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The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

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Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#211

Post by mcv »

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. ;(

I've had the same problem. Then I got married, and my oldest son is now 9, and we played Terraforming Mars this weekend and he loves it.

It takes a bit of time and investment, but there is a way out.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#212

Post by Moru »

dkersten wrote: post #179
c22 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That is different from person to person. As long as it's not overpowering the voice it should be ok for most.

Many preffer to be able to set the reading speed though (2x and 3x not uncommon) and to be able to skip to the important part of the message. Especially important when you can't use visual pattern scanning on text that shows up often.

Mabe use the browser to create a textbased game? The tools exists there already and the users are used to use them.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#213

Post by mcv »

etxm wrote: post #124

I keep thinking I want to get back into D&D. Would love to play some RIFTS or Shadowrun too.

I'm in the process of starting a Shadowrun campaign with old friends. We've played Pathfinder over the past couple of years, but want to try something else, particularly after our biggest Pathfinder-fan quit.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#214

Post by FroshKiller »

sudosteph wrote: post #8

Paradoxically, tech has actually made DnD much more accessible to the masses. When my friends and I first started playing 3.5 in middle school, we pooled our money for a single player's handbook (they were pricey back then!) and would constantly be passing it around any time anyone needed to do anything, which really slowed down the pace of the game and made it hard to get intimately familiar with the rules. Eventual…

How is that at all paradoxical?

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#215

Post by ChrisRR »

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.

Unfortunately that wouldn't work. For the person who's reading the instructions, there's a lot of flipping through pages and skimming an entire page for instructions on the particular item.

That fast skim reading can't be done with braille.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#216

Post by ajuc »

kriro wrote: post #196
ajuc wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 me…

Very cool, I never realized that the boardgame Neuroshima Hex! (very recommendable, recently also "reskinned" as Monolith Arena) is actually based on an RPG :D Poland is a great boardgame nation, Ignacy Trzewiczek is one of my favorite developers :)

In my previous job we played Neuroshima RPG after work sometimes. It was crazy - the whole office participated - like 12 people including our boss and the secretary, and one of the programmers were a DM.

We never really got to the point where plot happens, because it took forever to fight stray dogs on the way with 12 players, but it was a lot of fun. The fighting mechanics was inspired by Cyberpunk 2020 - a lot of dice throwing for each attack :)

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#217

Post by alexgmcm »

nouveaux wrote: post #13
tareqak wrote: post #7

There is one aspect where I think digital board games are superior: you don't have to spend time setting up, putting away, or resetting the game. If there was a way to do that in the analog version as quick as the digital ones, then I would more willing to participate. Another thing might be "saving" the state between long sessions: you can use a camera phone for certain parts, but its more difficult for when there a…

Digital board games are superior in almost every way except face to face player interaction. For games with a high level of complexity, the analog version is always terrible. Forgetting to move a bit when the game state changes is always a sore point. Unfortunately, these games are generally more challenging to port to digital as well. For more casual games, I prefer to play in person with a beer in hand. (PS My day…

What would you recommend for 2 players? (often I can only play with my SO)

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#218

Post by VLM »

mcv wrote: post #194
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, there's a resurgence going on; Warhammer is getting more popular too again, even with the youth. I want to like it, but I can't bring myself to shell out €50 for a starter kit which looks like some plastic figures and a cardboard box on the back (some assembly required).

Warhammer (Fantasy Battle and 40K) is a beautiful but incredibly expensive hobby. But Cubicle7 Games has just published the 4th edition to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, so that aspect of Warhammer is back too.

Fairly cheap per hour. I think it realistic to be less than 25 cents per hour. I suppose it depends how much effort you put into detailing, and playing.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#219

Post by mcv »

jsjohnst wrote: post #190
mcv wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No real other option? There are dozens of other excellent RPGs available that rely more on imagination than sight. D&D is merely the gateway game. There are of course D&D spin-offs and clones like Pathfinder and 13th Age, old school (OSR) "retro-clones" like Dungeon Crawl Classics, Lamentations of the Flame Princess and many, many others. Then there are the classic non-D&D games like Shadowrun (in its 5th edition now…

Your list is excellent, but wanted to throw one more out there: Cyberpunk 2020.

Definitely a great game too. But there are dozens, if not hundreds, of games I have omitted. There's a lot out there.

Re: The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons

#220

Post by pearle »

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…

NWN1 is still being actively developed by BeamDog. Graphics are more dated but they are working on improving the engine.
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