PnP RPG Thread

[eharper256]

Jubelon and I were discussing starting a thread about Pen and Paper roleplaying games a couple of weeks ago. And since the Sekaiju no Meikyuu SRS thread seems a little dead, I decided to go ahead with making a general one.

Who here actually plays PnP?

If you do, feel free to talk about your favourite systems and anything related to them.

I've always found it pretty interesting that Etrian itself is partially a loop around to the days of Dungeon Master, Bards Tale, Eye of the Beholder, and classic dungeon romp Computer RPGs like that; all of which were in fact based on PnP RPGs, most often Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition (otherwise called 'AD&D'; and we're on 4th edition these days, BTW).

And really, I find it a little sad that some people seem to think MMORPGs are just better. They're not proper RPGs at all, and IMHO, they're a bit of step backwards. I know its partially easier to boot up your PC and go on a raid than it is to schedule 6 hours aside to go around your mates or cook up a plot, but I think people forget that the socialising is actually a big factor in tabletop games.

And in our increasingly hands-off, electronic society, we need all the socialising we can get, right?

Of course, I speak from biased viewpoint. I'm a heavy geek, and hey, I actually make Pen and Paper RP's. (My first has ). But even so...

Anyway, enough gabbling from me...LOL... I'd like to see and hear others viewpoints on the matter. And I'd love a good gabble about all kinds of RPGs, anyway. So yeah.

[Benkyo]

I love the idea of RPGs, collected a dozen systems and had as many half-finished campaigns knocking around in my head throughout my teenage life. I only ever actually ran one or two short-lived campaigns though, and the only one I remember was a completely made from scratch Mad-Max style thing with freeform rules based on occasionally rolling a die or two and a vehicular combat boardgame.

Anyway, yeah, PnP seems to be by far the best option out there, it's just not one I've ever been able to enjoy with other like-minded people.

[noodles]

*raises hand*

Actually, I was going to start up a regular old narrative role play thread, but a lot of the people who were interested, well, left. I noticed the amount of pen and paper people who showed up recently, and with that you don't have to worry about writer's block.

I'm not so good with big number systems in my head, but if someone provides the rules and necessary stats and stuff I would certainly join up. I did it all the time in high school.

I just wonder how we would actually get together and do it. Another forum I go to had a Skype D&D session and it went very well, but some people around here are sensitive about their identity and wouldn't do voice.

[Riseatrance]

I play Pen and Paper RPGs.

I used to regularly play Maid RPG.

I do have experience with other kinds of PnP RPGs. Also, please do not do oWoD because that is some terrible crap.

[eharper256]

Ah yeah, to clarify, I'm a fairly experienced GM. Until quite recently I had an exhausting schedule of running 3 campaigns at once: 4th Ed D&D, Pendragon, and Vampire Dark Ages (sorry Risea, that is indeed oWoD: personally not my favourite system, but it was the best backdrop for a campaign based on the Holy Roman Empire that I wanted to do including my loli Prince and the holy grail, heh).

Recently, though, the D&D campaign finished after a 9 month run, to be replaced with a '20 years later' sequel, since the characters got to Epic level, and some of their children are included in the new party (and the new party included a Hexxer!).

That campaign has been rather interesting for me, though its had its ups and downs: I've always offered the players several routes through whatever narrative I've cooked up (most often a Law, Neutral, and Chaos set). The choices they make are never obvious, usually, though, and fascinatingly, they've gone Chaos without realising this time (always fun to write: now they've ended up siding with an Eldritch goddess of yore), whereas they did Neutral before in the old campaign.

Dark Ages was suspended so I could run a test game of Aniventure, my RPG, before release. This test games plot was unashamedly ripped from Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey, though it varied in several places.

Pendragon was also suspended since I used to run that evenings at the Students Union, and of course its the holidays at the moment. I only managed to run Pendragon whilst juggling 2 others because it has a VERY DETAILED campaign already set up. Although somehow the PCs ended up managing to fight Brian Blessed (in full plate). Go figure.

[Riseatrance]

Honestly I didn't like oWoD not because of its system but because the worldsetting screams "DARK WRISTSLITTING CUT CUT CUT" to me and I am having horribly bad vibes about it. :/

[eharper256]

Only if you read all the decadent attached literature and play it with a bunch of goths (which, admittedly, I did see once: as you say, not pleasant).

Dark Ages is a better setting, IMHO, since its not modern, and hey, the middle ages is supposed to dull and gloomy, and the war of the princes is a far more fun worldsetting than gehenna (which is very depressing).

[negzee]

Heh. I get to see that not infrequently. I hang around a group that LARPs Vampire. Gothy oh yes. They've been trying to drag me into their Mage and Changeling games as well, and once did succeed in using me as a zombie NPC.

[Riseatrance]

[eharper256]

Fair enough... I can totally understand if thats all they do. Fortunately, I have a group of open-minded geeky mates who completely not goths, so I can get away with it. In fact, Dark Ages just more often ended up funny when I GM'ed it, especially with our over-acting hammy Malkavian and their ghouled super cat (which climbed the tower of a castle from the outside. With its claws. Yeah.)

Although the one modern oWoD I played was amusing too. Although I mainly remember the Ventrue frenzying because somebody shot his monopoly board. That was silly.

[Maxine MagicFox]

I've never played one or seen how one is played. I, honestly, couldn't even begin to fathom HOW they are played. There's something to do with a GM... dice... and that's about all I know.

[Benkyo]

In their simplest, purest form PnP RPGs are simply one player describing the world (the GM) and the other players describing what they want to do. That's all there is to it.

[beekee]

Hey, eharpher. Happy to see this thread pop up.

I, of course, play PnP RPGs. I like them; they're a difference experience than video games, but what makes one enjoyable tends to overlap with the other.

I felt the way you did, Maxine, before I had much experience with them. It all seemed so esoteric.

nWoD is looking pretty awesome, coming from someone who doesn't even play White Wolf products. We were tempted to start a mixed nWoD game a while back, but had to shelve the idea because of the huge number of campaigns we're already doing.

D&D is our mainstay. The new edition, but we played the previous edition a lot. The ones I am most involved in some way or another are D&D, Mutants & Masterminds, and True20. We do a lot of homebrewing. The game I run is with my homemade game system that was originally built from the True20 core.

[eharper256]

[negzee]