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Title: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Rendakor on September 06, 2018, 05:29:03 PM
Since someone mentioned it in the Q&A thread, I figured I'll start the thread up. Does anyone else still play regularly? In person or online? What edition?

I DM a weekly 3.5 game in person, using a world I created and a lot of homebrew races, classes, feats, etc. Our current campaign is going to culminate in the end of an era, and during the transition between ages we're probably going to move up editions finally.

The plan was to move up to Pathfinder since that's an easy jump for us, but now they have a 2nd Edition coming out which complicates things. Impressions on the playtest are fairly mixed, and it isn't as backwards compatible with PF1E/3.5 as PF1E is with 3.5 which was one of our selling points. It is also going to lack the depth we're used to in terms of character options, just by virtue of being a new system instead of one that is old and fully expanded. That means I need to do more work updating homebrew in order to keep the world consistent, as well as convert up by hand stuff like Psionics that isn't going to be supported at or near launch. On the bright side, going to PF2E would mean being on the cutting edge again and being more able to discuss current content with folks online.

When my campaign ends, one of my players is going to DM a PF1E campaign for us to kinda go crazy and be overpowered. After that, I'll probably make up a short adventure for PF2E (using either the playtest or the full thing if it's out) just so we can test the system out before I make up my mind. Then I'll probably have another player DM a campaign while I update my campaign world to whatever edition we end up with.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: ezrast on September 06, 2018, 06:24:29 PM
I've been playing in a Curse of Strahd campaign for D&D 5; we're up to level 3 so far. Our DM is a pretty busy guy with kids, etc. so the campaign is pretty much straight from the book but it doesn't feel too railroady and we're having a lot of fun. There do seem to be a lot of sidequest plot threads that we don't ever figure out how to follow up on though.

I also started DMing the PF2 playtest campaign, Doomsday Dawn, last week. My players and I enjoyed it, but I've never DM'd anything before and most of my players were also fairly inexperienced so we were mostly enjoying the novelty of the activity without regard for how good the system actually is. Once that wears off I can post some more impressions.

Doomsday Dawn is laid out really weirdly and has the players jumping between characters and skipping levels in order to get Paizo the data points they need. I don't know whether my players will be into that or not so after we finish the first chapter I'll have to figure out if I can continue by the book or if I'll need to go off the rails with homebrew/converted adventures. I'm a little wary of going the latter route since I have basically no idea what I'm doing, but I don't think my group will be ready to set aside their characters and roll new ones all over again after only two or three sessions.

Regarding converting your campaign - they've claimed it will be possible to convert PF1 -> PF2 on the fly (there's a podcast (https://glasscannonpodcast.com/the-pathfinder-playtest-parts-1-and-2/) of one of the Paizo guys doing so), so 3.5 -> PF2 probably isn't too much of a stretch, but I don't think they've put out any guidelines yet. Character stats, hit points, and damage are all greatly inflated in 2E so there will be at least a little bit of math involved.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Rendakor on September 07, 2018, 07:51:24 AM
I didn't know the playtest campaign jumped around between multiple characters. :ye_gods: Hard pass, thanks for the heads up.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Ruvaldt on September 07, 2018, 02:33:31 PM
Just wrapped a 4+ year campaign in Monte Cook's Ptolus setting and it's probably been my favorite setting to DM.  We used the 3.5 rules that it was written for.  5e came out shortly after we started, but we didn't have any experience with it and converting seemed like a lot of work for little payoff so we stuck with the original rules. 

We're looking to move to 5e for the next campaign and I'm penning something shorter to test it out; 10 or so sessions.  It's going to be based on a 1981 horror film named Dead & Buried about a town full of people who don't realize that they're undead and everyone is maintained by the town mortician who sees death as a sickness that he can heal.  There is a spate of visitors to the town who are mysteriously murdered and about halfway through the campaign will actually start reappearing in town seemingly unfazed.  The players are going to be split between a group of out of town law enforcement sent to check in on local goings on, and a group of local law enforcement (who are undead and unwittingly part of the problem) also investigating the murders.  Going to put a kind of Lovecraftian theme in it and have it take place in a smallish New England style town where the locals speak with a Downeast Maine accent.  I'll have to practice that.

No experience with Pathfinder at all.  I completely missed the PF1E bus and if D&D 5e works for us, I'll probably miss PF2E as well.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Miguel on September 07, 2018, 04:16:31 PM
I just picked up the three 5e books, as it seems like 5e is better suited to young players (we have 10 yo twins that want to play). 

Any recommendations on a starter campaign to run?  It looks like I'll be the one DMing.  This appears to be the 'official' list:

Starter Set - Lost Mines of Phandelver | 1-4 | July 15, 2014
Tyranny of Dragons - Hoard of the Dragon Queen | 1-7 | August 19, 2014
Tyranny of Dragons - The Rise of Tiamat | 8-15 | November 4, 2014
Elemental Evil - Princes of the Apocalypse | 1-15 | April 7, 2015
Rage of Demons - Out of the Abyss | 1-14 | September 15, 2015
Curse of Strahd - Curse of Strahd | 1-10 | March 15, 2016
Storm King's Thunder - Storm King's Thunder | 1-11 | September 6, 2016
Tales from the Yawning Portal - Tales from the Yawning Portal | Anthology/Varies | March 24, 2017


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Rendakor on September 07, 2018, 07:34:27 PM
LMoP is the default intro-to-5E campaign everyone talks about on Reddit, so I would probably start there.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Miguel on September 08, 2018, 11:57:33 AM
Thanks, I'm going to start with that one.

I didn't realize it was only part of the starter set, so I had passed it up because I already had all of the books.  :wink:


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Cyrrex on September 10, 2018, 03:29:33 AM
Thanks, I'm going to start with that one.

I didn't realize it was only part of the starter set, so I had passed it up because I already had all of the books.  :wink:

Have you done this before, or are you new to this?  Reason I ask is because I have half a mind to find a way to enter this strange world, but I don't really know how.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Miguel on September 10, 2018, 07:49:57 AM
Have you done this before, or are you new to this?  Reason I ask is because I have half a mind to find a way to enter this strange world, but I don't really know how.
Played extensively in 1st edition over the years.  5th edition is pretty different, even if based on the same concepts.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Rendakor on September 10, 2018, 08:05:46 AM
Thanks, I'm going to start with that one.

I didn't realize it was only part of the starter set, so I had passed it up because I already had all of the books.  :wink:

Have you done this before, or are you new to this?  Reason I ask is because I have half a mind to find a way to enter this strange world, but I don't really know how.
If you want to play in-person, your best bet is to go to your FLGS and see when they have public games. While you might get some weirdos that way, at least you can learn the ropes without going to someone's house or inviting them to yours. If you want to play online, Roll20 (http://www.roll20.net) is the most popular option but some folks just use Discord; I have no personal experience with online play (aside from a player who Skypes into my games, but he's an RL friend who moved away). Another resource to find games (either IRL or online) is r/lfg (https://www.reddit.com/r/lfg/).


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: jgsugden on September 10, 2018, 02:14:58 PM
I play in a live weeknight weekly game.  It is 5E, which I think is the best edition yet.  This is a rare time when I am only in one game... I jused to play in four games averaging two sessions a week. 

I've played in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s.  At last check, I think I've spent 9000 hours playing, and likely another 14000 hours planning, playing related games (D&D Minis), reading D&D forum, painting figures, etc...

So, yeah, I still play.

In the next year I may need to relocate to the Charlotte, NC, area, so my current group is investigating whether it will work to have me play remotely, but sadly I do not think that will work.  I'll proably look for some gamestore games while I seek a more permanent group, but I am also getting closer to the point where my son will be ready to play. 


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: WayAbvPar on September 10, 2018, 02:33:02 PM
I keep buying books (skipped 4th Ed, since that was hot fucking garbage), but never end up playing. Have seriously toyed with dipping my toe into the local gaming store games, but haven't done so yet. Anyone in Seattle have a good game that needs a bad player?  :awesome_for_real:


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Ironwood on September 11, 2018, 06:35:19 AM
I find that over here gaming groups are divided neatly into 3.

1 - Very Young People.  Yeah, that's not a good look for an old guy.
2 - Gaming Spods from your local shop/geek hangout.  I mean, seriously, these people.  They're awful.
3 - Digital Gamers.  Yeah, sure, try getting a group together in the same time zone with the same commitment level.

Alas, playing proper D&D is something I'd dearly, dearly love to do, but it's pretty much a vicarious pleasure at this point.  Something that I've had to cast adrift as 'something I used to do when I was younger'.



Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Mandella on September 11, 2018, 09:36:23 AM
I don't often play D&D rules, but when I do, I play 3.5.

If you like the gameplay that 3.5 provides, then Pathfinder is undoubtedly the way to go for a new campaign, but since our group has invested thousands of dollars into hardbound 3.5 manuals and modules, yeah no reason not to keep having fun with what we've got.

@Ironwood. Be a bit cautious but check out the Roll20 lfg forums. There is quite the active community there, and virtual tabletop with Skype/Discord/built-in video conferencing is the way of the present. I would suggest having more than one monitor, but tablets work fine for say handling the video side of things while leaving your regular comp/laptop/media center monitor to handle the tabletop.

I'm actually not as enamored with Roll20 as I once was, but it is probably still the best option for casual Virtual Tabletopping, and it looks like the devs might even be thinking about addressing some QoL and bugfixing issues lately...

Oh, and another thing about D&D and Roll20 is that they have D&D licensed in, so there are modules professionally adapted for the system, as well as the rules coded in and things like the monster manual accessible in-game. Makes things a lot easier, when it works right.

Edit for jgsugden: Seriously, give it a try, you might be surprised how well remoting in works, even if you don't go the VTT route if someone just aims a phone or tablet at the physical table it can work.

I've gotten so that I'm irritated if visiting friends want to physically get together every now and then.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Rendakor on September 11, 2018, 09:53:19 AM
I don't often play D&D rules, but when I do, I play 3.5.

If you like the gameplay that 3.5 provides, then Pathfinder is undoubtedly the way to go for a new campaign, but since our group has invested thousands of dollars into hardbound 3.5 manuals and modules, yeah no reason not to keep having fun with what we've got.
My plan is to play Pathfinder 1E but with most of 3.5 legal if people want to use the old content, since we also own a lot of the 3.5 books and are used to it.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Wasted on September 11, 2018, 12:04:56 PM
I've gotten into 5e in a pretty big way after not having played since 2e.

I'm Dm'ing 2 games, one for my Wife, Daughter and Sister-in-Law.  Another one with a bunch of gaming mates most of whom I play other role-playing games with.

We use Maptool and Discord for voice.  Works well, maptool is mainly used for the maps/battles and dice rolls, we use DnD Beyond for the character sheets so I can have them all open and update them as need be. 


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Morat20 on September 11, 2018, 08:20:34 PM
I'm in a 3.5 game on Skype, about once a month (our group has, over the last 20 years, managed to scatter itself across the country). We keep looking at webtools, but nobody wants to commit to anything.

I sadly bumped into the Eberron sourcebook after we started, which sucks because Artificer seems both fun and exactly what our party really needs. Ah well, it would have been a bit of a headache shoe-horning it in.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Kail on September 12, 2018, 01:24:34 AM
I'm currently DMing a 5th edition run of Hoard of the Dragon Queen with my brother and his kids.  It's not a particularly good fit and I'm not really used to running pre-set modules, but it seems to be going fairly well.  Sitting at around level 5, I believe, and our group is slightly smaller than the "recommended" group so I'm having some issues balancing the challenge, especially since one of the kids is a fairly... enthusiastic mage.  Has, I believe, every damage spell he can cram in to his spell book and no other spells of any kind at all.  But so far, we've only had one casualty (aside from hirelings, who drop like flies) and the group has mostly been able to follow the plot.

Previously we were playing an ancient copy of basic D&D in order to keep the rules simpler, but we hopped to 5th edition when I finally got around to grabbing a copy about a year ago.  The other players also take turns DMing their own campaigns, some of which are D&D and some of which are other settings (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness is popular, partly because we have the sourcebook with the dinosaurs) which is pretty fun but also pretty inconsistent considering the different ages of the DMs involved.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Yegolev on September 12, 2018, 06:32:24 AM
Completely unprompted, my son joined a faculty-sponsored D&D club at school.  He talked to me about it just long enough for me to realize I don't know how the game works anymore.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Johny Cee on September 12, 2018, 11:57:58 AM
Completely unprompted, my son joined a faculty-sponsored D&D club at school.  He talked to me about it just long enough for me to realize I don't know how the game works anymore.


Look for "Critical Role highlights" on youtube...  D&D streaming and podcasting is really, really popular right now.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: jgsugden on September 12, 2018, 09:59:10 PM
I find that over here gaming groups are divided neatly into 3.

1 - Very Young People.  Yeah, that's not a good look for an old guy.
2 - Gaming Spods from your local shop/geek hangout.  I mean, seriously, these people.  They're awful.
3 - Digital Gamers.  Yeah, sure, try getting a group together in the same time zone with the same commitment level.

Alas, playing proper D&D is something I'd dearly, dearly love to do, but it's pretty much a vicarious pleasure at this point.  Something that I've had to cast adrift as 'something I used to do when I was younger'.
You might consider giving it another go.  There are a lot of 20 something gamers that recently learned how to roleplay well by listening to podcats like Critical Role.   I've noticed a much higher number of mature role players at game store games, etc... as a result.  You might give the game shop games a chance to see if you can meet a good group of players. 


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Miguel on September 17, 2018, 02:17:44 PM
My family had our first session this past weekend, with myself DM'ing the Lost Mines of Phandelver.  My son and daughter (10 yo) had a blast: my son yelled "I'm casting Ray of Frost at the goblin" and then proceeded to throw his D20 across the room in excitement, then leapt up and chased it, crawling around on the floor to see what the number was.  This particular goblin had only 6 HP and took 7 damage from the ray.  So my son spent the next 5 minutes arguing that he wanted a roll to see if it shattered like glass after being frozen solid.

I am doomed.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Ironwood on September 18, 2018, 05:38:27 AM
Get that kid a MERP sourcebook.

Show him the critical tables.


Your work as a parent is done.



Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Mandella on September 18, 2018, 10:48:16 AM
You may also want to institute the house rule that all dice off the table get rerolled.

Otherwise lies madness.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Shannow on September 19, 2018, 06:15:23 AM
Would a f13 D&D group be completely crazy? Say using roll20/discord/whatever?


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: jgsugden on September 20, 2018, 11:59:18 AM
Would a f13 D&D group be completely crazy? Say using roll20/discord/whatever?
Yes.  Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to debate.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: schild on September 20, 2018, 12:09:02 PM
I will happily make you all a discord room, even with voice, if you want to run campaigns of any sort.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Rendakor on September 20, 2018, 12:19:50 PM
If we do a relaxed, text-based campaign I would be down to play. I probably don't have time to commit to voice chat sessions though.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Kail on September 22, 2018, 10:03:04 PM
If we do a relaxed, text-based campaign I would be down to play. I probably don't have time to commit to voice chat sessions though.

Me too.  I mean, I have the time, technically, but lining it up with other people, maybe not so much.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Strazos on November 13, 2018, 07:06:56 PM
Wouldn't it just collapse like our old Cthulhu campaign did?


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Samwise on November 13, 2018, 09:57:57 PM
Yes.   :awesome_for_real:


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: jgsugden on March 30, 2020, 05:29:45 PM
Anyone (else) transition to an online game from a live game during this period? We experimented with Rolld20 and Fantasy Grounds, but decided to stick with Zoom and an extra camera for the map.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Rendakor on March 30, 2020, 06:16:07 PM
We played over Skype this past Sunday, because we already use that for our one remote player to join in. It's less than ideal since our current-DM has an awful webcam, but we managed okay.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: ezrast on April 04, 2020, 07:24:57 PM
We've done a couple sessions with Roll20, but using Discord for audio since it's less flaky. It took us a little while to figure out the Roll20 interface on our first session. It isn't great but gets the job done. We're still playing through Curse of Strahd (a year and a half since my last post about it, and we're level 5 now!) and there's an official module so our DM had maps and tokens with art from the book, which was neat.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Lucas on April 11, 2020, 03:58:21 AM
I finally decided that my three core books have been picking up too much dust in the last 3-4 years, so I started playing.

Took me a bit to create a character (a LV2 Haf-Elf Druid): made the wrong decision of not using an online cheat sheet/flowchart so I went fully old-school by flipping the PHB back and forth  :grin:

But wait, there's more!  Embracing the social distancing policy (online and offline  :awesome_for_real:), I bought the first of a series of solo modules you can find here:

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/220997/DD-Solo-Adventure-The-Death-Knights-Squire?filters=0_0_0_0_0_0_45546_0

The author published four of them so far, with a fifth coming soon. In reality, you can also DM with another person playing the character (especially good for beginners).

I must say that I'm throughly enjoying it: it's decently written, it offers you a nice variety of choices and opportunities to use skill checks, out of combat magic and whatnot.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Soln on April 16, 2020, 08:03:05 PM
Thanks for the tip I will check out that module.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: schild on April 16, 2020, 09:03:08 PM
we play pbta stuff on discord, just saying


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Comstar on April 29, 2020, 06:47:45 AM
So Mike Mearls must have got fired a year ago over the ZacS affair. It's been covered up until now.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: jgsugden on April 29, 2020, 07:29:36 AM
So Mike Mearls must have got fired a year ago over the ZacS affair. It's been covered up until now.
Covered up / not announced - and it is not clear he is not working for WotC.  He may have just been moved to other areas.  His Linked In has not changed which either means he is lazy (he was very proactive in his role), he was moved elsewhere in the company (perhaps to Electronic Gaming or something else) or he is looking for a job still and doesn't want to show unemployment on his resume (which, given the circumstances surrounding his departure, would not benefit him as they are going to come up in a background check).


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: schild on April 29, 2020, 09:10:16 AM
What is the Zacs affair?


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Mazakiel on April 29, 2020, 09:26:56 AM
https://www.polygon.com/2019/2/20/18232181/dungeons-dragons-zak-smith-sabbath-abuse-accusations-players-handbook

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/aq2ste/mearls_responds_to_questions_on_zak_smith/

Guy involved with playtesting DnD 5e was apparently a scumbag who harassed and abused people.  Supposedly Mearls tried to cover for him per various people. 


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: jgsugden on April 29, 2020, 12:09:19 PM
More specifically, when evidence of the abuse was in Mearls hands, he handed it over to the scumbag, without redaction.  Mearls faded into oblivion over the next 4 months.  No social media, no references from the WotC folks, etc...  The last place he was referenced was by the team developing BG 3.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: schild on April 29, 2020, 01:13:40 PM
Smith is best known for his work as the Dungeon Master in I Hit It With My Axe, a video series from The Escapist circa 2010, in which he plays an early version of D&D with other porn stars.

Stopped there, lol. The ol Macris diaspora.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Johny Cee on April 29, 2020, 01:53:08 PM
More specifically, when evidence of the abuse was in Mearls hands, he handed it over to the scumbag, without redaction.  Mearls faded into oblivion over the next 4 months.  No social media, no references from the WotC folks, etc...  The last place he was referenced was by the team developing BG 3.

As far as I can tell, this never happened?  Everything linked to it is circular twitter supposition that then references each other as proof.

Mearls is still in the company and working with licenses/franchises.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: jgsugden on May 04, 2020, 01:14:39 PM
A lot of game stores hasve organized online games via Roll20, Fantasy Grounds or just a Zoom meeting.  You might poke around the site for your FLGS if you want to get some interactive D&D going.


Title: Re: Dungeons and Dragons
Post by: Mandella on May 18, 2020, 11:39:27 PM
Smith is best known for his work as the Dungeon Master in I Hit It With My Axe, a video series from The Escapist circa 2010, in which he plays an early version of D&D with other porn stars.

Stopped there, lol. The ol Macris diaspora.

Just catching up with this thread, and there's a name I recognize. Huh. Zak actually authored some pretty good pieces on the art of Dungeon Mastering, with lots of smart insight into how to keep a fun campaign going and how to handle various player and people issues -- shame to hear he got involved in some scandal (of which I know nothing about except what I just read here).

I do have to ask, Macris diaspora? I know of the Lum diaspora (of which I am technically a part) but whats this Macris?