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The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

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Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#171

Post by malloryerik »

a-saleh wrote: post #133
malloryerik wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe then a new game could be related to D&D as Clojure is to Java? Like, built on the D&D runtime?

Ha, there actually are engines, that many of the new RPGs share. But I am not sure D&D (or at least 5e) is well suited for being a base for many different games, because i.m.o. it has a strong focus on combat. If you want a game with lot of encounters with monsters to defeat, getting more and more powerful to defeat even harder enemies, with combat system that is not overly complex but still tactical, you definitely…

The powered-by-the-apocalypse engine sounds fantastic. Indeed as I read your comment I was thinking that one might want to repurpose the D&D combat engine to something more psychological, but the direction of the Apocalypse World engine sounds more interesting (and maybe profound) than anything I was expecting.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#172

Post by viridian »

labster wrote: post #139
andybak wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Paranoia rulebooks were a joy to read. Comedic masterpieces in themselves.

Dissemination of classified material from Paranoia rulebooks is treason, citizen.

Typically though, if a blue or green or what have you reveals information that is classified to infrareds, the solution is just to execute the infrareds.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#173

Post by tehwalrus »

StavrosK wrote: post #170
tehwalrus wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommmend an online game then - Reddit "looking for group" is quite good as a hub. You need "fudge dice", but these are mappable from D6s. I recommend getting the dice though, as this is th table: 1 => -1 2 => -1 3 => 0 4 => 0 5 => 1 6 => 1 So it can get pretty confusing to do in your head.

Ah, thanks. I was thinking of doing the same with D6es. Good to know that you don't need the cards or anything else, I'll buy the book and read it. The online idea is also pretty interesting, thanks for the recommendation!

Ah, "cards" may mean index cards. I just use notepaper, but the book recommends writing stuff on index cards so you can "publicly display" them to the players and remind yourselves of the state of the world at that point in play. I didn't do that yet though in my game!

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#174

Post by Yuioup »

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 :)

D&D First Edition is Assembly?

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#175

Post by simonh »

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…

It’s certainly not for everyone, but I honestly don’t think it’s possible to know for sure who it’s for and who it isn’t without them actually trying it. The reality of it can be very different to how people imagine it.

Of course a huge amount also depends on who you play with and whether their style of play works with your personality.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#176

Post by simonh »

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #10

>half a dozen paid Dungeon Masters... Still trying to process that. Do I need to polish my resume? What type of experience is required? How many applications did he get? How old were the applicants?

Apparently there’s a big trend for after school role playing game sessions in Israel, with paid GMs. The problem there is the economics mean most groups consist of 20 or more kids, so games tend to be highly abstracted with very simple rules.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#177

Post by StavrosK »

tehwalrus wrote: post #173
StavrosK wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, thanks. I was thinking of doing the same with D6es. Good to know that you don't need the cards or anything else, I'll buy the book and read it. The online idea is also pretty interesting, thanks for the recommendation!

Ah, "cards" may mean index cards. I just use notepaper, but the book recommends writing stuff on index cards so you can "publicly display" them to the players and remind yourselves of the state of the world at that point in play. I didn't do that yet though in my game!

Ah, I downloaded the "free" version of the PDF and it does have a list of what to get in the first few pages. Too bad this isn't front and center on the site.

By "cards" I mean the "Deck of Fate":

> The Deck of Fate is an alternative to Fate Dice. It’s a deck of cards that mimics the probability of Fate Dice, and it’s designed to be used in the same way Fate Dice are.

I'm watching a video of Wil Wheaton playing with friends, and it looks like Fate doesn't even use a board, and you make the story up as you go along. It looks pretty interesting, I think I'll give it a shot!

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#178

Post by vanderZwan »

walshemj wrote: post #161
nevster wrote: post #30

I think the main thing is 5th edition - it's really good. I briefly tried 4th edition and it just didn't feel right - way too combat heavy and video-gamey. Then 5th edition came out and it was immediately obvious that it had that 1st edition feel but with all the bugs worked out. I play it with my kids and it's awesome.

Its a bit streamlined compared to pathfinder/3.5 and allows for less customisation to fit a wide range of character concepts. but then again I am so used t dnd having started in the 3 brown books days

From what I remember, the main criticism of the d20 systems was that it was too flexible, and that the game ended up very build-oriented. Some of the design decisions behind 4th edition were an attempt to streamline it with lessons from online RPGs, but part of the reasoning behind it was that this streamlining would move the focus away from the character sheets a bit - by not writing everything down in rules, things would be more up to DM interpretations.

I cannot say to which degree the game systems actually helped in practice; I switched groups between editions, and my 4th edition group was 90% improv theatre people. That there would be more roleplaying was pretty inevitable.

I also haven't played 5th edition so I don't know the changes there.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#179

Post by dbingham »

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…

Yep. I used to be an avid MUME (http://mume.org/) player with a big group of friends. I learned to code by creating a clone called MEM :D .

Mume's still around. I've been indulging in a little memory lane playing lately.

Re: The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons and Dragons

#180

Post by artimaeis »

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 :)

In fairness to Java/C# I think D&D 4 might be better represented as Scratch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_(programming_language)

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