The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons • Hacker News Board

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#171

Post by danvayn » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 10:07 AM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #156

hellepardo wrote: post #61

My friends and I play D&D because we have no real other option. We used to play Minecraft and other collaborative building games as a group, but then one in our group went fully blind. There is a complete lack of good multiplayer computer games for entirely blind players (admittedly that is quite a challenge), but D&D requires only imagination, which all of us still have. Highly recommend if you have friends with vis…

Maybe Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes would be an option - I haven't played it, but what I'm reading is that it's a game where one player has to defuse a bomb while the others have to give him instructions. I'm sure that could be converted to braille or some other format that doesn't require vision. Would be a great project to adjust that for the visually impaired.

I dont think so...the complicated wires, keypad, and maze puzzles in particular seem to be a problem. People can make custom bombs without those puzzles but His blind friend would still need a way to search through the manual at a fairly quick pace.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#172

Post by C1sc0cat » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 10:25 AM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #101

JoshTriplett wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just that. 4e greatly simplified the rules, which made it far more accessible and playable, but it made many classes feel very much the same; every class had daily powers, encounter powers, and at-will powers. 5e managed to make every class feel unique again, and brought many of the classic D&D players back.

> 4e greatly simplified the rules, which made it far more accessible and playable I think it made it more playable as as an abstract combat game, but the divorce in presentation between the rules and the in-game fiction (particularly acute in the—albeit streamlined, simple, and consistent—way powers were defined) made it less accessible as a RPG in the deeper RP sense usually associated with TTRPGS as opposed to CRPG…

It's very simplified compared to 3.5 or pathfinder and arguably gives players less customisation options - also some classes have been nerfed (rangers for example) look at how Laura Baily has to expend a lot of effort to protect Trinket

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#173

Post by C1sc0cat » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 10:29 AM UTC

Trisell wrote: post #89

If you enjoy D&D then Critcal Role[1] is a must watch. Matt Merser is an amazing DM. And the other players(all professional voice actors) are really good as well. It’s great sit on the couch for a while or watch while working type of fare. Each episode is multiple hours of great voice acting and D&D. [1] https://critrole.com

And the players are so well behaved :-) I have found that watching CR has changed the way I Dm and play as a character.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#174

Post by ajuc » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 10:29 AM UTC

kriro wrote: post #155

In Germany there's at least one other big P&P RPG called "Das Schwarze Auge" (sold in the US as "The dark Eye" iirc and not very successful). I think it's a good system and the lore is pretty nice (even though compared to my child-self I now realized a lot of it is heavily influenced by real world history/cultures). Which makes me wonder...what are other native language systems that are popular in the country but mig…

In Poland there were Krzyształy Czasu (Crystals of Time) - a generic high fantasy system made by people from Magia i Miecz magazine (pioneering magazine about RPGS in Poland - it was the only such press for decades). There was also "Wiedźmin - Gra Wyobraźni" - an RPG based on Witcher franchise and targetting new players reoughly at the time that Witcher was first adapted as movie and TV series. It wasn't very good mechanically, but got some people in the hobby.

There was also Dzikie Pola (based on Polish 16-18th century - inspired by books of Henryk Sienkiewicz - Polish Dumas). If you've seen "Deluge" or "With Fire and Sword" movies you know the setting. Sabres, flintlocks, Polish nobility, Ottomans, Muscovites, Cossacs, and wide steppes of modern Ukraine :)

On sci-fi side there is Neuroshima - fallout-like setting with some quirks. It was popular a few years ago but I don't hear about it much anymore.

But the most popular was (and still is) fantasy Warhammer RPG. The first Polish edition was the first time an RPG system was marketed in Poland and it was a big deal, almost everybody to this day started playing RPG with first or second edition of that.

Apart from that the most popular is Call of Cthulhu I think? Or maybe Vampire:the Masquerade and related systems, but that's losing popularity recently I think.

D&D was never very popular, that slowly changes recently.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#175

Post by aasasd » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 10:31 AM UTC

Eupolemos wrote: post #163

hellepardo wrote: post #61

My friends and I play D&D because we have no real other option. We used to play Minecraft and other collaborative building games as a group, but then one in our group went fully blind. There is a complete lack of good multiplayer computer games for entirely blind players (admittedly that is quite a challenge), but D&D requires only imagination, which all of us still have. Highly recommend if you have friends with vis…

I was wondering - do you tell your blind friend what he/she rolls or how do you deal with dice?

Tactile dice don't seem too difficult a thing to make: https://www.geeknative.com/53239/braille-dice-d20-style/

Plus, you don't even have to use dice—anything that gives a uniformly random outcome is alright. (E.g. local “Choose your adventure”-clone books had dice sides printed on each page.)

Now, tracking the character sheet and consulting the rules are probably more of a nuisance to the person.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#176

Post by tialaramex » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 10:46 AM UTC

SubiculumCode wrote: post #146

The saddest thing about having board games is not having anyone come over to play them. In particular for me at the moment, I have Battles of Westeros https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67492/battles-westeros that many feel is one of the best tactical board games out there: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/979785/battles-westeros-imm... and yet I've played it twice in five years. ;(

To be fair, deep strategy games aren't exactly the most friendly thing to just "dip your toe into", especially two player deep strategy.

If you wanted more chances for people to come over and play games few things could be worse. Maybe 18xx (very crunchy simulationist games about early railways) or full blown scale wargaming (e.g. Napoleonic). But even lighter variants of those let people ease into it (e.g. skirmish wargaming, you can buy a couple of boxes of miniatures and play skirmish variants of 40K or various WW2 settings, and there are train sim games where you just run trains and don't have a stock market, a territorial map and so on)

I know I won't have people over often enough to justify big set piece games, so I carry things like "Love Letter" which you can play in a pub in 10 minutes.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#177

Post by SubiculumCode » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 10:49 AM UTC

tialaramex wrote: post #176

SubiculumCode wrote: post #146

The saddest thing about having board games is not having anyone come over to play them. In particular for me at the moment, I have Battles of Westeros https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67492/battles-westeros that many feel is one of the best tactical board games out there: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/979785/battles-westeros-imm... and yet I've played it twice in five years. ;(

To be fair, deep strategy games aren't exactly the most friendly thing to just "dip your toe into", especially two player deep strategy. If you wanted more chances for people to come over and play games few things could be worse. Maybe 18xx (very crunchy simulationist games about early railways) or full blown scale wargaming (e.g. Napoleonic). But even lighter variants of those let people ease into it (e.g. skirmish…

That is very fair assessment that I also share. That is why I have other games. But I do lament it!

For the most part, I get my gaming in by playing with people using play-by-post in a Pathfinder roleplaying forum, which I like alot for the creative writing and rp.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#178

Post by skocznymroczny » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 10:54 AM UTC

ilaksh wrote: post #76

sudosteph wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neverwinter Nights 2 had some solid tools for campaign building that were the closest I've seen to creating a world with scenarios like those you see in DnD. It helps that the game was almost literalally DnD, but still impressive. I don't think DM'ing is necessarily fun though. Most everyone I know who DMs sometimes, including me, finds it to be pretty stressful and a lot of work. The real value to me, is that a real…

Thanks for the info on Neverwinter Nights 2. I will check it out. I agree about having a human in the loop. My idea though was that maybe you could have the best of both worlds with a computer to help the DM. The trick would be making the sandbox rich and responsive enough that the DM and characters would really have freedom in the moment. Maybe the DM could have tools that easily allow him to rez and customize appro…

As far as I remember, in NWN1 multiplayer sessions you could have a player play as the DM. He had access to stuff like spawning items, could spawn monsters on top of the party etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3pclUiro-4

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#179

Post by dkersten » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 11:00 AM UTC

c22 wrote: post #129

hellepardo wrote: post #61

My friends and I play D&D because we have no real other option. We used to play Minecraft and other collaborative building games as a group, but then one in our group went fully blind. There is a complete lack of good multiplayer computer games for entirely blind players (admittedly that is quite a challenge), but D&D requires only imagination, which all of us still have. Highly recommend if you have friends with vis…

I used to have several blind friends who were very successful in text based MUDs. It's possible finding one with an active userbase is getting harder and harder.

I was thinking about text based games for blind people, but since I don't know any blind people that I can easily ask this, I'll put it here in the hopes that somebody who knows the answer will notice it:

Presumably, text based games are played with a screen reader. Would music and sound interfere with the persons ability to play? I was wondering if you could mix text and 3D audio to create a richer environment.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#180

Post by lmm » Wed, Jan 09, 2019, 11:00 AM UTC

JonathanMerklin wrote: post #123

smaili wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of CCG's, any collectors who happen to be coders? I haven't met too many at the local shops I stop by so I always figured collecting cards wasn't very popular amongst engineers.

I collected the 1996 Netrunner CCG for years; last year I found someone who was more or less selling off their complete collection (I didn't have any of the 2.0 cards or the majority of the 2.2 cards, and was also missing a handful of the 2.1 rares - inheriting a couple boxes of all the miscellaneous spares was fine by me if it meant a 100% complete binder) so that very expensive chapter of my life has closed. I also…

> I know they say "time enjoyed wasted is not wasted time" but if I would have programmed or learned a few languages or focused on competition math or read classical literature or learned to cook or any number of other things in that first 18 years, I'd be so much better off [1].

Better off in what sense? If we're talking about skills that apply to the rest of life, I honestly feel like deck optimisation was much better preparation for a real-world career (where the problem scope is never fully defined, the measure of success always involves an element of randomness, and hidden interactions abound) than competition maths was. And while it exercises a different kind of imagination and storytelling, I'd argue that games in a shared-world fiction can give a more intense practice of the things that classical literature give you.