The Role Playing Game Thread: Shiny Dice Roll Better!
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Zardnaar
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I have the originals
Gamebooks through to 23, 12 novels+ world of Magnamund and 3 greystar the wizard.I didn't like most of the novels (only the earlier ones were really any good), but I have all the original gamebooks, except for #27, which I could never find in the end.
I also have the d20 RPG based on the Lone Wolf setting.
I also have the d20 RPG based on the Lone Wolf setting.
Zardnaar
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I didn't like most of the novels (only the earlier ones were really any good), but I have all the original gamebooks, except for #27, which I could never find in the end.
I also have the d20 RPG based on the Lone Wolf setting.
I've got that on PDF, never played it. Based off 3.5 and doesn't work that well from what I can notice.
On saw up to 24 released here. Didn't buy it at the time.
I feel these games might be really fun if you don't have any dice or statistics, but instead just make it story-based, with everyone contributing and your game master leading the adventure. The biggest turnoff for these things is just how many statistics there are ... it's like, eugh.
Imagine you create your characters, and come up with their strengths and weaknesses. You then can have an adventure without worrying about boring statistics or "battles" ... you can still have encounters for dramatic and story purposes, but why not just solve those creatively? You can focus on the story your characters are going through, which I think would be something really fun to play. You could just decide, based on your players' histories with their characters, whether they're tricked or not, or successful with a negotiation, etc.
Imagine you create your characters, and come up with their strengths and weaknesses. You then can have an adventure without worrying about boring statistics or "battles" ... you can still have encounters for dramatic and story purposes, but why not just solve those creatively? You can focus on the story your characters are going through, which I think would be something really fun to play. You could just decide, based on your players' histories with their characters, whether they're tricked or not, or successful with a negotiation, etc.
Yeah, I had the original three from the 70's and later one hardback hero's and monsters or something like that. I probably still have the all in a closet at home with a bag of dice.
The big thing was that they were just guidelines, the DM was god and acted like one. What wasn't specifically covered, you just made up and took a roll.
Probably been over 30 years since I was a God.
EgonSpengler
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Back when I was into these games, there was an enormous variety of play styles to choose from. I'd imagine that's still true today. I played Champions a lot, a superhero game that would've driven you insane with its massive piles of numbers, but a game like Vampire: The Masquerade was much more about roleplaying, where it was actually better if the GM rolled all of the dice in secret. There was one game in the '90s that didn't use dice at all, but I can't remember what it was now. And of course there's live-action roleplaying, which is a little different from tabletop roleplaying, and generally requires more of the participants - more commitment; more safety features for combat and character interactions that might make someone uncomfortable; more investment of time and/or money; more skill in a lot of ways, whether it's in making costumes and props, or speaking and behaving "in-character" to a degree that it's basically improv theater. (Even though I was frequently a Game Master in every game I played, I always sucked at that last part, doing accents and giving non-player characters distinctive personalities. I'd have been a terrible LARPer.
) Allow me to shake my cane at the younger generations for a moment: I still bristle at the definition of 'roleplaying game' in the era of PC and console games. Building a character from numbers and skill trees isn't roleplaying. Path of Exile is closer to wargaming with a plot, which isn't new either - people put a "campaign" framework over tabletop wargames such as Car Wars, Battletech and Starfleet Battles all the time (back in the day we did, at any rate, I assume people still do). Folks who've grown up with Diablo-style ARPGs and World of Warcraft-style dungeon-crawlers may never have played a real roleplaying game, by my definition. Although it's worth noting that MMOs can provide a fantastic infrastructure for actual roleplaying. I played with a group of roleplayers in City of Heroes, a now-defunct superhero game, and it was a real blast.
Anyway, one big advantage to tabletop, pen-and-paper games is that their rules are all really just serving suggestions. If you find a game in a genre you like, with a rules framework that doesn't make you crazy, you're almost supposed to tinker with it.
Farm Boy
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Like the pre-AD&D? Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic, Elf is a class sort of D&D?
Those groups always seemed a bit intense.
hobbsyoyo
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I've been trying to read and engage with the thread but it's all just lost on me.Same here.
Well... I've had one try where it was the first attempt for everyone involved, including the would-be DM. We did not get very far.
In the case you mention I think I'd have left it up to the player(s) to ask to use their intuition to see if they could tell if the pirate queen was lying and make the pirate queen's roll secretly.
That way the players wouldn't know if they had succeeded or not. Although they might have an idea based on how good their roll and skill was they wouldn't know how good the pirate queen's roll and skill was. If they didn't ask to make the roll they'd have no idea at all if she was lying or not.
There are ruleless and rule-light games for those who like them. My players don't but as the referee I'm not above fudging a die roll to make the game more interesting or leave a character bleeding and incapacitated rather than dead. A good referee needs to be able to run things without lots of pre-prepared statistics since almost inevitably the players are going to try something the referee hasn't anticipated. If the referee can wing it without the players realising they are doing so that's a win.
EgonSpengler
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Have you seen What We Do in the Shadows?
Old Hippy
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just think of that time playing a RPG game on computer and out of the four options you had you wanted to do someting else
then think of sitting around a table with say 6 of your close friends and doing it
my classic bad GM decision was so " wonky'' that we still laugh about it 30 years latter
its a sort of a " took an arrow to the knee'' kind of thing
Deep in the drow capital the players were planning on how to get past a check point to the main temple with 20+ freed slaves in their party and they went into great detail planning it
So they get to the check point and I have 'my' guard say " you slaves seem to be in armour and have weapons'' to which the human player ''slave merchant'' replies "shush ... they don't know they are for sacrifice''
after wiping the coffe of the GM screen... I let it go and the ensuing battle in the temple was epic
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EgonSpengler
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It's a satire, like This is Spinal Tap, but with vampires.
I refereed It Came From the Late, Late, Late Show a few times which was fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Came_From_the_Late,_Late,_Late_Show
GoodEnoughForMe
n.m.s.s.
I think you're always going to have situations where we know as people irl something our characters don't, and it is up to the party and DM to make it work. Our D&D campaign has had multiple occasions of just a couple characters in our party talking out of ear shot of others, and we don't all take the time to vacate the room in real life or anything. There's a certain amount of trust and acceptance in really being able to place yourself in the shoes of someone who is not rolling the dice because they're the actual elf monk, and sometimes, you have to pretend to hear/know/see something or not hear/know/see something you did or didn't (woo that was a banger of a sentence). Insight checks are your best bet and the party just has to RP them well. As someone who has read an ungodly amount of Forgotten Realms literature, played a lot of D&D video games, and am super familiar with 3.5 and 5e campaigns, there are lots of time my character in this campaign has had to not know some sort of lore/history/reference I knew 'irl' because I had read about it in a novel. Even with my character having really good religion and history and related skills, I remember one occasion my character horrifically misidentified a dragon, shortly after reading the literal time of dragons or whatever trilogy. Stuff happens.
Zardnaar
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Socrates99
Bottoms up!
We ran into that so much in the group I played VtM with. Every body knew the lore inside and out and it could get immersion breaking sometimes.
Zardnaar
Deity
5E D&D has been slimmed down with more focus on story telling.
The basic rules are free.
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules
It's still D&D combat matters a lot.
Anyway 5 editions.
Spoiler 1E-5E :
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