My Dungeons and Dragons Life
POSTED BY: OPPYH
UPDATED: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 18:29
VIEWED: 13088
PAGE 3 of 5
Both are pretty good. I've found that it doesn't matter what the game is, it's the DM that makes it work. I had one DM who put 40 orc's in a 10 by 15 foot room. The orc's were all 4th level, we were all 1st. Needless to say, we didn't last long.
We play fairly loose with the rules, also. Gygax put an afterward in the original DM's guide that said "These are merely guidelines".
Arms Law has been great. We converted to that system some 15 years ago. I wouldn't play without it. Trying to kill something with 100+ HP with a bow gets real boring using the standard system.
We play a combination of 1st and 2nd edition, and we converted Shadowrun to work with those rules. It is fun crossing from one plane to another.
Our "Group" formed "The WorgWolf Detective Agency". It gives the DM a much wider selection of games to run. NPC's come in with problems or mysteries to solve and the group gets to pick which jobs they want to do.
Vlad
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More random D&D stories...
I've both run and played.. not the greatest at running them, but my favorite adventure I ever ran was one in the Planescape campaign setting.
I called it "Charge of the Dark Brigade"... the plot had the PCs awakening on a baatezu (one of the demon races back when they weren't allowed to call them demons) mobile fortress, having lost some days of memory after exposure to some spray from the River Styx. They were told they'd signed a magical contract offering their services opening portals across the lower planes along the way on the fortresses trek towards The Abyss, where they'd all surely die in a suicide mission. They had to figure out how to escape without the contracts killing them, figure out why they were _really_ there, and get involved in all sorts of different problems and schemes with the baatezu (including the second in command trying to get the PCs to kill the leader). Naturally, it was a high powered adventure, but still a lot of fun. Had it written up and it was available on the net for a while, but can't seem to find it anymore. Ah well.
Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6 (real)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alternaljournal (fictional, travelling through another world)
Unreachable Star: http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions
This week: My spoiler-free Serenity review
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*snort*, Gygax was a latecomer..
Steve Jackson's MELEE and WIZARD systems were my teeth-cutting experience, although when they came out with D&D it definately added something (besides rules-lawyering, grr! 
) to the experience.
Might I note that orcs were originally PINK and swine-based...
Yeah, that's me, Bluecover original, B1-B2 modules, and later AD&D set, but 2nd edition for rules-lawyering pansies ? NO THANKS.
ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises) made some good supplemental stuff but the thieving bastards of Palladium and the Anal-retentive White Wolf can also kiss my alcoholic warrior/theif's booze-sodden rump.
One of the more favored bits of RPGish fame was a supplement that came out with the first poorly-constructed sets of cyberpunk (man they were bad, good rules, shoddy production) by the name of Friday Night Firefight and with many RPGs involving firearms, we discard the somewhat ridiculus combat systems they use and stick with FNF cause it's so very realistic.
Note: Getting shot at is BAD, getting hit is WORSE, cover is your friend, stupidity your enemy.
Car Wars and Ogre strike a chord as well, but all the recent same-rules ripoff card games coming out of SJ Games now remind me of what killed Avalon Hill... 200 cheap trashy games with one basic ruleset, oh yea, that's gonna sell... argh.
Guess I've both completely blown the profile and severely dated myself with the above commentary, but what the hell, i'm badder than any of the characters I play, so I doubt anyone's gonna make an issue out of it, heh.
Final note to Games Workshop/Citadel Miniatures.. cult behavior BAD, wrecking game rules to sell more miniatures BAD, and dumping peoples preferred customer status for using non-standard unit organizations and paint schemes is WORSE.
And you wonder why US sales tanked ?
The concept of RPGs was/is to have fun, and when gaming companies forgot this in their quest for profit, they rammed it to gamers without the benefit of a reacharound.. but gamers endure, and the old stuff still works as well now as the day it was printed.
Geezer-Gamer,
-F
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Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
*snort*, Gygax was a latecomer..
Steve Jackson's MELEE and WIZARD systems were my teeth-cutting experience, although when they came out with D&D it definately added something (besides rules-lawyering, grr!
Might I note that orcs were originally PINK and swine-based...
Yeah, that's me, Bluecover original, B1-B2 modules, and later AD&D set, but 2nd edition for rules-lawyering pansies ? NO THANKS.
ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises) made some good supplemental stuff but the thieving bastards of Palladium and the Anal-retentive White Wolf can also kiss my alcoholic warrior/theif's booze-sodden rump.
One of the more favored bits of RPGish fame was a supplement that came out with the first poorly-constructed sets of cyberpunk (man they were bad, good rules, shoddy production) by the name of Friday Night Firefight and with many RPGs involving firearms, we discard the somewhat ridiculus combat systems they use and stick with FNF cause it's so very realistic.
Note: Getting shot at is BAD, getting hit is WORSE, cover is your friend, stupidity your enemy.
Car Wars and Ogre strike a chord as well, but all the recent same-rules ripoff card games coming out of SJ Games now remind me of what killed Avalon Hill... 200 cheap trashy games with one basic ruleset, oh yea, that's gonna sell... argh.
Guess I've both completely blown the profile and severely dated myself with the above commentary, but what the hell, i'm badder than any of the characters I play, so I doubt anyone's gonna make an issue out of it, heh.
Final note to Games Workshop/Citadel Miniatures.. cult behavior BAD, wrecking game rules to sell more miniatures BAD, and dumping peoples preferred customer status for using non-standard unit organizations and paint schemes is WORSE.
And you wonder why US sales tanked ?
The concept of RPGs was/is to have fun, and when gaming companies forgot this in their quest for profit, they rammed it to gamers without the benefit of a reacharound.. but gamers endure, and the old stuff still works as well now as the day it was printed.
Geezer-Gamer,
-F
Car Wars rocked, I used to play that as well as D&D. As far as the rules thing with D&D, the group I used tp play with were fairly liberal meaning we used to have a good time above all, never sweating the small stuff. On the other hand I've played with other groups who were by the book only, and frequently argued for 2 or more hours on one subject. I gamed with them a few times, but soon stopped. To them D&D was about power, and as we all know power corrupts.
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Wow. I started thanks to Car Wars in the late 1980s. I joined a group of guys who, more or less, hung through until a few days ago, we are all essentially split up, kinda sad.
Anyway, we cut out teeth on Twilight 2000 and progressed from there. D&D, Exhaulted, Shadowrun, Star Wars (Westend, baby!) Some Deadlands. I don;t play since I moved, but 2004 and 2003 were every Friday night, beer and Pizza flowed freely and so did the gaming.
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I loved D&D from the moment I saw an ad for the miniatures in an old 1979 JC Penney's catalogue. My mother wouldn't let me play because of all the hysteria back in the day. Then we saw Mazes and Monsters on TV one night, and realized how silly it all was.
My sophomore year of high school, 1982, I played my first game.
It was up and down after that. We played Gamma World, Car Wars, Lost Worlds and AD&D. We had some good games, we had some really awful games, we didn't even finish a lot of them - we could never get a solid group of gamers together who would commit to a regular game.
When I got back from GenCon 2000 and the premier of D&D version 3.0 I was able to get an outstanding group of guys together, "Dice Club," and we started playing the Adventure Path modules.
4 1/2 years later, we just finished them up. We went from 1st to 20th level, some of the guys with the same characters!
I'm looking forward right now to the Serenity Roleplaying Game which I had a chance to preview at Origins this year. Read my review:
[url] http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=11195
Thanks for the memories guys. Great D&D stories!
Oh, and OPPYH, You really should invest in the 3.5 rules. They are the gold standard in roleplaying gaming right now. They have been playtested by like half the civilized world, and they really do make D&D play faster, better and more fun. I'm telling you you're cheating yourself and your gaming group if you don't at least pick up a used copy!
Seriously, email me, I'll walk you through it - the rules are that simple.
May have been on the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.
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I’ve been playing RPGs off and on since 79. I started with D&D but preferred sci-fi and quickly moved to Traveler. I’ve played about everything else eventually settling on Harnmaster for medieval fantasy and a 2300AD like universe using modified Twilight 2000 rules and later my own rules for my sci-fi role playing fix. Yes I’m a geek and I have great fun being one.
I no longer enjoy D&D finding D20 unfulfilling and pretty much corporate, customer fleecing what with all the myriad colorful books and what not. Go try Harnmaster or Riddle of Steel for more fantasy fun and go on line and find a copy of Gunmaster, TW2000 or, Traveler the New Era for sci-fi adventure.
Jade Hand has even played in a few
Yay, we're doomed!
Gir, Invader Zim "Bad, bad Rubber Piggies"
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D20 is where it's at right now - you could go into any game store or college convention, let alone a big con like Origins or Dragon Con, and almost everyone will be able to join you in a d20-based game. If all you knew was one of those game systems you'd be really hard pressed to get something going.
Just go on eBay or to your locally owned mom-and-pop game or comic book store and pick up a used copy of PHB, DMG and MM. They're really all you need. While you're there pick up an old copy of Dungeon Magazine that has 3-5 adventures for like 5 bucks. Or - download an adventure from one of the small on-line publishers - next you'll be writing your own.
Nobody has to get "fleeced."
As far as sci-fi, Sovereign Press/Margaret Weis Productions as the official Serenity licence for their game, and I think we should support them. I played a demo, I can say it plays great!
May have been on the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.
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Quote:
Originally posted by varden:
Oh, and OPPYH, You really should invest in the 3.5 rules. They are the gold standard in roleplaying gaming right now. They have been playtested by like half the civilized world, and they really do make D&D play faster, better and more fun. I'm telling you you're cheating yourself and your gaming group if you don't at least pick up a used copy!
My friend is a 2nd edition AD&D fanatic. We have talked a great deal about going all new, or old style D&D. We are very farmiliar with the old rules, but the 3rd edition looks fantastic. Here's the problem, if we play the 3.5 rules, is there a coversion to use older monster manuals along with monsters from the new books in the current rules? If this is possible then we will probably just do that. It's been about 10 years since both of us have played, and the 3rd edition just looks so different, as if every aspect of AD&D has been completely revamped. If it's backward compatible, then we will definately jump into it.
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Fun stuff...I got curious about D&D after watching an episode of Greatest Ameican Hero. I kid you not. Some rich kid had been missing for days and he was feared kidnapped. Turned out he wa just really into the game.
I don't have any great stories to tell though. None of my friends were interested.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
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"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"
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