can someone explain to me how tabletop games work?

[shootthebandit]

I know a lot of you guys are into D&D and warhammer etc and its something ive never got into. I guess it would be a good laugh especially if you got together and had a few beers while playing

What id like to know is: how do they work. For example in D&D how do you develop your character and how does the dungeon keeper (I think thats the correct term) create scenarios and how does one tackle these scenarios. Is it all based on dice rolls or do you just make up a solution based on your characters skills

Also are they fairly strict or is it more of a relaxed affair?

 

[tippy2k2]

They can be whatever you want them to be baby

It all greatly depends on your game that you're playing but traditional D&D uses dice to determine what happens. Roll a D20 to hit that guy and then roll a different dice to determine the damage.

DM's (Dungeon Master) are GOD to you. They are the ones who create the scenario (either creating their own with their own knowledge, helpful guides, or completely pre-rendered adventures) and controls the enemies that your party is going to run into. The DM's job is not to win (unless you're sadistic like me ); a good DM will make sure the group is having fun. I had been using pre-made adventures until just recently when I gave writing my own adventure a try. I like making my own adventure (and so does everyone else or so they told me) but it's completely up to you. Personally, I recommend a few pre-mades at first to get the gist of what you're doing down.

As for strict or relaxed, completely up to you. There are set rules for things but you can stick with the rules or make up your own. As a DM, I try to stick with the actual rules but some of the more creative players will introduce things that the rules could never have anticipated; I will make up how it works in that case.

If possible, your best bet is to find a Wizards of the Coast D&D sponsored event (most hobby/comic shops run D&D events) and give it a go (as a player first and as a DM later for they are always looking for DM volunteers). That's how I was introduced to D&D and now I am more powerful than you ever could have imagined! MU HA HA HAAAAAA! FEAR THE POWER OF THE DM!!!

 

[shootthebandit]

They can be whatever you want them to be baby

It all greatly depends on your game that you're playing but traditional D&D uses dice to determine what happens. Roll a D20 to hit that guy and then roll a different dice to determine the damage.

DM's (Dungeon Master) are GOD to you. They are the ones who create the scenario (either creating their own with their own knowledge, helpful guides, or completely pre-rendered adventures) and controls the enemies that your party is going to run into. The DM's job is not to win (unless you're sadistic like me ); a good DM will make sure the group is having fun. I had been using pre-made adventures until just recently when I gave writing my own adventure a try. I like making my own adventure (and so does everyone else or so they told me) but it's completely up to you. Personally, I recommend a few pre-mades at first to get the gist of what you're doing down.

As for strict or relaxed, completely up to you. There are set rules for things but you can stick with the rules or make up your own. As a DM, I try to stick with the actual rules but some of the more creative players will introduce things that the rules could never have anticipated; I will make up how it works in that case.

If possible, your best bet is to find a Wizards of the Coast D&D sponsored event (most hobby/comic shops run D&D events) and give it a go (as a player first and as a DM later for they are always looking for DM volunteers). That's how I was introduced to D&D and now I am more powerful than you ever could have imagined! MU HA HA HAAAAAA! FEAR THE POWER OF THE DM!!!

How do you level up etc is it just by battling, is there pvp or co-op and do diferent chaacters have different abilities if so do they choose them or is it the DM

 

[tippy2k2]

How do you level up etc is it just by battling, is there pvp or co-op and do diferent chaacters have different abilities if so do they choose them or is it the DM

It's just like leveling up in those new fangled vidja games

You have experience points in D&D. Defeating enemies gives you experience points (there are set amounts for enemies but you don't have to go by it) and you level up when you hit the amount of XP needed to level up. There are also challenges that can gain you XP (like disarming traps and whatnot) but the grunt of your XP is gained through fighting. Everyone in the party splits the XP.

Along with that, pre-rendered D&D adventures usually are setup by level. For example, there was a basic adventure we started with that was designed to start with level 1 characters and you would be level 3 by the time it was over through design. The next adventure book would be designed for level 3 characters and get you to level 6. The next would be designed for 6 and get you to 10.

You could do PvP I suppose but I've never seen it done. Generally it's always PvE (with the DM providing the E).

When you build a character, they have skill trees to use. As you level up, the player gets to choose which skills to unlock. This gets a bit hazy for there are hundreds of D&D expansions and books and whatnot that give you abilities (and some are more game-breaking than others).

For ease of character creation, I would recommend D&D Insider (available on Wizards website). The only downfall of that is that it's....$80 a month I want to say? Something like that. Otherwise you can build and level up your guys manually with the D&D Books but then you'd have to get the books somehow.

 

[Rylot]

It really does depend on what game system you're playing, but for the more contemporary 3.5 and 4 D&D and Pathfinder the Dungeon Master will know the layout of the dungeon and where all the enemies are and what they are. Then it's up to the players to figure out how they're gonna approach the dungeon. Depending on how your party is made up will determine your options but you're free to be as tactical or dumb as you want. In my 4e game we recently had our monk clime on top of our warforged paladin to try and avoid some knee high mud. This completely blocked our ranger from firing. Both the warforged and ranger were really annoyed with the Monk but that was what he chose to do so the rest of the party had to deal with it.
Combat usually looks like this: The players roll a D20 and add any modifiers to determine who does first. The DM rolls for the monsters. Each turn consists of the player or character moving and then attacking. Each monster or player has a set number of squares they can move. Or they can shift one square if they're within melee range (usually right next to an enemy). To attack you first have to decide what you're attacking with. If it's a spell ability or just a weapon. You roll a 20 sided dice and add any relevant modifiers(strength for melee weapons, Dexterity for most ranged weapons, Intelligence for most spells) and if that number is the same or higher than the relevant defense the attack hits. Then you roll damage as specified by the weapon or ability.
For D&D and Pathfinder you also have abilities that will tell you how good you are at certain things, be it intimidating people, how dexterous you are. It's up to each player to use these skills as they see fit and ultimately up to the DM to either allow their use or to say it doesn't fit the situation. 99% of DM's will fine with a PC rolling an insight check to see if a player can detect any deception from a NPC. Not many DM's will allow a diplomacy check to see if they can talk the final boss of a dungeon into killing themselves (or at least it would have to be a hell of good check).
Every DM has a different style but the good ones want everyone to have fun. Even if they use a pre-made 'module' they have to bring it to life through interesting PC dialogue and interesting descriptions. For combat they have to have tough monsters and use them in interesting ways but not kill everyone in the party. They have to use the monsters in a believable way and sometimes work around the party not doing what they expected.
I only got interesting in D&D this past year and with the right group it can be a lot of fun.

 

[shootthebandit]

How do you level up etc is it just by battling, is there pvp or co-op and do diferent chaacters have different abilities if so do they choose them or is it the DM

It's just like leveling up in those new fangled vidja games

You have experience points in D&D. Defeating enemies gives you experience points (there are set amounts for enemies but you don't have to go by it) and you level up when you hit the amount of XP needed to level up. There are also challenges that can gain you XP (like disarming traps and whatnot) but the grunt of your XP is gained through fighting. Everyone in the party splits the XP.

Along with that, pre-rendered D&D adventures usually are setup by level. For example, there was a basic adventure we started with that was designed to start with level 1 characters and you would be level 3 by the time it was over through design. The next adventure book would be designed for level 3 characters and get you to level 6. The next would be designed for 6 and get you to 10.

You could do PvP I suppose but I've never seen it done. Generally it's always PvE (with the DM providing the E).

When you build a character, they have skill trees to use. As you level up, the player gets to choose which skills to unlock. This gets a bit hazy for there are hundreds of D&D expansions and books and whatnot that give you abilities (and some are more game-breaking than others).

For ease of character creation, I would recommend D&D Insider (available on Wizards website). The only downfall of that is that it's....$80 a month I want to say? Something like that. Otherwise you can build and level up your guys manually with the D&D Books but then you'd have to get the books somehow.

Sounds a lot like as you said "those new fangled vidja games". It actually sounds like a lot of fun. Its not something I can see myself getting into but I can see why other people do it. I can imagine it being like a more involved poker night

Thanks for informing me. Its mainly because ive seen a few threads recently and didnt have a scooby doo what people were talking about

Happy hunting

 

[Ratty]

It depends on what system you're using. A "generic system" designed to be adaptable to many settings like say Savage Worlds doesn't play like D&D, and heck there's a huge difference between most of the versions of D&D after the jump to d20 with D&D 3.0

The most important thing though, is who you play with. How much the players and the GM (Game Master, the generic term for an RPG storyteller/host/referee) care about the rules, and how rules-focused the system itself is. Some systems are pretty rules-lite and others try to allow for a lot of customizability. Most GM's handbooks will outright say though that the rules should be tweaked to suite the tastes of your group and GM. This is called "houseruling", and it's fine as long as the custom rule is consistently followed. Because after all the goal is for everyone to have fun.

Watch this, because if you play a tabletop game with anyone you WILL hear it quoted sooner or later. And it shows how a gaming session goes.
Yeah it's pretty awesome.



PS- Also DM of the Rings http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612 and Order of the Stick http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html

If you'd like to read some RPG systems there are lots of legal and free clones of older editions of D&D, which take the non-copyrightable rules of the game and take it away from the trademarked artistic representation of the original edition(s) they're based on. So basically just rewrites the flavor text/descriptions and uses almost identical rules.

Here's one that's a clone of the "Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia" which was a collection of all the "D&D Basic" rules from around 1990 http://www.gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/darkdungeons.html and here's OSRIC, a well known clone of AD&D 1st edition. http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric/

Spoiler: PPS- Also this is a good short film to get an idea of how gaming works.

 

[KP Shadow]

I'd recommend Microlite20 or Legend System. Both are based on DnD 3.5e's D20 System, but both have their own twist. Microlite is a very simplified version. Legend is a bit heavier on rules, but it has a unique class system based around mixing and matching sets of abilities (Basically, each character gets three sets of seven abilities called "Tracks", plus you get to choose magic items as you level up), and is light enough on fluff that you can adapt it to any setting (For instance, I'm working one one based on the Persona series).

The gist is that you either roll dice (for most games), compare character stats (for dice-less systems), or remove pieces from a Jenga tower (for Dread) to determine whether or not you succeed at something, and/or how well you do. How you gain experience varies from system to system. Some have you gain experience from just combat, with some other cases of bonuses for roleplaying. Ohers are entirely non-combat, and have you gain experience from putting your individual skills to use. Different systems have different rules for non-combat stuff. Dungeons and Dragons, for instance, is very combat-focused, and, for non-combat stuff, is basically just "Say what you plan on doing, roll a die to determine whether or not you succeed, and add your character's ability modifiers". Legend fleshes this system out a bit by providing special rules for non-combat encounters.