Offline (tabletop) gaming fans?

[Polygonal Spaceship]

Aside from a bit of Elite in the 80s, I got into role-playing games - the old paper-and-pencils kind - long before I was a computer gamer, starting out with the Fighting Fantasy books and working my way up to stuff like D&D, MERP, Vampire: The Masquerade, Traveller, Alternity, and Paranoia.

It seems to be a bit of a dying hobby these days, at least in areas (like mine) where there isn't a games shop. (There's a Games Workshop, but wargames were never my thing!) I've played a bit of X-Wing Miniatures and a bit of Netrunner while on my travels, and I would certainly love to do some more of the latter, but RPG groups are hard to find. For me, online video gaming doesn't capture it at all, though I still love Elite and Frontier, and am looking forward to getting into ED.

Anyone out there into gaming the old-school way, getting together around the table to tell a great story?

 

[metatheurgist]

I still have a regular Sunday game with friends, and I know I'm not the only one since I know at least one person on the Galactic Academy Discord also does the same.

These days we use virtual tabletops with macro'd frameworks that do everything from just making the dice rolls to full automation. We meet in the same place but we can and do occasionally have players connect to the VT remotely when life interrupts.

 

[Jonny Shiloh]

Anyone out there into gaming the old-school way, getting together around the table to tell a great story?

Well, family time has pretty much done for my old RPG group but we still manage to get together occasionally (read: every 5-6 weeks or so) to play boardgames - Eldritch Horror is a particular favourite. That being said, we do occasionally play some Traveller, although the latter as much for nostalgia (Azhanti High Lightning, anyone?) as for any serious gameplay. Still, it's a decent system and if we're in the mood for a bit of tight-knit space RP'ing, as far as I'm concerned there's nothing out there that beats it.

 

[Edith_The_Hutt]

I run a regularish group on Saturday evenings. Then again we also have a proper gaming shop in town and the local Heffers does a regular D&D night

 

[Snarfbuckle]

Well, family time has pretty much done for my old RPG group but we still manage to get together occasionally (read: every 5-6 weeks or so) to play boardgames - Eldritch Horror is a particular favourite. That being said, we do occasionally play some Traveller, although the latter as much for nostalgia (Azhanti High Lightning, anyone?) as for any serious gameplay. Still, it's a decent system and if we're in the mood for a bit of tight-knit space RP'ing, as far as I'm concerned there's nothing out there that beats it.

Yuup...GM's divorce kind of blew up my Shadowrun sessions...

 

[Polygonal Spaceship]

These days we use virtual tabletops with macro'd frameworks that do everything from just making the dice rolls to full automation.

That sounds pretty cool. Not something I'd heard of before! Does it work best if you know the people you're playing with, or would it be a good substitute for folks like me who just can't find a group any longer?

Well, family time has pretty much done for my old RPG group but we still manage to get together occasionally (read: every 5-6 weeks or so) to play boardgames - Eldritch Horror is a particular favourite.

Haven't tried that one, but I played a bit of Arkham Horror (by, I think, the same company). Some good board games out there these days, they seem to be undergoing a renaissance - guess they are pretty easy to pick up and just play for one evening. Some of them (Zombicide, for instance) seem to have a pretty devoted following and a lot of supplementary expansions; then again, CCGs do too. There was a board/card games store opened near me last year, but they only lasted six months, and weren't too interested in running anything except a Pokemon league...

I run a regularish group on Saturday evenings. Then again we also have a proper gaming shop in town and the local Heffers does a regular D&D night

I'm jealous! (Of all of those things)

Yuup...GM's divorce kind of blew up my Shadowrun sessions...

Same here. Not Shadowrun, but D&D - a group I was with for about four years went kaboom over an affair between two of the players. One was married, and the other was someone else's girlfriend. Three people involved out of a group of five, plus an irate wife. We limped on through Eberron for a couple of weeks, but the atmosphere was beyond toxic.

Good to know I'm not alone though This section of the forums is so computer-gaming dominated I worried I wouldn't get a response!

 

[Robert Maynard]

There is a table-top RPG based on E: D....

 

[Polygonal Spaceship]

There is a table-top RPG based on E: D....

I've heard there are two Not sure I will be investing just yet, in the absence of anyone to play it with, but if any beloved British intellectual property deserves to be resurrected as a multimedia franchise, it's Elite. (After all, it had a tie-in novella to start with, and I've just discovered Escape Velocity. Colour me happy!)

 

[metatheurgist]

That sounds pretty cool. Not something I'd heard of before! Does it work best if you know the people you're playing with, or would it be a good substitute for folks like me who just can't find a group any longer?

Works just like normal. You're more likely to have a successful group with people you know, but if you don't have a group and you want to play you have to take the chance and meet new people. This just broadens the player pool.

Tool we use is here. Forums are friendly and there is a section for people looking for groups but I don't know how successful it is.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Used to do a lot of PnP back in the day. Hard to find people to do it with these days, and D&D 4th edition was an abomination, even worse than THAC0.

Been playing and DMing since i was a teen and had many a good session.

While i mainly played D&D, some of my most memorable sessions come from these two games.

and

Both of which i DM'd.

Lords of Creation allowed playing in a variety of settings combining magic with sci-fi. I took my players on a large campaign (it was a search for some mcguffins that turned out to be a massive practical joke played on the characters by a godlike being - my players hated me for that). The players were fun and really got into the spirit of it, although they did their best to derail the campaign, including, but not limited to, killing plot NPCs and much worse.

Paranoia was just a blast. My favourite RPG of all time. When the rule book's first rule is "Throw away the rulebook", you know you're in for some fun. We had a number of alcohol fuelled gaming sessions of that, which of course ended up with the players betraying each other and only 1 surviving to be rewarded by the computer, until the computer declared them to be a commie mutant traitor and had them executed.

I have a number of memorable characters from when i was on the player side as well. My two favorites were both from D&D campaigns.

The first one, a low IQ barbarian (yeah, stereotypical i know) who didn't get the idea of hygiene. The party used to let him walk far ahead since he wore a wolfskin pelt that wasn't cured. He basically ripped it off a wolf then just threw it over his shoulders. He also contracted a nasty disease when he visited a house of ill repute, where the ladies were actually zombies covered by illusions (part of some plot by a wizard to turn citizens into zombies or some such), but... that didn't stop him doing the dirty. To be fair, he didn't pay, and burnt down the place when he had finished. He had skill in improvised weapons, which resulted him using tables, chairs, and a player dwarf as weapons.

DM: You are unarmed and there are enemies charging you.
Me: I will pick up the dwarf and use him as a weapon.
DM: *sighs* Here we go again.
Dwarf player: What?
DM: Ok, roll for strength, roll for initiative both of you.
Rolls are made.
DM: Ok, you grab the Dwarf who is caught unawares and start swinging him at the enemies.
Me: I knew the dwarf's spiky armour would come in useful one day.

The other was a vain elf who was obsessed with his appearance. Very beautiful, but low CHA due to his vain nature. He kind of went a bit mental later on due to some unfortunate events which left him rather ugly. One was down to being maimed in a fight and the other was that he lost his hair and half his face scarred from fire. Amazingly enough though, he didn't die unlike the other characters (he did leave the party to die on one occasion requiring everyone else to roll new characters), and I basically got to retire him.

 

[Polygonal Spaceship]

Tool we use is here. Forums are friendly and there is a section for people looking for groups but I don't know how successful it is.

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try

Paranoia was just a blast. My favourite RPG of all time. When the rule book's first rule is "Throw away the rulebook", you know you're in for some fun. We had a number of alcohol fuelled gaming sessions of that, which of course ended up with the players betraying each other and only 1 surviving to be rewarded by the computer, until the computer declared them to be a commie mutant traitor and had them executed.

I could never get my head around THAC0. To me it was always a "backwards" mechanic.

But that Paranoia cover art brings back memories. Picked up my copy (the hardback Games Workshop single volume edition) in a junk shop in Leeds for the princely sum of £2. Tried playing it "straight" once, but it was more fun when the rules went into the nearest bin and the game started resembling an episode of The Young Ones...

 

[Noel]

I run three games each week online nowadays, as RL groups can be hard to get together due to, well RL. I use roll20 (a online site for for online role playing games.) Two of the groups are mainly my friends who we just cant get together to run games in RL and the third is (at the time) a bunch of strangers who i have been gaming with for the last year. There are also a lot of discord groups whose members put games together and often run those on roll20. If you want to try and get back into role playing games, then i would suggest checking out Roll20.

 

[Polygonal Spaceship]

Thanks Noel, I'll check out Roll20. What are you running at the moment?

(It's taken me a little while to figure out what "discord" groups are - the name makes them sound somewhat less than welcoming. Is that programmer humour in action?)

 

[Noel]

I am running a sci fi campaign using savage worlds system (generic system, been around about ten years) and a fantasy setting using open quest (newish system, came out about six or seven years ago). Also recently finished a Traveller campaign.

 

[Polygonal Spaceship]

Wicked I blow a bit hot and cold on fantasy, but I've heard that Savage Worlds is good - "the new GURPS", apparently. And you can't beat Traveller!

I did notice Traveller had undergone a recent revival, and that Alternity is coming back. Wonder what's next for a reboot - Cyberpunk 2020? Aeon/Trinity?