Tabletop Fun

[Jay 2K Winger]

From the latest Spelljammer Academy session...

So our party is gathered to be sent on a retrieval mission, but we need to retrofit a captured beholder Tyrant ship with a spelljammer helm to pilot it. And (as per usual in a D&D game), things don't go smoothly.

First, someone trips a control or something, and the ship starts spinning in place, flinging everyone into walls and the floor while in the "spin cycle."

Once that's done, as we try to get the helm installed, our ranger says to the DM, "I'm going to go look for trouble." And they find it, while checking one of the lower decks, they find these mechanical spider-insect-things, and promptly get stuck in a fight with them. The party is split, because the ranger and one other character had wandered off to do this, while we were still busy with the helm. Many spell slots are expended trying to deal with these things before they finally get scrapped.

So then we try to get back to installing the helm, but the ranger goes and "looks for trouble" again, basically checking on the rest of the NPCs that are coming on mission, but were stowing cargo and getting a cooking station set up. When they get to the lower decks, the ranger finds them filled with smoke, the cooking station and some of the supply crates are on fire, and there are these goblin-imp things made of lava flinging fire around. The ranger sends their animal companion/familiar off to get help, so half the party is downstairs dealing with this, while the other half-- including me-- are still upstairs fussing with the helm.

When all is said and done, the lava-imp-things are dead, but so is an NPC officer, all our fresh food and water barrels are destroyed, and we don't know how the imps got on board. So we use our rocky-talkie (Sending Stone) to notify the bosun who dropped us off, and she's on her way back with backup. The party decides to stay on the lower decks, apart from two people who go up to deal with the helm. I describe my warlock as staying downstairs "to keep an eye on [ranger], make sure they don't wander off again." The ranger's player laughs and says, "I go looking for trouble--" and I snap, "No, you don't, stay where you are!"

Kinda crazy-chaotic session, but still loving it.

[EricKei]

I go back to the days of THAC0, myself D&D 5e has often been described as "simplified" as compared to 3.5 and its successor, The Edition That Shall Not be Named...and yeah, I have to agree, though the newer books have been introducing more and more stuff over time. I like it. The two editions, while both definitely being "D&D" at their cores, have very different ways of handling things, different approaches, and, as a result, appeal to two differing audiences who, nonetheless, share the love of the game in common. It's the execution and minutiae that separate them, but both are solid systems.

[Nunavut Pants]

I've been playing far more tabletop board games than RPGs in the past ... many years. Had a fun game of Terraforming Mars a couple of days ago. I think I placed third out of four people, but I enjoyed it. My Corporation's special power was basically one bonus Terraform Rating per turn (TR is Victory Points at the end of the game, plus income during the game, so that is powerful) so I built a large lead up until we counted all of the other VPs right at the end. Two of the others did much better than I on bonus points from cards at the end, and everyone else did far far better in points gained from spaces owned on the planet.

I classify the game as yet another thing I am not that good at but still enjoy!

[Jay 2K Winger]

I find the storytelling is the part I like, but having good people to tell stories off of helps considerably.

For instance, I recently discovered an indie game called "Anomaly," which is a tarot-based GM-less game. The basis of the game is the players are weaving a story about a team sent by a mysterious organization to investigate some kind of anomaly. It's inspired by things like the Magnus Archives and SCP Foundation. Before you start play, you collectively agree on basics-- setting, organization, and the anomaly-- without too much detail. From there, you take it in turns to build out the details and advance the narrative, using tarot cards as a base. Each player draws a card on their turn, which then references a prompt in the game booklet. You must resolve that prompt, and then take one of three actions for your turn-- a card action (which varies depending on the suit), start a project (which is just any action/event that cannot be resolved in one turn), or hold a team meeting (wherein all players discuss things from various perspectives). Build it all up to some kind of conclusion, etc.

I finally got a chance to sit down and play it with my roommate Road last week. (The game needs a minimum of two players.) We told a story about a research team (along with the security forces accompanying them) from the mysterious Phillip Howard Institute, sent to retrieve an anomalous rug from an abandoned mansion outside Philadelphia. Only, there were tensions within the team (the 2nd in command was a little salty he was passed over for promotion, and there was a rookie on the team), and they receive word that some urban explorers may have disappeared inside the mansion. And a series of ominous prompts from the cards led to things going south very quickly, as some kind of fiery entity began to emerge, trapped everyone inside the grounds, and was ready to slaughter them all. PHI were ready to wipe the entire site off the map to contain the situation, but then a strange outsider appeared, offered to rescue half the team-- but they could not choose which half, "that's the price"-- and they got teleported to safety.

Road and I were going off the same wavelength and we quickly realized when it was dramatically appropriate to end our turn on the narrative-- cliffhanger style-- and turn it over to the other. Without needing to ask one another, we knew how to add to the mystery and deepen the hidden lore without even referring to it, and leave things open for future stories, if we so choose.

We're considering making a podcast out of it, once we have the basics of the game down and have played it a few more times.

[Ghel]

I've played D&D 3.5 and 5th edition. Both can be fun. I find the fun is more about the players than the game system.

I've also played Fate, and liked it. Monster of the Week is also good, though a bit darker. I also like small indie games, like the Tearable RPG, where you write your skills on a single sheet of paper, and then tear through the name of the skill to use it.

[Ironclad Alibi]

A really fun game if you love the dungeon delving aspect of tabletop RPGs is WarHammer Quest. Good luck finding it though, the game is out of print. Some friends of ours MADE a set for Boyfriend for his birthday one year. You draw cards to build your dungeon one tile at a time and encounters are all randomly generated, as is your objective IN the dungeon. Combat is really straightforward, and the only dice you need are six siders. There's only one book, and it mainly has stats for the creatures you can encounter and lists of treasure.

I have Warhammer Quest, as well as the two adventure supplements and three character packs.

And related to that, also by Games Workshop, are the Hero Quest and Advanced Hero Quest games. Hero Quest came in two versions, American and British. They also had add-on quest packs and character packs. Hero Quest was sold by Milton Bradley in the US.

[Nunavut Pants]

Heh, the main referent for all of this to me is AD&D2E. (God I'm old!) But one of the fun aspects was always people joking. It was also one of the most infuriating aspects, at times. Especially when that part of the adventure was supposed to be serious.

Is P5e more of a "small-unit tactical combat simulation", or more of a "storytelling framework"? I've played in groups that went each of those ways before.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Hey, everyone has their own system they prefer over others, and that's fine. Pathfinder for you, 5e for me, maybe someone else prefers FATE, or WoD. S'all good.

[Kristev]

I strongly prefer Pathfinder 1e, and 3.0/3.5. 5th ed feels a little too much like a straightjacket. Nowhere near as bad as Pathfinder 2e, though. That game feels like nothing more than 4th ed reincarnated (some things we do not reincarnate).

But you can't go by me. I play druid medics almost all the time, because I hate combat and I hate clerics. Besides, it's always a scream to be able to make herbal remedies or convince a villain's animals that they are being abused and should help us fight him.

[EricKei]

Glad to see you and your group are having fun. That's the best part of it all ^_^

I'm hoping to get back into it; haven't had in-person games in a couple years, and I found out the hard way that attempting to play it (text-based/discord) online invokes my dizziness issues x.x

[Jay 2K Winger]

Finally got into Dungeons & Dragons recently. While D&D and other tabletop RPGs have always been a fascination to me (love worldbuilding stuff), for various reasons I never got around to actually playing it. Like a lot of latter day D&D fans, channels like Critical Role and Dimension 20 got me back into D&D specifically. I'd sort of lost interest in D&D because I felt there was too much emphasis on minutiae and such, but D&D 5e proves pretty easy to learn and of course very flexible for setting purposes.

Last year, the roommates and I had a brief attempt at playing before it failed-- folks just weren't available or whatever, as tends to happen-- and we're actually working on trying it again, but I recently discovered a tabletop gaming store opened in a shopping center nearby, and they not only offer tables and such for people to play on, but they have weekly D&D Adventurers League meetups. So I've started attending those. One of the DMs at the store is doing a four-part adventure in preparation for the upcoming Spelljammers release (D&D ... IN SPAAACE), so rolled up a new character (high elf hexblade warlock) and joined six other players. Among whom are a gnome wizard and a kobold artificer named Scurvy.

Session 1 had, among other fun, the wizard abusing Minor Illusion to mess up direction signs in the halls of the academy, and making an annoying dormmate believe their bed broke underneath them when they sat down. During an orientation/training lecture, as the characters are prompted to answer where they see themselves in a year's time, Scurvy answered (aloud, instead of in his head) "With my own ship, as a mighty pirate!" This prompted us to briefly wonder what his pirate sobriquet would be (Scurvy the Scourge? Scurvy the Merciless?), until someone suggested "Scurvy the Deficient." We broke down laughing, and he's used that as his name since.

After the climactic battle of the session-- defending the academy's head, Mirt the Moneylender, from a sabotaged shipment that contained nasty little spider-things-- Mirt finally disentangled himself from his bedsheets and drew his sword, and promptly caused his pants to fall down (because narrative causality/comedy says so), and just as the guards burst in. The wizard goes, "I cast Minor Illusion on Mirt--" (we all cringe) "--and add six inches."

We all broke down laughing again, which only got worse as we all started riffing on Mirt's name. (Mirt the Moneyshot, Mirt the Mirth-- no, wait, Mirt the Girth) The DM had tears in his eyes and declared that we'd all have both Bardic and Heroic Inspiration for the next session.

Session 2 didn't have anything quite as hilarious as the "add six inches" joke, though it did feature a joke as we ran a simulation of our ship investigating a wreck of another to retrieve the captain's log, and someone made a joke about "We've been trying to reach you about your spelljammer's extended warranty." Later on, someone else referred to a Sending Stone as a "rocky talkie," and then when hitting a gith pirate with a balista as a "gith-kebab."

I. Love. Dungeons & Dragons.