi too) to stun them.), they actually found themselves victorious. Or at least alive.

They're running for home as we type/read, heh, heh. The group decided that they had bitten off more than they could chew, and we're actually rolling up new PCs to start a nice low-level campaign on the 'Oriental' facet of Ergos(my hyper-cubical campaign world), the Three Empires.

A couple of notes--
The death from massive damage rule, I have made one modification to. 50 hp has a Fort save of 15. For every 3 hp above 50, the save difficulty goes up by 1. This is to keep high-level PCs from getting too cocky.

Also, I allow people to aim at locations, with a chance of doing extra damage or getting an IK. I don't have a hard and fast set of rules for it, but basically, the smaller the creature, the higher the attack penalty for aiming, and the greater the chance of special damage if they hit. Large creatures are easier to aim on, but the chance of an IK becomes vanishingly small as size increases. It makes sense, and the monsters can do it to(and they do try from time to time), so I let it happen.

Well, I guess that's enough for now. But man I love this game! It's even(dare I say it) better than Civ...

Edit: I remembered the PC's names, and thought the story would be more interesting that way...

[This message has been edited by FearlessLeader2 (edited July 22, 2001).]

 

[damunzy]

<FONT face="tahoma">I play 3e D&D. We have 3 to 5 players, including me and another DM. The run characters also so they can switch out and also b/c people don't show up sometimes.
We play in the Forgotten Realms with a few house rules in effect.
Last night (Sat.) I was running the module The Forge of Fury with a few modifications since the module was made for a party of 3rd level characters and we had 4 PCs and 1 NPC. I was playing a 1Rog/3Transmutator Male Strongheart Halfling, the other DM who was just playing this advanture was playing a 5Fig Male Wood Elf, my wife was playing a 4Pal Female Human, Jeremy, the player that always shows up on time, was playing a 5Psychic Warrior Male Human, and the NPC 5Cle Female Human.

What happened: I lost my character going across a rope bridge!

The story: Entering the Dwarven Stronghold that had been taken over by Orcs we came across a rope bridge. Me being the most rogueish person here says I will go first (most rogueish, not the most dexterous). The bridge was 30 feet long and you could only move half your base movement, which mine was 20, so I had to make 3 checks. In order to cross the rope bridge you had to make a reflex check with a DC8 and if you missed by 5 or more you fall, but have a chance to grab on before falling to your death. On my last check I rolled a 2, which with my dex bonus of +1 still put me 5 or over, so my character trips, I look at what the secondary check is to catch myself and I see it is a reflex check of 18!! My character reachs out to save himself but finds his arms to short, and damns himself for being a halfling. My character didn't make it and I fell 200 feet below and took enough damage to set me to -36 hp (I had 35 hp)! Well the party just thinks this is the best thing since sliced bread. The DM loses HIS chararcter!
What could be funnier?
Well they save some humans the were being held captive by the Orcs on the other side of the bridge and they got to watch the humans cross the bridge to get out of the stronghold. The first one makes it across no problem. The second on stumbles halfway through and and makes a grab to steady himself but he too misses! He takes enough damage to set him to -37! Well the PCs really die laughing after seeing this and ask me if there is anyone else they can save and send across the rope bridge! Bastards. I had to hear water and death jokes for the rest of the night.
</FONT f>
------------------
<FONT face="tahoma">
All rights reserved, all your base are belong to us . </FONT f>

[This message has been edited by PaleHorse76 (edited July 15, 2001).]

 

[hannibol43]

I play R---I---F---T---S. The best rolepalying game out there. Anyway I play every now and again and we usually incorporate the other Palladium games into our campaigns. One of these days they will move Rifts online that will be the day!!

------------------
"Hannibol Ad Portas!"

 

[drake]

Fearless leader, wow that was a cool story

So, are these games you guys play on a computer or are these board games we're talking about here?

I never really understood the manual type rpgs.

 

[Pedro]

Me and my party started to play ad&d before 3rd edition came out and didn't feel like a rules swap, so we stuck to 2nd edition rules. Actually we think the story is much more important than the rules. In many cases it depends on the wit of one of our group members whether we defeat a foe or not (instead of roling those irritating intelligence checks). We detest hack 'n slash adventures in which you just keep on roling dice in order to defeat you champion. This, in our opinion, has nothing to do with real role playing.
For those interested: we play in the Birthright campaign, in the land of Anuire. Birthright means less fantasy (few magicians e.g.), more ancient reality (medieval castles etc.) , but more epic tales. There's still enough fantasy left. I for example play a gnome priest that serves a gnomish goddess that tries to take over the human pantheon. My character (who's name is Tjibbe) thinks his goddess is of a good nature, but he's willing to do everything for her. Quite an interesting situation actually. If you want to read more about my party, visit this page . A good internet connection is mandatory for this page however!!

 

[Magnus]

drake, these games are on the tapletop with figures and a grid map. (yes real people face to face!

)

Let me plug Columbia Games (HârnWorld) a little more - if you like low fantasy, they push magic way down and the combat is downright BLOODY! - you have a greater chance of dying from infection than actual combat! The are also working on a game addition that would have a computer CD as a complimantary part of the adventure to add flavor. I also think internet playing will be a very common thing soon.

 

[Flatlander Fox]

I used to play AD&D, Marvel Superheroes, and Boot Hill (Anyone ever played that one before???<IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0>)

As a DM and a player, I have been hard pressed to find a good game over in Germany yet... But I have only been trying with Americans <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0>...

My favorite moment as a roleplayer was once when I was actually DMing a game... My little brother, my best friend, and a friend of my little brother had all been playing together for about three years. My brother had gone bat$hit over treasure, and had tried to kill his whole party with a delayed blast fireball.

My best friend, who had a 13th level Paladin (Zane) (Who lost his brother in the blast), hunted my brother, 15th level mage (LeRok) (Chaotic Neutral) with his leige (Franklin)(NPC 10th level fighter) and his cleric companion (Brillian) (8th level) about six game sessions. When my brother's hit and run tactics proved to be too much for them (And his torture tactics too much for their family members) the Paladin returned home to bury his father, who had been decapitated and delivered in several boxes to him personally by servants of my brother.

My brother then attacked the keep (The Fortress that could never fall: Sturmcloud) of Zane and held it under seige for about 3 months... With the attacks continuing, and defenses weakened, Zane decided that LeRok would never be allowed to desecrate the shrine to his god... Zane burned the shrine, and led his followers and about 20 men out of the gates of Sturmcloud. LeRok had a force of about 1000 men at arms, and a vanguard of 50 knights (2nd to 3rd level fighters loyal to him). The gate roared open and these guys just charged out the gate...

Needless to say, this was a pretty difficult battle to adjudicate. I resorted to counters to keep track of what was happening in the battle, and all in all it took around three hours to finish... (I used the D-Day board for Panzer Leader<IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0><IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0>)

First off, I decided to give Zane a miracle... I was really touched by this guy just throwing his character away, and the way he did it impressed me, the god. I gave it to him in form of a wish format... But didn't let him know that he had a wish. He wished for during the course of battle that a landslide would occur to take out the bulk of LeRok's force, and when it happened, the smugness was wiped clean off of my brother's face. He began to fling fireballs at the oncoming attackers, and decimated his own ranks as well as Zane's...

The cleric Brillian fell first, but used all of his healing powers on Zane (In hopes that Zane might survive and resurrect him<IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0>). Soon, Zane and Franklin were fighting pretty much back to back, and still had around 150 NPC's to deal with... Franklin fell, and Zane fought long and hard before being overcome. He was unhorsed (very hard to do to a Paladin) and then held in the prone and killed very quickly after that. But not after the death of almost 1000 of his enemies.

My brother was not kind with Zane's body, and had it hung on his gate for the rest of his short life.
LeRok got caught up in the wrong political circles (Also got hit with an Alignment change -1 level!) and was crippled and cast out to walk the earth. (Both hands crushed with stones and then naturally healed, cannot cast spells ever again, unless cut off and regenerated<IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/wink.gif" border=0>)
When he returned home, he was immediately captured by his second in command and executed unceremoniously.

He was hung next to Zane on the gate leading into Sturmcloud. They still are there, since I haven't returned to that world since those days.

I really enjoy reading the stories guys, keep em coming!!! I know I have a ton from my emerald loving, halfling hating, cavalier Keene Isengard...

-Edit for Spelling
-Edit for Typos!!!

------------------
I'm so tired of being tired... Sure as night will follow day... Most things I worry about, never happen anyway...

[This message has been edited by Flatlander Fox (edited July 16, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Flatlander Fox (edited July 16, 2001).]

 

[FearlessLeader2]

I've tried Palladium/RIFTS stuff, and honestly I just don't like it. The only published system I liked besides AD&D(and 3rd edition is simply a quantum leap over the older versions!) was TORG, and that only because of the cross-pollination of genres. Even in it's 4th incarnation(3rd Ed), it is still not a very realistic model of combat. Hit points just gotta go...

The best RPG I've ever played cannot be purchased in any store, downloaded off the web, or ordered from a catalog. It is the game that an older friend of mine and his friends(not mutual) invented themselves. They never really gave it a name, but the strike resolution system is rather similar to D&D3rdEd. Other than that, it is simply the best rpg ever made, and is head and shoulders above everything else. I think they looked at what was available then(mid 70s), took all the best parts, added a few logical touches, and created a truly great system. I suppose it shall never see publication, but it slowly grows as it is printed and photocopied and handed to new players and DMs, who add their own touches.

 

[FearlessLeader2]

Thanks Drake. Still that's nowhere's near my best tale. This one still cracks me up to this day, and it happened over ten years ago:


I was DMing(I'm always DMing, sheesh, when do I get to play?) a simple dungeon crawl, basically just a tunnel through a mountain that the party had to traverse to get somewhere in a certain amount of time. I set up a few side tunnels and red herrings, and decided I'd give the party a chance to get something really special out of the trip, a +2 intelligent longsword(the average party level at the time was 5 or 6, so a +2 weapon would be like, an artifact, given how stingy I was with the magic back then).

So I put the sword in the lair of a mated pair of Eye Killers, a 2HD monster from, IIRC, Monster Manual II. They can, once per 24 hours, use their enormous eyes to gather up all available light for for a single deadly blast of light, that will kill or seriously harm any it strikes. I figured the risk vs reward was balanced.

So, as luck would have it, they eventually reach the turn that will take them to the eye killers. They were pretty much hopelessly lost by then, as the dwarf had blown his first roll to determine direction underground, so I was going to make him wait until tomorrow to try again, secretly.

I built up the approach carefully, playing on their(the players) natural fear of the dark and unknown, with nice descriptive phrases like '...the faint echo of dripping water...' and '...pale phosphorescence of some sunlight-shunning fungus...', and finally they got near the lair.

"Okay, up ahead, at the uttermost range of your torchlight, you see a faint point of red light." (I said this to describe how the EK would appear at first, only by the reflection of torchlight from its eyes.)

As they got closer...

"The faint reddish point of light seems to have split into two smaller ones, side by side. The lights seem to bob up and down slightly, in perfect synchronization with each other.' (Two eyes on the same head ought to.)

And closer(about 40' away now)...

"Now you can barely make a bat-like form, and these lights appear to be its eyes. There is a scattering of what may be bones and gear, and a sword blade protruding from the pile. The bat-like form appears to be watching your approach, and seems unconcerned."

The party had a brief conference at the table, and decided to charge. Ten feet up the hallway, they came into lethal range of the EK attack, and it blasted the paladin. Fortune favors the bold, so they say, and the paladin rolled a one. Thankfully, the movie Predator had opened in theatres the year before, so I had an easy way to describe what happened...

"Okay, the bat-thing sort of rears back as you attack, and its eyes seem to grow huge and full of blood-red light. A moment later, there is a flash of light, and the dwarf(right on the paladin's heels) is splashed in the face with steaming glop. He realises that the glop is the paladin's internal organs, as a hole has been blasted through the paladin's chest, and he can see another of the bat-beasts coming forward through the window just opened in the paladin's chest."

Without so much as another brief table conference, the party turned as one, and fled back up the hallway. The second EK took a parting shot at the dwarf's back, and he saved. I rolled maximum on the dice for damage, and deliberately acted disappointed(I also rolled a lot of extra dice that I just ignored, but I wanted them intimidated.) I told the dwarf's player how much, and he almost squawked in terror. At the end of the night, I told them the truth of the encounter, because I had to share the laugh with someone.

As a group, they were unanimously unamused.

[This message has been edited by FearlessLeader2 (edited July 22, 2001).]

 

[Simon Darkshade]

I am a long time fan and player of AD&D, 1st , but mainly 2nd edition. I am seemingly alone in my state of not being blown out of the water by 3rd Edition. I just prefered the game when it was ADVANCED

Cannot be bothered updating my material, or buying huge amounts of books, so I will remain an unrepentent 2nd Edition bastard!
I don't want the whole game to end up like they ruined Dragonlance with the weirdo Saga system.
I also like original D&D, and mourn its death. I guess I am a traditionalist, the type who protested against Wrath of the Immortals and the Time of Troubles

I am definitely divorced from what they have done to the Realms setting. The fools have even killed off Azoun!
I have played MERP, and sort of started off on Warhammer FRPG, but AD&D is my true love.
I like the Realms most of all, followed by Spelljammer and Dragonlance. Greyhawk was good, and did not desreve to die. I am a great fan of the cultural add on's, like Kara Tur and Al Qadim. Planescape was a bit interesting, but Ravenloft was too dark, as if they had tried to amke it so one could never win ( forget heroism and fantasy for a minute, lets just try to scare people crappily

)
Maybe someone could just point out to me why 3rd Edition is so much better; I cannot see for myself.

Long live the Cormyrian Strategic Rocket Forces!!!!

------------------
Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.
- N.S.Khrushchev

 

[SunTzu]

I stick to video game RPG's i would try out D&D but no one around here plays those things.

------------------
Civilization God of War & Economic Prosperity
http://www.civfanatics.com Staff and Forum Moderator
Apolyton Who?!

 

[Kev]

I used to play a ton of D&D - 2nd edition rules back then. I'm with Pedro in that we felt the rules were more like guidelines rather than stringent boundries. Common sense, logic, and a few agreed-upon modifications were actually more the norm.

We usually stuck to the World of Greyhawk for the most part, and my most memorable character was Stinger (real name Rel-Astar - son of the Partiarch of Vesve Forest) who became a very high-level Ranger. (I know that this race/class mix wouldn't happen in 2nd edition rules, but like I said we made some tweaks and felt that a wood elf COULD do this without level restrictions).

The most fun we had as a party was trying to convince the outlying principalities to band together and drive the humanoids out of the Pomarj. Damn that was fun. I wish that I could get a group together and play some again.

Quick question: As far as computer versions, has anyone tried the Baldur's Gate series?

 

[shadowdale]

Well I used to play a lot of RPG - and I think that I have tried most of the bigger systems, but now a days I only work with RPG and clubs and don't play anymore!!!

And Kev yea I have BG1 & BG2 and right now I'm playing them again because I want to have some really cool chars for when Neverwinter Nights comes out!!!!!!!!!!

------------------
We are species 8472 - assimilation attempts are futile - the weak shall perish

No wait we are species 5618 and we got beer...... don't harm us!!!!!!

 

[Magnus]

In one game I DM'd several years ago, the group wanted to drive an evil fighting order out of a keep but were in a land where nobody would help them (an evil kingdom), so they went into the nearby mountains and got a tribe of ORCS to help them invade the keep! The place was sacked, and the orcs looted and murdered the inhabitants, and then kept the keep as their own - which suited the group fine, as they needed to move on and now the evil kingdom had to deal with the orcs moving in on their territory, so their reign became far more unstable. The group's mindset was to let the two evil groups fight each other and weaken each other, then the forces of good would have a chance to come in and sweep up the pieces further on down the road.

 

[stellar converter]

im starting to play Warhammer FB. about to start a dwarf army. i had a wood elf, but sold it. thats about it. can anyone give me a drarf army? if so, ill give you my address so that you can mail it to me.