Table Top Role Playing – Page 3 – Roll For Initative!

Sep

2020

Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game You should check it out

So, you want to start playing Dungeons & Dragons? Fantasy Role Playing has a lot of options out there after almost 50 years of history. I am going to suggest a game for you that is a great one to start with. Role Playing Games (RPG) can be cheap and easy to get into, or they can cost an arm and a leg to start. One affordable and beginner friendly option is Basic Fantasy RPG (BFRPG).

BFRPG is made with the intention to be accessible for all who want to play. All the books are free online through the site. They literally have “Do not Buy this book” printed on them. Physical books can be bought through print on demand services such as lulu.com or Amazon. All the physical books are sold at cost, so there is no profit from these. This means a core book comes in about $5 when most systems are $50 and you have to buy two or three of these books to play. BFRPG is a game where the entire game comes in the one book. For this reason, I see it as a perfect example of a more community-oriented system of gaming. Accessibility is wonderful. The main book holds all the information to roll up characters, run the game and enough monsters to play for years. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign works as a Monster Manual it sells around 3 or 4 dollars for the physical copy, or you can download the PDF from the site like the other books. Continue reading →

Sep

2020

Dice for RPGs and Boardgames: Different types, science, collecting

Dice, Dice, Dice.

We love dice. All shapes, colors, designs, materials. We have polyhedral dice with standard numbers for roleplaying games as well as custom ones for board games. So many possible combinations and sizes. Dice rolls make or break our characters and actions in the game. The thrill of making a savings throw or a critical roll drives the excitement and fun of the games. I remember the first set of light blue / grey dice I had that came with the Basic D&D set as a kid. I carefully colored in the numbers with a white crayon and re-filled in the color once a year after the color wore out. Nothing fancy, but we were fascinated by the d4 and d10 type of dice as kids.

If you are first getting into RPGs, there are several things to know. Continue reading →

Sep

2020

Should we revisit a classic fantasy trope in Fantasy Role Playing?

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s court by Mark Twain, Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs and The Wizard of Oz all have one thing in common. The main Protagonist comes from a contemporary and modern world to a fantasy land of adventure. They discover the fantastic worlds not being from this world, but by seeing it as an alien land and being taken out of their element to experience these worlds. Films and books have used this concept for a long time, and it is not very much like what most D&D campaigns look like. The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon used this device to bring the main characters into the story. Why don’t we see that in our D&D games? Continue reading →

Sep

2020

Different RPG Player Types

There are many different types or styles of Players. Some change it up based on the characters they are are playing, type of campaign they are in (1 shot vs. long campaign), or who they are playing. (ongoing friends vs. convention strangers).

Diversity of Players

As in all things in life, diversity is important. If you are a racist fascist, pls piss off now as we will not engage in a debate on diversity. Diversity can be styles of play, age, work background, gender type, ethnicity, novice or experienced. Game groups oftentimes are friend groups before becoming a game group so probably have some commonalities already. However, making sure there is diversity in different areas of the group will make the game more interesting and carry the story line better. More diversity gives more possible solutions to solving problems, coming up with new options, new and different looks to the same situation. Continue reading →

Sep

2020

Frog God Game days and One Last Thing, new FGG Module

On September 12^th & 13^th I played in the Frog God Game Days. This was a sort of online game convention where many DM’s and players played various RPG’s from 5^th edition D&D to Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry. I selected two S&W games to play in. The first Saturday morning ran by DM John “Pexx” Barnhouse. He ran the Lost Menagerie, an adventure from Frog God games. Warning, spoilers ahead if you have not played through Lost Menagerie. A lot of the Frog God modules and books come out through Indieagogo or Kickstarter, and I try to back them and get most of the releases I can. This is one I got a few months back and still have not had the chance to break open and read through. I had planned on running it for my gaming group, and I thought the opportunity to play through it would give me a different perspective on the module than if I were less familiar with it when I ran it. I rolled up a few characters at random and ended up playing a Paladin of Muir. Muir is a deity of virtue and Paladins. She is the sister of the god Thyr and the deities have been playing a part in the Lost Lands campaign I have bee running. If you are unfamiliar, the World of The Lost Lands is the setting for many of the books and adventures Frog God publishes. There is a lot of great content out there for the Lost Lands. The DM and the group I played with was a lot of fun, and it was a good change to have someone new DM me. I tend to have the same DM’s when I get a chance to play, so I have been trying to find opportunities to play at other people’s tables to see how they DM and see what I might be able to do to spice up my own games. The Lost Menagerie was an adventure which lead our characters to a hidden prehistoric world under a mountain fighting dinosaurs and other oddities. It really had a Land of the Lost feel to me. I was almost convinced that the whole party was going to die at the end there, but somehow that managed not to happen. Continue reading →

Sep

2020

What happens when you don’t have the core 4 classes?

So you are about to start a game session….. Everyone wants to play a fighter type character. Or the Bard and Healer can’t make it to game that day. One session we only had 2 fighter types and a rogue in a particularly nasty dungeon where we desperately needed a paladin and cleric for healing and undead encounters. We got mauled and had to escape the dungeon. Mission not completed.

It happens that you may not have the core 4 classes (Fighter type, Healer/Cleric type, Thief/Rogue type, Magic user type) at every game due to one thing or the other. If you are about to enter a deep dungeon or extended campaign, you will need all the core classes represented. Loading up on healing potions or healing poultices will only get you so far. So what to do? Continue reading →

Sep

2020

The Book of Collected Rumors on Kickstarter

I want to highlight a kickstarter going on right not. Philip Reed has been doing a lot of great kickstarters at reasonable prices. The content he has been putting out tends to be system neutral, so usable with whatever fantasy RPG you might be playing. I have been backing his kickstarters this year, and using some of the content in our game. I can say that I really appreciate the quality of the content I have received from previous kickstarters of his.

The current kickstarter is putting into print some of the content he released in PDF collected in one book. There seems to be some new content in the book as well. I am happy to get a print of the PDF’s to go with the other print books I picked up of his. You can click here to back the project, as of my writing this there is a week left to back this project on kickstarter. Continue reading →

Sep

2020

Thinking of getting into D&D?

I see lots of people posting in online groups looking for a game to join. Role Playing takes friends. But, if you want to play you do not need to find a group already playing. You can always start the group you want to play with. Run your own game. Things have changed a great deal, and now we have celebrity DM’s running games not for tables of players to have fun as much as running games for an audience to enjoy. Some of these players and DM’s are even professional actors and entertainers. Do not think your game will resemble a professional production meant to entertain people. Playing with your group will likely be quite different. There are many posts online from people who want to play who find this intimidating. I have heard of groups where players expect something more like these popular live play podcasts. Forget about those. Continue reading →

Sep

2020

Hero / Luck / Fate / Oh Crap Points.

Most games have some elements of this. Luck points, pushing rolls, advantages, bennies etc. It is some mechanism that allows the players to re-roll after missing a critical roll/save. Most RPGs have some version of this. I like using Hero points to include doing heroic / extra-ordinary shitte. This usage is more geared toward Pulp / Heroic type games to allow character to perform crazy but entertaining actions. This involves the player more into the action of the game. I get them to describe their heroic act when they spend hero points. Eg. Leaping across to catch a rope, swing over the water, and stick the landing on the other side. Under normal circumstances, that could be like 2 DEX checks at med-high DC level. Continue reading →

Sep

2020

Old School Revival Humble Bundle

Humble Bundle has a great deal right now. Their Old School Revival Dragons, Dungeons & Mazes bundle has almost everything you would need to run quite a few campaigns. Not only is it chock full of great modules, campaigns and adventures, but it comes with the core book for Swords & Wizardry and the Player’s handbook for Castles & Crusades. These two systems the bundle comes with are two I highly recommend, so if nothing else, they are a chance to check them out and see what kind of great content is out there for them. Now, the adventures this comes with I want to highlight. A lot of the stuff in here I own, some of the stuff I have ran and read through. There are a few new ones here for me, but I’d like to focus on the books that I have and am familiar with because I feel they are well worth this bundle if you do not have them. Continue reading →

Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game You should check it out

Dice for RPGs and Boardgames: Different types, science, collecting

Should we revisit a classic fantasy trope in Fantasy Role Playing?

Different RPG Player Types

Frog God Game days and One Last Thing, new FGG Module

What happens when you don’t have the core 4 classes?

The Book of Collected Rumors on Kickstarter

Thinking of getting into D&D?

Hero / Luck / Fate / Oh Crap Points.

Old School Revival Humble Bundle

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