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- Dec 28, 2014
I still find random numbers fascinating. Good thing since I gamble for profit.
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)
- Thread starter Surtur
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- Dec 17, 2019
From experience, the 5e Essentials Kit is a pretty good value for a starting set (also retails for $25 but Amazon has it for $17 right now, even cheaper than the more barebones Starter Set). Rulebook, level 1-6 adventure (with codes for free followup adventures online that can go to 12), character sheets, a DM screen, a set of 11 dice, a map, and an assortment of item and status cards to use. If players don't mind sharing the dice, you won't need anything more than what's in the box, so your initial investment would be minimal, perfect if your nephew decides it isn't for him.
It's what my group started with before we delved deeper, and we had a lot of fun with it (until the DM ended up having us take a hard left turn into homebrew, but that's another story). The rules should be easy enough to follow, and the adventure is a pretty standard fantasy romp, culminating in a classic dragon fight.
And as always, if you want to get an idea of what you might be getting into, there's plenty of stuff you can look over for free. WotC provides the Basic Rules legally for free, but I can't recommend 5e.tools enough (even if it's easy to fall down a rabbit hole). In addition to the full rules, you can read through the full text of any adventure, including Dragon of Icespire Peak from the Essentials Kit, thanks to those crazy bastards that somehow haven't had WotC's lawyers on their asses yet.
It's definitely worth taking a look before you commit, though at worst, you're only out only twenty bucks or so. If your nephew decides he's interested in doing more, then you can think about
It's autism.
Henri Barbusse
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2022
Rolling dice is fun. I usually end up doing voluntary "Common Sense" or "Better Nature" rolls for low-stakes stuff like "Do I act like a jerk to this annoying minor NPC?" or "Do I get snippy with other PCs?". Things that are tempting to do, but common sense tends to tell you not to do.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
Much as I hate Woketards of the Coast and 5e, while I haven't done the 5e starter I'd admit the mid-edition Starter Kits (especially on Amazon discount) are decent bang for your buck and usually very good at introducing rules to new GMs and players.
Granted, I'd still just buy a tube of Chessex, and have them use the school printers to run off the B/X rules and Tomb of the Serpent Kings since they're free. But that's me.
I'd also say you could a phone dice app and use the PDFs to really have it free, but that really takes all the soul out of it.
I bow to superior autism
But close enough I'll probably keep using my shorthands.
(Outside of 4e (where I just use +2/+5) I personally give players Advantage first, and add +3 if they are doing something worth double-advantage. I'll use +3 instead of advantage for monsters to just streamline.)
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2021
The other important thing about advantage in 5e is it roughly doubles your crit chance, to 9.75% normally, and to 19% for Champion Fighters. But handing out +3 bonuses is hardly going to ruin anyone's night. I think the main logic behind rolling 2d20, pick highest, was "rolling dice is fun."
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
I like giving advantage to players because, regardless of the statistical effect, it feels more rewarding. There's moments of where that 2nd roll saved your ass, or if both dice suck clearly Fate wanted you to fail.
On the GM's side, I just use the short hand because its faster. I mostly just use it for mooks, but I'll switch to it I'm wanting to speed things up. If I'm giving a mook +3 and it pushes the result over 20, I'm just going to use the numberresult.
If its a boss or commander, It'll be situational but I'll probably count it as a crit. Though those guys I'd usually be rolling advantage like they were players.
And for players, I'll usually count 21 or higher as crit.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
I would always roll behind the screen and cheat on behalf of the players if the result was utterly retarded.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
I'm not a nerd, but I admit to chasing the dragon while waiting for players to make a decision and calling the results to everyone's attention if they're really good.
derpherp2
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2020
Had a weird dream that might translate into a good idea.
World has no Druidic magic or polymorph, and funny woodland animals secretly rule the world. Your group of adventurers were wizards that somehow became Druids by somehow wildshaping and now the secret cabal of squirrels or whatever now want you dead. Threatened by you understanding animals.
Human settlements and some woodland creatures are now all hostile to you so you have to make a resistance or some shit.
World has no Druidic magic or polymorph, and funny woodland animals secretly rule the world. Your group of adventurers were wizards that somehow became Druids by somehow wildshaping and now the secret cabal of squirrels or whatever now want you dead. Threatened by you understanding animals.
Human settlements and some woodland creatures are now all hostile to you so you have to make a resistance or some shit.
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2022
the ranger/shaman said:
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
5e starter sets are ass. if you wanna get one grab this, at least it's a complete package and you can actually use it for more stuff (slightly more expensive tho).:
it will be a much better entry what the whole TTRPG thing is about.
the CoC starter is apparently good too, but your nephew might be too young for that. personally I'm a big fan of free league, but no idea how their starters fare.
since you mentioned numenera there's this:
apparently pretty good too and might fit the bill more.
define hardcore:
but seriously, it all depends on the group and what they can take. years ago agricola was hyped everywhere, when it boils down to multiplayer solitaire for a few hours that bores me to tears. meanwhile everyone complains about the length of twilight imperium and how "hard" arkham horror is and how "complicated" the rules are...
there are some dungeon crawler boardgames that might also work as an entry to ttrpg, but usually more expensive (even before you go into kickstarter and how covid lockdowns fucked up prices and got even worse due to inflation). kingdom death monster should have it's annual sale coming up, and when you finally get it your nephew might even be old enough to play while costing more than an average warhammer army. hardcore comes in different forms...
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- Joined
- Apr 16, 2019
So, despite being both an RPG nerd and Warhammer fan, I've somehow never actually played WFRP. Since it's spoopy season I was thinking it'd be fun to run for my next turn as GM. I'd appreciate recommendations from anyone who's played it as to what edition is best, any particularly good spooky premade adventures etc.
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2017
Die Macher is almost like a parody of paint-drying themed board games (elections in Germany! wow!) but there's a reason it's looked backed on fondly by many grognards. Not to thread derail but a lot of games made back in the 80s/90s are legends for a reason: they're loads of fun and more engaging in their often bloated run times (1980s Civ can take ~6hrs) than what supposed new board games do in 3hrs.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
it's all substance with no style. can't get more more euro with pushing wooden cubes around a drab board with the theme of german elections for several hours. but it works, especially if you don't feel the time.
game of thrones boardgame is the same, however that one can end friendships.
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2022
4E is the best edition overall. As for spooky premade adventures, Hell Rides to Hallt is pretty good.
Alternatively, take any Call of Cthulhu adventure and port it directly over, adjusting stats as you feel appropriate.
derpherp2
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2020
You know considering PF2 is just 4E but not insane. I'm starting to think 4E might be better than 5E.
At the least the system expects you to be killing gods and reaching level cap at some point. WoTC was VERY optimistic in 5E's longevity after 4E
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
He's talking about WHFRPG 4e not WMPRPG 4e.
4e gets a lot of stuff right, but has some big flaws. Still my favorite system though I steal shit from 5e.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2021
What's so great about 4e in your opinion?
I've never played it but I'm used to hearing people talk shit about it, but I also know that your standard modern TTRPG player is terrified of basic math so that never held much weight to me.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
For "upskilled board games" I'd recommend Powergrid. It much less spergy than the games put forward thus far, but me and my friends really like it because while being good/lucky will help you out, even people who have terrible turns are still able to come back.
There was much less competing for your attention (and attention spans were longer for it) so a 6 hour boardgame was not an unreasonable time commitment.
Power system is balanced, limited opportunities for Min/Max, it is VERY focused on "shut the fuck up and play". Minions are a thing even the haters have to admit 4e got right. and from the DM side module/encounter lay out that in unequaled before or since. Everything operates on a system, so once you have a feel for mechanics its very easy to homebrew and houserule without breaking the game. Most "buff" spells were rituals that needed to done outside of combat which limited how many could be in play and cost gold to cast.
Its my favorite system to run, and does
The part where it falls down is the players are pretty much superheroes. There are so many ways to get around any sort of real-world logistics because they aren't supposed to matter. 4e works best when the party just arrives at the fight with minimal party involvement in them getting there. Other people in this thread have said its pretty much a tactical wargame and that's not too far off.
Skills are also degraded. The game can also end up "too balanced" where combats can slog on because especially early run monsters are HP sponges.
The other issue is that rules are "simple but complexly layered". Its got that sort of regimented turn order thing in advanced boardgames have that can sometimes make them a bit of a slog when its not running smoothly. (as an example, for attacks damage is calculated with [W], where W is your weapon's damage dice plus enhancement bonus, but you have to know or look it up on the item's property.) This feeds into another issue which is in 4e words have very specific meanings, and they may be different than what other systems or edition uses, and maybe different than what experienced players expect.
Positioning also matters a ton and factors into balance. Unless you are heavily abstracting mundane fights, you can't "threater of mind" 4e.
4e gets an undeservingly bad wrap ... well, firstly because munchkins hate it because they actually have to play the game instead of break it - no infinitely chaining bonuses like in 3.5.
But also because it left a bad taste in people's mouths because of Woketards of the Coast going greedy and doing some shitty things from a business/customer relations side. Most people have forgotten but during the run they did a bunch of shit that was pretty ass regardless of how you feel about the system.
While 3.5 had a fully playable SRD, you could play 3e with zero financial investment. WotC's beancounters decided this was a problem so 4e's SRD was the vaguest of guidelines and more of a style guide for 3rd parties than anything useful for new players or people curious about the system - WotC was working their damnest to make you buy a PHB - a copy is nearly mandatory even if just to copy your powers from. It was also the first time Digital Editions were available simultaneously with print. Given the system practically required a PHB to play, and you could get an official lossless PDF, the natural thing happened - massive Yo Ho Ho. And of course when it happened WotC lost their shit (because every download was equivalent one less sale
), went after pirates hard, and stopped the digital releases midway through the run - this is why until WotC re-released their back catalog on DTRPG, you could find HQ fully digital editions of PHB 1&2 but PHB3 was lowquality scans.
4e pissed off 3e grogs because it wasn't 3e. It also pissed off a lot of 2e AD&D grogs (and there was still a healthy contingent) because the things they didn't like when going from 2e to 3e were only made worse.
This also fed into the other issue of 4e's rep: because it needed a book, it had a reduced player base because of this, so most people only know of 4e by "the one the biggest TTRPG Sperg I know doesn't like"
The real irony is a lot of "bad" paypig milking shit that 4e debuted - "You need to buy a new book for new class/class options" (like you have to buy a 5e book for subclasses), monthly access to tools (D&D Insider was D&D Beyond), Buy this pack of Ranger cards! - have returned in 5e but no community outcry.
Something people also forget about those games is they were made in a time when computers/videogames were still a novelty and limited in what they could achieve. So mimicking a computer game (but better) was a plus for audiences.
There was much less competing for your attention (and attention spans were longer for it) so a 6 hour boardgame was not an unreasonable time commitment.
Power system is balanced, limited opportunities for Min/Max, it is VERY focused on "shut the fuck up and play". Minions are a thing even the haters have to admit 4e got right. and from the DM side module/encounter lay out that in unequaled before or since. Everything operates on a system, so once you have a feel for mechanics its very easy to homebrew and houserule without breaking the game. Most "buff" spells were rituals that needed to done outside of combat which limited how many could be in play and cost gold to cast.
Its my favorite system to run, and does
The part where it falls down is the players are pretty much superheroes. There are so many ways to get around any sort of real-world logistics because they aren't supposed to matter. 4e works best when the party just arrives at the fight with minimal party involvement in them getting there. Other people in this thread have said its pretty much a tactical wargame and that's not too far off.
Skills are also degraded. The game can also end up "too balanced" where combats can slog on because especially early run monsters are HP sponges.
The other issue is that rules are "simple but complexly layered". Its got that sort of regimented turn order thing in advanced boardgames have that can sometimes make them a bit of a slog when its not running smoothly. (as an example, for attacks damage is calculated with [W], where W is your weapon's damage dice plus enhancement bonus, but you have to know or look it up on the item's property.) This feeds into another issue which is in 4e words have very specific meanings, and they may be different than what other systems or edition uses, and maybe different than what experienced players expect.
Positioning also matters a ton and factors into balance. Unless you are heavily abstracting mundane fights, you can't "threater of mind" 4e.
4e gets an undeservingly bad wrap ... well, firstly because munchkins hate it because they actually have to play the game instead of break it - no infinitely chaining bonuses like in 3.5.
But also because it left a bad taste in people's mouths because of Woketards of the Coast going greedy and doing some shitty things from a business/customer relations side. Most people have forgotten but during the run they did a bunch of shit that was pretty ass regardless of how you feel about the system.
While 3.5 had a fully playable SRD, you could play 3e with zero financial investment. WotC's beancounters decided this was a problem so 4e's SRD was the vaguest of guidelines and more of a style guide for 3rd parties than anything useful for new players or people curious about the system - WotC was working their damnest to make you buy a PHB - a copy is nearly mandatory even if just to copy your powers from. It was also the first time Digital Editions were available simultaneously with print. Given the system practically required a PHB to play, and you could get an official lossless PDF, the natural thing happened - massive Yo Ho Ho. And of course when it happened WotC lost their shit (because every download was equivalent one less sale
), went after pirates hard, and stopped the digital releases midway through the run - this is why until WotC re-released their back catalog on DTRPG, you could find HQ fully digital editions of PHB 1&2 but PHB3 was lowquality scans.4e pissed off 3e grogs because it wasn't 3e. It also pissed off a lot of 2e AD&D grogs (and there was still a healthy contingent) because the things they didn't like when going from 2e to 3e were only made worse.
This also fed into the other issue of 4e's rep: because it needed a book, it had a reduced player base because of this, so most people only know of 4e by "the one the biggest TTRPG Sperg I know doesn't like"
The real irony is a lot of "bad" paypig milking shit that 4e debuted - "You need to buy a new book for new class/class options" (like you have to buy a 5e book for subclasses), monthly access to tools (D&D Insider was D&D Beyond), Buy this pack of Ranger cards! - have returned in 5e but no community outcry.
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- Joined
- Jan 30, 2021
This sounds pretty cool and an emphasis on more tactical encounters sounds appealing to me. My group does like it's noncombat RP as well but maybe for campaigns that are really combat focused it could be fun.
Being unable to "theater of mind" it is definitely a negative for my group because they are lazy but I might have to look into trying it in the future.
This is one of my favorite things about having my interests overrun by consoomers. Stuff that caused a shitstorm a few years ago is now just allowed to happen and you are expected to be uncritical of it.