Anyone up for a D&D campaign? (5th edition)

[Venardhi]

As the headline says.

I'm going to be running a new campaign here in the next few weeks, probably via hangouts or roll20. Could benefit from a couple more players, no experience required; just need an enthusiasm for roleplaying and a willingness to learn and play along.

If there is enough interest I'd consider a second campaign for an exclusively TBBS group.

So yeah, respond here or PM me.

- Devin

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I haven't roleplayed in a while, I'd enjoy trying to get back into it with the right group. Though I know nothing about anything D&D has done since 3rd edition and it might be very hard to fit it into my schedule nowadays.

 

[Venardhi]

5th edition is kind of a streamlined version of 3/3.5 in a lot of ways. My girlfriend joined my other campaign and has had no trouble at all keeping up in spite of a complete lack of experience.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

In my experience having a creative group and a DM able to react to what the player wants to do even if they want to deviate from the narrative plan is more important than what mechanics you use.

Though my main criticism with 3/3.5 was that they seemed more focused on encouraging hacknslash gaming than creative solutions to threats, eliminating the behavior sections from the monster manual so all they'd do is just attack you. But that's a problem solved by a good team and good DM.

 

[Krustee_Sok]

I've been watching some campaigns on twitch and I'm interested in trying it out. I have absolutely no experience in tabletop/virtual tabletop role playing btw.

 

[Venardhi]

In my experience having a creative group and a DM able to react to what the player wants to do even if they want to deviate from the narrative plan is more important than what mechanics you use.

Though my main criticism with 3/3.5 was that they seemed more focused on encouraging hacknslash gaming than creative solutions to threats, eliminating the behavior sections from the monster manual so all they'd do is just attack you. But that's a problem solved by a good team and good DM.

That seemed to be more of a problem with 4th edition IMO. They designed the whole game around the battlefield and all the classes having equal potency in battle. 3/3.5 Could certainly be interpreted that way, but it was never how I experienced it. Most DMs end up mucking with behaviors and abilities to surprise their players anyways.

I've been watching some campaigns on twitch and I'm interested in trying it out. I have absolutely no experience in tabletop/virtual tabletop role playing btw.

Not a problem.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

They shouldn't try to make classes all individually viable, they should try to make them all useful in the context of the full group.

There's a lot of dumb rules in 2nd but nobody enforced them anyway. Like nobody enforced racial level limits and nobody made you play a fighter with 1 hp.

 

[Silvercrest]

I was always about the 2e rogue getting Forgery as a free skill but having to pay through the nose to be able to read or write.

 

[intrinsical]

I've had a DM who made me enter a dungeon as a lone level 1 mage with just a single light spell memorized.

 

[Timewalker]

They shouldn't try to make classes all individually viable, they should try to make them all useful in the context of the full group.

There's a lot of dumb rules in 2nd but nobody enforced them anyway. Like nobody enforced racial level limits and nobody made you play a fighter with 1 hp.

I've never played anything but original D&D, and 1st and 2nd ed. AD&D. In my experience, the DM uses the basic core rules and the modifies as he/she sees fit. As long as the game is balanced and not overly biased for or against one kind of character or race, it's workable. For instance, my own adventure-designing includes a few elements of the Fighting Fantasy system, just because it makes sense to me.

I enjoy RPG games, whether in-person or PBP/PBEM, but only as long as the DM uses common sense. Sometimes things may add up mathematically, but there's no way that a fighter can simultaneously be holding a sword ready to fight, a lantern to see, and carrying a largish treasure chest. When the guy playing the fighter got up to demonstrate what it would look like, we had to agree that changes needed doing. Yes, it's fantasy, but it works best when it's at least slightly plausible.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Well, he can put down the chest when fighting starts.

Another irk I had about 3rd is the chessman style movement. Like, when I DMed 2nd if the fighter said 'I stand between the enemy and the mage', it meant the fighter could react to where the enemy moves and stay in between, and obstruct bow angles. The enemy would need a special move to get to that Mage. In 3rd, the enemy can just go around the fighter because his feet are stuck to the ground. Or an archer can move one step to the right and get an unobstructed shot.

Turns are so much more chaotic if you make people declare actions at the start of the turn. You can get such interesting interactions.

Also I always used the rule that 0 HP is unconscious, -10 is dead, and somebody at -2 is bleeding out and must be bandaged.

 

[Timewalker]

Well, the chest was given to someone else to carry (not me, though; I was running two characters and neither was particularly strong).

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Proficiencies were not a strong point of 2nd ed, obviously. But you could make adjustments for campaign setting. Like, if it's a world where everyone can read and write, it's free. If only rich nobles can, it's not.

Ideally your free proficiencies should be a judgment call on your character's background but then the burden is on the DM to police munchkinning. Like 'Umm, yeah I come from a hunting village so tracking and survival are free for me.'

 

[Timewalker]

We had to provide a basic backstory, and from there the DM would decide if it made sense for the characters to have certain skills that "came with the territory" so they didn't have to pay to acquire them. None of this "Oh, by the way, I studied with so-and-so three years before starting this campaign so I already know this" nonsense. It made sense to us that of course any magic-user would already have Read Magic, since how else could they read scrolls or study their spell books?

 

[Silvercrest]

I've had quite an experience splicing 3rd Ed D&D with d20 Modern and setting the whole thing in the Stargate universe. Among other things: when your gate-hopping characters come from different worlds and levels of technology (Progress Levels), you need to figure out what starting skills they can reasonably have. I came up with some interesting conclusions.

Read Magic, for example, fades out as an available skill for most people above PL 3 (Age of Exploration). It remains that way for PL 4 through 7 (the Industrial Revolution through "Star Trek"-level tech), but it fades back in for PL 8 (the Asgard). Because at that point the tech becomes indistinguishable from magic.

 

[Silvercrest]

Aw, come on, I didn't mean to kill the thread. Look, I won't talk about Stargate anymore. Promise.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I actually think the idea of a scifi setting with D&D rules is pretty awesome, but you'd need to justify not having gun based combat. I guess 'ancient technologies we don't understand' works. But then again, the idea of an engine designed around pistols infused with magic is kind of awesome. Only you'd have to design your own system for it.

LARPing with magic infused gun based combat and cover mechanics with the actual area you're playing in and people bring waterguns. Hmm... paintball steampunk larping.

If you guys try to start a D&D campaign, it would be extremely difficult to fit it into my schedule, but if at all possible I will play.

 

[Silvercrest]

We do have regular guns (rules imported from d20 Modern), but they get limited use due to lack of any extra ammunition. However, I also applied the firearm rules to Goa'uld staff weapons and the like, which do get a lot of play. From one perspective, that's like "rifles infused with magic".
One of our best fighters uses a Goa'uld staff as her favorite weapon. Unfortunately she has a bad habit of rolling critical failures when attacking with it. At this point I usually rule that the staff power pack either explodes or catches fire. (Hilarity ensues!) She's gone through at least five of them so far.

 

[SPCTRE]

I'm curious, what do you D&D veterans think of roll20.net?

 

[Stephen Lee]

Humblebundle has a book bundle for Pathfinder RPG right now. All PDFs. Avg price is about 17usd.

Are you still looking for players?