While the title should say it all, the purpose of this item is to 
introduce yourself and tell us what aspects of role playing you're 
interested in, favorite games / disliked games and the reasons for 
those preferences.  I'll start with a new response.

58 responses total.

Hi, as you have probably guessed by now, my name is Bjorn Arnesen.  At 
the time of this response I am 24 years old and a Swordplebe 1st Class 
in The Ring of Steel.  I have been playing role playing games since I 
was (I think) 8.  My favorite games include the Dark Sun setting for 
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2E, Diomin, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, 
the Planescape setting for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2E, Rolemaster 
1st Edition, Sailor Moon, and Star Wars (WEG or WotC).  The reason for 
my likes are basically that I have played or GMed these games and liked 
them, or in the case of Sailor Moon I am a fan of the TV show.  The 
only games I can say that I have a definate distaste for are White 
Wolf's "Storyteller" series.  The reasons are: those damned dots, the 
sense that your character can do nothing about that impending doom 
inherent to the World of Darkness series.

I have been acting off and on during the past 10 years.  FARCo at 
Commie High was great.  I wish I had never stopped taking it.  Now I 
feel weird if I act without a weapon in my hand(s).

Oddly, I have collected cards for CCGs but I have only played one - 
once.  That was Spellfire and I got my ass kicked.

Hi, I'm Anne. Play mostly White Wolf games these days (specifically 
Mage) and AD&D 3E. Ack... more later.

Welcome Anne!

Hi, I'm Jim Trigg, frequently known as Blaise (which is my SCA name).  I've
been role-playing since 1980, starting with The Fantasy Trip and AD&D.  I
haven't gamed for a while due to lack of time, but my favorite system is
GURPS.  I especially dislike Cthulhu-type settings (including some but not
all World of Darkness) where the player characters basically have no hope of
affecting the greater campaign -- they're going to either die or become NPCs.
(The exception for the World of Darkness is Mage; also, I had hopes for
Changeling [I think it was], and never had a chance to play it to see whether
it would be decent.)

I can understand the grip about WoD being, umm, Dark in regards to 
Vampire and Werewolf, but not towards Mage. I adore Mage, this is why 
I'm in 3 (4?) games (and one 3Ed AD&D). 

Overall I really like the versatility of Mage- what you can and cannot 
do. And I like the dots...

(Hey Bjorn. :) )

Welcome Jim!

Until recently, I also had time constraint problems with gaming.  Now 
my problem is one particular member of my current group: we try to meet 
on Saturdays and he doesn't have his own transportation (his roommate 
took a weekend job).  Normally, this wouldn't be a concern, but I live 
in Saline and he lives in Taylor, and it's not fair to expect one of 
the other members of the group to drive out to Taylor from Ann Arbor 
(or Saline in my case) to get him, and then drive to wherever we plan 
to game that weekend.  Also he borrowed a book from another group 
member, so we have to figure out some way to get it back to her.  No, 
she can't get another one easily (it's an AD&D 2nd Edition book).

Heh, game at his place. ;)

With my AD&D group we ran into a problem wherein we can only game at 
this one person's house because he's allergic to cats and dogs and all 
the rest of us have one or both (actually, come to think of it, only 
one of the locations has just a dog with no cat...) which can actually 
be kind of annoying since he lives in Lansing.

Well, when his roommate was going to be able to game with us we were 
going to rotate between their place and mine.  However, now we have a 
third place in the rotation.

The new problem is that I don't if one member of the group has 
recovered from mono yet.

Mono must be more common that I thought as I have had a total of 3 
friends who've had it.

Thankfully none of the people in my group are deffective in the manner 
of having pet allergies.

Hmm... did they catch mono from each other?

Interesting idea, but each incident was set apart by a number of 
years.  I didn't even befriend one of these people until last year.

Separated by a few years? Yeah.. that would make it an interesting 
contagion. ;)

Especially since some of the instances were also separated by State.  
Though one friend claimed that she got Mono once a year.

Now was that really mono, or was she just really really tired? ;)

Good question, to which I have no answer.

resp:5  Agreed wholeheartedly, but our ACST for Mage in the Cam is 
being a flake.. in addition to his usual anti-socialness.  I am 
Jonathan Pratt, and right now I am playing a lot of Vampire because 
unfortunately, that's all that our group does, and as far as tabletop, 
that's what they prefer to do, too.

I like the dots, too, and geez, it's the same as saying 5 dice, 6 
dice, etc.  The one problem a friend of mine has with it is that you 
can feel pretty wimpy down on the lower ends, compared to multidice, 
because it is much more difficult to get things done successfully.

I would play more Mage.. it looks swell, really, but the only good 
Storyteller I know works her stupid ass off going to school and work, 
trying to live in Seattle in a $1000/mo. apt where her two actual 
roomies are unemployed (oh, she's had other extended houseguests).

Okay, rant=off.  I am getting into 3rd ed. Star Wars-- 2nd was much 
improved over 1st, although I like the new class system.  I'm not a 
big d20 fan, but I can adapt, and Julie wants to GM anyway.  The 
problem is finding players in our area.. personally, I want a little 
control over who we pick.. not just any Johnny-Come-Flakey. I have yet 
to delve into 3rd ed. AD&D, which is the same game system (source 
code, essentially, as a programmer friend of mine put it).

I've enjoyed playing Bubblegum Crisis and Ranma 1/2 / Tenchi a la 
GURPS with one of Julie's friends at his house and at a couple of cons.

I used to play Marvel Super Heroes, but have had trouble getting back 
into it, although I've tried with Julie's suggestion and support.  I 
think I'll agree with some I've talked to that looking back, one 
realizes it was rather bad.  Fastest character you can have can only 
run at 100 m.p.h.?  that's weak.

I am in a bit of a rut since I do like LARP and Cam is about it for me 
right now.. (no dough, joe!) I have gotten a little bored with the 
typical round robin mode of tabletop.

Welcome Jonathan!

'ey Jonathan. :)

Heh, played Marvel with my older brother as a GM. Weirdest game... 

I honestly just love Mage, this is why I run two and participate in a 
third. I love the variations you can do with simple human characters 
with extra-ordinary powers. They're humans which means the players can 
get into them more easily- unlike vampire (which I have found very few 
people can accurately portray) or even Werewolf.

Yes with low dice it can be kind of daunting- then again beginning 
characters in any game aren't going to be that powerful. It's all in 
how you use your skills. In Mage my character Claire had all of 2 Arete 
and 2 in correspondence (1 matter) someone tried to shoot her, she 
opened a tiny correspondence hole, bullet went right in, exited behind 
her. It the dusky light it just looked like the shooter missed. <grins> 
Some people get really realy powerful characters- but because of their 
poor skills they still don't use them up to potential. Not to say I'm 
great or anything, just trained to be creative in power usage. Makey 
sense?

I guess my main reason for not liking filling in dots is all those 
Standardized Tests throughout school.  Also, I don't like the idea of 
counting how many dice earned a "success".  But ultimately, I think my 
main problem with White Wolf games was a bad GM.

that's probably the bulk of it.. the success system takes some getting 
used to.  My understanding is that it was created by the makers of 
Shadowrun, and therefore, it's not original; it's just something 
everyone's not used to.

For a time, I think the industry was moving towards standardized dice 
systems that employed similiar mechanics, or at least, fewer dice were 
involved.  Marvel Super Heroes used d10 and I think most West End 
games (Star Wars, Highlander) used d6.  I know Shadowrun used d6.

I'm not sure what games were using d20 besides D&D, or rather used 
multidice in many combinations.  Wizards of the Coast's purchase of 
TSR made d20 much more prominent again; the revamped system for 3rd 
ed. AD&D is used for most all their recent games.

The weakness of d20 is that it takes time, patience, and access to 
reference to handle.  I've grasped the success system (with one die, 
either d10 or d6) well enough that I can hack out a White Wolf game, 
or something similar.  I have played D&D for quite a while, but I 
still haven't memorized which dice is appropriate for which 
circumstance.  3d6 determines stats, d8 determines most monster HP.. 
but I can't remember which to use where if I don't have a book.  Also, 
forget about me running too many games without a module.  Julie is 
wanting to do Star Wars with me right now, but she is relying heavily 
on modules published by Star Wars Gamer magazine.  I'm not much 
different.. it is okay sometimes to wing it, but I still need some 
structure, especially for games I think deserve it.

The good news for me is:
1.) the member of my gaming group who has mono is recovering
2.) with the help of some people on the Wizards of the Coast chat 
rooms, I got an idea for my transportation-deficient member.  If 
someone has to pick him up, he gets to pay for gas.

As far as d20 is concerned, I successfully ran 1/2 of a Diomin 
adventure online.

Okay, I finally made it back! <grins> Still haven't finished reading 
Agora.

Anywho, I don't mind the 'successes' system. It makes sense to me. What 
doesn't is damage. Damage of course dependent on what interpretation 
you make based on what rules. It seems silly that if you hit someone 
with five successes you can do as little as one damage.

As for running a game? With White Wolf I would REALLY rather not have 
modules. I prefer running the game out of my head. For the Star Wars 
game I was in- same concept, no modules used the GM made the story up.

If there's a question over whether to use a module or not I would 
basically think it all depends on the creativity of the GM. That and 
are they 'hack and slash' or are they interested in that bizarre notion 
of Character Development.

Hmm . . . thanks to D&D3E and the d20 system, roleplaying has become 
more geared towards munchkins as people choose their class and skills 
based primarily on combat potential.

I have come to the realization that due to distance problems I need to 
run online games, get a new gaming group, or recruit new members to my 
gaming group to replace the distance problem one.

re #22- I don't agree. I don't think that people necessarily JUST base 
their character's class and skills on combat potential. At least not in 
the game I'm in.

Course I always make the disctinction between 'role-playing' and 'roll-
playing.' A good game is when the dice rarely get used (combat scenes 
aside).

Then I really need to stop hanging out at the Wizards of the Coast chat 
rooms, too many munchkins.

Last time I was there, some moron was saying that certain classes (i.e. 
warrior types) with high Wisdom learn the anatomy of dragons.  If any 
character class is highly concerned with anatmoy, it's Rogues and 
Rangers first, Wizards, Clerics, and Druids second - and warriors last.

I'll agree on both sentiments.  'role-playing' and 'roll-playing.'  
Thanks, Anne, I'll have to remember that.

re 325- no charge. ;) (this time...)

re 24- I've found online chat rooms can be awful places to either role-
play or discuss role-playing. Too many infants who really want God 
characters that can do it all. My personal opinion is too long for me 
to get into right now.

Hmm... maybe there should be an item on this, I know I could go on and 
on about types of characters. Thoughts?

Go ahead.  I heard that one person interviews his players before he 
allows them into games, and one of the questions is a munchkin 
repellent question: what is the most powerful being any of your 
characters has ever defeated?  If they answer with the name of a god, 
he doesn't allow them in his game.

Okay, one of these days I really will get around to making the item, 
honest!

Howdy all, names Ed and I am right now running two table top roll playing
campaigns, Seventh Seas and a Teenagers From Outer Space campaign.  I've
played in D&D, Big Eyes Small Mouth, Deadlands, Harn....just to name a few.
I first got into the hobby at 14 and have stayed with it on and off. 

I also recently played in a LARP run by Anne Moore, although I missed her most
recent LARP, if anyone on here played in it I would love to know how it panned
out.

Not familiar with many of the games you mentioned..

..care to explain?

Welcome Ed!

BTW did you mean "roll" playing or "role" playing?  (This isn't meant 
to insult your grammar, to the mind of a gamer they mean different 
things)

jaklumen, I can tell you a little about 2 of those games: Big Eyes, 
Small Mouth is a generic anime-based RPG; Deadlands is a fantasy Wild 
West game.

vidar-- I am a gamer right to the bone, so of course I am aware of the 
differences in meaning of "roll" and "role".  There are some folks I 
call "roll" players, i.e., they rely more on the dice and mechanics of 
the game.  Sometimes they are hack n slash cheeze monkeys.

I am a bit of a LARP freak, and I've experimented with freeform gaming 
that involves no dice and 100% trust in your players in order to just 
weave a story.  I take "role" playing seriously-- I have not met many 
gamers who really took pride in character development and acting 
skills to get their PCs out of a jam.

Clearer?

Big Eyes, Small Mouth-- anime!  Ha ha, got it!  Sounds fun-- I've 
played Ranma 1/2 (made with GURPS rules) and Bubblegum Crisis with an 
acquaintance of my wife's.

That first part was meant for Ed.  I've known the difference for a long 
time.

whoops!  I should have looked back at earlier responses, hehe.

I thought you merely juxtaposed my "there" and my "is" then added a 
question mark to the end of my sentence.

<pokes Ed> How long have you been gaming with Anne Moore? Chances are 
you either know my sister or brother-in-law.

ed you old diaper flinger!

SINCE this conference has been dead for a LONG time, I'm going to suggest a
new game. I will DM it if necessary. Please DON'T email me your characters,
just post them somewhere in here. I may not be on for several weeks. I hope
someone sees this before a month as passed . . .
I forgot . . . what the quest I'm proposing will be about . . . it will be
set in a kingdom, so far unnamed, and the characters will have to defeat an
evil mage. I will allow anyone with the proper craft or feat AND out-of-game
knowledge to invent semi-modern technology, i.e. someone knows the formula
for gunpowder and tells me, and they have Craft: Weaponssmith or whatever it
is, so they can make guns. Not very *good* guns, but guns nonetheless. They'd
have to repair them themselves, of course.
I hope I didn't forget anything else.

I'm ready.  Did you start a new item for this?

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss