How many of you guys play D&D?`?

I played in high school. Never found a good group for it in college—did some Shadowrun and some Mage, but not D&D. Don’t know anyone for role-playing at all now.

I’m playing Aberrant right now. I’ve never played D&D but would be interested in playing it, as well as other tabletop RPGs.

I dont know anybody who still plays either.

I played it back in junior high (1983–84) all the time. Had all the books, the whole nine yards.

I’ve actually never tried D&D. But if I did get into it, I wouldn’t have anybody to play with. My friends aren’t into that stuff.

Yeah, someone really needs to figure out a way to play tabletop RPGs via the Internet in such a way that it really does seem like being around a table with friends… I’m thinking a webcam and voice chat would be a good start, character sheets via a website so everyone can see and it can be edited as needed. One problem would be the dice rolls, and having players not lie about them, rolling on the webcam wouldn’t be a solution cause I doubt one could read all the dice easily, plus you’re moving around the cam so much, it’d never work. One option, having a dice rolling Flash app on that website with character sheets, such that the person selects the dice and presses the “ROLL” button, everyone can see the dice roll and see the final result. Of course all the source code would need to be open source and readable by anyone (in the case of Flash, one would need to buy the program, which should not have to happen) to ensure no cheat or bug existed. But it’s possible.

Oh, not only is it possible, but apparently Wizards already implemented some of these features in their new D&D release! Of course I’m much more interested in creating an overall solution for internet roleplaying of all types of games, and very very interested in it not being owned by one big and nasty if I do say so myself company.

I have looked into that program and I don’t like it… it is too… video-game like.
I loved WebRPG, but then they went to payfor without changing anything but some of the icons… so I stopped using them, but that was years ago, so I bet they might have upgraded, or just died and went away.

I have been thinking about solutions too, Java would work, but then the program would just be a nock off of WebRPG, and thus, suck. Flash would be perfect, save for the outrageous price involved for the Flash program. Although I bet there are people out there that have third-party programs that would allow you to use flash without paying Adobe.

Another option would be to script something up that would run on both Windows and Mac, but then you run into the massive problem of: What language to use? What features should be and what will be. If everyone was smart and used Mac, I would say using Cocoa would be the way to go, but not everyone is sold on the idea of Mac… yet, and probably won’t be for a VERY long time, thanks to the price and Apple’s horrible customer care.

I Cast Magic Missile!

at the darkness?

HOLY CRAP! I thought I was the only one who heard that clip! Haha! You just made my day! Lurve to you!

Is that even on YouTube anymore?
I saw it at the end of the game, and then only once more in college on my friends computer. I want to see it again so bad!

I believe a teacher of mine showed it to me. He had an mp3… I’ve been meaning to ask him for that…

WOO!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHdXG2gV01k

This is the one I saw on my friends computer, I think it is the best. If you ever get that mp3, you have to tell me!

I definitely play D&D, quite frequently; there’s a large group of us at university as well (10 in my group alone—about the same size as the one I played with in my home town), some of whom are new players—we’ve gotten a lot of people quite hooked! We’ve also had a lot of luck finding large groups of gamers over here in London… there seem to be a ton of large gaming stores both here and in France (i.e. the main other country I’ve visited lately), and they’re always well-stocked… Finally, the DM I currently play with also runs games for a bunch of young kids—some as young as 11… So from my perspective, there’s no problem with D&D not being played… and without any of that creepy stuff you were talking about either :)

D&D. I just started playing last year, and i have to say that i was immediantly hooked. My stepdad learned how to play when he was in prison and has sense then taught me. Its amazing. The thing is, is that im not even a player, im the DM(Dungeon Master) and basically get to play God. I give my players a chance of course, but they need to be able to think. So far i have 7 players in my group and have created my own little world. The comic book store you were probably at was probably what it was, a comic book store, not a hobby shop. Hobby shops tend to have more along the lines of D&D then anywhere else, or large bookstores such as books a million or Barnes and Noble.

And just to say, most D&D players, are not the creepy individuals who you described. I’ve met a few, but almost all of the players i play with are actually pretty cool.

~Zaxwar91 Dungeon Master of Faranneer

It is my favourite hobby. I play whenever I can, and I have a good group with a great DM, even though all of us have jobs and families and it’s hard to meet. One is a baker that works weird hours, the other is a rock star who is always on tour, and I am an internationally wanted terrorist on the run (ok, not quite, but I travel a lot). Luckily our DM and another player are just lazy bums, so at least 3 of us can meet usually. I hope to start playing again regularly soon.

Somebody needs to do something simple and pick-up-and-play for DnD online so that we can find each other. Also, coordinating once a week to somebody’s house is more difficult than meeting one night a week on the internet. Stsf.net does that, and I’m trying to find something for DnD like that, too. Maybe we could all put our heads together and code up a javascript/icetea/cocoa chatroom with char sheets and dice?

well I knew people who used to play on mIRC, and it even had a random number generator that you could use as a die (so everybody saw the roll simultaneously). I can type fast enough to even DM such sessions, though I still feel that personal interaction (and eating crisps, shouting at each other or just hanging out talking about girls while the DM is calculating experience) also adds to the whole thing. I have a good group of friends that use DnD to just get together and have fun (sometimes we don’t even play much).

A solution for the online game is Skype or some similar technology. It is generally doable, but usually it’s easier to just place an ad in your local newspaper and find someone close to you. Even on that godforsaken uncultured island there were at least 10 people (generally young kids though) that were interested. And I got 3 more hooked :)

Wizards is definitely in the process of setting up an online ‘Game Table’—of course, you do have to subscribe to the D&D Insider, which isn’t too expensive but the cost is there… On the plus side, they have not only character sheets and generator, but a character visualiser (I like playing around with that kind of thing), and I believe their tabletop setup is supposed to be 3-D… never tried it myself, but might try and get my uni to pay for a school subscription…

As for meeting players, last time I went on the Wizards forum (admittedly a long time ago) there was a board for finding other players; that would be one easy way to hook up with a group. I’m sure there are others out there, but probably for specific groups (that’s how it was in the UK, at any rate)—takes some googling, perhaps.

I have not played it since 1982. I have made a lot of maps and characters since then but never really played them.

Save vs. +5 Question of Geekery…..

fails to save

(yep, I’m another player)

~/me casts Thread Resurrection~

Meetup.com is a great place to find other players in your area. I’m organizing an old-school AD&D campaign pretty soon. I’ve been itching to play again, and my hubby can’t wait to shake the dust out of his DMG.

+10 tooth-picks of destruction +20 vs gingivitis

i’m mastering (supposedly) a campaign right now, but i think D&D players are a a dying breed, at least the good ones. Plus, there are several people that, like me, became fed up with the system of the game and decided to play other games, like the call of cthulhu or Mutants & Masterminds

I, for instance, have come to dislike the system D&D employs, expecially the whole classes & levles thing. It’s a progressioln thatdoesn’t sound realistic and isn’t really coherent with the whole setting.

Wizards casting an x number of spells a day? and having to pick them beforehand? i never understood that concept, what are they supposed to do? learn them by memory and then say them out loud? It’s not like sorcerers, who cast them with their own willpower or innate energy or whatever, we’re talking about people who learn this stuff, no personal skill except intelligence (which is the ability to learn). That’s why i’ve started playing D&D with the mechanics from Mutants & masterminds, which is way more realistic and varied when it comes to creating characters and powersets. Finally a rogue can learn a couple of gimmicks if he wants to without having to take three levels as a wizard.

I play D&D, though I haven’t in too long. You can, as others may have pointed out, order books off the internet. I also play a variety of other games of the same sort. Try out Unknown Armies or Nobilis. Dogs in the Vineyard is cool too.

I don’t anymore, but I played for a number of years, got familiar with second and third edition.

Some of my characters included Amrath, a mentally retarded paladin, Brunor, a silent individual who acted as the party’s tank, (And bitch slapped everyone who tried to ride him.) Hotaru, a lesbian mage who never got any, and Azazel, a demon from Hell with hair that shined like a rainbow.

That character lasted ONE fucking day, killed by one of my own characters when they got ’‘confused’’.

I’ve visited a lot of places, the inevitable Waterdeep, Hell itself, Darksun realms, (I was a Thri Kreen.) and even this plane where there was all these weird mechanical cretaures. Some day, I need to visit Ravenloft.

But yeah, we had fun, as much with setting hordes of zombies on fire as much as getting stoned as all fuck and eating pizza while waiting for the players who always showed up like four hours late.
It was a damn good way to spend our Sundays.

Unfortunately, we’ve all parted ways long ago, and I’ve had no real interest to pursue this much anymore, but I’ve always been fascinated on how elaborate the entire universe is. It’s more than amazing.

@Symbeline Amrath, a mentally retarded paladin
In my game group that would be considered a redundant statement.

Even if their intelligence was higher than 4? My character was lawful good, but only because he didn’t know any better.

@Symbeline The way the only paladin in my group plays his paladin makes him retarded regardless of his INT score.

Actualy, it makes him a self-righteous <holy text> thumping suicidal fuckhead, but you get my point.

Lawful Good doesn’t have to mean Lawful Stupid though.

@Hobbes no, it doesn’t.

The paladin code however generally brings cases of terminal stupidity to the table.

Like when the paladin was left bleeding to death on a snowy hill because his nemesis (three levels higher than him, and tweaked to perfection by yours truly) almost killed him in one shot after he challanged him to a duel, instead of surrendering the item he wanted and legging it, like any sane human being would do after seeing a massive figure entirely covered in spiked black armor pointing a broadsword in his general direction.

Mind you, he didn’t die because i felt generous, and had him rescued by another paladin of his order, he was already down to -7 and freezing to death. Plus i didn’t wnat to kill him, i wanted him to chicken out of the fight to give a little of internal struggle to his character, instead he ended up with a broken chainmail and magic sword, a shattered clavicle, two broken ribs and his right arm stomped with armored boots.

Incidentally, we could try and organize a game via fluther. Afterall this is a sort of forum and i see no reason why the mods would delete such a thread. Expecially if we try and make it interesting to read for others as well.

@Thammuz – In my experience, wanting a player to react to a situation in a particular way almost never works out. Also, in the heroic fantasy literature D&D is based on, heroes are supposed to battle intimidating villains who outclass them, and it is the very fact that they are outmatched which makes it heroic. I would say that the Paladin was acting exactly as a Paladin should – refusing to save his own skin by giving into evil.

@D&D games do work in forum contexts, and it might well work here. We’d have to put it in the social section though, since the general purpose of the site is to answer specific questions.

@Thammuz So all your paladins are automatically retards? Boring. I always thought playing D&D was about the players going on an adventure and using their minds to get through it, not abiding by the DM’s bias.

@Hobbes I would say that the Paladin was acting exactly as a Paladin should – refusing to save his own skin by giving into evil. Which in context, he being the only one able to resurrect his own god, and therefore probably supposed to care a little more about his personal safety for the good of his whole order and the forces of good in general, if anything because he couldn’t fall, being the only working paladin of his order and with no god to atone to. Long story… was the stupidest thing he could do.

@Symbeline No, the one paladin i had has always been the same player and has always been a retard. I can’t dictate the players’ actions so if he acts like a retard i’m only responsible for the mauling that comes after.

“Frylock jumps into the pit to collect the treasure.” It’s not the DM’s fault if the player is a fucking moron, if he plowed straight towards an immediate painful and humiliating death it’s no more my fault than a canyon’s for the morons who jump in it.

I play when I can…but I am mostly used to just dreaming and play Balder’s Gate 2… but since I found the Lets Play walk through I stopped playing… Now I just play Civ 2 and I own the 3rd and 4rth Editions players handbooks… I can’t find others to play with

@talljasperman If you’d be in for it i could DM a game here on Fluther… You’d have to rely on my rolls, and i’m a pretty mean bastard when i want to be (not about the dice rolls, but you get the point), but if someone else wanted to participate i’d be all for it.

I play just about every Tuesday with people I’ve known since high school. We usually play 3.5 edition, but sometimes 4th (which I loathe), and lately a lot of d20 Modern.

Also, for most of the time we’ve been doing it it’s been largely a game occupied by couples. Right now my fiancee is the only woman who regularly plays, but for awhile it was three sets of couples and two non-coupled people. So take that stereotypes.

@aanuszek1 I’m pretty sure every D&D nerd has heard that recording, usually accompanied by someone’s amusing animation.

Also I apologize for the inadvertant heterosexism in that statement, as it sounds like I assume couples to all be male+female couples. Ours were, though. None of the gay or bi players who played with us ever brought a partner along.

Also, all this paladin talk reminds me of something I’m sure some of you will appreciate. Our next campaign is an all-paladin campaign. Everyone has to be a paladin, though using the 4th edition rules the DM is allowing us to do hybrid classes.

@incendiary_dan – You know, 4th Ed. has grown on me. You just have to be OK with the abstractedness and the focus on tactical combat, and some really fun fights can result. As much love as I have for 3E, fights tended to devolve into “I hit him again with my sword!”, and there were often situations in which certain characters just couldn’t do anything fun or useful. That doesn’t really happen in 4E – you pretty much always have interesting options at any given time, and cinematic moves are encouraged.

@Hobbes and there were often situations in which certain characters just couldn’t do anything fun or useful.

That’s only if you can’t build you characters properly. ;)

Yea, the only time that was a problem in our games was when someone was stupid enough to, for instance, make a barbarian character with no armor or other protective items…at level 15. “I didn’t know I needed armor!” “I didn’t know bards get spells!” etc.

I guess I mean more in combats. Barbarians for example, even at high levels, tend to respond to any enemy with “I turn on my rage and hit him with my axe!”. Magic-users have many more options, and it’s not a huge problem in any case (the game is still tons of fun), just a gripe.

@Hobbes not true. Barbarians do become boring, if you go on single class up to level 15, because you probably have only the damage and accuracy enhancing feats which limits your options, but if you only spend one talent to take sunder, for instance, it turns battles in a barrel of fun. First turn, sunder weapon, then sunder armor, then beat the shit out of the helpless enemy with a full force power attack because the guy has no defense bonus except for his dexterity.

That said, even combat classes, even the most boring combat class, which many consider to be the warrior, even though IMO it’s the barbarian, has so many options (expecially the warrior that can take a shitload of specialized combat talents like improved disarm, improved tackle and so on) in D&D 3.5 that you only end up with “i hit it with my sword” against boring, probably underleveled, enemies against which any tactic is a waste of time. Which is generally the DM’s fault, rather than the game’s.

I’m currently writing my own character class for 3.5e. I call it a Medicine Man.

I’m still waiting for friends to play with… But I purchased 4th edition

I’m sorry to hear that, @talljasperman. 4th edition still annoys me.

@incendiary_dan I hate 4th edition I will stick to MMORG D&D online….