Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[p1138]

Ideally people should make it clear at the start if they're going for a relaxed game that is half-comedy where the PCs are interchangeable vs something intended to be more serious and immersive where the PCs are special and their backstories are expected to be relevant eventually.

Those don't need to be mutually exclusive either. A backstory doesn't need to be relevant to the main plot, and a goofy campaign can involve a PC's backstory.

 

[Paradox Mystic]

Those don't need to be mutually exclusive either. A backstory doesn't need to be relevant to the main plot, and a goofy campaign can involve a PC's backstory.

If it's a mix then ideally people should be informed it's a mix that way they know if they should play Dave the generic fighter or Golden Eye the Warlock with the five page backstory. This can be solved with a simple convo with the DM by having the player explaining the basics of both concepts and asking which fits the campaign they have in mind better so the DM can say either go with A or B, or the DM says "The campaign style has a bit of everything so play whichever you want."

 

[The Ugly One]

Your table sounds boring. If you can't figure out how to keep a player engaged, that's a you problem.

Also, are you really so uncreative that you can't figure out how to take a swordsman's previous master and have him turned to join the evil guys or whatever as some random capo so the player can have a moment of roleplaying when they encounter NPCs?

Is your inability to engage on this topic without repeatedly insulting me, personally due to mental illness, or are you really just that big of a seething cunt? Either way, go fuck yourself, I've completely lost interest in anything you have to say or taking any time to respond to it.

 

[Red Dragon]

Nothing wrong with enjoying playing a simpler character or a character who primarily supports one of the other PCs.

One of my most memorable tables had a 'rotating MC'. During early levels, my pirate character and the exiled noble warrior were the stars; our contacts and more local backstories helped the party a lot. Towards the later levels, the warlock hunting ilithids and the dragonborn seeking to end a continental war took the spot. It happened organically, without the need of previous discussion, and everyone had a lot of fun.

On another game I was the aprentice of another player - I rolled very poor stats and decided to go with it anyway. I played a wizard focusing on utility in and out of combat. Too bad that campaign did not last.

 

[p1138]

I've completely lost interest in anything you have to say or taking any time to respond to it.

Sure bud. Everyone else can have a reasonable discussion about the slightest integration of a PC into the world of a game they're running, while you keep telling people that some classes "threaten to take over the party" for a DM that can't handle basic D&D classes.

I asked if you were too uncreative to handle it, didn't say you were. But you certainly seem to have answered the question. And yes, if you can't keep normal players engaged as the DM, (not a bunch of people who need fidget toys, mobile games, etc. to keep them occupied, and they were actually interested in playing a TTRPG in setting your game takes place to begin with) yeah that's a problem of the DM.

 

[Adamska]

I'm gonna keep it real, I don't know Faerun lore, my group has never been FR guys. If there are other lore reasons that it would be impossible for Tharizdun to be a patron, I default to your knowledge. I just wanted to point out that a Warlock can most certainly have a horrifying, inhuman, outer god kinda patron because the idea of the Warlock just having telephone conversations with their patron is simply a dumb misconception of how the class should work (presuming one cares about the class working in the game and not just existing to provide stats.)

Tharizdun is actually an OG creation by Gary Gygax. He created him by basing it on Clark Ashton Smith's own works and a friend's own dark god; he's a Greyhawk god that transcended the setting in his quest to kill all other divine beings and be the Lone God. And my big issue with making him a patron is simply due to how much damage he did to the setting to make him an obvious patron to anyone due to how much effort was done to seal and erase his memory. Some sources specifically list the Abyss being the bi-product of what the hell he did to the multiverse when he tried to nuke everything to nothing to give you an idea on what he can do.

There's having a Farplane patron or Cthulhu. And then there's the guy that had Asmodeus, Mephistopheles, Pelor, Hextor, and Heironeous work together to defeat and chain up or else all dies and crumbles to nothing.

I think it's a bit silly to blame the rules for not having binding passages on how Warlocks behave or the lore effects/consequences of their powers. The DM should be able to decide on and adjudicate that on a case by case basis. If I were DMing a game where someone wanted to be this kind of Warlock, I would say clearly "By a certain level, you will basically be King in Yellowing the average person you encounter and that's going to create problems. Are you and the party up for that?"

My issue is choosing to make this an option at all in the base game. Also just I don't think a character like that and actually roleplayed would work in most party configurations personally. They'd have to all be Tharizdun worshippers to make it even kind of work. Same party ruining potential as a Frenzied Berserker or a Paladin of Slaughter.

It's a retarded decision to include him as an option in base game just from a setting perspective. I'm just highlighting the consequences that SHOULD be in effect when someone rocks a character that uses him as an aspect.

Because otherwise this'd be like a devotee of St. Cuthbert not absolutely fucking hating the Undead.

 

[The Ugly One]

Ideally people should make it clear at the start if they're going for a relaxed game that is half-comedy where the PCs are interchangeable vs something intended to be more serious and immersive where the PCs are special and their backstories are expected to be relevant eventually.

Audie Murphy was just some guy. There is nothing in Georgy Zhukov's backstory that gives him an interesting childhood connection to Heinz Guderian. When the Marines landed at Okinawa, they didn't find Admiral Nimitz's long-lost albino twin secretly leading the war effort. Baron von Richtofen was killed by a nobody while doing something unimportant. Geoffrey Bache Smith's prodigious talents and deep friendship with Tolkien didn't protect him from shrapnel. The world wars were anything but a "relaxed half-comedy." I don't run mythic campaigns where the PCs have plot armor narrative destiny. That doesn't mean they're silly or easygoing. Quite the opposite.

It's a retarded decision to include him as an option in base game just from a setting perspective. I'm just highlighting the consequences that SHOULD be in effect when someone rocks a character that uses him as an aspect.

My least favorite pact is the Great Old One because it has the largest cosomological implications. My current setting has no gods at all. (I'm also not running 5e.)

 

[Paradox Mystic]

I don't run mythic campaigns where the PCs have plot armor narrative destiny. That doesn't mean they're silly or easygoing. Quite the opposite.

I didn't mean either style or a mix is lesser just it's like food, people have different tastes. For example if someone is going to a party it would helpful to know if it's a casual grilled food and chips situation or if they're going somewhere with a strict dress code and the expectation is elaborate chinese meals.

 

[Tri-Tachyon'sClown]

In funny news, I got into a conversation with one of my players and we accidentally learned that Tharizdun, you know, the multiversal level threat that is so fucking evil and insane that he transcends traditional alignment, is a patron that a warlock can pick in 5e. We just noticed that and began laughing and raging respectively, since this is just absolutely comical.

The entity who is so horrible that all gods fought and sealed him away, and one who they attempted to damnatio memoriae, is just something a level 1 warlock can casually chat to. A being who corrodes and drives mad anyone who knows of him is just something some CN shitling can just talk to with effectively no negative effects.

This was in the original release too mind you.

Wait what the fuck? I had to look it up, this is retarded. This is something that some epic level character after defeating the BBEG would be a patron of after abandoning their patron or something and going badshit insane from it, thus becoming the BBEG. There's a passage in Xanathar's Guide To Everything IIRC that says something along the lines of "your patron tricked you and made you their slave" and even that would be stretching it.
Would be like some random CE necropleb going "praise Atropus," smite that nigga instantly...well Atropus would probably be less "why though" if done properly.

Are you looking to write a rules system, a setting and adventures or both?

Right, my bad. Let me try again now that I'm not too sleep deprived.
I don't know which of those I want to start with. Wouldn't mind making a rules system but there's a bunch out there that I'm worried I won't know how to make it unique without just resulting in a probably worse version of an existing system, so anything regarding "how to make unique settings without it being 'Lamentations of the Flame Princess" autistic would be nice to look at.
A setting is easy in theory but I don't want to heavily plagiarize something nor do I want to make the setting too generic. Fantasy is dime a dozen, but do you happen to know if there are any subgenres in fantasy that aren't done too well that I could attempt to bring up to a good standard Same thing with its counterpart in Sci-Fi, hell I'll take something "modern" that isn't done too often. I'm confident in my ability to be original but originality does not equal quality. Would probably be better to have someone else help with any rulesets while I can focus on the worldbuilding and whatnot. I'd imagine having a single person do crunch and fluff is more taxing to the mind than anything, but given how many...undesirables there are in nerd culture it's hard to trust anyone.
As for an adventure, that should considered to be done last, no? I rather do the former choices before I consider this one.

You say you're a writer but you claim you can't make this clear! Really?

Don't consider myself a good writer, just one that doesn't know when to give up, probably to the detriment of someone who has to read my shit like you did and probably are right now.

Your table sounds boring. If you can't figure out how to keep a player engaged, that's a you problem.

I disagree, people are engaged with certain things. I've seen a few tables that looked pretty engaging but one or two players would just be dicking around on their phone or barely pay attention. It's entirely depends on the person.

Is your inability to engage on this topic without repeatedly insulting me, personally due to mental illness, or are you really just that big of a seething cunt? Either way, go fuck yourself, I've completely lost interest in anything you have to say or taking any time to respond to it.

That being said, damn son calm down lol. Put the guy on ignore if he's that much of a sperg to you.

If a player sits down at my table who can't stay engaged with the game unless I build critical quest arcs out of 1-line class features on his character sheet, the whole table will be glad to see the last of him after two sessions.

I don't even see the issue with this statement, if the whole table would benefit from their departure it sounds like it's that player's problem rather than the DM. Even then the only "problem" would just be a conflict of interest, so @p1138's post is just silly and comes off as someone who didn't attempt to understand your post.

 

[Biolulogy]

Hey guys, the missus wants to run a deadlands game (she's super into old westerns its a long story), I was wondering if you all had some pointers for it? I know there's some fuckery with with some of the latest versions of the game but I haven't done a deep dive, is there another version you suggest? Any tips for playing or running it?

 

[p1138]

I disagree, people are engaged with certain things. I've seen a few tables that looked pretty engaging but one or two players would just be dicking around on their phone or barely pay attention. It's entirely depends on the person.

There's a difference between someone zoning out for a bit and maybe doing something else, and not being engaged at all for multiple sessions like was mentioned in the text that I was responding to in that statement. I did qualify it later with the fact that the players at your table should actually be interested in what's going on rather than just fucking around on their phone or whatever constantly, but I still stand by the fact that if you have a table of players who were actually interested in the game you were running but cannot remain engaged at least part of the time, it's a DM problem. That engagement issue could come from focusing too hard on one character giving them the spotlight for multiple sessions in a row, or it could come from never presenting anything in the game world that a player has any interest of interacting with.

I don't even see the issue with this statement, if the whole table would benefit from their departure it sounds like it's that player's problem rather than the DM. Even then the only "problem" would just be a conflict of interest, so @p1138's post is just silly and comes off as someone who didn't attempt to understand your post.

If a player requires critical quest arcs built around their backstory, and was told in advance that wasn't going to happen, then yes they should leave. But I also still stand by the idea that something as basic as some of the things I mentioned in posts about this particular subject are not critical quest arcs, but were somehow considered as such by this person. I mentioned the idea of a fighter encountering a previous master or a rogue who grew up as a street urchin running into the person who taught them some slight of hand to pick pockets or whatever as a kid. Not that everyone the PC knew has to be involved in the main storyline in any major way, as that assumption is just as hyperbolic if not moreso and why I made the comment about being unimaginitive.

God forbid characters in a TTRPG regardless of the setting run into an NPC to talk to. A character similar to Audie Murphy doesn't need to run into his drill instructor from boot camp, but could meet someone from the unit he trained with. A character like Georgy Zhukov doesn't need to be related in any way to Heinz Guderian but might encounter an old colleague at some point that could nudge the character in a direction with some information. Characters landing on a beach like Marines at Okinawa don't need to encounter Nimitz's long lost albino twin but one of them could end up operating near another platoon and run into someone from their hometown that gets taken out by a Jap sniper. You get the point. It's not that hard even outside of a D&D type fantasy setting.

 

[The Ugly One]

I don't know which of those I want to start with. Wouldn't mind making a rules system but there's a bunch out there that I'm worried I won't know how to make it unique without just resulting in a probably worse version of an existing system, so anything regarding "how to make unique settings without it being 'Lamentations of the Flame Princess" autistic would be nice to look at.

The thing about rules systems is the rules are only there to facilitate the game. Here are some critical things to think about:

What does it mean to become more advanced?

In D&D, becoming more advanced means becoming more capable of fighting increasingly exotic, even god-like foes, graduating beyond the reach of ordinary men to even scratch. In Traveller, it means becoming better at your skills, having more connections in the galaxy, owning a better space ship, and equipping better gear. But you don't actually get harder to kill. Call of Cthulhu characters become better at doing things and similarly do not become bullet-proof, but they may also go insane.

I didn't mean either style or a mix is lesser just it's like food, people have different tastes. For example if someone is going to a party it would helpful to know if it's a casual grilled food and chips situation or if they're going somewhere with a strict dress code and the expectation is elaborate chinese meals.

It's not about "greater or lesser," it's that assuming you're going to get "a relaxed half comedy" if your character doesn't have plot armor and a mythic destiny is flat-out wrong. Quite the opposite; when everyone knows that owlbears and goblin tribes don't care about your personal mission to find your long-lost half-brother, there's more tension and less screwing around. Screwing around gets your guts ripped out in my games.

 

[The greater a'tuin]

Is anyone familiar with this? I needed a Hitman/John Wick style assassin underworld setting, and it seems like exactly what I was looking for

 

[Adamska]

Is anyone familiar with this? I needed a Hitman/John Wick style assassin underworld setting, and it seems like exactly what I was looking for
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It's a supplement splat so you'd need the core game to run, which looking at the dice system based just on how they describe it, I don't like the gimmick personally. You need to get doubles or more of the same number like some goofy card game. It's just clunkier and less efficient than just using x and above for the results of a d6 dicepool.

TBH I'd probably just use Feng Shui instead. Same concept and principle, and while still prone to a gimmick (a positive and negative d6 die that's tallied to your skill rating to determine results), it's just the same thing and can be done with one book. It's also pretty easy, since you just take the result of skill+dice value, and compare to the difficulty, results being based on how much you succeed/ It also has rules for some level of mystical martial arts as well as just plain gritty combat.

 

[Ghostse]

Hey guys, the missus wants to run a deadlands game (she's super into old westerns its a long story), I was wondering if you all had some pointers for it? I know there's some fuckery with with some of the latest versions of the game but I haven't done a deep dive, is there another version you suggest? Any tips for playing or running it?

Company behind it went full woke. They decided that the fantasy CSA was oppressing and killing black and brown bodies IRL.

Having never played it, I can't speak to editions if you are buying materials you are giving money to people who hate you and your hobby, and if you are running official modules written after 2015 they are probably going to be full of CURRENT YEAR nonsense.

So I guess pirate the materials and run older modules if she's dead set on deadlands.

But also if she's wanting to run deadlands that probably means she's been NPC brain chipped and the chip is getting OTA updates, so probably time to cut your losses and file for divorce now and save yourself the time and trouble later.

 

[Blarmed&Dangerous]

But also if she's wanting to run deadlands that probably means she's been NPC brain chipped and the chip is getting OTA updates, so probably time to cut your losses and file for divorce now and save yourself the time and trouble later.

I mean, old Deadlands is great

 

[Biolulogy]

So I guess pirate the materials and run older modules if she's dead set on deadlands.

But also if she's wanting to run deadlands that probably means she's been NPC brain chipped and the chip is getting OTA updates, so probably time to cut your losses and file for divorce now and save yourself the time and trouble later.

Pirating was always the plan I spent too much on 5e D&D books from Wotc when I was younger and (less) dumb to straight up buy books before I try em. Lol, nah she's a keeper, she uses this(my) account to lurk cause she's too lazy/schiz to make her own.
Edit: She got mad and wanted me to clarify she isn't too lazy she's too schiz to do it.

I mean, old Deadlands is great

Which ones do you all recommend? Any big upsides to any particular versions?

 

[Hikaru86]

Reading Werewolf v5 - Wyrmtide (because I hate myself, but self-harm take to much work), and I think they Retconned Evan Heal-The-Past out of existance, now he just "some cub", and gives the "modern male" treatment for my nigga Albrecht. And his letter is trash, complete written using AI, its a Wall of Text of fucking nothing.

 

[The Ugly One]

Company behind it went full woke. They decided that the fantasy CSA was oppressing and killing black and brown bodies IRL.

I'm so tired of how fuckin gay everything is.

 

[Ghostse]

I'm so tired of how fuckin gay everything is.

all is faggot