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Tabletop RPG |OT| I cast a spell
- Thread starter Nairume
- Start date
Hardcover. I think the book is going to be over 300 pages? The mage book is over 600, so you'll probably looking at a lower price than you see here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/149562/Mage-The-Ascension-20th-Anniversary-Edition for Wraith. I've only ever bought V20 with their print on demand, and at that point they still had to split the book into two hardcovers. They are decent quality. I feel I've heard worse things about their softcover stuff falling apart.
I'm playing two Pathfinder campaigns with IRL friends but we can't meet to play that often and I really want to play some characters that I have in mind so I'm considering to join some online group.
I have decent system mastery and experience but never did online so I'm asking for some advice on the means to do it (I'd prefer texting because I can't always be on the speaker and talking in English is more difficult for me than writing) and the platforms (I heard often of roll20 and I should indeed look it up) so can someone give some advice?
Also I'm interested if anyone is "recruiting" for a campaign
I have decent system mastery and experience but never did online so I'm asking for some advice on the means to do it (I'd prefer texting because I can't always be on the speaker and talking in English is more difficult for me than writing) and the platforms (I heard often of roll20 and I should indeed look it up) so can someone give some advice?
Also I'm interested if anyone is "recruiting" for a campaign
I can give some personal takes. We've used FantasyGrounds, roll20 and MapTools.
FG: Of the ones I've used I'd call this the "high end" product. It either supports the rules system or it doesn't, but what it supports, it's very powerful. It easily gives the most immersive experiences, but it updates frequently and the update process is annoying. For starters, every single update I had to flush my cache and re-upload the references, during which the program slowed to a crawl. Eventually we started scheduling "update hours" where the DM just ran the server and we'd all run the update.
r20: This one's handy because it's browser-based so there are no messy updates or compatibility issues. But if FG is high end, this is the cheap clunker experience. I don't know what it costs for the DM to buy a license (I'm not the DM) but I mean as an interface it's rather minimal and can be terribly laggy. But we're using it now because it's the one tool we can use on everyone's machine.
MT: I personally liked this the most; it's pretty configurable and the updates weren't bad. Its main flaw is that when it failed, IIRC it didn't fail particularly elegantly. Also while the updates weren't excessively frequent, there was zero backwards compatibility so if one guy in the group updated, everyone had to. But you wouldn't know until the session started and someone couldn't join. Since some of our members were in other groups (so I couldn't enforce a moratorium on updates), this was an annoyingly frequent thing.
As for writing, avoid relying on it if talking's an option. Unless you're a god or a slow thinker your typing isn't going to keep up with your voice, so a major downside to all-text gaming is that they just run much slower. Use a VoIP program like TeamSpeak.
Use Discord and Roll20.
Obsidian Portal too if you want, but a campaign Discord is perfect. Do your voip in voice channels, then you can do all your character creation, record keeping, planning, out of session in-character roleplaying, game related chats in Discord channels. All that's missing is the map program... roll20 is very accessible / easy to use and it's free unless you want extra bells and whistles.
Obsidian Portal too if you want, but a campaign Discord is perfect. Do your voip in voice channels, then you can do all your character creation, record keeping, planning, out of session in-character roleplaying, game related chats in Discord channels. All that's missing is the map program... roll20 is very accessible / easy to use and it's free unless you want extra bells and whistles.
Why not prepare a brief one-shot encounter suitable for 1-2 characters, then if you get more players the following week, it's a fresh start for everyone, and if you don't, it's no great problem to continue. Give that one player a really cool start and their enthusiasm for the game might set the tone you want and also inspire you :-)
If there's really only one or two players, I'll tone down the encounters an instead of making them rescue the daughter of some random villager (which is the plan atm), I'll make them rescue their sister or something like that to engage them a bit more. That should be a nice start, don't you think?
I'm using premade characters btw for this first session, the plan is to make them learn how to play before allowing them to create their own character.
Using Matt Colville's guide to DMing? This seems to follow that structure pretty close! Right on!
For anyone who hasn't seen this, Matt Colville has created a bunch of guides with the goal of getting people to start DMing. Here's a link to the series.
Yup, I didn't even DM (or even play) a single game of DnD before I was done watching all of his videos :) This dude is a freaking genius ! I'd kill to play with him as a DM !
Will do :)
I think I'll actually do some sort of bi-weekly reports of what happened (story wise and from a "technical" PoV, like how I managed a difficult situation as a DM or whatever).
Would you guys want to read that?
I know! I have only ever played, but I am itching to DM after seeing his videos. Highly recommend them to everyone. We should probably put him in the OP to get more people who want to DM.
That's a good idea. I've never seen them before, looking forward to watching now.
I was hoping a thread like this would appear. I got into tabletop gaming around the time D&D 3rd edition came out, and been playing semi-regularly. Switched over to Pathfinder eventually. Initially hated 4th edition but warmed up to it. Wanna try 5th, heard its pretty great. Own Eclipse Phase and Call of Cthulhu and haven't managed to play either of them yet. Interested in play-by-post games if anyone is running anything like that.
Absolutely, I love reading about how other people handle running a session, it's really interesting and a good conversation starter here.
Agreed. I always like to hear about how others handle difficult GMing questions. It has helped me improve how I run sessions more than once.
I would. It'll keep the thread active and I also like seeing how different DMs, and groups in general, run their games.
I have a session with my group this Sunday. I'll be a player not a DM. Our group has 3 DMs and we rotate. Total is about 7, of us, I think. It's interesting having a rotation.
We, the 3 DMs, all agreed on an overarching plot to connect our sessions but every DM fills in the blanks and does their own thing to get there. Sort of like a comic book or a monster of the day type TV season.
No real luck, but they did suggest checking around at 3rd Eye Games. See if they have something on their schedule. I am assuming you've been there, yeah?
While we are talking about updating the OP, Exalted's 3rd edition is released. However, it, like all other Onyx Path games, is print on demand. I've read a lot of good things about it, but the game is a horrifying monster.
Goodness me, I really need to try out Mekton. Giant mecha is right up my alley.
I'd also love to read some play-by-plays from a new GM
Goodness me, I really need to try out Mekton. Giant mecha is right up my alley.
I'd also love to read some play-by-plays from a new GM
At those numbers I recommend adding a perma-NPC (basically a PC run by the DM) that rounds out the party a bit so scope of adventure isn't so constrained. For example, a rogue and a mage would benefit immensely from a tank that doesn't do much more than follow them around quietly and eat up space in combat. The players have more freedom to do what they want, and you can add enemies with more in-yo-face threat factor.
Yeah, a DMPC can work, especially if you're also new to the system. Just don't have them help out with puzzles, decisions, talking, etc. You can make it a comic moment if they have a very, very stupid bodyguard or whatever. Then you can make your players sad when their bodyguard dies later on!
Thanks, I will look into it. And thanks for asking around.
Errrm. . . no rules here so yeah, that can be done.
They don't lead the party by the hand, but my NPCs tend to be more engaged. Just because they're NPCs doesn't mean they're expendable, so I don't always go GeorgeArrgghMartin on the supporting cast. Sure, they can die, but so can the PCs. NPCs can have goals and self-preservation. They can disagree (though it took a while for the players to realize that an NPC disagreeing was a personality thing and not a hint). In my campaigns I make extensive use of party NPCs that come and go to destroy the pattern of detachment between PCs and NPCs. It's not "party and rest of world" but a dynamic society. Friends can become enemies and vice versa, and there's usually at least one DMPC hanging around the group.
What DMPCs are not are the stars of the show. So the one major issue to avoid is a "players as spectators" situation. NPCs can have ambitions but unless they directly align or conflict with the party's goals (in which case it's relevant to the plot so OK), an NPC shouldn't drag the PCs around or leave them watching from the sidelines. The story follows the PCs; if the NPCs have their own places to go they leave. In combat, the DMPC's role should be simple and supportive. No one wants to sit around while the DM resolves NPCs fighting each other.
Example DMPCs include a large dog or even beast that "adopts" a PC and treats him/her like a weird hairless offspring in need of protection (note the PC cannot tell the beast what to do; the beast just follows them around and maybe tries to groom or feed them), a mercenary with an otherwise professional work ethic that only hangs around as long as there's loot to be had, or a highly motivated NPC whose path crosses the party's but will eventually part ways again (e.g. a cleric hunting the same vampire the party was hired to kill).
Nice to see an OT for this as well!
Been playing Pathfinder off and on for years now and have been DMing a D&D 5e campaign for family members for roughly 2 years. Looove playing Tabletop RPGs even though I don't really get the chance to anymore.
One thing I have always wanted to try is a pre-made module. My friends who got me into Pathfinder all ran homebrew campaigns and its' carried over into my own games that I've ran as well so I've never actually given them a shot. Thinking about picking up Curse of Strahd and trying to run that, everything I've heard of just hits the right spots for me. Only thing is, I've heard it's a little difficult so I don't have a group to throw it at yet....
Been playing Pathfinder off and on for years now and have been DMing a D&D 5e campaign for family members for roughly 2 years. Looove playing Tabletop RPGs even though I don't really get the chance to anymore.
One thing I have always wanted to try is a pre-made module. My friends who got me into Pathfinder all ran homebrew campaigns and its' carried over into my own games that I've ran as well so I've never actually given them a shot. Thinking about picking up Curse of Strahd and trying to run that, everything I've heard of just hits the right spots for me. Only thing is, I've heard it's a little difficult so I don't have a group to throw it at yet....
Oh, I meant purely in cases where you're trying to fill out a party. NPCs who come in dynamically when you're already at a decent party size can be a little more fleshed out, for sure. I've had that same issue where people think if an NPC doesn't want to do something it's a hint. Which I think could definitely happen if you're teaching new players the game.
I'm just speculating though, I haven't really run into this issue much. I've run games for 2 players and just made sure my encounter balance was fine-tuned, gave them missions where they wouldn't be 100% alone, etc.
Strahd is absolutely fantastic. I finished it in early October or late September and it's just quality from start to finish. The only thing that's REALLY hard to run about it is the book isn't that well organized. I bought Storm King's Thunder recently and it's a masterwork of easy-to-find information, etc.
I once had players (in a moment of inspired play) hire on a whole company of mercenaries from a tavern to help them with a tough job. They then seemed a bit disappointed that said company, doing 90% of the fighting, wanted a 90% share of the loot, contractual healing, compensation for life-changing injuries and deaths, wouldn't abandon their comrades or use them as bait etc! At the end of the session they were really fond of the company and the way they stuck to a contract's fine print (players were wise enough to say loot would be worked out and paid in gold, not specific items), and, once they parted ways, remained in touch and even bumped into them again later in the campaign when the mercs wanted help with a magical enemy, allowing them to 'hire' the players in a fun 'contracted' way as they wouldn't accept help without paying a fair wage! The sense of trust and mutual respect growing between the adventuring party with their esoteric skills and the footsloggers with their martial camraderie, who took being a nameless grunt REALLY seriously as it was their profession, was great. They always made cool additions whenever the game scaled up a bit, as we all reasoned that after years of adventure it seemed natural for heroes to make contacts like that. The mercs had their own business being hired each year by warring nobles, and I'd occasionally drop in info about where they were, often too far away or too busy to help, but they always replied in a courteous, professional manner to enquiries by courier, even if it took weeks, often supplying info that would have been critically useful a few days previous :D
It led on to other things too, like a powerful enemy trashing the npc company just because they had built a rep as PC allies, which really made the players both angry and also worried that such strong friends could be targeted. The mercs philosophy was 'the attention of strong enemies is only a mark of our own ability, it's a risk of the job', which again was something the party agreed with. I love the way small things in RPGs (the mercs were an idea for a single bawdy tavern scene) can capture the imagination and snowball into something bigger. Of course they were a part of the campaign finale, having turned down a job because of 'personal commitments' to hire on with the party for revenge upon a mutual enemy! As the party stormed the battlements of the antagonists stronghold, they could see the mercs banner beneath them, engaging enemy minions with gusto, it was a heartwarming moment that made a future party style itself as a mercenary company with set employment rules, adherence to contracts etc. It ended up really helping to ground the logistics of how professional combatants in a fantasy world with magical healing might function for me too.
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Yup, I touch on this in an old blog post. The post is really about gauging a party's social influence, but many players miss out on this facet of gaming altogether. Beginning players go after loot; experienced players accumulate connections. As PCs gain experience, they should be gaining a list of contacts as well, as long as they're not psychopathic munchkins. Low-level characters might get to know a village chief or two. Mid-level characters are a threat to regional powers (guilds, nobles, etc.) the moment they stroll into town. By the time they're raising the dead and razing the undead, even if they don't know who the King is, the King will go out of his way to make sure he knows about them, for better or worse. The most common form of the Sword of Damocles in D&D is the party itself!
That was a good read, thanks!
Particularly agree on the sentiment that major npcs have their own goals and don't work in unison. Having the party being able to focus on one, to turn one against the other, or even a cunning evil npc using a powerful party as a weapon to take out another faction that was having the benefit of keeping the first force in check is always nice too. The world doesn't revolve around the players, but once they reach the point where they can change the political landscape (on a local or wider level) by removing factions, having others rushing to exploit their ability to do so feels both natural and cynical. Perfect for less optimistic game worlds and encouraging the players to think about consequences, and having their actions taken with the best intentions lead to further complications they feel invested in.
I like your point on kings keeping track of them. I once had a party express horror that a necromancer had them on a 'to do' list of problems to take care of, when not only did their party both raise the dead and lay them to rest on a regular basis, they also had killed two other necromancers and the reason they were searching the place was said necromancer being on their own 'to do' list of potential problems not two feet away in the wizard's open journal!
One more thing I remembered about the mercs- it actually helped the PC whose background was a soldier really get into the mindset of advising the party on small unit tactics, a running joke was that his new job title was 'external contractors liason' :D
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That can happen, but it doesn't always have to manifest cynically, and in fact that's arguably more difficult than a more optimistic take. For starters, the extreme risk of crossing a high-level party should give even the most depraved manipulators pause. They transcend conventional social structures and precisely because of that, they can enact real change, for better or worse. An NPC might convince them that he's the rightful heir to a kingdom, but if he doesn't run the kingdom to the party's satisfaction, he can just as easily be replaced. What he's gonna do, have them arrested for treason? Poison them? Threaten the commoners? Shenanigans that work IRL are jokes to a high-level party; as such they're the de facto power behind the throne of any kingdom they visit merely for existing. It's plausible that rulers would keep a close eye on powerful adventurers because they're terrified of them.
Fair points- if I was a high-level enemy I'd figure my best bet was if the party didn't know I existed, rather than try to manipulate them. So easy for pawns to bite the hand that feeds them quests! :-)
Once players reach an almost-demigod level of power in high-fantasy RPGs, it gets harder and harder to find convincing threats for them in the mortal realm, and enemies of a similar power level that can't kill them instantly with a couple of bad (good?) rolls. Most of the fantasy games I've run have had the party choose to have the characters reach guest-star status at that point rather than go down the god-slaying route, mainly as the camaraderie in the face of credible threats felt more interesting (and was much easier to generate as a GM) to us.
I have to admit, when it gets to a point that game mechanics suggest that a high-level adventuring party can beat up an army that outnumbers them a hundred to one due to the exploits of turn-based combat and magic abilities reaching city-wide bombardment levels of power, I try to steer games away from the players getting into stand-up fights with whole nations rather than individual problems that such armies can't handle.
If it gets to the point where the players have no fear of anything mortal, where they are, as you say, the power behind the throne, I've sometimes played with the idea of showing how easily good intentions, and the rule of law being held within the grasp of a handful people, can lead to some very nasty consequences, very quickly. Often once npcs start to ask players to sort out major social issues, half the party really don't want the responsibility, they prefer being free agents, which competes with their ability to shake up the realm just by existing :D
I played in a great game once where a world was effectively in the grip of a high-level adventuring party gone bad, with the party as part of 'la resistance', taking them down one by one in the name of freedom from such people. Of course, as we gained power too, our allies (and our party) started to question the path they were on... We had some great debates between npcs and players there, particularly as one PC was a police officer and another a lawyer in rl. I suppose knowing how to press your particular player's buttons is important!
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That's a perfectly valid way to handle it, but I'm GenX so I've already lived through twenty years of cynical, anti-humanistic melodrama from Shadowrun to Game of Thrones. For my generational peers the point has been MADE, yo. So personally, I think social responsibility provides a convenient segue for retirement. If the players or DM aren't interested in the PCs ascending to fight the gods, but there's nothing mortal left to challenge them, they can each settle down in regions of their choice and meddle in local affairs for the rest of their long lives. But there's nothing necessary or interesting about role-playing the maintenance of a nation stabilized by the presence of a high-level character, so the campaign ends. "Under the vigilant eye of dragonchild, the Kingdom of ResetEra prospered until the end of his days and for many years beyond. The End."
Hah hah, well said. :-) Oh, absolutely, I'm gen x myself, and on the odd occasion I play fantasy rather than CoC these days tend to lean more towards heroic optimism these days. Most of these games happened twenty years ago for me, I suspect I wouldn't find exploring the same stuff quite as interesting now for similar reasons. What's gripping and relevant when you're starting out in your career and surrounded by good drinking buddies isn't quite the same when everyone has to get home to put their children to bed with a nice bedtime story.
Though I haven't hit the end of a campaign where it's retiring vs. killing the Tarrasque or what have you, I feel like it's down to individual characters. In my main campaign, everyone has hit 15 and it's long past the point where they're very afraid of permanent death or anything, and many of the characters have made ties to NPCs and have every right to stop adventuring and settle down. I've given people plenty of outs though if they want to roll new characters, and once some story threads are resolved I'll probably jump a generation forward, extrapolating the party's impact and legacy.
Man, I'm happy this thread is so active here, I didn't see as much posting back on the old forum, but D&D/RPGs are increasingly taking over my hobby time (or my waking thoughts when I'm not playing).
Man, I'm happy this thread is so active here, I didn't see as much posting back on the old forum, but D&D/RPGs are increasingly taking over my hobby time (or my waking thoughts when I'm not playing).
Me too, I'm enjoying the discussion, it's so rare I get to talk about RPGs irl these days. I'm playing in a tabletop game in December for the day and looking forward to it so much, it's a bit of a reunion as most of the crowd are my old rpg crowd from 20 years ago, and now we're all married with kids and living all over the country. You never forget your best adventuring party ;-)
I've only been playing Tabletop RPGs since December (nearly 12 months now), and I've really been enjoying it. It's everything I've wanted from computer game RPGs - total freeform and adaptive gaming based on player decisions. Granted that all depends on the GM.
The games I've played so far:
I've also been running a Roll20 D&D campaign since February, which has been a great learning tool (I have videos if we're allowed to share). I'm still a big fan of 5th Edition, but I also really enjoy Alternity's system too.
The games I've played so far:
- D&D 5th Edition
- Alternity
- World of Darkness
- Adventures in Middle Earth
- Mutants and Masterminds
- Cthulhu 1920
I've also been running a Roll20 D&D campaign since February, which has been a great learning tool (I have videos if we're allowed to share). I'm still a big fan of 5th Edition, but I also really enjoy Alternity's system too.
Exalted 3 is amazing and a must try IMO. It's my main thing right now, so I can do a write up for the OT if it's needed Nairume .
OP
OP
That'd be great. I'm playing catch up with some of the new stuff (and probably should update the vampire entry with stuff about the playtest), so any help is very appreciated.
I'm actually a little embarrassed I completely missed that Exalted 3rd ed has been out this whole time.
In a year? On one hand that's kind of impressive. I don't know if sampling does certain games justice, though. Some games take a bit of time to pick up or can be a bit of an acquired taste.
Most of them were in 6 week blocks, played at the weekly TTRPG Club. I know I don't like World of Darkness, I know I like Alternity and the system it has. AiME is basically LOTR 5ed, so that was easy to get in to. I'm mainly just getting a sense of the rules, flow and tone of the game. Of course, this all depends on the GM. The DM at the club for D&D 5e isn't for me, but with it being the only D&D game I can play in, I suffer through it... until I decided to run my own game haha
OP
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Excellent :D
I've also been updating the OT to reflect updates since I originally wrote some of these details. I've also included a free resources section so we can direct people towards ways to dabble in some of these games before plunking some cash down on them.
I've also been updating the OT to reflect updates since I originally wrote some of these details. I've also included a free resources section so we can direct people towards ways to dabble in some of these games before plunking some cash down on them.
Speaking of free resources, I fully recommend Pyromancers Dungeon Painter. It is stupidly robust for a free online webapp.
If you must use a DMPC who is more powerful than the party, think Gandalf or Jedi Master or something. Make encounters that include them difficult enough to warrant their presence and frequently give them other things to do that take them away from the party.
You can use them as a combat tutorial in a sense.
When I ran a d20 Star Wars game involving Death Star Plans (Rogue One, tch), I had a high level Soldier escort the party in an attack on an imperial base. He dealt with the bulk of the initial stormtrooper response but there were plenty of officers and troopers inside to deal with. When he was fully off-screen from other players I stopped doing his turns on the map and just talked to them via comlink occasionally (I still rolled for his situation at the perimeter, of course, it was still a real combat situation but they weren't involved once at a distance. And then they got fully separated from the guy until they were the same level as he was, and he sometimes joined them afterwards.
In this case the DMPC allowed for a harder and more interesting, more threatening situation - a ton of bad guys - but didn't distract from their own heroism by him staying out of the actual "dungeon" proper. In seeing how he operated, the party's Soldier made some of his own design choices of he wanted to be like or not like that guy, but he learned the mechanics of how melee and martial arts and ranged weapons and explosives all worked.
You can use them as a combat tutorial in a sense.
When I ran a d20 Star Wars game involving Death Star Plans (Rogue One, tch), I had a high level Soldier escort the party in an attack on an imperial base. He dealt with the bulk of the initial stormtrooper response but there were plenty of officers and troopers inside to deal with. When he was fully off-screen from other players I stopped doing his turns on the map and just talked to them via comlink occasionally (I still rolled for his situation at the perimeter, of course, it was still a real combat situation but they weren't involved once at a distance. And then they got fully separated from the guy until they were the same level as he was, and he sometimes joined them afterwards.
In this case the DMPC allowed for a harder and more interesting, more threatening situation - a ton of bad guys - but didn't distract from their own heroism by him staying out of the actual "dungeon" proper. In seeing how he operated, the party's Soldier made some of his own design choices of he wanted to be like or not like that guy, but he learned the mechanics of how melee and martial arts and ranged weapons and explosives all worked.
