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PnP RPGs OT || Come play the REAL RPGs
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Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
What setting are you playing in?
Anyway, Half-Orcs do not usually have their own culture, they tend to blend into other's. If he was raised by humans, the human culture in that particular place in the world will probably determine most of those things (with the added specific that he was probably shunned by most people.)
It's important to ask the DM as much information as possible about the world you're playing in. If the Orcs are feared and loathed your character may find himself resorting to live outside of the mainstream society or have very low self-esteem for example. But if Orcs are the dominant race in the world, for example, your character would react very differently to his mixed-heritage.
And the later totally depends on how your DM sees Orcs/Half-Orcs in his/her world. Make sure to ask.
I had a DM that used Orcs as his seafaring race, and didn't see them as evil but neutral with individuals setting their own course.
I totally forgot about this until I saw the thread bumped recently. Thank you very much for your input guys, it is appreciated. It is not yet apparent the extent of Half-Orc existence in the current world as I am the only one the party has encountered and so far all the full-blooded Orcs are evil in service of Vecna. I recently found this cool picture to use as his updated portrait: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/Blue_Inuyasha/half-orc.jpg I plan to write some more about his background to try and flesh out his actions and will definitely check out some of the pathfinder lore and the advanced players and advanced race guides for inspiration and ideas.
Thanks again guys.
krypt0nian
Banned
Hey Jackben, I'm glad you found it at all helpful.
Ok, lots of Kickstarters, but this one seems worthy to post.
FATE Core - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/fate-core
Ok, lots of Kickstarters, but this one seems worthy to post.
FATE Core - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/fate-core
That's launched now? Cool, thanks for posting it. I've been waiting for that to hit since Fred Hicks posted the pre-launch page for it (on top of the long wait since they said it was being worked on). In for $30.
I haven't seen any other exciting Kickstarters for a while. I was on a sabbatical from GAF when Hillfolk by Robin D. Laws was funding, which I was all over.
On Robin Laws, I've been really enjoying his podcast with fellow gaming genius Kenneth Hite; simply, Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. If only the guys behind Unspeakable! could put out their podcasts with a quarter of the regularity.
I haven't seen any other exciting Kickstarters for a while. I was on a sabbatical from GAF when Hillfolk by Robin D. Laws was funding, which I was all over.
On Robin Laws, I've been really enjoying his podcast with fellow gaming genius Kenneth Hite; simply, Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. If only the guys behind Unspeakable! could put out their podcasts with a quarter of the regularity.
So, I don't know if you guys watch Spoony, but he basically has a show where he tells stories about PnP RPG stories. They're absolutely fantastic and fascinating as someone who's never played these types of games before.
Anyway, I was wondering if there was like any good type of online PnP RPG or something like that? I guess they wouldn't be PnP at that point, but I think you know what I mean. Anything for a beginner to see if they'd like this kind of game or not?
Anyway, I was wondering if there was like any good type of online PnP RPG or something like that? I guess they wouldn't be PnP at that point, but I think you know what I mean. Anything for a beginner to see if they'd like this kind of game or not?
Roll20 would be my first choice for an online solution. I've only tooled around with it by myself and it seems simple enough. They have LFG forum threads for different games/genres, but as with anything social it could be a mixed bag of experiences. It's just one of the options available to you. There is the play-by-post option on forums, but I don't think that is a very fun way to be introduced to the hobby.
If you can find a local gaming group or gaming store, that would be my first choice.
If you can find a local gaming group or gaming store, that would be my first choice.
I second Roll20 because its featureset is amazing. I actually can't understand why the base service is free, what it offers is too good to cost no money.
That's actually why I subscribed as a mentor. I don't really need or use the extra features, but the devs are kind of struggling to keep the site aloft right now and I want to give them my support.
That's actually why I subscribed as a mentor. I don't really need or use the extra features, but the devs are kind of struggling to keep the site aloft right now and I want to give them my support.
krypt0nian
Banned
Just ran through ep 12 and I'm in love. Thanks.
Also, just getting into Cthulhu gaming. Can you give a quick impression of Trail vs Call as far as play style and goals?
fallengorn
Bitches love smiley faces
Hey Jackben, I'm glad you found it at all helpful.
Ok, lots of Kickstarters, but this one seems worthy to post.
FATE Core - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/fate-core
Cool! I just happen to be in a Fate game now. It's my first experience with Fudge/Fate and after DMing a bunch of D&D 4E, it's pretty liberating. Might try and get my old group together and start a Fate game.
Keru_Shiri
Member
Roll20 is awesome. I'm not a huge fan of online RP, but Roll20 has easily been my most positive experience. I'm actually about to join a WoD game on Roll20 since the rest of my group lives in every corner of the state.
I totally missed the edit here.
On Trail, I must admit I am still an outsider looking in. I doubt my current group will ever play it, so it's up to me to run it for others. I've seen/listened to enough games of it to have a decent idea of the differences and will comment if that is of any use to you.
I think from the outset, Trail (aside from being much newer) appears a bit more modern than Call does, but not as much as you might think. Some of the ideas that Trail presents, specifically the "player always receives the clue", can be transplanted into Call without any effort and many people have been doing variations on that, even before Trail existed.
The point spend is a different animal altogether, something that can empower players to varying degrees, depending on how they use them. This is something that seems to be coming to Call in the next edition, using the general ability "Luck", which may or may not be a limited resource, unlike the pool points in Trail which do refresh at varying times. Call does currently have "impales" that can have much of the same effect, but it's beyond a players control, and the Keeper's ability to accept or deny if the situation actually has more coolness to give.
I do like the different dials that you can use in Trail, that don't require much thought or effort to alter the feel of the game and ultimately, the characters chance of survival. In Trail, there are of course the Purist and Pulp modes of play, and there is also the adjustment of build points that can be employed; build points can be altered in Call, but I think it's easier to see the effect in Trail. These make me excited to put the legendary "Masks of Nyarlathotep" into play using Trail's pulp mode with a hope that maybe one of the investigators might actually make it to the end of the campaign (I've never played or ran it, but I'm dying to).
The combat is much more simplified in the Trail rules, not that it should be used too often, but when it goes for a while unused there is much less to forget. There is no resistance table (thrown out in the next version of Call, I believe) only opposed checks, which is far simpler (dice fights can feel a bit dry though, so descriptions are needed to jazz it up). Trail can flow a bit quicker in these areas, but I wouldn't say by a large amount at all.
Overall, they are quite similar games in many ways, though the above may seem to skew it a lot in Trail's favour, these things are small in the grand scheme of things. These smaller details can be bent or changed almost any way you like; the BRP system in Call is very robust and stands up to a lot of alterations that may suit a groups preferred play-style. Call has stood the test of time for very good reason, but the changes being made for the next edition seem to bring it in line with some of the stuff Trail (and very common homebrew rules) has employed.
As it stands now, Call presents a very gritty world where the player characters are fragile, as they should be. It set out to emulate the feel of Lovecraftian stories, where members of the Human race encounter otherworldly horrors that see us as insignificant, unimportant; they care not for us one little bit as they carry on doing what they always have. Trail is very much the same in this regard; like all GUMSHOE games, it looks at the genre as a whole and attempts to emulate it as best as it can. Since there are variations within the genre, and some tales have different features, feelings and experiences, it just has those built in dials for you to mess with to suit the feel of the game you want to play.
Since Call is over 30 years old, it has so many scenarios and sourcebooks available and more coming all the time, you're spoiled for choice. Trail is playing catch-up here, but they have some great people working on content for the game that have already produced two campaigns, with two more on the way and a slew of scenarios.
I'm know there is plenty that I've missed, like Drives and Sanity/Stability but I'm not sure you wanted the piecemeal breakdown that I've delivered above. Oops, I just noticed you did say a quick impression, sorry I went on so long, I get carried away sometimes. As I mentioned earlier, I haven't actually experienced Trail myself, so my feelings might change once the game hits the table. I'll be sure to write about it here, as it'll be my first GM experience at the same time.
TL;DR
General overview - Trail and Call tread slightly different paths to get to the same location. The main thing is that Trail gives a couple of different modes of play, one increases the survivability of player characters. Out of the box, Trail needs less alteration to make an inexperienced Keepers life easier, and contains some excellent advice and ideas for Keepers and Players, making it worth owning even if they much prefer Call.
Play-styles - Outside of dice-rolling, the play-styles are rather similar. Trail has the ability point-spend which allows the players occasional assured moments of glory or even just a simple (sometimes badly needed) guaranteed success, but adding numbers to the roll, increasing the chance of hitting the target number. Once these are points exhausted, characters are on equal footing until they refresh. This may take time to get used to, and used well should be fun for all involved. In Call, you will always try to roll under the percentage value of your skill and this does not change during the course of play; so while they don't have moments where they can be sure they will shine, they have a consistent chance to be better at something than another character. Hopefully this makes sense.
Goals - The goals of both these games are to tell and experience an engaging mystery involving something terrible and often life-threatening; this can be something from the Cthulhu Mythos or something else entirely. The difference is Trail has those difference modes of play, one is the gritty, sanity-shattering Purist style, the other is the dual-pistol, slightly more forgiving Pulp style; both are perfectly valid, and you can mix-and-match the two to get the perfect blend for your story.
If I've left anything out, have completely missed or haven't addressed a point you want to hear about, just say the word.
While we're on Cthulhu and since this post is already enormous, what would it hurt to add a little more? I saw a brief interaction between Dennis Detwiller and Greg Stolze on twitter that made me chuckle.
Dennis Detwiller said:A couple of weeks back I painted a Flying Polyp. Fun. Let me know what you think!
Greg Stolze said:
On the Fate Core Kickstarter, the book has already hit the stretch goal for it to be released in hardcover. WOO!
Keru_Shiri
Member
So, does anyone have any impressions of Anima? I was thumbing through the book, and it seemed interesting, and spoke to my inner weeaboo, but ugh, that price. I guess I'm wondering how it compares to Mutants & Masterminds or Exalted when it comes to anime-style roleplaying.
krypt0nian
Banned
Goodlawd what an amazing write up! I'll have take some time and digest, but huge kudos!
Did you check out the sample that Pelgrane has of Trail on their webpage? If not it gives a very brief introduction on the focus of the game in comparison to straight Call along with some details on it's (very cool) take on the mythos.
But yes, great writeup as usual, Danoss
http://www.pelgranepress.com/trail/files/sample.pdf
Edit: Oh, there are some free trials available as well to give a bit of insight into how play is structured.
A 15 min demo: http://www.pelgranepress.com/trail/files/Ritual_Pursuits_ToC_Demo.pdf
The Murderer of Thomas Fell: http://www.pelgranepress.com/site/?tag=download&cat=10#adventures
krypt0nian
Banned
Did you check out the sample that Pelgrane has of Trail on their webpage? If not it gives a very brief introduction on the focus of the game in comparison to straight Call along with some details on it's (very cool) take on the mythos.
But yes, great writeup as usual, Danoss
http://www.pelgranepress.com/trail/files/sample.pdf
Oh cheers. I own Trail but have yet to read it. I'll have to crack it open and give it a go.
Ah, since you own it I'll offer some additional opinions on what I've read of it so far. Like Danoss I haven't played it yet, but if I'll attempt a play-by-skype campaign with my now faraway friends I will, because:
- In gameplay terms, shifting the focus of investigation from rolls to getting essential information automagically is cool and seems well integrated in the system. Spends being there to give players additional roleplaying opportunities (and some extra, helpful but non-essential, information at the same time) is a neat way of doing things.
- There are tools like character Drives and Pillars of stability which both encourage players to stay in character (my group could really use this haha) but also can be used by the GM to raise the odds by threatening them.
- Instead of offering a single, straight viewpoint on the mythos powers all greater and elder beings are given multiple interpretations. Cthulhu is describes as the high priest of an ancient cult, the water temple boss of The Great Old Ones, the incarnation of Gravity, an Outer God who has filled it's native dimension and appears at hyper-geometric coordinates corresponding to specific locations on earth, and many more. Pick what suits your playstyle, or invent your own. Very fresh.
All of this can as noted be transposed on straight Call games, but Trail is built around it and these things appear at every step of the way. Creatures are largely described by investigative abilities that can be used to identify it, fleshing out the supernatural impressions that players can receive as well as giving hints on gameplay hooks. Investigative abilities themselves are more defined than Call counterparts (those who exist) and seem overall more useful, in part because characters get something from everything instead of maybe having a few "less useful" abilities at 20-25% which are never used.
This all seems largely positive, but I don't think that Trail is as suitable if you don't want to play scenarios that are very investigation heavy. Some suspense could also be lost from finding essential information everywhere. And (unmodified) it's not as bleak or lethal as straight Call. Worst of all there are no D100 rolls which totally are the best ones, they feel sooo good.
Oh missed this, thanks.
First off, OMG NEW POST IN THE PNP THREAD!
Second, I worship Dungeon World. Well deserved!
Third, you just reminded me that I bought Trail of Cthulhu and have to read it!
Its great to hear Trail is getting more stuff.
I ran the final session last night and got lots of great feedback from the group - they are pretty casual - but have really enjoyed TOC. In spite of the fact I ran it pretty poorly. I really needed to re-read the rules again (I totally forgot how combat worked; too long between sessions). I have been going easy on them and not trying to kill their characters, but that hasn't taken away from their enjoyment.
Devourers in the Mist:
They siphoned off some of the airplane fuel and use it to destroy the book that was Apholos <sp?>. I introduced a survivor from the Japanese fishing vessel called Iwatamoto and he survived and they got off the island. The whole adventure took me three, very loose, two hours sessions. It probably could be run in four or five hours if you group did diverge into OT chatter every five minutes like mine does.
I focused on spends and on action scenes and not too much on the stability/sanity mechanics. We're probably going to have a break from TOC and restart our Star Wars Saga game, but when we play TOC next I will get my players to use more of the stability/sanity systems to help with role playing.
There are groups that play online, so they have a virtual game table and use software like Skype to communicate. There are also groups that do something similar but at a much slower pace by using posts or email. There are huge amounts of places that do this; even on GAF. I'm sure someone can post a place to get in on a game, but it's not something I've tried.
I'd recommend seeking out a RPG game store in your area and dropping by, talk to the owner and ask if they play any RPGs played in the store and drop in. These games are vary in quality, but they are generally newbie friendly. If they aren't try again, don't get disheartened if you meet some idiots, there are a few PNP people or groups that just don't have good social skills.
Don't bother too much about what you play (DND, pathfinder, etc.) the group is the thing for PNP. The rules, setting, story do matter, but most of your fun will come from being with a good group. You'll get your preferences after a while anyway.
Thanks for the kind words, I wasn't too sure if I went a bit overboard.
Awesome stuff, glad your group enjoyed it, there's a lot to like. Thanks for your write-up on Devourers in the Mist (that guys name made me laugh), I was skimming that the other day on my hunt for a suitable introductory scenario. What was it that made you feel like it wasn't the best introductory scenario? Was it the length?
I'm going to have a bit of a look through and try to find an appropriate one to start off with, something that would ease both myself and the gaming group into the system (a number of them are new to roleplaying, so I want them to enjoy themselves enough to want more). I was thinking of something like 'Edge of Darkness' from the CoC core rulebook; a simple location mystery that would be difficult to screw up, and it fits easily in one session.
I think you did the right thing with a focus on spends and the action. It'd get them used to spending points and how that works, and it seems to be the main thing that some might struggle to fully grasp. Action is enjoyable by all, you can work out the kinks in combat and have a better flow when it crops up next time. Devourers in the Mist is a pulp adventure, so it doesn't matter too much about hitting on the sanity or stability anyway.
Now that's out of the way, adding in stability and sanity will be relatively simple. Understanding that stability points can be spent to potentially avoid a massive hit will be easy to grasp for everyone too. You might even be able to hammer on their Drives a bit if you want to pull some more roleplaying out of them and/or endanger their Stability.
Awesome stuff, glad your group enjoyed it, there's a lot to like. Thanks for your write-up on Devourers in the Mist (that guys name made me laugh), I was skimming that the other day on my hunt for a suitable introductory scenario. What was it that made you feel like it wasn't the best introductory scenario? Was it the length?
I'm going to have a bit of a look through and try to find an appropriate one to start off with, something that would ease both myself and the gaming group into the system (a number of them are new to roleplaying, so I want them to enjoy themselves enough to want more). I was thinking of something like 'Edge of Darkness' from the CoC core rulebook; a simple location mystery that would be difficult to screw up, and it fits easily in one session.
I think you did the right thing with a focus on spends and the action. It'd get them used to spending points and how that works, and it seems to be the main thing that some might struggle to fully grasp. Action is enjoyable by all, you can work out the kinks in combat and have a better flow when it crops up next time. Devourers in the Mist is a pulp adventure, so it doesn't matter too much about hitting on the sanity or stability anyway.
Now that's out of the way, adding in stability and sanity will be relatively simple. Understanding that stability points can be spent to potentially avoid a massive hit will be easy to grasp for everyone too. You might even be able to hammer on their Drives a bit if you want to pull some more roleplaying out of them and/or endanger their Stability.
No the length was probably okay. I found some of the survival mechanics, somewhat unique to Devourers, a little challenging to run. And the structure and setting were a little different that typical Call of Cthulhu. As a one shot it could be quite deadly, and lots of fun, but I think it would require more prep from the Keeper than an introductory scenario should. If you were an experience TOC Keeper - not just DM - I think you could run it for Cthulhu RPG or TOC newbies. I wouldn't rule it out if you read it and it excites you though.
I ran The Haunting as our first COC scenario, but I think it would work even better under TOC scenario. I think there might be a little more scope to it that Edge of Darkness and there are certainly lots of hooks for further investigation. Lots of connections to other scenarios. I found it pretty easy to run anyway.
While entering the basement for the first time one of the characters became possessed by Corbert and shot another character in the back of the head at point blank range with a revolver. Only by luck (and a little emergency first aid by the offending character) did he manage to survive. That character now has a metal plate in his skull and they still talk about it.
Yeah I was very impressed with how that system was constructed and I'm itching to try it out. It seems to help players make fully fleshed out characters.
I'm tempted to run Beyond the Mountains of Madness or Masks of Nyarlathotep, but I think I'll do some more TOC short scenarios and get them used to the system before launching such a big campaign.
Thanks for that, I'll keep it in mind. I can understand added complexity for only one scenario being perhaps a little unnecessary for an introduction. I'm sure I will run it at some stage, but probably not right away. Good on you for finding success with it still.
I ran The Haunting as our first COC scenario, but I think it would work even better under TOC scenario. I think there might be a little more scope to it that Edge of Darkness and there are certainly lots of hooks for further investigation. Lots of connections to other scenarios. I found it pretty easy to run anyway.
While entering the basement for the first time one of the characters became possessed by Corbert and shot another character in the back of the head at point blank range with a revolver. Only by luck (and a little emergency first aid by the offending character) did he manage to survive. That character now has a metal plate in his skull and they still talk about it.
I've considered The Haunting, since it is a classic. The one thing that's steering me away is that if they skip all investigation and run straight into the house, which won't end well for them at all. I know the scenario is designed like that, and I'm fine with it, I just don't want that to turn any of the players off if they go ahead and do that (even though they are aware that if you die in CoC, it's working as intended). Because if they do it, I won't stop them, maybe some random character will warn them, but that's it.
That story is another reason I love Cthulhu so bloody much. Amazing.
GUMSHOE does let players feel unique and special... for as long as they may live. They seem to be more real/plausible than a CoC character might. Of course, anything that helps roleplaying is a good thing.
I want to get my hands on Beyond the Mountains of Madness, but not in PDF form and not for the exorbitant second-hand prices. I wish Chaosium would reprint it.
The very new Sisters of Sorrow by Adam Gauntlett looks cool as hell for a one-shot. As does RMS Titanic: The Millionaires Special by the same author (proceeds of this go to a good cause), and for $2.50, I bought it without even first looking at it. Just a couple I might point out as possibilities.
I gave my players a little pep talk, telling them that they need to investigate etc. Now in dnd they are typical kick-in-the-door types, but they took to the new system well. I think it's possible to direct your players, and for the first session, let them find things easily. Have your handouts ready. This type of game really works with handouts.
And if they do just go straight to the house, there is enough there to scare them away. My players did investigate, but did not really think about what they might be facing until after that one player had the incident. They then stepped back - brought the character to hospital and took a in-game month off - and had a think about the clues they'd been given, and came up with a better plan of attack; it did involve TNT, but in the end they didn't use it.
They both look great. I've been really impressed with the overall quality of COC/TOC scenarios. Sisters of Sorrow reminds me of the Lovecraft short story The Temple.
I should be running some more TOC in the new year. I'll post play reports when I do.
I think you're right. It's not something I want to do, but it may come down to letting them know how it goes. It would be forgivable for a first session, but if it happens naturally I'd be much happier. S'pose I can't expect too much on a first go round for most involved, including myself.
I listened to an actual play of 'Edge of Darkness' and one player lost 3 characters within 15 real-time minutes. That's what you get for being a jackass, starting fights with the wrong people for no good reason, get busted trying to break out of lock-up, etc.
You group sounds like a laugh, just going off your brief recounting of that scenario. 'The incident', TNT, it just keeps getting better.
I haven't read The Temple in a long while, so have forgotten many details about that. Sisters of Sorrow seems to have a bit of that feel to it, and a little bit of what's going on in Last Resort too.
I look forward to hearing about those games. CoC/ToC play reports never fail to bring a smile to my face.
A Kickstarter I seem to have have overlooked is 'The Skies Over Danbury'. Three adventures for Dungeon World are contained within and it seems he's one of the very few dudes, if not the only, to be doing this.
$50 will get you a print copy of this book and Dungeon World itself when it becomes available, guaranteed by creators Sage and Adam themselves. Of course there are much cheaper options available, so have a look. Please pledge as I would quite like to have this and the first 3 adventures, 'Within the Devil's Reach' also available through this Kickstarter, in my grubby little hands.
$50 will get you a print copy of this book and Dungeon World itself when it becomes available, guaranteed by creators Sage and Adam themselves. Of course there are much cheaper options available, so have a look. Please pledge as I would quite like to have this and the first 3 adventures, 'Within the Devil's Reach' also available through this Kickstarter, in my grubby little hands.
I know that this has probably already been discussed to death, but I'm finding ever since getting bitten by the RPG bug again that my current system of keeping PDFs, character sheets, and other stuff on my smartphone is becoming kind of cumbersome..
I'm thinking I may want to take the plunge on a tablet, any suggestions? Is a 7 inch screen big enough in people's experience?
I'm thinking I may want to take the plunge on a tablet, any suggestions? Is a 7 inch screen big enough in people's experience?
Aggrotek
Member
I should think so. That's more than half the length of a regular sheet of paper. Wish I could afford to get one.
iPad mini.
cj_iwakura
Member
Started another Mage campaign, and it really is my favorite NWoD setting. Maybe all of WoD, period.
I was never that into Mage in OWoD (Haven't even looked at any NWoD games, that all happened after I fell out of the habit) until the Guide to the Technocracy came out. I loved the shit out of playing the Technocracy, easily my second favorite thing to play as outside of Wraith (Man, why didn't Wraith get more love : ().
cj_iwakura
Member
New Mage is a lot less, well, complicated. Instead of Technocracy there's the Seers of the Throne, who have four different factions that each try to keep humanity in the dark.
My favorite's the Panopticon; basically Seers CIA, the evil equivalent of the PCs' Guardians of the Veil.
My favorite's the Panopticon; basically Seers CIA, the evil equivalent of the PCs' Guardians of the Veil.
Haemolacria
Member
Man, Wraith is really something special. Back when I was 13 years old in 1999, I bought it on a whim because its premise sounded cool and I knew to expect quality, since I was already acquinted with Vampire and Werewolf. When I got it and started reading it, it proved to be way too extreme, dark and mature for me to comprehend and I just put it to my bookshelf for like 1,5 years to wait for my mind to be ready for it
Truth be told, I haven't ever played it and I only ran like 3-4 sessions about 10 years ago. Mostly this is because I feel that the world and the whole game is so extremely bleak in nature, that it feels like a damn daunting task to start running a campaign. Maybe one day........
Yeah, Wraith was quite the odd duck. I loved it to its dying day (I'm told I'd like Morpheus too), but I've always loved ghosts. When I was 4, I wanted to grow up and be a ghost (specifically a break dancing ghosts whose signature move was to spin on his head and go through the floor. It was the 80's, and I was little.).
Someone once postulated to me that a big reason that Wraith never did very well was that the Shadowguide concept engendered hostility between players. All the WoD games had some form of dual nature stuff going on, but none of them went to Wraith's degree where you had another player playing a role that was singularly obsessed with destroying you and everything you ever loved. Hard not to take that shit personally. Heh.
Someone once postulated to me that a big reason that Wraith never did very well was that the Shadowguide concept engendered hostility between players. All the WoD games had some form of dual nature stuff going on, but none of them went to Wraith's degree where you had another player playing a role that was singularly obsessed with destroying you and everything you ever loved. Hard not to take that shit personally. Heh.
Haemolacria
Member
Haha, true. Although Wraith did frequently point out that the animosities should only be between the Shadow and the ghost and by no means between players. Pfft, yeah right, easier said than done
Although, when playing with a dedicated group, I can only imagine how straining but rewarding this game could become. If I remember correctly, this game had a shitload of stuff to enable wonderful scenarios to portray the constant struggle that a singular Wraith is having with its Shadow. Especially the concept of Harrowings seemed simultaneously intriguing and (gameplay-wise) frightening.
cj_iwakura
Member
I'm still dabbling with the idea of running a Mage game here, but somehow the boards don't feel like the right place to run it, if that makes sense. Kind of wish there was a tabletop subforum here. (Or community could work I suppose)
We've got a D&D play by post going on in Community that's going really well aside from some turnover in players, I don't see any reason why it couldn't work for WoD.
I'd be all for that, actually.
cj_iwakura
Member
We'll see, also would help to know how much I'd need to spell out WoD mechanics. They're pretty easy to pickup, but I have two versions of OPs; you're familiar with Mage and WoD(short), or not(very long).
cj_iwakura
Member
Time difference shouldn't be a problem, it'd be PBP. Language, well, can't help you there, I only know Spanish.
EndcatOmega
Unconfirmed Member
Basically the same here, though specifically Mage- it's always interested me in either incarnation far more than the others in the line.
Wouldn't there be some stuff that would go at a glacial pace without people being awake the same time-ish?
Heh, more like all stuff. PbP ain't particularly speedy even with everyone in the same country.
The new FFG Star Wars Edge of the Empire Starter Set arrives later this week and I hope to run the staring scenario with five or six players this Saturday. Looking forward to it.
krypt0nian
Banned
OK so I'm in love with the FATE Core set you get when you pledge for the Kickstarter. What a cool way to look at dice results.
This is an amazing KS so far, if you've been hesitant to pledge.
This is an amazing KS so far, if you've been hesitant to pledge.
EndcatOmega
Unconfirmed Member
I've been saving money for another kickstarter upcoming in a few months, but the Fate CORE one is awfully tempting.
For 10 bucks to get all the PDFs I think it could be worth it.
Out of curiosity, what kickstarter is that?
EndcatOmega
Unconfirmed Member
Just paid a full year's car insurance in the UK as an under 25, 10$ is a serious strain on my finances right now, ha.
Exalted SE. Because the best way to reward an edition of mechanical failure is to put money upfront for the next, of course.
Exalted SE. Because the best way to reward an edition of mechanical failure is to put money upfront for the next, of course.
Phanatic8390
Member
Ok so a few friends and I want to start a weekly D&D game. We have absolutely no experience with any PnP gaming. I started doing some research into a starter set and that's when I ran into all of this Pathfinder vs 4e stuff.
I've read through this entire thread and read tons of stuff about the differences and it seems that the general consensus is that Pathfinder is the better game?
It sounds like I'll get more mileage from the Pathfinder starter kit then 4e and that the game is more true to D&D roots?
I don't think we're going to be getting into any custom adventures so I'm thinking we'll be staying in pre built campaigns.
I'm torn because 4e sounds more accessible but Pathfinder is deeper once you get into the game.
I've read through this entire thread and read tons of stuff about the differences and it seems that the general consensus is that Pathfinder is the better game?
It sounds like I'll get more mileage from the Pathfinder starter kit then 4e and that the game is more true to D&D roots?
I don't think we're going to be getting into any custom adventures so I'm thinking we'll be staying in pre built campaigns.
I'm torn because 4e sounds more accessible but Pathfinder is deeper once you get into the game.
krypt0nian
Banned
Grab the Pathfinder Beginner Box.
Right now 4E is dead with almost zero support coming since they're ramping up to 5E, while PF still has tons of monthly support, including maps, novels, modules, adventure paths, etc.
There are message boards over at Paizo.com that are dedicated to the Beginner Box and the easy transition to the full game when you're ready.
Check out one of the videos on the BB on YouTube. It won the industries highest award last year for Product of the Year.
Right now 4E is dead with almost zero support coming since they're ramping up to 5E, while PF still has tons of monthly support, including maps, novels, modules, adventure paths, etc.
There are message boards over at Paizo.com that are dedicated to the Beginner Box and the easy transition to the full game when you're ready.
Check out one of the videos on the BB on YouTube. It won the industries highest award last year for Product of the Year.
Phanatic8390
Member
5e was the other thing pushing me to Pathfinder as it seems silly to waste time learning 4e if it's going to be changed again.
I just checked out that beginner box forum section and it looks like it'll be super helpful. I definitely want to watch those videos you posted a few pages back with the guy teaching his girlfriend too.