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

[Corn Flakes]

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Holy shit that's Fredrik Andersson. That dude's art was a staple of my RPG shitposting back in the 00's. Where is that horny old bastard now?

I might be a disgusting degenerate who’s cool with ERP games, but that shits for online games. Not irl games, where you can see the faces of the other players, and certainly not in games meant for normal play. That shit is disgusting, and possibly gay.

Text-based roleplaying and voice/around-the-table roleplaying are two different beasts. I'm not gonna lie, back when I played World of Warcraft I sometimes wandered down to Goldshire to see what was going on. The sea of dickgirls turned me away but if that's what you're into and you're doing it one-on-one in private, knock yourself out. Shit got real weird when someone in my guild found two night elves going at it in the corner of Deeprun Tram, though.

Either way, TTRPG is something I do to relax and have fun. Sweaty nerds talking dirty around a table or phone-sexing through a Discord group call is not what I want to see in my leisure time.

Also, aren’t sex repulsed asexual people part of the LGBTQ+? Wouldn’t grossing them out of the table be acephobic?

It's one of those "they're part of the group but no one cares about them beyond using them for political points" things that the woke crowd love so much. There are far more "I don't have sex but (or because) I jack off five times a day" creeps than there are honest-to-God sex-repulsed asexuals.

I have tried. God help me, I have wanted to make that work so badly. But Dex in 5e is just too godlike to pass up since its a get-out-of-free card for AoE spells and if some asshole decides to sit on a ridge like A FUCKING PUSSY being able to fire a longbow arrow to the face is just too damn handy. Its also, unlike plate mail, cheap. That said, I have done a Heavy Weapons Elf build in 20th Anniversary SR hilariously well since 5 BOD plus elf AGI plus a gyromount plus... yeah, I'll cut the sperging short.

I would love to find whoever it was who first showed up at a design meeting and said "hey, everybody loved Weapon Finesse, how about we have it affect damage as well?", and introduce their nuts to my size 11 boots (in Minecraft). Having Dexterity be awesome for both offense and defense for no cost (not even a Feat/ASI) is the dumbest idea ever. I bet it was someone who was salty his Rogue couldn't just dump all his points in Dexterity and still needed some Strength. Either that or it was a weeb wanting to dual-wield all the things.

Anyway... that rant aside, my point is that you could do unorthodox builds if you were fine with the hit to your efficiency. I've played a walking bank vault elf before. Full plate and shield and a spear. Used the +2 to Dex to cover the 8 on the ability array. Worked fine. I still carried a few javelins (and later on a returning throwing axe) for when I needed to reach out and touch someone. Sure, they didn't go as far as a longbow but I could still use my Str bonus for it.

This all was only possible because my group likes playing along with non-optimal shit, though. We're old farts. We have have all done the 120-damage Warlock Nuke in 5e. We have all done CoDzilla in 3.5e. We just play characters we think are fun now.

 

[Techpriest]

The last thing I need is more tards with poorly thought out gimmick characters they create for shockvalue and with zero forethought on how they'll work in the setting. You know the player. They would make a purposely irritating or dumb/chaotic monkeycheese character, and then just have this weird one-trick pony that has run it course after session or two. So they either derail the game trying to get to do their one-trick again, or they get bored, disengage, and want to roll another gimmick, while aguing how their gimmick should be able to break the game rules. Or they get pissy when the whole game isn't built around them being able to gayflirt with every male to make some bishiyaoi fantasy come true for them.

I want to play my Blizzard Wizard Lizard though.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I want to play my Blizzard Wizard Lizard though.

So... White Dragonborn Boreal Sorcerer, then?

 

[robobobo]

I'm all for weird character concepts, but they also have to not be total dead weight, or the GM needs to know to be balancing fights based off of one of the characters being a useless lump. I was in a D&D game a long while back where one of the players had a character who, in any fight, would run and hide. Not run and hide to try to do something useful from stealth, mind you, but run and hide to wait for the fight to be over. Guy didn't last terribly long.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I'm all for weird character concepts, but they also have to not be total dead weight, or the GM needs to know to be balancing fights based off of one of the characters being a useless lump. I was in a D&D game a long while back where one of the players had a character who, in any fight, would run and hide. Not run and hide to try to do something useful from stealth, mind you, but run and hide to wait for the fight to be over. Guy didn't last terribly long.

There's a lot of space between "not optimal" and "dead weight", though. Much of it depends on what the player does with the character once the game actually starts. You could have an Adonis with 18 on all stats and a +3 greatsword in your party, but if he was constantly out of position to use his actions he would be even less useful than the 10-on-all-stats peasant girl the party had just rescued and given a walking stick (quarterstaff) to defend herself with.

Particularly in more combat-centric games like D&D, simply having another warm body who can contribute to a fight can make a big difference because of the action economy. There are only so many things a party can do in one turn. A player character in D&D naturally becomes more powerful as time goes on. Their proficiency score (or BAB/resistances) and HP go up. Sure, a Fighter with 12 Strength and 10 Constitution would be weaker than a Fighter with 20 Strength and Constitution, and it'll be very obvious in the long run, but simply having a cleverly (or even non-braindeadedly, that's a word now) player-controlled character in the party beats not having that character no matter their build.

For example, one of the players in my group wanted to play a minion-focused necromancer this last campaign. Before approving it, our GM pulled me aside and we ran the numbers. Even a single skeleton, which is roughly the equivalent of a level 1 Fighter, can contribute to a fight in unexpected ways. Besides being a semi-reliable source of 1d6+2 damage (enough to one-shot a Kobold 2 out of 3 times), it can perform any Action in combat as any standard player character. Including Help. Including Dodge. Including Use an Object. And even if they're just standing in the back plinking away at the ogre, any ranged attack or spell directed towards them is an attack or spell not going towards the rest of the party. It goes on. And the Necromancer would have access to up to four of these at level 5 with some preparation. In the end the GM allowed it, and designed encounters accordingly.

The build is only part of it. Even characters built "wrong" can be useful to some level. More so if the GM isn't balancing the campaign around min-maxed characters, of course. The problem is when you have an asshole who not only goes for a stupid gimmick, but also plays the character in a stupid and/or unhelpful way. Shit, one of the one-shots my GM did at our LGS had a rogue player who insisted in trying to pickpocket the rest of the party. While in combat.

tl; dr: A lot of times it's less a "build" problem, and more a "player" problem.

 

[Snekposter]

I'll be honest, next to you grognards I'm stuck taking your word for things since I have no real experience under my belt, especially with players who aren't good friends already and are able to amicably talk things out when issues arise. I mean, yeah, I've had my share of issues with other players, especially this one misandrist MtF that really burned me on interacting with them in any manner, but some of the stuff here is just ridiculous to read about.

I would love to find whoever it was who first showed up at a design meeting and said "hey, everybody loved Weapon Finesse, how about we have it affect damage as well?", and introduce their nuts to my size 11 boots (in Minecraft). Having Dexterity be awesome for both offense and defense for no cost (not even a Feat/ASI) is the dumbest idea ever. I bet it was someone who was salty his Rogue couldn't just dump all his points in Dexterity and still needed some Strength. Either that or it was a weeb wanting to dual-wield all the things.

Oh, I get why they did that, but I guess it would have been too much effort at the same time to let guys in plate not get fucked by traps and the infamous Fireball. That's what really has me unhappy about things. Well, that and the fact Dex-based AC is completely free of charge, infinitely scaling, and completely unencumbering whereas armor-based AC... yeah.

 

[Emperor Julian]

was their actually a backlash that stupid wheelchair dungeon? I mean outside of saying it's cringe and not buying it, I didnt see much feedback which wasnt empty praise.
Personally I find the idea that you not only want to play with any irl conditions but want the limitations it brings ignored is depressing, in it's personal implications

“Sorry bitch you don't even get to walk in your fantasies, now get back in the fucking chair, we've built some shitty mechanics to pretend it isnt a limitation”

 

[Corn Flakes]

I'll be honest, next to you grognards I'm stuck taking your word for things since I have no real experience under my belt, especially with players who aren't good friends already and are able to amicably talk things out when issues arise. I mean, yeah, I've had my share of issues with other players, especially this one misandrist MtF that really burned me on interacting with them in any manner, but some of the stuff here is just ridiculous to read about.

Oh, all sorts of weird shit happens when you're running convention demos or LGS one-shots. It's just what you set yourself up to with randos. My long-running groups (I'm in two), on the other hand, tend to have more stories about people doing goofy shit with everybody else's blessings and/or getting royally fucked over by the dice.

Oh, I get why they did that, but I guess it would have been too much effort at the same time to let guys in plate not get fucked by traps and the infamous Fireball. That's what really has me unhappy about things. Well, that and the fact Dex-based AC is completely free of charge, infinitely scaling, and completely unencumbering whereas armor-based AC... yeah.

Overall, I prefer playing 5e but 3.5e had it right when it came to balancing the stats. Even with Weapon Finesse, you could only add your Dex to your attack rolls, not your damage rolls. And wearing a shield while using Weapon Finesse also hurt your attack rolls. So investing in Finesse was a way to cover the big weaknesses of going heavy into Dex (a lower attack bonus), but you would never deal the same amount of damage as a Str-based character with the same weapon.

5e removing the extra 50% Str bonus for two-handing a weapon also put another nail in Str's coffin.

was their actually a backlash that stupid wheelchair dungeon? I mean outside of saying it's cringe and not buying it, I didnt see much feedback which wasnt empty praise.
Personally I find the idea that you not only want to play with any irl conditions but want the limitations it brings ignored is depressing, in it's personal implications
View attachment 2320919
“Sorry bitch you don't even get to walk in your fantasies, now get back in the fucking chair, we've built some shitty mechanics to pretend it isnt a limitation”

There wasn't really much backlash for two reasons:

1 - a lot of places sanitized any feedback of the module/dungeon;

2 - the dungeon was "wheelchair accessible", which means lots of ramps but not much else. D&D characters already use ramps and stairs interchangeably so in gameplay terms there's no difference. If you don't play a wheelchair-bound character it makes no difference to you either way; and...

3 - I don't think a lot of people actually bought that damn module, much less played it, in order to offer in-depth feedback (positive or negative). That's why so much of the feedback is empty praise. They're using boilerplate political points because they don't actually know what the dungeon is about.

This is why you have to actually own and play a game in order to review it on Steam, kids.

 

[Snekposter]

Oh, all sorts of weird shit happens when you're running convention or LGS demos and one-shots. It's just what you set yourself up to. My long-running groups (I'm in two), on the other hand, tend to have more stories about people doing goofy shit with everybody else's blessings and/or getting royally fucked over by the dice.

Ah, the dice. Its practically become a meme among my various groups that Roll20 hates my guts due to how abominably my rolls frequently go. You'd think a guy who can roll at a +12 to dodge attacks versus the enemy attack roll and re-roll once per round in a D20-based combat system would be as impossible to hit as a cripple trying to box Muhammad Ali, but noooo... I explicitly set his ass up to be as much an evasive dodgy prick, both in combat and with sleight of hand like picking pockets as much as possible, in a game where the PC's were explicitly OP as part of basic plot, but I still wound up slapping on armor on top of his armor since its the only thing that can save your ass from the dice hating you, at least when its damage reduction after being hit and not straight AC.

Overall, I prefer playing 5e but 3.5e had it right when it came to balancing the stats. Even with Weapon Finesse, you could only add your Dex to your attack rolls, not your damage rolls. And wearing a shield while using Weapon Finesse also hurt your attack rolls. So investing in Finesse was a way to cover the big weaknesses of going heavy into Dex (a lower attack bonus), but you would never deal the same amount of damage as a Str-based character with the same weapon.

5e removing the extra 50% Str bonus for two-handing a weapon also put another nail in Str's coffin.

That's all fair. I do approve of the perk streamlining though. Hoo boy do Fighters have it tough in 3.5e, at least without ToB. That said, I'm a weirdo who hates spell-like abilities for non-casters, especially ones that have strict limits on them, preferring simple HIT THING WITH OBJECT bookkeeping for my fighting, (well, at least in a clever way, although KROD SMASH PUNY THING is a guilty pleasure of everyone, I imagine), so ToB doesn't quite scratch that itch. 3.5e just isn't for me, to be honest. Mostly because my characters are rarely designed to do one thing extremely well, typically several good enough, so the specialization you're inevitably going to need to focus on causes crippling indecision in me when it comes time to deciding on how to advance them.

 

[thx1138]

was their actually a backlash that stupid wheelchair dungeon? I mean outside of saying it's cringe and not buying it, I didnt see much feedback which wasnt empty praise.
Personally I find the idea that you not only want to play with any irl conditions but want the limitations it brings ignored is depressing, in it's personal implications
View attachment 2320919
“Sorry bitch you don't even get to walk in your fantasies, now get back in the fucking chair, we've built some shitty mechanics to pretend it isnt a limitation”

There's no reason in any D&D game for any character to be wheelchair bound, blind, deaf, or even a troon.

Get some gold, go get Polymorph Other cast on your character, voila, you're a man or woman. No? Worried about the permanency of it? Wish. Alter Reality. A Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity.

Heal or restoration fixes the paralysis or other disability problem.

There's no reason for it. None.

When I played D&D (and I guess some people still play old D&D so I'm going to seek them out), people wanted to be more. They wanted to be heroic, not just ren-fair versions of themselves in real life...

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

View attachment 2317817
Is this a good module to run for ERP?

No but if you want a free for all battle for loot it's okay. It was written forty year ago and it's only 16 pages long including cover and back cover. The adventure is named that due to the original meaning of a "glory hole", but hey! at least you'll find some "magicum". Again, I doubt they meant it be thought of that way.

 

[Gingervitis]

View attachment 2317817
Is this a good module to run for ERP?

Inferno might be, depending on your tastes.

Spoiler

If I recall, the demons in Inferno will try to rape female PCs. It was a different time

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

Should note that the Edward R.G. Mortimer listed is the same guy who worked on Arcanium's story.. He's also well known for his love of gnomes so if you have any deviant players out there who want to play gnomes (and you keep them in your group), look for his books.

 

[Judge Dredd]

There's a YouTuber I've been watching for years that reviews horror modules, mainly Call of Cthulhu. He's one of the only YouTubers I know that can do in-character skit comedy in a review and have it not only work, but enhance the review itself. I remember when his channel was small, and now he's big as far as RPG channels go.

A while ago (I guess sometime before covid) I stopped watching his show. I don't know why, it just didn't click with me any more. I chalked this up to burn out.

A new video of his appeared in my subscription/recommended feed and I thought I'd give him a watch. He now reviews Powered by the Apocalypse modules.

 

[Zaryiu2]

Where do you guys find your pdf since the trove went down?

 

[Brain Problems]

Where do you guys find your pdf since the trove went down?

the-eye.eu

 

[DeagleNationRefugee]

I've been just using pastebins from /tg/.

 

[Jeff_the_Thriller]

I'm playing the Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines PC game and I really want to get into the tabletop. Like most tabletop games, I'm guessing it fell into the trap of dumbing down and inclusivity. I'm getting back into tabletop and started with D&D 3.5 with some older books (just a reference to give an idea of where I'm at with tabletop). Any suggestions for where to start with non-wokish Vampire manuals? I also been looking at Call of Cthulhu for another horror themed RPG. There's an Alien RPG I stumbled upon that looks pretty decent. The reviews are good but has anyone here played it?

 

[Techpriest]

I'm playing the Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines PC game and I really want to get into the tabletop. Like most tabletop games, I'm guessing it fell into the trap of dumbing down and inclusivity. I'm getting back into tabletop and started with D&D 3.5 with some older books (just a reference to give an idea of where I'm at with tabletop). Any suggestions for where to start with non-wokish Vampire manuals? I also been looking at Call of Cthulhu for another horror themed RPG. There's an Alien RPG I stumbled upon that looks pretty decent. The reviews are good but has anyone here played it?

There isn't a non-"woke" version of Vampire. It's been extremely inclusive since the beginning.

 

[Corn Flakes]

There isn't a non-"woke" version of Vampire. It's been extremely inclusive since the beginning.

Editions 1 through Revised still had a sense of humor and self-awareness to them, though.

Older World of Darkness games were "inclusive" because inclusivity was seen as counterculture back then, not because it's mandated as it is now. So the old editions can be seen as inclusive but they are not "woke" as we know it now. Werewolf is a good example: whether or not you're gay, you better produce offspring if you're a Garou, and don't even think about being transgender because Gaia does not make mistakes. Hell, the Get of Fenris tribal glyph looks like a fucking swastika. That would not fly for a new player character faction in Current Year.

Anyway, @Jeff_the_Thriller, we have a thread specifically for World of Darkness if you want to check it out or ask specific questions there.