Pens and Papers

[TheRaySays]

Oh, that's evil. I can do 8 PM MST on Fridays. How fiddly is Foundry? I've only used Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds, and I despise Fantasy Grounds.

As unlikely as it seems, I also have not played/run Phandelver, so it'd be fresh to me.

[Ruki]

1 hour ago, TheRaySays said:

Oh, that's evil. I can do 8 PM MST on Fridays. How fiddly is Foundry? I've only used Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds, and I despise Fantasy Grounds.

As unlikely as it seems, I also have not played/run Phandelver, so it'd be fresh to me.

I played 2-3 sessions on Fantasy Grounds. It is a piece of absolute dogshit of a system. I can never go back. 

 

Roll 20 I have a little bit of experience with. 

 

I am just getting used to Foundry (mostly comfortable using it for PF2), but it's already better than both Roll20 and FG combined. And so customizable. 

[Maxx]

Ray! Ray! Ray! Ray!

[DoubleX]

20 hours ago, Maxx said:

@DoubleX

Am I to take this as an invitation? >_>

Time zones being as they are, the times you've talked about are about 10am my time, but that means that the Monday and Tuesday your time doesn't work for me at all, as those are work days. Friday your time makes it Saturday morning mine, which is reasonable, but I often have things I need to get done on Saturdays so I wouldn't want to play in epic length sessions if I were to join in on something on Saturdays (also assuming Ruki is in on this too, since it sounds like he's DMing).

I'd be down if this isn't too much of an imposition, but if time zones and timing is an issue then I'm also fine stepping away and letting you guys do your thing, since it seems like the rest of you are at least closer in terms of time zones 😛

[Ruki]

I have been noodling an EWB Abomination Vault play-by-post sorta thing. After each update, people would give suggestions of where to go/what to do, and I'd pick someone at random and use their suggestion. Combat I would just automate (because we all know how long combat can take in Play By Post) based off tactics at character creation. Is this an idea people think is worth exploring?

[Ruki]

Ran my first game of 5e in Foundry. I ain't ever going back to Roll20!

[thepunkrockicon]

I've been slowly but surely getting back into D&D after a bit of a disastrous campaign and man, I forgot how much I love worldbuilding. Going from a point where I was legitimately concerned I may never have any passion for the game again to now, where I'm super excited to just noodle away on this tiny region of my world map is a really good feeling. It's made me really excited to run a game for the first time in a long time

[Ruki]

On 25/04/2023 at 09:27, Kazuma KiRuki said:

I have been noodling an EWB Abomination Vault play-by-post sorta thing. After each update, people would give suggestions of where to go/what to do, and I'd pick someone at random and use their suggestion. Combat I would just automate (because we all know how long combat can take in Play By Post) based off tactics at character creation. Is this an idea people think is worth exploring?

 

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

If anyone is at a loose end in an hour or so (11pm BST) we are playing the latest adventure in our Tony and Rudi adventures - two treasure hunting museum curator friends are in St. Moritz at a winter academic symposium, but as they enjoy their dinner and drinks the evening after giving their presentation, things are getting extremely strange as the evening seems to be repeating itself....

 

Come and hang with us at https://twitch.tv/boysfromthebalticstar

[Toe]

Finally get to return to my Curse Of Strahd campaign this weekend after the last few months were a bit busy for all my players. 

With all the travelling they've done, they've gone through most of the random encounters in the campaign book. I've sat down and created a few unique ones for the area they'll be travelling through that should be a lot of fun. 

[Ruki]

8 minutes ago, Toe said:

Finally get to return to my Curse Of Strahd campaign this weekend after the last few months were a bit busy for all my players. 

With all the travelling they've done, they've gone through most of the random encounters in the campaign book. I've sat down and created a few unique ones for the area they'll be travelling through that should be a lot of fun. 

My favorite reoccurring random encounter in my SKT (and now showing up again in Rime) campaign was a traveling wagon. Inside the wagon was an armoire that lead to a demiplane that was a magic item shop. There were/are multiple wagons all over the world, so an item shop is never too far away. 

 

Also, killed my first character in Pathfinder 2e on Sunday. Dhampir fighter. Can't be healed by healing spells... fighting a baby dragon. Did not go well. 

[Toe]

Saturday's session was a ton of fun! A random encounter saw the party's cart get stuck in the mud, and as they tried to free it a horde of zombies crawled out of the surrounding swamps. I spawned new zombies each round, so the party quickly realized that they had to get moving before too long. 

The session ended on a big cliffhanger, and now I've got a few weeks to plan a huge fight in the middle of town. 

[Ruki]

https://kotaku.com/baldurs-gate-3-pc-release-date-ps5-delay-starfield-1850588759

[Twist]

So I've always been intrigued by D&D but it's not a thing I've ever really had happening around me and I've not particularly sought it out.

Ended up in a spot recently where I don't know anyone where I live so thought I'd try and find a place to go play but first did some looking into how the game actually plays. Watched some videos, etc. online and it's not what I expected?

I mean it looks great but didn't expect players to basically be ad-libbing their characters and acting within the game?

Also, do you have a bunch of information before the game for direction? I watched one game on D&D Beyond, three characters and two of them were just constantly asking the third if they were happy, wanted to leave where they were, intimating they were being held against their will, etc. it was so on the nose and constant that I assumed they already knew something about that third character that I'd missed?

It also kind of put me off because I'm pretty sure I'd be terrible at it 😂

[Toe]

You don't have to act or have a voice or anything if you don't want to. If there is anything you need to know for the campaign, the DM should let you know.

In the game I DM, only one of my characters puts on a voice and they don't do a lot of roleplaying. They enjoy the other parts of the game more - the combat, the puzzle solving, and the plot of the story. 

[Twist]

46 minutes ago, Toe said:

You don't have to act or have a voice or anything if you don't want to. If there is anything you need to know for the campaign, the DM should let you know.

In the game I DM, only one of my characters puts on a voice and they don't do a lot of roleplaying. They enjoy the other parts of the game more - the combat, the puzzle solving, and the plot of the story. 

That's good to know. I guess my view has been skewed by watching videos online that are hamming up the role play element.

[Cymbols]

Yeah couple of times a few of us on here played, the actual gameplay was a lot of fun, but wasn’t keen on the role play stuff. 

Did recently watch the first episode of a DND series Smosh Games have started and definitely made me want to have another go sometime, as it was a lot of fun. 

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

1 hour ago, Twist said:

That's good to know. I guess my view has been skewed by watching videos online that are hamming up the role play element.

You absolutely should not compare a show that is trying to put on the most entertaining show for an audience to what your home game will look like. 

Each table balances itself to what the players (and the DM) most enjoy. A lot of YouTube D&D shows veer into the acting and roleplay of it all because that works best for a show but I can say that my personal home games look very different to those. 

[Ruki]

Very much agree with what everyone says. There's almost 0 chance what you play will resemble what you see in Actual Plays. Don't get me wrong, love Critical Role, but it's VERY different from my campaigns I'm in.

 

In my Abomination Vaults campaign, it's very much a dungeon crawler. More game-y, kick in the door, kill monsters, get treasure kind of game.

 

My Rime of the Frostmaiden is a nice mix of RP and combat. We actually just had a 6 hour session on Saturday where: a Player's fling was sacrificed, the Player's had a seance, one of the players killed the person who conducted the seance and then pledged themselves to the evil god... and then they went to a cave to kill a hag and get a magic pot that can feed 300ish people a day.

 

And THEN (I'm in a lot of games....) I'm a player in a game where we are heavy in the RP. We went 3 sessions with only a single combat, and in between games we use discord to RP.

 

Tabletop games can be exactly what you want them to be!

[Twist]

What's the best way to find a local game? I'm in the U.K. if that makes any difference.