What tabletop games do you play/want to play?

[Elfgore]

We are I think 9 sessions into the campaign I am GMing, and I have intentionally kept the leveling slow, so I am not ready to make a final judgment of any kind yet. We've definitely been having fun, and overall there is a lot of cool stuff in there if you like D20 fantasy, but with more mechanical complexity than e.g. D&D 5e.

Something I'm slightly worried about is the extreme power curve characters are on. A single level in PF 2e is probably more impactful than it has ever been in any previous iteration of the D20 fantasy subgenre. Literally every modifier you have (AC, Attack, Skills, DCs, Saving Throws) goes up by 1 for every single level. Combine this with the fact that you now get critical successes when exceeding a DC by 10, not only on a natural 20, (and the equivalent opposite for critical failures) and you have a recipe for every single point mattering like never before.

As a contrast, in D&D 5e the difference between a level 1 and a level 5 character is primarily the size of their HP pool, and what abilities they have. Mathematically, not that much has changed. 1 extra point to rolls due to proficiency, and maybe an attribute increase.

In PF 2e, you have basically all of those things, AND you get more feats, AND you no longer have to roll for HP but always get the maximum, AND every modifier has gone by up at least 4, AND it's easier to get your hands on equipment that improves your modifiers. You get the picture. It's a basically superhuman level of growth, such that outlevelling your opponent guarantees they will be no real threat to you, but facing something that outlevels you means you're pretty boned. That has always been true to some extent, but it feels more true than ever. And I still need to see how I feel about that.

I'm joining a group that's already playing a lot of them mentioned that. I know they've told me about how many characters they've gone through as they'll just get wiped by stronger monsters. I'm curious to see how it goes. I don't mind my characters dying, but I'd rather not be rerolling every week or two.

 

[Asita]

But the stats mean nothing if you've never played it. Take 40k for example. Lasguns are strength 3. Is that good or bad?
The point being stats only matter within context, and if you don't know the context, stats are meaningless.

True enough, and then of course there's also the matter of whether or not the stats are good for what the GM has planned. That's one of the reasons that my new characters tend to use optimized builds as a baseline that I dial back and add flavor to.

For instance: First time I ever played Shadowrun I decided to make a Face. I did my research, figured that the game would probably assume I could excel in my chosen niche, so I borrowed a "Pornomancer" build as a template, and dialed it back by cutting out the Cyberware/Bioware, and started tweaking the qualities and skills to turn him into an infiltration expert with my own flavor to it. Similarly, I decided to make a Pathfinder Witch for giggles and built him to ensure he'd actually be useful...and it was after that that I worked out his backstory, which ended up leaning heavily into his Magical Knack trait. Granted, this can mean that my characters are a bit overoptimized for a campaign, but the experience gives me a good frame of reference for future campaigns, and I'm less likely to force the party to figuratively carry me as I learn the ropes.

 

[SilentPony]

SNIP

I remember the first, and only, time I played Gamma World. We were all new to it, and the DM thought it looks cool(Fallout 3 had just come out so...) and we made our characters. Spent a good 2 hours doing so too. I was a crazed hobbo with a trashcan as a shield, and a broken bottle as a knife. He was insanely charismatic and specialized in manipulation and persuasions to the point he could ask and attempt to convince enemies to hurt themselves on his behalf.
All the characters are set, and we find out first quest. A monster has been eating the chicken-frogs from a nearby farm and we need to stop it. We track it to a cave and it turns out to be a larger than normal badger. A mutant badger.
It gets the drop on us and attacks. Turns out it could breathe fire. I fail my dodge check and get hit. Damage roll, critical hit. Roll extra damage, critical damage(ie another 20), keep going, practically critical damage, a 19. So first enemy makes the first attack of the campaign and I take 59 damage. Health is 20. I instantly burst into flames and die.

DM just shrugs, that's the way the dice went. He says I can either leave, or go make a new character, but my hobbo is done. Stunned I go off to make a new character by myself without the main book, cause that's being used. In the time it takes me to struggle to make a new character, 2 of our 5 characters die to the fire-breathing badger and the session ends. DM thinks its a roaring success and great fun.

 

[Asita]

I remember the first, and only, time I played Gamma World. We were all new to it, and the DM thought it looks cool(Fallout 3 had just come out so...) and we made our characters. Spent a good 2 hours doing so too. I was a crazed hobbo with a trashcan as a shield, and a broken bottle as a knife. He was insanely charismatic and specialized in manipulation and persuasions to the point he could ask and attempt to convince enemies to hurt themselves on his behalf.
All the characters are set, and we find out first quest. A monster has been eating the chicken-frogs from a nearby farm and we need to stop it. We track it to a cave and it turns out to be a larger than normal badger. A mutant badger.
It gets the drop on us and attacks. Turns out it could breathe fire. I fail my dodge check and get hit. Damage roll, critical hit. Roll extra damage, critical damage(ie another 20), keep going, practically critical damage, a 19. So first enemy makes the first attack of the campaign and I take 59 damage. Health is 20. I instantly burst into flames and die.

DM just shrugs, that's the way the dice went. He says I can either leave, or go make a new character, but my hobbo is done. Stunned I go off to make a new character by myself without the main book, cause that's being used. In the time it takes me to struggle to make a new character, 2 of our 5 characters die to the fire-breathing badger and the session ends. DM thinks its a roaring success and great fun.

Sounds like your DM needed someone to go Old Man Henderson on his campaign.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I'm joining a group that's already playing a lot of them mentioned that. I know they've told me about how many characters they've gone through as they'll just get wiped by stronger monsters. I'm curious to see how it goes. I don't mind my characters dying, but I'd rather not be rerolling every week or two.

By any chance, have they also been playing Fall of Plaguestone? I ask because it's quickly become somewhat infamous for regularly throwing tough ass fights at the players, and given that it was the only stand-alone module available for PF2e at release, it was a lot of people's first introduction to the system, including yours truly. I was forewarned by one of my players and went in with the attitude that I'd need to rebalance where necessary, and it has been necessary a few times. That module is bordering on meat-grinder otherwise.

 

[SupahEwok]

By any chance, have they also been playing Fall of Plaguestone? I ask because it's quickly become somewhat infamous for regularly throwing tough ass fights at the players, and given that it was the only stand-alone module available for PF2e at release, it was a lot of people's first introduction to the system, including yours truly. I was forewarned by one of my players and went in with the attitude that I'd need to rebalance where necessary, and it has been necessary a few times. That module is bordering on meat-grinder otherwise.

How else are you gonna demonstrate being a True Rollplayer? Gotta be destroying those demi-liches with your level 5 omega build or you're a fucking poser.

 

[PointlessKnowledge]

I haven't played much, and when I do, I tend to help playtest my friend's homebrew games (and one year helped him sell them at the local sci-fi/fantasy convention).

 

[Elfgore]

By any chance, have they also been playing Fall of Plaguestone? I ask because it's quickly become somewhat infamous for regularly throwing tough ass fights at the players, and given that it was the only stand-alone module available for PF2e at release, it was a lot of people's first introduction to the system, including yours truly. I was forewarned by one of my players and went in with the attitude that I'd need to rebalance where necessary, and it has been necessary a few times. That module is bordering on meat-grinder otherwise.

Nah, DM homebrewed. He's uh... known for being brutal.

 

[Smithnikov]

Currently playing
-
Sniper!: Bug Hunt

An old school TSR/SPI wargame's take on Aliens with a little bit of Predator thrown in. Like most old school wargames, it's not exactly casual friendly, but it does have a gentle learning curve after initial frustrating struggles with your first couple of games. Once you get the rhythm, it replicates those movies beautifully, with the humans players nervously watching corners and fearing every blip on their motion trackers getting close, and the alien player having to alternate between hunter and hunted when necessary. I especially appreciated the rules covering internal damage to the space station/starship; keep unleashing arms fire and there's a good chance you'll mess up the lighting and some functions, and if some fool brought the REALLY big guns, you can even breach the whole structure and get to enjoy explosive decompression.

Want to play
_
I found an inexpensive set of rules called Faith and Fire, centered around horror movie genres, everything from the still too popular zombie survival to Hammer film gothic horror to cheesy slasher flicks. The rules are a fast beer n pretzel affair, and they require very few figures per side (about 8-15). It's super accessible, now I just need a surface big enough to accommodate it.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

I play far more tabletop games than video games these days, I guess I'll make a rather short but still long list.

-Pathfinder 2e
-DnD 5e

-Terraforming Mars (has an app and on Steam)
-Gloomhaven (early access on Steam)
-Lords of Waterdeep (has an app)
-Scythe (on Steam)
-Railways of the World
-Through the Ages (has an app)
-Sentinels of the Multiverse (has an app and on Steam)
-It's a Wonderful World
-Twilight Imperium
-Terra Mystica (has an app)
-7 Wonders
-Shadow Hunters
-Power Grid
-Nemesis (Alien the board game without the copyright)
-Who Goes There? (The Thing board game without the copyright)
-Dinosaur Island (Jurassic Park board game without the copyright)
-Dominant Species
-Clank!
-Codenames
-Wavelength
-Role Player
-Mysterium

 

[09philj]

I like to meet up with some of my friends to play board games quite regularly. I think our group favourite is the now sadly out of print Warhammer themed strategy game Chaos in the Old World.

I'm also currently playing Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition with another group of friends. Our game master has created a completely unhinged campaign for us. At the beginning, my character was a 10th generation Giovanni trying to find my sire's brother while helping out the local Camarilla Prince as part of a coterie. In the last session I commenced work on the conversion of New York Central College into an institution of arcane education, as we now have total control of Manhattan after I managed to diablerise Tzimisce and the Toreador in the coterie convinced an Archangel to let us make the island into a Vampire sanctuary. Now all we have to do is stop Lasombra coming out of the sea and killing us all.

 

[morsomk]

I've been wanting to do another oneshot or even a small campaign of Call of Cthulu. I participated in a small module designed for oneshot two years ago with two friends and it was extremely fun. Completely different from all the other systems that I had gotten used to and the focus was more on investigations which was an extreme breath of fresh air.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I've been wanting to do another oneshot or even a small campaign of Call of Cthulu. I participated in a small module designed for oneshot two years ago with two friends and it was extremely fun. Completely different from all the other systems that I had gotten used to and the focus was more on investigations which was an extreme breath of fresh air.

Call of Cthulhu is also on my "play one day" list of tabletop games. Too busy atm with existing/planned campaigns, but Call of Cthulhu looks cool, and despite the name more or less adaptable to any urban fantasy/sci-fi ideas you'd want to try out.

 

[SupahEwok]

Call of Cthulhu is also on my "play one day" list of tabletop games. Too busy atm with existing/planned campaigns, but Call of Cthulhu looks cool, and despite the name more or less adaptable to any urban fantasy/sci-fi ideas you'd want to try out.

It's all fun and games until a player rolls to seduce Cthulhu and succeeds.

 

[morsomk]

Call of Cthulhu is also on my "play one day" list of tabletop games. Too busy atm with existing/planned campaigns, but Call of Cthulhu looks cool, and despite the name more or less adaptable to any urban fantasy/sci-fi ideas you'd want to try out.

Yeah, it definitely does. The oneshot that I mentioned took place during the later half of the industrial age in northern Scotland. The player characters were part of a crew on a ship that was send to investigate what was going on with a lighthouse on the north end of the archipelago of Orkney and Shetland.

Let's just say that my character was lucky and survived, but he ended up becoming an alcoholic due to the events that transpired.

 

[Smithnikov]

It's all fun and games until a player rolls to seduce Cthulhu and succeeds.

Not even possible and I'd want to have a talk with the GM who allowed it.

 

[SupahEwok]

Not even possible and I'd want to have a talk with the GM who allowed it.

Anything's possible with enough rules-lawyering and fudged dice rolls.

 

[Ghostrick Dorklord]

I've always wanted to play Vampire the Masquerade because I love the setting and vampires. Me and my ex were into it but we didn't had any of the RPG books nor did we knew anyone who was interested. Shame because it seemed cool.

Also I second Call of Cthulhu. I love Cthulhu Mythos and its themes of insanity and the futility of our existence. That and I've seen a lot of references to the game like the dice roll for sanity check. But like Vampire I can't ever find anyone interested.

 

[Smithnikov]

Anything's possible with enough rules-lawyering and fudged dice rolls.

No, I can't see any lawyering that allows Cthulhu hi'self to be seduced.

 

[Chimpzy]

No, I can't see any lawyering that allows Cthulhu hi'self to be seduced.

I don't know, not familiar with Call of Cthulhu's mechanics, but I'd maybe go along with it. I'm the kind of GM who loves it when players come up with completely insane solutions. Seducing Cthulhu would be very unlikely to work, but I'd allow a very slight chance.