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

[Judge Dredd]

Sorry for the double reply, but I forgot one and feels too late to go back and edit.

Anyone want to share their recent tabletop experiences? I'm struggling to find a new group that doesn't seem to have the schedule of someone on call 24/7 nor is a freak of nature, so I'm curious how everyone else is faring.

Another game on the docket is Gloomhaven. Not strictly a TTRPG, but close enough in concept. The game had to go on hold due to the box missing a vital deck of cards. After what feels like months of waiting, I finally got a replacement deck. Of course, now one guy is busy with work. I'm hopeful it will be played, even if I have to make regular trips to a board game group next town over.

And that's where I think the future of TTRPGs lies. It's much easier to get a board game going than it is a TTRPG even if they're basically the same.

More recently I've been trying to DM a superhero RPG with another smaller group, but I fumbled for a long time while searching for a good system only to go back to the old DC Heroes one - turns out a complex system where you can make powers can be a kind of a trap. Since life is busy for everyone, it's hard to just start playing.

Supers are something I got (and get) a lot of hints from a friend to run, but can never seem to get it off the ground. Rules are a massive problem, but so is power level and plot. Once above street level, I find it difficult to think of a good plot outside of "villain attacks city, punch him really hard until he stops".

at the local library as part of an event to promote their new "small group rooms".

How do these kinds of things work? Bit off topic, but a miniatures shop recently opened a game room, but are tight lipped on how you get to play a game in there. I remember a leaflet for a local community centre/video studio with a communal green screen. How you actually go about getting to use said studio space and green screen remains a mystery. At least the miniatures shop has staff you can ask even if they don't know either.

 

[East_Clintwood]

Anyone want to share their recent tabletop experiences? I'm struggling to find a new group that doesn't seem to have the schedule of someone on call 24/7 nor is a freak of nature, so I'm curious how everyone else is faring.

My main group just finished up out latest Shadowrun campaign where we helped our former corpo Johnson get elected to the city council. Once we finish a campaign we take it in turns to GM something else so our regular GM can play + have time to plan his next campaign. Current plan is a WH40k Black Crusade campaign set during the Gothic War.

My semi-regular group is also looking for something new to play after our last campaign fizzled when a couple of players dropped out due to some retarded IRL beef. Someone has volunteered to run one of the Star Wars RPGs, but I'm not sure I'll end up playing. It seems like the majority are pushing for a force heavy campaign which I'm honestly just not vibing with for some reason. will have to see how it shakes out

 

[LovisXVI]

Someone has volunteered to run one of the Star Wars RPGs, but I'm not sure I'll end up playing. It seems like the majority are pushing for a force heavy campaign which I'm honestly just not vibing with for some reason. will have to see how it shakes out

Force and Destiny, the Force-centric of the FFG ones, is kind of an acquired taste and requires you to know what you are doing going in, since FaD characters are XP hungry to actually do anything with the force. I have no experience with SAGA at all, so you're on your own with that.

Also Black Crusade is easily my favorite of the FFG 40k games, feels like the most mechanically and thematically developed.

 

[The Bogwater Flows On]

Also Black Crusade is easily my favorite of the FFG 40k games, feels like the most mechanically and thematically developed.

Oh, Black Crusade, my beloved. The first RPG campaign I was ever a part of.

 

[Red Dragon]

Rules are a massive problem, but so is power level and plot. Once above street level, I find it difficult to think of a good plot outside of "villain attacks city, punch him really hard until he stops".

Plot is easy for me because my group is made of massive weebs, so I just rip off an anime arc and let the players loose doing their thing. Power level is a real problem, and my solution - that I've yet to test - is to simply limit the power progression to slightly above street level and make the real progression how the world around them develops or degrades based on what they are doing. If we go by just 'numbers go up' it's going to end exactly like you described.

I'm thinking about something more grounded with a lot of investigation mixed with big brawls from time to time.

 

[Konigsberg]

I assumed he only wanted ADnD stuff.

I'm down to read any recommendation, I appreciate the suggestions!

-snip-

Thanks for the information bud, I think it'll be very helpful for my table going forward into our future campaigns.

Anyone want to share their recent tabletop experiences? I'm struggling to find a new group that doesn't seem to have the schedule of someone on call 24/7 nor is a freak of nature, so I'm curious how everyone else is faring.

Current plan is a WH40k Black Crusade campaign set during the Gothic War.

Also Black Crusade is easily my favorite of the FFG 40k games, feels like the most mechanically and thematically developed.

Oh, Black Crusade, my beloved. The first RPG campaign I was ever a part of.

I never expected so many Black Crusade lovers/players here. It's actually my tables current game we're playing and the campaign is looking to wrap up soon or perhaps in the summer depending on what my players want to do after this current adventure. One of my players has to depart the campaign so our current adventure is to get him this Nurglite artifact his character wants then retire him to give him some kind of fitting end point for the campaign before he has to leave. At least on the surface.

Spoiler: Black Crusade Storytime

My party is a group of Chaos Space Marines running a warband of mostly themselves as officers and some hordes of human and mutant mooks out of an old freighter ship. The party/warband leader is a Slaaneshi cenobite, we have an Alpha Legion infiltrator, a Tzeentch Sorcerer, and my departing player who's a Nurgle worshiping Apothecary. Well, Nurgles best boy got punked by the Cenobite in a scheme early in the campaign and he took that shit personal, so about 3 months ago we started working together on a fitting revenge scheme and send off for his character. His current quest, as far as the rest of the party knows, was he's been contacted by a Nurgle warband from earlier in the campaign to help them bring in a traitor of theirs and in exchange he'll get an artifact and become a sort of honorary member/representative of their order. What is actually going on is the Nurgle player has sold the Party's warband out and this adventure is going to be him stabbing them all in the back and sailing off into the void with his new masters. What he doesn't know is this Nurgle warbands not planning on letting him keep this artifact of theirs either, at least not the way he thinks.

On behalf of his new masters over the last several months he has: Started a Nurgle cult in the bowels of their ship, armed them with smuggled conventional and chemical weapons and biological agents set to leak into the ships life support systems. He then murdered the lower decks medical staff during the aftermath of a minor Gellar field malfunction to prevent them from detecting his plagues and alerting the other ships' officers. Before departing on this adventure he also made contact with an agent of the Nurgle warband who helped him summon and sustain a Daemon of Nurgle on their ship in the Temple of Nurgle he's built in the depths of the lower decks. The Daemon then helped him essentially soul-kill/mind control their ships communications officer, who is a reclusive NPC anyway so none of the other characters have bothered to check on his ass, ever, so they have no idea he's now got a big Nurgle-worm for a head right now. The daemon is a thrall of the Nurgle warband's leader and was a mouthpiece to directly feed instructions to my Nurgle player and also tell him whatever he wanted to hear as long as it'd keep him working for them.

The players are right now down on a planet with the Nurgle warband besieging their traitor in a decrepit castle. The Daemon of Nurgle is now in direct control of the cult on the ship, and has launched the cults assault on the rest of the ship while the PCs are away, crippled its communications systems and engines, and is now waiting for the Nurgle warband to have some free marines from the current battle to come up and board the PCs ship to put it under new management. They want to absorb the PCs warband and its resources into theirs and take the ship for their fleet.

Everyone else is also planning on fucking the Nurgle player as well in some way, which is funny because my party have all independently decided to scheme against him this adventure as part of his player-farewell. The Sorcerer is going to try to destroy or steal the artifact, the Alpha Legionnaire is going to try to sabotage the Nurgle warbands forces, and the Slaaneshi cenobite is planning on killing the Nurgle PC as part of an elaborate Glorifying Act to Slaanesh. None of the other players are aware of either my Nurgle PCs scheme or any of their other schemes and have all been skulking in the background to accomplish their goals. Even the Nurgle warband has been planning to fuck the PC, as the artifact while it will make him pretty powerful is also going to be used to help them turn him into a daemon-host in thrall to them. Probably have 1 or 2 long sessions left before all of this comes to a head and I've been really looking forward to the absolute shitshow this is going to turn into.

 

[Tri-Tachyon'sClown]

Jesus Christ I nearly shit myself when I saw how many notifications I got from this one thread, thanks everyone.

This group have a criminal streak in them though. 8 sessions ago they found a poacher working on the edge of the dangerous fairy woods and they proceeded to beat the shit out of him, go through his wallet to steal everything of value and then leave his unconscious body at the edge of the woods where they knew the Forest Spirit's minions would find him. A few sessions ago they were hired by a research lab to find an escaped genetically modified Pokemon and when they found it they went "That lab that was nothing but nice to us and friends of our Professsor? Fuck them" and caught the critter and then fled town before anyone noticed. Last week's session they were trudging through the swamp and stumbled upon a group of people doing a Blair Witch Project sort of documentary that were being harassed by Ghosts. The group decided to help, found the Ghosts that were harassing the group and decided to join them in tormenting these would be film makers. They ended up making them run scared from their camp with nothing but the clothes on their backs and once they were gone the group turned on the Ghosts by trying to catch their leader. Once that was sorted they dug through the camp and stole everything of value including the camera and all the tapes for the documentary as well as all the Repel that the filmmakers were using to stay safe.

Jesus fucking Christ you need to share more of these. I think I saw someone post about a Pokemon campaign in the GameFinder thread but I don't recall, it was around January.

but unfortunately this specific group of friends have been corrupted by the "5E for EVERYTHING" virus that seems to come partnered with the "all must be political" virus, so I'm keeping my distance nowadays.

The Coof really did destroy anything social, and by Coof I mostly mean governments using it to destroy lives and relationships due to constant social distancing and lockdowns (among many other things), and terminally online retards fucking it up for everyone on "their side". Getting your group ruined by 5e retardation and "Gahhh, I Don't Get It, Is It Political??" is a horrible fate and unfortunately one I also share.
Did any of them turn into trannies like one of my old group members did?

Star Wars Force-Sensitive game I am playing is ambling to wrapping up

For some reason this reminded of this old PNW video:

one is enamoured with her new streaming career and has openly brushed us off because someone wants to stream Dead by Dalight with her.

First mistake was bringing a foid into your group, this was to be expected.

I'm already considering putting adverts at the local community college for a new group

Dear fucking God do NOT DO IT. Community College is a cesspool and breeding ground for some of the most disgusting and degenerate people imaginable, especially when it comes to nerd shit. I should know, I used to go to one...ah shit I called myself a disgusting degenerate didn't I.

driving to the nearest game store 90 minutes away and trying my luck there.

While game stores tend to attract...unsavory people despite what some retards may say, you might just get yourself some normal people who are either somewhat experienced or are curious and looking to try for the first time.
You could also try what @Acrid Alchemist did and filter out the 4chin shitters for people actually looking to play in a GameFinder thread.

I'm a player in a 5e game every other week and do random 5e one shots for friends.

Was going to post the "blasphemy" video again but nah maybe next month, and besides I read further:

I'm trying to convince my friends to get into SWADE but that's easier said than done. I just want to stop playing 5e man.

Savage Worlds might be too big a leap for 5efags, did you try telling them that you can just run a oneshot and see how they like it? 5e players are heavily entrenched for various reasons, such as being too scared to make the leap into new territory and fully commit to being a fucking nerd.
The stigma surrounding nerd culture is still very much alive, it's just that now a lot more of it is hitting mainstream so that makes it more socially acceptable, so people more on the mainstream niggercattleish side don't quite want to go too far away from this. Good luck man, I hope you either convince them since they're actually your friends rather than just a game group.

The game I'm a player in is... alright. One guy never pays attention and the DM is definitely not doing any planning but it's fun at least.

Literally the last group I did, complete with the DM just making shit up as we go and hoping it works. And why do people join a group and just don't bother engaging, fucks sake. They just drag everyone down.

Another game on the docket is Gloomhaven. Not strictly a TTRPG, but close enough in concept. The game had to go on hold due to the box missing a vital deck of cards.

Haven't played that in ages, was on Tabletop Simulator when I first played. Sorry about the missing cards.

And that's where I think the future of TTRPGs lies. It's much easier to get a board game going than it is a TTRPG even if they're basically the same.

Well they are usually a lot less complicated and I still think a lot of people have fond memories of board games. Can't get a game of CoC, Rifters, or even Dark Sun but I can sure as shit get a game of Munchkins going.

It seems like the majority are pushing for a force heavy campaign which I'm honestly just not vibing with for some reason. will have to see how it shakes out

While I don't mind a party focusing on a particular aspect of a game, there's something funny and cool about being the odd one out. If you don't want to be a force user, don't. Be a bounty hunter or something and dedicate your character to making fun of their space magic (if you can, Force and Destiny and...well, a force heavy game iirc). There's a bunch of splatbooks so there might be something you like.

Also Black Crusade is easily my favorite of the FFG 40k games, feels like the most mechanically and thematically developed.

It sure as fuck is. Shame it's dead, but there's some fan made content here and there.

I never expected so many Black Crusade lovers/players here. It's actually my tables current game we're playing and the campaign is looking to wrap up soon or perhaps in the summer depending on what my players want to do after this current adventure.

We may need to get a game going, has anyone done a Kiwifarms game that isn't a play-by-post?

Fuck, my quotes broke. Ah, fixed it, accidently removed a bracket in the media link and the shit broke the whole post.

 

[LovisXVI]

We may need to get a game going, has anyone done a Kiwifarms game that isn't a play-by-post?

I ran a few one shots a couple months back and played in a game with a few people for a while before I left the group, so yeah.

 

[Blarmed&Dangerous]

I ran a few one shots a couple months back and played in a game with a few people for a while before I left the group, so yeah.

How insufferable was it? My online game experience has been either gooner troons or the "stop shitting yourself" kid level retards, with very few in-between.

 

[LovisXVI]

How insufferable was it? My online game experience has been either gooner troons or the "stop shitting yourself" kid level retards, with very few in-between.

I actually enjoyed playing with then for a while, but as I've said before, I'm not really a Delta Green guy. I didn't enjoy the game itself and felt more like I was going through the motions, the fact that I didn't get along with a player who preceded me in the group didn't help.

 

[2LtMashengo]

I run a game online of 3 randos I picked up off 4chan and my buddy.

I did something similar once, though I just left an email contact to filter the POC(people of cord). Of the three people that emailed me, one is still with our group 4 years later, so I'd say it worked out ok.

 

[East_Clintwood]

Force and Destiny, the Force-centric of the FFG ones, is kind of an acquired taste and requires you to know what you are doing going in, since FaD characters are XP hungry to actually do anything with the force.

That kinda makes sense, also confirms my very brief impression from my first quick flick through the rulebook.

Also Black Crusade is easily my favorite of the FFG 40k games, feels like the most mechanically and thematically developed.

Black Crusade is also my favorite although I don't get to play it nearly as much as Deathwatch or even Rogue Trader. Probably a good thing on balance, because for whatever reason BC tends to bring out my inner scenery chewing comic villain unless I'm careful.

 

[The Bogwater Flows On]

Black Crusade is also my favorite although I don't get to play it nearly as much as Deathwatch or even Rogue Trader. Probably a good thing on balance, because for whatever reason BC tends to bring out my inner scenery chewing comic villain unless I'm careful.

Yeah love BC, but I just don't have the mind or mood to always run it. I should start doing once a month or every other month games for it, just to mess around with it again.

 

[LovisXVI]

That kinda makes sense, also confirms my very brief impression from my first quick flick through the rulebook.

It is really evident that the game needed a second edition, because the fact that force powers are treated like Specialization in advancement, but also totally subject to Force Rating, which is only in Specializations, means that you are going to be spread thin. You can't even get away with slacking on FR and Force powers as a lightsaber or blaster guy, because Sense is practically vital, given FaD careers are lacking compared to EotE and AoR for native defense talents.

Probably a good thing on balance, because for whatever reason BC tends to bring out my inner scenery chewing comic villain unless I'm careful.

That's kind of the point, no? If you don't, at least once, break out into an extended Dawn of War cutscene speech about how you are going to destroy your enemies, are you really playing BC?

We may need to get a game going, has anyone done a Kiwifarms game that isn't a play-by-post?

Yeah love BC, but I just don't have the mind or mood to always run it. I should start doing once a month or every other month games for it, just to mess around with it again.

I did make an implementation for Foundry 11 that I could dig up from my files. Would need to spin up a new Foundry server, given my main Azure one is 13.

 

[Red Dragon]

Did any of them turn into trannies like one of my old group members did?

Thank God no, but they are very 'politically agressive' nowadays. The Coof melted the brain of some idiots.

It's really weird how this kind of people worships D&D5E. I can understand having a favorite system, but the cult-like mentality is creepy as fuck.

 

[Manly_Brony]

Supers are something I got (and get) a lot of hints from a friend to run, but can never seem to get it off the ground. Rules are a massive problem, but so is power level and plot. Once above street level, I find it difficult to think of a good plot outside of "villain attacks city, punch him really hard until he stops".

My knowledge of capeshit comes almost entirely from old or really old animated series but running a superhero TTRPG doesn't sound that difficult. The next steps are terrorism (from violent Puerto Rican/Irish/Scottish/whatever independence movements hiring mercenary or Puerto Rican/Irish/Scottish/whatever villains to Jihadists stealing/developing a super soldier serum), alien invasion, evil wizard trying to open the gates of hell, mythical villain looking for evil artifact and mad scientist up to no good.

 

[Henri Barbusse]

Plot is easy for me because my group is made of massive weebs, so I just rip off an anime arc and let the players loose doing their thing. Power level is a real problem, and my solution - that I've yet to test - is to simply limit the power progression to slightly above street level and make the real progression how the world around them develops or degrades based on what they are doing. If we go by just 'numbers go up' it's going to end exactly like you described.

I'm thinking about something more grounded with a lot of investigation mixed with big brawls from time to time.

From my experience with superhero games and establishing power level in them, the characters quickly hit their power cap (if the players didn't already make the start at the cap) and then end up developing sideways into extra capabilities. It requires active GM vetting of powers to maintain niche and gimmick protection and maybe banning of whatever is the chosen system's equivalent of HERO's multipowers or Mutants and Masterminds' arrays to keep new powers somewhat expensive.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Plot is easy for me because my group is made of massive weebs, so I just rip off an anime arc and let the players loose doing their thing. Power level is a real problem, and my solution - that I've yet to test - is to simply limit the power progression to slightly above street level and make the real progression how the world around them develops or degrades based on what they are doing. If we go by just 'numbers go up' it's going to end exactly like you described.

I'm thinking about something more grounded with a lot of investigation mixed with big brawls from time to time.

Another issue of supers is there isn't really any growth. Again, street level, you can level up, get stronger. But higher power levels, people are playing incomplete characters, or have no room to grow.

My knowledge of capeshit comes almost entirely from old or really old animated series but running a superhero TTRPG doesn't sound that difficult. The next steps are terrorism (from violent Puerto Rican/Irish/Scottish/whatever independence movements hiring mercenary or Puerto Rican/Irish/Scottish/whatever villains to Jihadists stealing/developing a super soldier serum), alien invasion, evil wizard trying to open the gates of hell, mythical villain looking for evil artifact and mad scientist up to no good.

Great ideas. Might steal some of these.

The problem of power level comes up a lot. Like having Superman and DareDevil on the same team. Anything I set up for DareDevil will be trivial for Superman to solve. It's like that infamous picture of Superman standing by the side of the river holding a rope to save a drowning man. If I set something up for Superman, DareDevil is useless. The obvious solution is to force comparable power levels, but then either DareDevil or Superman doesn't want to play.

I should watch the animated series of Justice League. That supposedly gives each character a chance to shine, with The Question being the best character of the show, and he's just a guy as far as I know.

alien invasion

There was a Savage Worlds campaign I loved the concept of. Necessary Evil. Basic premise is an alien invasion, but all the heroes are captured or killed, meaning it's up to the villains to save the world.

Savage Worlds breaks at big numbers. I'd have to search the thread because people have recommended a bunch of systems more than once. I remember pitching a bunch to players and having them say no.

Will have to do some more reading.

 

[King Dead]

Jesus Christ I nearly shit myself when I saw how many notifications I got from this one thread, thanks everyone.

Here, get another one:

Our group has been in something of a holding pattern for a while now for a variety of reasons. They're all good people, but there have been issues with regards to scheduling and the campaign itself.

With regards to the former, it's mostly due to one player in particular who's been busy with some stressful RL stuff. Not like, gravely serious or anything, but mentally taxing, so he's frequently not been in the mood to actually play. Personally, I would welcome an opportunity to just relax and hang out for a few hours, but he doesn't see it that way. The DM wants everyone there for the story to continue, so if anyone cancels, it's basically a no-go for that session.

And as for the latter, the big issue at the moment is that it just feels like we're being railroaded without really getting to do much on our own. Nothing against the DM (especially since he's consistently been stepping up to the plate), but he has an issue where he just drops us in a location and doesn't really give any hooks for things to do beyond "obvious next story beat," so our sessions are pretty much just wandering in a set direction until the next planned combat encounter happens. And lord, do we ever have combat, which makes up the bulk of our sessions, with very little opportunities to actually do any roleplaying. I assume there's a story somewhere, but we're getting very little indication of where anything is supposed to be going, and that's a little frustrating. (To say nothing of the DM's bizarre hatred of magic.)

It doesn't help that the aforementioned player is the leader of our merry band and the reason we're even in that region in the first place, which is kind of why he needs to be around for the story to progress. I guess he thought he would have had more time and motivation to play, and now that he doesn't, we're all suffering for it. He's already working out a way to effectively be written out of the story, though, so I guess that won't be a problem in the future (even if I think the method is dumb). And we might be getting a new player to replace him.

So yeah, that's my current campaign status. At least I got a cool greataxe recently.

 

[Tri-Tachyon'sClown]

with very little opportunities to actually do any roleplaying

Knew someone who hated anything other than rollplaying, so your DM might be up that guy's alley. The "where we dropping boys" method of story progression is silly though.

To say nothing of the DM's bizarre hatred of magic

Eh? What are you playing anyway? If you're playing a magic filled TTRPG then your DM is the wrong kind of autistic. Did he ever explain or is it the "neutrons firing in a way I don't like" kind of unexplainable hatred?

I guess he thought he would have had more time and motivation to play, and now that he doesn't, we're all suffering for it.

Genuinely, kick them out. While I understand that life is series of random events that may or may not ruin your schedule, if they're dragging down your entire group and can't find a way to return and the DM refuses to play without them, it's their responsibility to tell the group to either write their character out of the story or to have someone take it over their character.
It is selfish on both ends, but mostly the DM for not taking initiative (heh) and continuing on in some form.

He's already working out a way to effectively be written out of the story, though, so I guess that won't be a problem in the future (even if I think the method is dumb).

Ah, perfect. I wouldn't say it's dumb since when they have the time they can return, however I believe making them a DMPC or have another player take over and fill the guy in afterwards is a better solution.

And we might be getting a new player to replace him.

Also not a bad choice, again if you can't make it then I'm sorry but you should be removed from the group. I've done it, people here have done it, I've removed myself once since I also suddenly had way less time to play. It's the right thing to do, the alterative is that no one gets to play.
Hope the hypothetical new player isn't terrible, would rather take Schrodinger's Player than some mystery meat freak.