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Author Topic: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]  (Read 27695 times)

Offline Deft-Monkey

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #40 on: June 08, 2013, 03:31:02 PM »
So, reaching the end of another uni semester, it's time to recap.

I've been playing in two games this semester: one as a player and the other as the DM.

The first was a game called Mutants & Masterminds.


I went with the shapeshifter archetype, because I wanted to go with something I would usually never pick. I was an animal shapeshifter with a raccoon for a father, though the one animal I (ironically) couldn't turn into was a raccoon. However, my defining characteristic was a stripe pattern like that of a raccoon's tail, no matter my form. If there's one thing that this game taught me, it's that rhinos and whales fuck shit up. In the best way. Our gang (named the Wrecking Crew fought the government, who wanted to exterminate supers, some anarchists based on (see 0:24 onwards) and even Oda Nobunaga. At the beginning of the last session, the GM gave each of us what we'd been aiming for: I was reunited with my father and finally managed to shapeshift into a raccoon. I fought ninjas with my dextrous hands, undoing belts, lassoing swords and hurling throwing stars. I also possibly turned into a blue whale right above a Perfume concert :doh:

All in all, had lots of fun and the group of players was always entertaining. It's a shame that one of them is returning to the US in a couple of weeks.

The game that I ran was D&D 4e, house-ruled to a fair extent. It started off as a one-shot until my friend could come and run our other campaign, but that never happened, so the one-shot has become a long-term campaign. It's set in Eberron, currently in the city of Sharn. We don't use a battle map, which does make combat last longer than it should, but everyone seems to have fun. The group dynamic is interesting, in that the players all like each other, but as characters, trust and teamwork are virtually non-existent. It's the first time I'm running a campaign of my own design and I'm seeing where it goes, but really, it's most fun to first give the party a push in any direction and then just see where it takes them.

Playing for about 7 weeks (with 1 session per week), the PCs are only level 3 (even with me increasingly boosting the XP rewards) now. I hope they don't get too frustrated with the rate of levelling. I spent the past 3 sessions trying to show them that combat isn't always the most preferrable option and I started throwing some different kinds of encounters: illusions, artifacts with a taste for mind control - the usual.

In short, it's been fun. :thumbup

I have to say, I'm pretty bad at sticking the rules in places :sweatdrop: Even moreso, I'm finding it hard to visualise the world of Eberron and the city of Sharn in my head, which makes it hard to describe at times. I've read the setting book, but it just doesn't implant a clear image. Any tips?

Offline Asmodai

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #41 on: June 12, 2013, 06:14:51 AM »
Sharn: City of Towers is an amazing book - one of the best D&D city books ever printed. It's almost entirely systemless so it's good with 3rd/4th/5th or whatever else.

Offline Deft-Monkey

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #42 on: June 17, 2013, 02:07:03 AM »
^ A million thanks! Pretty much exactly what I've been looking for, though I had no idea it existed. I managed to find a PDF form, but it's still a shame that it's so hard to get a hardcopy of it.

Looking at my D&D collection, it's really grown ever since it started with the Red Box about 2 or 3 years ago... I don't want to think about how much I've spent :bleed eyes: (Most of the books here are $50 and the cost of shipping them makes it relatively useless to get them online) Still, I might post a picture after my newest purchase arrives.

Offline Asmodai

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #43 on: June 17, 2013, 03:17:56 PM »
Cool. I should post some pictures sometime too. :)

I find free shipping and $35 from Amazon pretty reasonable.

Offline Deft-Monkey

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #44 on: June 17, 2013, 03:39:08 PM »
^ I believe that's just within North America, though? Being in Australia, shipping itself comes to around $20. I don't really want to spend more than $40, as I've been spending quite a bit lately :sweatdrop:

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #45 on: March 16, 2014, 11:37:28 PM »
I am currently playing a campaign of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Terror In Talabheim. It's my first proper go at Warhammer Fantasy, and I am having such a blast. I find the combat rules pretty intuitive (d100 rolls are fun 8D), and this particular campaign has been pretty awesome so far.

As with most games I play, there is just one player and 1 GM - so I have no idea how my gaming experiences match up with people who play in actual groups, but whatever. I am having a lot of fun with this game.

My character is human female Constanza Erpresser (I laughed so hard when I rolled this first name, I can't shake the image of her being a female version of George from Seinfeld), she's working towards becoming a journeyman wizard (olololol), though I'm not sure it's such a great match for her career wise. We'll see. Magic darts are fricking awesome, though, and I'm not sure what I'd do without them. I tend to fumble everything else :p

I am pretty new to playing rpgs regularly, and one thing I've never been good at is bothering to read up on setting/world/fluff stuff. I just like to get down to gritty fighting and dice rolling. I enjoy how seamless it was to jump into this game with no prior knowledge of the system, world or setting. I have also surprised myself this time around, and I find the exploring/investigating parts more interesting than the fighting. I am starting to loosen up and wanting to steer the game in a certain direction. I can't wait to see what happens next 8Db

The not bothering to read up on world/fluff has been a problem in the past, though. Any tips on how to dive into fluff? I am just very bad at retaining information, and especially the kind of information that the players end up asking questions about during play :( I feel like the story should be enough to drive the game forward, but I guess not xD; I am probably a somewhat atypical gamer that way.

Offline Deft-Monkey

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #46 on: March 17, 2014, 02:44:07 AM »
^ Being a GM on a regular basis can make researching all the fluff something of a chore. You're sure it's all fantastic stuff, but the prospect of all that reading is simply off-putting.

Though I run a D&D campaign, I think the principle is still roughly the same. What I do is listen to podcasts or read blogs that present the information in a way that gets me excited. I actually devise a lot of my own lore based on what I read, because one of my players likes to meta-game and read all the fluff themself, which can make for a nasty combination.

Another fun thing I've been trying lately is random tables (not really fluff-related, but it can be). What happens when the PC drinks that unidentified potion? Just roll on your Random Potion Effects Table. Easy. The best part is that there are heaps of existing tables scattered across the internet.

Last night, I was messing around, generating a couple of tables of my own here. I made a 3-table generator that spits out details about books (title, page text and magical effect) seeing as my players love to touch everything. Also started on a dying/unconscious dream generator, which is always nice when PCs are waiting to be revived.

On another note, I just checked out the home page of that link I posted above and that Roll M thing sounds awesome.

To Twissie (and everyone else), do you keep a notebook for all your game notes? Just curious as to what people's notebooks look like. I might post a picture of mine later, because I have to get ready for uni.

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #47 on: March 17, 2014, 08:08:22 PM »
Great, thanks for the tips. I find some games are easier to read fluff/background on than others. Call of Cthulhu I find extremely easy to read up on, not sure why, PERHAPS because it's set in our real world (except in the past in most cases). 8D

Pathfinder is OK, I guess, though I tend to just focus on what's presented in the adventure path(s) we're playing currently, and that has worked out well enough so far.

I was trying to run a game of Warhammer 40K Dark Heresy edit: I can't even remember the name of the actual game, that's how bad I am at this. Rogue Trader, Rogue Trader, Rogue Trader! Anyway, uuuuh we reached some space combat and then I was just completely lost and we had to just take a break. Have yet to pick that back up :X So.. I have some work to do with that one. I sat with the GM section pouring over the same sections of fluff for a couple of hours, but none of it stuck in my head T_____T;

As for notebooks... heeehehe. I should. I really should keep notebooks of the game(s) I run as a DM, but I am lazy and unorganized and I have not managed this yet. I have started filling in a little notebook for the Warhammer Fantasy game I'm currently playing as a player, though. Filing it with random doodles, in-character babbles and other notes :D I'd love to see a picture of your notebooks, Deft!
« Last Edit: March 18, 2014, 12:09:42 AM by twissie »

Offline Deft-Monkey

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #48 on: March 18, 2014, 05:01:58 AM »
^ Call of Cthulhu is awesome, but the system has yet to fully grow on me. The one time I played, the entire group got really immersed in the seriousness of it all. When we discovered the the missing owner of a mansion came back as a vampire, everyone - being ordinary, powerless people - ran away. With the exception of myself, who was struggling in the far corner of the room with a magical knife slicing up my insides. When I finally got rid of the knife, I tried to escape through a hole we'd made in the wall, only to see another PC mis-throw a molotov and set that only exit on fire. I somehow managed to not get killed by the vampire and knife, but I'm still having trouble letting all those bad things go :sweatdrop:

Oh, Rogue Trader is complex. Some guy yesterday was explaining his hilarious Rogue Trader campaign to me and some other people. I was so lost. Something about crashing a ship into the Himalayas and having to face the baby emperor :?

Aaaaaaahhhhh, yesterday's game of D&D was game-changing :thumbup :bleed eyes: I didn't realise it until 2am this morning. The party defeated my BBEG of the session with time to spare, so I had to run on the fly. In the previous session, one of the PCs rolled a 2 on Streetwise to find out recent happenings in a city called Wroat, so all she found out is that the scones there are amazing. Arriving there yesterday, the party found themselves in the middle of the Festival of Scones. The people of Wroat seemed abnormally cheerful and it's because of the addictive scones which are being produced by some mastermind in his quest for small-scale nation domination. There are a couple of important things to note here:
1) The mastermind, one Aewin Lundaghan, has many servants working under him to produce and distribute the scones throughout Wroat. His operation is useless without the manpower.

2) After defeating the BBEG, the party found a book that, when read, had the magical effect of causing all servants and slaves in a 200 mile radius to turn against their masters. The magical effect has yet to be discovered by the party.

So Aewin's pretty much been foiled with the players having barely a hint of his existence. Almost a bummer, BUT:
1) What happens when demand is high and the supply is completely halted? Riots at the least.

2) As the capital city of the nation, if Wroat's nobles/politicians are killed/jailed, what does it mean for the stability of the nation as a whole? As this campaign is based in Eberron, any shift in the balance of powers could quite easily start another war.

All this because I decided on a whim to make a random book (with title, text and magical effect) generator on Sunday night. I love games.

Also, notebook pictures to come later tonight!EDIT: Here we are (plus the initiative cards I made for my group + long-awaited D&D collection):





« Last Edit: March 18, 2014, 01:05:55 PM by Deft-Monkey »

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #49 on: March 22, 2014, 12:33:52 AM »
The one time I played, the entire group got really immersed in the seriousness of it all. When we discovered the the missing owner of a mansion came back as a vampire, everyone - being ordinary, powerless people - ran away. With the exception of myself, who was struggling in the far corner of the room with a magical knife slicing up my insides. When I finally got rid of the knife, I tried to escape through a hole we'd made in the wall, only to see another PC mis-throw a molotov and set that only exit on fire.

:lol: that sounds like an awesome session, omg. I've been listening to Yog-Sothoth podcasts/play sessions - so much fun.


FESTIVAL OF SCONES! and addictive scones at that, this is brilliant stuff XD;;; so playful, you make it seem so effortless somehow.


Nice collection! Oooh, you have Vornheim too! I really like Zak's writing and artwork - have you had a chance to play it?
I'd post a picture of the RPG collection we've got going here, but I'm slightly embarrassed about it :S

Offline kuro808

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #50 on: March 22, 2014, 02:37:06 AM »
Lately I have been doing some tabletop gaming with my brother and friends.  Most of the stuff has been card games in general.  Also thanks to Wil Wheaton, it be good to get yourself accustomed to these games

Although personal favorites have been Fluxx series and Cards Against Humanity with Tsuro.  Wishlist has been getting bigger by the months XD
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Offline Deft-Monkey

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #51 on: March 24, 2014, 03:26:54 PM »
^ I've read up on Cards Against Humanity, but haven't gotten a chance to play it before.

Nice collection! Oooh, you have Vornheim too! I really like Zak's writing and artwork - have you had a chance to play it?
Because my two D&D groups are both in ongoing campaigns, I haven't gotten to play or run a game set in Vornheim, but I have been using the book rather handily to create cities that I only know the names of. It's also great for bizarre monster ideas.

So, I realised a few hours before today's session that the King of Breland lives within the city which the party is in. In which all the servants and slaves have magically turned against their master. Oops. :rofl:

Still the PCs didn't find any of this out, as they were trying to get to the bottom of the riots caused by the sudden scone shortage. Everything was going fine: the rogue started rescuing the restrained test subjects, the ranger just kept shooting at the revolting servants and Neogi Queen (think of a gigantic furry ant with the front pincers of a praying mantis), while the swordmage was in the middle of it all, attracting attention and pretty much killing all of the servants. Then came the blunder: having angered the Neogi, (he took off more than half its hitpoints in one shot) the rogue was going to take a nasty hit, only to have the swordmage intervene and teleport the great beast into the giant vat of yellow, glowing AND bubbling liquid in the middle of the room. Long story short, a minor boss enemy became 3 times bigger, with full hitpoints and buffed stats. That was only two thirds of the battle.

Even though we had only 3 out of the 5 players today, it was a lot of fun :D Aewin was stopped, the Parliament Hall was flooded by thousands of angry citizens (all the rogue's doing) and the PCs ignored a person being thrown out of the king's castle: my party basically writes this campaign for me :grin:

Offline kuro808

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #52 on: May 30, 2014, 08:42:06 AM »
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Offline Deft-Monkey

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #53 on: September 06, 2014, 10:11:13 AM »
When I find something that gives me a new idea to throw at my players, it's hard to focus on anything else.

In the hope that I'm not the only one:
http://johnkenn.blogspot.com.au
http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/false-hydra.html

Offline Deft-Monkey

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #54 on: September 24, 2014, 03:15:03 AM »
So I'll be running this Saturday week.

If you've got time for a good read, here's a recount of the adventure in action: http://www.lastgaspgrimoire.com/playing-dd-with-girls-who-work-in-a-tea-shop-and-also-my-brother/

Needless to say, I am knee-deep in excitement.

Offline maruda

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #55 on: September 25, 2014, 07:51:02 AM »
I remember first playing a tabletop RPG way back in the '80s to early '90s (AD&D 2nd Edition). I started as a human paladin that ended up as an ex-paladin / ranger. After many years not playing D&D, I was brought back into it around 2004 after meeting old playmates during a high school reunion. This time it was the 3.5 edition. We basically played our old characters who were reincarnated into new bodies (to better reflect our current attitudes). The DM allowed for the players to be able to access their former abilities albeit with some restrictions. I became a hexblade / warlock who would regain combat bonuses from my time as a paladin and ranger as he levels up, although penalties are incurred when using the paladin and ranger's magic (or divine) abilities. With the advent of the 4th edition in 2008, we decided to end our adventure with a bang by going up against a Nyarlathotep pastiche. While we won the final battle, we were caught in a tear in reality that caused all of us to end up being reborn in a new world.
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Offline Deft-Monkey

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #56 on: December 21, 2014, 02:56:08 PM »


My 5th Edition books (PHB and Monster Manual) arrived recently. Very much looking forward to trying out the system.

Offline kuro808

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #57 on: March 05, 2015, 09:36:40 PM »


 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Offline StGermaine

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #58 on: March 19, 2015, 01:26:39 AM »
Would anyone be interested in an Exalted 2nd Ed game? I can run it via roll20.

Offline kuro808

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #59 on: March 19, 2015, 08:00:13 PM »


NSFW but I still watched it
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