Pen & Paper Role-Playing Games

http://kotaku.com/its-the-perfect-time-to-play-dungeons-dragons-1636855000

I've played maybe one session of Dungeons and Dragons (edition unknown) and one session of a Warhammer 40,000 RPG called Dark Heresy, both some years ago. So I've never been into this stuff but my curiosity is aroused every now and again. BGG has a sister site: RPGGeek. Order by Geek Rating and a lot of unfamiliar games appear. I haven't the faintest clue what Fiasco, Call of Cuthulu, Dogs in the Vineyard or Savage Worlds are... but I'm rather interested to find out.

Thoughts on P&PRPGs, folks? Anyone here into this stuff?

I've seen Fiasco played (I think it was on a TableTop episode), It's not for me.

Walking straight into stereotypes here, but aren't they all massively complicated and take years to play?

I'm not so interested in games like Fiasco, but I've had an idle interest in trying out a proper P&PRPG for some time (I must admit I've had my eye on the Firefly RPG for that)

I'd certainly be interested in giving it a spin anyway - although I presume we'd need someone experienced to GM the game

Tom (TwoDaemon) plays a lot of RPGs, he's not been to club recently cos he's been GMing one in fact. I'm sure he'd give you some pointers as to what's a good one to start with.

I haven't played D&D new edition but I've played older versions and various other RPGs. The reason I prefer board games is because of the time and rules investments, and you can get a lot of the flavor of RPGs in board games for example Quest a time of heroes

Decent and Imperial Assault?

GottabePandemic wrote:Walking straight into stereotypes here, but aren't they all massively complicated and take years to play?

No.

I have a soft spot for roleplaying games and spent a good part of last weekend as a dwarven cleric trying to clear out a group of pesky goblins. My level 1 party were all kinds of rubbish, the goblins outsmarted us (the shame!) and my dwarf managed to pour a barrel full of burning alcohol on himself at one point, but it was fun. So long as someone knows the fiddly bits of the rules, then you can all just get on with the game.

The point of it all, for me, is the generation of narrative, rather than trying to "win". I often end up adding extra narrative to other games I play as well, particularly when playing with my girlfriend. We'll start building up the characters of the guards in Love Letter or the camel drivers in Through the Desert, or even the hideous flying monstrosities in the Cthulhu version of Zombies!!!.

I have played a few of these, quite some time ago. We mostly played D&D (whichever edition came in the boxes - basic, expert, companion, etc.) but also tried Call of Cthulu, Rune Quest, Doctor Who RPG and Paranoia. Some good times!

I must admit that I like a solid rule structure (what does that say about me???) so I've been less tempted by the recent indie RPGs (Monster Hearts, Fiasco, etc.) even though they have the advantage that they seem like they could be played in one or two sessions. In theory, I'd probably prefer a go at D&D 5th edition or something but the time commitment (and getting the same group of people together on a regular basis) would probably make it fairly tricky...

I bought this ages ago from the Works for about £6, and never played it.  It's got a campaign which is broken up into chapters which each takes about 30/45 minutes.  If anybody wants to give it a go I will bring it along with me.

I'm currently in the process of converting my 2+ year campaign of 3rd ed d&d to 5th edition. We only play every three months or so but its a good laugh. The last game ended with our resident barbarian eating someone whole, whilst the other characters looked on in embarrassed silence. They cant take him anywhere...I've also played a bit of Call of Cthulhu which I really like, and fiasco which is great with the right people and utterly miserable with the wrong crowd.

At some point I would like to try being a player in one of these games, rather than a DM, but knowing more than anyone else is such good fun I alwaya end up running them.

Ellis wrote:Walking straight into stereotypes here, but aren't they all massively complicated and take years to play?

Depends. The books make them look a lot more complex than they actually are, partly by being very long and partly by being quite badly written/organised a lot of the time (something 5th edition seems to have improved on). The rules to D&D are essentially - DM describes a situation and asks the players what they want to do. Players decide what they want to do and roll a D20 (adding appropriate modifies) to see if they're successful. DM describes what happens. Rinse and repeat. There are hundreds of pages of stats and rules for specific situations but how many of them you use is up to the style of the group. In my regular game we use the rules as more of a suggestion. If someone comes up with something cool they want to try, I'll just figure out on the spot what they have to roll to do it rather than looking up specifics in the book. I've also DM'd games where people wanted to get into the nitty gritty of tactical combat and...well, I'm not really the right man for that. I spend the whole time wondering why we aren't just playing Malifaux or Necromunda.

As to length, that's up to the group really. I've played a number of one shot adventures that have taken between 4-8 hours to play. I'm also playing the Call of Cthulhu campaign 'Masks of Nyarlathotep' which has currently taken about 40 hours and we aren't halfway yet. And our regular D&D campaign is just the ongoing adventures of the characters involved, which could go on forever if we wanted.

BeardyTom wrote:The point of it all, for me, is the generation of narrative, rather than trying to "win". .

This.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=subQrEPKytA

Dark Dunegons. Bona fide art.

I played a few rpgs back in the day at school and in the years after, mainly AD&D 2nd edition. Long time ago now, It's good fun, but can really shine as an experience with a good group and GM.

Agreed - not complicated at all really with a good GM. It's all about the narrative rather than trying to win.

If you're in a group who want to 'beat the GM' nobody is going to have any fun.

Not played any of these for years tho - used to enjoy D&D, runequest and call of cthulhu. Always had a bit of a problem with the ones that tried to be funny. The latter group always seemed a bit forced to me - there is plenty of opportunity for humour with normal RPGs e.g. Dwarfs chucking burning alcohol on themselves ...

If anyone fancies a game I'll certainly be interested if I'm around.