Tabletop/Pencil-and-Paper Gaming (D&D, etc)

I'm sure a few of us around here play D&D and the like. Might as well have a thread for it!

My wife loves to play D&D, so I run random campaigns a couple times a year. She wants to get some new people involved, so I'm about to run "Keep on the Shadowfell" for the second time. This was the module they released before 4th Edition came out, which they also ended up releasing a slightly modified second version for free, that adds some errata and fixes some battles. I'm kind of looking forward to it. I also re-found this blog that goes through each encounter, nitpicks it, and suggests better ways of running it.

We've also been playing the new(ish) D&D board games a lot. You can play it with just two people, and it's like D&D for Beginners. It's combat and movement simplified, only 1 d20, each player also controls the monsters according to the simple rules on cards (if within range, it tries to hit the closest person). The latest one is based on RA Salvatore's Drizzt series, so it comes with miniatures for his whole party and his major villains. If anything, the games are easy ways to get a ton of miniatures, though they are only solid colors.

We've been considering it for a while, and finally decided we're going to start saving up for one of those Geek Chic tables. We saw them at GenCon Indy last year and were impressed. They are solid wood, custom built tables with a lowered play floor with an acrylic bottom for drawing, but deep enough that you could put the top back on and have a very nice dining room or coffee table. Stealth nerd stuff.

Anyway, anyone else play stuff like this?

Bingowings said:

I used to enjoy Call Of Cthulhu but lacking like minded people to play with it did become a bit of a chore.

Being all the players and the keeper I knew the dangers I was putting my selves into, which took the edge off of things.

That's why I created the universe I guess.

Oh man, I used to play RPGs all the time. Mostly Star Wars (West End D6 system, of course; not that crappy Wizards of the Coast knock-off) and Hackmaster, but also D&D, Babylon5, Pendragon, Call of Cthulu, Shadowrun, Spycraft, and Villains & Vigilantes on occasion. Usually played, rarely GM'd.

Those were good times. Haven't played in years; these days I just don't have the time, nor do I know any interested parties anymore.

I had been one of the original play testers for the James Bond RPG back in the early 1980's.  I still have some of the original pre-release manuals someplace.  I was also very much into the Star Trek Role Playing Game from FASA. 

One of my great regrets of my college years is that I didn't spend more time playing D&D. We had a huge group, 7 or 8 of us. I spent the time chasing the wrong girls. I still have all of my character sheets, unfortunately I don't recall most of the campaigns.

I do remember the one I missed out on, this huge campaign was ridiculous. My roommate had spent the summer creating the world and scenario. This was still 3rd Edition, so combat movement wasn't relegated to minis. Basically, if we rolled well, we could do anything. I was playing a rapier-wielding smartass called "Jayne". Unfortunately, I kept missing sessions because of girls (we played in the boys dorm, no girls allowed).

I had a few DMs in college, each with a different style. My roommate would let you do almost anything as long as you could justify it. He also described everything in incredible details, like the linguist he is. My coworker had an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules, which he followed to the letter. I'd like to think I try to balance the two, but I'm sure I just suck. I've never run a campaign of my own, just one-shots or pre-mades from Wizards of the Coast. I don't trust myself that much. I'm really nervous about trying to integrate ideas from other sources. Another blog changes everything outside of the Keep on "Keep on the Shadowfell", which I'm going to try to use because its so much better than what Wizards has. I just don't want to be shuffling papers/browser tabs all night to keep things straight, especially when my wife is always bringing first time players over. It's a lot of pressure!

doubleofive said:

We've been considering it for a while, and finally decided we're going to start saving up for one of those Geek Chic tables. We saw them at GenCon Indy last year and were impressed. They are solid wood, custom built tables with a lowered play floor with an acrylic bottom for drawing, but deep enough that you could put the top back on and have a very nice dining room or coffee table. Stealth nerd stuff.

Inspired by TableTop, we went to the local game store to pick up a Euro-style game. Unfortunately, Settlers of Catan is for 3 or more players and my wife and I wanted something we could play by ourselves. We did find the D&D-branded Lords of Waterdeep, which is kind of a lite version of a Euro game. We played it twice last night, we really enjoy it.

I have a lot of WEG SW RPG D6 stuff in my closet.  I keep debating if I should sell it because I don't play it any more or fill in the holes in my set and keep it for history's sake.

Keep them! Those are great reads even if you don't play.

TV's Frink said:

Ziz said:
WEG SW RPG D6

Erm...you sunk my battleship?

The most experience I have with such games is several games (although rarely did we successfully complete a story) of Paranoia. Its zaniness appeals to me well, so I'm not sure I'd enjoy the more serious ones.

Sounds like what I did with the Decipher card game. Never played it, but still have all the cards, they're nice looking.

Downloaded the "D&D Next" / 5th Edition playtest documents. Not planning to run it, just read over it. The core rules they're using reads pretty much like 3rd Edition to me. In fact, I don't see any difference. So it looks like Wizards of the Coast is planning to go back to 3e, but allow you the options to run it like a 4e campaign. The more I read of the playtest and the discussions on the D&D forums, the more I realize that I really like 4th Edition. I think its the edition for me, so when all the books are being sold at a discount to make room for the new edition, I will be there to buy them. I just hope that they keep the online tools up to date and still work on errata for it (which I sincerely doubt).

Also sent the last payment for our Geek Chic table, so it should go into production soon. We'll probably get it October/November. They deliver the tables themselves because they found it was a whole lot cheaper than shipping a giant solid wood tables across the country.

I let this thread die a terrible death, didn't I?

Titansgrave is great, isn't it? Between it and The Adventure Zone I get all of my RPG fill.

One Year Later

It seems like no one cares about tabletop games, but I’m going to Gen Con in Indianapolis tomorrow, if anyone else is going to be there.