DnD?

[BlazeTheVampire]

I hate DM's

always killing me for trying to break the game... or stab everyone in the back... or blow up the world...

if i cant be evil then its not worth playing!

So... your arguement equates too "The only way for the game to be fun for me is if I can FUCK with everyone else and the DM", basically that your good time comes at the expense of everyone elses... you are clearly in the wrong hobby.

I heartily agree. I had a player like that once, now in general I have a strict no in party killing but this guy managed to make me hate him so much within three sessions I let the other players do whatever they wanted to him. It was gruesome to say the least... Unfortunately there were a couple of my players that liked him (there always are) and threatened to leave if I didn't allow him to stay. So as a compromise I just suspended him from the group until the campaign was finished. After he came back he seemed like he had stopped being an ass. I decided that I was gonna run a fantasy after that and just make a bunch of premade characters and have them roll for each one, when I made these characters I was up at like 4 a.m and mistakenly made a character that was ludicrously overpowered. I gave him a minus four on his roll but he still rolled higher than the others. So after that he dropped his guise and started being a total ass again but I couldn't do anything because his char was FUCKING INVINCIBLE!! What made him so good was hi 20 cons and 20 st as well as the lions bane claymoor that I accidently added to his inventory. The claymore is indestructable made of pure silver gives +7 bonus and an added +15 damage after the armor is pierced. so that's what I get for programming everything into the char generator on my computer. I had meant to put that item at the bottom of a 99 level dungeon guarded by three dragons and the vengeful spirit of its previous owner. It was like handing a button to a 3 year old, that when pressed nuked everything in the immediate area.

Agreed. Nobody likes a player-killer. However, a character with motives separate from or working against the party's without being annoying and killing everybody is quite different. We've had a couple of those. You can still be "evil" in all sense of the word and work against the party, just in a much more subtle way. If you just attack party members and randomly kill them, it tends to upset people. If you get to an important plot twist and you turn out to be the mastermind behind everything that's been happening to them thus far, they'll actually have MORE respect for you, in my experience.

 

[BeeL]

I think another good way to have evil PCs is to have an evil campaing where most of the party or all of the party is evil, and their ultime goal is world domination, it can be very fun, but you need a DM who is prepared for such a thing.

 

[Larenxis]

Wait a second, what was the reason we don't just do it on this forum?

 

[Saskwach]

Wait a second, what was the reason we don't just do it on this forum?

Because...
Well...
You know, I couldn't actually say. All I could think of is that on an RPG forum the privacy of the game would be respected a bit better (not one RP yet hasn't had people try to introduce themselves without realising or caring that they couldn't).

 

[Larenxis]

I can put up with that. And if the new players are eloquent enough I just might let them in. I'm astounded how many people have read the Zombie RP, that thing is epic; it seems like an accomplishment for a new poster to merely catch up.

So if anyone wants to DM I am not standing in their way. I don't have a ton of experience; I've mostly played other people's games, getting a feel for it. It'll be strange playing without doing voices and expressions... But! If I am going to be DMing we can either use a storyline I've already made that starts at level four (but renders arcane casters without magic for most of the journey, so you might want to avoid being one) OR I can make an entirely new one that might take some time OR we can start right away and I can just make it up as I go. What do you guys think?

 

[Kovash86]

I started Right before 3.5 came out, which I'm glad I didn't buy any 3.0 books there were more holes in that than I care to think about, with that being said 3.5 isn't all that much better, once you get to a certain point (generally around level 9) it takes a monumental amount of effort on the part of the GM to kill you in that system, or one of the really nasty CR 20s who range from the somewhat dangerous to the utterly grotesque unstoppable killing machine, some of whom you have to be lvl 21 to beat because otherwise they will cast one spell and you will be done, permanently, Thor forbid anyone use their critters properly.

Now 4th ed is coming out and I've got a leaked copy of it, suffice to say while there all holes in the system you can drive a truck through they are almost all out in the open and awaiting you to just glance over them, for example some of the danger is back as monsters are tougher than you but you can hit harder, however the danger goes away rally quickly when you realize you have to go negative half your HP to die, which sucks especially for the higher HP classes because at a certain point they will find themselves at -1 HP with over 100HP to go before they die and they can't do anything but lie there unconscious. Then there is the whole AC issue, once you get around the level to face some of the big bads out there you will find that any of your meat shields have so much AC that the big bad can't hit them, unless they roll a 20, which also takes the concern right out of combat and players (well plate wearers anyhow) can throw themselves into the middle of any group of jerks and wail on them because even with combat advantage (the new word for Flanking, or an disabled target, something as simple as being caught flat-footed in 3.5 amongst other incapacitating effects) they can't touch you without a 20. I'm running a game this Saturday (I think) to test it out and see how it stands up, I think however there is going to be a bunch of FAQ coming out with the official release.

 

[Kovash86]

Oh I would like to take part in the game here, as long as I'm allowed access to other books (within reason of course), I only request this because I've been in enough games since 3.5 came out to build everything out of the PHB.

EDIT: a thought occurred to me: we should use a forum thread or chat room that has a password that only the players and GM in the game know, this should reduce the level of stupid since people won't be able to walk in and start making a mess of things by acting like they are 6.

EDIT EDIT: what edition are "we" playing, I say "we" because I haven't gotten a confirmation if I can play yet.

 

[Kovash86]

Awesome. We have a DM.
As for the forum, unless we want a vote we should probably just go with GitP- since Lar has volunteered for DM we should be extra nice to her, plus I like the look better.
Oh, and can we agree to stick with, if not simply the base triad of books, then at least NOT psionics? Man, I hate them.

The way around psionics is an endurance fight, they run out of juice faster than anything else.

 

[Sylocat]

I play D&D off and on, but generally prefer some of the other, lesser known tabletop RPGs to D&D.

 

[Zemalac]

If I am going to be DMing we can either use a storyline I've already made that starts at level four (but renders arcane casters without magic for most of the journey, so you might want to avoid being one) OR I can make an entirely new one that might take some time OR we can start right away and I can just make it up as I go. What do you guys think?

Arcane casters without magic? What french hell is this?
That said, I suppose what story you use would be your choice as DM.

So, are we doing it on this forum or the GiantITP ones? Have we decided that yet?

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Agreed. Nobody likes a player-killer. However, a character with motives separate from or working against the party's without being annoying and killing everybody is quite different. We've had a couple of those. You can still be "evil" in all sense of the word and work against the party, just in a much more subtle way. If you just attack party members and randomly kill them, it tends to upset people. If you get to an important plot twist and you turn out to be the mastermind behind everything that's been happening to them thus far, they'll actually have MORE respect for you, in my experience.

You still need to be careful with this kind of thing though, but evil characters can work, they just MUST be willing to work with the party. In the last episode of my groups favorite campaign (we play it episodically, so we'll do a 5-6 Session "Episode" take a break until that GM has another stroke of genius and writes another one) a new player brought in a character who was effectively "chaotic evil" but still worked with the party and never ended up screwing us over, it was actually the "true neutral" character who ended up double crossing us (in retrospect it was a cool idea, but during the actual game it pissed a lot of people off and that player doesn't show up any more because of that). Still, I've never been comfortable with "party betrayal", mostly because the player/GM combo who pull it off always seem like they're more interested in playing a 2 Person game than actually making the game fun for everyone else, though I realize this isn't always the case.

 

[unangbangkay]

I don't know about you guys or have my information about how horrible it's sure to be from my "leaked copies" or whatever, but I'm actually kind of stoked about 4E, particularly with some of the online tools they're planning like the game table and whatnot. Since the game seems have taken a lot of ideas from the miniatures games with regards to placement and tactics, an online game table might make it easier to play online, which is good for me since I don't always have the opportunity to get together with others for a session.

As for the setting changes, I'll always miss the great wheel and some of the other changes, but I actually find the new setting a quite refreshing. Reading through Manual of the Planes and some other sourcebooks I really did get the impression that most of the planes were there just for needless symmetry, and simply wouldn't be fun to adventure on, so changing them about or making them easier to access seemed like a logical step, especially now that epic levels are a part of the base experience rather than an afterthought designed to satisfy the power-hungry.

And while I'll always miss the Great Wheel I do think it was time for the core setting to step out of the archetypal tolkienesque fantasy setting, not just because WoW is in now (most of the similarities are superficial anyway).

Anyway, once the game gets out (and my rulebooks arrive), I'm looking to find a group that'll be using the beta DnDi tools, if only to try them out.

 

[Saskwach]

Ok, everyone's milling about so I'm going to start declaring things before the fire leaves our bellies.
We'll play here at the Escapist. The players will be anyone who's already shown interest on this thread, anyone who shows it quick smart AND who Larenxis is ok with inviting. If things gets crowded she'll have the executive power to say "bugger off" to anyone.
That's all for now.

 

[unangbangkay]

Can we start a 4th ed. PbP thread once that all comes out?

 

[exocel]

ive been intrested in it for a long time, but no one i know ever seems ot, ive got a tin full of heroclix that have remained unused purely because no one else i know has an interest in games wich arent fps pc games.
though hearing the penny arcade 4th edition game on the d and d podcast has been luring me into purchasing the 4th edition when it comes out.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

D&D is sweet, but I prefer the White Wolf games myself. I just seem to be able to do better at DMing them, and I like the emphasis on storytelling they have.

I'm not a fan of their "Pasty-Goth" games (read: Anything WOD) but I LOVE their poor neglected Trinity properties, especially ADVENTURE! which is greatly underappreciated, even by its creators.

 

[Saskwach]

Can we start a 4th ed. PbP thread once that all comes out?

Get a DM and some interested players and you're set.

 

[unangbangkay]

ive been intrested in it for a long time, but no one i know ever seems ot, ive got a tin full of heroclix that have remained unused purely because no one else i know has an interest in games wich arent fps pc games.
though hearing the penny arcade 4th edition game on the d and d podcast has been luring me into purchasing the 4th edition when it comes out.

Same here, I once spent nearly a month's wages (for some folks in my country) on Mechwarrior: Dark Age miniatures, and ended up playing all of three games. Then the comic store I bought them from went under.

With RPG sourcebooks at least you can have fun reading them, particularly campaign setting fluff books, and not worry about all those novel-related issues, like the writer being a hack

Anyway, if you do decide to get into it, let's try getting together with the online tools. Maybe we'll find a willing DM

 

[Larenxis]

Do you guys want to be a mostly good, neutral, or evil party?

 

[Saskwach]

Do you guys want to be a mostly good, neutral, or evil party?

It depends on the premise, I guess. Like if we were playing pirates I'd say evil. Mercenaries, neutral. Standard adventurers, good/neutral. Hired guns/thugs/thieves/assassins, (an idea I've always wanted to try) evil.