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

[Judge Dredd]

Can anyone give recommended Hexcrawls or sandboxes? I know of a few, Keep on the Borderlands and Isle of Dread from TSR. I also know of The Dark of Hot Spring Island and the Auran Empire's Sinister Stone of Sakkara. Any other recommendations?

I have a few maybe suggestions, as I've never really ran a successful hex crawl.

Treasure Hunt is an old TSR module. Requires a little editing, and might not technically be a hex crawl, but it's trivial to turn into one.

There was also an OSR adventure I forget the name of, set in a garden where the sun never sets.

I'm also a big fan of Gelatinous Cubism's work. In The Shadow of Castle Silveraxe, and Valley of the Manticore are both fantastic on paper, but I never got to run them more than a couple of sessions. They are very stock in their approach, like Keep on the Borderlands, which to me is their strength. They don't have the autistically detailed NPCs or "gonzo" setting of OSR stuff. Though they do keep the editing.

I'm curious to hear some opinions on music in TTRPG's. Does your table use music, do you like it?

On paper, I like it and would use it a lot. Sound cues too.

In practice, it's often more technical hurdles than it's worth. I guess if you could easily compile a soundboard of playlist, and had hardware like blutooth speakers, maybe it could work. But online it's always more bandwidth and technical issues, and RL it's too much of a hassle to set up and activate.

 

[AnOminous]

The biggest risk with combat music is choosing stuff that's too fast and aggressive, or hyperactive. It risks cramping player focus, but at the same time, a good beat with a nice rhythm can really up their game and actually make them better at the game.

I never did music, but I did props, especially after running the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. The documents, handouts, props, even including something like a branded box of matches, really lent to the immersion. Everyone loved it. Just being able to handle an object, like you were actually your character, was really good.

 

[Adamska]

I love setting music for my games, even if it's just me being a sperg and selecting video game tracks for a lot of it. I like to use songs from the same game for factions or areas like a sort of leitmotif. So for example if I use Skies of Arcadia's music for pirates, then their bosses or the air travel will likely use other tracks from that game.

 

[Gingervitis]

Material like this is definitely going to be cut:

You know what, that’s another thing in my head right now. In all the other Original Adventures Reincarnated products, including the ones made by The Paul, they included copies of the original adventures. I know that offensive content isn’t an issue, since Keep on the Borderlands not only allows you, but expects you to murder the orc children. So now we’ll see if they’re going to reprint the AD&D City-State, or if they’re going to ignore the entire point of Original Adventures Reincarnated just to rob Bledsaw of sales.

These were both written by Paul Jacquays, a man who later trooned out, adandoned his wife and kids, and started using the pseudonym "Jennell", so Goodman was able to leverage the author's status as a mutant to give the company some cover.

Wait, did he actually abandon his wife and kids to troon out? I never heard about that, but I did hear he was playing pretend lesbians with another troon, so I suppose that’s on me for not putting two and two together.

 

[Red Dragon]

The use of music/ambience can be both a blessing and a curse. One of the DMs that I used to play with loved The Witcher, and he constantly used music from the games during sessions. The combat music with the screaming girl always destroyed my immersion instantly, making combat even more boring and annoying than usual - yes, it was D&D 5e. Never again.

 

[Ghostse]

You know what, that’s another thing in my head right now. In all the other Original Adventures Reincarnated products, including the ones made by The Paul, they included copies of the original adventures. I know that offensive content isn’t an issue, since Keep on the Borderlands not only allows you, but expects you to murder the orc children. So now we’ll see if they’re going to reprint the AD&D City-State, or if they’re going to ignore the entire point of Original Adventures Reincarnated just to rob Bledsaw of sales.

I was eyeing some of the OAR options; I didn't want the 5e conversion but the printing was nice.
Then Goodman went full niggerlover and tranny felator and tossed the OGs under the bus so gave up that idea.

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

City State of the Invincible Overlord is the first RPG city from the 70s. I have a copy I picked up second hand for the gorgeous maps, and it is absolutely wild. Think ogre bouncers in the bars and pirates on the river surrounding the city wild. It is massive, with hundreds of locations described across a labyrinthine city, rules for trials, rules for picking up women, random encounter charts with rakshasha and high level fighters on them. It is a great mess, and I only wish I had it when I was 12, because it would have been the coolest thing ever. Fuck, it is probably still the coolest thing ever.

Is there a digital copy of this? Cause I want it. This sounds like the coolest thing in the world. You know what this guy should just start his own company, who created this cause? It sounds awesome and call it anti Semite Games.

 

[Gingervitis]

Is there a digital copy of this? Cause I want it. This sounds like the coolest thing in the world. You know what this guy should just start his own company, who created this cause? It sounds awesome and call it anti Semite Games.

The company already exists. It’s called Judges’ Guild.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

Is there a digital copy of this? Cause I want it. This sounds like the coolest thing in the world. You know what this guy should just start his own company, who created this cause? It sounds awesome and call it anti Semite Games.

CSIO has long been out of print but you can get a scan pretty much anywhere (the Bledsaws were always paranoid about digital distribution, and all JG material was yanked from DTRPG in an epic victory for the antifa movement). What Goodman normally promises with their OAR stuff is a high quality print reproduction in addition to the conversion.

So now we’ll see if they’re going to reprint the AD&D City-State

The announcement was pretty vague, but the Kickstarter isn't starting for another month and I'm sure a lot of details have yet to be worked out.

 

[Brain Problems]

I'm curious to hear some opinions on music in TTRPG's. Does your table use music, do you like it?
My own table does use music and it's probably one of the best parts of the experience for the players. They've gone on record to say multiple times that the game is better with music and that it helps them get immersed and invested in what's happening. It's gone so far that I have basically put together an entire soundtrack for the campaign they're running and I'm including things like leitmotifs and genre mixes to represent certain locations or characters. It's added a huge amount of depth to the experience I think but it's definitely not for everyone-- it's hard to find music that fits, loops well, and doesn't get in the way. However it's probably one of the most fun parts of DM'ing for me.

Throw on good dungeon synth albums and watch the eyes of people who Know light up. Overly recognisable music can get annoying imo but having stuff in the background for fights and exploration do a lot of work for immersion. I've got friends quite fond of PocketBard which is kind of neat but fuck if I'll pay for it.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

The only house rule I felt I really needed was a list of banned races (no Tabaxis, Tortles, or Aarakocra), and the artificer wasn't allowed. College of Swords Bard broke the core conceit of the class, but it wasn't worth the hassle of making someone stop using it. I didn't even need to write down the ban list. Oh and a total ban on everything in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything except the Ranger revision.

I know this is late as fuck, but I'm curious; which races did you ban from play? Aside from the three you mentioned; call me curious.

 

[Imperial Citizen]

Journey to the doomed world of quirky millennial rpgs with Dice Scum as we explore Mörk Borg!

 

[The Ugly One]

I know this is late as fuck, but I'm curious; which races did you ban from play? Aside from the three you mentioned; call me curious.

I was running a swords-and-sorcery campaign using mostly converted 1e material, so the general rule was "can't be any more different from a human than an elf, dwarf, gnome, half-orc, or halfling is." Off the top of my head, that meant no:

• Volo's monster races
• Animal-kin, including dragonborn
• Tieflings or Aasimar
• Eberron races. Furthermore, Eberron races are always banned in any non-Eberron setting I run.

In the end, I think the only additional races I allowed were Goliaths, Firbolgs, and Eladrin.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

I was running a swords-and-sorcery campaign using mostly converted 1e material, so the general rule was "can't be any more different from a human than an elf, dwarf, gnome, half-orc, or halfling is." Off the top of my head, that meant no:

• Volo's monster races
• Animal-kin, including dragonborn
• Tieflings or Aasimar
• Eberron races. Furthermore, Eberron races are always banned in any non-Eberron setting I run.

In the end, I think the only additional races I allowed were Goliaths, Firbolgs, and Eladrin.

Interesting; I admit, I'm fairly ignorable of DnD 1e - oldest I've gone so far is 3rd Edition - so stuff like this is new.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

I love grung characters, they're always a blast if you're in the kind of group that finds itself fighting its way out of a lot of NPC interactions that should have been peaceful. I had a grung barbarian whose CHA skills checks were always made with disadvantage because he stank of sewage and was a recent immigrant from Chult who didn't understand hu-mon customs, and was only 2' tall. He became the party spokesman, naturally...

 

[Tom Bombodildo]

I love grung characters, they're always a blast if you're in the kind of group that finds itself fighting its way out of a lot of NPC interactions that should have been peaceful. I had a grung barbarian whose CHA skills checks were always made with disadvantage because he stank of sewage and was a recent immigrant from Chult who didn't understand hu-mon customs, and was only 2' tall. He became the party spokesman, naturally...

I cannot count the amount of times I've been playing a character that is generally disagreeable and/or has no Cha + social skills and because nobody else in my party will actually start conversations with NPCs I have to be one to RP the conversation. And then when it comes time to make a social roll, the guy who's specced into social stuff suddenly remembers that he's supposed to be the one talking to people. Even when our GMs specifically punish us by having me make the roll because I was the only one who talked, it doesn't fix it. Don't be the guy with maxed out Diplomacy if you're not gonna fucking talk to the NPCs.

 

[Overly Serious]

I never did music, but I did props, especially after running the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. The documents, handouts, props, even including something like a branded box of matches, really lent to the immersion. Everyone loved it. Just being able to handle an object, like you were actually your character, was really good.

The HP Lovecraft Historical Society do an entire props bundle for that campaign. It's really insanely above and beyond but it sells (and is very impressive).

https://store.hplhs.org/collections/games-props/products/masks-of-nyarlathotep-gamer-prop-set

Honestly, the hundred odd dollars it costs is quite reasonable for what you get. And they re-did the scroll to fix some errors in the Chinese!


I think this has to be the End Boss of all table top prop efforts.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

Throwing a DnD friend of mine under the bus here, but he's been coming up with some rather weird character concepts. The Aarakocra tank build I mentioned a while back came from him; rather than use light/no armor and flying around at level 1, he had his bird using heavier armors and intentionally restricted his ability to fly. His justification for this, aside from trying to accommodate early-game table balance, was that his bird had a damaged wing and thus was remaining grounded while it healed up; it was an ability that he was going to have to wait on (i.e. until the party is leveled enough to take on flying enemies) and until then he was stuck in the same position as the rest of his group. He also tended to avoid ranged combat, being a more aggressive melee combatant than even the party Fighter.

Aside from that, he admitted to using the Custom Lineage from Tasha's as an excuse to bring races from older versions of DnD into 5e, like the Gnolls or Lupins, strictly using the same stat spreads. He also never took Darkvision for some reason outside of a few cases; said that he "prefers" to play with restrictions.

He's been wanting to bring some of his build ideas to our table; what do you guys think?

 

[Gingervitis]

In the end, I think the only additional races I allowed were Goliaths, Firbolgs, and Eladrin.

The cool Eladrin in the DMG, or the gay Eladrin from one of the sourcebooks?

 

[The Ugly One]

Interesting; I admit, I'm fairly ignorable of DnD 1e - oldest I've gone so far is 3rd Edition - so stuff like this is new.

Worth reading, but I wouldn't play it.

He's been wanting to bring some of his build ideas to our table; what do you guys think?

If you are the DM, then available races should be determined by your setting. Does a gnoll character make sense at all? It does in Eberron, where gnolls are simply just another sapient race, albeit one that's not very civilized and inclined to violence. It doesn't work in Greyhawk, where gnolls are vicious carnivores who instinctively delight in devouring other sapient creatures and worship the demon lord, Yeenoghu.

In general, I don't police any player's build or backstory, but I am uncompromising in the tone of my setting. I don't even care what your backstory is, the dice, not any larger narrative, decide if you live or die.