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What roleplaying games are you playing at the moment?

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09:29 / 09.01.05

I figure that since we have a video games thread, we could also do with one of these (Primarily inspired by the fact that I've just gotten back into playing Magic: The Gathering).

Right now I'm trying to dust off my deck building skills to build a Blue and White deck that will allow me to gain life while stopping opponents from putting down too many creatures or casting spells. The obvious cards (counterspell, repulse, circles of protection, etc.) are already in there, but my knowledge of recent releases is pretty sketchy (for 'recent' read 'anything since 5th Edition'). Any advice would be welcome.

09:51 / 09.01.05

Many moons ago I used to write plot for The Gathering, but now I'm content to just GM tabletop (albeit with heavily modified systems. Dice and stats just get in the way).

Haven't CCG'd for a while now, which I miss as I used to have some fairly powerful Vampire decks. Bah, that's got me all nostalgic now. Anyone around Brighton got a Vampire CCG deck?

11:22 / 09.01.05

Well I've got stacks of Jyhad decks, now if I were in Brighton this would be useful

. Will have to dig them out next time I'm off to Brighton for a few days if you fancy an old skool all day 12 person game

.
Also I'm playing an Ars Magica game set in C12th Iberia at the moment and it's a lot of fun, currently fighting off the fairy queen of winter who lives next door to us. Dear god are we in so much trouble, almost all of entirely our own fault.
Oh yes and I've just a character for someones Planescape game that should be running in the next month or so, should be fun as I've only ever played the computer game Torment but that got me very into Planescape.

12:07 / 09.01.05

Magic isn't an RPG, though, is it? Neither for that matter is Battletech. But hey.

I'm vaguely writing a superhero scenario based on a previous, rather successful campaign that I ran, but it's mostly ending up with me writing mini-essays on how supers would be viewed in a Post 9-11 Age©. A lot of this has turned into political ranting. Maybe I should stay away from the politics a bit or it won't be terribly fun to play. Not that I have more than one player lined up anyway.

12:55 / 09.01.05

Well I've got stacks of Jyhad decks, now if I were in Brighton this would be useful . Will have to dig them out next time I'm off to Brighton for a few days if you fancy an old skool all day 12 person game

I havn't played a large group game for years. Throw me a PM when you're likely to be down this way, and I shall happily introduce you to my Ivory Bow wielding Gangrel deck, or my Vampire stealing Setite deck.

13:40 / 09.01.05

I have to say I've not played a RPG or CCG or any of that kind of thing in years. However I did find my all my old campaign notes in a folder the other day whilst doing some clearing out and it reminded me of some of the fun times I had back then. I think my two favourite games were Call of Cthulhu and my classic Star Wars campaign.

17:53 / 09.01.05

Oh - is anyone in London interested in playing a superhero game? Probably using the HERO system (though I will manage most of the mechanics myself).

This campaign is based on one I ran a few years ago which was generally popular, so my self-deprecating remarks above shouldn't necessarily be taken at face value.

PM or post if you are.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:57 / 09.01.05

I'd certainly be up for it.
Haven't played any RPGs in years, and I kind of miss it.

My favourite was always Call of Cthulhu (well, DUH!) but I still have fond memories of Blixa Manson, my Campire character.

17:57 / 09.01.05

I'm playing Dark Ages Fae at the moment. Our RP group recently finished a two and a half year game of Changeling and fancied a bit of a break.

foot long subbacultcha

11:56 / 10.01.05

I haven't played an RPG since I was in uni 6 years ago. I could be up for this, fridgemagnet.

12:28 / 10.01.05

I tell stories. It's what I do. And often that's a solitary, alienating thing. An RPG opens up that process and makes it a social thing. It's a no-brainer.

As noted in another thread, I've been having an amazing time running a Friday-night D&D game—after having been away from RPGs for about 20 years—with, um, three other thirtysomethings (also long away from the gme) and an eight-year old.

It's very very strange—pushing my mind back in the directions to which it turned so easily when I was in my teens, but with a lot more life-experience under my belt. Working from the bare bones, just the three core rulebooks (in themselves a $100 investment) and creating a home-brewed world because I'm DAMNED if I'm gonna blow another hundred bucks on supplements—I'm approaching it as a writer, and with a far greater understanding of how cultures and civilizations work than ever I had as a sixteen-year old: my notes read like background for a novel.

And that's how it feels—like a collective novel-writing exercise. I spent years disdaining RPGs, like any good hipster—and I still haven't got a lot of time for "RPG culture" (for lack of better term) and its obsession with "rules"—but with the right people, and the right game, it's an incredibly useful tool for the imagination. Not a tough sell.

Ostensibly we're doing D&D because my daughter was interested in it. But in truth, Dear Reader, I was not pushed: I jumped.

12:46 / 10.01.05

Jack Fear - are you playing 3rd Edition or 3.5?

Thank god for d20 rules, eh? So glad to be rid of THAC0 for good.

I mean... what, games? What are you, geeks? I'm outta here...

12:53 / 10.01.05

3.5, the core rulebooks of which had literally just been released the week I set foot in a game store for the first time in decades.

I hadn't played since the days of First Edition AD&D—the splintering of Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms and all that just passed me by entirely. Glad I missed out on 2E—it sounds like a fucking nightmare.

d20 works wonderfully for the storytelling mode that our game takes: it's intuitive and, best of all, transparent. Admittedly, sometimes we'll go hours without rolling a single die anyway...

13:13 / 10.01.05

I didn't start playing D&D until after 2nd E was out, and it was horrible. I'm not good with math anyway, and trying to figure out combat using THAC0 and adding all those negative numbers - gaaah.

3.5 is great, although it was a little annoying that we'd already bought all the books for 3.0 before it came out. Much smoother play. Not to mention how pretty the books are now.

The collective storytelling facet of the game is what I enjoy the most. We have a group that's been playing more or less continuously for ten years under the same DM, and it's purely on the strength of his storytelling ability that it keeps going. It's like being in a novel. Actually, at this point it's like being in a multivolume series along the lines of Wheel of Time; the world (created by the DM) is very intricate, and we've played different sets of characters through different periods of its history. Our current characters are playing a post-apocalyptic period that was partly caused by our previous high-level characters.

Incidentally, I think it's fantastic that you play with your daughter. That gives me a happy.

17:03 / 10.01.05

Magic isn't an RPG, though, is it? Neither for that matter is Battletech. But hey.

They're the first couple of names that sprang to mind. If anyone would care to add a couple of better known/more appropriate titles, feel free.

22:00 / 10.01.05

Stoatie, subbacultcha & anyone else: I'll post something on the Gathering when things look like getting underway, and PM you. Hopefully soon, but I've got an interview this week and might be starting a new job soon, so could be a little while. However, if you want to know anything more, let me know. I can write you a rundown of the background and you can think about characters and so on.

Grey Area: no offence meant, Magic and Battletech are games that are also played by lots of RPGers, and I'm not complaining about their presence on the thread or anything. They're just not games that revolve around you taking on a role and playing it. Well, you *could*, but it's not actually required. RPGs can be run like that too, as a freeform skirmish wargame rather than anything involving roleplaying, but it's less likely to happen around here I think.

Other games, I'd say, uh, GURPS, Champions (now HERO), RIFTS, Call Of Cthulhu, d20 Modern, the various White Wolfs, Over The Edge... I'm a little behind on what the kids are playing these days. Once you hit a certain age, you stop reading the magazines and just start playing things with a few friends.

13:11 / 11.01.05

Shadowrun?

And yes, the White Wolf World of Darkness stuff. Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Mage: the Ascension... what else was there? Wraith, or something? And maybe a Faerie thing?

I guess tabletop war games don't count as RPG's either...

13:29 / 11.01.05

And maybe a Faerie thing?

That's Changeling, the unloved child of White Wolf. IMHO a much superior game to the more famous Vampire/Werewolf/Mage games.

I have to say, I personally have never seen the attraction of games like D&D.

13:42 / 11.01.05

Changeling, yes, thank you. We had a WoD crossover campaign with a changeling in it; I should have remembered that.

It's a matter of taste, I suppose. D&D can be quite tedious, if you're playing a plotless hack-and-slash dungeon-crawl sort of campaign with no roleplaying. Luckily, there are as many styles of play as there are players. Of course, if it's the sword-and-sorcery, medievalist thing that you don't dig, then there are, fortunately, lots of other games out there...

13:50 / 11.01.05

Heh. If I didn't dig sword and sorcery then Changeling would be a bad choice of game.

14:47 / 11.01.05

I was very very very happy the other day, because I dropped by my friend's apartment, and they were rolling characters for a hearty round of 3rd edition (and Sekhmet, you are very correct: screw THAC0 - I want to game, not do math and check charts). I hadn't played since July, and I was missing it. I don't understand my college. I haven't found a single person willing to DM. Not one.

Oh, for those who don't like the sword & sorcery stuff, check out d20 Modern. Even if you do like sword & sorcery, still check out d20 Modern. Good Fun. Especially if you have an inventive DM who remembers that the rulebooks are just guidelines to help and not written in stone with the blood of a thousand elder gods, unlike that badass ring I'm keeping in my bag of holding...but I digress.

15:19 / 11.01.05

What are people's opinions on being the Games-Master versus playing a character? I tended to be the GM, mainly because I was the instigator of my group, rather than by any real choice. Later on I got to be a PC a couple of times, and had a good time, though I never had the opportunity of playing through a campaign as such.

17:05 / 11.01.05

Why not do both? Our DM usually does. He's clever that way.

Nobody's girl, what is it that turns you off D&D-type games? I'm interested.

Having played D&D for many years, as well as WoD (Vampire, Werewolf, and some crossovers), Shadowrun, GURPS, RIFTS, and d20 Modern, across the board it seems that the quality of your experience is far more dependent on the storytelling ability of your game master, and the roleplaying ability of the players, than on what system you're using... Although a cumbersome or overly rules-laden system can really make things drag. That used to be an issue in D&D, but 3rd Edition and the d20 system have helped a lot.

And it was never as bad as Rolemaster.

18:19 / 11.01.05

D&D 3.5 is the pretty much the mainstay of my long term gaming group, but I strongly urge anyone here to check out Unknown Armies and Nobilis.

Also: is there anyone is the Greater Toronto area who is familiar with Ron Edward's GNS theories and is running a serious Narrativist game? I'm dying to cut my teeth on some of the more avant garde game stuff, but my group is slow to abandon traditional Simulationist-by-default designs. I thought that I might benefit from playing a few games with a group a little more established with this stuff.

18:20 / 11.01.05

Being a cheap bastard, I have been hesitant to delve too deeply into the AD&D experience. But there are a number of other games out there that fit my budget (free!) quite nicely.
The Evil Dead RPG is a high-quality hombrew. (the author has also adapted Appleseed, Matrix, Buffy, Starcraft, and Neverwhere) The rules are fairly simple, facilitating gameplay. I used this the first time I GMed.
Another game I intend to inflict on my friends is Risus, a the ultimate beer-and-pretzles RPG. Perfect for your game of "Pirates vs. Ninjas," "Hairstylists vs. Barbarians," or damned-near anything else.
I personally prefer to roleplay over GMing, but sombody's gotta do the heavy lifting.

18:54 / 11.01.05

I'd be up for a game of Vampire, Mage, Unknown Armies, or possibly Adventure!

It's been said that Unknown Armies is the closest game that could simulate The Invisibles for sheer versatility, weirdness and the effect of ultraviolence on the human soul. So I'd be up for a game of "Invisibles 2: If This Be Barbelith!" if possible.

Oh, to clarify, I'm in Liverpool so a weekly face2face game is going to be slightly hard without the release of the Brundeltech Telepod system. I would be up for a regular play-by-email game, though, if someone's up for that. I might even set one up myself.

00:13 / 12.01.05

Nobody's girl, what is it that turns you off D&D-type games? I'm interested.

Umm... well... I'm sure it doesn't help that most of the people I've met who love this genre of RPG are (rather stereotypically) very socially inept. I'm into RPG for the communal storytelling, socialising and playing an interesting character, not a kill list or obssesive colllecting which I'm sad to say seems to be the motivation I've encountered in most D&D players.

the quality of your experience is far more dependent on the storytelling ability of your game master, and the roleplaying ability of the players, than on what system you're using...

Oh absolutely. Perhaps it's just that I've yet to meet the right group.

Sean the frumious Bandersnatch

00:35 / 12.01.05

I was out of roleplaying for years until just recently my roommate started up a Kindred of the East game (the White Wolf asian vampires thing) which, since it takes place in my living room, I felt kinda obligated to join. I'm enjoying it so far, but that might be because my character based directly off of Alan Moore.

13:34 / 12.01.05

I'm sure it doesn't help that most of the people I've met who love this genre of RPG are (rather stereotypically) very socially inept.

Yeah, there are definitely that sort out there. I was very fortunate and fell in with a group of mostly surprisingly socially ept people. Most of them aren't bad-looking, either... which is kind of a nice deal for a female role-player; not many girls play D&D, so you tend to get a lot of attention.

Which would be even nicer if I wasn't married, but you know.

16:20 / 12.01.05

I have the opposite problem - most of the people I met playing White Wolf games (usually Vampire, this was when I was a student) were pretentious goths, which turned me off the whole area. Some of WW's appalling prose helped as well. At the time, there was a lot of this sort of thing going around.

I did read GURPS: Mage after that (the conversion of Mage to GURPS as you might be able to guess, same background, different mechanics) which I thought was interesting and which got me thinking that WW games might not be so bad. Took a while though.

It really is all in the GM and the players. I've luckily had some really good groups that were short on munchkins, rules-lawyers and wannabe-vampire twats. I GMed an awful game at a con once which exposed me to the full range of sad wankers out there, not to be repeated.

farseer /pokes out an i

18:59 / 12.01.05

D&D 3.5, from way back in the red & blue box days. Though I was pretty young then. Still am. Weird.

I enjoy being a player. I've also been running the same D&D game since around 5th grade, in my own gameworld. Which has created a nice tapestry of myth as PCs made important choices that influenced the course of its history. Like when, 3 game 'generations' ago, they caused an apocalypse. Not a Buffy Apocalypse that happens every season, but sometime special they cooked up to 'fix things done right." LOL, Good times.

I've also played: d20 Modern, GURPS, White Wolf (all those wacky iterations, WW, Vamp, Fae, Mage, Wraith, etc.) Robotech. TMNT. Rifts (best of the Palladium games, IMO). Warhammer. Lots of crap. Mostly D&D, though.

Die THAC0, DIE!!!

unheimlich manoeuvre

01:02 / 13.01.05

Triplets wrote:
It's been said that Unknown Armies is the closest game that could simulate The Invisibles for sheer versatility, weirdness and the effect of ultraviolence on the human soul. So I'd be up for a game of "Invisibles 2: If This Be Barbelith!" if possible.

(Mar. 17, 2004) The creator of Unknown Armies talks about Cthulhu, originality and Pirates of the Burning Sea

How did Unknown Armies evolve? Where is it going?

The original inspiration for UA was the early comic-book writing of Grant Morrison, back in the late 1980s when he was writing series like Doom Patrol and Animal Man. His approach to supernatural storytelling was very different from the traditional styles I was familiar with. It was much more anarchic, more original, less concerned with using existing legends and ideas. That and reading Umberto Eco's book Foucault's Pendulum, which was a great book that managed to destroy my fondness for all the old Illuminati/Templar kinds of conspiracy/occult material. I wanted to create a new mythology, rooted in the modern world, and throw out both the baby and the bathwater.

...

Unknown Armies looks like a lot of fun although any system is secondary to the effort and imagination of the players.

15:49 / 13.01.05

I don't really get to play Role Playing Games anymore, because since we were fourteen, my friends have only wanted to play D&D ironically.

But Unknown Armies is good enough that I've ended up buying all of the books for it, just to read them. Without ever having played it, I'd say it's my favorite role playing game ever written.

23:25 / 02.02.05

Right, well, I'm interested in starting up a d20 Modern game. The superhero thing kind of died a bit for various reasons, and hey, there's nothing wrong with d20 Modern.

If anyone in the London area is interested or wants more info, drop me a line and that. Starting in the next couple of weeks. If you don't know d20 Modern... it's modern-day occult in a cinematic style. (home page)

07:13 / 03.02.05

I second that recommendation on Unknown Armies. definitely the best role playing I've seen in years. Had a game running a while back using Tim Powers "Declare" as background,i.e. MI6 vs fallen angels and my players and i had a damn good time. Tim Powers novels are the other major inspiration for the universe of Unknown Armies, which as also a huge selling point for me.
At the moment though. i have succumbed to my fanboy tendencies and am running a WOD 2nd ed. Kindred of the East campaign called Invasion: San Francisco. Basicaaly its my homage to John Woo's early career. Before we stated i made my group watch Hard Boiled and the Killer and now we're beating seven shades out of the local vampires of San Fran. Tons of fun had by all.

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