The Role-Playing (D&D) Gamers Thread

[theryno665]

I don't know if it's been done here before but I'm actually kinda surprised that there's not an ongoing role-playing games thread. And no, I'm not talking about RPG video games and such (or pretending to be a cat burglar during sex) but old-school pen-and-paper rolling-handfuls-of-dice role-playing. I've seen a few people here mentioning gaming and I'm sure there's enough closet nerds in this place that we can dig up some more.

I do have a bit of an ulterior motive for starting this thread as we have recently begun recording our sessions for an ongoing blog/podcast but I'll wait on linking that until interest in it has shown, so this thread doesn't sound like a giant shill.

Anyways, what are you guys playing right now? Personally, I've taken a bit of a hiatus from actual gaming (trying to sort out some things in my life) but our group is doing a Star Wars Saga Edition game and a Mutants and Masterminds villains campaign. We just got done with one D&D 4th Edition game and we have an ongoing one that we only do on occasion due to conflicting schedules.

[Goldenbane]

I absolutely LOVE the Star Wars Saga Edition! It took some of the things I liked about 3rd edition D&D, meshed them with some things I like from 4th edition D&D, and became a great system!

Right now I've been on a big DC roleplaying kick. No, not the crappy West End Games version, but the awesome Mayfair game from the 80's and mid 90's! In my humble opinion, the Mayfair DC game is THE absolute best super heroes rpg ever created. It's a shame that almost no one has ever even heard of it.

Since I prefer 3rd edition over 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons, I've gone over to Pathfinder and enjoy it very much. I think they cleaned up a lot of broken things from 3rd, and are well on their way to making a truly great game!

Recently I was accepted into an X-men game which follows the original Marvel RPG rules. While I like some things about Marvel (I have an unearthly strength! A monstrous agility! and a feeble psyche?) I kinda think the system is a bit too simple and limited.

That's what I'm playing these days! Looking forward to everyone else's experiences!

[Brother Coyote]

I haven't played pen and paper games since D&D 2nd edition was the standard. I miss it sometimes though.

[Cyno]

Currently GMing a Star Wars Saga Edition game set in the KOTOR setting. If it wasn't so specific to the Star Wars universe, I think this would be my favorite system ever made, because the mechanics ARE my favorite, but it's hard to convert the setting to anything but something very similar to Star Wars. I'd love to see someone take the core system and convert it to Mass Effect's universe.

Was in a 3.5 Eberron game last year, but that died early. I love the Eberron setting too, and I'd love to be in a game for it again. I'd even be willing to put up with 4E for it.

Right now, there's been some talk among another group of friends of running a Pathfinder game, but we'll see if that actually happens.

[Ducky Momo]

Current playing a 3.5 game. It's hard to work out a time with the group though so I'm not playing as often as I'd like.

Anyone have some amusing stories?

[Kroot bringing Justice]

Working on a Super Robot Wars game using Mutants & Masterminds right with the following being used Crossover wise.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Transformers G1
Beast Wars
Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th Mobile Suit Team
Crossbones Gundam
Psalm of Planets Eureka SeveN
Zone of the Enders
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion and Code Geass R2
Macross Plus
Macross Frontier

Other wise I mainly play D&D 4E *Usually Eberron or Spirits of Eden, Maid: RPG, BESM 3E, Star Wars SAGA *Which I actually haven't used for Star Wars in awhile*, Monsters & Other Childish Things *My favorite system*.

[Mehe is F'n hardcore.]

I miss being a dicechucker. I had a level 8 red mage for Dragonlance, and i had this great summon spell that let me summon whales. Which would crash onto my opponents. Boy did i piss off the druidlike people in my game.

[Psy]

I'm in a few groups, two of them being playtesters for my game. The other is a Warhammer FRP game which is frickin' awesome. The GM apologized for flipping out and trying to kill everyone last time (we didn't go the route he'd planned and it really pissed him off because he had prepared a huge amount of content which went unused) and we've started a new campaign with semi-experienced characters. It's pretty fun, very challenging since there's little actual 'healing' powers in the game.

[Ravishing One]

I am currently playing in Star Wars Saga Edition, Aberrant and Rifts. My crazy in Rifts is a marvel to play.

[theryno665]

Nov 16, 2009 23:18:31 GMT -5 Mehe is F'n hardcore. said:

I miss being a dicechucker. I had a level 8 red mage for Dragonlance, and i had this great summon spell that let me summon whales. Which would crash onto my opponents. Boy did i piss off the druidlike people in my game.

That reminds me of a character I had in a one-off Mutants and Masterminds game using a Transformers setting. I played as a motorcycle who turned into a robot Fonzie that had a gun that shot sharkacons (an idea I stole from the PC game Armed and Dangerous). However, I never ended up using that gun because my Charisma was so high that I ended up convincing Devastator not to destroy the Hoover Dam just by talking to him and being cool. AAAYYYYYY!!

[Maidpool w/ Cleaning Action]

Never done the pen and paper thing, though I want to try it with something like the Vampire games or the Cthulhu game.

That said, a couple of guys and I are working at turning the Madness Threads here in the Off Topic section of Wrestlecrap into a small RP. When we get it re-booted and everything set you guys are welcome to play if you want.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I haven't actually played in a game for a few years, but I am a member of a gaming club with a few regular games running. I'll go to the club and sit in on a game, provide opinion on rulings, chat with the players, just hang around.

Favorite game is Feng Shui: The Shadowfist RPG. The rules book makes it sound easy but it isn't... Basically you have to be able to describe what you are doing in cinematic detail (because it's based off of Asian action movies) and you can't be boring. The in-game setting is pretty damn cool, too.

[BoilerRoomBrawler]

My system of choice is the HERO System, otherwise once known as Champions.

It just recently came out with a 6th Edition, currently described here.

I post on their forums, which can be found by clicking right on this link.

While it is what my friends and I generally play, it is not the only system that I know how to play (I know and have played M&M 2e, GURPS 3e, D&D 3e/3.5e, Palladium Books, and more).

I like to look at other systems when I can and dabble in others to maintain my perspective.

A couple of rather different finds that I've made before include Risus and Universalis.

[Randy Barber 4-Life]

In high school, some buddies and I used to play AD&D. I think it was 2nd Edition back then.

We weren't organized enough though. It seemed like every time we got together, half the group or more were re-rolling characters. That was at least partly due to, being teenagers with limited money, we had to get the books as we went. So every time we got together, at least one person usually had a new book, be it advanced skills, or class/race specific books. Then people of course wanted to roll with the newest options available.

I really loved going to the local role-playing/wargaming/tabletop game store though, riding there with a friend or two on a Friday afternoon, taking our time picking out whatever we were getting, then spending that night playing and hanging out. Good times.

[Vizier]

From April of '08 'til July of this year my friends and I did (most of) our first campaigns - running the complete Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords module. It was quite an epic storyline, and left most of my friends begging for more Pathfinder.

I'm hoping to run an Saga Edition campaign early next year, to test out if I'm a terrible GM or not.

[thwak is T.hawk]

Nov 15, 2009 14:00:26 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Currently GMing a Star Wars Saga Edition game set in the KOTOR setting. If it wasn't so specific to the Star Wars universe, I think this would be my favorite system ever made, because the mechanics ARE my favorite, but it's hard to convert the setting to anything but something very similar to Star Wars. I'd love to see someone take the core system and convert it to Mass Effect's universe.

Was in a 3.5 Eberron game last year, but that died early. I love the Eberron setting too, and I'd love to be in a game for it again. I'd even be willing to put up with 4E for it.

Right now, there's been some talk among another group of friends of running a Pathfinder game, but we'll see if that actually happens.

they didn't come out with a mass effect RPG yet?

I thought most bioware games (except jade empire) usually had RPGs based off of them.

[Cyno]

Nov 17, 2009 15:21:59 GMT -5 thwak is T.hawk said:

Nov 15, 2009 14:00:26 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Currently GMing a Star Wars Saga Edition game set in the KOTOR setting. If it wasn't so specific to the Star Wars universe, I think this would be my favorite system ever made, because the mechanics ARE my favorite, but it's hard to convert the setting to anything but something very similar to Star Wars. I'd love to see someone take the core system and convert it to Mass Effect's universe.

Was in a 3.5 Eberron game last year, but that died early. I love the Eberron setting too, and I'd love to be in a game for it again. I'd even be willing to put up with 4E for it.

Right now, there's been some talk among another group of friends of running a Pathfinder game, but we'll see if that actually happens.

they didn't come out with a mass effect RPG yet?

I thought most bioware games (except jade empire) usually had RPGs based off of them.

As far as that goes, it's actually the other way around. Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, etc. are all based on roleplaying systems and settings that already exist (BG - AD&D 2E, NWN - 3E and both those use the Forgotten Realms setting, KOTOR - Star Wars Roleplaying Game and the ~4000 BBY era).

Jade Empire was their first "original" RPG. And Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins are also originals not based on any previous ruleset or established setting. Though Dragon Age is getting its own roleplaying game. Not sure what the status of that is.

But if/when they come out with a ME tabletop game, I'm getting the book on day one.

[Mozenrath]

I play a 3.5 campaign and a 4th edition campaign(not as often, as the DM is out of town a lot). In 4th I'm a Half-Elf Bard.

3.5 I've given a lot more thought into character, as I've had more time. Benlo the Dwarf Fighter has no last name because he was swindled out of his inheritance by brothers ruled by avarice. He has joined an army of orcs in fighting for their freedom.

Nov 16, 2009 22:45:29 GMT -5 Ducky Momo said:

Current playing a 3.5 game. It's hard to work out a time with the group though so I'm not playing as often as I'd like.

Anyone have some amusing stories?

Oh, totally.

I have a warpick so I get some pretty cool death descriptions. I killed a guy next to a pit, so I stuck him, then the DM said I had to shake him loose into the pit to get him off of my pick.

My DM has a friend who thinks his character is totally cool, but it's extremely cliche, an elf rogue that always hides in the shadows and tries to help our team in some covert way.

We fought off a camp of bandits, and while the rest of us stuck around to join an army of orcs(which the DM admitted was not what he expected we'd do, but we sympathized with them more), elf rogue runs into the hoods, to be mysterious, so he's the only one who did not get paid. The rest of us got new armor, but he wanted to play loner.

[Cyborg Franky]

One of my friends started a Mutants and Masterminds campagin recently and I joined it. My character is 19 year old female detective (kinda like the one on NCIS), who have growth powers and she also can summon force fields. ^_^.

Also back in the day, I was in a DBZ rpg, which I was cast as Vegeta, and I'm also currently part of a Bleach RPG, which we made up all own captian and characters etc. In it I'm the Vice Captain of Squad 5.

[Dr. T is an alien]

The 3.5 group that I was playing with is apparently on hiatus for a while, especially since I am so damned busy and the rest play the hell out of other game systems. Our group is a combination nightmare and constant source of amusement for our DM. Most of us have at one point or another completely unraveled his plans so bad that it is funny. Let me outline the group:

We have a guy that is quite dwarfy in real life personality-wise, so he plays a dwarven war cleric. Since this is a steampunk setting, every real dwarf plays a lot with gunpowder and advanced technology. One time that he completely unraveled the DM's plans was a case of horrendous overkill. We were hired to clear out a goblin lair. We had only gotten in a little and realized that not only was there a lot of goblins, but tons of larger goblinoids as well. Since all we needed to do was kill them all, he reached into several bags of holding and pulled out enough black-powder kegs to level half of the mountain. We stacked them up, lit the fuse, and gated out. One HUGE boom later, and the region no longer had a goblin problem.

Another guy plays a kobold cleric of Pelor. Yes, you read that right. Believe it or not, the character started as an NPC that he converted with another character. He switched over because it fascinated him. His clever uses of traps and machinery has unraveled a lot of well laid plans. The most amusing aspect of the character is that the party came across a particularly sturdy mine cart that proved very useful. Since overkill is allowed if it is cool enough, he has converted this mine cart into a tank from hell. Flamethrowers, a Gatling gun on top, 100 lances fused to the front, perpetual etherial flames surrounding the entire devise, and several additional devises being added every session has allowed this thing to make the impossible possible.

We have another player that we only let play because he is so damned amusing. He starts every session with a new character and another on reserve. He needs them, because he almost always dies in spectacularly stupid fashion. Let's review the first several that I saw him do:

1) He had a bugbear barbarian. We were dungeon crawling in an underground bandit lair. We came to a door. Our rogue barely cracked it open to peek in and saw several well armed guards and dogs. The rogue poked his wand of magic missile through the cracked opening and let several of the closest enemies (mainly guard dogs) have it. The bugbear in the back of the group announces that he is throwing a grenade into the room from where he is standing. Bear in mind, steampunk grenades are at the smallest 6 inches in diameter and the door was only cracked open enough to poke a wand through. EVERYBODY, DM included, told him not to do it. He did not listen. He rolled the throw, and to be honest if the door was open 6 inches he would have made it with his excellent roll. Instead, it hits the door, bounces back, lands between his legs, goes off, and made bugbear salsa.

2) He played a gnomish sorcerer. We had to retrieve an object from a kobold lair that they had stolen. As you can imagine, this is primarily an adventure for the rogues of the party, with a little combat thrown in (which my character was singlehandedly capable of handling on his own). He decided that things were going too slowly and the main baddie would make his escape. Having seen what a few of the door traps were, he decided that he could work around it by enlarging himself and casting Bull's strength on himself and barreling through the doors like a battering ram. Granted, the 6 doors that we had come across were either poison trapped or had spring loaded weapon traps that blasting through the door would avoid, but the door that he chose to open on his own without a rogue's help triggered the CANNON that was placed 3 feet from the door. Gnomes, even enlarged ones, stop being effective when their head is 6 inches in front of a cannon's barrel when it goes off.

3) His backup character was a female paladin that we discovered locked up in the same lair. She bought it by again not waiting on a rogue (he was dealing with a trap in another room). She decided to not make the same mistake as the gnome. Instead of kicking in the door, she stood back and shot the door with a blunderbuss (everyone else beat a hasty retreat when he announced his intentions). Blowing the door in set off another cannon trap, but this one was behind a false wall aimed down the length of the corridor that we were in (or rather were in, since we all got out of it since we figured that the lengthy corridor itself lent itself to this very trick). Lady paladin was 2 feet away from the mouth of the cannon's barrel when it when off, bifurcating her.

4) The back-up character to the back-up character was a rogue that had been stuck in the room that his paladin blasted open. At least he had the right class for the mission now, but he still was himself. The other rogue set off a flamethrower trap. He got out of the flames path, but it kept going, keeping him pinned in a trapped room. His solution to help the other rogue was to try to plug the nozzle of the flamethrower with a crossbow bolt. The resulting explosion made the party short 2 rogues rather than just killing his own character.

There is one guy who plays a binder who does a damned good job hiding the fact that he is a binder. He pretends to be a con-man style of rogue that strangely enough can talk NPCs into about anything, almost as though they were placed under a powerful charm geas.

We have various others very interesting characters, though mine was seriously starting to become INSANELY AWESOME. Because I presented such an awesome backstory (that allowed him to set up a set of big bads in our game), he let me try something unique. My character was a minotaur that had been one of the rare individuals to survive unholy experiments by a pair of lovers (an evil dwarven cleric male and a black-robed half-elven male wizard). In terms of game mechanics, they were experimenting with forcing templates onto their subjects. Early successes led to 1/2 fire giant- frost giants (all the strengths and none of the weaknesses), vampires that were not undead, and lich barbarians. Later successes led to individuals with multiple templates that while not against the rules make no sense, such as ogres with both the 1/2 demon template and 1/2 dragon template. When adventurers raided their lair, they found a young minotaur (my character). My character, however, was the culmination of their experiments. As he ages (or levels, if you will), most often rather than gaining a class level he gains a level adjustment and starts taking on a new template. When last I played him, he was a 1/2 blue dragon minotaur with 4 levels of psychic warrior that had started taking on lycanthrope levels (which is a +3 level adjustment). Thing is, since I already was a large creature, the base animal is a huge sized carnivorous animal. The only thing in the standard monster manual that fits that bill is a T-Rex, so an already ungodly hoss was become next level insane. Ways that I have unbalanced things include:

1) We had been contracted to steal a magic tome from a wizard. We had only gotten into the second room on the ground floor of his tower when we encountered several tough guards armed with multiple firearms. After spending a few rounds of trading wounds with those jokers, I decided to be proactive. I reached back through the door into the first room, picked up the mine cart of doom (which weighed 500 lbs by that point), reserved my second action, told them to surrender as a free action (only one was convinced, but he was so convinced that he instead turned and shot one of his buddies in the head). At that point there was only one armed combatant against us, so I threw the mine cart at him. Or rather, I threw it THROUGH him. And through the wall behind him. And through another guard on the other side of that wall. And the wall behind the second guy. And into a guard in the next room, killing him as well. Considering that these were support walls I knocked out, EVERYONE in the tower knew something really bad just happened. The guy that I scared into turning on his buddy then used a magical communication device that all guards had on them and talked all but 3 of the wizard's guards to disable all traps and simply quit their jobs rather than die in a gooey explosion.

2) We were sent to investigate why entire caravans were seemingly disappearing off the face of the planet. Turns out it was a band of ogres that would carry off all of the carts in a caravan (and the bodies as well, since many were tasty treats). I already was their size when we engaged them in battle, but don't forget that I was also a psychic warrior. I used all of my points for the day to enlarge myself to gargantuan size and proceeded to riverdance on the ogres.

3) We were contracted to stop the local human empire (which was even more xenophobic that the Empire from Star Wars) from completing construction of some tower. While we were being paid handsomely to begin with, I assumed that the tower would net a nice fee itself. I enlarged myself and used a handful of enlarge person scrolls to become colossal + (the DM calculated it out, and I weighed 21,000 TONS). I merely uprooted the tower, flew off with it (since distance traveled by flight is a function of base movement rate, which at that size was astronomical), shook out the construction workers en route, and sold it to the wizard/lord that hired us in the first place for enough money to uproot the local economy. He was willing to pay the price, however, because he had traveled by in time specifically to stop the empire since in his future they set off some device that killed every non-human sentient being in the world (of which the tower was a primary component).