Pen & Paper

[Sonicron]

Now, over the last few weeks pen & paper RPGs have been taking up a lot of my free time, and I'm heartily enjoying the ride. Upon skimming through the folder that contains my character sheets I realized that by now it'd probably be faster to list the games I don't play; these are the games I'm currently involved in:

- Vampire: The Masquerade
- Degenesis
- Unknown Armies
- Das Schwarze Auge
- Discworld
- Star Wars (Old Republic, Clone Wars, Imperium, what have you...)
- W40k: Dark Heresy (GM)
- W40k: Deathwatch
- Warhammer Fantasy
- Marvel Universe
- Mutants & Masterminds: Wild Cards

I am open to the possibility I've gone mad with this particular hobby, but then again this is a nerd community (keep telling yourselves otherwise, I'll be over in this corner , merrily laughing away)... so here's the deal: Does anyone else here play pen & paper RPGs? If yes, which ones, and what of your experiences with them? If no, why not? Have you even heard of such things existing? And why the hell is it so difficult to get raspberry jam stains out of my favorite white t-shirt?!

 

[Talshere]

I grew up in a city dominated by chavs so I've only got into pen and paper RP's since coming to uni. I did my first D&D session ever over summer, on a campaigns that when from levels 20 to 30 (talk about going in at the deep end) and my games club trailed its first ever Deathwatch game yesterday (Sunday) using tutorial campaign and premade toons. Was a right blast and while the DM cant be there regularly I look forward to playing it again, though I do think the healer is penalised in renown for being a healer : /

Ill happily play D&D again and also look forward to playing the Warhammer Fantasy RP which I've heard a lot about. Our biggest problem atm is lack of DM's. The RP section of the gaming society just died out 2-3 years ago so we have no experienced DM's except the owner of the local shop who sells that sort of thing who is an honorary member Who unfortunately can be there an a regular basis what with running 2 shops as well as gaming sessions to go with them.

 

[Grounogeos]

DnD, where I'm a Gray Dragon that can turn into an Eladrin Swordmage (special campaign our DM came up with; everybody plays a dragon that can turn into a humanoid creature).

Call of Cthulhu. One of our players is already insane; maybe starting with a max Sanity of 25 wasn't such a good idea.

Vampire: The Requiem. Already had to reroll a character... in retrospect, I should've started running instead of trying to shoot a werewolf in the face when I was standing right in front of him.

 

[Sonicron]

... and my games club trailed its first ever Deathwatch game yesterday (Sunday) using tutorial campaign and premade toons. Was a right blast and while the DM cant be there regularly I look forward to playing it again, though I do think the healer is penalised in renown for being a healer : /

Yeah, we played that tutorial campaign as well, or at least the framework of it. My Techmarine even managed to talk that Magos into not attacking us, which freed us up to return him with us to the watch fortress instead of just his memory coil. ^^
Btw, I don't think the Apothecary is penalised in renown... our group's "healer" is an ill-tempered Blood Angel, whose battle frenzy helped us out of more than one tight spot already, and he's been rewarded accordingly.

Call of Cthulhu. One of our players is already insane; maybe starting with a max Sanity of 25 wasn't such a good idea.

Vampire: The Requiem. Already had to reroll a character... in retrospect, I should've started running instead of trying to shoot a werewolf in the face when I was standing right in front of him.

I'm one of the few internet creatures who never really had any close contact with the whole Cthulhu business. Is it fun?

As for Requiem, I never played it, but I did hear good things about it. Hopefully we'll have a GM for it in the near future.

 

[the rabidrabit]

I played D&D 3.5 throughout most of High School (first a human Kensei, then a Dwarven Defender, and finally rolled an evil lizardman ranger) and now I'm playing the 4th Ed.(rolled a Warforged fighter) at Uni. I still think that 3.5 is the better system but I'm willing to wait and see what they can come up with for the new one.

 

[Unesh52]

I've always been a bit wary of pen and paper RPGs. I may just be spoiled by my history with consoles, but it seems like playing with action figures taken to the next level. And the next level involves doing a bunch of trivial calculations every time you scratch you bum. Also, and this may still be because of consoles, I like my fantasies to be private. Single player mode, please.

 

[Sark]

I've always been a bit wary of pen and paper RPGs. I may just be spoiled by my history with consoles, but it seems like playing with action figures taken to the next level. And the next level involves doing a bunch of trivial calculations every time you scratch you bum. Also, and this may still be because of consoles, I like my fantasies to be private. Single player mode, please.

See with video games, they are rarely ever your fantasies. With PnP you can actually roleplay.

 

[GodsAndFishes]

At the moment I'm not in any proper games, but once things get back into the uni routine I'll be in three:
A Highlander game using the World of Darkness system.
A Darksun D&D game.
A Spirit of the Century game. This in my opinion is the best game system once you get past the character gen which is an absolute *****.

 

[Grounogeos]

I'm one of the few internet creatures who never really had any close contact with the whole Cthulhu business. Is it fun?

I think it is. Of course, that might partially be from a combination of how crazy our group is and the fact that I rolled a 2 to melee a goblin creature and still managed to punt the little bastard across the room (+25 melee bonus FTW!).

 

[Trifixion]

Indeed. DnD in various incarnations since the late 70's, Gamma World, MERP, Rolemaster (favorite system of all time), Call Of Cthulhu, Chill, Star Wars D6, Twilight 2000 (absolutely no relation to the sparkly vampires), Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2020, Top Secret, Paranoia, Hero System/Champions, the original Marvel Super Heroes, Superworld, Silver Age Sentinels, Mutants And Masterminds, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, Boot Hill, Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Demon: The Fallen, Fluffy Bunnies: The Hopping (okay, that one's not real), Aberrant, Big Eyes Small Mouth, Feng Shui, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Discworld, HackMaster, Ninja Burger, Kobolds Ate My Baby, and Munchkin.

Oh yes, and Macho Women With Guns. I have to appreciate a game with a skill called "Hit Things With Other Things."

 

[SomeLameStuff]

I've always wanted to try DnD sometime, but there's a major lack of nerds in my general area.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

snip

Out of curiosity, I bought Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy a couple of weeks ago and I thought it would be fun to run a RT campaign. But I was wondering overrall how the core game mechanics work in comparison to, say, D&D 3rd ed/3.5?

I was originally tempted to go Dark Heresy campaign, but the only idea of a campaign I had in my head at the time was;

"Okay so how am I going to have a campaign in wqhich the PCs have a powerful contact in the Ecclesiarchy giving them intel and signing their paychecks whilst asking for status reports, yet not turning the campaign into 'railroad central'?"

Whereas Rogue Trader I can still railroad where necessary (no GM creates a truly 'free' environment whereby players can do everything everywhere, all the time) but still provide a huge play ground for the players to do a whole lot of stuff they want to. From political roleplaying, to finances, to military and random exploration.

But in your experience of dark Heresy, do the game mechanics work well in practice or just look good on paper?

Oh By the way I luvtabletop rpgs <.<

 

[WittyInfidel]

I'm in love with pen & paper RPGs. Been playing them for nigh over 16 years now (just turned 29).

:All Dungeons and Dragons incarnation (from 1st to 4th edition)
:all old White Wolf games and supplements (Vampire, Mage, Werewolf, Kindred of the East, Exalted, ect)
:all new White Wolf games supplements (Mage, Vampire, Promethean, Werewolf, ect)
:Aeon Trinity
:Mutants and masterminds (1st and 2nd edition)
:Warhammer 40K Dark Heresy
:G.U.R.P.S.


Lots of good times. Lots of fond memories. Met some of my best friends through P&P gaming, even met my wife.

I've had people try and tell me P&P gaming was dead. Don't you dare believe them.

 

[Allan53]

D&D, version 3.5. Best in my personal opinion. 4th ed just doesn't seem to have any flexibility in character concepts (yes, it's not great in 3.5 either), but that's just my view.

New World of Darkness, various subgames as well (Vampire: The Requiem, Mage: The Awakening, Changeling: The Lost, Geist: The Sin-Eaters, Werewolf: The Forsaken, etc). Geist is my favourite, it doesn't get nearly enough attention.

Also a little Vampire: The Masquerade.

 

[Allan53]

I've had people try and tell me P&P gaming was dead. Don't you dare believe them.

Anyone who says that just hasn't been keeping their eyes open. That said, it can be difficult to find a group to play with in many cities

 

[CloakedOne]

I play the Star Wars RPG more than anything else, but I also play

Hunter: The Reckoning
Changeling: The Lost
Deadlands
New World of Darkness various settings
All Flesh Must be Eaten

I get really into it pretty often.

 

[2xDouble]

I only ever "seriously" played GURPS. (That's Generic Universal Role Playing System, for those who've never heard of it). It has remarkable freedom in character creation, you are limited only by the books available and the DM.

Shame I had to give it up. Oh well, my characters are in my comic books now, and the game books are excellent references for fantasy writing.

 

[Nairang]

i play some PnP and GM most of them as well

Kult
vampire: the masqurade
DnD 3.5
Pathfinder
the Dragon Age PnP
World of Darkness
Call of Cthulhu
and played around with WoW one(not that good tough)

but yeah love a good sesion of a horror adventure

 

[ShakerSilver]

I've always wanted to try DnD sometime, but there's a major lack of nerds in my general area.

Same here, plus I don't think any store in Lebanon will have any sort of tabletop RPG. Ah well.

 

[Quaxar]

I've always wanted to try DnD sometime, but there's a major lack of nerds in my general area.

I feel with you.

Although I have now decided to take another approach by just buying the CoC rulebooks and then persuading people until they join my campaign. Damn Amazon, deliver quicker!