Poll of the Day > I started another TTRPG...

(+) Yeah! (+)

Its been a while since I was able to play. I use to play every Sunday years ago, but the GM moved. And then they had to switch to Saturday And Ive missed it. That was Shadowrun

But some co-workers and civilian friends have started up a new game So, this should be fun. We did a One-shot today using our characters to get a feel for them. But we can change whatever we want for the real campaign My character for the game is a gay black bard whos pretending to be a wizard So, thats gonna be fun

Have you guys ever played any TTRPGs? What kinds? How do/did you like it?

Been playing tabletop rpgs since about 1998. Its my favorite hobby. I mostly play D&D, but I've played a lot of different ones over the years. I haven't had a game for awhile, but that's mostly just me taking a break from it.

PMarth2002 posted...

Been playing tabletop rpgs since about 1998. Its my favorite hobby. I mostly play D&D, but I've played a lot of different ones over the years. I haven't had a game for awhile, but that's mostly just me taking a break from it.

The one were starting is D&D. So, its a little different from Shadowrun with the rolls. But easy to understand. So its all good And we have a good mix of people. Some are very familiar, some are brand new, and some in the middle And well be recording it. Well, audio, at least

LinkPizza posted...

The one were starting is D&D. So, its a little different from Shadowrun with the rolls

5e?

Shadowrun was fun. I haven't played a lot of it, but its a fun system. I had a physical adept who was basically a hobo with a shotgun and a motorcycle living in one of those storage rental facilities. Built my character so he got maximum number of actions per round and could dodge basically anything. Pretty sure I managed to go the entire game without getting hit once in combat, although the game petered out due to some flaky players, and the DM eventually ghosting the group.

Im in an ongoing D&D campaign rn and its been a lot of fun

JigsawTDCII posted...

Im in an ongoing D&D campaign rn and its been a lot of fun

I love being in a campaign It was very exciting when my co-worker asked me if I wanted to play!

Playing D&D right now and my artificer is wrecking shit

Playing tomb of annihilation with my group in a weekly game. I'm having a blast with a warforged, rune knight.

I only started TTRPGs in 2020, but I got the crash course in: 5e, hyperborea, vampire the Masquerade, savage worlds, and Mork borg. Mostly one-shots, with just three longer term campaigns.

LinkPizza posted...

I love being in a campaign It was very exciting when my co-worker asked me if I wanted to play!

yeah, Ive done a handful of table top gaming in the past, but mostly one shots or attempts at campaigns that quickly fizzled out either due to inter-group drama or work schedules not working out, so this is the first ongoing campaign Ive been a part of thats actually been consistent. I think weve been playing something like 9 or 10 months now? Though, we just added two new players and one of them is a drama magnet. She doesnt seem too into it anyway, so Im hoping she just drops out of the campaign soon

I kinda want to play but I don't think I could stay in character or play them as they're supposed to. Plus I'm not really that creative.

Zareth posted...

Playing D&D right now and my artificer is wrecking shit

Im more use to Shadowrun. But so far, the D&D campaign Im in seems to work well

CaptainObvius posted...

Playing tomb of annihilation with my group in a weekly game. I'm having a blast with a warforged, rune knight.

I only started TTRPGs in 2020, but I got the crash course in: 5e, hyperborea, vampire the Masquerade, savage worlds, and Mork borg. Mostly one-shots, with just three longer term campaigns.

Im still kind of new myself. Only started a few years ago. Though, I use to listen to podcast all the time

JigsawTDCII posted...

yeah, Ive done a handful of table top gaming in the past, but mostly one shots or attempts at campaigns that quickly fizzled out either due to inter-group drama or work schedules not working out, so this is the first ongoing campaign Ive been a part of thats actually been consistent. I think weve been playing something like 9 or 10 months now? Though, we just added two new players and one of them is a drama magnet. She doesnt seem too into it anyway, so Im hoping she just drops out of the campaign soon

Yeah. Ive been in a few that fizzled out. The one Im in now, we dont really have a set day or anything yet Working out with peoples schedules and stuff

Revelation34 posted...

I kinda want to play but I don't think I could stay in character or play them as they're supposed to. Plus I'm not really that creative.

It can seem that way, but you get use to it fast. I always wondered about staying in character, too But when youre having fun, its not to hard And you dont have to be super creative. Other people can be creative and you just go with the flow. Or, you can always make you character a lot like yourself, when can make them easier to play

LinkPizza posted...

Im more use to Shadowrun. But so far, the D&D campaign Im in seems to work well

Im still kind of new myself. Only started a few years ago. Though, I use to listen to podcast all the time

Yeah. Ive been in a few that fizzled out. The one Im in now, we dont really have a set day or anything yet Working out with peoples schedules and stuff

It can seem that way, but you get use to it fast. I always wondered about staying in character, too But when youre having fun, its not to hard And you dont have to be super creative. Other people can be creative and you just go with the flow. Or, you can always make you character a lot like yourself, when can make them easier to play

It's like Skyrim for me. I would have a very hard time not stealing anything if I was trying to RP like that. So I would probably want to steal as a character that shouldn't want to like a paladin.

I think our story will have a bunch of people stealing. We have a queen of the underworld who has never had to pay for stuff before, a Kleptomaniac Detective bird person, and a guy who comes from a universe where everything is free Haha.

Howdy, I'm in a Blades in the Dark friday that I half run, half play in.
Sunday I play some DnD 5e.

Never done one but always wanted to. I have played a lot of both Pathfinder games, but planning six character builds melted my brain.

Just had a really fun session. A party member shoved their arm into a sphere of annihilation to get rid of a curse mark. Then immediately another party member had to cut off their own arm to escape a trap. This campaign is brutal, I love it.

Revelation34 posted...

I kinda want to play but I don't think I could stay in character or play them as they're supposed to. Plus I'm not really that creative.

It depends on the group you're in. Not every group needs to be like online streamers where they try and stay in character 100% and do character voices and stuff. Most groups are a lot more lenient with that sort of thing, and it's usually fine if a player (especially a newer one) just gets stuck in the mindset of "My character does this" or "My character says this" rather than being fully in character.

As for playing characters "as they're supposed to", definitely don't worry about that as plenty of games involve players who are terribly sub-optimal who are just looking to have fun. Unless you've got a strict GM (or a bad one), they should tailor the threat level of the enemies to how you're playing, and not just an arbitrary standard of how powerful you "should" be at any given level.

Getting into a tabletop RPG can feel daunting if you've never done it before, but it can also be a lot of fun, especially once you get into it. If you can find a good group (ideally a group of friends IRL and not online games, because those can be really hard to quality control for), you can probably have a blast playing.

LinkPizza posted...

My character for the game is a gay black bard whos pretending to be a wizard So, thats gonna be fun

You should make them super arrogant about their mastery of magic and then only pick grease, dancing lights and minor illusion for their spells/cantrips.

Throw in Arcana as one of your class skills, and once you get Expertise you'll actually be better at knowing magical lore than most wizards are.

Combine that with Deception and your Bard will actually be better at pretending to be a Wizard than actual Wizards are at being Wizards, at least in terms of magical knowledge and theory.

I definitely already have deception That as a given. But the Arcana thing is interesting

LinkPizza posted...

I definitely already have deception That as a given. But the Arcana thing is interesting

To elaborate:

Wizards choose two out of Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, and Religion for their class skills. Arcana is the one most Wizards are going to take, because it involves magical theory, lore, runes, artifacts, etc. It's basically the go-to "I need to know magical shit" skill. Most Wizards are going to have Arcana.

Bards can choose three out of any skill in the game. A Bard who wants to pretend to be a Wizard will probably want to take at least Arcana (to know things) and Deception (to successfully BS the things they don't know). The Bard could then take any of the other Wizard skills (to better establish their cover), or could go with something else instead.

So at this point, the Bard and the Wizard are essentially equal when it comes to making rolls to check lore or knowledge of magical theory. But at Level 3 the Bard gets Expertise, which allows them to pick two skill proficiencies (and in this case, you probably want to pick Arcana and Deception).

Which means, at Level 3, a Wizard with Arcana is rolling +2 on rolls to identify magical writing, spell effects, etc... but the Bard is rolling +4. All else being equal, the Bard literally knows more about magic than the Wizard does. This only increases over time (at Level 9 the Wizard is rolling at +4 but the Bard is rolling at +8... by Level 17 the Wizard gets a +6 bonus but the Bard is getting +12).

(And the Bard is also getting those same added bonuses to lie about being a Wizard, making it harder to ever actually call them out on their BS.).

The main leveling factor is that the Wizard is going to specialize in Intelligence as their main ability (for spellcasting) while the Bard is going to specialize in Charisma. Which means the Wizard is likely going to get a slight additional boost to their Arcana checks... but the Bard is going to be getting a similar boost to their ability to lie about shit.

Depending on your College, you can tweak this even more. Is someone trying to Insight check your bullshit? Lore Bards (probably your best bet for faking Wizardry) can hit them with Cutting Words to weaken their ability check (in RP terms, you're fast-talking them to shake their confidence). At higher levels, they can also use Peerless Skill to inspire themselves (either to know more magic facts or to lie about it more effectively). And you'll eventually get a couple extra spells to help round out your spellbook. Eloquence Bards can lie more effectively, turning any roll of 9 or lower into a 10 (meaning the lowest you can possibly roll at Level 3 with Deception Expertise is a 14). And Glamour Bards can just invoke effects that make them more inspiring or intimidating to everyone around them (at which point you're aiming for a bit of a hammy performance a la Gandalf).

The other thing to keep in mind is that most people assume all Bards have to use music to cast spells, but that's the basic lazy interpretation of 5e rules. It's explicit that Bards just focus their powers through performance. Which includes stuff like dancing, juggling, chanting, stand-up comedy, telling riddles, storytelling, or recitation of poetry. Hell, you could even play a trash-talking battle rapper Bard and be entirely thematic (it's basically what Irish bards essentially were in real history).

But it also includes acting. In older editions of D&D, this type of Bard was literally known as the Thespian. So the sheer act of pretending to be something you're not (especially if you're staying "in character" the whole time) is itself technically enough to justify Bard abilities. So you're essentially like a refugee from a theater troupe who has gone so deep into method acting and playing the character of a Wizard that you've effectively become one.

You're basically what happens if Ian McKellen had gone "Full Gandalf" to the point that he actually manifested real magical powers while filming Lord of the Rings.

I just mocked someone to death

Edit: Make that 2 people

LinkPizza posted...

I just mocked someone to death

Edit: Make that 2 people

NIce