dungeons and dragons

[ChosenofMystra]

Here it is

Not this does not in any way reflect on the real practice of playing Dungeons and Dragons. It is the propaganda of an intollerant bigot.


As for Dungeons and Dragons, as mentioned, it is great for fostering imagination. Remember the old days when kid had to pretend things were happening instead of spending hours a day watching TV? DnD helps the imagination grow by making a person create the world in their minds. During a good session, which is basically just talking among a group of people, I have as vivid a mental image of what is going on as if i was watching it on TV. Thats a major benifit in a world where imagination seems to be dieing.

UGH!!!! Jack Chick pisses me off to no end. I had just recently forgot about that hate-filled bigot and ya had to bring him back up! lol 😛

Its people like him, Jerry Farwell, Jacob Aranza and Pat Robertson that blow things completely out of proportion.

And yes I agree, imagination in today's youth is severely lacking. Kind of a shame, but its nice to see that its not always the case 🙂

 

[tickles]

well thanks to those who responded....I am going to let her play. She said that they have no intentions of doing any weird crap like "drinking chicken blood or skewering cats or raping elves"..... ......so I said thats cool......and her friends got a laugh out of my list of cant do's!...

 

[Dussicar]

Ah, thank you jim66e. That's the one I was looking for. I get such a huge kick out of Mr.Chick

 

[asutickler]

You people are all going to Hell!!!





I'll meet you down there. We can have a LAN party and play Neverwinter Nights. 😀


The only REAL danger of D&D is illustrated below:

😀 😀 😀

 

[911]

D&D is just make-believe fun for nerds. Your son will probley never get a girlfriend but he probley won't kill or rape anyone either.

 

[The Sean Man]

D&D is just make-believe fun for nerds. Your son will probley never get a girlfriend but he probley won't kill or rape anyone either.

But at least that nerd can spell the word "probably" correctly

 

[ChosenofMystra]

D&D is just make-believe fun for nerds. Your son will probley never get a girlfriend but he probley won't kill or rape anyone either.

Ahhh stereotypes...wonderful aren't they?

 

[ShiningIce]

Hey! Whats wrong with playing an evil character?? I hate playing a goodie goodie.

 

[Dussicar]

Well, well. Will wonders never cease?


On tuesday, I was at work pretty much spending the whole day thinking about that YouTube skit that FLATFOOT graciously provided us with. I was doing my job and pitifully attempting to not giggle maniacly every damned time I though about it. Well, it didn't work out at all. One of my co-workers came around the corner and caught me grinning like an idiot from ear to ear. He asked what I was laughing about and I told him.

Now, a few years ago, both he and I played a few RPG's together. As a matter of fact, he was part of the very last group that I played with before I called it quits. They-incidentally-were the BEST group I ever played with as well. We began to reminice about how much fun it was and wouldn't you know it? We began to conspire to play again.

We will be starting after christmas. The only problem is that we want to play D&D third edition. I don't own any books. So, if anyone here could give me some advice about which books to get(aside from the core book, of course) I'd sure appreciate it. I have two questions and a request:

1. What is so different between 3rd edition and 3.5? Is the second worth it?

2. I'd like some feedback as to which books to get as suppliments. I only want to get two or three. So, whichever are the best for fleshing out a decent adventure. ie. monsters and antagonists and the like.

Jesus. I never thought I'd be doing this again. Even if the game sputters out in a month or two, I'll still have some interesting bathroom reading material.

Now for my request...COULD SOMEONE PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEEEEAAAAASSSEEEE TRACK DOWN A DOWNLOADABLE VERSION OF FLATFOOT'S CLIP!!!
The only reason I got to see it at all was because I was staying at my grandmother's house for two days looking after her while she was recovering from surgery. She has high speed. I have crappy, stupid, slow dial-up. So I can't see it anymore now that I'm at home again. 🙁

I really have to thank you again, FLATFOOT. That thing really made my day.

 

[ChosenofMystra]

Even though evil PCs aren't recommended, I think there's a difference between playing a "tastefully" evil character, with goals, and an attention span to focus on an evil adventure/campaign, versus playing an evil character that does nothing more than meaningless destruction, raping or killing whoever they see fit just because the player thinks it's funny to engage in foolish activities(like some antisocial players I've dealt with in the past.). In one of the rulebooks it even talks about how just because a character is chaotic evil doesn't mean they go around killing and destroying everyone and everything in site. People like that don't realistically last long in any society, fantasy ones included, as long as the DM realizes how such activity can be detrimental to a campaign and polices his/her players to focus on the quest at hand.

If I was running a campaign, I'd have to know my players were mature enough at roleplaying to trust them with playing an evil character.

My sentiments exactly. Absolutely nothing wrong with playing an evil character, I've toyed with evil campaigns myself...but chaotic evil doesn't mean chaotic stupid either 😀 Senseless rape and other distasteful things of that nature just don't have a place at my table.

 

[Dussicar]

I don't have 3.5, but from my understanding, it IS better than 3, in that it takes care of some game balance issues that were present in 3rd, such as the fact that monks are EXTREMELY munchkinized, and are way more powerful than any other class in 3rd. I don't know all the balance issues, but I'm told it's way better. Also, I don't know how you used to play your old campaigns, but 3rd edition is now heavily dependent on magic items. In earlier versions, wizards and magic were supposed to be some "rare" oddity, but now it's almost expected that you make sure your players are stocked up with magic swords, armor, and whatnot. It's pretty much the only way you can survive some combat. Monsters don't give out flat experience rates, but have a "challenge rating", which is cross-referenced with a chart, so that you get more experience for winning more difficult fights, but you couldn't expect anything if you just ran around slaying squirrels. The problem is some of the monsters are drastically underrated at higher levels. You'd be surprised at how much you'll bust your butt trying to kill a slaad(and survive!), only to find out you didn't get any experience for it.

Oh! That's something else, the experience is now "encounter" based, and the way the system is set up, it's recommended that you pretty much only dole out experience for combat, with small experience bonuses for good ideas and whatnot. It might take the incentive away to roleplay well for some.

Before I go off on too much of a tangent with details, I'd obviously recommend the Players handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and at least the first two Monster Manuals. It seems like they're periodically releasing new ones like they used to do with Monstrous Compendiums. If you like to go all out with class extras, you could get the class guides, like Sword and Fist, Tome and Blood, etc., but if it's your first time with the new edition (which I'm obviously already presuming, since I just rambled on and on about game details!), start with the core books, since there's plenty of feats, skills, and prestige classes to keep one occupied until getting adjusted to the d20 system. I would recommend the class supplements, because they can be adjusted to any campaign.

I don't know what campaign would hold your interest the most, but when Wizards of the Coast originally wanted to focus on Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk so they wouldn't "flood the market" with choices, they pretty much pulled back on that. You can get Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and then there's also Eberron, which a lot of people I've talked to like. I don't know much about it, though. I always wanted to have a Planescape campaign, but they didn't really translate it over. There are planar rulebooks, though.

Shoot, thinking back to passing through Waldenbooks the other day, there are so many options now that I realize I've fallen so far behind and have no idea where you should start besides core books and class supplements.

That enchanted items galore idea seems pretty neat. As a GM, I had always loved giving my players magic items for any reason. The only problem was that having a lot always over-powered the game so I had to cut back and reign myself in. lol. I don't know who was happier at the end of any given adventure, them for getting all that magic crap or me for giving it.

The new experience system seems a little odd. But I suppose I'll get used to it. If nothing else, I could always see if there is a possibility of changing and tweaking it a bit.

I might just make up my own campaign from scratch. But there was a really killer first edition adventure that I played in high school. I might borrow the module from my friend and modify it to fit the thired edition. Aside from that, I might check and see what adventures for low level characters are up for grabs on the net.

Thanks for the book info. I'll give those a look(and purchase a few) when I go to pick up the core book.

 

[Dussicar]

Magic items have been weakened, actually, so it's hard to overpower players just by giving magic items alone. There ARE ways for players to get overpowered, but in this edition, magic items are easier to balance.

Heh.

Heh heh.

I have a sneaking suspicion that my playing group is going to get an unusually high amount of +2 Holy avengers coming out of their butts.

How are one shot or limited use magic items in this game handled? That was the great equalizer for me when I DMed. I could give them a nifty ring or talisman that had a certain number of uses before being spent without worrying about over-powering the group. It was the bread and butter of some of my old campaigns.

Or better yet, is there a rule set in the suppliments for making my own magic items? I am pretty good with balancing magic treasure that I created myself, but it there is some type of compendium that does the work for me, then it would make one less hassle for me.

 

[Italian_Touch]

I got D&D when it first was released in Italy. Way before becoming popular there.
In my opinion is one of the most fascinating games ever made. Creativity, companionship, immagination... all there, with nothing but talking, few dices and a piece of paper in front of you. I would be much worried about videogames, whereas D&D is a means for socialization.
I would have played more, but never managed to get the full set of instructions: the scandals here made the translation/import be ceased in Italy for quite some time... then AD&D came out and boomed...

As someone said already: the game is great, and being a social game its quality strictly related with the quality of the players.

 

[Ticklerguy4u]

Hey all,

Can anyone tell me about this game? My 14y/o wants to join a group a kids to play this game but knew to ask me if it was ok. My recollection of D&D is from the 80s when some teenage boys, I believe, either committed suicide or murder. Anyway, this game has gotten a bad rap in the past. Teenagers these days are into fantasy games. They are all virtual worlds and such...but this game, I'm afraid ,is going to be "dark" and suggestive of harmful things. What does everyone think of this game?

Thankyou for your input... 🙂

I haven't played AD&D in a couple of years. Most of the characters that my friends played were Lawful Good to Neutral. I remember one time I visited my cousin in Washington state and she played as well. I was invited to be a temporary character in their campain. What surprised me is that they all were evil characters and had a good Paladin NPC (Non-player character) in their party

Her friends and her would actually have their character slap the Paladin for no reason, kick him, trip him etc. and would laugh about it. Even the Dungeon Master would get a kick out of what was being done.

The friends she was playing with had no respect for anyone that was of good nature as saw it as a weakness. Needless to say, I spent most of the game watching them have their characters do countless dark deeds. Which doesn't bother me if the player is just acting the part but these guys liked playing evil characters just a little bit too much. Unfortunately I didn't have much fun with their playing style as I did with my own party because we usually played "heroes." even our darker characters were played as the "reluctant hero."

I agree with what everyone says.. Its the players that are warped not the game itself. What surprises me is that parents usually blame the tv, game, videogame, music, etc. but never the child. I guess its true what they say...most parents will never admit their baby is ugly or that their child is stupid. If a child can't tell difference between fantasy and reality, he/she has more problems then just the entertainment they are watching and I would suggest getting child therapy instead of acting like what they see is the problem.

 

[Dussicar]

I haven't played AD&D in a couple of years. Most of the characters that my friends played were Lawful Good to Neutral. I remember one time I visited my cousin in Washington state and she played as well. I was invited to be a temporary character in their campain. What surprised me is that they all were evil characters and had a good Paladin NPC (Non-player character) in their party

Her friends and her would actually have their character slap the Paladin for no reason, kick him, trip him etc. and would laugh about it. Even the Dungeon Master would get a kick out of what was being done.

The friends she was playing with had no respect for anyone that was of good nature as saw it as a weakness. Needless to say, I spent most of the game watching them have their characters do countless dark deeds. Which doesn't bother me if the player is just acting the part but these guys liked playing evil characters just a little bit too much. Unfortunately I didn't have much fun with their playing style as I did with my own party because we usually played "heroes." even our darker characters were played as the "reluctant hero."

I agree with what everyone says.. Its the players that are warped not the game itself. What surprises me is that parents usually blame the tv, game, videogame, music, etc. but never the child. I guess its true what they say...most parents will never admit their baby is ugly or that their child is stupid. If a child can't tell difference between fantasy and reality, he/she has more problems then just the entertainment they are watching and I would suggest getting child therapy instead of acting like what they see is the problem.

Yep.

That's the double edged sword of D&D. On one hand, it's a cool and imaginitive experience when done right. On the other hand, you tell a stupid person that this game is open ended and they'll waste their play time finding stupid ways to test this theory.

 

[911]

But at least that nerd can spell the word "probably" correctly

lol.Nobody likes a grammer geek.

 

[tickles]

...I know what your mean ticklerguy...as far as parents not looking realistically at their children at times...but sometimes we are just simply ignorant to what they are doing....especially when they become secretive teenagers. Having a degree in Private investigation should be mandatory!......I think when this game got such a bad rap....the media did not present the concept of the game...or how the game could go wrong to the public....and really, this many years later I still didn't know what the game was about.....My children have been plaing these fantasy games for years.....so I am totally cool with it now....

..and 911....I love grammer geeks.....

OXOX for Seanman.........

 

[asutickler]

lol.Nobody likes a grammer geek.

How about spelling geeks?

Its "grammar."

 

[ChosenofMystra]

Thank god for the grammar police 😀!

 

[asutickler]

Stop resisting! STOP RESISTING!!!

😀 😀 😀

 

[ticklishgamer]

911...It's guys like you that I used to love kicking the s**t out of in school. If I saw someone picking on the nerds or geeks then they didn't stay on their feet for long.

But on-topic D&D is one of the most fun things I've ever played. I started in about 9th grade and still play to this day.

Half-elven rangers FTW!!

 

[Icycle]

1. What is so different between 3rd edition and 3.5? Is the second worth it?

There's not a huge difference between the two versions. Things were mostly balanced a little better so that there were fewer over powered or under powered options. Most supplemental materials can be adapted without too much difficulty for either version. If nobody in your gaming group has either version yet, I might recommend going for 3.5, since it is the current version. There is better availability of the core books, and new supplemental materials are designed with 3.5 in mind. However, you could probably get some pretty good deals on 3.0 books on eBay. The two versions are just different enough that you should make sure that everyone in your group is using the same version.

In my gaming group, we played with 3.0 for about three years, then we took a brief break where we played Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. Recently we have returned to normal D&D, and this time we all upgraded to 3.5. The differences were pretty minor, so the upgrade was pretty smooth for us.

2. I'd like some feedback as to which books to get as suppliments. I only want to get two or three. So, whichever are the best for fleshing out a decent adventure. ie. monsters and antagonists and the like.

Every player should have a copy of the Player's Handbook. Any player who intends to be a Dungeon Master should have a copy of both the Dungeon Master Guide and the Monster Manual. Beyond that, there are a very wide range of options. If you want to play in a non-standard campaign setting, there are campaign books like Eberron that will help you flesh out a believable campaign world. If you want interesting new monsters to throw at your players, there are a wide variety of monster manuals beyond the core Monster Manual. If you don't want to write your own adventures, there are a variety of pre-written adventures, such as Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, or Shackled City, with enough material to take your characters from 1st level to almost 20th level. If you get tired of standard D&D, there are other D20 games, based on the same core rules, but with different races, classes, etc., such as Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, or Iron Heroes.

Now for my request...COULD SOMEONE PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEEEEAAAAASSSEEEE TRACK DOWN A DOWNLOADABLE VERSION OF FLATFOOT'S CLIP!!!
The only reason I got to see it at all was because I was staying at my grandmother's house for two days looking after her while she was recovering from surgery. She has high speed. I have crappy, stupid, slow dial-up. So I can't see it anymore now that I'm at home again. 🙁

That video was originally a radio skit by the comedy troupe Dead Alewives. The characters from the Summoner videogame were added later. The original sketch can be found on the comedy album "Take Down the Grand Master", and probably someplace online. A sequeal can be found here:

http://www.rpgmp3.com/downloads/data/av-deadalewives-dnd-part-2-stream.mp3

If you like D&D humor, I highly recommend this web comic:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html

 

[Avenger314]

I ran an undead campaign. No good alignments allowed. They started as slaves to a vampire, then managed to get her killed and became free-willed.

There were 3 vampires: A soulknife, a rogue, and a fighter.
There was a mummy fighter
A wight cleric.
Mages? Who needs mages.

There were some fun times. At some point, they took over a mining community populated by an evil, work-obsessed relative clan of the dwaves called the duergar. When the players threatened the duergar with eternal servitude and slavery, they took it as a sign their god was pleased with them.
I recall my friend Brian was rather underpowered (he played the soulknife) but made up for it by drafting a contract for all his minions and selling it to the other players as the perfect contract to make sure servants couldn't thwart them. He sold it and then charged for upgrades. He also wound up getting a powerful minion.

Lots of fun stuff: Turning a random encounter into a siege weapon, destroying a drow outpost, attending a birthday party for Mephistopholes, an ongoing rivalry with an angel (NEVER confront an angel in a church to the god of light), and more.

Playing an evil party is fun as long as you know what you're going into.

 

[911]

How about spelling geeks?

Its "grammar."

Spelling geeks either.

 

[911]

911...It's guys like you that I used to love kicking the s**t out of in school. If I saw someone picking on the nerds or geeks then they didn't stay on their feet for long.

But on-topic D&D is one of the most fun things I've ever played. I started in about 9th grade and still play to this day.

Half-elven rangers FTW!!

No need to be upset I'm a nerd myself I like mythical monsters, comic books, and lotr as much as anyone. The post that upset you was only a joke at least I hope so. I'm sorry if it upset you so much.