Poll: should i start D&D?

[Clashero]

I always say yes, but I don't like D&D much. My favourite pen-and-papers have always been Fallout, Cyberpunk 2020 and Runequest (this is, in my opinion, the best alternative to D&D if you want a high-fantasy setting)

Of course, it depends on what kind of game you want. Do you have an RP-heavy experience, or something more along the lines of a pen-and-paper game of Diablo?

I suggest your DM reads the following links, no matter who he is. It's some of the best advice any DM can be given. It's one of those lessons in common sense that make you go "oh! but that's so obvious! I can't believe I didn't think of that!"
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2325
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2353
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2176
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1986
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1968
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1955
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1922
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1633

 

[similar.squirrel]

It's only good if you have people to play it with.

Yeah. My best-ish friend has the core manuals, and I have the Call of Cthulhu sourcebook, but we're both social retards, so..could have used a little foresight before buying them all those years ago.

 

[DreamKing]

Make sure you have your potential group create their characters a day or two in advance. Character creation is long and tell them to make sure to write every last detail when it comes to skills, weapons, armor, feats, and racial abilities. If they don't, the game will become very drawn out with multiple searches through the very large rule books and it will take forever to get passed any encounter.

Edit: If you feel that something is missing from a class, monster, etc, add it in there. Take a piece of looseleaf paper, write what you want and jam the paper in the rule book. D&D is what you want it to be. I ripped out (figuratively speaking) the deity section and replaced it with my own deities that could be summoned as a daily power. When it came to the player's origins, I gave out bonuses based where they came from and split each area in three parts and gave them another bonus fromn the section they came from.

 

[SquirrelPants]

I don't know, just putting my 2 cents in

Well if you're gonna shoot down the idea, you could at least provide some reasoning. Otherwise you may as just well flip a coin to decide all the responses in your posts.

Or are we just trying to get the post count up?

Okay since you wont stop harassing me till i come up with an answer of some sorts here it goes...

I would never play D&D myself, because I couldn't really find a way to explain that to any of my friends. "Hey guys wanna play Dungeons and Dragons with me" How the hell does that sound to people who's only experience with the game or even the title, is from T.V making fun of the players at a constant basis. I myself am ignorant of the game because I do my best to stay away from those levels of nerdum, i'm sure it's a fine game, but like I said I wont bother playing or affiliate myself with it

so you would not have fun and do something you would like to do because of what your peers would think?

thats a bit sad and very shallow

Oh jesus christ everyone stop fucking quoting me. i do enough shit that I enjoy but, i'd rather not have the majority of my buddies knowing i do. Such as MArtial arts, everyone found out and wont leave me the fuck alone about it. My opinions are from experience. And don't judge me from a few lines of text

Well maybe if they call you a nerd or are assholes about it, you can just use your martial arts to beat them up or threaten them! =D

Nah, but seriously, that's just a tiny bit shallow. I understand the need to be accepted though. So, to each his own.

 

[Jursa]

Hell there's no harm in trying it out, if you think it would be fun then it probably will.

 

[w-Jinksy]

You just need to be good at describing things, and have an amazing imagination. The best part of being a player is doing what your DM doesn't expect.

^Also, that.
I once used the spell 'animate rope' to stick a rope down an enemy wizard's throat from long range and squeeze his innards until they die.

wow very brutal, though im not sure if you can but i would have used some spell to make the grass around him harden to a blade like state then trip him up with the animated rop so he would have been impaled upon the ground and then would have tried to make a cheesey one liner...and fail at it.

 

[SquirrelPants]

You just need to be good at describing things, and have an amazing imagination. The best part of being a player is doing what your DM doesn't expect.

^Also, that.
I once used the spell 'animate rope' to stick a rope down an enemy wizard's throat from long range and squeeze his innards until they die.

wow very brutal, though im not sure if you can but i would have used some spell to make the grass around him harden to a blade like state then trip him up with the animated rop so he would have been impaled upon the ground and then would have tried to make a cheesey one liner...and fail at it.

I'm not sure if that spell exists...That would, however, be FREAKING AWESOME.

The only reason I thought of the innards thing in the first place was because my running gag was that I animated the rope. =P

 

[Dorian Cornelius Jasper]

I always found D&D/AD&D to be simplistic, infantile rubbish.

There are other fantasy roleplaying games with better systems, cultures and scenarios.
I prefer Runequest, but you should have a look at Ars Magica and Rolemaster, or try historical/fantasy games like Pendragon and Bushido.

Even Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP) was better than D&D.

Anyway just google these.

yeah but the thing about D&D from what i gather is to make your own adventure in your own world not use someone elses pre-existing lore and such but never mind.

D&D's good as an introduction to roleplaying. And it's very close to its wargaming roots, so it's very "objective oriented." Even if the objective is as simple as "grind XP and loot." It's something gamers wouldn't find strange in the least (it's even the source of the familiar character trope we call "levels") while the more free-form roleplay systems are a bit more of a plunge. Certainly fun, in the way acting and writing collaborative stories is fun, but not the same simple friends-and-numbers fun a player of Diablo or WoW might be looking for.

4th Edition D&D, while controversial among roleplayers (and not without reason, I say with a wistful look at the past), is most certainly the most gamer-friendly iteration of the game.

And if you find yourself enjoying D&D, you can take a look at other roleplaying games. There's always a particular something to scratch an itch. If you're really stuck into the hobby, you might even jump into the deep end of the pool and make a homebrew system.

(Just don't let your boss catch you while you're makin' tables and such.)

 

[Derpus von Herpus]

Pen and paper RPGs are loads of fun, and there is always one out there that will appeal to your particular taste. But it's already been said - do not drop money on dice or multiple books until you have a couple of buds who are reliable. That cannot be stressed enough - nothing sucks more than having your DM not show up on the scheduled day because he "didn't feel like it", or being a player short because some guy decided to make other plans.

Other advice I have? Try RIFTS first. Aside from being my favourite pen-and-paper adventure, it has a much simpler damage/armour system, has a skill system that is very sensible, is futuristic post-apocalypse, and has fuckin' robots and lasers and cyborg dogs and shit.

Definitely pick up a rulebook if you're interested in getting started on an RPG. It's great backstory, great for you to practice the system (make three or four new characters as practice and you'll be able to start fresh in less than half an hour [character creation takes longest of any preparation]), and most rulebooks can be had for about thirty bones. Make sure to get the "Corebook" as it's usually called though - being stuck with a DND Monster Bestiary does you no good if it's using terms you're not familiar with.

Also, make sure the buds you're thinking of playing with are good RPGers. I don't mean great actors, or very imaginative, just good people in general. I've had best friends who are truly horrific at RPGs because they're rulemongers, cheaters, or just douchebags.

Finally, let's list what you don't want to do once you've got your party together and are preparing to play.

Thou shalt not get up in the DM's grill for how he/she's running the campaign.
A lot of players have never tried DMing in their life and don't realize that a lot of things that happen (singling one character out in combat, for example) are 90% of the time a result of the dice rolls. If you feel like you're being treated unfairly, of course bring it up, but try not to get mad or in the DM's face. Remember, he or she is in charge of this adventure, and has the final say.

Thou shalt not use the rulebook as a paper shield.
Listen. I have DMed a lot of games for my friends, and nothing makes me angrier than when a player says "No, you can't do that, because this book says so". When a DM is running a game, it's his world, and it's his call. My best example is when combat was going against one of my players, he rolled to hit an enemy who (unbeknownst to him, behind my DM screen) required a seventeen or better to hit. The player rolled a six. I told him that he missed, and he whipped out the rulebook and said "Well, he's standing still and I'm using Aimed Shot and my gun has a laser sight and I have this augment and my bonus would be nine so I actually rolled fifteen so I hit him, right?". When I told him that all those bonuses aside, he still missed (hence why I didn't ask his bonuses), he got pissy and insisted that I was cheating.

That, gentle friends and neighbours, is why your DM will sometimes just not show up.

Thou shalt not cheat.
I will share a secret - cheating at an RPG is actually pretty easy. Fudging your skill rolls, giving yourself another attribute point... we've all done it at one point. All I will tell you is that winning at an RPG through cheating tastes like pure failure, and ruins the game for everyone else.

Do not lose your cool.
It's a game! There are going to be backstabbings, alliances, tough battles, sacrifices, and hard choices to make (at least if you have a decent DM). Remember to have fun, play nice, be civil!

 

[w-Jinksy]

You just need to be good at describing things, and have an amazing imagination. The best part of being a player is doing what your DM doesn't expect.

^Also, that.
I once used the spell 'animate rope' to stick a rope down an enemy wizard's throat from long range and squeeze his innards until they die.

wow very brutal, though im not sure if you can but i would have used some spell to make the grass around him harden to a blade like state then trip him up with the animated rop so he would have been impaled upon the ground and then would have tried to make a cheesey one liner...and fail at it.

I'm not sure if that spell exists...That would, however, be FREAKING AWESOME.

The only reason I thought of the innards thing in the first place was because my running gag was that I animated the rope. =P

indeed i guess ill just maybe impale somebody on a tree with some sort of telekinesis spell if there is such a thing oh the fun i will have with it if it is so.

 

[quack35]

Hell yes, it's crazy amounts of fun, if you play with good friends.

 

[The Purple Crusader]

I had a few ideas for D&D that I never got around to using, I dunno if they are good, but maybe you'll like them. (btw my main theme with this involves wizards.)

Scenario: A wizard in a dungeon casts Telekinesis move (such as clairvoyance? that how you spell it) and it would give off a flash of light and the player would control sort of an "eye" and explore themselves. Also throw in a hallway they are exploring some enemies who are running back in the direction they are and see if they catch what you're doing. If not after a few more rounds make the wizard be hit (due to the clairvoyance) and the other members have a dodge roll (high one, since they are in a dark, small dungeon dodging running enemies).

Later on the wizard may be faced with more enemies and decides to cast an AOE fireball spell. The spell critically hits, but due to the fact that its a narrow dungeon (and the critical adds to it) the fireball expands moreso than it should, and they have to roll a will save (and if they have anything that makes them more flammable, its a - to the roll.

When they finally reach the main chamber they come to the main baddy for that dungeon and his minions. As he sends the minions after the adventurers, the wizard casts some oil slick spell (dunno if a spell like that exists) making the enemies slip and fall, and then, since the wizards turn is up, another party members throws a torch into the oil and lights them on fire, doing *blank* damage and *blank* damage each round.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

I started playing it recently (I'm a Paladin) and I actually quite enjoyed it.

I am aware that it isn;t for everyone so I would say simply give it a try.

If you don't like it, fair enough, leave it alone and never speak of it again.

If you, like me, do enjoy it then by all means keep it up and may Kord smile on you...uh...I mean have fun (I swear I am normal and socially healthy).

EDIT: As others have said before me, it's best if played with friends who you get on with well, that way you can joke around and just have fun with it, which is the point of it in my opinion.

I played a few years ago, I thought it was fun. If you have a good group it can be great, you just need an active imagination.

saying i have an over active imagination is an understatementso im pretty much covered there

Then it's both good and bad that you're DMing.

On the plus side, you'll be able to create amazing worlds and stories for your characters as the DM. Personally, I think that the world creation is half the fun.

I've spent hours upon hours drawing maps, writing lore, and inventing cultures. I'll include little towns, name them, figure out who the important people are that live there, and what kind of culture and life the people there live. Half the time, the players will never even go to that town. But at least it's there.

It's not necessary to do that, though. You can just as easily make it all up as you go. Even just create one small town with an inn and a general store in it, and branch all the early adventures off from there. This is helpful if you don't have an infinite amount of time on your hands (like I do).

On the negative side, it can be tricky to be DM for your first attempt. But if your players have never played D&D before, no worries. It'll be a learning experience for everyone, and you'll all find your groove very quickly. It's just important that you read up on the rules. Even if you don't understand it all at first, you'll find out eventually what it's all for.

Basically, this. I recently started playing DnD myself, took the role as DM. I need somemore training, but we've had awesome fun this far, though we need moar people

 

[xxnightlawxx]

I had always thought about getting into it but never really gotten around to it and since video games are sarting to bore me a lil bit(shock!, horror!) and i have a ridiculously overactive imagination.

i was just wondering what you peoples opinions were .

Warhammer 40K

 

[Valiance]

It depends on the GM, mostly, and if you don't know one, it will be hard to get into.

But hey, it's relatively fun.

Unless you meant DDO, which I think is free now.

 

[w-Jinksy]

I had always thought about getting into it but never really gotten around to it and since video games are sarting to bore me a lil bit(shock!, horror!) and i have a ridiculously overactive imagination.

i was just wondering what you peoples opinions were .

Warhammer 40K

Already do i collect crimson fists and speed freaks orks but setting up battles take a while and can only be done a few times where the rpg's can be done continously.

 

[Pezzer]

Yes, It's BRILLiant, with the capital BRILL. If you find it to tedious and time-consuming (as we did with 6 players) switch over to Mutants & masterminds, the systems much more simple.

what is this mutants and master minds game?

'Tis D&D but as super-heroes in modern/postmodern era.

Much more flexible than D&D and simpler rules.

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

I pretty much really can't say anything that wouldn't be parroting what has already been said. Find a good group, and give it a try, see if you like it. If so, great you have found a fun new hobby, and if not, no harm no foul.

Finally, let's list what you don't want to do once you've got your party together and are preparing to play.

Thou shalt not get up in the DM's grill for how he/she's running the campaign.
A lot of players have never tried DMing in their life and don't realize that a lot of things that happen (singling one character out in combat, for example) are 90% of the time a result of the dice rolls. If you feel like you're being treated unfairly, of course bring it up, but try not to get mad or in the DM's face. Remember, he or she is in charge of this adventure, and has the final say.

Thou shalt not use the rulebook as a paper shield.
Listen. I have DMed a lot of games for my friends, and nothing makes me angrier than when a player says "No, you can't do that, because this book says so". When a DM is running a game, it's his world, and it's his call. My best example is when combat was going against one of my players, he rolled to hit an enemy who (unbeknownst to him, behind my DM screen) required a seventeen or better to hit. The player rolled a six. I told him that he missed, and he whipped out the rulebook and said "Well, he's standing still and I'm using Aimed Shot and my gun has a laser sight and I have this augment and my bonus would be nine so I actually rolled fifteen so I hit him, right?". When I told him that all those bonuses aside, he still missed (hence why I didn't ask his bonuses), he got pissy and insisted that I was cheating.

That, gentle friends and neighbours, is why your DM will sometimes just not show up.

Ugh, I know what you mean. I had one guy through such a humongous fit and violate both A and B, because I wouldn't let him be an Acolyte of the Skin. I tried everything I could think of to be reasonable with the guy, but to no avail. When I said I was changing to alignment requirement from "any non-good" to "any evil" He pretty much went ballistic and did B: use the rulebook as a paper shield.