- Joined
- Jun 23, 2015
Is this line of thinking specific to the west coast/New York, or just because it's how progressives think, and they are most concentrated in the west coast and New York?
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)
- Thread starter Surtur
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- Oct 18, 2021
Dude, I can't tell you how right you are with people from the big cities here in the West Coast. Here in Washington many of the people from Seattle believe that the world begins and ends in Seattle. Never mind that most of the state outside of King County is rural. To them, the people who live in rural areas are uneducated swine that don't have the good sense to live in the big city. They have never ventured to a Red State let alone a Red county. The only places these people venture to is Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. They believe that everyone has the mindset of those who live there and the ones that don't are uneducated subhumans. It is no wonder that the products they make are utter gutter trash.
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- Joined
- Oct 5, 2018
I've been reading through the thread for the last couple weeks, and as fun as a lot of it has been (my entire household is now very invested in secondhand retellings of the adventures of Beep the kobold), it's been downright depressing seeing posts from years back. WotC/Paizo/whoever doing something retarded, comments here meant as obvious hyperbole saying 'lol, next they're gonna [xyz]'... and knowing that in the present day that's exactly what's happened. Someone in here totally called them axing all the racial modifiers like two or three years ago. Feels bad man.
Unrelated, but looking to try and get back into D&D and I've discovered to my dismay that none of the three gaming stores in town is running tabletop stuff anymore. My whole house wants to get into it, but I haven't played since 3.5, two of the others haven't played at all, and the last person hasn't played since 3.5 AND is a dyed-in-the-roots powergamer who's gonna be hell to manage. None of us have DMing experience, and all we've got at 5e books bought on a whim. I guess we're gonna put this shit together ourselves but it's gonna be interesting.
Unrelated, but looking to try and get back into D&D and I've discovered to my dismay that none of the three gaming stores in town is running tabletop stuff anymore. My whole house wants to get into it, but I haven't played since 3.5, two of the others haven't played at all, and the last person hasn't played since 3.5 AND is a dyed-in-the-roots powergamer who's gonna be hell to manage. None of us have DMing experience, and all we've got at 5e books bought on a whim. I guess we're gonna put this shit together ourselves but it's gonna be interesting.
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2021
I GMd 5th cause that’s what my players had but would have preferred 4E 20th anniversary. Either way your best bet is to really simplify hacking. I ended up using these simplified rules. It got the decker out of the van and made him feel like he was part of the team.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
I've not heard much bad about 4e 20th SR. Its what I've done in my games and its worked out well enough.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2019
If it is any comfort, 5e is actually insanely easy to get into as both player and GM. I recommend perusing one of official pre-built modules to get a feel on how things are supposed to be run, then either use that as your first game, or as cribbing material for your own campaign.
There's a reason why 5e exploded in popularity, and it has everything to do with accessibility.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2018
Late but hard lol at that Coffee Shop scenario. Sounds like the perfect 'adventure' for the group of sadsack extra special muliticolored Tiefling PCs a party that would agree to it would undoubtedly roll.
A lot of times I wish there was less focus on "make your character ultra special and unique!" and more "make a character that fits the fucking group dynamic".
A lot of times I wish there was less focus on "make your character ultra special and unique!" and more "make a character that fits the fucking group dynamic".
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2018
Yeah, I figured it'd be easier to bring new people into fifth, the only problem is that starting out now I really worry that we're heading into an age of flavorless schlock. I know that's what homebrewing and tailoring rules is for, but idk that any of us have the confidence to do that yet with an unfamiliar system just yet. At least I know the players will all be sane, so that's a small comfort!
Do any of you guys who do have the experience playing with lots of groups have any tips for how to potentially seek out more local players and get them back into the stores? I've been keeping note while going through the thread of all the recommendations on where to look online (obsidian portal, facebook groups, meetup/let'smeet(?), etc) but I'm striking out everywhere for anything listed. Honestly at the point of putting up fliers in the local coffeeshop saying 'hey, we're gonna get a group going, looking for more' but at the same time I don't want to end up with a bunch of CR types.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
Its mostly West Coast; New York liberals tend to at least acknowledge that other view points are able to exist due to occasional exposure to the working class via the subway. They are just very myopic and pushy.
Liberals in the South/Midwest are able to accept there are other viewpoints that people arrive at via methods that aren't malice or ignorance; they believe their ideas are the correct ones naturally but they view other ideas as "less correct" instead of "completely wrong". But the West Coast attitudes are starting to expand to infect liberals all over.
West Coast, especially Californians, are the living examples of the William Buckley quote about Liberals claiming to want to hear other views, and then being shocked and appalled to learn there are other views. Other views cannot exist and must be squashed and silenced. Not being incomplete political lock-step with Blue talking points is completely unfathomable to them. And when you start to beat them with logic and reason, at that point they'll argue some sort of greater evil force (systemic racism,
Run 4e splats for DM experience. Don't bother trying to learn 4e character building since IIRC Keep on the Shadowfell includes a free starter PDF with pre-gens, just have your players run those. All the rooms fit on two pages, all the shit in a room is laid out in a standard fashion. (maybe 5e splats do the same; never done any official WotC 5e shit)
After that, I'd recommend Maze Rats with some OSR modules; My favorite for introducing new players to OSR is Lair of the Latern Worm (There is a time-reset mechanic which helps ease players into expected character death & other OSR concepts like "add descriptions of how you kill things"; I also have some liner notes to help flesh out the module and a few of the gotchas if you're going that way).
After that, I'd say look at Tomb of the Serpent Kings and B/X (Maze Rats is a good fast system but sort of limited in resolution mechanics for non-combat situations; BX/OSE is little better in that regards)
Everything except for the 4e stuff is free or there's a official free version (Maze Rats/Latern Worm is 100% free. OSE books cost money but its available online, etc) And for the 4e stuff... its old, wizards doesn't even seem to care, so just yo-ho-ho.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2017
Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think they rereleased any 4e modules like they did with all the ones from B/X, 1e, 2e, and 3e
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
They didn't for a few reasons.
First, 4e was the first "digital" D&D, where the core books were available simulataneously in digital and print. Wizards lost their minds for a minute around PHB3 complaining about "piracy" but eventually accepted what was happening. By the time they put out the last 4e stuff in ...2013? everything was available in digital and print, you just had to hunt for a digital distributor until i believe DriveThruRPG made a deal for 4e and D&D Next (5e).
Or to tl;dr they never re-released the 4e splats because they stopped releasing 4e splats.
Second, 4e ports to 5e a little better than 3.5 & earlier. You need to shift the 4e numbers down in ways I don't remember how to do, but you can run a 4e splat with 5e characters out of the box and its not completely broken.
Third, and really the most important: There were no Must-Play modules for 4e. 4e has a lot of fun modules with a lot of cool concepts. I'd argue that Reavers of Harkenwold is a better module for players (and more room for a DM to play with integrating into their world) than Keep on the Borderlands, but Reavers doesn't have any name recognition. Part of that was the Edition Wars which killed 3rd party content, part of it was also those designs restrictions that make things easy to DM also limited what designers could do in regards to rooms and connectivity.
As much shit as I give 5e for looting the tomb and ruining classic modules, 4e did it first with several 'sequel' modules and lots of adventures tied to "legendary" items of D&D Lore.
4e also had the shortest run of any D&D edition (unless you want count 3.0 and 3.5 as separate editions) so less time for any "killer modules" to get developed.
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2018
I want to ask you guys for cyberpunk adventure ideas or recommendations.
My next campaign is likely going to be a cyberpunk game, but I'm struggling for adventure ideas. I know of Renraku Arcology and Thinker Than Blood, but I don't know any other good ones. I don't care about system much, as I can easily port the adventure to the rules I'm using.
I also want to run a game set in The Matrix, but I can't think of good hooks outside of collecting dead drops or waking up a blue pill. I can edit the setting if that helps.
5e is your bread and butter game. It's got good support in the form of 5e.tools, and the wokeshit can be ignored if you stick to the base game and the early content.
Savage Worlds because it's easy to run and understand without sacrificing depth, with advanced rules like multi actions and dramatic tasks being introduced as become more confident. It also plays almost any setting out of the box. The main problem is old RPG players don't like how some of the rules differ from usual d20 games.
My next campaign is likely going to be a cyberpunk game, but I'm struggling for adventure ideas. I know of Renraku Arcology and Thinker Than Blood, but I don't know any other good ones. I don't care about system much, as I can easily port the adventure to the rules I'm using.
I also want to run a game set in The Matrix, but I can't think of good hooks outside of collecting dead drops or waking up a blue pill. I can edit the setting if that helps.
Late, but my recommendation is 5e or Savage Worlds.
5e is your bread and butter game. It's got good support in the form of 5e.tools, and the wokeshit can be ignored if you stick to the base game and the early content.
Savage Worlds because it's easy to run and understand without sacrificing depth, with advanced rules like multi actions and dramatic tasks being introduced as become more confident. It also plays almost any setting out of the box. The main problem is old RPG players don't like how some of the rules differ from usual d20 games.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
afaik there aren't any official PDFs of 5e core rules, the only digital way to get it is via dnd beyond or buy it on a VTT.
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- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
What sort of tone are you going to go for? Knowing that would allow me to dial it closer.
I'm not a module user by inclination, I usually just have ideas, do napkin sketches, and run them instead. The current saga in my game is "Road trip through the country", where you see how shit the infrastructure is outside the cities.
Are they supposed to do Shadowrunning/Corporate Espionage? If so then a common hook would be something like "They're the fall guys hired to distract the real job, and they need to try and get to ground and get revenge on the Johnson who fucked them". Another I could think of is something like "They're sent in to watch over an idiot son of a corpo and toughen them up".
I'd need basic ideas beyond that.
*Shrugs in utter apathy*
I've mused on VR scenarios in my campaign, but I'm not really inclined towards just playing a pure Matrix setting. I will say though that I'd suggest Demon: the Descent for ideas to trawl. Basically in that setting you too are actively fighting an AI with a plan and have to make false identities to avoid agents.
The base book and some of the adventure modules set within a current set of time can help.
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- Joined
- Aug 23, 2018
That hasn't been decided yet.
I usually provide a few different patrons for the players to be a part of, and let them choose a week or so before the game. But in those cases I knew what they were doing, and their patron dictated the flavour. I'm still trying to weigh the pros and cons of a runner campaign or a cop campaign. I'm leaning towards cop, since one of my players is a fan of Angel Cop, but that locks me out of a couple of small adventures I wanted to run, as well as a campaign hook I really liked.
I like this idea. I've never heard that before.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
....Jesus fuck you're right. I think I just figured because unlike 4e's worthless design document, the SRD is available for free. I recall Drive Thru RPG being where you could get the lastest D&D Next beta rules, and just figured they'd stick with them.
eh, make some sense I guess. Get yourD&D Beyond subbie bux.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
Cop flavor?
Hmm. I'd start off with a procedural in this case, maybe initially episodic. Like they might get called on something as simple as some nerd starting a ring of E-drugs, or some entitled people trying to steal from the Grab and Go and it goes violent, to as complex as an African Cred Counterfeiting operation. But eventually based on responses by the players they get sucked into a bigger problem.
If they liked busting some chopshop scheme? It's run by the EuroMob, who also dabble in cyberwear and have pockets with a Zaibatsu corpo who doesn't like the agency messing with his personal funds.
If they were having fun beating up crackheads? Colombian or Haitian Drug Cartel who may or may not have Communist Death Cult elements to them.
Had a blast stopping a virtual druggie? Maybe they have to deal with a serial killer who targets people in VR.
They'd also have to worry about budget cuts, and deal with ineffectual cop unions too. Basically I'd take notes of Detroit's PD in RoboCop for how overworked things are.
Hell, maybe there's worry about automation since some big dick is suggesting making Robot Cops.
It's somewhat close to how my group met together: one of them is playing a corpo who isn't really... he has some talents, but he'd rather just sit around in his shorts and watch anime. His dad tried to give him some responsibilities to see if he can go out on his own if needed.
Essentially he contacted and found people to do a simple job and it went from there.
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2021
I found a YouTuber by the name of CritCrab that talks about the horror stories that people send him about their TTRPG sessions.
Holy shit! This Sue woman sounds like a massive degenerate and psycho. I could not believe that her table dealt with her for 2 years.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
which reminds me: read the novels. some are quite good actually. should provide plenty of hooks, bonus points if you can incorporate it as easter egg for someone who has read them too (just don't use dodger).
if you have access to the beginner box skip that literal tome for now and read the stuff in there instead, preferably play it with the people you want to run it later with. much easier to digest (with the physical box you'll at least get some dice and standees out of it). if you have basic knowledge how TTRPGs work you can jump in pretty much outright (as player or gm), it's basically an adventure long tutorial. then either keep playing (there's another module connecting to it) or jump into an adventure path.
as for 2e in general: better math (works even at very low and high levels), better scaling, better progression, easier to run. has rules for most stuff if you need them (depending on your POV can be a downside, but imo "better have it and not need it" than vice versa). but can also be used to keep powergamers in check.
otoh crunchier and more "gamified" (which is one cause of butthurt since the people that played pf1 for a decade think paizo pulled a 4e).
regarding wokeshit: rules are free so no need to give those tards at paizo money as long as they want to crawl up their own ass; I'm gonna call a jewish horcrux a phylactery at my table as long as I want you fagets.
might also be a suggestion for @BoobWhiskers since imo 5e is a bit lacking in the DM department, especially for fresh GMs.
usually don't watch streams, but it was interesting to see some 5e players jump into pf2e for the first time (they keep playing it and later switch to foundry, lol). it's the beginner box adventure, so spoilers in case you want to run/play it later.
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2019
Been running D&D 5e since 2016, also played savage worlds quite a bit and a bunch of other systems. My problem is that it's been years since I learnt another system and it's hard to get out of my comfort zone without a friend to guide me.
What attracts me about PF 2e is that it's still a system made for fantasy (granted, I have been wanting to run other settings but for that I would use gurps or literally anything else), it's fairly popular so there's foundry support and actively developed addons (a character sheet with minor automation is a god sent in virtual tabletops, we ended up ditching gurps due to how jank its character sheets for foundry were, mainly since we wanted to do something a bit more complicated with them), there's a 5etools version for it and as you said, the SRD is free (which saves the hassle of finding PDFs now that the trove is dead).
I Do not have access to the beginner's box.
Either way I've wanted to own a physical rpg book for the longest time and by the time I got a job the fifth edition books went down the shitter, so was thinking about getting a PF2 one, got recommended the monster manual since, quoting a DM "looking up rules in a physical book sucks", the beginner's box doesn't look like a bad idea, it's cheap and comes with dice