Dungeons and Dragons and Table Top Gaming

[Fiddler]

I played a ton as a youngster.  Started with 2nd edition.  A friends step dad would DM for us and it was a blast.  Ran multiple characters and really dug the roleplaying I did on those.

Then I started DMing for some family and various girlfriends over the years.  Playing until just before they released 3.5.  Then, due to life, stopped playing.

A few years back a friend at work was talking about this podcast he was listening to in which they were playing a game.  It was acquisitions incorporated and I was blown away that they were playing DnD for people to listen to.  This lead into Critical Role and an eventual re emergence of me as a DM.

The next 2.5 years I DMed a campaign for some family and friends.  We played nearly twice a month and had a great time.  It was an epic campaign with character deaths, betrayals and ended with the killing of a god.  Fantastic stuff.

Unfortunately for the last two years we haven't played.  Scheduling conflicts and the inability to get together as much has led to more board game playing when we get together rather than DnD.

All in all though, I love seeing the rise of Roleplaying online.  Watching Critical Role is great (hard to beat such fantastic people playing together) and has lead me into so many other enjoyable shows.  Channel on Youtube called Roll4it(I believe) has some fun shows that aren't all DnD.  I especially love their Vampire the Masquerade game they have been running.

[Martell Spy]

Knights of the Dinner Table - The Gazebo (an old classic from KODT issue #1 (1994). - Album on Imgur
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[baxus]

Haven't played D&D for months now and am making plans to get back in it in a week or two with my group. I miss just picking up a phone and calling your mates "shall we play tomorrow?" and everyone just showing up, like we did back in college days. Nowadays it's juggling everyone's job and families, along with the fact that one of us is living abroad now that just makes it that much more difficult to organize.

I'm thinking about trying the Mistborn RPG, but I would have to be the DM there and I just don't have the time to read all the rules and create an adventure. It sounds fun so I just might get in on it.

[Relic]

25 minutes ago, baxus said:

 

I'm thinking about trying the Mistborn RPG, but I would have to be the DM there and I just don't have the time to read all the rules and create an adventure. It sounds fun so I just might get in on it.

If you need another player.... 

[Toth]

I must admit, I am among the people who have also eyeing RPGs for quite some time. I only ever had sporadic contact with players before though. A classmate at my school was in a The Dark Eye group with her boyfriend and at university I also got some stories from a dude who was a D&D DM, but must admit I only ever got interested after first listening to Acquisitions Incorporated and later watching the stunningly creative Dimension 20 campaigns of the College Humor staff. Go check it out! Brennan is a scarily amazing DM! I did try to give Critical Roll a try, but it never clicked with me the same way as these guys do.

Some time ago, just to get a grip on how such a game system looks like from the other side of the screen, I bought a DM set for Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy when it appeared in a humble bundle. I would really like to play, but obviously don't know anyone who would be interested (or would have the time) and then again I myself don't have any time either.

[Relic]

What do you all think of Matt mercer as a DM?

[Rhom]

There was an ad in my FB fees just now.  Had what looks like a flaming D20.

The catchphrase said “An arrow may have your name on it, but a fireball is addressed To Whom It May Concern.”

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Rhom

[Fiddler]

7 hours ago, Relic said:

What do you all think of Matt mercer as a DM?

I'll be honest, I love him.  I think he is fantastic as a DM.  He does an excellent job at bringing detail into the narrative that brings the scenes he describes to life.  Then there are the characters he creates.  I could, and have, go back and watch the first time he introduces Viktor many times.

 

[Relic]

10 hours ago, Fiddler said:

I'll be honest, I love him.  I think he is fantastic as a DM.  He does an excellent job at bringing detail into the narrative that brings the scenes he describes to life.  Then there are the characters he creates.  I could, and have, go back and watch the first time he introduces Viktor many times.

 

Can you link that? I've only watched like 6 episodes of the second season. I think Matt is a very good DM, but I'm not sure he's the end all be all. He is very very good with voices and i like the way he uses his face and body language to convey things, but I'm sometimes find myself wanting something more out of his descriptions. He also says "ummmm" and "uhhh" and "looks sort of like" a whole lot, which is something I try to avoid. 

[Toth]

5 minutes ago, Relic said:

Can you link that? I've only watched like 6 episodes of the second season. I think Matt is a very good DM, but I'm not sure he's the end all be all. He is very very good with voices and i like the way he uses his face and body language to convey things, but I'm sometimes find myself wanting something more out of his descriptions. He also says "ummmm" and "uhhh" and "looks sort of like" a whole lot, which is something I try to avoid. 

Have you watched Dimension 20? If Mercer is too subdued for you, Brennan Lee Mulligan might be more up to your speed.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Toth

[Relic]

2 minutes ago, Toth said:

Have you watched Dimension 20? If Mercer is too subdued for you, Brennan Lee Mulligan might be more up to your speed.

I mean, im not really criticizing Matt, the fact that he can DM for 4 hours at a time without his brain exploding is a feat in and if itself. I try to keep my sessions to under 3 hours and 30 minutes these days, because of brain overload. And if Matt were DMing for ME I'd be fucking thrilled. 

 

I'll check out the guy you recommended tho.  

[Toth]

Just now, Relic said:

I'll check out the guy you recommended tho.  

 

[Poobah]

20 hours ago, Relic said:

What do you all think of Matt mercer as a DM?

I think he's a very good actor, and I think there are some things he does very well, but I also think he's hugely overrated as a DM. I don't mean that as an insult towards him but rather towards the legions who put him on some kinda godlike unassailable pedestal - he's great at voices and acting and doing all that improv stuff because it's... y'know... his job, and he's a pretty good DM but I don't think he's THE BEST DM EVARRRRRR!!!!! the way I feel some do. It's obvious how much effort and prep work he puts in and when it comes to setting the scene, creating atmosphere, describing things/people and creating memorable characters I think he's very good, but I think there's plenty of other stuff he isn't so good at.

It's pretty unfair to go all out and dissect every single decision of someone who has has hundreds of hours of his DMing out there on video for me to after-the-fact backseat and "um actually" (everyone's gonna get some rules wrong over that time period, and from what I recall when it's consistently being wrong/not understanding a rule to an annoying degree it's been from the cast rather than Matt) but broadly I think that Mercer tends not to really reward or encourage his players when they try to be creative in combat and I'm not always a fan of how he designs/runs his combats in general. There's a trend (largely brought about by CR) to see D&D as all about the in-character talking and doing voices, and having deep in character moments and intense lengthy RP heavy scenes, and don't get me wrong RP is super fun and I wouldn't really play D&D if it weren't for that aspect of the game but D&D is also a combat game and so all the unfashionable crunchy rules stuff is actually important too. Being able to design, balance, and effectively run interesting combats is a high level DMing skill as well.

[Fiddler]

6 hours ago, Relic said:

Can you link that? I've only watched like 6 episodes of the second season. I think Matt is a very good DM, but I'm not sure he's the end all be all. He is very very good with voices and i like the way he uses his face and body language to convey things, but I'm sometimes find myself wanting something more out of his descriptions. He also says "ummmm" and "uhhh" and "looks sort of like" a whole lot, which is something I try to avoid. 

https://youtu.be/R8S3sjFpIIk

This is Victor's introduction.

I can see the criticism of him that others have posted, but I love his style and believe it works so well with the players he has.

[Werthead]

3 hours ago, Poobah said:

There's a trend (largely brought about by CR) to see D&D as all about the in-character talking and doing voices, and having deep in character moments and intense lengthy RP heavy scenes, and don't get me wrong RP is super fun and I wouldn't really play D&D if it weren't for that aspect of the game but D&D is also a combat game and so all the unfashionable crunchy rules stuff is actually important too. Being able to design, balance, and effectively run interesting combats is a high level DMing skill as well.

I see where you're coming from, but I think it's actually been good to see reversions of the cliches of the game. D&D can provide the basis for really good, in-depth roleplaying, just as you can end up having surprisingly good, enjoyable combat in much more RP-focused systems. It's a bit frustrating to DM a game of D&D and find everyone is just up for treasure and EXP all the time and gets annoyed at RPing elements (or vice versa) and it's good to have more of a mix.

Mind you, that might just be informed by horrible flashbacks to running 20+ level combat sessions in D&D 3rd Edition, which was borderline traumatising.

[Poobah]

29 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I see where you're coming from, but I think it's actually been good to see reversions of the cliches of the game. D&D can provide the basis for really good, in-depth roleplaying, just as you can end up having surprisingly good, enjoyable combat in much more RP-focused systems. It's a bit frustrating to DM a game of D&D and find everyone is just up for treasure and EXP all the time and gets annoyed at RPing elements (or vice versa) and it's good to have more of a mix.

Mind you, that might just be informed by horrible flashbacks to running 20+ level combat sessions in D&D 3rd Edition, which was borderline traumatising.

I don't really disagree with anything you're saying here - I really like roleplaying and I wouldn't really have any interest in D&D if it were just a wargame - but I also think that people who aren't really looking for or interested in combat (particularly combat with tons of rules) would likely be better served by alternate systems. And I think that while Mercer rightly gets and deserves praise all the acting he and all indeed that all the cast do on the show - which is what makes it a good show, I don't really think any of that is actually what makes someone a good DM or good player.

[Week]

Never played -- didn't ever know a group that played it -- so I stuck with CRPGs and reading mostly. I recently found Encounter Party and binged until I caught up to the latest season. It may not be the *best* but I was looking for a more polished, still 60-90 minute, version of The Adventure Zone. I'd be interested in others, but usually find that 60-90 minutes per ep is ideal. Critical Roll episodes are more like 3-4 hours IIRC.

[HoodedCrow]

If I rolled a character with companions, we would learn Blink Dog as a second language so that we could talk amongst ourselves in front of an NPC. Having a human DM means that you can use the environment or the rules in creative ways. I used green slime to dissolve bolts. All hail the DM’s of the world.

[Werthead]

One of my favourite examples of that was an adventuring party using a summoned water elemental to drown an elder black dragon by shooting up its nose mid-combat and swamping its lungs. The DM couldn't find a rule that said that was impossible so allowed it. Many years later he ended up working for TSR and canonised it in the Fall of Myth Drannor in the Forgotten Realms setting.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Werthead

[Toth]

Since I just finished watching The Unsleeping City I feel I need to do a bit more advertising for Dimension 20 here because goddamn it, the creativity of each campaign is off the charts. Let me just introduce to you all campaigns so far:

Fantasy High

The very first Dimension 20 campaign, entirely watchable for free on Youtube. Fantasy High is essentially if a generic Dungeons and Dragons nation has spontaneously decided to warp into a 1960s American suburb. The PCs are students of a high school dedicated to train future adventuring parties and it's all things considered the most light-hearted and silly Dimension 20 campaign.

Escape from the Blood Keep

Aka: The one with Matthew Mercer as a guest. It's essentially Lord of the Rings from the perspective of the bad guys. Not-Sauron was just defeated and his loyal servants scramble to revive him. It's a case study in just how much Mercer's rolls are cursed and how much PCs can absolutely hilariously derail poor Brennan's storyboard and forced him to make everything up on the spot.

The Unsleeping City

This one takes place in our world and our New York, except that there is an unseen world of magic hidden beneath it all, with the PCs being just a bunch of crazy New Yorkers getting roped into saving the world. It's absolutely terrific!

Tiny Heist

Essentially a Toy Story heist story. Can't exactly go into any details because I haven't watched it yet and unlike the three above campaigns it is on their Dropout website.

A Crown of Candy

Last but not least: The A Song of Ice and Fire campaign. Yes, seriously. They did a campaign that's essentially ASoIaF, but everyone is edible. It's ludicrously ambitious worldbuilding... and god damn it, it is by far the darkest Dimension 20 campaign they have done so far. The Unsleeping City already ended very bittersweet, but the death toll in this one is mental.

Edited December 26, 2020 by Toth