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Author Topic: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]  (Read 27693 times)

Offline twissie

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I've played a bunch of different tabletop rpgs over the last couple of years... not a lot, but enough to be interested in playing more xD Favourite so far is the shiny new 4e D&D :heart: I guess making the combat more boardgame-y makes it easier for me to get into the action and actually picture what's going on.

How about you guys? Anyone play tabletop rpgs?

I was kind of on the fence about tabletop rpgs before, but podcasts and videos of people actually playing helped motivate me to give it a go.  :thumbup

Penny Arcade D&D Sessions Podcast (GREAT FUN! XD)
- Penny Arcade Podcasts Series 1 - 4

I think this is still running. Not quite sure, though xD; Either way, this is definitely worth a listen!

I Hit It With My Axe
Tabeltop rpgs so hip, even porn stars do it!
Awesome show where people like Mandy Morbid, Kimberly Kane, and Zak Sabbath get together to play homebrew D&D, special guest star in the first seven episodes: Sasha Grey! First few episodes are a bit shaky, but they get better!

- Episode 1: Meet the Party
- Episode 2: F*uck A Medusa
- Episode 3: Down In The Hole
- Episode 4: A Lot Of Spiders
- Episode 5: Blobs and Brain Switching
- Episode 6: His Body Closes the Door with its Pieces
- Episode 7: No Defense Against Blankets
- Episode 8: Don't Tell Us Right Now
- Episode 9: Deciding Which Goblin To Hit
- Episode 10: Trying To Kill The King Has Consequences
- Episode 11: You Guys Got Totally Paralyzed
- Episode 12: The Blind Stabbing The Blind
- Episode 13: Aaaah! Rat! Giant Bee!
- Episode 14: Bacon, Balloons and Beetles
- Episode 15: Ambush at the River of Despair
- Episode 16: Now & Then A Player Will Die
- Episode 17: A Dire Situation
- Episode 18: 200 lbs. Of Meat And A New Fur Coat
- Episode 19: Silly

Series is still running. New episode every Wednesday :heart:
« Last Edit: July 21, 2010, 10:42:40 PM by twissie »

Offline Amplifier

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2010, 02:10:59 AM »
I've never had the fortune of playing any tabletop games in person, given that no one I know in person plays them, or has any interest at all, sadly.

Will catch up on I Hit It With My Axe, since I need to catch up on ZP too :grin: Sounds.. :drool:

Offline pikapikapika

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2010, 02:16:59 AM »
I've always been interested in D&D, mostly because it seems much better than that Warhammer crap my friend is always trying to get me to play.
I'd rather use my imagination than paint 500 overpriced plastic men with overpriced paint and play whatever Warhammer is.

I would say how bad I disliked it, but I was so busy painting all these little elf guys for weeks I got so freaking bored I ditched it before I had enough to play an actual game of it  :lol: when I tried playing it in high school.

Offline Flyp

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2010, 02:18:20 AM »
Used to play D&D 3.5e with about 5 of my buddies a couple years ago.  My current job killed that ability, sadly.  But I used to play weekly for 2 years, and I do miss it.  Especially the Tome of Battle stuff, you could make some really epic martial characters with that sourcebook.

Offline Rickker708

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2010, 04:23:15 AM »
Actually, I should be getting out the door now instead of posting here. A group of friends I hae been playing with for a while now have just converted from 3.5 to 4 and are having a decent time of it. I missed the first game due to lupe fiasco. We play every other friday. gotta go roll some 20's.
Life is one time.

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2010, 10:48:58 AM »
I've never played D&D (or any other tabletop rpg) with a whole group of people. Would love to try it once, but I don't really know that many people who are in to it .__.; So for most (... if not all? lol) of my game sessions we've only been two players (so a DM and a player who juggles two or three different characters). Not ideal, but it works, and still makes for good fun :thumbup

Before I actually gave D&D a go, I kept looking at the books in the comic book store. I love books, and roleplaying game books can be so pretty!  :wub:  :nervous

I love the design of the D&D4e books, they're really easy to use for actual games, but they're also easy to pick up and flick through and actually read. I remember the font in the earlier edition books just made my eyes water over @_@; Difficult to read~~ XD

Offline Amplifier

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2010, 01:09:44 PM »
I saw the first few episodes of I Hit It With My Axe yesterday, good stuff!

Also, very related Penny Arcade TV episode

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2010, 11:09:30 PM »
New episode of I Hit It With My Axe is up!

Episode 13: Aaaah! Rat! Giant Bee!

Offline Asmodai

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #8 on: June 10, 2010, 08:07:58 AM »
I've never had the fortune of playing any tabletop games in person, given that no one I know in person plays them, or has any interest at all, sadly.

Will catch up on I Hit It With My Axe, since I need to catch up on ZP too :grin: Sounds.. :drool:

Come visit and we can rectify that, Amp. ;) I've been playing tabletop games for more than a decade now (started with the AD&D 2nd ed. black books in 1995) - I probably spend more time on it than any of my other hobbies - even Warhammer and video games. It's where I met most of my longtime friends, including my current gf. D&D is definitely more fun and much less of a commitment than Warhammer, Pika.

Currently I'm playing in a 3.5 D&D game and a Dark Heresy game. I'm going to be restarting my 4e game once Dark Sun comes out. I really love 4e though - makes DMing so much easier, and the game is much more about tactics than character builds now.

If there's enough interest, we might even be able to do a game via iPlay or something - http://iplay4e.appspot.com/characters

I'll also post a link to Order of the Stick - an amazing D&D-themed webcomic for those that aren't familiar with it: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html


EDIT: And since I'm feeling bored and nostalgic right now, I noticed a certain similarity earlier today when I was digging through some of my gaming books:

« Last Edit: June 10, 2010, 08:31:37 AM by Asmodai »

Offline Scramasax

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2010, 02:18:55 AM »
I've been DMing a 3.5 campaing for over 2 years now.  It took the party all the way from level 1 to 16 so far.  4 more levels and we are living the dream!   :w00t:

Offline Foxy Brown

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2010, 02:26:06 AM »

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #11 on: June 15, 2010, 02:50:54 PM »
Woah, so since there are so many experienced players here, maybe someone would be able to give me some pointers? I'm going to DM a session of D&D 4e with the Eberron setting~ now, we'll probably start a longer campaign as well, but we're going to start off with the 1st level adventure presented at the back of the Eberron Campaign Guide (or so I was thinking, anyway). I think I might have to adjust some (if not all) of the encounters since, again, there'll only be one player (lol).. XD Uugh.

... I guess my question is, how difficult is it for a person with no imagination previous D&D experience to speak of to DM a session and possibly come up with a longer campaign? Hahaha. Are there any other one-shot (or longer) Eberron campaigns available anywhere? Because I'd love to be able to make use of existing material - fan made or official. Making my own campaign just really seems like a horribly daunting task, and I'm not sure I have the willpower to complete such a project *_*

Other general DM tips and tricks are welcome too~! :D

Offline Asmodai

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #12 on: June 15, 2010, 05:37:53 PM »
Awesome. I love Eberron. You're making a good choice. :)

There is another 4e Eberron themed adventure: Seekers of the Ashen Crown - http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/9780786950171 - I haven't played it myself though. There are also a few free adventures from Dungeon you could adapt: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Archive.aspx?page=1&sort=category

As for DMing, the main advice I have is try not to sweat it too much. You can feel you've done a lousy job and still have your players tell you how awesome stuff is. Focus on a small part of the world (e.g. Sharn, Aundair, etc.) and read up on it. If you set your first few adventures in the same area, you'll have less to keep track of and your player will learn the setting quicker.

For more specific advice, I'd go to an office supply store and get a few sets of tabs. Tab the skill challenge section in the DMG and put tabs on the monsters you plan to use before the session. I also like to use a small dry erase board to write down monster HP and status, initiative and all that other stuff - once the fight is done, I just wipe it clean and its ready to go again.

With one player, you'll need to tone down fights. Usually this means one 'real' opponent and a couple minions. The Dragon Annual has a chart showing the best opponents based on the PC's role:

Controller: Artillery*, Controller, Skirmisher
Defender: Brute, Skirmisher*, Soldier
Leader: Controller, Skirmisher*, Striker
Striker: Brute, Skirmisher*, Soldier
* = Ideal role

You don't have to stick to this, but it is a good list of what 1-on-1 battles produce interesting fights. If the player loses a fight, usually it's more fun to have them captured and get to make a daring escape than to just kill them. It keeps the game from ending too. If you want to have a larger fight, you can balance things out by adding some guards or soldiers on the player's side to help them out. This is especially fun if they're playing a Warlord or Bard and need others to get the most of their abilities.

Offline Scramasax

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2010, 04:39:42 PM »
^ First rule of DMing:  The DM is GOD!  His/Her word is the law of the universe as much as Newton's Laws are the laws of ours.  Sure, there's lots of rules in the books, but really, they're just guidelines.  You'll find yourself in positions where someone will do something that either isn't specifically explained or that will take far too long to look up.  Just wing it.  The math in 4e is simpler than in 3.5, so you have that going for you.

Second rule of DMing: DM is GOD!  see above.

Third Rule:  It's about the players, not the DM.  Avoid making DM NPCs that follow the party around.  Especially super powerful NPCs that do all the work for the party.

Fourth Rule:  Don't let players paly characters based on themselves.  Also, don't let them play a Mary-sue.  It's called Role-playing for a reason.  If they are palying "themselves" or an over-idealized character, then every bad thing that happens to their character will be taken personally.

If you need to know what a Mary-Sue is, it typically refers to characters in fan-fic, but it's pretty easy apply it universally. 


[edit] As for reducing the challenge for the single player, the book assumes parties of 4 players.  You'll want to cut the enemy's numbers in fourth, or reduce the challenge rating by 4, whichever is easier given the situation.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2010, 04:44:47 PM by Scramasax »

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #14 on: June 16, 2010, 10:53:48 PM »
^
Thank you guys. Practical things like tabs and small dry erase boards are things I wouldn't have thought of myself, even though they are simple little things to make things run smoother, omg haha XD Awesome. Keep the tips/general thoughts coming! :D

Aaaand there's a new I Hit It With My Axe episode~! Episode 14: Bacon, Balloons and Beetles

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #15 on: June 23, 2010, 11:59:09 PM »
New I Hit It With My Axe episode is up! And I'm told it is a good one!  :thumbsup

Episode 15: Ambush at the River of Despair


Offline Asmodai

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #16 on: June 26, 2010, 02:28:35 AM »
Since I'm upping it for my players anyway - here's the primer I made for the Forgotten Realms campaign I'm starting in a couple weeks: http://www.sendspace.com/file/zmkm67

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #17 on: June 29, 2010, 11:31:32 PM »
Crazy inspirational stuff posted on the Penny Arcade blog. This encounter looks so awesome *o* I hope they'll film it or something...

Quote from: Gabe
My players ended up in the Elemental Chaos, a place called the Moteswarm to be exact. I wanted to create something that would really give them the feeling of fighting on these giant elemental motes in bizarre gravity. So what I did is create a series of 3D “planets” for the encounters to take place on.




Full post and info on how to make these planets here (the post at the bottom called D&D in the Elemental Chaos part 1). SO COOL. Wish I could come up with things like this XD

Offline Amplifier

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #18 on: June 29, 2010, 11:45:01 PM »
Wow, that looks intense. I love the shit they cook up for their games, makes me mad jealous.

Offline twissie

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons and Owlbears, OH MY! [tabletop gaming]
« Reply #19 on: June 29, 2010, 11:48:14 PM »
Thing is, those styrofoam planets aren't difficult to make, nor would it be very expensive. ... still I'm obviously not awesome enough to think of these things. Even though I did go to art school for three years :bleed eyes:

Aaanyway. It's awesome to have guys like them do this kind of stuff. It really makes me want to play more, and I'm sure they're able to introduce a lot of new people to the world of D&D/roleplaying as well :twothumbs

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