Author Topic: Dungeons and Dragons  (Read 13669 times)

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Dungeons and Dragons
« Topic Start: March 04, 2011, 07:56:23 AM »
Forget that online crap!

We're talking about real Dungeons and Dragons here, with the wizards and the wacky and everything in between.

How many here play?
Born in Day they knew the Light; Rulers, prophets, servants, and warriors.
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Noble family

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #1: March 04, 2011, 08:14:34 AM »
I did a little D&D but mostly got into MERP's (Middle Earth Role Playing.) and still have all of the original books too.  Are you still kicking back with the pen and paper D&D?

wraith

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #2: March 04, 2011, 11:02:30 AM »
After discovering 1st edition rules in Canada on holiday via my cousins I spent most of my late childhood and early teens playing (A)D&D. I have no idea how many hundreds of hours I spent drawing maps and creating worlds, settings and campaigns. Miss it but just don't have the time or pool of players anymore so RPG computer games have to substitute.
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Tom

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #3: March 04, 2011, 11:24:14 AM »
I still have a regular Pen&Paper group, though we don't play D&D. At the moment we enjoy the unfairly underrated Fireborn, before that we had a long time of Warhammer FRP, and lots of others before that (Amber, Vampire, Shadowrun and many more).

Foundation

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #4: March 04, 2011, 03:33:08 PM »
What's D&D? :P
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Anaris

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #5: March 04, 2011, 04:10:38 PM »
I think it was about a year and a quarter ago now that the D&D group I had started putting together from BM players fell apart, due to most of them going partially or completely inactive.

I've got a low-level campaign that would only need minimal dusting off to be possible to start, but I'm afraid I don't have a lot of time just at the second.  Summer will be better for that, now that I'm in a job on an academic schedule again.
Timothy Collett

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Indirik

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #6: March 04, 2011, 05:03:50 PM »
I played pen and paper D&D for.... almost 20 years. From the mid-70's to the mid-90's. I did some play-by-email for a few years after that. I don't think I've played at all in the past 10+ years. I miss it...  :(
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Anaris

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #7: March 04, 2011, 05:12:57 PM »
I played pen and paper D&D for.... almost 20 years. From the mid-70's to the mid-90's. I did some play-by-email for a few years after that. I don't think I've played at all in the past 10+ years. I miss it...  :(

You'd be welcome in the campaign, when and if it gets going again :)

It's intended to be 3.5 edition, by the way. 
Timothy Collett

"The only thing you can't trade for your heart's desire...is your heart." "You are what you do.  Choose again, and change." "One of these days, someone's gonna plug you, and you're going to die saying, 'What did I say? What did I say?'"  ~ Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

Peri

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #8: March 04, 2011, 05:41:46 PM »
I always wondered how interesting can play by e-mail be as compared to the real thing.

Sadly I've  reached the threshold when I can't play the real thing anymore as well, and I already miss it a lot :p

Indirik

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #9: March 04, 2011, 05:56:14 PM »
Play-by-email was fun. Almost like playing BattleMaster. :) You're writing all your actions just like you're writing an RP message. Combat is a little slow. We usually did one battle round per day. Our DM had the address of a web site where you could enter e-mail addresses, tell it how many rolls of what dice you wanted, and it would e-mail the results to those addresses. So it was kind of like rolling the dice yourself, and there was no chance of cheating. (By the players, anyway. When the DM does it, it's not called cheating. :P )
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Anaris

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #10: March 04, 2011, 07:18:39 PM »
Play-by-email was fun. Almost like playing BattleMaster. :) You're writing all your actions just like you're writing an RP message. Combat is a little slow. We usually did one battle round per day. Our DM had the address of a web site where you could enter e-mail addresses, tell it how many rolls of what dice you wanted, and it would e-mail the results to those addresses. So it was kind of like rolling the dice yourself, and there was no chance of cheating. (By the players, anyway. When the DM does it, it's not called cheating. :P )

I have some grand ideas about a good web-based package that could handle a lot of the different parts; I have a significant chunk of the map-walking part written, but mothballed.

It shouldn't be that difficult to write something that could handle it all so that it could be played in a similar manner to BM.  It would lose something of the feel and flavour of traditional P&P D&D, but it would at least let people play...
Timothy Collett

"The only thing you can't trade for your heart's desire...is your heart." "You are what you do.  Choose again, and change." "One of these days, someone's gonna plug you, and you're going to die saying, 'What did I say? What did I say?'"  ~ Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #11: March 04, 2011, 07:32:09 PM »
I've had mixed experiences as far as groups go; actual pen and paper groups have been difficult to find in the area I live, so much of my experience has been in play-by-post forum games. Of perhaps ten, two of those campaigns were what I would call anything even near "succesful", with only one still ongoing. And then there was that group Anaris tried to put together where everyone else buggered off...
Born in Day they knew the Light; Rulers, prophets, servants, and warriors.
Life in Night that they walk; Gods, heretics, thieves, and murderers.
The Stefanovics live.

Indirik

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #12: March 04, 2011, 07:59:41 PM »
For me, the hardest part about online play is timing. I don't think I'd ever have a chance to sit down for an evening, or a few hours on a weekend to play. Especially not on any kind of regular schedule.
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Anaris

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #13: March 04, 2011, 08:16:27 PM »
For me, the hardest part about online play is timing. I don't think I'd ever have a chance to sit down for an evening, or a few hours on a weekend to play. Especially not on any kind of regular schedule.

That's why I was considering something along the same lines as BM—or, perhaps more accurately, like WI.  Something where each player can log on, do what they have to do, and when everyone's gotten their stuff in, things can move along.

The basic idea would be that the DM has control over everything but the characters' own persons—and that includes having control over the characters' positions, so they can't go gadding about without him being able to react—and players essentially "propose" actions, which the DM can then confirm, modify, or deny.  Everyone, of course, can talk all the time.  Talking is a free action ;)

So if all the people are online at once, things can move pretty quickly, with everyone moving, the DM confirming actions, and the whole play flowing fast.  If people can't get online together for a while, they can still play at their own pace, and the DM can make an executive decision to just let people who don't show up for a week follow the party mutely.

So, Indirik, do you think that's a system that you could play in?
Timothy Collett

"The only thing you can't trade for your heart's desire...is your heart." "You are what you do.  Choose again, and change." "One of these days, someone's gonna plug you, and you're going to die saying, 'What did I say? What did I say?'"  ~ Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

Indirik

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons
« Reply #14: March 04, 2011, 08:43:36 PM »
Sounds fun. I'd give it a shot.
If at first you don't succeed, don't take up skydiving.