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The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

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Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#151

Post by davedx »

mderazon wrote: post #136

Does anyone remember the MUD [1] days ? It was a terminal text based D&D where you could connect to a server and create a character and play with other people. Every mud service was a completely different world you could explore and had different characters. You would team up with people and go slay monsters to gain experience and level up or just hang out and do stupid stuff. You could use a dedicated mud clients li…

Yes! :) I played Wheel of Time MUD for years. It was great fun. I've not played a video game since that managed to capture the atmosphere, danger and risk in the PlayerKilling system there. WoW and other MMO's never really came close. I heard DaoC was pretty good but was still busy MUDding when that was popular.

Coincidentally I just started a sideproject making a browser based rogue-like game... with online multiplayer! Don't know if it's been done before but it's a fun little project...

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#152

Post by krylon »

> At the end of the 1982 TV movie “Mazes and Monsters,” a troubled gamer, played by a pre-fame Tom Hanks, loses touch and starts to believe that he really does live beside an evil wood in need of heroes.

Man, I have seen that movie. Having spent a good part of my youth playing AD&D, I did not know whether to laugh at it or yell at it angrily. Either way, it sucked really, really hard.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#153

Post by PhasmaFelis »

Steko wrote: post #121
azernik wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just empathy - it's also a sense of drama that's required. A DM writes the story in (semi-)real-time, whereas in CRPGs the "DM" (the writers) have to predict player actions in advance and railroad the players a lot more in order to get a good story progression going.

Eh, they don't have to (cf Eve), they just decided not to and so they've largely missed the chance for more interesting and sticky player driven story (cf Eve) by following EQ's model of "here's what you do next kids".

Eve is kind of a different thing, I think. Hardly anyone is actually roleplaying in Eve, for one. For another, most tabletop RPGs give you a fighting chance at being the hero, whereas in Eve you're overwhelmingly likely to be Faceless Extra #54265. There's nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but it scratches a different itch than RPGs.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#154

Post by SeanDav »

I actually shudder at the thought of playing D&D. The idea that I have to make up a story as I go along and am dependant on what the DM thinks about my decisions, just does not appeal to me.

Considering I have never played D&D, I could very well be completely off the mark, however there is nothing that was said in the article that changed my mind, but (and this is important) this is a purely personal view of what I like to play.

I can see the appeal to other people and salute a game (and genre) that brings people together and away from being glued to a screen or computer.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#155

Post by StavrosK »

tehwalrus wrote: post #142
taneq wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the key insight which many new DMs seem to miss. D&D isn't a "game", it's a framework for telling an engaging story together.

This is much more explicit in a different, much simpler RPG called Fate, which is my new favourite. GM'ing (Game, rather than Dungeon Master) is nearly as hard because of the improv story authorship, but the lack of rules-lawyering judgement that is required of you in a D&D game (even in a good edition like 5th, sadly) is not missed.

A friend of mine is a very good DM in D&D, wrote his own stories, world, etc, and we got a group of 5 people together and played two games before he had to leave, so we disbanded.

We very much liked the vibe, though, so I want to get the group together again. Is Fate a good game for inexperienced players (especially with an inexperienced DM)? If not, what would be a simple system to start with and play, but still enjoyable?

Fate Accelerated seems to be what I want (I'm not even sure what the differences are with Core, even having read the comparison), but the site doesn't really do a good job selling you the system.

EDIT: Man, this site is terrible. It links you to a store where I can't figure out where to buy Fate Core stories, it doesn't tell you what equipment you need, where to get it, jeez.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#156

Post by colinhowe »

SeanDav wrote: post #154

I actually shudder at the thought of playing D&D. The idea that I have to make up a story as I go along and am dependant on what the DM thinks about my decisions, just does not appeal to me. Considering I have never played D&D, I could very well be completely off the mark, however there is nothing that was said in the article that changed my mind, but (and this is important) this is a purely personal view of what I l…

Resurrected my old account just to reply to this. I just started playing 9 months ago or so. I was sceptical as I've always felt poor at acting/drama.

Turns out, it's really fun.

You're not making a story alone. You're in a group with 2-5 other 'heroes' and a DM. You're all making the story together and it's easy to go along with the flow until you think of something that pops into your head and you can then do whatever it is you want to.

In my experience, good DMs aren't going to judge you for what you do or don't do.

For me, D&D is way more lighthearted than I thought it would be. I guess this depends on the group, but, I've now bounced around a few and it seems to be a common thread. It sounds ridiculous, but, last night the group I DM'd 'invented' brunch before taking on a quest to save a girl that had been abducted by goblins (but, not before finishing their brunch and making a little picnic for themselves).

It's surprisingly easy to try D&D - there are often people running 'one shots'. These are small stories designed to start and end in a few hours so that you get a feel for it without needing to invest a huge amount of time.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#157

Post by KON_Air »

tehwalrus wrote: post #144
sago wrote: post #75

I'm not sure if it's resurrecting, or just improving it's image, either way it's welcome. Still, it is sad that it is so focused on one game: D&D. It's a decent game, particularly fifth edition, but I can't help finding it a bit... um, artless. Which isn't a problem, sometimes that's fun. But when there are so many amazing and sophisticated RPGs, with game mechanics that expand the form and support interesting play,…

> "It's like programming languages, sure you can do anything in D&D (≈ Java, perhaps?)" I love it. But I would choose different languages: AD&D: C D&D 3.5: C++ D&D 4: Java/C# D&D 5: C++11 Fate Core: Python :)

C# should cover everything (or GURPS), it can do anything, if you can keep up with its caprices (a billion rulebooks) and afford the hardware (7/24 caffeine injections) to keep it going.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#158

Post by tehwalrus »

StavrosK wrote: post #155
tehwalrus wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is much more explicit in a different, much simpler RPG called Fate, which is my new favourite. GM'ing (Game, rather than Dungeon Master) is nearly as hard because of the improv story authorship, but the lack of rules-lawyering judgement that is required of you in a D&D game (even in a good edition like 5th, sadly) is not missed.

A friend of mine is a very good DM in D&D, wrote his own stories, world, etc, and we got a group of 5 people together and played two games before he had to leave, so we disbanded. We very much liked the vibe, though, so I want to get the group together again. Is Fate a good game for inexperienced players (especially with an inexperienced DM)? If not, what would be a simple system to start with and play, but still enj…

I don't know much about the difference between Core and Accelerated, I just bought the Fate Core rule book (amazon?) and workout out of it. This is how I run pretty much all my games, buy the book and read it.

A new DM should (IMHO) try playing in a game of the specific system run by someone else first, even in a minimalist system like Fate.

The thing about Fate is that the jargon is generic fiction terms, rather than medieval fantasy or whatever. So you have to read the rules cover to cover before DMing, and make sure to jump forward and back to remind yourself of definitions etc. Once you get going, and are familiar with the two or three mechanics you can use, it's very liberating though!

If it's what I think it is, you should be able to start with Accelerated and then convert to Core if some things aren't working (i.e. it's too simple).

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#159

Post by tehwalrus »

KON_Air wrote: post #157
tehwalrus wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "It's like programming languages, sure you can do anything in D&D (≈ Java, perhaps?)" I love it. But I would choose different languages: AD&D: C D&D 3.5: C++ D&D 4: Java/C# D&D 5: C++11 Fate Core: Python :)

C# should cover everything (or GURPS), it can do anything, if you can keep up with its caprices (a billion rulebooks) and afford the hardware (7/24 caffeine injections) to keep it going.

I would compare GURPS to lisp, given that it tried to encompass any possibility with increasing complexity!

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#160

Post by norlys »

sago wrote: post #75

I'm not sure if it's resurrecting, or just improving it's image, either way it's welcome. Still, it is sad that it is so focused on one game: D&D. It's a decent game, particularly fifth edition, but I can't help finding it a bit... um, artless. Which isn't a problem, sometimes that's fun. But when there are so many amazing and sophisticated RPGs, with game mechanics that expand the form and support interesting play,…

Actually, D&D is a very American thing. In Germany we have a pretty active Pen & Paper scene as well, but D&D is not so common. Instead, the "major" system is DSA (The Black Eye). But I have a feeling that we have a higher variety of systems played on this side of the sea. I played D&D once and didn't like it that much. Too much focus on being the hero, too much encouragement of powergaming for my taste. But that might be a cultural thing as well.
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