DnD
- Thread starter MnemoD
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Used to play, but our DM got kinda tired of always being the DM and not playing, and none of the rest of us wanted to/were skilled enough to take over as DM. So now I get my DnD kicks by playing Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 (with Throne of Ball expansion), Torment and the two Neverwinter Nights games. Still not as fun as sitting round with a group of friends and playing though. Certainly not as dynamic. I miss instances where crazy things my group memebers did ended in awesome or disaster; like our last session our Bard Blade Dancer ended up killing a frigging Hyrda by throwing a dagger he'd found but not identified. DM required him to roll three times, he got all 20s. Turns out the dagger he found was one of Hydra Slaying, we were all like Holy Shit. Then he got tired of DMing and ended our group when the halfling thief in our group kicked over a ancient stone urn (or barrel I forget which, this was 5 or so years ago now) which was apparently sealing in a lich lord that proceeded to rape us all ( we were only lvl 9~10, we really had no business exploring those caves )
Between the 6 of us we had pretty much every 2nd edition manual ever printed, none of us liked the idea of Third Ed. Man I miss those game nights, were fun :blue:
Between the 6 of us we had pretty much every 2nd edition manual ever printed, none of us liked the idea of Third Ed. Man I miss those game nights, were fun :blue:
I did play a bit, unfortunately the only times I've played are with similar newbies, complete with a newbie DM. In the end, we never really got anywhere with our sessions either way. For once, I'd like to play with a group that knows what they're doing, so that I can get some experience in what a real campaign is like...
Your phrasing seems to suggest that you already know the answer.
Which you do, of course.
I DM for a group of friends once every other week or so, with various campaigns based on various mental instabilities the group has.
In the meantime, I'm keeping an eye on the up and coming 4th Edition.
Some of the best stories, though, come from my dad. If you like, I could tell you about Broccoli the Troll, or the koosh ball.
Which you do, of course.
I DM for a group of friends once every other week or so, with various campaigns based on various mental instabilities the group has.
In the meantime, I'm keeping an eye on the up and coming 4th Edition.
Some of the best stories, though, come from my dad. If you like, I could tell you about Broccoli the Troll, or the koosh ball.
I'll always fondly remember about, err, the campaign we ran when we had the misprinted edition for Great Cleave. Back when it let you make a another attack on an enemy with the same damage roll (instead of attack roll).
Which basically entailed
"You're facing ten thousand zombies, do you run?"
"How much HP do they have?"
"You serious? I dunno, uh, 20 each?"
"Let's do this. Roll to attack"
"Okay, you hit, now let's do damage... roll. "
*rolls, gets a natural 20* "A twenty. right. awesome. So how much XP are we getting per zombie?"
Sorry, what?"
"Well unless I fail to hit them somewhere through here, and their DC isn't exactly beyond my range, they're all dead."
"EXPLAIN. NOW"
"Fine, fine, don't get your knickers in a twist. Right, so I kill this zombie in a single hit, yes?"
"Yes."
"Right. So then Great Cleave enables me to take a five step free movement in any direction and make an attack at the same damage roll against another enemy. I choose zombie number two."
"... wait, lemme see the book" *GM pulls out the book, reads through it, finds the line, and frowns.*
"So I roll to hit the second zombie. Congrats, even at my lowest roll I'm going to autohit them. They're zombies, they don't exactly get out of the way. Anyways, my Crosstrained fighter yells out a battlecry and... you know, how long is a combat round anyways? why don't we just say he charges across the room beheading zombies in rapid succession."
*GM rolls....* "Goddamnit, you bastard"
"Zombie3030, crit, great cleave, zombie 3031, crit, great cleave, zombie..."
It gets even worse when you factor in the Master Samurai class who every other level or so gets an increase to his crit modifier.
So at level five, he's getting crits on a 17-20, and doing 4x damage.
Which basically entailed
"You're facing ten thousand zombies, do you run?"
"How much HP do they have?"
"You serious? I dunno, uh, 20 each?"
"Let's do this. Roll to attack"
"Okay, you hit, now let's do damage... roll. "
*rolls, gets a natural 20* "A twenty. right. awesome. So how much XP are we getting per zombie?"
Sorry, what?"
"Well unless I fail to hit them somewhere through here, and their DC isn't exactly beyond my range, they're all dead."
"EXPLAIN. NOW"
"Fine, fine, don't get your knickers in a twist. Right, so I kill this zombie in a single hit, yes?"
"Yes."
"Right. So then Great Cleave enables me to take a five step free movement in any direction and make an attack at the same damage roll against another enemy. I choose zombie number two."
"... wait, lemme see the book" *GM pulls out the book, reads through it, finds the line, and frowns.*
"So I roll to hit the second zombie. Congrats, even at my lowest roll I'm going to autohit them. They're zombies, they don't exactly get out of the way. Anyways, my Crosstrained fighter yells out a battlecry and... you know, how long is a combat round anyways? why don't we just say he charges across the room beheading zombies in rapid succession."
*GM rolls....* "Goddamnit, you bastard"
"Zombie3030, crit, great cleave, zombie 3031, crit, great cleave, zombie..."
It gets even worse when you factor in the Master Samurai class who every other level or so gets an increase to his crit modifier.
So at level five, he's getting crits on a 17-20, and doing 4x damage.
My first dungeon master was my older brother. Oh, he had a twisted sense of humor, and I lost a good number of characters with him, but he let me save my favorites (hey, when you're eight years old, you tend to like the characters you make).
Getting a local group was a pain, though, since they were either too young (and thus, restless, reckless and/or whiny) or too advanced, i.e. playing epic-level campaigns when I was only ready for a more moderate-level game. (and seriously, these guys were ready for sh*t I hadn't dealt with much in the lower level games).
And by the time I was ready for a larger campaign, most of the stores and groups in my area had closed or broken up.
Neverwinter Nights is about the closest I got to a solid game of D&D. -_-
Getting a local group was a pain, though, since they were either too young (and thus, restless, reckless and/or whiny) or too advanced, i.e. playing epic-level campaigns when I was only ready for a more moderate-level game. (and seriously, these guys were ready for sh*t I hadn't dealt with much in the lower level games).
And by the time I was ready for a larger campaign, most of the stores and groups in my area had closed or broken up.
Neverwinter Nights is about the closest I got to a solid game of D&D. -_-
The story of Broccoli the Troll:
Now, as any but the most inexperienced DnD player knows, trolls are bad news. Their regeneration and high damage output make them a terror for most players, and even high level groups that know to set them on fire still groan with dismay when up against trolls.
Broccoli the Troll was special. One, he was smarter than your average troll, which is bad enough. Second, he had this really funny magic ring. It had an incredibly bizarre effect - if someone ate a piece of the wearer, they would fall under his control. Being a troll, he could just rip chunks off of himself and feed them to anyone, and he'd just grow it back.
And so, you have a main villain of the campaign. Oh, and he was successful in killing off the group, exept for my thief, who ran when everyone else was dead or under his control. Ah well, it happens.
The koosh ball incident:
You guys know what a koosh ball is, right? Well, the thing about my dad is, he doesn't like to plan things out a lot for when he's DMing. So, we walk into one of his friends houses, and he sees a koosh ball.
Then the characters are attacked by gigantic beings that are 100 mouths and 100 hands coming out of a central ball. Oh, and every hand is holding a wand of paralyzation. That was one of his favorite tricks, by the way. Oh look, make 100 savings throws, and if you fail one, you're frozen. So, of course, we all got zapped, and frozen in place.
Then the enemies took us aboard their spaceship. Because they were aliens from outer space.
We get experimented on, escape, and make merry hell aboard their spaceship. I almost got my hands on one of their stun-guns (a distant relation to the dimofo wand) but they eventually got us and kicked us out.
Then we all got EXP for saving the world from alien invasion by proving we were just too goddamn much trouble to conquer.
Now, as any but the most inexperienced DnD player knows, trolls are bad news. Their regeneration and high damage output make them a terror for most players, and even high level groups that know to set them on fire still groan with dismay when up against trolls.
Broccoli the Troll was special. One, he was smarter than your average troll, which is bad enough. Second, he had this really funny magic ring. It had an incredibly bizarre effect - if someone ate a piece of the wearer, they would fall under his control. Being a troll, he could just rip chunks off of himself and feed them to anyone, and he'd just grow it back.
And so, you have a main villain of the campaign. Oh, and he was successful in killing off the group, exept for my thief, who ran when everyone else was dead or under his control. Ah well, it happens.
The koosh ball incident:
You guys know what a koosh ball is, right? Well, the thing about my dad is, he doesn't like to plan things out a lot for when he's DMing. So, we walk into one of his friends houses, and he sees a koosh ball.
Then the characters are attacked by gigantic beings that are 100 mouths and 100 hands coming out of a central ball. Oh, and every hand is holding a wand of paralyzation. That was one of his favorite tricks, by the way. Oh look, make 100 savings throws, and if you fail one, you're frozen. So, of course, we all got zapped, and frozen in place.
Then the enemies took us aboard their spaceship. Because they were aliens from outer space.
We get experimented on, escape, and make merry hell aboard their spaceship. I almost got my hands on one of their stun-guns (a distant relation to the dimofo wand) but they eventually got us and kicked us out.
Then we all got EXP for saving the world from alien invasion by proving we were just too goddamn much trouble to conquer.
Me and my friends always used to play D&D a couple years ago when we were all still in high school. But after a few years of playing a d20 system we all got tired of limited rules, cookie-cutter characters, and the lack of freedom in character creation. Eventually we moved on to other systems like White Wolf, Palladium, and countless others. Lately I've been making my own systems to fit the campaign I'm running or just for my own amusement, in fact I spent the better part of a year trying to invent GURPS before or my friends handed me a copy of the GURPS core rulebook. (I'm still working on it though, I like the way I'm handling some of the concepts better ^_^ )
In the last campaign I ran, a Nightbane/Cthulhu crossover, I didn't even give out character sheets. I had all of their skills, powers, and abilities recorded in my notebook the players had a general idea of what the characters had for skills but they were required to figure out and remember any powers and abilities they had or learned. Also we barely rolled in a dice, if the character had the ability to do something it is generally assumed that they're able to do it, we only use dice for difficult tests and sanity checks (another hidden stat). Even in combat I kept a dice roll to a minimum I rewarded well thought out tactics and maneuvers with free successes. Overall the system was a hit especially with my more jaded players. More importantly they loved the story, sadly were only able to get 6 sessions in before RL issues get in the way and we are to stop, they barely even scratched the beginning of the plot. :blue:
Oh well it gives you more time to perfect the world.
But now that I haven't played d20 for a few years I be willing to go back and try it again. Especially since I idea for another campaign, a Pokemon/Ravenloft crossover, I got the idea from a interesting fanfic I read a few years ago and it's been brewing in my head ever since I'm in work well with d20.
In the last campaign I ran, a Nightbane/Cthulhu crossover, I didn't even give out character sheets. I had all of their skills, powers, and abilities recorded in my notebook the players had a general idea of what the characters had for skills but they were required to figure out and remember any powers and abilities they had or learned. Also we barely rolled in a dice, if the character had the ability to do something it is generally assumed that they're able to do it, we only use dice for difficult tests and sanity checks (another hidden stat). Even in combat I kept a dice roll to a minimum I rewarded well thought out tactics and maneuvers with free successes. Overall the system was a hit especially with my more jaded players. More importantly they loved the story, sadly were only able to get 6 sessions in before RL issues get in the way and we are to stop, they barely even scratched the beginning of the plot. :blue:
Oh well it gives you more time to perfect the world.
But now that I haven't played d20 for a few years I be willing to go back and try it again. Especially since I idea for another campaign, a Pokemon/Ravenloft crossover, I got the idea from a interesting fanfic I read a few years ago and it's been brewing in my head ever since I'm in work well with d20.
I play off and on, unfortunately most of the campaigns I've run now don't have the material I'd spent my time creating anymore due to water damage taking out the binders I'd had everything stored away in.
Several of the characters I've played were interesting. My most recent was an Aasimaar Marshal carrying a sword made of celestial song silver (Whenever drawn you'd hear the celestial chorus singing with a volume adjusted by the wind).
Then he died because the DM didn't want to split the party up after a demon razed a good portion of my characters home town because my character was trying to clean up the damage while the rest of the party stole a cart and ran for it.
The DM decided that since I wanted to keep playing my character he had to die so I'd be with the rest of the characters. Funny thing was that I was the only character without Exalted feats...quit playing in that group because of that one.
Another character I'd played was a Half-Minotaur Goliath Barbarian (Later picking up levels in Frost Rager and Frenzied Berzerker) in a Gestault Game (The other side had a few other things) with a sword that made buildings jealous. When Raging I could wield things as a Gargantuan creature. My Sword was a Balanced, Sizing, Heavy Fullblade (Treated as a +1 size Bastard Sword). It was fun to play the hulking brute who believed himself to be a cleric of strength
By the power of Might be healed
*Crack*
Hmmm...your faith must not be strong enough HEAL!
*WHAM*
mommy...
Several of the characters I've played were interesting. My most recent was an Aasimaar Marshal carrying a sword made of celestial song silver (Whenever drawn you'd hear the celestial chorus singing with a volume adjusted by the wind).
Then he died because the DM didn't want to split the party up after a demon razed a good portion of my characters home town because my character was trying to clean up the damage while the rest of the party stole a cart and ran for it.
The DM decided that since I wanted to keep playing my character he had to die so I'd be with the rest of the characters. Funny thing was that I was the only character without Exalted feats...quit playing in that group because of that one.
Another character I'd played was a Half-Minotaur Goliath Barbarian (Later picking up levels in Frost Rager and Frenzied Berzerker) in a Gestault Game (The other side had a few other things) with a sword that made buildings jealous. When Raging I could wield things as a Gargantuan creature. My Sword was a Balanced, Sizing, Heavy Fullblade (Treated as a +1 size Bastard Sword). It was fun to play the hulking brute who believed himself to be a cleric of strength
By the power of Might be healed
*Crack*
Hmmm...your faith must not be strong enough HEAL!
*WHAM*
mommy...
Hahaha, that's awesome! :rofl:
To fun and entertaining characters! :mmm:
You have my symapthies there.
I disagree with the whole idea that you can't have a customised DnD character, even in the old editions. Too many people say that, when what they really mean is that the rules don't let them munchkinize their characters, and they aren't imaginitive and clever enough to figure out how to do it anyways. The rules don't have a lot of leeway in the mechanics, but there are no limits to one's imagination.
I mean, my dad made a pacifist wizard in DnD. Before I was even born, I think. He loved the polymorph other spell. "Giant purple worm? Now it's a beautiful butterfly with dozens of hit points." He'd go to town on the undead, since they weren't alive to worry about. But he would freak out if he smacked a goblin too hard and would stop to bandage it to make sure it didn't die.
To fun and entertaining characters! :mmm:
You have my symapthies there.
I disagree with the whole idea that you can't have a customised DnD character, even in the old editions. Too many people say that, when what they really mean is that the rules don't let them munchkinize their characters, and they aren't imaginitive and clever enough to figure out how to do it anyways. The rules don't have a lot of leeway in the mechanics, but there are no limits to one's imagination.
I mean, my dad made a pacifist wizard in DnD. Before I was even born, I think. He loved the polymorph other spell. "Giant purple worm? Now it's a beautiful butterfly with dozens of hit points." He'd go to town on the undead, since they weren't alive to worry about. But he would freak out if he smacked a goblin too hard and would stop to bandage it to make sure it didn't die.
I don't have many hilarious stories (or at least none that would be funny outside of potty humor-enthusiasts) to tell about my time playing D&D, even though my brother, the best yet most twisted DM I ever had, was my DM for about three years, but I do recall the first adventure I ever undertook.
Mostly because it was the first adventure I ever undertook, and I was eight. It was exciting, nerve-wracking and incredibly frustrating, all at the same time.
I'd created a first level fighter by the name of Brawn (I was six or so when I made him and this was creative BRILLIANCE for me at the time).
My brother was reading a pre-made adventure for beginning fighters, and let me choose which direction I wanted to go in the very first room. North, East or West (since South was back outside). I went West.
That was when he frowned and told me I'd run into a Rust Monster. I thought I'd literally like turned the corner and bumped into it (which wasn't far off when I managed to look at where the rust monster was positioned in the room)
Again, I was young and had no concept of this beast. I knew what rust was and I could appoximate what a monster would look like, but even when my brother described it, all I could think of was a pile of living rust in the shape of a monster.
I, of course, attacked it, figuring my metal weapons would carve into it while my metal armor would protect me.
As anyone who knows what tactics to take against a rust monster knows, this is sheer stupidity.
Well, after I lost my sword and armor and was about to cry (again, I was just a kid and my very first fight was turning out to be a sh*tstorm of humiliation), my brother let me find a magic +1 sword and armor, that just happened to be identical to my previous gear, that the rust monster couldn't affect (stupid, I know, but this made him the coolest guy ever for a good while), and even gave me time to don the armor and pick up the sword. I nabbed it and went to kick the rust monster's butt.
That was when my brother decided to give me a taste of tough love, by having the Rust Monster use unorthodox tactics. After losing one of it's tentacles and a good portion of it's hit points, it managed to grab my ankle, heft me into the air and smash Brawn against the ground several times, and end by dropping Brawn on his head.
I temporarily lost a point of intelligence over that beating, but then I got up and stabbed it through the face.
Despite my victory and the epic nature of my very first battle, I wound up avoiding anything to do with the word "west" for most of the adventure.
I even had my character peeking into rooms to see if there were any more of those evil rust monsters.
I managed to complete the adventure rather well, even though I missed a solid portion of the possible treasure (the rust monster was genuinely guarding a room with a magic item and decent pile of coins) and I know I was being aided at least twice by my brother as every time I was critically low on HP, I find a healing potion.
But in the end, I enjoyed the adventure.
But now it nags at me: this adventure was rated for a single Level 1 FIGHTER.
How the HELL did something like a RUST MONSTER, which was nothing to f*ck around with even back then, wind up in an adventure where it would almost certainly spell death or ruination for an unwittingly player?
Seriously, this was bullsh*t. With a cruel and/or relentless DM, a beginner player could become pissed off with such a sudden and humiliating defeat, and quit playing the game entirely. It made no sense for there to be a RUST MONSTER in a BEGINNER's adventure.
I just have to wonder how many potential gamers got turned off by sh*t like that. :no:
Mostly because it was the first adventure I ever undertook, and I was eight. It was exciting, nerve-wracking and incredibly frustrating, all at the same time.
I'd created a first level fighter by the name of Brawn (I was six or so when I made him and this was creative BRILLIANCE for me at the time).
My brother was reading a pre-made adventure for beginning fighters, and let me choose which direction I wanted to go in the very first room. North, East or West (since South was back outside). I went West.
That was when he frowned and told me I'd run into a Rust Monster. I thought I'd literally like turned the corner and bumped into it (which wasn't far off when I managed to look at where the rust monster was positioned in the room)
Again, I was young and had no concept of this beast. I knew what rust was and I could appoximate what a monster would look like, but even when my brother described it, all I could think of was a pile of living rust in the shape of a monster.
I, of course, attacked it, figuring my metal weapons would carve into it while my metal armor would protect me.
As anyone who knows what tactics to take against a rust monster knows, this is sheer stupidity.
Well, after I lost my sword and armor and was about to cry (again, I was just a kid and my very first fight was turning out to be a sh*tstorm of humiliation), my brother let me find a magic +1 sword and armor, that just happened to be identical to my previous gear, that the rust monster couldn't affect (stupid, I know, but this made him the coolest guy ever for a good while), and even gave me time to don the armor and pick up the sword. I nabbed it and went to kick the rust monster's butt.
That was when my brother decided to give me a taste of tough love, by having the Rust Monster use unorthodox tactics. After losing one of it's tentacles and a good portion of it's hit points, it managed to grab my ankle, heft me into the air and smash Brawn against the ground several times, and end by dropping Brawn on his head.
I temporarily lost a point of intelligence over that beating, but then I got up and stabbed it through the face.
Despite my victory and the epic nature of my very first battle, I wound up avoiding anything to do with the word "west" for most of the adventure.
I even had my character peeking into rooms to see if there were any more of those evil rust monsters.
I managed to complete the adventure rather well, even though I missed a solid portion of the possible treasure (the rust monster was genuinely guarding a room with a magic item and decent pile of coins) and I know I was being aided at least twice by my brother as every time I was critically low on HP, I find a healing potion.
But in the end, I enjoyed the adventure.
But now it nags at me: this adventure was rated for a single Level 1 FIGHTER.
How the HELL did something like a RUST MONSTER, which was nothing to f*ck around with even back then, wind up in an adventure where it would almost certainly spell death or ruination for an unwittingly player?
Seriously, this was bullsh*t. With a cruel and/or relentless DM, a beginner player could become pissed off with such a sudden and humiliating defeat, and quit playing the game entirely. It made no sense for there to be a RUST MONSTER in a BEGINNER's adventure.
I just have to wonder how many potential gamers got turned off by sh*t like that. :no:
Depends.
At what point did you laugh?
If it was the battle itself, even I have to laugh, because I can envision how funny it would actually be. My brother pulled no punches when it came to injuring or humiliating my various characters, even if he did make sure I survived.
I can't tell you how often my characters would wind up in a goblin cesspool. :sweat2:
I wound up having a tendency to hire a mage and took glee in having him blown up goblins with fireballs in retaliation. :evil2:
The way he'd let my characters survive pitfalls was just as bad. :sweat2:
At what point did you laugh?
If it was the battle itself, even I have to laugh, because I can envision how funny it would actually be. My brother pulled no punches when it came to injuring or humiliating my various characters, even if he did make sure I survived.
I can't tell you how often my characters would wind up in a goblin cesspool. :sweat2:
I wound up having a tendency to hire a mage and took glee in having him blown up goblins with fireballs in retaliation. :evil2:
The way he'd let my characters survive pitfalls was just as bad. :sweat2: