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Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Other TTRPGs

kyuuei

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Sadly, you'd think some level 15 fighter would say, "What's that geeky third-level guy doing with a sword that great? That should be MY sword!" and kill him for it.

I mean, day-um, a sword with +6 in bonuses (which I don't even know if legal, according to the rules -- doesn't it cap at +5?) would cost 72K in gold? That's a lot of money. You'd think even a non-fighter would be killing him (burning oil, clouds of arrows, dead adventurer in 5 seconds) just to sell it for gold.

The story we were doing was set up far from civilization, we recovered it ala LotR style, then we were continuing our quest with it and we had some fun with being super powerful for a while.. then my character had to struggle with keeping the sword or not when the time came to use it on an evil source where the sword was powerful enough to neutralize it--if it was embedded into it and sealed. In the end, of course she couldn't keep it, she was far too weak and useless to have that bad ass of a weapon and she would have started a war instead of our quest to end it if she didn't give it up. :3 But she definitely went through in her head how bad it would have been to kill all of her friends here in the hills, mission fail, flee the main country, and become a divine war god to a small clan of dumb people and work her way up the ranks that way. Probably would have been doomed to fail either way. Paladins or baddies would have found her.
 

Totenkindly

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The story we were doing was set up far from civilization, we recovered it ala LotR style, then we were continuing our quest with it and we had some fun with being super powerful for a while.. then my character had to struggle with keeping the sword or not when the time came to use it on an evil source where the sword was powerful enough to neutralize it--if it was embedded into it and sealed. In the end, of course she couldn't keep it, she was far too weak and useless to have that bad ass of a weapon and she would have started a war instead of our quest to end it if she didn't give it up. :3 But she definitely went through in her head how bad it would have been to kill all of her friends here in the hills, mission fail, flee the main country, and become a divine war god to a small clan of dumb people and work her way up the ranks that way. Probably would have been doomed to fail either way. Paladins or baddies would have found her.

Was the sword intelligent?

That always complicates things... especially when it's smarter than the wielder. :D
 

Passacaglia

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Well, we can discuss it here, or we could break that out into a new thread if people are interested.
I'd be okay with that, though so far it doesn't seem like there's much interest in my tangent, which is perfectly cool.

 

kyuuei

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Was the sword intelligent?

That always complicates things... especially when it's smarter than the wielder. :D

It was intelligent in a non-talking sort of way. So it kind of led us through some the quest when we tried side tracking ;)
 

Totenkindly

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Okay, this is kind of crazy, and needs backstory.

Running my sylph rogue 8 / sorc 1, and the group has been in a huge bazaar city. We have a map that a sage was deciphering so that he could magically send us there; everyone in town wanted to buy (or steal) this map and we had a sequence of adventures dealing with these people. The entire city is built on trade, and their capital crime is stealing. Of course there's a huge black market that is still effective, but no one talks about it, and Lili (my rogue) is tapped into it. You just don't want to get caught.

So the prior session, the resident bleeding heart dervish bard got shown three baby brass dragons for sale for a total of about 90K gold. (ha, yeah, right.) The dragons however let us know they wanted to escape; and i overheard the guards talking about the types of abuse they were laying down on these dragons. (A few had already died.) So of course the dervish is like, "WE MUST SAVE THEM," and I was like, "kool!" because it sounded like a fun job and because they're worth a lot of money or at least it would be cool to have some baby dragons in our group. Long story short, we managed to break into the complex and help the baby dragons escape last adventure and I think only one servant died (impressive for our group, we tend to leave a trail of destruction behind us a mile wide...and yes, hold that thought!) And we got out without otherwise people seeming to know who we were.

So we're back at the sage's house, dragons sunning on the roof, and the resident priestess shows up to give us some friendly advice about how we're the prime suspects in this dragon theft ("what? that's horrible! who would do such a thing?"), which is being investigated and will need some days to finish, and it's strongly advised that we be out of town by then so that we're out of reach of any kind of justice that might try to impose itself. We're like, "Well, we don't know anything about this crime, so we're sure justice will be done, but we will consider what you've said, thank you so much." I checked in with my black market contacts and they said, "yes, you have a price on your head; and by the way, please don't come back here any more." lol. Easy come, easy go.

So first the mage and I create a forged "confession letter" by the dead dragon trainer about how he felt he needed to free the creatures from their captivity, yada yada, and had it planted somewhere. Then we tell the sage to hurry up and send us to the location in the map. He casts the spell, we warp to this other place... and apparently the dimension door is two ways, because an army of efreet is waiting there and tells us, "Thank you for coming here and opening the portal, you can stay here and experience riches and adventure while we go through the portal and take what is ours," and they stream through the portal excitedly -- an entire army of fire genies -- and the portal shuts, stranding us (safely) in this new land.

All I can think is that if the city was pissed at us for breaking their most important law and for the theft of the dragons, they're gonna be more pissed when the efreet trash their entire city and install themselves as the new rulers.

(Again, "trail of destruction." I told you to remember that! At least they won't be coming after us. They have their hands full.)
 

Fluffywolf

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I'd love to do this sometime. Coincidentally I just watched a couple of people playing shadowrun on youtube and it seems like quite a lot of fun.

I think I am more of a game master type though. Creating my own settings and see how others fare in it.

Hmm, creating a game based on arcanum might be fun. *ponders*

Ive done a lot of straight up RP though, based on game and fantasy worlds. Until I got sick of wading through the vast amount of lonely roleplayers whose sole purpose was to find substitute intimite relationships to counter the lack of their rl experiences.
 

Cellmold

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I love the idea of D & D but I'm not quick enough in thought or action to work out decent courses of action when I play it.

Usually I just piss off everyone else because my decisions are crap. I wonder why I wasn't invited to my group's latest one.... I guess there isn't a connection.
 

Totenkindly

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Ive done a lot of straight up RP though, based on game and fantasy worlds. Until I got sick of wading through the vast amount of lonely roleplayers whose sole purpose was to find substitute intimite relationships to counter the lack of their rl experiences.

I try to avoid the imbalanced crazy nerds.
We're just all more well-adjusted nerds.

I'm currently playing a game with members of INTPf on the Roll20 site. It's fun, and the people are all probably the more "social" members of the site, we're laughing a lot and making jokes throughout the game. (Cooler, there are only two Americans; this is my first time playing RPGs with Europeans and Aussies.)

I was rather bummed. There was a less social but really smart guy who wanted to run a Modern d20 setting with Cyberpunk in order to do a "play by post" game, so he and I hammered out my character over a few weeks, and it would have been a lot of fun. But only one other person worked on a character, and then he left the site a month ago, so... I have this character and nowhere to use her.




I love the idea of D & D but I'm not quick enough in thought or action to work out decent courses of action when I play it.

Usually I just piss off everyone else because my decisions are crap. I wonder why I wasn't invited to my group's latest one.... I guess there isn't a connection.

Maybe if you just sit in for a few times until you get used to the kinds of options you might have?

Also, there are certain classes that are easier to play than others, so you can take a more sit-back approach and let the more experienced players take charge until you get the hang of things?

(Just brainstorming.)
 
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á´…eparted

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I shall be starting my first D&D game on Friday! :D

I technically played once before. Summer 2013 there was a group of 5 of us (all of whom except the DM never played before). We made characters than played one day. No one could get their schedules to align so it fizzled. The DM was passive, flaky, and has always made me uneasy anyway. It was sad because I was getting into it and it had potential.

This group is gonna be fun though. Over the weekend I ended up going food shopping with a good friend of mine and she was telling me about the D&D campagin she was in (they have met two times so far). It sounded really fun. I asked her if I could join when this one was done, and she said yes. The DM is her roommate and upon telling him he told me to just make a character (which I spent a solid 8 hours doing with them. Yay perfectionism!) and hop in since it was early and not everyone can meet every week. It's a huge group and it's two parties at this point but everyone has been enjoying it. I can not wait! I went to the store with some friends today and bought dice. Look at the little itty bitty baby d6's! They're so cute! :D

 

Totenkindly

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I shall be starting my first D&D game on Friday! :D

:fiesta:

What system are you using? The new 5e?

I technically played once before. Summer 2013 there was a group of 5 of us (all of whom except the DM never played before). We made characters than played one day. No one could get their schedules to align so it fizzled. The DM was passive, flaky, and has always made me uneasy anyway. It was sad because I was getting into it and it had potential.

DMs are a big deal. A good one ties everything together and keeps the group motivated; a bad one can ruin the group after just one session. And he was the new guy, from what you said.

This group is gonna be fun though. Over the weekend I ended up going food shopping with a good friend of mine and she was telling me about the D&D campagin she was in (they have met two times so far). It sounded really fun. I asked her if I could join when this one was done, and she said yes. The DM is her roommate and upon telling him he told me to just make a character (which I spent a solid 8 hours doing with them. Yay perfectionism!)

Character creation is the funnest part of the game for me in some ways. ;) And yeah, I actually will make a build up through level 20 and then tweak it constantly, so that I have a sense of where I want to go with the character and what to do with it... so then I pick the right feats and skills and such as I level.

and hop in since it was early and not everyone can meet every week. It's a huge group and it's two parties at this point but everyone has been enjoying it. I can not wait! I went to the store with some friends today and bought dice. Look at the little itty bitty baby d6's! They're so cute! :D


Oh that is SICKENINGLY cute.

I have a whole bag of dice. I also played with d20's until i found one that rolled the way I like. it's only gray marble color, sadly -- not as purty as the other d20's I have -- but it typically does wonders for me. :D
 

Passacaglia

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...and I was like, "kool!" because it sounded like a fun job and because they're worth a lot of money or at least it would be cool to have some baby dragons in our group.
Lol, your character reminds me of a certain Haley Starshine.

I love the idea of D & D but I'm not quick enough in thought or action to work out decent courses of action when I play it.

Usually I just piss off everyone else because my decisions are crap. I wonder why I wasn't invited to my group's latest one.... I guess there isn't a connection.
What exactly do you mean, that your decisions are crap? Arguing for at least a half-hour over every major decision-point is a time-honored D&D tradition.

I shall be starting my first D&D game on Friday! :D
I'm so jealous! You'll tell us about it, yes? :)
 

Totenkindly

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What exactly do you mean, that your decisions are crap? Arguing for at least a half-hour over every major decision-point is a time-honored D&D tradition.

"Wait, but if I had that particular spell buff up in conjunction with my magic boots and it's a circumstance bonus, then it should stack with my enhancement bonus even if the race bonus is inapplicable, and.. and... and... WELL, that dodge should have worked and I should have only taken 23 points of cold damage instead of 27! So there!"

Or as simple as: "Left!" "NO, we're going right!" "We can't go right, I hear something down there!" "That's your mother, we're going left!" ... and then 45 minutes later, we just sit down and camp.



... Last night I felt very proud of myself. Sumiko (my Cryptic psychic) got our whole group transported to another plane via touching a single stone on a large mosaic. And when people wanted to go home and told me to take us back, I out-Bluffed the inquisitor's Sense Motive and pretended I didn't know how to do it [AKA which stone to press] until the end of the session (after we had gotten the things I knew we needed to get)...

...whereupon I couldn't keep up the ruse anymore and they were like, "DAMMIT, she lied to us again! I knew it!"

At this point, they are Sensing Motive on everything I tell them. This is frustrating in the few moments when I'm actually being honest.
 

Cellmold

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What exactly do you mean, that your decisions are crap? Arguing for at least a half-hour over every major decision-point is a time-honored D&D tradition.

I think it's just I don't take it seriously enough which pisses people off, understandable since it can get old when everyone else wants to seriously role play, and then when I try to be serious I lose interest completely and just make half-arsed decisions that either have little input or help and can actually make it worse for the group.

It's interesting because initially when I took part in one I thought I would really enjoy it. Manage those expectations right?

It's not as if I'm going to pretend that on this occasion the problem was not legitimately me. And yet the thought lingers that I could get back into it, that this time I would do things differently. So I've tried a few more sessions.

But so far....nyah.
 

Passacaglia

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Last night I felt very proud of myself. Sumiko (my Cryptic psychic) got our whole group transported to another plane via touching a single stone on a large mosaic. And when people wanted to go home and told me to take us back, I out-Bluffed the inquisitor's Sense Motive and pretended I didn't know how to do it [AKA which stone to press] until the end of the session (after we had gotten the things I knew we needed to get)...

...whereupon I couldn't keep up the ruse anymore and they were like, "DAMMIT, she lied to us again! I knew it!"

At this point, they are Sensing Motive on everything I tell them. This is frustrating in the few moments when I'm actually being honest.
That's a great story! Is this all purely in-game deception, or do you pass private notes back and forth with the DM, so that the other players truly don't know? (Or privately chat with him/her in your VTT game.)
 

Totenkindly

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That's a great story! Is this all purely in-game deception, or do you pass private notes back and forth with the DM, so that the other players truly don't know? (Or privately chat with him/her in your VTT game.)

I wish we had an easy way to pass the notes. The group is actually really good about separating "what I know" vs "what my character knows," so we're capable of talking more openly. But the GM actually knows my character so well that when I say one thing, he can already figure out what I'm really doing all on his own (he's a smart guy). My Bluff didn't used to be so good, but using Conceal Thoughts + burning some skill points in it has now made it competitive.

Since we just play once a week, I will send him e-mails during the week if there are things I want to discuss with him about my character, goals, motivations, and such, and we'll be on the same page by the next game session.

 

Passacaglia

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I think it's just I don't take it seriously enough which pisses people off, understandable since it can get old when everyone else wants to seriously role play, and then when I try to be serious I lose interest completely and just make half-arsed decisions that either have little input or help and can actually make it worse for the group.

It's interesting because initially when I took part in one I thought I would really enjoy it. Manage those expectations right?

It's not as if I'm going to pretend that on this occasion the problem was not legitimately me. And yet the thought lingers that I could get back into it, that this time I would do things differently. So I've tried a few more sessions.

But so far....nyah.
Yeah, I've gotten plenty annoyed with players who want to treat the game as one big joke. On the other hand, I'm not one of those 'D&D is serious business' gamers, and there have been times as a player where I do something stupid just so that something happens. ("Gaaah, we've been arguing over whose turn it is to open this door for ten minutes, so I do it! No, I don't care that I'm the wizard. Just tell me what kind of save to roll, if any!")

One of the Dungeon Master Guides has a section devoted to the different kinds of players, and how to engage and manage them as a DM. It's a sort of typology system for gamers, actually. :D

Anyhow, screening other players and groups for what they expect and how they like to play is an important part of finding a good group...sadly I myself really need to work on this skill. I find it very difficult to express in words what kind of game I like, and how to interpret the words of gamers I don't know. Words are so subjective. :(

So yeah, manage those expectations. However [im]possible that may be.
 

Lark

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I havent read the thread so pardon my blundering in right now, I was wondering about the D&D typology the other day seeing a version of it in a meme on facebook, there is like lawful good, lawful neutral, lawful chaotic am I right?

Can anyone tell me about this and tell me what it means? I'm really interested, if this isnt D&D and is Warhammer or some other fantasy gaming let me know.

I grew up reading fighting fantasy novels and there wasnt a typology so much.
 

Totenkindly

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I havent read the thread so pardon my blundering in right now, I was wondering about the D&D typology the other day seeing a version of it in a meme on facebook, there is like lawful good, lawful neutral, lawful chaotic am I right?

Can anyone tell me about this and tell me what it means? I'm really interested, if this isnt D&D and is Warhammer or some other fantasy gaming let me know.

I grew up reading fighting fantasy novels and there wasnt a typology so much.

Kind of something that has persisted in D&D from the 70's. I think originally it was just lawful - neutral -chaotic, but that has been expanded into the 9-grid system.

Basically it's a nine-type system describing one's values and motivations, and it's used as a shorthand that can impact how different kinds of NPCs and monsters might instinctively react to you, as well as what types of spells you can cast, what magic items might or might not be usable, etc. (For example Holy items do extra damage against evil, and evil creatures lose a level if they hold them until they are released, etc.) Deities are also assigned alignments, and you can detect alignments with some spells.

Basically you have a term that describes your propensity for order through chaos (Lawful, neutral, or Chaotic) and then you have a term that describes your level of altruism (good - neutral - evil).

So you can get nine alignments (with True neutral or "neutral neutral") in the middle, and Lawful Good through Chaotic Evil as the end points so to speak. Alignments like Lawful Evil can be interesting -- basically you have someone bent on satisfying their own purposes, possibly to the detriment of others, but they remain honorable to their word if given, and they typically prefer a structured approach. Or Chaotic Good, where someone strives to help others / is benevolent, but refuses to be pinned down (aka the charming rogue who operates outside the law).

There are many detailed descriptions online you can find online. I'll dig some up if I have time.
 

Lark

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Kind of something that has persisted in D&D from the 70's. I think originally it was just lawful - neutral -chaotic, but that has been expanded into the 9-grid system.

Basically it's a nine-type system describing one's values and motivations, and it's used as a shorthand that can impact how different kinds of NPCs and monsters might instinctively react to you, as well as what types of spells you can cast, what magic items might or might not be usable, etc. (For example Holy items do extra damage against evil, and evil creatures lose a level if they hold them until they are released, etc.) Deities are also assigned alignments, and you can detect alignments with some spells.

Basically you have a term that describes your propensity for order through chaos (Lawful, neutral, or Chaotic) and then you have a term that describes your level of altruism (good - neutral - evil).

So you can get nine alignments (with True neutral or "neutral neutral") in the middle, and Lawful Good through Chaotic Evil as the end points so to speak. Alignments like Lawful Evil can be interesting -- basically you have someone bent on satisfying their own purposes, possibly to the detriment of others, but they remain honorable to their word if given, and they typically prefer a structured approach. Or Chaotic Good, where someone strives to help others / is benevolent, but refuses to be pinned down (aka the charming rogue who operates outside the law).

There are many detailed descriptions online you can find online. I'll dig some up if I have time.

The nine grid system is familiar to me from memes and pics, I'm interested to hear this descriptive breakdown though because a lot didnt make sense to me about it.

Neutral, neutral or true neutral, sounds boring to me and I'm not sure who would choose to play a character like that but perhaps it is properly understood as a more balanced and evenly traited character as opposed to the more colourful but unbalanced strengths and weaknesses characters?

The idea of lawful evil or rule abiding evil and chaotic or lawless good are totally intriguing ideas. I'm already trying to figure out what marvel or DC characters I would consider in each category.

I know that the good and evil labels are things people dont generally want to apply outside of the realms of gaming but the whole grid and typology/traitology is interesting to me. I bet a lot of the characters I know from D&D would not fit in the categories I would guess for them.
 
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