This is going to be one place, among many, where I post the ongoing adventures of the NeoGAF D&D group.
This is also just one more place for the players of that game to communicate, post feedback, chat about the game, and discuss who gets what shiny weapon they just found in that last chest.
* * *
Background
We began this group, more or less in the first quarter of 2008.
The original DM was rSpooky, and he ran a homebrew D&D 3.5 game.
The original group:
Personally, I thought it was a pretty great, if brief game. We were all excited about 4th Edition coming out soon thereafter, and most of us had gotten together via threads in Gaming and Off-Topic about tabletop in general and decided we should put together a game.
Our original thread was here, and you can see that it sort of morphed into the next game towards the end.
* * *
The Current Campaign
Around June 2008, when 4th Ed finally hit, spook and chap more or less conscripted me to learn the system and put something together for them. It took a while for it to get going, and you'll note that we've never been a particularly fast-paced group, just a stubborn one that hasn't broken up yet and probably won't anytime soon.
The something I put together wasn't anything particularly creative, mind you - like everyone else, I was new to 4th Edition, so Keep on the Shadowfell, of course. This module came out a few months before the PHB, a friend of mine had bought it, and I had messed around with it, so I began to convert it to gametable, the online tabletop VI app we were using at the time (and have been using until this past weekend).
The original cast was:
Later joined by:
Right now, the party's in the middle of the second published adventure: H2 - Thunderspire Labyrinth.
It's a lot of fun in parts, but as many others have said, these modules are lacking in storytelling, so you have to really work at it to make them perform from a roleplaying perspective, and add in your own side quests and narratives.
online tools that make the game work
At any given time, at least one of us has access to D&D Insider, which means we can use Character Builder to cook up, retrain, or adjust characters pretty quickly and share those files with each other - we commonly also convert our character sheets to .pdf for easy access.
I've been putting together an Obsidian Portal page. It's an awful lot of work to get it looking right, and I have no experience in wiki / website design, but it's getting there.
We're going to be moving to playing using MapTool as well. It's quite a transition, as it does quite a bit more than emulate a table, but the time and work-saving it can potentially offer seems like something we're going to have to take advantage of.
If anyone has experienced either Obsidian Portal or MapTool before, I'd love to hear about it and learn a little bit more about what we can do to enhance our game.
Recruitment
I think I've learned over the years that any game that isn't at least open to looking for and talking about the possibility of new blood has a shorter shelf-life than one that is. At least half of the games I've been in and run have been on the larger side (6-8 people).
We've had other people express differing levels of interest in joining up since we've started. Anyone that's serious about it is welcome, though we really can't afford to get too big. We've been trying to accommodate Phoenix's schedule for some time, and vice versa, and hopefully he'll eventually get to join up.
Right now, we've got 6 semi-regular players, usually playing with an absence or two, on average, lately, every other weekend. While the adventures we're running right now were built for 5, I probably wouldn't mind one or two more if the rest of the group doesn't.
I especially wouldn't mind someone else if they were good at working with either wikis and / or MapTool, hint, hint.
Previously, we had a first-come, first-served waitlist policy. It was a good policy, provided one could remember the order in which various GAF members expressed interest in joining this game, and / or provided GAF's search feature was working at any given time. I'd like to keep these games at least mostly for GAF members, though clearly, we've allowed a few friends and family in at times (though in most cases, they had an account).
This game has routinely been running Sunday mornings, for both maximum blasphemy (okay, not really) and maximum availability.
But you know, here's the thing, and I've been discussing this with the others - that's one game. Nothing stops us from having a whole other group going if we have enough interested people, running at whatever time works for those people.
This other, mostly-full game's going to keep going. But it would be cool if this thread could serve as a meet-up thread for people that were interested in trying D&D but never had the chance to, or have moved somewhere new and can't find a group, or whatever.
We'll see how that goes, I guess, but it was just an idea I had.
* * *
General Tabletop Discussion
I never really got to play 2nd Ed tabletop.
My brother owned this, and all that came along with it:
I used to read them all the time.
I bought this with some lawn-mowing money when I was about 13:
... but none of my friends were very interested in trying it. Same story with Hero Quest, the old D&D-esque board game.
What finally got me into tabletop gaming, in college, was my love for a fantasy series, coupled with seeing this in a bookstore:
Followed by this:
Followed, finally, by actual 3.5 D&D, some Eberron, some Realms.
Then Exalted, a brief soujourn into D6 Star Wars, Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k Dark Heresy, a little bit of Star Wars Saga, some Game of Thrones, etc. Finally met some friends into boardgames, so now I'm playing Settlers of Catan, of all things. :lol
And now, 4th Edition D&D (and a general interest in seeing what Pathfinder's all about).
I really do like this system, though it always seems to be a controversial topic amongst tabletop players. I get the impression that 3rd Edition had the same level of controversy around it, though that would clearly be before my time.
Fun-fact: I'm not sure if they actually met this way, or if it was just something she made him do while they were dating, but my wife's parents played this in college (well, maybe not this exact box cover, but the original version, nonetheless):
D&D Videogames-related Rant
2nd Ed made for some wonderful videogames.
I was very fond of 3rd Edition and I continue to be sad nothing with the polish and awesomeness of Baldur's Gate II or Planescape: Torment were made for 3rd or 3.5, though I appreciate the buggy-as-hell effort that was Temple of Elemental Evil (you could tell Troika tried really hard, but they were ultimately made of fail).
I am equally sad that nothing is in the pipe for 4th Edition.
I kind of hope Atari loses the rights, and Hasbro finds someone willing to do the brand a bit more justice.
I've marginally messed around with D&D Online, but I really need a new PC before I really sink into any modern-ish RPG, especially MMOs, since they like to guzzle RAM. Also, MMOs just never have the same kind of potential in terms of story and presentation - I would kill for something with the polish and depth of a Baldur's Gate game, set in Eberron, where you could explore Khorvaire. I'm not really a fan of the Forgotten Realms, but I'll certainly play in them when they're the best, or only, option.
This is also just one more place for the players of that game to communicate, post feedback, chat about the game, and discuss who gets what shiny weapon they just found in that last chest.
* * *
Background
We began this group, more or less in the first quarter of 2008.
The original DM was rSpooky, and he ran a homebrew D&D 3.5 game.
The original group:
- Merenwen / Elf Rogue (MsSpooky)
- Fieren / Dwarf Fighter (JayDubya)
- Allandrian / Human Paladin (KamikazeChick)
- Rothan / Dwarf Cleric (chapel)
- Garrin / Half-Orc Monk (achapel)
- Aranel / Elf Ranger (LiveWire)
- Thalm / Halfling Evoker (KittenMaster)
Personally, I thought it was a pretty great, if brief game. We were all excited about 4th Edition coming out soon thereafter, and most of us had gotten together via threads in Gaming and Off-Topic about tabletop in general and decided we should put together a game.
Our original thread was here, and you can see that it sort of morphed into the next game towards the end.
* * *
The Current Campaign
Around June 2008, when 4th Ed finally hit, spook and chap more or less conscripted me to learn the system and put something together for them. It took a while for it to get going, and you'll note that we've never been a particularly fast-paced group, just a stubborn one that hasn't broken up yet and probably won't anytime soon.
The something I put together wasn't anything particularly creative, mind you - like everyone else, I was new to 4th Edition, so Keep on the Shadowfell, of course. This module came out a few months before the PHB, a friend of mine had bought it, and I had messed around with it, so I began to convert it to gametable, the online tabletop VI app we were using at the time (and have been using until this past weekend).
The original cast was:
- Gromm / Dwarf Fighter (rSpooky)
- Kethanel / Elf Ranger (Spooky's son - no GAF account)
- Emoran / Half-Elf Paladin (chapel)
- Ricdak / Eladrin Wizard (achapel)
Later joined by:
- Triese / Human Warlord (KamikazeChick)
- Atna / Eladrin Rogue (Davidion)
- Ungur / Dwarf Avenger (friend - no GAF account, though I could have sworn he signed up for one a few years back)
Right now, the party's in the middle of the second published adventure: H2 - Thunderspire Labyrinth.
It's a lot of fun in parts, but as many others have said, these modules are lacking in storytelling, so you have to really work at it to make them perform from a roleplaying perspective, and add in your own side quests and narratives.
online tools that make the game work
At any given time, at least one of us has access to D&D Insider, which means we can use Character Builder to cook up, retrain, or adjust characters pretty quickly and share those files with each other - we commonly also convert our character sheets to .pdf for easy access.
I've been putting together an Obsidian Portal page. It's an awful lot of work to get it looking right, and I have no experience in wiki / website design, but it's getting there.
We're going to be moving to playing using MapTool as well. It's quite a transition, as it does quite a bit more than emulate a table, but the time and work-saving it can potentially offer seems like something we're going to have to take advantage of.
If anyone has experienced either Obsidian Portal or MapTool before, I'd love to hear about it and learn a little bit more about what we can do to enhance our game.
Recruitment
I think I've learned over the years that any game that isn't at least open to looking for and talking about the possibility of new blood has a shorter shelf-life than one that is. At least half of the games I've been in and run have been on the larger side (6-8 people).
We've had other people express differing levels of interest in joining up since we've started. Anyone that's serious about it is welcome, though we really can't afford to get too big. We've been trying to accommodate Phoenix's schedule for some time, and vice versa, and hopefully he'll eventually get to join up.
Right now, we've got 6 semi-regular players, usually playing with an absence or two, on average, lately, every other weekend. While the adventures we're running right now were built for 5, I probably wouldn't mind one or two more if the rest of the group doesn't.
I especially wouldn't mind someone else if they were good at working with either wikis and / or MapTool, hint, hint.
Previously, we had a first-come, first-served waitlist policy. It was a good policy, provided one could remember the order in which various GAF members expressed interest in joining this game, and / or provided GAF's search feature was working at any given time. I'd like to keep these games at least mostly for GAF members, though clearly, we've allowed a few friends and family in at times (though in most cases, they had an account).
This game has routinely been running Sunday mornings, for both maximum blasphemy (okay, not really) and maximum availability.
But you know, here's the thing, and I've been discussing this with the others - that's one game. Nothing stops us from having a whole other group going if we have enough interested people, running at whatever time works for those people.
This other, mostly-full game's going to keep going. But it would be cool if this thread could serve as a meet-up thread for people that were interested in trying D&D but never had the chance to, or have moved somewhere new and can't find a group, or whatever.
We'll see how that goes, I guess, but it was just an idea I had.
* * *
General Tabletop Discussion
I never really got to play 2nd Ed tabletop.
My brother owned this, and all that came along with it:
I used to read them all the time.
I bought this with some lawn-mowing money when I was about 13:
... but none of my friends were very interested in trying it. Same story with Hero Quest, the old D&D-esque board game.
What finally got me into tabletop gaming, in college, was my love for a fantasy series, coupled with seeing this in a bookstore:
Followed by this:
Followed, finally, by actual 3.5 D&D, some Eberron, some Realms.
Then Exalted, a brief soujourn into D6 Star Wars, Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k Dark Heresy, a little bit of Star Wars Saga, some Game of Thrones, etc. Finally met some friends into boardgames, so now I'm playing Settlers of Catan, of all things. :lol
And now, 4th Edition D&D (and a general interest in seeing what Pathfinder's all about).
I really do like this system, though it always seems to be a controversial topic amongst tabletop players. I get the impression that 3rd Edition had the same level of controversy around it, though that would clearly be before my time.
Fun-fact: I'm not sure if they actually met this way, or if it was just something she made him do while they were dating, but my wife's parents played this in college (well, maybe not this exact box cover, but the original version, nonetheless):
D&D Videogames-related Rant
2nd Ed made for some wonderful videogames.
I was very fond of 3rd Edition and I continue to be sad nothing with the polish and awesomeness of Baldur's Gate II or Planescape: Torment were made for 3rd or 3.5, though I appreciate the buggy-as-hell effort that was Temple of Elemental Evil (you could tell Troika tried really hard, but they were ultimately made of fail).
I am equally sad that nothing is in the pipe for 4th Edition.
I kind of hope Atari loses the rights, and Hasbro finds someone willing to do the brand a bit more justice.I've marginally messed around with D&D Online, but I really need a new PC before I really sink into any modern-ish RPG, especially MMOs, since they like to guzzle RAM. Also, MMOs just never have the same kind of potential in terms of story and presentation - I would kill for something with the polish and depth of a Baldur's Gate game, set in Eberron, where you could explore Khorvaire. I'm not really a fan of the Forgotten Realms, but I'll certainly play in them when they're the best, or only, option.