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vidar
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Introductions
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Feb 4 13:10 UTC 2002 |
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.
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| 58 responses total. |
vidar
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response 1 of 58:
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Feb 4 13:26 UTC 2002 |
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.
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mooncat
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response 2 of 58:
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Feb 13 22:15 UTC 2002 |
Hi, I'm Anne. Play mostly White Wolf games these days (specifically
Mage) and AD&D 3E. Ack... more later.
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vidar
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response 3 of 58:
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Feb 14 17:44 UTC 2002 |
Welcome Anne!
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blaise
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response 4 of 58:
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Feb 14 19:18 UTC 2002 |
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.)
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mooncat
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response 5 of 58:
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Feb 14 22:01 UTC 2002 |
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. :) )
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vidar
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response 6 of 58:
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Feb 15 13:54 UTC 2002 |
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).
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mooncat
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response 7 of 58:
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Feb 18 22:29 UTC 2002 |
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.
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vidar
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response 8 of 58:
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Feb 19 14:11 UTC 2002 |
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.
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mooncat
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response 9 of 58:
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Feb 19 16:53 UTC 2002 |
Hmm... did they catch mono from each other?
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vidar
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response 10 of 58:
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Feb 19 18:51 UTC 2002 |
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.
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mooncat
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response 11 of 58:
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Feb 19 20:53 UTC 2002 |
Separated by a few years? Yeah.. that would make it an interesting
contagion. ;)
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vidar
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response 12 of 58:
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Feb 20 03:50 UTC 2002 |
Especially since some of the instances were also separated by State.
Though one friend claimed that she got Mono once a year.
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mooncat
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response 13 of 58:
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Feb 20 21:28 UTC 2002 |
Now was that really mono, or was she just really really tired? ;)
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vidar
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response 14 of 58:
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Feb 21 03:00 UTC 2002 |
Good question, to which I have no answer.
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jaklumen
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response 15 of 58:
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Feb 21 08:11 UTC 2002 |
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.
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vidar
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response 16 of 58:
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Feb 21 14:29 UTC 2002 |
Welcome Jonathan!
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mooncat
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response 17 of 58:
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Feb 21 22:01 UTC 2002 |
'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?
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vidar
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response 18 of 58:
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Feb 24 15:32 UTC 2002 |
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.
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jaklumen
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response 19 of 58:
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Feb 24 21:16 UTC 2002 |
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.
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vidar
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response 20 of 58:
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Mar 5 21:51 UTC 2002 |
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.
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mooncat
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response 21 of 58:
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Mar 7 19:41 UTC 2002 |
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.
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vidar
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response 22 of 58:
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Mar 17 00:25 UTC 2002 |
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.
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mooncat
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response 23 of 58:
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Mar 22 15:42 UTC 2002 |
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).
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