Best Games You've Ever Played/Heard About

[radthemad4]

I'm still pretty new to TRPGs and the only games I've played were the (very few and not very long lasting so far) ones I've run, which I still need to work on improving. So on account of not having anything of my own, I'll just link Old Man Henderson and Tarrasque with Wizard Levels.

So anyway, share the good stuff. I could use some inspiration.

[Ancient History]

I had a lot of fun with the Crypts of Chaos. Good group of players, had a lot of fun.

[Prak]

Did WLD influence CoC at all? There are a lot of similarities.

[Ancient History]

No, at least not from me.

[Prak]

CoC is almost a better thought version of WLD--Extra dimensional prison dungeon for powerful evil outsider, teleportation doesn't work, summons don't return their subject, an almost obscene number of bullshit traps ...

[Ancient History]

You all enjoyed the traps.

[radthemad4]

I had a lot of fun with the Crypts of Chaos. Good group of players, had a lot of fun.

It's a great read. I peeked at the recruitment thread as I wanted to see the character sheets and prematurely found out who's going to die. I'm really enjoying reading through both nonetheless.

Prak: Refluffed warlock is apparently great for many unusual character concepts.

[Prak]

It really is. My biggest gripe with warlock is that it's too limited. It should probably start with two inv.s, plus EB, and gain one every level or too.

[OgreBattle]

Crypts of chaos is inspirational to read, I'd love to see your design notes for running it.

[Korgan0]

Archie is seriously one the favourite characters I've ever played, and I'm still mad about his death.

[Ancient History]

Archie was a mensch. Also, seven cards from the Deck of Many Things.

[/edit]Oh, and the episode in the library...I had a lot of fun with that. A wizard's staff has a knob on the end indeed...

[radthemad4]

It really is. My biggest gripe with warlock is that it's too limited. It should probably start with two inv.s, plus EB, and gain one every level or too.

Give it a shot, you're damn good at homebrewing stuff.

Crypts of chaos is inspirational to read, I'd love to see your design notes for running it.

Seconded.

Oh, and the episode in the library...I had a lot of fun with that. A wizard's staff has a knob on the end indeed...

I was wondering where I heard that. Taking my time reading it due to real life stuff. Also, I'm inspired to put a Deck of Many Things in my next game, especially if there aren't any healers and the situation gets dire enough that the players want to try it.

I'm kinda surprised that TV shows like Community and Big Bang Theory imply that DnD players whose characters get killed have to stop playing and leave. Heck, I found it pretty cool that the players tried different character types whenever they died.

Is there a script or something that combines all the posts in two threads and then sorts them time wise? If not I'll try making one once I know web programming well enough (though, I might just get distracted and not get around to it).

[Koumei]

Give it a shot, you're damn good at homebrewing stuff.

There are actually a lot of Warlock homebrews. Many of them either A) are stupid, B) are incomplete, or C) all of the above.

I could see value in, for games where people are okay with modifying the classes a bit but don't want "actual homebrew" stuff, a Warlock rewrite though: increase Eldritch Blast a little, and perhaps give Invocations at "every level that is not cleanly divisible by 3", with those levels instead allowing a single known Invocation to be improved in some cool way.

That could be workable, and certainly sounds like something that someone should make when it becomes necessary because they're about to play such a game. Until then, kind of pointless.

I'm kinda surprised that TV shows like Community and Big Bang Theory imply that DnD players whose characters get killed have to stop playing and leave. Heck, I found it pretty cool that the players tried different character types whenever they died.

I'm pretty sure they don't actually know how the game is played. Like, at all. Great, you roll dice in it, there are sometimes dungeons and possibly dragons, there is a DM and there are players. That's less information than asking Yahoo! Answers for the basics, never mind all the effort of a Wiki search. So presumably they either read that old comic with the "NO, MARTHA, YOU'RE DEAD!" or they assume it's like going bankrupt in Monopoly.

[OgreBattle]

I'm pretty sure they don't actually know how the game is played. Like, at all. Great, you roll dice in it, there are sometimes dungeons and possibly dragons, there is a DM and there are players. That's less information than asking Yahoo! Answers for the basics, never mind all the effort of a Wiki search. So presumably they either read that old comic with the "NO, MARTHA, YOU'RE DEAD!" or they assume it's like going bankrupt in Monopoly.

Big Bang theory doesn't.
Community does, the plot of that episode is an asshole overpowered wizard trying to ruin the game for everyone else.

The producer Dan Harmon plays D&D, and talks about how NBC didn't want to do that episode. Or if they did it, they wanted everyone to be in costumes. Dan wanted it to really be a game of D&D so it's them sitting around a table and talking.

Also, the guy they make leave when his PC dies is the guy nobody likes.

You can check out the episode here:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/212754

It's what got me into Community.

[radthemad4]

That could be workable, and certainly sounds like something that someone should make when it becomes necessary because they're about to play such a game. Until then, kind of pointless.

Do you mean that sometimes a certain homebrew class can be good for the exceptional circumstances in one particular game, campaign, or DM, but not for normal usage?

So presumably they either read that old comic with the "NO, MARTHA, YOU'RE DEAD!" or they assume it's like going bankrupt in Monopoly.

That comic is hilarious for all the wrong reasons. Also, the DM is hot. It was about "Dark Dungeons" though after a few panels everyone in it just starts calling it D&D anyway.

Big Bang theory doesn't.
Community does, the plot of that episode is an asshole overpowered wizard trying to ruin the game for everyone else.

The producer Dan Harmon plays D&D, and talks about how NBC didn't want to do that episode. Or if they did it, they wanted everyone to be in costumes. Dan wanted it to really be a game of D&D so it's them sitting around a table and talking.

Also, the guy they make leave when his PC dies is the guy nobody likes.

You can check out the episode here:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/212754

It's what got me into Community.

It's what got my friends into D&D, which is what I was hoping for when I showed it to them. The downside is, they now expect me to handle all the rules and refuse to read any of them. I'm glad they showed a bunch of guys at a table, instead of the usual approach of just showing all the characters dressed up as D&D characters and running around a fantasy world that represents the game. Was Pierce a wizard? They never mentioned his class. He got a dragon on his side somehow and it was using magic.

[Koumei]

That could be workable, and certainly sounds like something that someone should make when it becomes necessary because they're about to play such a game. Until then, kind of pointless.

Do you mean that sometimes a certain homebrew class can be good for the exceptional circumstances in one particular game, campaign, or DM, but not for normal usage?

Well think of it this way: half the time in actual play (not in CharOp builds), you end up with a prestige class that was actually designed for your character in that game by the DM, it isn't a generic thing out of a book. It's common that stuff is specifically designed "for this one case" but isn't useful as a general thing that just exists.

So if I wanted to play a magical pastry chef, I wouldn't expect that someone had written one up on the off chance, I'd smash one together over an afternoon specifically for that game.

Likewise, normally if someone wants to play a Warlock, you tell them "Play Ceilingcat's Spherelock". But in a specific game where the DM wants to be able to more or less figure the class out by looking at Complete Arcane, I could see someone making a variant of that, for that game. But not just for general use.

[Maxus]

I've been enjoying the hell out of a Planescape game I've been in, with Koumei and Meikle and 8headeddragon DMing.

But I'd been going through a long dry spell for groups/games, and got an invite to fill in for a player who left.

[name_here]

I had a tremendous amount of fun with a relatively short game of Gamma World, with a three-man team of "Napoleon, The Blob, and half the X-men". I got literally thousands of temporary hitpoints on my regenerating fatass courtesy of an AoE lifedrain, and one memorable incident had our laser-eyed telepathic squirrel use magnetic control on a base laden with pre-war tech, which led to a number of mysterious tiny bent bits of metal flying out of the armory along with the weapons and random cookware. A few rounds later the building exploded.

[Prak]

That could be workable, and certainly sounds like something that someone should make when it becomes necessary because they're about to play such a game. Until then, kind of pointless.

Do you mean that sometimes a certain homebrew class can be good for the exceptional circumstances in one particular game, campaign, or DM, but not for normal usage?

Well think of it this way: half the time in actual play (not in CharOp builds), you end up with a prestige class that was actually designed for your character in that game by the DM, it isn't a generic thing out of a book. It's common that stuff is specifically designed "for this one case" but isn't useful as a general thing that just exists.

So if I wanted to play a magical pastry chef, I wouldn't expect that someone had written one up on the off chance, I'd smash one together over an afternoon specifically for that game.

Likewise, normally if someone wants to play a Warlock, you tell them "Play Ceilingcat's Spherelock". But in a specific game where the DM wants to be able to more or less figure the class out by looking at Complete Arcane, I could see someone making a variant of that, for that game. But not just for general use.

...can I move to Australia and play with your group?

[Koumei]

I don't have a real-life group, that was all a hypothetical.
When I was in Melbourne, well, I remind you that I printed out a (significantly smaller than the current) Disgaeagame set, handed it out and said "I'm running this". And it happened, people went along with it. But I also played one (1) session of "Pathfinder, level 2, no D&D-specific things, no splatbooks, PRD only, final destination." The DM was being an ass about it (and other things).

And make sure you go by plane, because the Prime Minister is determined to STOP THE BOATS FULL OF FOREIGNERS.

---

Anyway, I'm trying to think of my best games, and it's tricky - they usually end up good, with specific things that are "the best part of this game". Oddly enough, I think the best would have been:

Iron Kingdoms: that's right, it's by Privateer "PLAY LIKE YOU HAVE A PAIR OF BIG MANLY BALLS AND TORTURE ANIMALS WITH YOUR BALLS THAT ARE MADE OUT OF METAL BECAUSE THEY'RE BALLS" Press. This was back when it was a D&D product, not their own thing. I was playing a Warlock, straight from C.Arc, and that was unfortunate, but I made it work. It also had Warforged, Shifters and Changelings, because the DM was sort of rolling a Katamari through every steampunk d20 book he could find.

We did a lot of our own stuff, got in the good books of the mafia boss of Five Fingers (the good books where you get a blank cheque), and got through the first two segments of the big evilsword saga. The characters never fought one another but still had their own views on things and disagreed on things. And it was something like four sessions in where I told two of the other players that I wasn't playing an elf, I was playing a changeling (I always kept the same identity). The other player I told very late on, because it amused me that he said I was bad at keeping character secrets secret.

It just worked well and was a fun game. I have a folder for that character - five pages for the character sheet, some fiction for between-sessions stuff my character was up to, some art, and photocopies of the relevant C.Arc pages. The DM still has all the info so technically if I moved back we could jump back into the game after... more than 5 years.

It was a lot of fun.

I also had a really good campaign of Kindred of the AgEast. We just got into character for it, worked together strongly, treated the paths of enlightenment seriously (in character), made stupid jokes (out of character), made a haiku summary of every session at the end (never mind that it was set in ancient China, not Japan), and it worked really well. Also it started ancient, and we lasted into the modern era, at the "your stats cap out at 8 and you can gain Chi just by soaking it in through the air" stage.

One player from that named me Verses, because of all the verses of haiku. Also because Verses = Versus = VS = Vodka Sink, because of the speed at which I would consume it.

[Prak]

My group tends to vociferously reject homebrew stuff, unless it's something they've tinkered with. They all fap to the "BUT YOU NEVER RUN OUT OF USES!!!" philosophy that led to WotC making the warlock the way it is.

[radthemad4]

I've been enjoying the hell out of a Planescape game I've been in, with Koumei and Meikle and 8headeddragon DMing.

Details?

I had a tremendous amount of fun with a relatively short game of Gamma World, with a three-man team of "Napoleon, The Blob, and half the X-men". I got literally thousands of temporary hitpoints on my regenerating fatass courtesy of an AoE lifedrain, and one memorable incident had our laser-eyed telepathic squirrel use magnetic control on a base laden with pre-war tech, which led to a number of mysterious tiny bent bits of metal flying out of the armory along with the weapons and random cookware. A few rounds later the building exploded.

Telepathic squirrel used magnetic control? Well, you didn't say s/he's only telepathic. Gamma world sounds cool. I'll give it a look.

It also had Warforged, Shifters and Changelings, because the DM was sort of rolling a Katamari through every steampunk d20 book he could find.

Using tons of sources can be tricky, but amazing when it works. Sounds like it did here.

The characters never fought one another but still had their own views on things and disagreed on things. And it was something like four sessions in where I told two of the other players that I wasn't playing an elf, I was playing a changeling (I always kept the same identity). The other player I told very late on, because it amused me that he said I was bad at keeping character secrets secret.

Awesome . Reminds me of the UMD rogue pretending to be a wizard I read about somewhere. Do players typically not show their character sheets to other players? Or did you just write elf on your's, fake it up some more and only tell the MC about being a changeling?

It just worked well and was a fun game. I have a folder for that character - five pages for the character sheet, some fiction for between-sessions stuff my character was up to, some art, and photocopies of the relevant C.Arc pages. The DM still has all the info so technically if I moved back we could jump back into the game after... more than 5 years.

It was a lot of fun.

I also had a really good campaign of Kindred of the AgEast. We just got into character for it, worked together strongly, treated the paths of enlightenment seriously (in character), made stupid jokes (out of character), made a haiku summary of every session at the end (never mind that it was set in ancient China, not Japan), and it worked really well. Also it started ancient, and we lasted into the modern era, at the "your stats cap out at 8 and you can gain Chi just by soaking it in through the air" stage.

One player from that named me Verses, because of all the verses of haiku. Also because Verses = Versus = VS = Vodka Sink, because of the speed at which I would consume it.

Thanks for sharing. It's amazing even though the games are over, so much content has been created during them. Looking forward to creating long lasting memories myself someday.

[Koumei]

Do players typically not show their character sheets to other players? Or did you just write elf on your's, fake it up some more and only tell the MC about being a changeling?

We don't usually share our character sheets.
That said, these days there's generally a rule of "you can keep secrets from other characters, but not other players - announce this stuff at the start". Possibly with some kind of veto power being in effect. That bit is mainly because of the various games where two other people (who weren't in that game) always like to play secret chaos cultists or mutants or whatever.

[Maxus]

I've been enjoying the hell out of a Planescape game I've been in, with Koumei and Meikle and 8headeddragon DMing.

Details?

The party are members of a mercenary guild in Sigil, that's been reformed and was, at first, trying to make a name for themselves.

I came in after...a dozen sessions or so? Something like that. Anyway, I play an abomination of a githyanki--Monk, Githyanki Paragon (which I wrote years ago and wanted to test out), and a PrC which is part Straigh-Edge Vegan, part Sinner from Koumei's Disgaea game.

I'm enjoying it because one reason I stopped playing for a while was consistently horrible luck with the dice. I mean, hit ONCE in a seven-round-fight sort of bad.

That and the group had slowly gotten...weird. Half of them were all "YEEEEAH PATHFINDER" and the other half decided that D&D was the worst game in the world. One of them would literally hold forth for ten minutes on "No matter what it is, there's a game which does it better than D&D".

[name_here]

Yeah, in GammaWorld you roll for d4 physical and mental mutations, and mr. "Half the X-men" got four of each, all positive.