MMORGs and role playing discussion.

I've been roleplaying for years, mostly AD&D and Shadowrun. I've also played a whole bunch of other stuff, Rolemaster/Middle Earth, Rifts, horror games like Call of Cthulhu.Last night I ran a side game for one of the players in my regular AD&D group (2nd ed. Yes, I am a Luddite!), which is set in a home brew world. I try to maintain a fantasy setting with a touch of cyberpunk ethos, ie. the PCs are often manipulated, don't know who to trust and constantly clash against powerful vested interests. Last night's session was an old Greyhawk mini-module where the PCs are expected to show up and rescue a sage who's had his pet vegepygmys turn on him. Being a chaotic neutral thief, the character was able to show up, save the day, kill the baddies and rob the place. Result! If he keeps it up, he might even repay the thieves guilds before they break his legs. I'm not so much a fan of computer games. The Baldur's Gate series for the PC was fun though. Champions online looks intriguing.Perdition's time travelling idea sounds really good. I think its main difficulty is that it's always very difficult to integrate time travel into a non-linear game.Mutate and Survive

I believe that another BG game is coming out at some point, but I have no idea what the engine is going to be like.The most satisfying ending to Throne of Bhaal? (SPOILER BELOW) Mutate and Survive

I don't recall having that much trouble with the monks. In fact, you can download a tougher Balthazar as an add-on from somewhere.It was the big blue dragon that repeatedly handed me my ass. Mutate and Survive

Hey CS,Neverwinter Nights is good. The gameplay is essentially the same as BG in the first one. It changes the engine a little (not for the better in my opinion) in the second instalment. It's worth playing, but the real charm of the BG series for me is the fact that the NPCs are so good.They talk to you, starting up little conversations. They chat with each other. They bicker with each other. Sometimes they even try to kill one another. I like that. That's not there in the NN games.NN would be greatly improved with an insane gnome PC who keeps trying to drag you into long and ridiculous conversations about turnips. That's what computer gaming needs, more stories about turnips...ToEE is awful. I gave up on it before I even hit the dungeon. It is slow, clunky and ugly. It also crashes a lot. Completely worthless.Also I didn't want to spoil my happy memories of carving my way through the place in the original module. Mutate and Survive

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"A curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understands it." - Jacques Monod

Easily! Bless you. Mutate and Survive

Hi Larni, Yeah, well, sorry if that weirds anyone out.Granny Magda was my all-time favourite PC. She was a 13th level enchantress, witch and general lunatic. We stopped playing that campaign long before I got tired of her, so I've kept using the name, here and elsewhere. I hope it's not an issue.Seriously though, here we are in the midst of a very nerdy conversation about RPGs and MMORGs; was there ever much chance that I was a woman? Mutate and Survive

Hi Perdition,I hear you. In fact, probably the best GM I've ever encountered was a woman. She ran a really thoughtful, role-play intensive game and ran it very well.I know a few female role-players, but in my experience they are in the minority. I know that MORGs are much, much more successful at attracting female gamers than their dice-rolling counterparts, which can only be a good thing.Mutate ad Survive

By the way, did anyone else see these on Pharyngula the other day?Access deniedMmm... Illithid brain juice...Mutate and Survive

I guess I must have played most of the basic D&D classes except bards. Bards are interesting characters, but the rules for them suck.Mostly I've enjoyed playing thieves and priests. With tea-leaves you get to be a bit of a scoundrel. The subterfuge aspect really appeals. Priests are fun to play because their religion gives you something to hang the character on. It's easier to work out what makes them tick.Shadowrun is a great game for creating PCs. There's loads of choice and you can tweak them endlessly to create almost whatever you want.Sadly I don't get to play as often as I GM. That's OK though. GMing appeals to my inner control freak.Mutate and Survive

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"A curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understands it." - Jacques Monod

Everyone loves the pickled fish! We had a Lawful evil campaign running a few years back, where we all played the members of an undead-worshipping cult. We carried zombie pickled fish.Real cultists eat 'em while they're still wriggling. I've not seen 4th ed Shadowrun. I thought that 3rd did a pretty good job of combining a big pile of books into one and cleaning out some of the rubbish rules. I find that too. There's always a back-seat GM! It is handy though, since the best way to get familiar with the system is to run the game. It can make things run more smoothly when a player or two fluent with the rules.Mutate and Survive

Hi Oni, Most RPG characters start out relatively puny. This is certainly true in D&D. If you're a 1st level wizard, you probably get to cast one Magic Missile per day. ZAP! That's it, you shot your bolt. Being multi-class makes you more of an all-rounder, but you advance slower.This does put some people off, but for me the real pleasure is in advancing the character through gameplay. They get stronger and you get more of an idea about what makes them tick as personalities.Mutate and Survive

No priorities? That's a shame. I liked the way they made character creation as easy or as simple as you wanted it to be. I take it they still have off-the-shelf template PCs? They are great for getting started, just plug-and-play.I use a couple of rules from Shadowrun in my D&D. The perception tests are really useful in Shadowrun, so I added a Perception stat. Also the contacts system comes in really handy running a fantasy city game. It makes investigative missions much easier to write and adds a lot of flavour.I think most long running games end up with their fair share of house rules.Mutate and Survive

It's depends how long you want the game to run. Sometimes it's fun to run a short game for a couple of sessions. Other times you can run a long-term campaign, with many consecutive (or concurrent) story arcs. Mine has been running for a couple of years now. It ends when the characters are too powerful to challenge or when people jsut feel like trying something else.There is no winner/loser, but there are missions for the characters to complete and these might be successful or fail hideously. The referee (Game/Dungeon Master/Storyteller) plays the antagonists, but the GM isn't aiming to wipe out the player characters as much as challenge them. Ideally the opposition should be beaten by juuuust a thin margin. It can be good if the party get handed their asses once in a while though. It keeps them keen, stops them getting complacent.As your character achieves goals within the game, they gain experience points or some mechanism like that. Either you can spend the points on new abilities or you advance in level as you go. In fact, you're probably pretty familiar with this aspect of gaming if you've ever played computer games much. The character advancement in those is often based on tabletop gaming.The only real aim is to have fun, mess around with your mates and generally act like big kids for a while. I have heard tell of serious games where people strive to achieve pathos and wear serious faces, but frankly, every game I've ever played in has degenerated into a giggling goof around at some point. Mutate and Survive

I find it hard to talk about realism whilst pretending to be a gnome. House mods are just good for making the game work the way that suits your group. One of the good things about gaming this way is that you can just use want you like and bin the rest.Mutate and Survive