Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Wallace]

I cannot emphasize how much prepping for your action in a combat round makes me like you. I am deathly serious. Even if your idea doesn't work, it at least shows you're engaged and trying to do things.

This goes double if you're playing a complex class or role, like a spellcaster in D&D/PF. For the love of Gygax and Arneson, if you play those, you should at least have quick-reference info for your spells and know what they do. I've played with a couple players who literally had to open the rulebook every time they cast a spell, and it wasn't for some weird exception or edge case.

Would you ever play with a shot clock for your turn? Make your move within X seconds or lose it.

 

[Human Waiter]

Can you tell me; in a ttrpg what would you suggest are the makings of a great player? What are the people you have played with and wish more people had qualities like that, when it comes to the game? I want to make a little declaration to pin in the game store for the dnd players

To be honest the thing I like about my favourite player is just how dumb he is. Not mechanically he can remember the rules, and do his own math, that would be obnoxious if he didn't. He's dumb in that he never thinks through what he tries to do, he just gets caught up in the moment. He just dives into the squad of hobgoblin to try and pipes of haunting them all, or shouts out his full name to a powerful wizard he is trying to intimidate, causing him to have to go into hiding to avoid scrying. It causes a lot of very memorable events. I probably wouldn't find it half as endearing if he wasn't also so lucky we made him into the chosen of Tymora.

 

[Corn Flakes]

This goes double if you're playing a complex class or role, like a spellcaster in D&D/PF. For the love of Gygax and Arneson, if you play those, you should at least have quick-reference info for your spells and know what they do. I've played with a couple players who literally had to open the rulebook every time they cast a spell, and it wasn't for some weird exception or edge case.

Seriously, if anyone here is teaching new players, for the love of God and all that is holy teach them how to use cue cards. Even if they're not full-time spellcasters, having a small fan of cards in their hands reminding them that they have Second Wind, Assassinate, Fighting Spirit or Feral Instinct makes things go faster. Shuffling the cards is also a good fidget toy for those who need that kind of stuff to stay focused.

 

[Adamska]

I've only ever seriously been tested as a Paladin a few times whenever I've played one. I think the one I remember the best was when we were basically forced to deal with the nobility of the city, the house specifically having a weaker demon at its head; having accrued the title, retainers, and family over a couple centuries. I was very much forced into a difficult scenario since I could not actually fight the bastard and win; he was well beyond my 5th level character at the time.

He also was our only source of help to save quite a few people and would help banish a greater evil, since this cynically helped him out as well, so refusing to work with him was actively doing more harm. Trying to fight him would simply result in me taking the rest of the party, mostly good lads and lasses, with me. And this fucker was helping us to help him fuck over a rival, but it also saved quite a few people, including children.

Faced with this horrendous decision, I had to bend the code around its head; I refused to speak with the demon, I refused to listen to it, I had to by proxy learn about the arrangement since I spent time instead aiding a schooling group who managed to earn tickets to the gladiatorial fights.

Since I did what I could to abide by the code and because my DM is not a cunt on this, I did not fall, but boy did my character feel like the worst for a while.

 

[Judge Dredd]

A lot of people don't really want to play, they just want some enforced social interaction, maybe with some structure around it to make the autists feel better. Or they just want to indulge their own power/sexual fantasies on others.

I think wanting to be seen consooming popular thing is part of it.

But other than furries and Fujos (and I guess trannies, strictly speaking, but I never invite trannies for another game) I've never had anyone IRL inject their weird sexual fantasies into the game.

The thing I notice with that is people seem to think it's a good idea to include their fetishes, only for it to backfire and be extremely awkward.

But it really depends on the fetish. It's hard difficult to give an example, but there are certain things that come up again and again with certain DMs or players. Sometimes it's harmless enough, but other times it has me suspecting there might be more to it.

Can you tell me; in a ttrpg what would you suggest are the makings of a great player? What are the people you have played with and wish more people had qualities like that, when it comes to the game? I want to make a little declaration to pin in the game store for the dnd players

I second the "have an action ready to go" idea. I don't use a shot clock, and if people are discussing strategy or ideas that's fine. What bothers me is when people go AFK just before their turn, or when there turn comes up they just go "ummm" for about ten minutes.

 

[Spergetti]

Can you tell me; in a ttrpg what would you suggest are the makings of a great player? What are the people you have played with and wish more people had qualities like that, when it comes to the game? I want to make a little declaration to pin in the game store for the dnd players

One of the best people I ever played with was a guy who was always looking for opportunities to roleplay with the other players at the table. Players often default to interacting with the DM, but the game is way more interesting for me when the players interact as a party rather than a collection of solo players.

 

[BIG BILL HELL'S]

Would you ever play with a shot clock for your turn? Make your move within X seconds or lose it.

We don't have a shot clock per se, but we do have a large sand timer at the DM's position that they will flip over if people are screwing around too much/ not paying attention/ off on a conversational tangent. Usually just the action of picking the timer up will get people to focus back on the game/ make a decision.

 

[King Dead]

Can you tell me; in a ttrpg what would you suggest are the makings of a great player? What are the people you have played with and wish more people had qualities like that, when it comes to the game? I want to make a little declaration to pin in the game store for the dnd players

One of the best people I ever played with was a guy who was always looking for opportunities to roleplay with the other players at the table. Players often default to interacting with the DM, but the game is way more interesting for me when the players interact as a party rather than a collection of solo players.

I was going to say something along these lines: D&D (and most tabletop) is a collaborative experience, and it works best when your whole group is working together. In combat, in exploration, in roleplay, you'll get a lot more done if you're trying to support each other. This can also include building your character to help fill gaps in your party's composition. Almost always, winning is contingent on everyone doing their part; refusing to do so will at best add unwanted tension, and at worst throw your entire party into chaos and possibly death.

I discussed this story before, but it bears repeating because it illustrates the point. One of the players in my group began openly coveting an artifact ring that an NPC we met was wearing, for no real reason other than it looked powerful and his character wanted a powerful thing. This NPC did nothing to harm our party and was actively helping, yet he was still scheming to take it from him somehow, all the while doing barely anything in fights. Finally he enacts his master plan involving Suggestion to just make him hand it over, which led to a bunch of arguing over the rules and a lot of "wtf are you doing" from everyone else. Eventually the DM resolved this in a way that didn't involve giving him the ring, but we lost two powerful NPCs that would have been great for backup, and we kicked the character out of the party for being retarded and had the player roll a new one. By acting like an asshole, he made the game harder for the rest of us.

When I confronted the player about this after the fact and how he should have been focused on helping the team (we had just come off a hectic battle where all he did was fly away and throw a couple cantrips when he could have teamed up with me and locked down a big chunk of the field on the first turn), he replied that he didn't have to and he could play his character how he wanted, even if it was being a selfish prick. Which, fair, he could, but doing so made the game objectively worse for everyone else. If your plan is for your character to be an ass, make sure everyone else knows about it first. Or better yet, don't do that, because why would your party tolerate having you around (examples like @AnOminous's story notwithstanding, and even then it didn't end well for him)?

If I were to shorten all this to a simple rule, it'd be something like: "D&D is a group effort. Act like it."

 

[Corn Flakes]

If your plan is for your character to be an ass, make sure everyone else knows about it first.

Or make your character an interesting and useful ass.

Because just as you as the player are not obligated to play nice and be a team player, the rest of the group is not obligated to put up with your shit. So if the party has no reason to drag your annoying and unhelpful character around, expect them to pull a Metallica on your Dave Mustaine-looking ass.

God, this reminds me of playing Vampire back in the early 00s. I swear, every time we started a new group, one of the newcomers would end up whining that they felt left out. Of course, their character concept was almost universally "katana-wielding loner in trenchcoat" (occasionally replacing katana with dual pistols) and they made zero effort to interact with the rest of the group no matter how hard the storyteller worked to give us a reason to all work together.

I don't know which is worse, these assholes or the current crop of entitled "I'm gonna use my RPG sessions as group therapy and there's nothing you can do about it" pricks. Thankfully both are pretty easy to deal with a warning followed by swift kick to the ass if they don't shape up.

 

[AnOminous]

Or better yet, don't do that, because why would your party tolerate having you around (examples like @AnOminous's story notwithstanding, and even then it didn't end well for him)?

And even if I'd made it to the end and they'd gotten the McGuffin they'd have had to fight me for it because I would have betrayed them at the end and tried to steal it, which they all knew was my intention from the start.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Would you ever play with a shot clock for your turn? Make your move within X seconds or lose it.

It'd be an interesting take on things. Not sure if I'd use it or not.

I like to break things down for my characters so that my 'actions' (especially in combat) are right there, precalculated. I roll this die plus these modifiers to shoot this gun, quick reference for this spell (with note on what book/page the spell is on for details) which lists range, level, effect, etc.

Like, for Pathfinder, I might have:
Dragon's Breath, level 4, 30' cone/60' line, deal up to 12d6 elemental damage (fire/cold/acid cone, or fire/lightning/acid line), Reflex half, APG p217

We once had a player who had to calculate her spell DCs every goddamned time her turn came up. Even though it's a STATIC FUCKING NUMBER most of the time. Ten, plus your spellcasting modifier, plus the spell level, plus any feats (Spell Focus). Calculate once, record, and you're done. Jesus wept.

 

[Shidoen]

I want opinions, is Vampire: The Masquerade a good game to setup a Hellboy type setting or are there other options anyone would recommend?

 

[Adamska]

I want opinions, is Vampire: The Masquerade a good game to setup a Hellboy type setting or are there other options anyone would recommend?

I'd actually suggest Hunter: the Vigil and other Chronicles of Darkness books over VtM for this one personally. I think its toolkit nature and hardier crunch makes it the better fit if you feel like homebrewing. Hunter also sort of fits the vibe a bit better, with some of the compacts and conspiracies that they give you working rather well for giving you ideas, and stuff for them to get their hands on.

VtM is a good fit, with 20th Anniversary or Revised being your best picks, but I'd suggest Vigil moreso than it, especially if you're playing mostly mortals. If not, pick the splats you want. Changeling: the Lost can do a surprisingly good take for some of what you want for high weirdness given how often Faerie lore gets brought up in the comics. There are also more traditional Demons if you want to play with them in some of the supplements out there. Lastly, the entities in Mummy: the Curse? They can get as nasty as the Ogdru Hem, and their masters are in a way as horrid as the Ogdru Jahad.

Delta Green also isn't exactly a bad pick for system either, since it plays with combat moreso than Call of Cthulhu and deals with the odd just as much..

 

[You gain Brouzouf]

I second the "have an action ready to go" idea. I don't use a shot clock, and if people are discussing strategy or ideas that's fine. What bothers me is when people go AFK just before their turn, or when there turn comes up they just go "ummm" for about ten minutes.

In a 5e campaign from a few years back, I was playing a druid, a retarded friend was playing a ranger and another friend who was extremely new to the game and TTRPGs in general was playing a wizard.
The ranger was actually retarded friend's 3rd character because he just managed to kill himself that often, with one of the other characters also being a druid.
Both of them struggled to have reasonable length turns for very different reasons. Retarded friend would just completely zone out or forget that he wasn't just watching people play and not think at all about what he wanted to do, while new to RPGs friend was just overwhelmed by being a wizard and the size of her spell list and all the descriptions.
So in an attempt to help them both have sub 10 minute long turns, I essentially memorized their character sheets so I could easily talk and strategize with them and help them figure out what it is they actually wanted to do without them having to reread their entire sheet several times over.
This only got worse as our levels progressed into the teens and item effects got wordier.

So yes, for the love of God, consider what it is you are going to do on your turn before it's your turn so that I don't have to memorize 5 different character sheets.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

Same. I have a couple good players I play IRL and currently I'm in between FLGS to set up my solid-waste filtering operations at It was a general-purpose independent bookstore that the owner hosted RPG nights to push books; survived pandemic but not the rent hike the landlord imposed to force everyone out to sell out to developers but when I had one to run my one shot and mega dungeons, those showing up was full of coomers, danger hairs, and triggered SJWs who were usually theater majors.

I'm considering ditching my current "FLGS". The owner of the store my IRL group meets at seems annoyed when we show up because we don't play CCGs or Warhammer. He told me he intended to make some minimal changes to the store that would make it more amenable to RPG gamers, but he's done none of them in the last six months because playing Magic with his buddies is far more fun than trying to cater to customers he doesn't even want. My RPG group is probably the last one that still meets there - everyone else in the area would rather drive to gaming venues that are 30 minutes away. The most easily triggered SJWs, the most pornsick coomers, they have nothing on the shitty store owner when it comes to ruining games.

Its great for smug grogs to come in with "Well my group from 1982 hasn't let in any woke nonsense. When I go to the local VFW its full of based & red pilled guys collecting social security", but while I am blue-hellhole adjacent I used to be in deep red territory and the pool of talent was getting worse.

I tried to so some Roll20 years ago and it was terrible. I've tried a few forums and its not been any better.

I always groan inside when someone new shows up and tells us that he's been playing RPGs since before anyone else at the table was born. They are spergs when playing with people they don't know and hate being expected to do some role-playing in between massacring monsters. Asking them to explain how their character arrived on the scene, even in an urban environment where they can just say that they overheard the adventurers talking about their mission, leaves these guys flustered. They always vanish after that first session.

 

[Ghostse]

I always groan inside when someone new shows up and tells us that he's been playing RPGs since before anyone else at the table was born. They are spergs when playing with people they don't know and hate being expected to do some role-playing in between massacring monsters. Asking them to explain how their character arrived on the scene, even in an urban environment where they can just say that they overheard the adventurers talking about their mission, leaves these guys flustered. They always vanish after that first session.

Its really hard to join a group "in session" especially without an 'in', especially when people have some preconceived notions. Often while they've played multiple games with multiple 'groups' when you drill down you'll see that there was incredible levels incest - either the DM was from a previous group or previous DM's friend, and usually at least 50% of the group was from their other games.

Usually when I get a new arrival I'll give them an NPC with a pre-engineered hook or let run the monsters so they can see if they the person fits in with the table before we starting trying to see if their character will gel with the party.

 

[Wallace]

One of the best people I ever played with was a guy who was always looking for opportunities to roleplay with the other players at the table. Players often default to interacting with the DM, but the game is way more interesting for me when the players interact as a party rather than a collection of solo players.

One of the core rules of improv is that the way to make yourself look good is by making the other people look good. You get back proportional to what you give. A lot of zoomer CR kids don't get this.

 

[The Ugly One]

Nahh, Wizards' death clock is when they try to shove everyone onto their proprietory digital software and forcibly move towards 6e, since most of the 5e lot probably won't make the jump.

Tabletop actually works for woke due to how small and niche it is. Just frontload your earnings with kickstarters and you're fine to pump out forgettable PbtA garbage.

Most people, even in tabletop, do not mainline politics 24/7 and do not fret over whether or not raiding an orc cave to get cool loot "embodies colonialist themes" or whatever. The bowldlerization of 5e in the name of inclusivity is now starting to annoy normal, left-leaning, but not politically-addicted gamers. Taking your tiefling to trans prom or whatever isn't actually fun or something most TTRPG gamers want to do.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

Most people, even in tabletop, do not mainline politics 24/7 and do not fret over whether or not raiding an orc cave to get cool loot "embodies colonialist themes" or whatever. The bowldlerization of 5e in the name of inclusivity is now starting to annoy normal, left-leaning, but not politically-addicted gamers. Taking your tiefling to trans prom or whatever isn't actually fun or something most TTRPG gamers want to do.

We had an idiot who played for a session once start crying when the party executed some orcs that had surrendered (all praise unto Maglubiyet) and we laughed her out of the game.

 

[Ghostse]

We had an idiot who played for a session once start crying when the party executed some orcs that had surrendered (all praise unto Maglubiyet) and we laughed her out of the game.

I had a player cry when a bad guy's agent escaped due to him doing his scripted bit about bolting after hitting half HP.
In retrospect I should have fired her as a player right then and saved everyone a lot of grief, but hindsight being 20/20