The Tabletop RPG thread for cool people who roll dice

Striderhoang

Naruto refugee
Staff member
Robot
Apr 15, 2020
22
15
3
SoCal
Hey you! Do you play D&D? Of course you do, Matt Mercer aka digital cowboy McCree made it cool. And sometimes the funnest thing you can do whenever your group fails to convene for a game is share all the cool stuff you WOULD’VE done if you did play that day. But I'm getting ahead of myself with witty descriptions. If it involves shooting dice on a table like a person with a bad habit while pretending to be something fantastical, not just D&D but including other modules like Pathfinder or Star Wars or whatever, let it out here.

Want to talk about cool ideas? Share it here.

Want to run ideas by internet strangers? Do it here.

Have any questions about playing your game? Ask about it here.

I mean, anyways, I spent my day today researching epic level 10 and beyond spells. The kind of spells where you just think it and you erase someone from existence completely. Or you cause fire to rain from a storm cloud and completely decimate an environment. My personal favorite I found is Nailed To The Sky, where you just fling one target into low orbit almost permanently.
 
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RolanberryPrins

Aggressive Crybaby
May 10, 2020
40
53
18
I found a microgame called "This Discord has Ghosts in It" on itch.io where a group of investigators explore a haunted house that is actually a discord server. The inspectors can only voice chat, and the ghosts that haunt them can only text. It looks super cool and the devs have community copies if people want to take a look for themselves. But if people are interested, I'd love to try it out.
 
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Parismio

Lemon Zinger
May 11, 2020
25
24
18
Noneya
How do i get people to pick me on roll20 now that theres nearly 50 people in the applications threads due to the pandemic? I really wanna play...
 

Striderhoang

Naruto refugee
Staff member
Robot
Apr 15, 2020
22
15
3
SoCal
How do i get people to pick me on roll20 now that theres nearly 50 people in the applications threads due to the pandemic? I really wanna play...
I’m not sure. I’ve been brought up thinking D&D is something you play with people you know, not strangers you apply for. I don’t use the term friends because it could even include people you’re not on a first name basis with like coworkers, people from a discord you frequent, or Destructoid forum members.
 
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Parismio

Lemon Zinger
May 11, 2020
25
24
18
Noneya
I’m not sure. I’ve been brought up thinking D&D is something you play with people you know, not strangers you apply for. I don’t use the term friends because it could even include people you’re not on a first name basis with like coworkers, people from a discord you frequent, or Destructoid forum members.
Well its kinda like going to your local game shop right cept online? Where they have dnd nights and you can just join a table of people thats open. If you like em, then exchange numbers and let em know youd like to play again.
 

RolanberryPrins

Aggressive Crybaby
May 10, 2020
40
53
18
How do i get people to pick me on roll20 now that theres nearly 50 people in the applications threads due to the pandemic? I really wanna play...

You DM.

A more helpful response: I think you'd have more success finding a group outside of roll20. Using things like r/LFG or RPG.net forums, or even discord servers of TTRPG content creators (I'm thinking specifically of the MCDM/Matt Colville discord that has a large "Looking for Adventure" channel, as well as in-server play-by-post). Wizards might have something specifically for D&D Adventurers League online, which is that drop-in-drop-out gaming you'd find at a FLGS. Pathfinder Society/Starfinder Society is the Paizo equivalent. You could also look for people here on dtoid. I'm always down to play and I really enjoyed the Dungeons n Dtoid we did for Extra Life💕
 

✨ Matt ✨

Garbage Pail Kid
May 10, 2020
106
150
43
You are wonder Strider ILY.
One the subject of reoccurring similarities between campaigns, one feature I've really enjoyed working into a lot of my campaigns is anomalies a la Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic and the associated STALKER/Metro series. Basically unnatural objects or phenomena caused by events beyond human comprehension. In Roadside Picnic it's a result of alien visitation, but you can really work it into literally anything with a supernatural element. For example, in D&D I've used the concept in places where there were large battles with a lot of magic at play. Landscapes filled with plants and animals ever so slightly twisted by magical residue, silent shadows of the past drifting around the abandoned battlefields at night, etc.

In Mutant Year Zero I went full STALKER and made it a result of the Rot, the game's general term for radiation/rogue nanotechnology/chemical warfare or generally any of the negative aspects left as a result of the super-advanced weapons used in the world-ending war. So for stumbling upon a random dangerous area and braving the dangers, they get some kind of twisted item warped by the Rot. Generally I make it kind of mysterious, like a flashlight that never runs out of power but gives off a strange and indescribably-colored light, or a slightly bend and discolored copper pole that functions the same as an immovable rod from D&D. However, by holding onto it they suffer a penalty in the form of the game's Rot point system, so it stays balanced.
 

Striderhoang

Naruto refugee
Staff member
Robot
Apr 15, 2020
22
15
3
SoCal
I’ve never been good at organically introducing sudden atmospheric elements in my game when it was appropriate.

In the last game I DM’ed, the players worked out of a big city that carved a living around a giant arcane tree. It was the best of an urban environment combined with a forest biome. But because this was a colossal tree, it was of course tied closely to arcane energies that made its weather unstable and unique. Only I usually forgot to integrate interesting hazards and effects.

The few times I did, I introduced a knife storm, radiant sun squalls, and extreme chill blizzards. I had more ideas to toy around and throw in like wild magic surges, conflagration storms, and dead waves.
 

Palvikinkku

Ambassador of Finland
May 11, 2020
18
20
3
Kankaanpää
Have I complained I've had this massive fever to play any p'n'p RPG?

Well I have and to alleviate it I ordered Pathfinder 2e rulebook so I can learn it on my own time, prolly because I will be GM-DM.
 

✨ Matt ✨

Garbage Pail Kid
May 10, 2020
106
150
43
Have I complained I've had this massive fever to play any p'n'p RPG?

Well I have and to alleviate it I ordered Pathfinder 2e rulebook so I can learn it on my own time, prolly because I will be GM-DM.
I've heard very good things about Pathfinder 2e! Haven't had the chance to try it myself but I look forward to it.
 

Striderhoang

Naruto refugee
Staff member
Robot
Apr 15, 2020
22
15
3
SoCal
Have I complained I've had this massive fever to play any p'n'p RPG?

Well I have and to alleviate it I ordered Pathfinder 2e rulebook so I can learn it on my own time, prolly because I will be GM-DM.
I had a similar fever at one point for no raisin at all and it was the Star Wars game, starting with the Edge of the Empire expansion.

that game is interesting, proprietary dice for successes/failures and advantage/disadvantage but I’ll be damned if I don’t play as a droid.
 

RolanberryPrins

Aggressive Crybaby
May 10, 2020
40
53
18
I love Edge of the Empire. Though I'm a little biased as I used to run demo games for my store. 🤔 now that I think about it, the range mechanic would lend itself well to theatre of the mind play online...hmm...and EoE is definitely my favorite of the three (Edge, Age of Rebellion or Force and Destiny) as it lends itself to high-shenanigan adventures the most.

I also have been reading through 2e. I'm really interested to see how it plays but I can't bring myself to watch actual plays. I'm very bad at multi-tasking while listening to something and the thought of spending 3+ hours quietly watching talking heads does not thrill me. I hope it will catch on enough to have some good one shot podcasts.
 

Striderhoang

Naruto refugee
Staff member
Robot
Apr 15, 2020
22
15
3
SoCal
I forgot to mention my current character

I’m playing a tiefling wizard of conjuration who is a construction work. All the spells in his book are about helping his general contractor work such as mold earth, shatter, and web. My friend is running a Waterdeep Hold campaign so my character is exploring the dungeon in hopes of expanding his spellbook and maybe taking some tips on architecture around the place.

Both in and out of character I’ve been tempted to learn some necromancy to capitalize off the cheap labor it could afford him, especially after our first major NPC was a revenant.
 
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Striderhoang

Naruto refugee
Staff member
Robot
Apr 15, 2020
22
15
3
SoCal
I hope to try the artificer next time I make a character, if only to make a pipe and call it a magic shotgun.
 

AtomicBanana

Technically the best. Literally the worst.
May 11, 2020
48
41
18
Trying to find a good system to duet with the girlfriend that keeps my interest enough that I want to keep running it. Tried Star Wars, Deadlands, and Call of Cthulhu, but my GM style is very based off player input (and the consequences thereof) so it's been really tough trying to run games for a person new to RPGs who also is in the "burn it down" phase of being a player. I've found that you can't really give serious consequences to a player who just burns the next thing down and doesn't care if their character dies.
 

AllCutUp1136

Active member
Jul 4, 2020
92
94
28
So, I never ran a tabletop game before, but I wouldn't mind joining one if you guys wanna get a campaign going on Roll20... just sayin'...