Tabletop RPG Catch All

Ulairi wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

I take it this isn't the HackMaster game from Dork Tower or Knights of the Dinner Table, is it?

It's from Knights of the Dinner Table, but it isn't a parody game like the prior edition was. This is a serious RPG and it is really fantastic. I'll be running it at Gencon so if anyone wants to stop by I'll show it off.

Are you running it as a scheduled event?

I was running a campaign in a byzantine city that was on the verge of civil war between two factions. The players were searching for these magical artifacts that were being smuggled into the city. The wizard of the group was a paranoid smuggler who had gotten kicked out of the mage's guild. The paranoid bit was a tiny tag that happened in passing in character creation, and the player played it up and went so far as making sure none of the other characters knew where he lived. This actually made it tricky when they tried to meet up the first time, complicated by a run-in with a drunken sailor.

After several mishaps, they figured out that the nobleman in charge of the harbor and catching smugglers was also the one who was smuggling the artifacts into the city. They also learned that he was throwing a secret party in the near future, to unveil something. He was clearly shaping up to be the big villain, so they were desperate for more information.

In the middle of breaking into his mansion in broad daylight, they managed to get hired to chaperon the harbor-master's daughter. Which involved spontaneously running a con game on the kindly old priest who actually showed up for the job. After several more misadventures (including one of the characters getting caught and blackmailed by the harbormaster

So on the night of the party--the costume party--they're all there in disguise, trying to stay alert and herd the daughter at the same time. The more interesting sections of the upper crust are there. Meanwhile, because of one of their earlier escapades, the drunken sailor from earlier has come to the back gate and is trying to warn the guards. The wizard manages to magically keep him from talking and spilling the beans.

Midnight comes, and the antagonist gets ready to do his big reveal. It gets tense and dramatic. He uncovers the artifact, and everyone does a check. Going around the table, everyone receives a very personal vision of the future. The collective effect is everyone is temporarily in shock and blinded, including the nobleman.

The wizard recovers first. And stabs the nobleman in the heart, while no one is watching. He then proceeded to panic the crowd, collect all the artifacts he could find, and then run off without the rest of the party, leaving them none the wiser about his betrayal.

It was a logical extension of how the player had been playing him up to that point, and completely unended every plan I had. The player was uncomfortable with playing him much past that point, so he became the new NPC antagonist of the campaign. The player created a new character, a mage sent from the guild to hunt down the first guy.

I'm not sure this kind of thing would work with everyone. It's the kind of thing that you need a high level of trust in the right group to pull off. But it is pretty awesome and unexpected when it does work.

McChuck wrote:
Ulairi wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:

I take it this isn't the HackMaster game from Dork Tower or Knights of the Dinner Table, is it?

It's from Knights of the Dinner Table, but it isn't a parody game like the prior edition was. This is a serious RPG and it is really fantastic. I'll be running it at Gencon so if anyone wants to stop by I'll show it off.

Are you running it as a scheduled event?

I'm doing demos at the Kenzer & Company booth and in their gaming room. I'll bring the book to the slap and tickle if you'll be there.

I'll be there wherever and whenever it is. I don't think either of those have been set yet.

Diamond Sutra wrote:

Hah! I am the GM for that game.

Ready for the sausage to be made?

I stacked the deck.

I shuffled the cards idly in front of everyone as I described the fortune teller's place. But I had already palmed those four cards, in order, and then stacked them on top of the deck while only shuffling the middle/bottom. I was actually aiming to somewhat recreate the memorable Tarot Reading scene from Curse of Monkey Island (but I didn't have 5 Death cards): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTQDp...

I tried to give it away a little: Basically the fortune teller was huge, loud, friendly and hairy like Penn Jilette.

And then I saddled you all with status effects! It was such a railroaded dick move, but since there weren't any battles/fights happening in the city, I wanted to see what happened with some serious status effects. But that was only because everyone's characters reacted so awesome and horribly. Three characters got "Shock", the skeptic became "High" with giddyness.

Maybe at the beginning of the next session: Revisit the fortune teller, give him a piece of your mind!

YOU MONSTER!

Also, the status effect was kind of my idea. I'm the one who said you should make us all "cursed."

More Exalted. 2 fantastic things happened.

1: The PCs are all shapeshifters. One, the least combat optimized, has a squirrel form. It's great for sneaking around, spying on people, etc. Terrible for combat because, well, it's a squirrel. There's no bonus to defend due to small size, but it is limited in strength, etc. In short, it's a horrible form to fight in. It's a squirrel!

Squirrel PC fought a rat. The rat almost, ALMOST kicked his ass. It was fantastic.

2: Learning sorcery is a big deal. There aren't classes in the game, so you have to buy it with points. One of the PCs decided he wanted to pick it up. He meets a prospective tutor and the tutor asks him why. The PC comes up with some generic nonsense about how sorcery is cool. The NPC doesn't buy it. The PC comes up with another, equally wishy-washy line of nonsense about power. He's got all the inflection of Ben Stein reading the phone book. The NPC says flat out that he doesn't believe the PC has the drive necessary. PC asks him to give him a chance. The NPC hands him a meat cleaver and says, 'Lop off your hand.'

BAM! Done. No hesitation, no doubt, nothing. The only thing that slowed him down was he didn't make it all the way through the first time, so he had to take a second whack at it. Now he's wearing his hand like a necklace with a stone of power set at the center of it. I was actually a little shocked because I did not expect him to do that. The game is usually pretty tame (PG 13) and violent self-mutilation in the quest for power is something NPCs do off screen, usually in a background story. Instead we just jumped down the madness rabbit hole.

Just out of curiosity, as I just got this: would anyone care to try for a game of Fiasco online? I believe we'd not need much beyond a shared die roller and some sort of shared spreadsheet or the like to show what kinds of dice everyone has.

Has anyone had experience playing Fiasco via G+ or some other system and can chime in?

Rubb Ed wrote:

Just out of curiosity, as I just got this: would anyone care to try for a game of Fiasco online? I believe we'd not need much beyond a shared die roller and some sort of shared spreadsheet or the like to show what kinds of dice everyone has.

Has anyone had experience playing Fiasco via G+ or some other system and can chime in?

YES.

Tanglebones wrote:
Rubb Ed wrote:

Just out of curiosity, as I just got this: would anyone care to try for a game of Fiasco online? I believe we'd not need much beyond a shared die roller and some sort of shared spreadsheet or the like to show what kinds of dice everyone has.

Has anyone had experience playing Fiasco via G+ or some other system and can chime in?

YES.

OMFGBBQ YES YES YES YES!

HOW CAN I BE DOWN?!?

Rubb Ed wrote:

Has anyone had experience playing Fiasco via G+ or some other system and can chime in?

You might find some of http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/16936/fiasco-online-play handy, in particular the google doc template for online games in the second comment.

Rubb Ed wrote:

Just out of curiosity, as I just got this: would anyone care to try for a game of Fiasco online? I believe we'd not need much beyond a shared die roller and some sort of shared spreadsheet or the like to show what kinds of dice everyone has.

Has anyone had experience playing Fiasco via G+ or some other system and can chime in?

Trying to convince my group to play this is failing. Only one is interested, not really up their street. Which is a shame because it seems like awesome fun.

onewild wrote:

Trying to convince my group to play this is failing. Only one is interested, not really up their street. Which is a shame because it seems like awesome fun.

It is! You could try emphasizing how quick it is - it's built for one-shots and the game is usually done in 1.5 to 3 hours. So it's not really a huge commitment to try it.

Maybe you could go trawl through all the playsets of the month and find a few that suit your group best. Having the right genre might help a lot.

(I am being a big booster because Fiasco is so much fun)

Have they watched the tabletop episodes? That ought to sell the game pretty well.

Rubb Ed wrote:

Just out of curiosity, as I just got this: would anyone care to try for a game of Fiasco online? I believe we'd not need much beyond a shared die roller and some sort of shared spreadsheet or the like to show what kinds of dice everyone has.

Has anyone had experience playing Fiasco via G+ or some other system and can chime in?

I'd love to. But don't involve me in the scheduling process since it would be me mostly saying, "Sorry, I'm busy that night." So, whatever works for everyone else and hopefully I'd be free.

McChuck wrote:
Rubb Ed wrote:

Just out of curiosity, as I just got this: would anyone care to try for a game of Fiasco online? I believe we'd not need much beyond a shared die roller and some sort of shared spreadsheet or the like to show what kinds of dice everyone has.

Has anyone had experience playing Fiasco via G+ or some other system and can chime in?

I'd love to. But don't involve me in the scheduling process since it would be me mostly saying, "Sorry, I'm busy that night." So, whatever works for everyone else and hopefully I'd be free.

I'm along these lines but, I would more love to watch....."Yeah baby, that's how daddy likes it!"

I wanted to get some advice from the experts.

A friend bought me the Core Rules for Pathfinder, which I have begun reading. Do I need additional resources (books) to get a basic adventure off of the ground or am I good to go for a simple quest with my son and a friend?

Also keep in mind that I haven't played D&D in decades and have never GM'd.

Nevin73 wrote:

Do I need additional resources (books) to get a basic adventure off of the ground or am I good to go for a simple quest with my son and a friend?

Yes. Play it. And if you can't find something you want, make it up and make a note to look for more books later.

Well, the three of you are further east than I am, so I'm gonna have to make sure I can get home at a reasonable hour to start this off. (As for watchers, I'm all for it... I think that could be fun if the players aren't shy as a result.)

Any specific days of the week good/bad? My Mondays are going to be rough soon due to school.

Rubb Ed wrote:

Well, the three of you are further east than I am, so I'm gonna have to make sure I can get home at a reasonable hour to start this off. (As for watchers, I'm all for it... I think that could be fun if the players aren't shy as a result.)

Any specific days of the week good/bad? My Mondays are going to be rough soon due to school.

I should be pretty flexible going forward, due to no longer having school

Any interest in most of the Star Wars Saga edition books or a lot of the D&D 4e books?

I'm thinking about ditching mine since they're either never used or I have PDF versions (and are still never used).

No idea what I'd trade them or sell them for.

Great news for Cthulhu fans. The previosly unatainable (other than $100+ on ebay) Delta Green and Delta Green: Countdown are now available in PDF and print on demand. I have the original Delta Green book and it was one of the best RPG supplements I've ever read, hands down.

For those of you not in the know, Delta Green is essentially Lovecraft meets an uber gritty version of the X-Files. You're part of an underground conspiracy that was born of the US government's 1928 raid on Innsmouth. The original setting takes place in the mid 90's with Countdown bringing things up to around the year 2000.

If you're still not convinced here's a review by the great Kurt Weigel of Game Geeks:

It should also be noted that one of the main authors, Dennis Detwiller, was one of the main game designers on Prototype. Apparently the main character's powers stem from one of the antagonists found in one of the scenarios in the core rulebook.

Delta Green is great stuff. +1 to Radical Ans's recommendation.

oilypenguin wrote:

Any interest in most of the Star Wars Saga edition books or a lot of the D&D 4e books?

I'm thinking about ditching mine since they're either never used or I have PDF versions (and are still never used).

No idea what I'd trade them or sell them for.

I'd have an interest in the latter, even if I was duping some of the books of my own. I wouldn't be able to swing anything until the beginning of September, regardless, but I'd give 'em a good home.

Nevin73 wrote:

I wanted to get some advice from the experts.

A friend bought me the Core Rules for Pathfinder, which I have begun reading. Do I need additional resources (books) to get a basic adventure off of the ground or am I good to go for a simple quest with my son and a friend?

Also keep in mind that I haven't played D&D in decades and have never GM'd.

I've never GM'd and, have only ever really played Pathfinder (over any other system) but, I agree that the Core book is enough to get you going. I would recommend the Advanced Players guide as well.
Those two will take you a long way. If you need further info, here is a fairly comprehensive wiki: http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Pathf... ;that should fill in the gaps.

In an effort to figure out what system to use for a bunch of non rpg-playing but video gaming loving folks for relatively casual games, I've ended up investing in both Pathfinder and D&D, but now reading through both systems and learning them both, I still cant decide. D&D just seems so much better for people who dont want to spend any time learning complicated rules, but as a DM Pathfinder seems better.

Can anyone here recommend a good RPG to play with my kids..ages 5 and 10? Both of them love the board game Dungeon Run and I thought they might enjoy extending that into an RPG that is appropriate.

MisterStatic wrote:

Can anyone here recommend a good RPG to play with my kids..ages 5 and 10? Both of them love the board game Dungeon Run and I thought they might enjoy extending that into an RPG that is appropriate.

Mouseguard?

MisterStatic wrote:

Can anyone here recommend a good RPG to play with my kids..ages 5 and 10? Both of them love the board game Dungeon Run and I thought they might enjoy extending that into an RPG that is appropriate.

Paranoia.

MisterStatic wrote:

Can anyone here recommend a good RPG to play with my kids..ages 5 and 10? Both of them love the board game Dungeon Run and I thought they might enjoy extending that into an RPG that is appropriate.

RPGKids? Might be too young for them though?

I run D&D 3.0 for a pair just a touch younger than that.

I made them characters with Hero Machine, with their input. Then I was able to print those up to make triangular / stand up minis. I have a dry erase Chessex board that we can draw anything else on.

It has worked for us very well, but the dry erase battle map really makes it go well. For even more fun, you can sometimes find plastic "army man" style ninjas or pirates for about a dollar a bag.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:

In an effort to figure out what system to use for a bunch of non rpg-playing but video gaming loving folks for relatively casual games, I've ended up investing in both Pathfinder and D&D, but now reading through both systems and learning them both, I still cant decide. D&D just seems so much better for people who dont want to spend any time learning complicated rules, but as a DM Pathfinder seems better.

Dragon Age is your best bet. Not just for the familiar setting if they have played the games, but the AGE system is one of the best things out there. Go here and grab some of the free PDFs to read up on it.