Spoony's PnP Tales

[Akasen]

Yeah, Spoony's PnP stories are quite entertaining. So much so that I decided to smash my face against the keyboard, find some D&D manuals and attempt to get my friends into it. I then found out that two of them had already been playing for a short time.

I will note that OpenRPG is fine and all (I notice someone mention it) but MapTools might be even better. Last week I spent the whole weekend and a day comparing MapTools to OpenRPG. I found MapTools to be more user friendly.

 

[Xor]

Pathfinder is a modification to the D&D 3.5 rules. It supposedly fixes a bunch of balance issues and gives non-casters more to do.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

whaz pathfinder and who gonna GM

The REAL DnD 4th edition, or 3.5e Enhanced Edition if you prefer. Best incarnation of DnD if you ask me.

 

[Akasen]

I'm just gonna leave this here then while on the topic of Spoony. <result>

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2009/09/15/ ... -followup/

 

[Renegen]

I'd like to say I'm up too, except I don't have a microphone. Will this be primarily for external consumption? Also, never DMed.

 

[Angelo85]

Well at least the GM should have a mic, or be a really fast typer?

Like I said in the other thread I'm all up for playing in a session and/or campaign. Let's rape, plunder and burn!

Never GMed. Would give it a shot if it wasn't a system I'm not all that familar with.

 

[Nope]

No system is really balanced.
Some of them are just worse off than others but i've even seen utter shit like RIFTS being turned into a playable game by a decent GM.
I do find it funny that a WW-player is complaining about balance though since just about every game they've ever put out is broken by simply specializing your character.

D&D's combat is as fast as it gets if you bother picking up a well-designed edition.
AD&D 1E without using all the optional combat rules is a pretty fast one if you have a moderately experienced DM.
Retro-Clones are a good choice for something even less heavy and many of them do away with some of the quirks of older editions.
The original sandbox setting with dungeon crawl games had plenty of "story" and rolepaying to them it just didn't necessarily railroad the players to go along with it.
And what's the point in playing a game without the risk of dying?

As for the stuff regarding the Tomb of Horrors it's painfully similar to hearing the Biodrones talk about what constitues a CRPG.
The TOH module was written as a response after Gygax felt his players had become way too powerful and was as a result more intent on challenging their skills as players than their overpowered characters.
Both of them managed to beat it SOLO despite that. Rob Kuntz simply brought a ton of Orc henchmen to set off traps ahead of him and then just ran off after getting his hands on the loot.
While it was a tournament module (which were all beateable, just much harder than average modules) it was beaten several times, once by using one of Acerak's own instant-kill traps on him while Gygax was DMing.

 

[Xor]

Goddammit, of course by the time I see the thread the game's already full.

 

[ManjuShri]

New one.

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/03/04/counter-monkey-thieves-world-part-1-poor-impulse-control/
http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/03/04/counter-monkey-thieves-world-part-2-the-chicago-way/

 

[Havoc]

Great campaign. I wish that someday I will DM such a campaign, where players just take the plot with their genius and plotting.

 

[ManjuShri]

Yes it sounded like the embodiment of the perfect campaign, for the players and the DM, requiring both to be active and use their imaginations and wits whilst having a blast at the same time.

 

[Shadenuat]

I've got really interested in Thieves World after watching it, particularly it's magic and wounding system. I always wanted to DM a module where magic is powerful and rare, yet you can still make a lot of fun with it, and combats are deadly, but you could still, you know, have at least some throughout campaign. I implemented stuff like permanent HP and stats loss when combat was roleplayed the way those should be realistically implemented, but haven't been using any real system for it..

 

[LeStryfe79]

It's funny how much of a BRO Spoony is when he's talking about PnP, as opposed to his game and movie reviews. The dude must seriously be strung out to talk about a campaign for 2+ hours though. In many ways his struggles seem like a good analog to the basic Codex poster. He gets a pity from me...


Would also love to 5ed dnd playtest with spoons....

 

[J_C]

And here is his most recent video:

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/03/08/counter-monkey-the-prisoner-dilemma/

 

[Havoc]

And I sometimes agree and disagree. The prisoner dilemma is a good RP moment. It destroys parties, but only that the players made a weak party.
For example, now I'm DM'ing a long campaign for three players. Half-Orc Fighter/DragonDisciple, Dwarf Monk and Half-Elf Rogue/Assasin. An Evil party (LE, LE and NE). I sent them in a demiplane of a philosophical monk and after some trials the monk had a dilemma. Three choices. He could help the other guys (they were in the middle of tough trials), but will hurt him (in the last trail, a fight he had -8 to hit). He could make the trials harder for them, but get 50k of gold (and that was a lot of gold for them, because they're lords of a town and need cash for it, for upgrades and stuff). The last one was... he could kill them, get their stuff AND get 1 million gold. Yes, one million. Even one of the players said "I will not hang it over your head, because of that amount of money." The player had a dilemma. He was Lawful Evil. What he chosen? The first option. After five minutes of thinking. This, and many other moment, showed that they know that they need each other, they will work together and achieve great things. If they didn't work together, they would be slaughter couple of times before. For example, one of the characters could die (he lost an arm in fight with an orc chieftain, but he sliced him in half), because an enemy army was attacking. What the rogue and monk did? They went for him and dragged him couple of days to a healer (he didn't wake up). Dilemmas are good. If the group fights each other it's because the players created a shitty party.

 

[ManjuShri]

New episode.

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/03/12/counter-monkey-the-importance-of-wearing-pants/

 

[Renegen]

That's not the prisoner's dilemma.

 

[Xor]

That's not the prisoner's dilemma.

That was my first thought as well.

It's funny how much of a BRO Spoony is when he's talking about PnP, as opposed to his game and movie reviews. The dude must seriously be strung out to talk about a campaign for 2+ hours though.

Man, I could go on for hours about old tabletop campaigns. It's why /tg/ stories and these vlogs are so fun to watch. I think every long-time roleplayer has campaigns they look back on with fondness, and we know how it feels for others to reflect on the great games of their past.

 

[Murk]

It's not THE prisoner's dilemma but it's a dilemma with prisoners, I guess. I don't think Spoony ever meant it as THE prisoner's dilemma.

Fun video, pretty long but I enjoyed it. Would be cool for some more such stories.

 

[ManjuShri]

New episode.

http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/03/27/counter-monkey-dungeon-mastering-a-great-game/

 

[Havoc]

Nothing special.

 

[Infinitron]

https://twitter.com/#!/oreoantwiler

 

[Bruma Hobo]

 

[Falkner]

This guy has to be so fucking lonely. I remember his vlog about the new Twilight movie, which he did in a video conference with two other guys. He got drunk while complaining about the movie for about an hour and then told the other two guys that he doesn't enjoy watching shitty movies anymore since his girlfriend left him and that he's so lonely and doesn't have any friends at all. It was really awkward.

 

[Infinitron]

This guy has to be so fucking lonely. I remember his vlog about the new Twilight movie, which he did in a video conference with two other guys. He got drunk while complaining about the movie for about an hour and then told the other two guys that he doesn't enjoy watching shitty movies anymore since his girlfriend left him and that he's so lonely and doesn't have any friends at all. It was really awkward.

Wow. Link?