tabletop rpg thread, second edition

I played something approaching DnD since I was 9 years old. When I say they did things wrong I mean it was just outright mistakes not something that can be imagined as ‘young kids play dnd in a way that doesnt resemble any of the rules’

Like they kept referring to a single session as a campaign.

I haven’t played world wide wrestling yet but I highly recommend it from reading it. (I can show you a pdf copy if you want to check it out)

Whenever I have money, it is like the next thing I plan to get. It looks so good.

2 Likes

This is actually a problem more specific to very traditional RPGs (The kinds that havent had any major design revisions in the past 20 years (and no D&D hasnt, even 2e to 3e was relatively small. Mostly changes to math and the addition of a not-insane skill system). shared storytelling is almost ludicrously outlined nowadays with all the Apocalypse World derivative systems and stuff like Mouse Guard that straight up teach you how to run and play a game with step by step instructions and thorough examples.

1 Like

I dunno, isn’t it even more fun-qua-gimmicky to shoehorn stupid gimmicks into games that are obviously built to exclude them?

I would read this

There’s nothing better than reading detailed summaries of other people’s tabletop campaigns, it’s like those cool diagram-comics that people make of their Dwarf Fortress games

1 Like

It feels like private tables are so much more intimate than a lot of the youtube campaigns and stuff in progress like critical role. There’s definitely amount of theatrics that aren’t present in the same way in a private game that are intended for enjoyment of the audience. From a DM’s perspective, you hear about a lot of the ways people use their knowledge of their friends against them.

1 Like

that would be great, thank you! send me a pm

performative tables are definitely a different medium yeah

i don’t think they can be evaluated on the same terms which is fine

One of my friends was trying to get me to run a regular Pathfinder game at his store. I can’t imagine playing an RPG with strangers. It can be kind of an intimate thing.

Speaking of intimate things, this is the real life inspiration for our vampires attack the strip club Shadowrun adventure:

Back then we were really feeling the two different Mortal Kombat-themed crews, but in retrospect the standout act is probably the cowboy riding the Chucky doll.

4 Likes

My d&d group has gotten a little bogged down by Real Life and one of the players is starting a splinter game of Tales from the Loop which looks… bad

In this pen&paper roleplaying game, you play teenagers in the late Eighties, solving Mysteries connected to the Loop. Choose between character Types such as the Bookworm, the Troublemaker, the Popular Kid and the Weirdo! Everyday Life is full of nagging parents, never-ending homework and classmates bullying and being bullied.

I am really missing playing a tabletop game but I just can’t bring myself to play this

Bonus xp for the sexiest booty shorts.

Why aren’t all tabletop games just Feng Shui

1 Like

Mutant: Year Zero was for real one of the very best RPGs out that year, definitely the best RPG in the traditional space. So I would actually give it a try even if the premise sounds like the worst nostalgia pandering because I trust those authors to design a good game.

Edit: I don’t know about Tales From the Loop at all so I’ll just talk about what made Mutant: Year Zero so cool. It had a heavily integrated sandbox game that wasn’t a hassle to actually run or prep or work with, along with a settlement management minigame and well structured rules for GMing with an improv-heavy tilt in a rules-medium/heavy context. The authors obviously read and understood the point of a lot of other RPGs, including more experimental (though still trad-leaning) stuff like Apocalypse World or Mouse Guard the RPG.

It also features an actual metaplot that’s embedded in a single book with actually usable advice for how to implement it if you want to use it

1 Like

Hey y’all my D&D group is on the verge of not working out great and I wanna get better b/c I am a very bad boring player who just tries to figure out the story and never make a bad decision. Are there any good resources for becoming a better story-maker? Like improv exercises, maybe?

7 Likes

Improv exercises might be a bit much. It’s important to find a good balance between working through the plot and doing what your character would do. And a lot of how that balance works depends on how your GM and fellow players are. And like anywhere else the gaming table is a perfect place for personality conflicts (so maybe your group imploding is positive!)

I’m pretty old school, and not really into the concept of stepping back and allowing a player through the broad character arc that they conceived while they were rolling things up. But from talking to folks at hobby shops, cons, and the computer world, that seems to be a pretty common approach. I always hear the stories about DMs rewarding players for writing detailed family histories and backstories for their characters. But “show don’t tell” generally makes for better group interaction rather than assigning homework. Plus I find that stuff tends to lend itself to constant spotlight stealing, which can be hell on a group dynamic.

As both a player and DM, I’m much more fond of the characters emerging organically through how they interact with the plot. If you’re into being analytical, your character is an information hungry detective type. It came naturally, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Then again some DMs are [strike]lazy[/strike] more interested in reacting to characters than driving the plot.

I trend to strike a balance between both in my approach to DMing. I like to keep abreast of what players think of their characters, because that lets me use a players opinion of their own character as something I can play around with when creating and telling stories.

My approach lends itself towards rewarding players that put in extra work but not letting the rest of the table know. I’ve been able to push players into giving in more effort when it comes to staying in character and letting things evolve once the campaigns actually start.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with homework to me! any details a player comes up with for their character can a lot of the times benefit the campaign by giving you other ideas for cultures/places/histories.

Fiasco is a good crash course in how to be a more decisive player. It’s Coen Bros the Game. It teaches the very important lesson of “it is often more fun to treat your character like a stolen car on a joyride”.

4 Likes

I’m not into this either, I mainly associate this with like the middle period of rpg history rather than anything old school OR new school.

I dont think I have ever written a character bio that I shared with anyone. I have written down a timeline for one of my characters so I could reference stuff they’ve done in the past in inconsequential ways.

I’m pretty firmly in favor of the notion that only the things that happen at the table really happened in the game and extensively detailed backstories get in the way of that. Apocalypse World style asking questions about how the character relates to the setting while at the table is something I like a lot though. Instead of getting a 4 page story about someone’s character I can just say something like “So why don’t you want anyone to know you’re in this town?” and it can often give me at least an NPC I can use if not an entire subplot.

1 Like