Miscellaneous Monday - Role Playing Games

[Andy Gladstone]

To borrow a line from Community Leader Extraordinaire @Kristján Geir Mathiesen :

That the first (and most famous) Role Playing Game (RPG) released was Dungeons and Dragons?

 

Since its original release in 1971 it has spawned an ecosystem of hundreds of game versions, and started the RPG craze that jumped from board games, to card games, to game console and PC based gaming. 

I recently read an article that listed (at least according to the authors) the 50 Best RPGs of All Time which reminded me of this history and the changes that have taken place in the RPG world over the past 52 years (not that I have been alive for all of them). The progression of the games from analog mail-chain based platforms to multi-player cloud based online gaming is a microcosm of the shifts we have seen in the world around us.

But I'm not here today to theorize on whether this change has been good, bad or ugly. I'm just here to ask:

What's your favorite Role Playing Game? 

Make it a great Monday and week ahead!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ohh, that's a hard one.  I've played a lot, both on a computer and in real life.

In real life, Runequest and AD&D were firm favourites with my groups, but I enjoyed Call of Cthulhu more.

On a computer, it's mostly series:

• Fallout 3, 4 and Vegas
• Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Morrowind and Skyrim
• D&D-based ones: Icewind Dale, Baldur's gate, Neverwinter nights
• My favourite is Planescape Torment

I'm currently replaying Baldur's Gate - Shadows of Amn, and my gaming group has gaming Sundays every 4-5 weeks.

(Does "Among Us" count as Roleplaying?  As you have to do missions, tell stories, and kill things...)

[Gabriela Koleva]

It's probably not smart to ask this question but curiosity killed the cat so... which D&D edition are you playing and why? :D

Also what do you think about those D&D adaptation games on PC? I have not touched the old Baldur's Gate games though I hear they haven't aged well and I was a bit disappointed in "Dark Alliance" (the Icewind Dale one). I do enjoy the OwlCat games like "Kingmarker", "Path of the Righteous" and even "40k: Rogue Trader" that came out last year though you won't catch me play 3.5e in real-life as that's waaay too many rules and calculations that I'd need to do xD

I would definitely count "Among us" in the RPG genre because it's a social deduction game where the impostors do have to roleplay as if they are part of the crew or get kicked out. Social deduction games are amazing especially with a lot of people! <3

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

In real life, we're playing the latest version, and we recently moved online to https://eu.forge-vtt.com/ because it's a pain getting everyone together in one place (one player moved into the house next to mine, one player is 10 minutes walk, but the DM is in a satellite village, 20 minutes bike ride away, and two more are on opposite sides of the nearest big town, 30-40 minutes away.  The logistics is a pain.  

The forge only supports the latest version, but we'd chosen that version because it's easier and less restricted than the old ones.  Why can't a Tiefling be a Paladin?  That silly restriction is gone from the latest version.

The Baldur's gate games are a bit dated in that they use older rule sets, and the graphics are much more simple, but they all tell a good story, which is the main point of an RPG in my opinion. 

Planescape Torment is by far the best of them, with the most interesting characters and plot, even though it's not as polished as a gaming experience as BGII.

Neverwinter nights is a slightly better gaming engine, it's more slick to use, but it is incredibly blocky and samey - it's blatant that every map is based on squares, and it feels like it only has four sets of tiles that are all the same - outside in a temperate climate, in a desert, in a building and in a cave.  Also, the main story is nowhere near as interesting as the various add on modules you can get!

If you enjoy RPGs with interesting stories, you might find all of them worth a go.  I got copies of the "Enhanced" versions on Steam, which make some improvements to the graphics and game mechanisms, and when I say I'm re-playing them, I actually mean the enhanced versions.

We must get our group to give over a session to Among Us soon - we stopped playing it when the lockdowns ended, but it is the group's second favourite game (The first one is "One night a Werewolf" where you also get to throw other players under a bus)

[Gabriela Koleva]

Yeah, adult scheduling is just a nightmare. Once we all graduated from university, we scattered with the closest person to me being 40 min away by car and the furthest is in an entirely different country (luckily only 1 hour difference in time zones).

Oh that's pretty cool. We also changed from roll20 to Foundry about 2-3 years ago for our online group. It was one of the best things we ever did. We haven't tried Forge specifically. Wait, were D&D editions before 5e not allowing Tieflings to be Paladins? O.O For a second I thought you are describing OneD&D since they are removing a lot of limitations from 5e and trying to make it as fluid as possible. It should be releasing somewhere this year though after some of the.... choices, that WotC did the past few months, I am wondering if that'd be further postponed or cancelled. They did release some changes that'd be part of it, like activating Aasimar's radian soul as bonus action instead of an action or Guidance being usable only once a day per person.

Oooh, I recently got the Planescape bundle that was released for 5e. I didn't know that universe existed but it looked amazing. If there's an older game on Steam of it, I'd definitely get that and give it a try. Thank you for the breakdown of the games! I might give the other BG games a try as well at some point :D

Werewolves, of course. Classic! That one is also amazing deduction game. I have narrated that several times and it's always so much fun to look at people trying to weasel their way out of a situation they put themselves in xD I miss playing those games. These days our group prefers to just play JackBox so they take a break from all the RPing. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

On the adult scheduling, only one of us has a child getting in the way of scheduling, and we solved that problem by making him a Ranger.

I didn't play D&D for a long time, I'm not sure how the rules evolved between "Advanced" and "5e", but the Baldur's gate series all did things like "Only humans can be paladins" and it was nice to see 5e gave us way more flexibility.

[Gabriela Koleva]

Hi @Andy Gladstone ! Thank you for the awesome titbit.

I think that the game industry and especially RPGs have really come a long way over the past 52 years. If you think back with first starting with the "Choose your adventure" gamebooks by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the very first edition of D&D rules book, the text based adventure games and before you know it we have a full blown cinematic RPG games.

I love RPGs way too much to be able to choose just one that's my favorite. The two RPGs I am currently obsessed playing are Final Fantasy 16 and Baldur's Gate 3 ❤️

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There's a storage box somewhere around here with a copy of "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in it", which was my first adventure book.

[Gabriela Koleva]

wow I am quite jealous @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- ! I do not have "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in it" in my collection though I do have the sequel "Return to Firetop Mountain". The first work of his I had was "The Forest of Doom" which I remember replaying a lot as a kid. Just thinking about it makes me wanna go re-read some choose your adventure books again.

[Jimmy Seddon]

@Andy Gladstone I have never thought that I could talk about any subject for an extended period of time, but RPGs is one I could easily do a 45 minute presentation on.

Everything that both @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- & @Gabriela Koleva have mentioned are fantastic!  And, I would tend to agree that I can't pick just one.  However, I will highlight a few that are very close to me.

• Super Mario RPG was the first RPG game I played and was the gateway to this amazing genre for me.  I'm extremely excited for it's return (and I'll have an 12 hour Extra Life Stream of it on Nov. 24th). 
  
• Chrono Trigger - The first RPG I played after Super Mario RPG and the game still holds up today (I'm waiting on the remake for this one too).
• The Final Fantasy Series - I own every main line game (and some of the spin offs) on multiple platforms.
• D&D's Waterdeep Campaign - During the pandemic, I had a group of friends that I would play baseball with in the summer and curling in the winter.  We always talked about never having time to be able to play a D&D campaign and when we were unable to play baseball that year (and the next) we started a 2 year D&D campaign online which was some of the most fun I have had.

Have a great week everyone!

[Summer.Hogan]

I am really not at all into video games, but wanted to answer so there it is @Andy Gladstone! Great question though for those who are. 

[Preston VanSanden]

Used to play 3.0/3.5 almost every weekend in highschool. Had some absolutely stellar times. My absolute most fun times was a wizard I had that really wasn't very good in combat, but was beyond good at not dying. 

I've tried as an adult but darn is it hard to schedule with other adults. Schedules, timezones, work/life just get in the way.

Mostly taken my RPG onto the PC. Which I am a sucker for a good solo RPG. Fallout: New Vegas is the one I've replayed the most. 

[Gabriela Koleva]

Hahah, tell me about it :'D
One of my groups was able to play a grand total of just 4 session in 2023 because of all the re-scheduling we had to do and in my second group there's the running curse of always having 1 person missing a session each week because of random reasons. 

As a general rule we have agreed that we can miss a person for a session and someone will "auto-play" their character and consult with DM in advance on scenarios X, Y, Z for the session. We have the rule of "no-deaths of their character if a player is missing" and we always have a "everyone must be present" for only extremely important events in the campaign. It's not perfect but it's better than not playing at all :'D

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM]

I'd have to go with AD&D.  Most of my RPG days were in the 70s and 80's.

[Johanna Pichotka_APTIS_]

Sadly I haven't tried anything than D&D yet. And our current campaign will not be finished until another 2-3 years. 

We have also looked into trying Pathfinder for now but will go with D&D for now. 

On New Year's I will also be a first time DM for a one shot we're doing. And I'm really excited to see how that goes. 

Can't wait to explore more RPGs in the future! 

[Gabriela Koleva]

Aw that's amazing! First time DMing is always such a trill! I hope your one-shot went well :D

[Johanna Pichotka_APTIS_]

@Gabriela Koleva I was nervous for the whole day but really happy with how the evening turned out to be :D 

The players were happy and we had lots of fun so I'm counting that as a success. 

[Gabriela Koleva]

@Johanna Pichotka_APTIS_ That does sound like a great success indeed :D I am really happy to hear you all had great experience and you had enjoyed DMing. It is such a lonely role sometimes when other players don't want to pick that up and 1 person in the group is stuck to the "forever DM" trope. I hope you have enjoyed it enough to give it a try again in the future. It's one of those "you learn by doing it" things :D

[Johanna Pichotka_APTIS_]

@Gabriela Koleva Thank you :D 

For campaigns I'll definitely stick to being a player for now but I can definitely see myself hosting a one shot every now and again. Because you're totally right that practice makes perfect :D 

[Ankush Bora]

Interesting trivia!

[Aswin Raj D]

Wow Interesting trivia!

[Josh Shepherd]

My 12yo son just asked me to buy him a set of DnD dice online. He has started playing once a month with 3 other friends. Pretty cool. 

Also, I heard of a full on RPG on Oculus VR where you and others are around a virtual table playing - may have to check it out.