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Any D&D/D20

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World of Darkness

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[Egan_BW]

Yeah but you could use a longsword or something and just get advantage.

[Kagus]

Yeah but you could use a longsword or something and just get advantage.

Which isn't a heavy weapon however, meaning it cannot be used with GWM

[Egan_BW]

Well, I'd say that GWM is probably not a feat you want to take on your Small characters, then!

[Persus13]

Yeah but you could use a longsword or something and just get advantage.

Which is why I said fun, not optimal.

[Loud Whispers]

Oh man, one of my friends first-time DM'd. They intentionally told us all different versions of what the campaign was going to be, with the end result being they broke a cardinal rule of DMing; make sure you're running the same campaign as your players.

Needless to say I wasn't very amused when my wholesome non-combat character, made for a wholesome social campaign - who had not killed a single thing in three campaigns, was pitted against the God of Pestilence.

Our Dwarf barbarian is on 3 HP in a flimsy marketplace, 60ft away from the nearest party member. Our wholesome human bard is on 3 HP and has her face disfigured. My character, an elf rogue/cleric is outside a museum. The museum's front doors were broken by the God of Pestilence, and it is on fire after my character set a perfume fire to try and escape the God of Pestilence. I have 33 HP, and am standing next to the human bard. We are standing outside during a blowout, which is a death sentence. The nearest intact building is 120ft away, however it is a residential area. If we are capable of surviving two rounds in a blowout, and the front door is not locked, there is a high likelihood the house is full of plant-horrors, things that used to be the people of the city.

Our only hope is a fourth player, who managed to avoid the infinite goblinsing (everywhere we went there was a horde of goblins) and God of Pestilence altogether, riding in on horseback to save us. He's got 12 seconds to find us and bring us to safety though, so it's not happening. Our DM thought we were being too dark by preparing our speeches for a last stand, and said there was so much we could do.

When the blowout triggers, portals open up to other planes from which these otherworldly horrors emerge. The God of Pestilence was only one of them. The blowout comes complete with environmental damage, and at the end of the blowout things emerge to grapple anyone outside, followed by people turning into plant horrors if the DM hasn't already described their suicide.

Afterwards the DM and I had a lengthy discussion. The DM kept saying things like "it was obvious it was a death God" - bearing in mind the only reason I knew it was a God at all was because I metagamed when the DM asked if any of our lvl 5-6 characters had more than 20 CON, and knew he had sicked a CR26 creature on us, and that "there was so much you could do," with his "obvious solution" of standing on a pedestal to defeat something that auto-hit us just by being in proximity, moved twice as fast as us and had unknown capabilities. Twice I had to rules lawyer like an absolute disgusting bastard just to stop the God of Pestilence killing my teammate twice (it "demonstrated" new abilities to get around the traps I and the bard set. I use the word "demonstrated" lightly because I'm sure the DM just kept making up rules so we couldn't avoid the God any way other than the way he wanted).

I've got a lot of work to write up but I'm gonna do a full writeup of this horror story if anyone's interested. Jesus what a nightmare

[Loud Whispers]

Horrors aside, does anyone have any ideas for tense music that has a climactic buildup to a cathartic crescendo, and music that is nostalgically fond yet melancholic? Trying to pad my playlists for players

[Jimmy]

I don't have much success timing events in the game to a soundtrack, since I tend not to micromanage my players' time to the point that I could accomplish this to any decent effect. Instead, I usually make a lengthy playlist composed of lengthy playlists like this that serve for appropriate ambient music in the back of the room but don't distract from the game itself.

[scriver]

The song from 28 days later maybe?

[MCreeper]

Was considering getting in D&D. Is what i see at first pages of roll20 search representative of my general chances of finding text game of D&D? If nothing else, i'm sure that my spoke english will at least produce some ouches from other players. And i somehow got an allergy to my first language. Totally. 

[Jimmy]

I mean, you could play D&D by text, totally. And if that's your preferred medium, don't let it stop you from pursuing that.

However, the game is honestly about the social interaction you get with the other players, at least for me. One of my favorite ways of describing D&D to outsiders is that it's a game of collaborative storytelling using dice to decide the random bits. It's not like a video game, with either a single-player experience moving through a static set-piece, or a competition against the other players. Your fellow players and GM are your allies in creating a story for all of your characters.

So if you're not able to smoothly interact with your fellow players, it will subtract some of the joy from the game. I would encourage you to consider seeking out a game in your preferred language just to try it out. You might be surprised how open and accepting your group is!

D&D has historically caught a lot of criticism from the far-right as being influenced by satanic forces and looked down on as being a game for social outcasts. Ironically, this has resulted in the game attracting and supporting a large variety of gender spectrums, religious groups, disabilities, races and peoples of colour, welcoming differences at the gaming table. Really, who cares if you've got slightly darker skin or speak with an accent when you're everything from an elven wizard slinging fireballs to a dwarf swinging a battleaxe?

Anyway, enough ranting. I hope you find a group you enjoy! Also, I highly recommend gaming regularly with the same people. My game group's been together for about seven years now, and people have come and gone, but we've made tons of great memories at the table in that time.

[delphonso]

Yeah, I'll echo the play by text thing. I'd recommend simpler systems for playing RPGs on a board. DnD thrives when it's at a table, and does okay with just voice.

[Superdorf]

The beauty of text play (play-by-post, especially)... it gives you the time to write stuff out. Time to plan, time to pontificate-- sharper tatics, richer prose! Not so great for social interplay and suchlike, but lovely for storytelling.

[Iduno]

Oh man, one of my friends first-time DM'd. They intentionally told us all different versions of what the campaign was going to be, with the end result being they broke a cardinal rule of DMing; make sure you're running the same campaign as your players.

Yeah, having puzzles with *a* solution that they assume players will pick up on is a common issue with first-time GMs and also frequently professional scenario writers. Which is not only not fun to play, it's also a bit more work for less entertainment value for the GM.

1) The players don't show up to hear the GM tell a story they wrote, they want to contribute.
2) Why would the GM show up to listen to themselves tell a story they already know? Much more fun to set up a simple situation, and change it slightly (an office building you work in, except you're sneaking in and the stairway collapsed, etc.).

D&D has historically caught a lot of criticism from the far-right as being influenced by satanic forces and looked down on as being a game for social outcasts. Ironically, this has resulted in the game attracting and supporting a large variety of gender spectrums, religious groups, disabilities, races and peoples of colour, welcoming differences at the gaming table. Really, who cares if you've got slightly darker skin or speak with an accent when you're everything from an elven wizard slinging fireballs to a dwarf swinging a battleaxe?

And then, they did what the far right usually does to shut down countercultures, and took over the creation of it (not just D&D. I can't think of a non-terrible company currently making TTRPGs).


Edit: I've also been thinking about AD&D's weird 18/% strength thing, where certain classes got an improved strength rating at 18, with bonuses to the things you'd normally get from strength. It at least allowed fighters to be good at the one thing they did. And also the wizard spell (5th spell level ish?) that turns you into a fighter for a while, with full strength bonus etc.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I liked how in 1e the only benefit to playing a dwarf was that you had an instinctive ability to detect a subtle incline plane, used to defeat what was apparently a common DM trap at the time of tricking the players into going to a deeper level then they thought they were on, which would then "allow" the DM to use stronger monsters. Weird stuff, the 1e culture.

[MrRoboto75]

I liked how in 1e the only benefit to playing a dwarf was that you had an instinctive ability to detect a subtle incline plane, used to defeat what was apparently a common DM trap at the time of tricking the players into going to a deeper level then they thought they were on, which would then "allow" the DM to use stronger monsters. Weird stuff, the 1e culture.

A bit more than that.  You could identify relatively new tunnel/stonework, find shifting rooms or walls, traps involving stonework (pits and I guess falling stones to block doors), and what cardinal direction you are heading underground.

Although gnomes also get that.