Since we're a bunch of nerds here mostly do we have overlap with Tabletop gaming and D&D?

[Misanthrope]

I tried searching for a topic on this but I don't believe we have a thread on D&D and Tabletop RPGs in general.

 

Personally I'm a huge fan and I've been playing tabletops for something like 20 years now but not very actively. Had a few tables over the years but it eventually gets hard to play with most people since most people my age start getting married, traveling for work, having kids, etc.

 

Lately however I'm seeing a very exiting renewed interest in tabletop and more specifically D&D 5th edition which I must say it's a fantastic addition: very streamlined yet complex enough (Just enough rules to facilitate gameplay without complicating things too much for Game Masters and such).

 

More over I'm seeing quite a number of brand new tools to basically play online (makes sense: most people now have broadband, VOIP is super easy to do, getting the tabletop and ruleset is fairly straight forward on some apps, etc.) and even very successful youtube channels and guys streaming on twitch, even opening pay 2 play campaigns and such.

 

Any fans? Are you currently playing any tables? Tell us about your characters and such. Grab a beer get comfy.

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Lately however I'm seeing a very exiting renewed interest in tabletop and more specifically D&D 5th edition which I must say it's a fantastic addition: very streamlined yet complex enough (Just enough rules to facilitate gameplay without complicating things too much for Game Masters and such).

 

More over I'm seeing quite a number of brand new tools to basically play online (makes sense: most people now have broadband, VOIP is super easy to do, getting the tabletop and ruleset is fairly straight forward on some apps, etc.) and even very successful youtube channels and guys streaming on twitch, even opening pay 2 play campaigns and such.

Since going to college, haven't had enough time/people to play with. Have you played 3.5 and if so, would you say 5th edition is funner?

A while back I came across this tool that seems like it would be good for online RP, but due to the previous reasons, I haven't had the chance to try it out.

[Volbet]

I used to play a lot of D&D and Warhammer when I was younger. 

For 10 years or so I was in a group that meet every fortnight (or at least tried to), and we would play either Warhammer or D&D (usually 1st, 2nd edition or custom rules), while listening to dungeon synth and black metal for that added atmosphere.

 

As of late I haven't really had the time to sit down and dedicate a day (or weekend) to playing a tabletop game, but due to the 5th edition of D&D we have discussed getting together to play again. 

We just need to make the time again. 

 

 

[PlayStation 2]

Never been interested. I'd actually like to ask what's the appeal in it; always wanted to know coming from someone who doesn't really understand stuff like D&D.

[Volbet]

Just now, Dan Castellaneta said:

Never been interested. I'd actually like to ask what's the appeal in it; always wanted to know coming from someone who doesn't really understand stuff like D&D.

It's basically escapism. 

You get to take some time out of your life where you're no longer a labour slave, a student or something in between. You're a warlock on a magical adventure.

The appeal of tabletop games is basically the same as with an RPG video game, a chose your own adventure book, or a fantasy movie or novel. 

[Unhelpful]

8 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Never been interested. I'd actually like to ask what's the appeal in it; always wanted to know coming from someone who doesn't really understand stuff like D&D.

An outlet for true creativity that people can experience. You ever been like "Wow, I can't believe this house is just kinda cool with being on fire" in a video game? In shit like this it's truly interactive, and the only limit is your own creativity. 

 

I don't play, used to play a little bit. I still really see the appeal, but the RP aspect wasn't really for me.

[Alariel]

Still manage to play something about once a week (most weeks at least), people with kids can get sitters if they don't have partners to look after the little ones, it's not a big problem.

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, tjcater said:

Since going to college, haven't had enough time/people to play with. Have you played 3.5 and if so, would you say 5th edition is funner?

A while back I came across this tool that seems like it would be good for online RP, but due to the previous reasons, I haven't had the chance to try it out.

Yes I played on a table that was 3.5 then moved over to Pathfinder (seamless really) for a solid year and a half or so. 5th edition is...more fun but not in the way that you'd think. I'll do my best to explain:

 

With 3.5/Pathfinder part of the appeal of the game is that you get to do a lot of number crunching. Creating a character for the system is legit fund with tremendous amount of customization options: Classes each with their skills and feats, prestige classes, multi-classing, prestige classes that aim at multi-classing, so many supplements for character options. Most of the time our conversations were around what kind of characters we could come up with: Dancing fighters, flying psionic ant men, anything was possible. The problem was that it takes lots of dedication: it seriously took us up to 2 hours to resolve a single combat encounter sometimes up to 30 minutes just to get through a single round of combat. None of us were newbies at game mastering there was just so many options and actions and decisions to make that we took a long time just to declare actions, figure out how to resolve them, figure out damage and move on not before counters, additional swift actions and bonus actions, monster reactions, etc.

 

Not only that but all of the fun stuff we were talking about? It was for another good reason too: A run of the mill, standard Fighter or Barbarian most basic warriors would be helpless against mages and monsters on the higher levels. Magic got too damn powerfull.

 

Now we were happy to keep playing as we thought this was just how the game was not realizing that maybe we could simply things without turning the game into basically a tabletop videogame (This was still during the 4th edition days which none of us liked or bought into).

 

With 5th edition everything gets simplified but still feels fair: Your characters are far more manageable, character options and abilities are integrated into the classes reducing the endless hunt for feats (Feats still exists but are far more limited in scope and amount) and most actions are quickly resolved in a way that's far more elegant and fair. It's just realizing that you now have to readjust your way of thinking since power levels, everything is more simple: You don't need to compare special stats all of the time you just have 3 basic mechanics: Normal roll, advantage and disadvantages. 

 

Spellcasters are also far more balanced: they get to actually do stuff at lower levels but they trade in a lot of the power: most lasting effects (good or bad) that are not direct damage require concentration and you can only concentrate on one effect, meaning we no longer deal with a Wizard that puts a sequencer with 3 different spell protections and immunizations plus the ones he keeps stacking every turn: you either become invisible or reduce/negate damage but you can't concentrate on both, etc.

 

This means that before we took 5 or 6 hours to get through a standard session with maybe 2 or 3 combat encounters whereas now you can get through all that in just 3 hours maybe less. You actually spend more time playing and less time crunching numbers, arguing rules, keeping track of spreadsheets with endless status effects, etc.

 

The game isn't simple but it's far more manageable and I am finding out I enjoy this far more since I like a balance between story, exploration and combat. Now you can do all of that on a single session instead of well, you run into a bunch of undead and we'll better get bathroom breaks and snacks in cause this will take hours to get through.

[Unhelpful]

1 hour ago, Misanthrope said:

 

A friend of mine describes 3.5 / PF to 5E as such:

 

More fair, less cheese, less customization, better chances for storytelling.

[LAwLz]

Me and my friends try to play D&D 5E every week, but because two of them have irregular work schedules that sometimes involve weekend work it's more like once every two weeks.

 

Currently playing an elf ranger (Unearthed Arcana rules) with a pet wolf.

Our dragonborn paladin and I often butt heads against each other because he thinks I am a massive racist (everyone knows drow and orcs are inferior to the glorious wood elf race) and I think he is a stuckup buzzkill who withhold critical information from us because "he doesn't trust me".

 

Tabletop RPGs are so much fun.

[Misanthrope]

2 hours ago, JoeyDM said:

A friend of mine describes 3.5 / PF to 5E as such:

 

More fair, less cheese, less customization, better chances for storytelling.

I agree fully. I think that you can be fair in 3.5/PF if you put in the time but that's a big if as it usually means the GM needs a mountain of books to keep track of and such

[Force.Sensitive.Squirrel]

5E is a great edition, but it's basically D&D Lite. It does a phenomenal job at being a very accessible, very friendly entry point to D&D and RPGs in general, but it just doesn't have enough depth to last as a system for me. If I'm DMing a bunch of new players who just want to learn "what is an RPG" though, it's a solid pick. To be honest, no version of D&D is really my first choice for a system to play (and I include Pathfinder, 13th Age, and Hackmaster as D&D, since they're basically 3.75, 4.5, and 'Even More Advanced D&D' respectively) although it is so recognizable that it's the easiest to find players for if you don't already have a group.

[Misanthrope]

44 minutes ago, Force.Sensitive.Squirrel said:

5E is a great edition, but it's basically D&D Lite. It does a phenomenal job at being a very accessible, very friendly entry point to D&D and RPGs in general, but it just doesn't have enough depth to last as a system for me. If I'm DMing a bunch of new players who just want to learn "what is an RPG" though, it's a solid pick. To be honest, no version of D&D is really my first choice for a system to play (and I include Pathfinder, 13th Age, and Hackmaster as D&D, since they're basically 3.75, 4.5, and 'Even More Advanced D&D' respectively) although it is so recognizable that it's the easiest to find players for if you don't already have a group.

I'm curious: what's your preferred system?

[Force.Sensitive.Squirrel]

39 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

I'm curious: what's your preferred system?

My all time favourite system is Mouseguard. I'm also very partial to Shadowrun 5th Ed, and I'm currently running a Dawn of Rebellion campaign for the FFG Star Wars system (Alex plays a droid character in that party). I don't really have a single system that I could run endlessly for decades and not get bored, so I'll generally pick something depending on what I feel like in terms of crunch / complexity / narrative focus and who I'm playing with. But if you said "You can play any system, what do you pick?" then yeah, my answer is pretty much always going to be Mouseguard.

[Okjoek]

Last time I had time to try this sort of board game I had a lot of fun. Wish I could do it again.

[SlipperyPete]

i do 3 tabletop sessions a week.

- Warhammer 40k (tabletop game with miniatures (not like D&D at all))

- Warhammer RPG (D&D but set in warhammer universe (A few unique races but otherwise D&D))

- Star Wars RPG (D&D but star wars)

[johnjohns111]

Very interested but haven't tried. After Shadowrun and Pillars Of Eternity, I really want to try Pen&Paper. What editions can you recommend that are similar to these games?