Trouble playing DnD?

[mizushinzui]

Hey everyone,
wasn't really sure if this belonged in gaming discussion or not.

Anyway was curious if anyone else, especially in the UK, has trouble finding other DnD players to play with? and if so have you found any other ways to remedy the issue?

The only real group I ever managed to get together on a regular basis was some friends while I was back in Uni, and even then I was the only one with any experience so I ended up DMing. Besides the fact I didn't get to play I also had a group that weren't really into the experience; don't get me wrong they enjoyed it but since they had never really done anything like it before they weren't particularly good at role playing as their characters and it really came across as a noob version of the game.

I did eventually find some online tools for playing table top RPGs with people online but thanks to a crippling fear of communicating with someone who I can't see I've never really got the guts up to try it. I think it's a real shame as well since there are loads of table top RPGs I'd love to play but am unlikely to get a chance because most friends of mine can barely handle DnD and would have no patience to learn other things like shadowrun.

What's everyone else's experiences with this? You had any luck playing online or do you find it easier to get a group together and play?

 

[Gankytim]

If you're not in highschool or you don't already have friends who are intrested you are going to have a bad time finding people to play with.

The reason it's so hard to find new people to play with is because people don't know if you're gonna be "that guy". Who ruins it and makes the experience difficult and cringe-y for everyone.

Example: we were playing this one game ruleset where you have to off eachother toward the end in order to really win. This one girl who was there got all pouty and started making sarcastic comments the moment one of my friends offed her character. Whining and begging the GM to let her back in. It's like, everyone else accepted it when their character died, even made jokes. Why should we change the rules for you, the game's almost over and we're all going to play again.

Or another time with the same girl, we played WH: 40k and she bitched when we once again, wouldn't ignore rules that everyone else abided by just for her.

Third time: Same girl, someone got a sword she wanted, so on her next turn she went ahead and stabbed the guy who got the sword in the head. It's like, thanks we weren't just starting a game, we didn't have a plan on dealing with the situation.

I could go on, but I'll spare you.

Tabletop gamers have a pathological fear of "that guys" who do thing like the above examples and make the entire experience a chore. So we have grown wary of letting new players into our circles. It's sad but it's really the only line of defence.

Blame "that guy's".

 

[gonzo20]

I would love to play dnd sometime but my friends arent really the kind of people who would do that sort of stuff, it does seem fun though

 

[L. Declis]

Honestly, the trick is to make friends who play D&D.

More people than you think play roleplaying games, but we hide it as a general rule. It's very much secret handshake, a bit like Warhammer 40,000 players which are everywhere in the UK but don't tend to bring it up. As such, you only play with friends and friends of friends. People are added into groups via referral.

If you don't know these people, it's nearly impossible to get into new groups.

That leaves the option; make your own group. Find friends who like acting, gaming or are nerdy and try to get them to play. Don't make them too self-concious, just have fun. Make sure you know the rules, but if you don't, just wing it for the session and don't bog it down. If it's fun, they'll learn the rules later.

However, if you want to find those people, you need to find hobbies which are related to it.

Drama and theatre people, gamers and wargamers are open, hobby and independent shops tend to have groups, cosplay and anime fans can be convinced, and so on.

 

[mizushinzui]

Well I've been looking into online alternatives and stuff and other than trying to play over skype I've found a few little tools and things for table tops.

The first one I don't remember the name of but it's basically an online tool for hosting D20 system games, but I've also found a really comprehensive looking one called 'tabletop simulator'. It's like £10.99 on steam but until I've seen how it works properly it's difficult to know if it's going to be worth getting.

The thing looks well made enough and it is literally an online virtual table top so you can use it for more than just DnD but do you think it's the sort of thing that's going to become popular enough to warrent buying just so I can play DnD ? Does anyone have any experience with the system or now anything about it?

I would love to play dnd sometime but my friends arent really the kind of people who would do that sort of stuff, it does seem fun though

Would you ever think about playing it online over a DnD service or something? Like the tabletop simulator ?

 

[mizushinzui]

I would love to play dnd sometime but my friends arent really the kind of people who would do that sort of stuff, it does seem fun though

Would you ever think about playing it online over a DnD service or something? Like the tabletop simulator ?

I was going to suggest the same.

You can play online via webcams or microphones, or even virtually in various places. If you don't care about playing in person, or wouldn't mind at least initially playing virtually, there is an entire planet of people you can D&D with.

A huge part of me would love to do something like this but I'm still dubious about having to talk to people without being able to see them, seriously it freaks me out way too much for a grown man.

I think it's doable via text chat but I doubt people would be willing to go through the extra effort, still if it means I can find a group to play shadowrun with it's worth a try.

 

[Shinkicker444]

This one girl...

another time with the same girl...

Third time: Same girl...

Dude, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, but fool me thrice... Damn was she someones girlfriend/wife or something? If she was that bad why keep inviting her back.

 

[timus666]

Whereabouts in the UK are you? I'm in West Yorkshire and there are plenty of gaming/comic shops local to me that are always on the lookout for players. I'm sure you'll be able to find somewhere to play I've got 6 good gaming locations within 10 miles of me, Travelling Man shops usually have regular nights set up though they'll probably be pushing 5th E on people at the moment.

 

[timus666]

Whereabouts in the UK are you? I'm in West Yorkshire and there are plenty of gaming/comic shops local to me that are always on the lookout for players. I'm sure you'll be able to find somewhere to play I've got 6 good gaming locations within 10 miles of me, Travelling Man shops usually have regular nights set up though they'll probably be pushing 5th E on people at the moment.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Hey everyone,
wasn't really sure if this belonged in gaming discussion or not.

Anyway was curious if anyone else, especially in the UK, has trouble finding other DnD players to play with? and if so have you found any other ways to remedy the issue?

The only real group I ever managed to get together on a regular basis was some friends while I was back in Uni, and even then I was the only one with any experience so I ended up DMing. Besides the fact I didn't get to play I also had a group that weren't really into the experience; don't get me wrong they enjoyed it but since they had never really done anything like it before they weren't particularly good at role playing as their characters and it really came across as a noob version of the game.

I did eventually find some online tools for playing table top RPGs with people online but thanks to a crippling fear of communicating with someone who I can't see I've never really got the guts up to try it. I think it's a real shame as well since there are loads of table top RPGs I'd love to play but am unlikely to get a chance because most friends of mine can barely handle DnD and would have no patience to learn other things like shadowrun.

What's everyone else's experiences with this? You had any luck playing online or do you find it easier to get a group together and play?

I've had a lot of trouble finding folks in the US to play with in my current city... but its also probably due to my becoming a hermit of sorts... I tried playing with a group in my hometown a few years back but they were so... how am I going to put it nicely? They all were absolutely inexperienced players who all wanted to be evil characters, and the group dynamic broke down quickly because they couldn't work together. I almost threw the Tomb of Horrors at them, but decided that my normal form of joyful destruction of PC's just wouldn't be fun with that group... Also I'm a DM at heart and usually love to DM but they almost sucked the joy of DMing right out of me. Thankfully I'm pretty resilient and am confident I will eventually find another group.

 

[mizushinzui]

I would love to play dnd sometime but my friends arent really the kind of people who would do that sort of stuff, it does seem fun though

Would you ever think about playing it online over a DnD service or something? Like the tabletop simulator ?

I was going to suggest the same.

You can play online via webcams or microphones, or even virtually in various places. If you don't care about playing in person, or wouldn't mind at least initially playing virtually, there is an entire planet of people you can D&D with.

A huge part of me would love to do something like this but I'm still dubious about having to talk to people without being able to see them, seriously it freaks me out way too much for a grown man.

I think it's doable via text chat but I doubt people would be willing to go through the extra effort, still if it means I can find a group to play shadowrun with it's worth a try.

I have social and generalized anxiety disorders, meaning things like telephones and voice chat scare the living poop out of me, so I feel your pain lol.

Give it a try. Check out some of the online options. No harm, right?

Have you tried or even heard of the video game versions of some of the tabletop games? I know something like D&D Online isn't the same as the pen and paper experience, but you might enjoy it. Also, Shadowrun is on Steam and although I only briefly played it before getting distracted (I plan to go back) it seemed really nice. There is also a growing community for it.

I've actually played a lot of DnD online and i've been playing through shadowrun also quite a lot recentlly, but my hankering for actual table top roleplaying is still not quit satisfied by them. I've decided to wait a little while and see how far the table top simulator thing gets before I decide if I'm going to buy it again.

 

[Shinkicker444]

www.rolld20.com is good for online PnP D&D, full virutal board you can set up scenes on and characters with health displays, organise turn orders, rolls and so on. Can even form pickup groups for campaigns if you want. I haven't tried it myself but I've seen others use it (TotalBiscuit and Co, playing WH40K: Dark Heresy - which is hilarious btw. More recently Quill18 for D&D play throughs). Myself I'd love to give it a go, but everyone doing it seems to be US times, unless I want to get up at like 6am to play.

 

[mizushinzui]

www.rolld20.com is good for online PnP D&D, full virutal board you can set up scenes on and characters with health displays, organise turn orders, rolls and so on. Can even form pickup groups for campaigns if you want. I haven't tried it myself but I've seen others use it (TotalBiscuit and Co, playing WH40K: Dark Heresy - which is hilarious btw. More recently Quill18 for D&D play throughs). Myself I'd love to give it a go, but everyone doing it seems to be US times, unless I want to get up at like 6am to play.

Thanks for the tip on TotalBuiscit btw, I had no idea he'd done table top roleplaying stuff!!

AS for the RollD20 thing that was the online system i've mentioned looking into before. Considering that it's a free system it's pretty damn amazing to be honest but the temptation of the fully 3d rendered tabletop simulator is quite high. I'm really hoping that someone I can trust has played or at least talked about with the system so I can see if it's really the truly free simulation it claims that it is.

Whereabouts in the UK are you? I'm in West Yorkshire and there are plenty of gaming/comic shops local to me that are always on the lookout for players. I'm sure you'll be able to find somewhere to play I've got 6 good gaming locations within 10 miles of me, Travelling Man shops usually have regular nights set up though they'll probably be pushing 5th E on people at the moment.

I live in the midlands or there abouts anyway. My mom and sister used to live in the East Ridings and they had a DnD/MtG shop there which was pretty awesome to be honest. Is there something about Yorkshire that makes them have more nerd shops than the rest of the country? weird.

This one girl...

another time with the same girl...

Third time: Same girl...

Dude, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, but fool me thrice... Damn was she someones girlfriend/wife or something? If she was that bad why keep inviting her back.

Reminds me of the counter monkey episode where spoony talks about his friends racist as hell girlfriend and having to put up with playing with her in the group. Pretty freaking grim. It also reminds me of some of my past games using the old UK dungeoneering system with a girl who tried to use a skill called 'battle tactics' to sense the presence of lizards... 'Dat Logic'

 

[Shinkicker444]

No prob. To save you looking for it,Here's TB's Dark Heresy Roll Play [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-oTJHKXHicSxBj2DMq_zmJ0QALrhKzVg]. It just gets more and more funny as time goes on.

Also, fully 3D desktop? I've only seen the top down 2D one, so news to me.

 

[mizushinzui]

No prob. To save you looking for it,Here's TB's Dark Heresy Roll Play [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-oTJHKXHicSxBj2DMq_zmJ0QALrhKzVg]. It just gets more and more funny as time goes on.

Also, fully 3D desktop? I've only seen the top down 2D one, so news to me.

I decided to buy it because I'm a sucker for stuff that looks awesome.

Here's a screenshot I just took of the basic tabletop RPG set up, looks like you can download custom set ups and monsters from the workshop, which is pretty awesome considering how animated the monsters are. My only worry is how difficult it's going to be for people to have custom character models.

incidentally arkiel snow is my steam name, totally forgot that was in there when I screened it.

Also I just found out that as admin I can copy and paste dragons everywhere... if I ever get a group together to play this and I'm DMing then they are totally screwed xD

 

[Shinkicker444]

Oh that does look pretty awesome. Probably pretty expensive I guess? Where is that from?

 

[mizushinzui]

It cost me £10.99, so not super expensive and I got it from steam.

Works cross platform too which is good because my main desktop is a MAC for editing reasons (inb4 mac gamer hate).

http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160/ there's the storepage for it if you want to check it out.

The workshop for it is full of real boardgames pepole have modded into the thing. The second I find that cards against humanity is on there I may never play a phsyical board game again...oh and I really hope they have eldritch horror