Pens and Papers

[GhostMachine]

I'd never play in an all (or mostly) Lawful Good group. It would drive me insane being in a group of total goody toe shoes. Its really a pain when you have even one LG character in a group and have to do certain things behind their back or trick them, such as stealing something that could important down the road or resorting to torture or con jobs. 

My longest existing (and still not dead) character is Neutral Good, and he cannot stand Lawful Good characters at all. He's a Forgotten Realms setting Ranger/Rogue with Vampires as his main species enemy, and he really doesn't deal with Paladins well.

 

Edited July 31, 2016 by GhostMachine

[OctoberRaven]

Someone actually made a Dark Dungeons movie. And I'm not entirely sure it's not intentionally mocking the source material.

 

[Toe]

My group is now running through Out Of The Abyss. I was finding it hard to plan out my own campaign, and going with one of Wizard's campaign books has helped quite a bit. They still require some planning and preparation, but the setting is really fun.

[lanky316]

Currently GMing (and playing in a separate game) with Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG at the moment, really enjoying the narrative dice and the way people are creative with exactly what's happening aside from "I try to hit this stormtrooper... I miss, your turn Dave", it's certainly helped a group of newbies adapt to the game well and pick up rpgs. Next up would like to find a similar style of fantasy RPG (now that the Warhammer one is out of print don't want to get into that one...) but am tempted to go with a traditional D&D/Pathfinder. Any ideas and advice from the more seasoned RPG people?

[Ruki]

Pathfinder is great for the amount of options/customization.

D&D 5e has less options, but smaller numbers so it's less intimidating to newbies.

[OctoberRaven]

Totally prefer 5e. Lots of wiggle room and I never cared for the old skill points system.

[Toe]

22 hours ago, lanky316 said:

Currently GMing (and playing in a separate game) with Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG at the moment, really enjoying the narrative dice and the way people are creative with exactly what's happening aside from "I try to hit this stormtrooper... I miss, your turn Dave", it's certainly helped a group of newbies adapt to the game well and pick up rpgs. Next up would like to find a similar style of fantasy RPG (now that the Warhammer one is out of print don't want to get into that one...) but am tempted to go with a traditional D&D/Pathfinder. Any ideas and advice from the more seasoned RPG people?

I've been debating picking up that Star Wars RPG. Which version are you playing? Or have you mixed them all together?

[lanky316]

Both campaigns are primarily based on "Edge of the Empire" but it's all interchangeable for the most part. The biggest crossover area for me is between "Edge..." and "Age of Rebellion" since it's the settings that can clash easily. Your band of smugglers/mercenaries/thieves getting into conflict with the Imperials or Rebels and getting involved in the war fits quite nicely. That's possibly just the group make up though, I can see a group exploration based working well with Force and Destiny but the more Jedi focused feel hasn't drawn me in for storytelling purposes.

If considering getting into it think about what sort of story you'd like to do and go that core, you can expand from there depending on what sort of things you want to try. For example, if being directly involved in the Rebellion is your thing you'd go with Age of Rebellion and it's more war focused base but you could decide to pick up "Far Horizons" from the Edge of the Empire line which goes into rules for running a business. Perhaps you're using a gun shop as cover for firearms training for soldiers and it's a way of keeping the enemy from finding out details.

Published adventures are almost designed as set piece modules for part of an overarching story that the GM comes up with then a prepublished campaign idea, for example in my GM'd game we started off with the EotE beginner adventure and free "continuation". After that they ended up getting caught up with some Droids Rights activists and due to the mess made of that job are doing some bounty hunting which will lead to them either being asked to take on a high profile bounty "Mask of the Pirate Queen" or try and find a lost treasure ship in "Beyond the Rim" which will lead them further. Some people don't like how short the published adventures are so if you're used to "get adventure book and play through it" RPGs it may not suit but personally like the options that are out there for filling in those gaps. For example, in one of the F&D books "Nexus of Power" covers various different planets including one which has essentially stagnated in a feudal setting. The idea of our thief/beastmaster having to prove she's not a witch and survive the torture, or even a Wizard of Oz style "kill the wicked Sith of the West" plot has come into mind.

 

If there's interest, I MIGHT consider running something over in the Cube at some point. Depends on how much real life gets in the way

Edited August 30, 2016 by lanky316

[Toe]

That definitely sounds interesting to me. Is it easy to get into the system?

[lanky316]

I found it easy enough to get into. The beginner sets come with everything you'd really need but the character creation rules (there are a group of pregen ones in the set) and include a link to a follow up adventure from the one in the box. It took both parties I've run with 4 sessions to get through them with EotE so assuming similar for the other two which slowly introduce mechanics and help people get a feel for the narrative system. The core rule books also have an adventure in the back too but I've not ran one of those yet but my guess is they should take around a 4/5 hour session depending on the party.

 

You could probably get started with the core rulebook and a couple of sets of the dice if you have a story in mind and more experienced roleplayers. There is an app for dice rolling but can't beat the sound of rolling dice at the table to me!

[Toe]

Does anyone use a tablet or computer to run their games? Any good apps or programs that you use?

[OctoberRaven]

mIRC, a chatbot, and Googledocs for charsheets.

Random.org is a good dice roller too, and they have a mobile app (though you don't expect to have an internet connection use a different dice roller app, there's loads).

[Toe]

I'm thinking of running my in-person game by using a tablet to show maps and stuff. I'm not really interested in actually playing online. 

 

Know of any good apps that would let me use battle maps on my device?

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Where would one get started with Pathfinder? Literally the last game of this ilk I've played was, I think, Hero Quest (might be wrong on the name) about a decade ago, but I've always liked this sort of stuff and fancy giving it a go again.

[Ruki]

https://www.amazon.ca/Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Beginner-Box/dp/1601256302/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488852262&sr=8-1&keywords=pathfinder+beginner+box

 

That's the Beginner Box. It has a few pre-made characters and a starting adventure.

 

THen, you likely wanna get the Core Rule Book, as that will have all the character creation and....just rules in general.

 

After you play through the beginner box, you could look at a full adventure module (right now I am playing through Rise of the Runelords....and it's fantastic).

 

If you have any questions, just ask! 

[lanky316]

It sounds like a statement of the obvious but beginner boxes are great to get people in to a system. The best ones for me are the FFG Star Wars line due to having generally good starter adventures, slowly integrating the mechanics and styles before free downloadable follow ups to carry it on to the next step and get rolling. Certainly helped to get a team used to the style of the game and with four/five sessions already laid out gave time to think about how to write and progress my own.

 

While understandable it's a shame a lot of the beginner boxes tend to have premade characters since I've known players to get fed up during some of the more long winded character creation setups that their interest has gone before session one.

[Toe]

Anyone ever play using the FATE CORE system?

[Your Mom]

So I guess I am doing one of these on Saturday. My GF is in a group that meets once a month and she wants me there. I don't want to make a bad impression with her friends. You guys got any tips on how to be good? Or like at the very least not derail it and ruin it for everyone?

[Ruki]

1 hour ago, The Chiksrara Special said:

So I guess I am doing one of these on Saturday. My GF is in a group that meets once a month and she wants me there. I don't want to make a bad impression with her friends. You guys got any tips on how to be good? Or like at the very least not derail it and ruin it for everyone?

How to be good? Have fun, get into it, be a team player. While in movies and video games it's cool to be the stoic lone wolf....doesn't really work in a cooperative setting. 

 

It may feel silly at first, and the rules may seem intimidating, but we were all there at one point or another! I hope you have a great time tonight, Srar!

[Your Mom]

They said they would try and make me a character that wasn't too hard to understand. I like the idea of teaming up and being goofy. Have to make sure I'm not being too goofy though