Dungeons & Dragons (DnD)

I think who you end up playing with is a lot of the enjoyment (or lack of)

What sort of character are you playing? (if you want to talk about it, I like hearing about people’s characters)

I’ve actually started playing a Pathfinder (1e) campaign roughly monthly. Had forgotten what a huge amount of number crunching there is although it’s also true that it’s nice how complexly designed the combat is. Totally on the edge of being too much but still, when you play it to the full extent you really have a huge amount of little bits to make it feel very very detailed.

Oh sure. My character is a halfling bard called Gwenjamin. She’s friendly, cheerful and good at sneaking around; she’s also a bit of an idiot (minus 1 to intelligence and wisdom). I’m still getting the hang of role-playing so I’ll no doubt fill out more details of her character as we go.

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I have still found Pathfinder a bit inpenetrable but if I ever got a physical rulebook I might be able to figure it a bit better.

Found earlier there is going to be a TTRPG based on NK Jemison’s The Fifth Season which is very exciting but I looked at the pdf of the ‘quick start guide’ and it was just walls of text and a bit much so far.

(have I still backed it? Yes)

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Nice!

My only game as a player I am a Valour Bard and I love being a bard so much, very fun class even if I am playing one who is an acolyte of a goddess of death :sweat_smile:

Also have negative wisdom and know it is going to haunt me picking it as a dump stat.

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Yeah, Pathfinder helps when you play with people who’ve really played it for ages and can recall how to build a character properly. It’s not really that far from D&D in many ways and 5e is now trying to introduce a bit of its features by making ‘feat ladders’, but in PF you get far more feats as you level up so it’s a lot denser.

The core of the game doesn’t change too much it’s just combat options that are there.

Not that into new systems to be honest. I think for me if I wanted to do the Fifth Season I’d just grab GURPS. Pretty sure I read that’s what the guys behind The Expanse were using when they started doing their RPG and it might have been what Erikson and his mate were doing when they created their campaign thing ahead of him writing it as Malazan.

That said, we’re currently playing Alien and doing the Destroyer of Worlds cinematic scenario which is very strongly in the mould of Aliens but also its own thing. I have really enjoyed doing lots of really silly US accents and getting my players to do the same and yelling wildly when going for it. But it’s definitely not a system as tight as 5e is.

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I think the system they are basing Fifth Season on is the same base as the Expanse one

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Yeah, would make sense if it’s adapting an established one. You do see a lot of systems based on TV shows and books out there like this and then they sort of disappear.

I mean it was always the case in the 80s too - loads of systems I’d buy one book of then never really play it.

Even this Aliens one has some basic stuff seemingly out of print.

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Yeah, something that is already for a smallish fan base and then only appealing to a niche within it is never going to create the sort of ecosystem around it to sustain it.

Like, I have bought the book for this but with the expectation that I will probably never be able to get a group together to play it but I’m just really interested in seeing how they’ve adapted elements of that world to a game and maybe I can use it as a base to incorporate into other games.

(I’m already stealing from NKJ a bit by using some gods from the Inheritance trilogy because they fit quite nicely what I needed :smile:)

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They seem to have rolled back and then some

the 5.1 rules are now all available, although in a practical sense I’m not 100% what that means. I guess it means the ‘free’ bit they already had is now inclusive all races etc but possibly you don’t get the nice text around how come each race has the abilities and backgrounds it does?

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Has anyone tried solo roleplay? (stop sniggering at the back…)
There are some great shows/podcasts that use it. Seems like a great way to stretch yourself creatively and faff around with worldbuilding as much as you want.

These shows are great:

(160) Me, Myself and Die! - YouTube Seasons 1-3 each use different systems but the same characters. Like very short episodes of Critical Role, very good fun.

Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama | a podcast by The Manticore (podbean.com) this is excellent slow-build, quite lo-fi podcast

Legend of the Bones | a podcast by legendofthebones (podbean.com) this is similar to TOTM, a very different world though.

So these are people who’ve written a campaign but have played it out solo using dice rolls to control the outcome?

I’m unclear if you’re saying, have we tried these things or have we tried running our own solo games? I’ve not tried that sort of thing myself because really there are computer games and FF books etc. - Legendary Kingdoms are particularly well designed multi-character Fighting Fantasy style things - but Wizards have done at least one solo module:

It’s pretty good, from what I saw reading although I haven’t tried it.

Chiefly, I think the thing about D&D is the multiple people making it happen. I can’t really imagine being able to create a truly fulfilling solo adventure even if there was some kind of app that filled in some sides of it for you.

Haven’t tried any solo RPGs before, but I know they’re a big thing - I think the Wanderhome system is one I’ve heard of people using solo. For me a lot of the appeal of TTRPGs is the social group, but I can imagine how using a solo system as a kind of journaling prompt or creative writing thing could also be interesting.

I’ve done some solo jounraling style RPGs and they can be quite fun to stretch creativity. There’s some ones where you make maps too that look quite fun.

Starting next week I’m DMing my second game, starting with one of the adventures from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount (Unwelcome Spirits) and then plotting out places to take the story in Tal’dorei. I am very excited, also we are about three time zones short of having the biggest possible spread which is fun.

Enjoying my other game also (Radiant Citadel, with some lovely disers+), DMing is fun

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What is this? Do you have an explanatory link, prefer text not video/audio?

Solasta’s on special offer this week on Steam

It’s built using 5e open rules.

Sorry to be that guy but I think DnD is an awful system, and too weighted to its legacy to ever offer very interesting situations.

Savage Worlds or Spire is far more fun.

Hmm. I’ve played a lot of systems in the past - I have read Spire’s although not Savage Worlds. In general they all have good and bad aspects but often the key aspect that D&D (and I guess Pathfinder too) offer is the openness of the world.

E.g. Spire (unless I’m misunderstanding) is very strongly linked to the world it exists in, which I find also muddies things as the system and the world go hand in hand. (I also wasn’t really sure I liked the sound of that world).

I do like the sound of Savage Worlds but not had a chance to really explore it - but cheers for that because £10 isn’t much for the PDF to peruse.

I would really take issue with D&D being ‘awful’. I think it’s incredibly robust, particularly at 5e. It easily deals with characters who are built by furious min/maxers or newbies just going with the easy options. Definitely has flaws but I think it does the fantasy thing really well.

That said, a lot of my mates always said Warhammer FRP was the business for this and sadly I’ve never actually played that one either :frowning:

Dull reminiscing over some systems I've played in the past

I do think there can be issues with a lot of newer systems that try to be so simple that they can be unengaging to play. E.g. we all really enjoyed playing Mutant Year Zero and Alien RPG back to back - both very similar systems in their own worlds but there’s a lack of satisfaction in the tactical side of the combat and also the simple nature of the D6 rolling system seemed to result in more failures to achieve stuff than D&D’s D20+value to get over a benchmark did. Which is odd.

Probably the two systems I’ve enjoyed playing most would be West End Games’ 1987 Star Wars one or the Storyteller (Vampire: The Masquerade etc.) one, but I actually find the game worlds and options in each lacking so it’s hard to keep coming back to.

Obviously Call of Cthulhu has some big chops but it’s full of little specifics that get in the way of play and, IME, it’s hard to use a system to simulate the backbone of research and investigation that should make up a big part of it (it can work but it can also end up a cross between railroading and just ‘rolling knowledge-based skills til you get the answer’)

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