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

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Adamska said:
I legit thought Weetabix would die even though he was "beefy" by wizard standards; I was surprised when he didn't. It's my only big gripe with ADnD; that you can actually die on character creation and/or start with 1 HP with bad luck.
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You can't die during character creation in 1e AD&D, or even Original D&D. However you can die during the lifepath generation part of Classic Traveller.

If you start with 1HP your first act should be to spend your money on hirelings/men-at-arms and lavish equipment on them (as much as you can) for maximum loyalty, then stand in the middle of their flying wedge with a sleep spell handy. Take down a group of 4-16 goblins, orcs, giant rats and what-have-you for that one-shot treasure haul. Give each surviving man-at-arms a nice fat 1sp bonus (they're only 1gp/month). Praise them! Lavish stories of bravery and puissant skill at arms upon them! Increase their loyalty to the point where it's fanatical (near 100% for reaction roll purposes). When you get back to town after your epic first struggle invest in flasks of oil. Get so much damn oil you qualify for OPEC nation status. Hire a bearer to carry a small crate full of oil flasks padded in straw. This is your new first-level spell: oil flask. Burn the shit out of some monsters and save your sleep spell for a final suppressive fire if things begin to go south. Go find another lair of monsters and make sure that as their skin crisps, their flesh falls off and their eyes turn to pitch and leak down their cheeks they regret Hextor ever allowing them to be spawned from the Nine Hells. But above all keep your men at arms happy. If you have a good, ruthless DM insistent on throwing waves of green (and orange and brown and red) skins at you, inside of four or five solid adventures you'll be able to level up and hopefully - hopefully - not roll a 1 on your d4 hit point roll.
 
Adamska said:
I legit thought Weetabix would die even though he was "beefy" by wizard standards; I was surprised when he didn't. It's my only big gripe with ADnD; that you can actually die on character creation and/or start with 1 HP with bad luck.
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What kind of weird shit was your GM using? 1E and 2E character generation didn't have life path generation shit.

Most wizards had almost no HP, and even a high CON score wouldn't help you, since to get more than 2 HP bonus for a Con above 16 you had to be a martial class.
 
No I'm fairly certain it is mechanically possible to die in Char creation with no life path and everything as far as I can tell. You roll 1 HP on your wizard HD roll and get a very low CON score. I thought it was as low as 9 due to this literally being my first ADnD run, but it seems you need 6 to get that -1 to your HP (still entirely possible). That'd take you to 0, which last I checked was instant death in 1 & 2e.
 
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No, the starting CON score doesn't impact starting HP, just subsequent HD rolls (which means that yes it is possible to get no HP for subsequent hit point rolls). 0 in AD&D is not instant death; being reduced to 0 means you are unconscious and "bleeding out" unless attended to immediately:

Zero Hit Points:
When any creature is brought to 0 hit points (optionally as low as –3 hit
points if from the same blow which brought the total to 0), it is unconscious. In
each of the next succeeding rounds 1 additional (negative) point will be lost
until –10 is reached and the creature dies. Such loss and death are caused
from bleeding, shock, convulsions, non-respiration, and similar causes. It
ceases immediately on any round a friendly creature administers aid to the
unconscious one. Aid consists of binding wounds, starting respiration,
administering a draught (spirits, healing potion, etc.), or otherwise doing
whatever is necessary to restore life.

Any character brought to 0 (or fewer) hit points and then revived will remain in
a coma for 1-6 turns. Thereafter, he or she must rest for a full week, minimum.
He or she will be incapable of any activity other than that necessary to move
slowly to a place of rest and eat and sleep when there. The character cannot
attack, defend, cast spells, use magic devices, carry burdens, run, study,
research, or do anything else. This is true even if cure spells and/or healing
potions are given to him or her, although if a heal spell is bestowed the
prohibition no longer applies.

If any creature reaches a state of –6 or greater negative points before being
revived, this could indicate scarring or the loss of some member, if you so choose.
For example, a character struck by a fireball and then treated when at –9 might
have horrible scar tissue on exposed areas of flesh — hands, arms, neck, face.
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thx1138 said:
No, the starting CON score doesn't impact starting XP, just subsequent HD rolls (which means that yes it is possible to get no HP for subsequent hit point rolls). 0 in AD&D is not instant death; being reduced to 0 means you are unconscious and "bleeding out" unless attended to immediately:
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Huh, thought 0 was death (I thought negatives was a 3e invention) and that CON affected your starting HP for some reason. Good to know, and thanks for clarifying.

I did have fun with the 2e one-off we did (even if we were those guys), and it was kind of fun to play probably the second best fighter in the group barring our rogue (Weetabix had redonkulous STR). I think I still prefer 3.5 mechanics more though TBF, if only because of improved survivability. Now I want to try out 5e and how it stacks since I've heard mostly good things.

Jet Fuel Johnny said:
Any GM, when you're rolling up a fucking d4 HP wizard with 1E or 2E AD&D that gives out a high pitched giggle and tells you that your character is dead because you have a 6 Con and rolled a 1 on your HP deserves whatever you do to him.
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It didn't happen (our DM pretty good, if a bit stingy with money... for good reasons), I was just positing a hypothetical that I thought could happen based on blurriness and confusion with this system due to my familiarity with 3.5 over 2e.
 
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Adamska said:
No I'm fairly certain it is mechanically possible to die in Char creation with no life path and everything as far as I can tell. You roll 1 HP on your wizard HD roll and get a very low CON score. I thought it was as low as 9 due to this literally being my first ADnD run, but it seems you need 6 to get that -1 to your HP (still entirely possible). That'd take you to 0, which last I checked was instant death in 1 & 2e.
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Any GM, when you're rolling up a fucking d4 HP wizard with 1E or 2E AD&D that gives out a high pitched giggle and tells you that your character is dead because you have a 6 Con and rolled a 1 on your HP deserves whatever you do to him.
 
Anonymus Fluhre said:
The neckbeards I gamed with in the 80's weren't that much of an asshole to me when I started. (probably because they needed they extra character and I was a kid)
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Same. I started with dudes from my dad's gaming group who were double my age. You could argue they were just nice because they were friends with my dad and I was just a kid but they were old army dudes who took the time to really teach me the ropes and the rules. They were strict at times but it made me a better RPer on the whole.

I guess it's why I bristle when I hear that TTRP isn't a so called inclusive space or old gamers are gatekeepers. Like, what space are they talking about? Your space is the the one you make yourself with your own group.
 
I wonder what would be a good system for an RPG campaign set during the American Civil War?

It is a historical subject I am passionate about, and I wonder if anyone has ever done historical RPG campaigns in general?
 
Syaoran Li said:
I wonder what would be a good system for an RPG campaign set during the American Civil War?

It is a historical subject I am passionate about, and I wonder if anyone has ever done historical RPG campaigns in general?
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Does Deadlands count? For your game, I'd go with the d20 Modern (with alterations) for it.
 
Yaoi Huntress Earth said:
Does Deadlands count? For your game, I'd go with the d20 Modern (with alterations) for it.
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I'll allow Deadlands, even if it is more Weird West.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into D20 Modern and maybe D20 Past while I am at it as well.
 
Syaoran Li said:
I wonder what would be a good system for an RPG campaign set during the American Civil War?

It is a historical subject I am passionate about, and I wonder if anyone has ever done historical RPG campaigns in general?
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Check out some TSR games from the 1980's. They made books like Rebel Sabers and even have some nice hex maps for it. Just look up Great Battles of the American Civil War from TSR.
 
Now that I think about it, when it comes to picking out a system for a Civil War campaign, I'd go with either Boot Hill or some variant of D20 Modern.
 
Old Boot Hill (2nd edition onward; trying to get a copy of the first edition which was published around the same time as Original D&D is next to impossible) is very lethal.

If you want to stay with familiar territory, I would recommend picking up a copy of the 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (I would recommend that under any circumstances) and check out the section called Sixguns & Sorcery that nicely covers firearms. It leads to some Murphy's Rules, for example a blast from a cannon is unlikely to kill a 4th level fighter in AD&D, but it is a good starting point.

In fact if you want to create an AD&D-based but tech-mutated fantasy game, the Dungeon Masters Guide with the aforementioned section, and Mutants & Magic (crossover Gamma World 1e conversion tables), along with a copy of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (loads of high technology items and stats for their use in AD&D) makes for a great foundation. Ditch magic and other-than-human races, and limit class to "fighter" for simple level advancement and you're all set.

Why yes, I did do things like that back in high school and college, why do you ask?
 
@Syaoran Li you can also check out the old Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death. Boot Hill has already been mentioned. It's from 1975 so it can be hard to find. Dixie from GURPS Alternative Earths. Colonial Gothic and Clockwork and Chivalry are more Civil War based games. Clockwork and Chivalry does have magic though and a setting that could be hard to extract the non-fantasy stuff. Colonial Gothic does have a book for Lovecraft too so there's that. Basic Roleplaying can easily be setup to do Civil War.
 
Syaoran Li said:
I wonder what would be a good system for an RPG campaign set during the American Civil War?

It is a historical subject I am passionate about, and I wonder if anyone has ever done historical RPG campaigns in general?
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Depending on the tone of the game, I’d recommend either GURPS or Savage Worlds.
GURPS is great if you want a more gritty, ‘realistic’ game. Characters are fragile and guns are powerful. Plus, there are a lot of historical sourcebooks for it (at least for 3rd edition) for a bunch of different eras. Not sure if there’s a Civil War one though.
If you want a more pulpy, heroic game, Savage Worlds is a fairly simple system which is good for running combat/mass battle campaigns. There are some game options to add ‘grittiness’ but it will fundamentally be a more pulpy style of game.
 
the boy scout meeting I mentioned last week is actually happening today and will be going on throughout several weeks till it officially starts in august 28th. I'll be sure to let people know how it goes for each session espicially since I plan to run a few mini encounters for the scouts
 
The Storyteller's vault will be accepting Mage the Ascension entries in August. Since I've written an adventure for it, I look forward to it all.
 
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