Tabletop roleplaying

[IsabellaRose]

I'm currently playing in my friend's D&D 5e game and playing a solo RPG called Apothecaria which is quite engaging.

I'm running a Cortex Prime multiverse style game in a homemade setting I've been running since the 90's. This is the third iteration of the multiverse, and I'm able to bring some of the previous characters back as NPCs and every now and again with a guest player coming back for a couple sessions to reprise their character from a previous version of the multiverse. It's a lot of fun. 

I'm also running a (planned) 5-shot that just started yesterday. It's a sci-fi/fantasy heist/rescue adventure using Cortex set in a future world based on fairy tales, folklore, and urban legends. Each of the PCs is a version of a character from a fairy tale or folklore who were called together to perform a job - steal Christmas back from the evil forces who've corrupted it. I've built in almost every Christmas folklore character I could find as potential allies or enemies - the reindeer, Yule Lads, Belsnickel, Mari Lwyd, the Kallikantzaroi, and Père Fouettard, among others, as well as any frozen/ice creatures that sounded promising because I had to get yeti in there somewhere. Santa is Ded Moroz, and the PCs are playing

1. Snegurochka (Ded Moroz's granddaughter, the ice maiden, who brought the group together to rescue her grandfather)
2. Krampus (her boyfriend, who is only along to prove to Moroz that he should be part of Christmas)
3. The Big Bad Wolf (an old pal of Krampus' who was brought in for his guile and ferocious fighting skills)
4. Red Riding Hood (the Wolf's lover, and the last survivor of an order of warrior priestess' known for their beauty, fighting skills, and their hooded red cloaks)
5. Anansi, the spider trickster that no one remembers inviting.

I'm still trying to decide if there's a big bad who actually stole Christmas or if it's all a setup and Santa faked them out for some reason. I usually wait for one of my paranoid players to come up with some weird reason why it would be a setup and then riff off of that if they lean hard into it. I'm a very improv GM, so the final story usually isn't finalized until a session before or maybe right there at the table. I prepare a few endings, and then let the players guide me toward the one that seems most satisfying for them.

[Rob4ix]

Anyone here knows about ICRPG? (index card rpg) Because i feel like i need to talk about it, bcuz its such a nice system for newbies to roll into ttrpgs, bcuz its basically dnd, bur with less specific setting, like, the official books has 5 of them - Fantasy, Sci fi, Wild West with ghosts, super heroes and Prehistorical, which all are dome nicely, and all challanges arent complex for GM either, as alot of challanges are basically dealing uber specific kind of damage to a thing that is the challange, like locks or dead magic zone that you try to dispel.

[JennyDK]

I have not heard about it at all before, I will admit.

What is dnd?

[IsabellaRose]

1 hour ago, Rob4ix said:

Anyone here knows about ICRPG? (index card rpg) Because i feel like i need to talk about it, bcuz its such a nice system for newbies to roll into ttrpgs, bcuz its basically dnd, bur with less specific setting, like, the official books has 5 of them - Fantasy, Sci fi, Wild West with ghosts, super heroes and Prehistorical, which all are dome nicely, and all challanges arent complex for GM either, as alot of challanges are basically dealing uber specific kind of damage to a thing that is the challange, like locks or dead magic zone that you try to dispel.

There's been a few games of Index Card RPG on another site I'm on, but I haven't played it yet.

Conceptually it reminded me of some other OSR type games, but with less focus on all the crunch and more a focus on simplifying mechanics. You can get a PDF of the quickstart rules here. 

[Rob4ix]

11 hours ago, IsabellaRose said:

There's been a few games of Index Card RPG on another site I'm on, but I haven't played it yet.

Conceptually it reminded me of some other OSR type games, but with less focus on all the crunch and more a focus on simplifying mechanics. You can get a PDF of the quickstart rules here. 

I already got a copy of master edition and even began tinkering up my own suppliment to run borderlands games, because this games very often is built around loot, not feats you gain with levels. By the way, what site you play it on?

[Rob4ix]

12 hours ago, JennyDK said:

I have not heard about it at all before, I will admit.

What is dnd?

Shortly, one of the most popular ttrpg - Dungeons and Dragons, roll d20 + stat modifier, then the rest depends on context, spell could fail and burn your ally with 20 artillery shells on a belt, resulting in the whole TPK, by doing 400d6 damage to everything in a dungeon. Or you just get bonked on a head and just lose 1 hp. Buts extremely mechanics-heavy in my opinion, because there are rules even on that corpses are considered objects.

And also, it being popular, it also had most homebrew, most official content, and even partially has content from Magic the Gathering.

[JennyDK]

Oh right, Dungeons and Dragons (though, I would have written it D&D). Never really liked the system much, to be honest.

I will play it if my group wants to play it, but thankfully we play lots of different systems.

[Rob4ix]

10 minutes ago, JennyDK said:

Oh right, Dungeons and Dragons (though, I would have written it D&D). Never really liked the system much, to be honest.

I will play it if my group wants to play it, but thankfully we play lots of different systems.

I think ICRPG is great way to transition to dnd, bcuz ICRPG is, as i said, a way more simplified system, plus it allows for way more settings to be played using it, because it doesnt have much rules on spellcasters and all progression is based on loot, classes have just basic feats (like changing how hard you hit a target on some conditions) and also give starting loot.

[JennyDK]

That is good for the people wanting to transition into the D&D system I am sure.

I usually try and phase AWAY from it

[IsabellaRose]

4 hours ago, JennyDK said:

That is good for the people wanting to transition into the D&D system I am sure.

I usually try and phase AWAY from it

Me, too. I started with D&D, but boy do I dislike that system now. There is no reason a game that's theoretically ROLEplaying should come to a screeching halt for hours of nonsensical and very boring (as a player) combat. Who wants to sit for 20 minutes waiting for everyone else just to take a 30 second turn and then wait again? I quit one of my real life groups because they were stuck in their 5e drudgery and refused to try anything else. Bleh. I play those games to tell stories with friends, not for tactical combat. If I want that there's Warhammer or any number of more interesting tactical games.

[JennyDK]

6 minutes ago, IsabellaRose said:

Me, too. I started with D&D, but boy do I dislike that system now. There is no reason a game that's theoretically ROLEplaying should come to a screeching halt for hours of nonsensical and very boring (as a player) combat. Who wants to sit for 20 minutes waiting for everyone else just to take a 30 second turn and then wait again? I quit one of my real life groups because they were stuck in their 5e drudgery and refused to try anything else. Bleh. I play those games to tell stories with friends, not for tactical combat. If I want that there's Warhammer or any number of more interesting tactical games.

Ooooooh yikes. That sounds dreadful. I really, really cannot comprehend why anyone would refuse to at least try other systems, other than just stubbornness. It makes me value my own weekly group so much more for it.
One of the big issues, in my opinion, with D&D is the vast amount of variables within the rules - for instance, insisting having 85 different damage types to juggle with.

Luckily, when my group does play D&D, we are not as buried in the books as others seem to be.

Do you do any tabletop roleplaying anymore still?

[IsabellaRose]

I run two groups where I'm sort of a permanent GM. One is a long-term homebrewed world using a Cortex hack I built and the other group cycles through systems just to try them out.

But most of my playing is online now, forum based, so we use much more simple systems. Some are as simple as Physical/Mental/Social stats vs a variable target depending on difficulty.

[JennyDK]

Oh no. I was once stuck basically being the "default" GM and without any of the others seeming to actually take up the role. I do enjoy to GM, but I would rather not have to do it all the time. So I can understand if you are not exactly a huge fan of it. How did you manage to get two groups?

What is Cortex hack?

Ah, I see. Not any physical groups then?

I am happy to recommend some pretty easy systems too.

[IsabellaRose]

Cortex Prime is the latest iteration of the Cortex system. I fell in love with it using the rules from (of all things) the Smallville game. I liked the way it forced interpersonal drama instead of constant combat. It really put me in the mindset of rules driving the narrative and social drama instead of just being physics engines. The system is modular, so you can pick and choose which elements you want to include depending on how you want the game to feel and what you want to focus on. It can still hit the physics engine feel of D&D with the right elements, but I prefer it when it's more narrative and focused on social elements.

I love to be the GM. When I'm a player I get bored. My brain doesn't stop with one character.

The two groups I run are in person around my dining room table. The people in the one group kept talking to their friends and next thing I knew, I had too many players for my comfort level, so I started a new group. The new group is all women, which is my Girl Power RPG group lol. We have definitely played some scenarios I wouldn't be comfortable playing with guys at the table, but we're all friends and it's a pretty comfortable group. We've explored some pretty deep and emotional stuff through that game.

All my other games are all online; I mostly play in online games, but I'm running a few online as well. Play by post is easy to keep up with, especially when it's more relaxed and people don't expect a post a day.

 

[Reasoned]

That's pretty cool @IsabellaRose . That's about how I became a DM too. I played a couple of games, but I wanted to do more and ended up running several games. Right now, I'm basically out of games. My friend who we played with regularly in person, moved away, and he just doesn't have the time with work and all to get into an online session. And with me also moving, my irl group is gone. (Well another DM took my place and everyone is cool with it.) 

But hey. If you are running an online game with a seat, where I can play for about a month (until I move again) that'd be cool.

[Rob4ix]

Yeah i kinda cannot really run any games normally, because my schedule is a chaos incarnate and i also have ADHD, which makes me forget about games pretty easily and when i remember about them, i feel akward and then it becomes a cycle and i dont have much people to play with irl, because i moved and i have hard tike meeting new people, its a third year since i moved and still no new irl friends, so online sessions are kinda the only way for me.

[Reasoned]

I feel that. 

[IsabellaRose]

7 hours ago, Reasoned said:

That's pretty cool @IsabellaRose . That's about how I became a DM too. I played a couple of games, but I wanted to do more and ended up running several games. Right now, I'm basically out of games. My friend who we played with regularly in person, moved away, and he just doesn't have the time with work and all to get into an online session. And with me also moving, my irl group is gone. (Well another DM took my place and everyone is cool with it.) 

But hey. If you are running an online game with a seat, where I can play for about a month (until I move again) that'd be cool.

Since I use the Pathways system from Cortex Drama to build most of my games (even if I don't end up running them in Cortex), it's hard to add a player. They're never as connected to the NPCs and setting as the rest of the players. It's often easier to just continue with one less player.

But if I start up a new one, I'll let you know so you can apply. I've been getting too many applicants lately so I've actually had to say no to a few people, which is weird for me.