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joshvanrad
Guest
If you play 4th. Ed you are worshiping mediocrity…
jk
God bless,
Joshua
jk
God bless,
Joshua
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Nom_the_Wise
Guest
I have to admit that I played Neverwinter Nights [1] to death. To death. Over the long years that I haven’t played PnP DnD, whenever I got the “itch” (but had no one to game with) it was nice to have a PC game that was true to rules that I had studied for so long. I downloaded the extensions (Pirates of the Sword Coast, The Wyvern Crown of Cormyr, Infinite Dungeons) and when my wife and I were seperated and I had lost my job, I *lived *in these games in my depression. O yes. I don’t play that often anymore (absolutely no time now), but for anyone following this thread that has those games, I now have a number of characters that I play with from time to time that have god-like gear and weapons.
**(WARNING: GEEK-SPEAK FOLLOWS…)**My favorite is my elf Fighter/Wizard with a **+14 bastard sword, that does Acid 2d6, Divine 2d6, Electrical 2d6, Magical 2d6, Negative 2d6, Piercing 2d6, Positive 2d6, Slashing 2d6, and Sonic 2d6 **( :yup: ). I have the Improved Critical (Bastard Sword) Feat, and I cast “keen edge” on the blade for a critical threat of 15-20/X2. I also cast “flame weapon” for an extra 11-14 of fire damage. And I don’t know cheat codes ( :nope
. If you go through the “pirates” game with a 40th level character, all of the bandit bosses have +14 weapons, and if you *finish *Infinite Dungeons, Halaster allows you to go back in and forge weapons with all of the abilities above (well not specifically those abilities; you have to hunt for them and reprogram the treasure system, but you can essentially add almost anything to any weapon or armor. I guess the designers just figured, what the heck).
*That’s how depressed I was for over a year *
. I keep my old computer around so I can play with this stuff when I get the chance. Okay, you can go ahead and make fun of me now. For anyone that will try to use this as evidence of how “evil” DnD is, it would have been worse if I drank a lot and gorged myself on chocolate. At least I didn’t get fat.
**(WARNING: GEEK-SPEAK FOLLOWS…)**My favorite is my elf Fighter/Wizard with a **+14 bastard sword, that does Acid 2d6, Divine 2d6, Electrical 2d6, Magical 2d6, Negative 2d6, Piercing 2d6, Positive 2d6, Slashing 2d6, and Sonic 2d6 **( :yup: ). I have the Improved Critical (Bastard Sword) Feat, and I cast “keen edge” on the blade for a critical threat of 15-20/X2. I also cast “flame weapon” for an extra 11-14 of fire damage. And I don’t know cheat codes ( :nope
. If you go through the “pirates” game with a 40th level character, all of the bandit bosses have +14 weapons, and if you *finish *Infinite Dungeons, Halaster allows you to go back in and forge weapons with all of the abilities above (well not specifically those abilities; you have to hunt for them and reprogram the treasure system, but you can essentially add almost anything to any weapon or armor. I guess the designers just figured, what the heck).*That’s how depressed I was for over a year *
. I keep my old computer around so I can play with this stuff when I get the chance. Okay, you can go ahead and make fun of me now. For anyone that will try to use this as evidence of how “evil” DnD is, it would have been worse if I drank a lot and gorged myself on chocolate. At least I didn’t get fat.
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Nom_the_Wise
Guest
I’m just so glad that everyone seems to be in agreement about this. What were they thinking?If you play 4th. Ed you are worshiping mediocrity…
jk
God bless,
Joshua
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Nom_the_Wise
Guest
Absolutely. In a pencil and paper game, when you’re rolling actual dice, being able to do that much damage would just take too long. Everyone would take turns leaving the table to go watch TV as a five-round battle would take an hour to finish.
And I never would have had the patience to finish Infinite Dungeons if not for being “temporarily” single, though I didn’t know it would be temporary at the time.
And I never would have had the patience to finish Infinite Dungeons if not for being “temporarily” single, though I didn’t know it would be temporary at the time.
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edwest2
Guest
The thing is, although D&D grew out of wargaming which was pretty straightforward and not hard to understand, D&D was a new animal.
Parents were right to be concerned. The books gave no clues as to whether the spells were real in the sense that today, you can buy books that claim to contain “real” spells. Remember, Christians do believe that spirits actually exist and that demons actually exist. If I recall correctly, two groups formed: BADD and MADD. Bothered About D&D and Mothers Against D&D. The role-playing game industry tried to address their concerns and one company put a warning in their books pointing out that all of the material contained inside was not real and make-believe.
We are not all the same and kids are not all the same. I played D&D and then went on to play another RPG system. It was fun, I met new people and some of us became and still are, friends to this day. We looked at ourselves as playing a much more sophisticated version of cowboys and indians or army soldiers, of which I did the latter when I was a boy. We were acting. We didn’t learn how to handle real weapons, we just rolled dice. If I was a magic user and cast a fireball at someone, we all knew it was just as real as seeing the same thing in a movie. We were playing a role, and even playing an evil villain did not mean we were somehow learning to, for example, pick locks (roll D20 below your current percentage for success), or actually killing anyone or dying: “Sorry, Bob. I know your character has 11 Hit Points but you just took 20 points of damage.”
It was better than sitting on a bar stool every Saturday night. And it inspired some people to be more creative.
Peace,
Ed
Parents were right to be concerned. The books gave no clues as to whether the spells were real in the sense that today, you can buy books that claim to contain “real” spells. Remember, Christians do believe that spirits actually exist and that demons actually exist. If I recall correctly, two groups formed: BADD and MADD. Bothered About D&D and Mothers Against D&D. The role-playing game industry tried to address their concerns and one company put a warning in their books pointing out that all of the material contained inside was not real and make-believe.
We are not all the same and kids are not all the same. I played D&D and then went on to play another RPG system. It was fun, I met new people and some of us became and still are, friends to this day. We looked at ourselves as playing a much more sophisticated version of cowboys and indians or army soldiers, of which I did the latter when I was a boy. We were acting. We didn’t learn how to handle real weapons, we just rolled dice. If I was a magic user and cast a fireball at someone, we all knew it was just as real as seeing the same thing in a movie. We were playing a role, and even playing an evil villain did not mean we were somehow learning to, for example, pick locks (roll D20 below your current percentage for success), or actually killing anyone or dying: “Sorry, Bob. I know your character has 11 Hit Points but you just took 20 points of damage.”
It was better than sitting on a bar stool every Saturday night. And it inspired some people to be more creative.
Peace,
Ed
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FrancisB
Guest
I love when these threads pop up from time to time and everyone chimes in with their favourite characters or else to tell everyone else that fantasy role-playing is evil. I’m not sure how any definitive moral judgement could be made beyond saying that it depends on what is happening in the game. The Lord of the Rings was written by a very devout Catholic with the intention of creating faerie tales that would help people to discover the Catholic faith. The Chronicles of Narnia were perhaps even more overtly Christian, if written by a high-church Anglican. I’ve not heard much from the church condemning either of them, and as such I cannot imagine how playing games along similar lines could be detrimental to the faith; in fact in some ways the right game design could actually teach morality. That said, of course, there is always the option of using any tool for the wrong ends.
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Pat_Payne
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Gordon_Sims
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I’ve played various roleplaying games since I was 13 or so. There’s nothing inherently wrong with them, although some people take it way too far. I played D&D with this one group for a very short while in high school. A couple of the guys couldn’t make the distinction between fantasy and reality. Fights would break out, and one guy would cry, sometimes to the point of sobbing, if anything bad happened to his character.
The main reason I left the group was because they didn’t appreciate the fact that I was playing the character given me. I was using a character the DM rolled. I was a not-so-bright dwarf warrior, who thought himself to not only be brilliant, but a master thief as well. I’d rush into battles with reckless abandon, then bully my way into getting to try to open any and every door and treasure chest we came upon. The resulting explosions and traps were much more dangerous and damaging to the rest of the group. They all played their characters the same bland, heroic way, regardless of the alignment and back stories they’d chosen for them, and they couldn’t come to grips with the fact that I insisted on playing my character exactly as written. They finally decided to gang up on me to teach me a lesson, which was a bad idea because I was much stronger and had all the best armor and weapons since I’d opened all the treasure chests we’d found (the only treasure this DM ever put in his game was in booby-trapped chests). Playing in character, I defended myself and was just about to kill the crying guy’s character when the DM told me I couldn’t. I finished that session, but never played with that group again. I did end up playing in an entirely different game run by the crying guy, but that lasted just one session and was way too bizarre for me to want to relive.
The main reason I left the group was because they didn’t appreciate the fact that I was playing the character given me. I was using a character the DM rolled. I was a not-so-bright dwarf warrior, who thought himself to not only be brilliant, but a master thief as well. I’d rush into battles with reckless abandon, then bully my way into getting to try to open any and every door and treasure chest we came upon. The resulting explosions and traps were much more dangerous and damaging to the rest of the group. They all played their characters the same bland, heroic way, regardless of the alignment and back stories they’d chosen for them, and they couldn’t come to grips with the fact that I insisted on playing my character exactly as written. They finally decided to gang up on me to teach me a lesson, which was a bad idea because I was much stronger and had all the best armor and weapons since I’d opened all the treasure chests we’d found (the only treasure this DM ever put in his game was in booby-trapped chests). Playing in character, I defended myself and was just about to kill the crying guy’s character when the DM told me I couldn’t. I finished that session, but never played with that group again. I did end up playing in an entirely different game run by the crying guy, but that lasted just one session and was way too bizarre for me to want to relive.
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Nom_the_Wise
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That had to be in 1st edition. That was back when the DM was out to get you, particularly if you were using a module written by Gary Gygax (i.e. Tomb of Horrors, et. al.). One of the things I missed about 1st ed when I started playing 3rd was that players would get hostile if their character died and the DM didn’t explain why.
“Dude, you’re dead.”
“But my disable trap roll was 46! What was the DC?”
“I’m not telling you that.” (The DM thinks to himself “The DC *was *35, but I *upped *it to 100 because your disable trap rolls are *never *under 45, and your skill check is 27.”) Apologies for the Geek Talk.
That was another feature of 1st ed that I hated, when DM’s forced characters on you (I remember the “Slaver” series had an entire party pre-rolled at the back of the module). A friend of mine went to a Gen Con once, and because he was the last guy to sit down at the table for a tournament module, the DM gave him a cat to play. A cat.
We used to call that a DM “pimp.” I don’t know why. Used in a sentence “Man, you just pimped me!” You sound like a great player; I would have loved to game with you. Most of my gaming friends were actors (high school and college shows, nothing professional) and we’d do voices and accents, from English accents (usually caricatures of Monty Python skits "Ere now! Let’s not bicker and argue over 'oo killed 'oo!) or Spanish (Indigo Montoya style) or Irish (I’m half Irish), Italian (I’m half Sicilian) Russian, German (Ya, I vilt kill zat ding vith mine +2 dragon slayer!) and sometimes Japanese/Chinese when playing Oriental Adventures (Herro! I’m Jun Xiao Quan. I wirr happiry join you on dis grorious quest).
This thread is making me remember how fun and goofy it all was to game. It wasn’t evil, at least the way we did it.
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Gordon_Sims
Guest
Actually, in my case the character wasn’t forced on me, but was done mostly out of convenience. I was new to the group and we were more interested in getting the game going than taking the time for a new character (I don’t remember if it was 1st or 2nd Edition–it was whichever one came in the boxes). At the same time, I think he gave me the dwarf because he knew I’d play in character, and he knew it would ruffle some feathers.
He was actually a very fun character to play. Believing I was the best there was at what I did, any time there was a locked door or treasure chest, I’d step right up and say, “Stand back! I’ve got it,” or words to that effect. They always objected (at least after the first time), and I’d always insist. If insisting and muscling my way in didn’t work, I’d just take a swing at the door/chest with my axe. It never worked, but I was certain it would the next time. There was also a time when we stumbled across a lair of kobolds or something and while the whole group started sneaking away in the other direction, I charged right in, shouting out my traditional Dwarven battle cry and swinging my axe above my head. I think the group’s favorite phrase when I was playing was, “You can’t do that!” They said to me just as often as they said it to the DM when he’d give me huge XP bonuses for playing in character.
He was actually a very fun character to play. Believing I was the best there was at what I did, any time there was a locked door or treasure chest, I’d step right up and say, “Stand back! I’ve got it,” or words to that effect. They always objected (at least after the first time), and I’d always insist. If insisting and muscling my way in didn’t work, I’d just take a swing at the door/chest with my axe. It never worked, but I was certain it would the next time. There was also a time when we stumbled across a lair of kobolds or something and while the whole group started sneaking away in the other direction, I charged right in, shouting out my traditional Dwarven battle cry and swinging my axe above my head. I think the group’s favorite phrase when I was playing was, “You can’t do that!” They said to me just as often as they said it to the DM when he’d give me huge XP bonuses for playing in character.
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