MMORGs and role playing discussion.

I know some of us worthies commit the sin of role playing, either on the pc or console or table top, hell, some of us may even be LARPers!I hope this will be a thread where we can have a bitch and a moan or a praise and a hail about the state the current games.I currently DMing a 4th ed D&D game using the heroic tier modules (we are on the 7 Pillar Hall module) and we are having a great time.Combat is the most fluid I've ever known D&D to be. But I do worry that D&D will never transcend it's roots of hack and slash as the new iteration seems very combat intensive.I'm also a player in a nWoD game based on the TV series 'Dolls' where we get brain wipes every session and can spend XP to 'keep' certain traits we have used in the session. It's a blast but I miss being DM and the nWoD seems a bit anaemic compared to oWoD.I know this may be a niche topic here but I'm interested in you experiences, adventures etc...Coffee House?

LARP is Live Action Role Playing. Where you dress up and 'really' get into the role of whatever you are playing.WoD is World of Darkness; a setting where the world is more dark and contains supernatural entities. Think of the the first few series of X Files (before it became UFO oriented).nWoD is the new version and oWoD is the old version.MMORG stands for Mighty Morphing....lol, it really stands for Masive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game like WoW (World of Warcraft) or Everquest and Ultima Online (for all you oldies out there).Ogame sounds pretty cool, I used to play the X games loads back in the day.

I really see your point about D&D 4th ed being perfect for video game conversion but I would point out that all the iterations of D&D fit into that category.My favourite PC game of all time is Baldur's Gate 2 and that's 2nd ed.The 4th ed character can feel a bit samey but with the right back story and re skinned powers (the flavour text is specifically bland for most powers) one can get a good deal of colour into them.As a DM I find 3.5 a real bugger to create for if you are at higher levels and this is not the case in 4th ed.I really like your Traveller story and will shamelessly plagiarise the first opportunity I get.I know what you mean about the nWoD. It seems to be lacking in omph. I try to play Vampire/Werewolf more like the setting presented in Underworld.

I'm still hacking and blasting away at Oblivion and Fallout 3.

Sounds like you got a tight schedule, there!The 'Dolls' game is homebrew game using the nWoD base mortals. We use the core book with out any supernatural template and have an episodic 'adventure of the week' style game where the plot is wrapped up in one session with hints to the meta plot being dropped every so often.As we get brain wiped and re imprinted with skills and legends each 'mission' we can effectively make up new characters every session but when we spend XP we 'remember' stats and develop a stat that is analogues to Humanity (in Vampire) where we can remember more of who we were and resist the imprinting.The first mission I was was fixer for an extraction team trying to recover a politician who went AWOL in the South American jungle and in the next I was helicopter pilot for a news crew investigating a suspicious death in the rough and tumble world of Formula 1.

The big thing about that accusation is that now each class fits into a 'role'.Fighters and Paladins are 'defenders' (tanks), Rogues and Rangers are strikers (spikers) and so on.This is very much like the the conventions used in some MMORGs. Powers are also used 'per encounter' or 'scene' and this is viewed like 'cool down' on MMORGs.As far as comparisons to video games go I think that's about the size of it.

What book did you author?

Never played RuneQuest.I got sucked into black hole that is D&D. I guess I missed out on Traveller, too.Does RuneQuest play well?

What's the deal with Diablo? Never played it, myself.

Thanks for the link, I'll have a gander at it!

The best thing to do is to max out small guns and repair at low levels. You need repair to keep your stuff in tip top form.I never used much of stealth or sneaking around. If you do you can get a crit if you hit from hiding, though.I started with a high agility and strength to have many action points and be able to carry more as I like killing things and taking their stuff Don't go unarmed, use melee instead.Look ahead at the perks as some are useful for boosting skills and mean you can pick up late game skills like Big Guns and Energy Weapons quickly.Until you have a house find a storage space to keep the your stuff.Download Brotherhood of Steel as it raises the level cap to 30; very useful.Don't fly through the MQ because the game ends when you complete it (unless you have BoS).Hope that helps!

I might give it a go, sounds like something you can play in short bursts?

I'd love to see a 40K one, too.I'd have it so that you were Rogue Traders or Inquisitors(a bit like in X or Elite) and you have to build up and empire while dealing with Heretics and foul Xeno's.

FTW.I'm still slogging through Trone of Bhall to find out what actually happens!

I always try to encourage this in my players, I love to do it myself as a player and I really think that kind of improv is essential to get a good shred world feeling.Long lost evil twins, ahoy!