How Many Roleplayers on the Boards?
Offline Sorry I havn't posted anything in a while, been busy with work stuff. Anyways, I was contemplating the things that have driven me to and from atheism, and I would have to say that playing roleplaying games was a big part of it. I am more into the combat strategy part of roleplaying games, but as in most roleplaying games, you are forced to put yourself into someone else's shoes for a while. This recreational thinking is what got me pondering the Christian God and wondering why the Bible teaches that people are to be punished so harshly for things they have little control over. I realized that even though I myself am a pretty nice person, given different parents and circumstances I could easily have been a depraved individual.
So anyways, do we have any other roleplayers out there?
Chris
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I was really into the first MMOs like Ultima Online and Runescape and the MUDs (purely online text based games). I got into the paper-and-pencil roleplaying games like Rifts for awhile and Warhammer as well as AD&D. In high school, a lot of my friends helped create post-apolcalyptic games Mad Max style. We usually set up small scenarios during lunch and used only six-sided dice because each session could only last about an hour long.
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
(wait, are we both talking about the same type of roleplaying here?)
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
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If you are playing AD&D 2nd Edition and the Dungeon Master permits Female Drow as a race selection, Ninja (Rules from a Dragon Magazine from the early 80's) as a class selection, and you get bitten by a Weretiger, run with it.
If you are playing an elemental dragon and your brother is playing a high level wizard, and he casts a spell that makes your insides turn to gas, and he ties a rope around you and uses you as a balloon, don't tollerate it. Especially if he and the Dungeon Master can not take anything seriously for an hour and only refer to me as a "Bag Dragon" before lapsing into uncontrolled laughter.
Dear Sage, Rolemaster Middle Earth 2nd Age is the ultimate, not Ultima.
Dear Thingy, My place Tuesday again? I will have my dwarf.
Anyone see where I put my bag of holding?
No, no roleplayers here.
Who would want to finish what they have said with the same thing everytime?
I opened the post with a different expectation
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Yeah, are we talking about playing tactical combat video games (which also feature cut scenes for plot and no actual role playing), pencil and paper improv-acting-related silliness (*hides polyhedral dice*), or dressing up and setting up scenes during intimate encounters?
-Triften
I play D&D 3.5. I was the DM for a group at summer, but since then, I haven't played agin due to the lack of players.
Personally, I go back as far as the table top games from the 70's. Right now, I am playing Eve-online and Guildwars. Also, a browser game called Ikarium.
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I have never had a chance to do more than dabble in RPGs. I remember trying to get friends interested in running a D&D Basic Set I found in my mom's stuff when I was in middle school(it was stolen from me while at school). I've played games with mild RPG elements, like Magic the Gathering and World of Warcraft. However, my son has become interested in D&D now, so I've purchased the 4th edition start set. We're going to give it a whirl as soon as I can get a few more people roped into a couple of hours of playtime.
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
4th edition plays too much like a MMORPG, the system is far too simplistic, very few choices for characters of the same class, all classes have basically the same powers: hit stuff and inflict "status" effect. So, if your son is 14 or older , I'd sugest 3.5.
He's 9, so 4th sounds about right. He also plays WoW, so he's used to that style of play already.
Well, he'll probably love 4th edition then, since it's designed to be a family game, unlike 3.5, which is designed for more nerdy people.
Yeah, it seems more straight forward. If he likes it, we might graduate to something more difficult later.
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
I played a little D&D back in high school with some friends who were really into it, but I don't think I would call myself a D&D player, even though it was pretty fun. I like the social aspect of it.
On a somewhat related nerdy note, anyone else in here looking forward to the Penny Arcade podcast where Gabe and Tycho (Penny Arcade), Scott Kurz (PvP), and Wil Wheaton (Star Trek), play D&D together with a professional DM from Wizards of the Coast? I really want them to post it already.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
I play RPG's all the time, mostly stuff like Final Fantasy, warcraft, with a little bit of Fable mixed in. In high school i played acouple of time with my friends D&D. I couldnt get into it because i would fall into a hole and at the bottom of the hole was a padded room which no one could escape... >_> (I'm being serious DM didn't like us to stay together...)
and i am too looking forward to that podcast to see how a real D&D game is played...
Umm, okie doke. Miscommunication, me thinks.
Very much so.
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
Reporting in:
Original D&D (including Greyhawk) in the 70's through AD&D 3.5 including other early pen/paper games like Boot Hill, Traveller and Space Opera.
On a side note I am a very ethical, nice and moral atheist - and I loved to play Chaotic Neutral (fun lovin', irreverent) magic users (wizards) but would play Chaotic Evil sometimes (often because the DM wanted me to for balance). I have had shivers run down my spine at some of the evil things I did or saw others do just for the expierence points, but never took it seriously until one of my friends quit playing because he "felt" a demon enter the room (in real life) once when our characters were doing evil. I have tried to convince him that it is his human (and humane) creepiness aversion that caused him to feel that way - to no avail. He used to love to play but won't to this day (20 years later) because of that experience - he loves to sit (for hours) and watch us play though. Strange dude.
As CE you get experience points for doing evil and I think what I did that creeped him out so much was...I had a soul stealing staff that enabled you to command souls to do your bidding after you captured them and I was always thinking of creative ways to get ex.p. using that feature. This time I had captured some kids souls and I sent them to whimper late at night in the bedrooms of dead babies and dead children to torture the mothers - softly cry until the parents come and stop when they come into the room then start again later. Further side note, I whispered this to the DM, he of course grimaced and said that was truely evil and here's your experience points and so others wanted to know and I whispered it to them and they shook their heads and that made everyone want to know more and then I got to this beautiful, sweet girl that (inexplicably) was playing with us and told her I couldn't tell her - she pushed and pushed and I said ok and I will never forget the look of horror and sadness that crossed her face. She sat quietly for a while and she treated me coldly from then on - lesson learned, never reveal your (even fake) depravity.
It is interesting because I am a kind, giving individual who would never think of doing something like that in real life, never liking to even hurt someones feelings - I want everyone around me to have fun. It's not that that is a part of my character that is hidden either, it's just logic saying - if I was evil, what are the things I can do to advance my character. I have seen some others that use D&D or games like it to act out in ways they otherwise cannot though.
Roll Tide Roll!
I love pen & paper RPGs. D&D has become sort-of 'meh' for me; InSpectres, Sorcerer, Dogs in the Vineyard and The Riddle of Steel are my all-time favorites.
Thingy: That log was the best. I laughed for almost half an hour straight.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Greyhawk has always been my favorite. Was never fond of Forgotten Realms, and Eberon makes me want to go Berzerker on the designers. I loved Traveller and Megatraveller. Never got the chance to play Space Opera. I remember Boot Hill coming out around the same time as the other throwaway games like Top Secret, Gang Busters, and Star Frontiers.
Have you gotten around to playing Hackmaster yet? First edition AD&D with some gameresque comic twists, it is. I wish I could get a group together to play anyhing, but the local populations idea of entertainment falls a little short of intelligent. Kicking dogs, molesting your cousins, driving snowmobiles at top speed in circles around the village while screaming at the top of your lungs, and suicide via hypothermia or strangulation seems to be the apex of entertainment. I just can't picture anyone within 500 miles of here being willing to play a game that didn't involve one or more of the above activities.
It takes a village to raise an idiot.
Save a tree, eat a vegetarian.
Sometimes " The Majority " only means that all the fools are on the same side.
Never played Hackmaster but sounds cool and I'd like to try it. I live in L.A. (Lower Alabama) and don't have time or a group to play here. I'm going to contact some of my old buddies (4 hours away in Birmingham) to see if they play it and I can come join in sometime soon.
Forgot about Top Secret and Gangbusters but you are right about them being throwaway like Boot Hill. Also, especially Boot Hill, too easy to die and nowhere near the amount of creativity potential of D&D or even Traveller.
The practical jokes in D&D were as much fun as the game itself (funny, Diagoras23). We trained little cute pomeranians to attack a low level mage friend around town - they would inflict enough nipping damage to keep him from conjuring so all he could do was run away - we had the townspeople laughing at him for weeks with that one. I had magic mouths on my cloak and bags sing, in harmony, the Hallilujah chorus whenever I said my name.
Can't do those things in Boot Hill.
Roll Tide Roll!
Hark reminds me of a good point.
Good friend in early High School was the son of a Pastor.
His father explained the christian aversion to role playing being due to believing that if you pretend you are someone else it is an insult to god, who has given you what you have. You are saying you are not happy with what he has given you.
I said, "Don't you also believe that he gave you your imagination?"
The conversions continue.
Demonoloy aside. I could read Fiend Folio and Guide to the outer planes, over and over.
Three cheers for Gary Gygax and the boys and girls!
Look out! Black Pudding!
Who would want to finish what they have said with the same thing everytime?
If there was a book published for it I've probably played it*
Right now some friends and I are flicking between Mutants & Masterminds and SLA Industries.
M
*warning: this statement may not be true
Forget Jesus, the stars died so that you could be here
- Lawrence Krauss
Myep, I still play from time to time. Not a lot anymore though, and I have all but quit MMORPGs (used to play Eve Online a lot)
Although there's quite a pile of Pen & Paper campaigns on the shelf I might still like to run some day.
I remember that when I used to go to church my youth pastor would occasionally give sermons about how evil role-playing games were. I remember one time when he told this long story about some kids who were playing a role-playing game about vampires. He claimed that because of the evil influence of this game the children ended up killing one of there friend’s parents. I kind on wish now that I had asked him for some kind of reference. The story seems really fishy.
I found an Internet site that includes the story that my pastor told me and some other stuff about why many religious people see these games as evil. Some interesting quotes are listed below
"An evaluation was made by Dr. Paul Vitz, professor of psychology at NYU, "The idea of using the game 'Magic' to teach Mathematics or special kinds of rational thought seems to me absurd..The likelihood that the 'Magic' program reinforces irrational and superstitious mental operations is a serious issue..It would not surprise me if the imagery and plot structures of 'Magic' had a pro-witchcraft and pro-pagan agenda, and it undermined traditional religious world views (whether Christian, Jewish, or Islamic) in those who used it regularly."
"Most FRPGs present a world-view that is antithetical and sometimes outright hostile to a Christian worldview. Whether the games treat fantasy and the occult as unreal, or as a desirable way of life, either way is in conflict with the Christian message of truth."
"Cognitive dissonance creates a tension between two loyalties, two concepts or self-perceptions. For example, parents, church, the Bible may teach one set of values which may be in conflict with the game. Peer pressure, the Game Master, or the game itself presents a conflicting influence. The child or adult may be presented with the option, "Am I big enough [or together enough] to handle a fantasy game about demons and sorcery or am I a wimp [or Mama's boy, or religious fanatic]?"
http://www.watchman.org/occult/frpgames2.htm
Basically I think Christians don't want any other made up fantasy to interfere with their own.
After I no longer believed in god I tried role-playing games to see what they were really like. After all the hype I had herd about them being evil I found them disappointing. I thought that they would be more exciting. Perhaps it was just the group I was playing with, or maybe it was just me.
Yep. I get together with my group once a week to play D&D 3.5 and D20 Modern.
... RPGs? sure... quite frequently... but NO larping -_-
My dice rolling RPG days were in highschool, once I left for the Navy I lost contact with my old friends, and never got back into it. Most of the RPG's I play now are video games. Playing one right now as I type this out.
Yah, CE is where I do my best work.
Dude, that is not evil, at least not by my standards.
Have you read the “Wheel of Time” series? I used to play a MUD that took place like 400 years post TG, so none of the book characters were around. And the faction system was complicated. There is the whole male/female thing, the seven ajahs and four basic alignments for 56 possible basic character types.
So basically my main character was an Asha'man of the green and loyal to the dark tower (black ajah in the books). I two years of playing, I progressed to the position of the most evil male channeler in the game. One time, I was traveling with a light/male/blue and there was the Carheinien noble who we had to get some information from.
So I channeled all the fingernails from one hand at the same time (before bothering to ask him any questions mind you) and the light guy freaked and healed him. So I ripped the nails from his other hand and the light guy healed him again.
Fine by me. The more he is healed, the more I can torture the dude. And it took the better part of a week for us to write out the whole scene. Eventually, the GM who was running that NPC relented and gave up the information. But hey! I am getting my kicks so I kept on torturing the dude for a while. Eventually, he was rendered down to the point of being what amounted to a soulless zombie who just would not respond to any stimulus.
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I played old good Warhammer, Werewolf:Apocalypse, now I rather stick with computer RPG games. I am waiting for Darkfall ( they are suppose to launch on 25th of Feb ) MMORPG which can refresh this genre a bit.
Ecrasez l'infame!
Role playing games are all evil. You are risking you immortal soul! If you don't role a perfect 20 you will go directly to hell you will not pass go, and you will not collect 200 hundred dollars.
I LOVE the DitV system... but my gaming group (which is pretty much all atheists) can't keep a straight face playing the game. The game turned into trying to say "It's God's will" without breaking character and cackling with laughter. Sigh... I even planned a tangled web of deceit.
Generally we do nearly aimless one-shots because we almost never have the same attendence each week... and honestly, we've ended up just playing Rock Band (which could be considered LARPing by some) the past few meet ups.
-Triften
Um dude, how would you roll a d20? There are only five Euclidean solids that can be used as dice and d20 is not one of them. The standard way of doing that is 2d10 and it is a piss poor role.
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"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
I think this is something we can all look at and remember days like this and laugh!
www.youtube.com/watch
Remember Carlos The Dwarf next time you play!
Answer: Like a pro!
So shiny!
... seriously? It's an icosohedron. 20 equilateral triangles combine to form CAPTAIN PLANET... not really. They make a 20 sided figure. d10s are the bastard children, though any d(2n) could be constructed in a similar fashion.
-Triften
Dude! You just wasted two natural 20s! Knock it off!
: )
-Triften
I rolled a natural 20!
.... in my pants...
(Never gets old )
Yeah Kev, you'll jinx the luck right out of those bad boys!
M
Forget Jesus, the stars died so that you could be here
- Lawrence Krauss
It all started with Final Fantasy III. Later revealed to actually be Final Fantasy VI, but that's another story. Then Magic: The Gathering. A brief stint in Marvel, a briefer one in DC. No time spent in D&D, though I own upwards of a hundred Forgotten Realms novels, so I'd not be out of place starting one. And then Star Wars. Gamed for about a year, GM'd for another one. Haven't played that kind of RP since 1996. All video since then. I just don't know enough people, or the right people. Not as interested anymore either. I think about the only position I could enjoy is the GM/DM at this point.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Well, after reading through the D&D 4th Edition starter set, I thought it would be a bit much for my 9 year old to digest. I didn't remember the old Basic Set being as complicated. So, I found one on ebay and got it in this weekend. Last night, he went through the beginning solo adventure, and after talking with him, he seems to have grasped the gameplay concepts, and is now asking me to DM some adventures for him.
And his first hit roll? A natural 20
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
Actually, I always like Vampire: The Masquerade.
XD
Yep, guilty as charged. I've been playing CRPGs for about 25 years on and off. Completed hundreds of games with Fallout 3 being the latest.
I played WoW for a week and had to uninstall it because it fucked my mind. I've done other games but they're so damn addictive, I just can't do it.
*Our world is far more complex than the rigid structure we want to assign to it, and we will probably never fully understand it.*
"Those believers who are sophisticated enough to understand the paradox have found exciting ways to bend logic into pretzel shapes in order to defend the indefensible." - Hamby
My friend has made a varsion of DnD and a website to go with it, if u would like to check it out go to
http://lairsandminions.dmon.com
also, the players of the site play 1.0 DnD, just in case u would like to know
Knowledge is power
Power leads to corruption
Corrution leads to crime
Crime doesn't pay
So if you study you'll go broke.