Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.) -

[Muppet Molester]

Despite the increased popularity of D&D thanks to it becoming mainstream, personally it feels like it's even harder to find an actual group and game to join. I've popped into my local stores that used to have a LFG board only to be told join the stores facebook page and ask there. Then a quick glance and people actually expect to get paid to DM which is just fucked up in my opinion. Open game nights are filled with people but they don't have room for any new people and the majority are just playing boardgames anyway.

I get there's always been the disparity between amount of people needing a DM and the amount of DMs existing, just the woke perception of the "hobby" seems that its easy to join a group but that's not really the reality at all.

 

[You Bastard Guy]

The team includes Justin LaNasa (CEO), Ernest G. Gygax Jr (EVP), Jeff R. Leason (COO, and Stephen E. Dinehart (CCO).

Hmmm...

No obvious wokeshit or pronouns in their social media. The TSR logo is kind if funny, but not much different from the 80s. It's too early to call it b-b-based, but hope springs eternal.

Also, has the Trove finally been killed? The site's been down a few days and their fb is gone.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

Also, has the Trove finally been killed? The site's been down a few days and their fb is gone.

Damn, I hope there's good backups somewhere. The Eye doesn't have quite the same collection.

 

[Kabuki Actor]

Also, has the Trove finally been killed? The site's been down a few days and their fb is gone.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Despite the increased popularity of D&D thanks to it becoming mainstream, personally it feels like it's even harder to find an actual group and game to join.

And it begins, the Normies invade because something becomes a "Lifestyle brand" and it rots because the Normies who love Lifestyle brands are toxic drama whores who suck the fun out of everything.

 

[Waifuwars]

Despite the increased popularity of D&D thanks to it becoming mainstream, personally it feels like it's even harder to find an actual group and game to join. I've popped into my local stores that used to have a LFG board only to be told join the stores facebook page and ask there. Then a quick glance and people actually expect to get paid to DM which is just fucked up in my opinion. Open game nights are filled with people but they don't have room for any new people and the majority are just playing boardgames anyway.

I get there's always been the disparity between amount of people needing a DM and the amount of DMs existing, just the woke perception of the "hobby" seems that its easy to join a group but that's not really the reality at all.

This is purely conjecture and minor powerleveling on my part, but I think a good portion of new people are split into two camps: observers who never actually intend to play and those who want to, but don't know anyone to play with and wouldn't entertain GMing as their first leap into the hobby for various reasons. The former are content to watch stuff like Critical Role and fantasize about playing, but will never actually commit once they realize all the work they have to put in on their part. The latter are usually desperate for games but don't know about their LFG and usually end up playing online, or not at all since they might be the only one in their friend group that's interested.

Tabletop in the end is still about social cliques, and despite all the bs about "inclusivity" it's still about who you know and your willingness to "network".

 

[Flaming Insignias]

This is purely conjecture and minor powerleveling on my part, but I think a good portion of new people are split into two camps: observers who never actually intend to play and those who want to, but don't know anyone to play with and wouldn't entertain GMing as their first leap into the hobby for various reasons. The former are content to watch stuff like Critical Role and fantasize about playing, but will never actually commit once they realize all the work they have to put in on their part. The latter are usually desperate for games but don't know about their LFG and usually end up playing online, or not at all since they might be the only one in their friend group that's interested.

Tabletop in the end is still about social cliques, and despite all the bs about "inclusivity" it's still about who you know and your willingness to "network".

I'd also add in people that know they are not good storytellers and thus avoid making asses of themselves and turning into that GM. I know I'm scared of DMing because I almost know that my heroic war story will be derailed by chaotic stupid murderhobos.

 

[You Bastard Guy]

Despite the increased popularity of D&D thanks to it becoming mainstream, personally it feels like it's even harder to find an actual group and game to join.

I haven't been in a group since high school, and even that group was garbage.

Has anyone ever tried a solo game engine? I started with Mythic, but it was too complicated for fast use. Now I just use a 1d6 binary oracle for yes/no questions--

1: No, and...
2: No
3: No, but...
4: Yes, but...
5: Yes
6: Yes, and...

--and a random word generator for modifiers and open-ended questions.

Combat is still kind of open, but somebody on DTRPG just created a terrain randomizer that I find useful.

I don't sperg out with a bunch of open books at home, but it's a nice diversion when I'm on the train or in a boring meeting (with my notebook and 3d6 dice ring).

Yeah, it's a weird thing for an adult to be doing in public. Please donate puzzle pieces generously.

 

[Pentex]

Who's ready for some tasty cringe?

Mother Lands is a tabletop role-playing game free of slavery and colonialism​

Tanya DePass, founder and director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit advocacy organization, has brought together a talented group of creatives to launch a new tabletop role-playing game. Mother Lands posits a world far from our Earth that has never known slavery or colonialism. What began as an actual play series on Twitch and YouTube has spawned a new crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The ultimate goal is to produce Into The Mother Lands, a sourcebook that will explain the setting and define the game’s rules.

Polygon sat down with DePass, the creator of the new setting, and lead designer B. Dave Walters to learn more. They explained that the germ of the idea originated in the historical record.

“We went back to the African Emperor Mansa Musa,” Walters said, referring to the leader of the Mali Empire, an Islamic West African state which Musa I ruled during the 14th century. “He was arguably the wealthiest man in history, who really existed and who sent a fleet to the New World. [...] For our story, this fleet departed and, through a mechanism that is yet to be revealed within the narrative, were transported to another planet.”

Over the next 2,000 years, that small exploratory fleet became the Musalians, a human civilization sharing an exoplanet called Vutoa with multiple other humanoid alien species — Hyena-like humanoids, transhuman cyborgs, human-plant hybrids, and powerful mind-reading symbiotes. DePass said that the setting draws its inspiration from both the Star Trek franchise and Marvel’s Black Panther.

“It’s an original Afrofuturist TTRPG,” Walters said. “It is a science fiction universe where there is no colonialism. There is no expansionist rhetoric. That is not the root cause of the action.”

Instead, the Musalians and Vutoa’s existing populations coexist all around the planet, in high-tech urban centers as well as strange alien landscapes. When conflict does arise, it’s often about two or more groups competing for scarce resources.

“We wanted to do something different, where diversity was a foundational idea,” Walters said. “Black excellence was a foundational idea, so we came up with a premise that would allow lots of different kinds of people of color to have a place where they flourish and are at the center stage rather than being in addition to, or as a ‘noble savage’ or something that was bolted on to the side [of a Euro-centric universe]. It is an expansive sci-fi epic.”

One of the most interesting aspects of the Mother Lands universe is that it is a living, narrative space that is actively being explored on a weekly basis through an ongoing actual play campaign. The cast includes DePass as well as Eugenio Vargas, Krystina Arielle, Deejay Knight, Michael Sinclair II, and Aabria Iyengar — who was recently revealed as the new Dungeon Master for Critical Role.

“With an actual play, we can bring our characters that people have gotten to know now over a season and a half, into the book, into the game world as [non-player characters],” DePass said. “You can have him in your game [...] and then, once the book is out, we can go, ‘Okay, well, maybe we wrap this storyline that we’re telling, do a new season, then we do all new characters. There will be a lot more to choose from, there will be a lot more that we can show people.”

This isn’t DePass’ first actual play series. She is a founding member of Rivals of Waterdeep, set in the Forgotten Realms and sponsored by Wizards of the Coast, publishers of the Dungeons & Dragons TTRPG. She and Walters are also members of Black Dice Society, another Wizards-sponsored actual play series that explores the horrific world of Ravenloft. Walters, in addition to being the writer of Dungeons & Dragons: A Darkened Wish comic series, is an experienced game master in his own right.

One quirk of the current crowdfunding campaign is that DePass and her team have not settled on a game system for Mother Lands. D&D, for instance, uses the d20 system, which utilizes 20-sided dice to determine success or failure in-game. The reason for not yet choosing a system, Walters said, is fairly pragmatic.

“On the [Mother Lands] show the game is powered by Cortex,” Walters said, referring to the gameplay system designed and built by Cam Banks and published by Fandom Tabletop — the same company that now owns D&D Beyond. “For the system that ends up in the book, honestly, it’s TBD.”

The lack of a set system of mechanics has put off some potential backers, DePass and Walters said. But the decision to launch the campaign without mechanics in place was a strategic one.

“It was a business decision,” Walters said. “The logic of it was actually quite simple. In these negotiations, if we sat down at the table just with an idea and the strength of the Twitch stream, that would get us so far. But also, if we sat down at the table with the success of the Twitch stream and the idea, and also the proof of concept that 1000s of people have already bought it, and also we don’t need your money, then that’s a very different conversation.”

For DePass, however, what kind of dice players ultimately get to roll at the table is largely inconsequential.

“That is a small part of it as far as I’m concerned,” DePass said. “You get the overarching story, you get the setting book, and then when you sit down to play, the mechanics literally tell you you succeed or fail on a thing. And it’s the degree of success or failure. The mechanics drive how you play the game, but to me — at least as a player and a [game master] of other systems — that’s a small component.”

Coming from a background performing RPGs online, DePass is most excited about what will happen once her project makes it out into the world — and, maybe, even into someone else’s actual play series.

“It would make me so happy,” DePass said. “I’d probably burst into tears to turn on Twitch and see someone streaming our game.”

The Kickstarter campaign for Into The Mother Lands is already successful, having earned more than $250,000 on a $50,000 ask. Delivery of the finished book is expected by September 2022. The campaign runs through June 20.

Just a note, the Malians were pretty prolific slave traders in their heyday (with their fellow Muslims), hence KANG Mansa Musa's wealth derived from slavery.
$250,000 for what is essentially a freeform, systemless rp with Malian Muslims who don't enslave kufr because REASONS, space furries, black GROOTs, and (not) Trills.
$250,000 isn't a bad grift, especially for that fucking weasel B. Dave Walters who was begging for money just a year ago.

Mother Lands is a tabletop role-playing game free of slavery and colonialism

www.polygon.com

https://archive.md/UqJ9M

 

[A Useless Fish]

Who's ready for some tasty cringe?

Mother Lands is a tabletop role-playing game free of slavery and colonialism​

Just a note, the Malians were pretty prolific slave traders in their heyday (with their fellow Muslims), hence KANG Mansa Musa's wealth derived from slavery.
$250,000 for what is essentially a freeform, systemless rp with Malian Muslims who don't enslave kufr because REASONS, space furries, black GROOTs, and (not) Trills.
$250,000 isn't a bad grift, especially for that fucking weasel B. Dave Walters who was begging for money just a year ago.

Mother Lands is a tabletop role-playing game free of slavery and colonialism

www.polygon.com

https://archive.md/UqJ9M

Someone in one of my online groups, who I shall refer to as EiL (or, "Everything is Lesbians") posted that in our discord. Everyone ignored it, except for our DM (who I guess feels compelled to react because he's in charge), and he pointed out that the system to be used isn't even mentioned anywhere.

EiL: Yeah
I backed them already. Hopefully it comes out great
Whatever system they decide on.

I wish I knew how to set up these kinds of scams. I'd be fuckin' rolling in white guilt $$$s.

 

[Big Nasty]

Tabletop in the end is still about social cliques, and despite all the bs about "inclusivity" it's still about who you know and your willingness to "network".

Yeah, those people always want to be "included" but not part of the team.

 

[Gingervitis]

TSR games is back.

The studio behind the original Dungeons & Dragons has returned to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, under the guidance of Gary Gygax Jr. with the help of Wonderfilled, Inc.

Lake Geneva, WI, June 15, 2021 --(PR.com)-- Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) was founded in 1973 by E. Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Originally formed in 2020, TSR Games is officially back and under the leadership of E. Gary Gygax Jr.

“I am thrilled to be part of this next generation of gaming and hope that you all find it cut the same cloth as all my old TSR experiences as we forge a new TSR Games,” said Gygax, continuing, “Thanks to the vision of our CEO Justin LaNasa, and the help of Wonderfilled, we’re bringing TSR back home to Lake Geneva. It really means so much to me.”

TSR was behind the original Dungeons & Dragons first released in 1974, now a worldwide phenomenon owned by Hasbro on its fifth and most popular edition yet. The team includes Justin LaNasa (CEO), Ernest G. Gygax Jr (EVP), Jeff R. Leason (COO, and Stephen E. Dinehart (CCO). LaNasa is a visionary and entrepreneur that has set out to reunite brands like TSR with the original talent behind them.

“It’s with great pride that we’ve managed to secure the TSR brand, born here originally in 1973 and brought back to the people who created this new form of game that changed the world,” said LaNasa.

In addition to the classic lines of products at TSR Museum and Dungeon Hobby Shop, TSR Games is working to bring a new generation of role-playing games and more to players worldwide. “Now more than ever, the world needs TSR,” said game designer Jeff R. Leason. “We’re happy to be bringing it back for experienced and new players alike.”


I'm surprised Hasbro/ WOTC let the name go. If they can do a good old school, unwoke RPG I'm in.

What are the odds of them rebuying D&D?

 

[Spergetti]

Despite the increased popularity of D&D thanks to it becoming mainstream, personally it feels like it's even harder to find an actual group and game to join. I've popped into my local stores that used to have a LFG board only to be told join the stores facebook page and ask there. Then a quick glance and people actually expect to get paid to DM which is just fucked up in my opinion. Open game nights are filled with people but they don't have room for any new people and the majority are just playing boardgames anyway.

I get there's always been the disparity between amount of people needing a DM and the amount of DMs existing, just the woke perception of the "hobby" seems that its easy to join a group but that's not really the reality at all.

The only groups I’ve ever played with were always people I’ve met through normal, IRL relationships. A work friend would invite me to join their group, or something like that. I know the local Facebook groups and store groups are a thing, but I have never had any desire to sit down with about 3-5 complete strangers to play D&D or Pathfinder. Not only does it sound like the perfect method for attracting every that guy in a 10 mile radius, but I’ve heard others complain about the same issues you’re describing where no groups are open or they’ve all devolved into board game groups.

I think your best bet would be to look for people you already know (even if not very well) and either get in on their game, or try to organize your own game with people you can convince to play. You might be surprised at who would be willing to play if someone would just ask them to and/or explain how these games work. I also think this is a pretty good system for people to avoid playing with spergs/woketards/otherwise undesirable players because your group is private and self-selecting rather than open invite for anybody close with too much time on their hands.

 

[Corn Flakes]

What are the odds of them rebuying D&D?

I'd say somewhere south of "never gonna happen".

I'm sure Gygax Jr. would love to get his hands on his father's legacy but D&D is one of these golden geese even the complete retards at Wizards of the Coast would know better than to part with. Even more so now that D&D is more popular than it's ever been.

 

[Swiss46]

What are the odds of them rebuying D&D?

If Jr gets incredibly rich, buys WoTC and renames it TSR. Other than that 0%.

 

[Muppet Molester]

I think your best bet would be to look for people you already know (even if not very well) and either get in on their game, or try to organize your own game with people you can convince to play.

Yeah, that's how I found the first group I ever played with, a friend was trying his first time at DMing and asked me if I wanted to play, but the other guys in his group were pretty much assholes and I dropped out after the third time it devolved into PKing and the 6th total party failure. Years have passed now and that friend has long since drifted away else i'd have just asked him if he knew of any groups.

I'd actually prefer to play a different system than D&D anyway, but something like Champions or Shadowrun seems impossible when it's hard enough with 5e. o well

 

[DeagleNationRefugee]

I'd also add in people that know they are not good storytellers and thus avoid making asses of themselves and turning into that GM. I know I'm scared of DMing because I almost know that my heroic war story will be derailed by chaotic stupid murderhobos.

It's hard not to be worried about this. You can't prepare enough for players that derail on a whim and it sucks when you have a great story going. I just TRY to roll with whatever they do. I feel like every DM has bad sessions or even bad ideas for campaigns. I can think of a few cringe things I did in the past and it mostly revolved around my expectations of what the players would do.

The best advice I can give is just try building a place and fill it with people and things. Don't build it for the players, that's dumbass video game shit. Build a world that's completely capable of existing on its own and then let the players get in there and fuck shit up(or get fucked up by doing something stupid).

 

[ZMOT]

I'd also add in people that know they are not good storytellers and thus avoid making asses of themselves and turning into that GM. I know I'm scared of DMing because I almost know that my heroic war story will be derailed by chaotic stupid murderhobos.

which means you don't need to be a good storyteller, you need to be good at managing people - or at least able to tell the retard at the table to cut that shit out, and in the worst case kick him off the table. after that you'll find out players are easy to replace and not worth carrying the dipshits around.

the other thing is "roleplayer" can be anything from the hardcore freeform theater-of-the-mind to simple dicechugging with some attached improv, which means you need to gauge what people want and what they expect. people tend to shit on official modules (for good reasons), but these days if I got the option of someone doing his super special generic setting where he makes up half the shit on the fly to the point it doesn't make sense or some official material even an average GM can use mostly of out of the box I rather go with the latter. rollplaying might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's easier to get something along those lines running and then go from there than the other way around (especially for players new to the whole thing). heck one group I know basically treats their game as a more freeform boardgame and it works because that's all they want from it. helps it's not run by some "that wotc gm".

I'd go as far to say most of the people these days that have an interest in "pen&paper" or other "nerd shit" like boardgames prefer a more rigid structure, where it feels like every second boardgame kickstarter is some narrative coop (and I'm convinced if paizo or wotc ever put out a proper gm-less version they'll make bank, I know wotc tried at least twice, but either were overpriced and/or trimmed down so hard it hardly resembled a pnp rpg). fuck gloomhaven is stuck on BGG's #1 spot for almost 3 years now...

The best advice I can give is just try building a place and fill it with people and things. Don't build it for the players, that's dumbass video game shit. Build a world that's completely capable of existing on its own and then let the players get in there and fuck shit up(or get fucked up by doing something stupid).

this. if they decide to murderhobo around, have them get facefucked by guards, because no government will allow that kind of shit in a "civilized" society. just because it's MUH FANTASY doesn't mean there are no rules and consequences if you break them.
once that is established and you're willing to enforce it, it's usually easy going - especially since it weeds out players that claim it's bullshit and "they can do whatever they want". if "fuck around, find out" doesn't matter, why should your players care?

 

[thx1138]

I hope D&D quits appealing to trannies, queers, and furries, and they go back to Vampire the Masquerade and Werewolf and I can once again go to a game store and meet fellow neckbeards and talk about killing giants and drow elfs before I die of old age.

 

[robobobo]

Someone in one of my online groups, who I shall refer to as EiL (or, "Everything is Lesbians") posted that in our discord. Everyone ignored it, except for our DM (who I guess feels compelled to react because he's in charge), and he pointed out that the system to be used isn't even mentioned anywhere.

EiL: Yeah
I backed them already. Hopefully it comes out great
Whatever system they decide on.

I wish I knew how to set up these kinds of scams. I'd be fuckin' rolling in white guilt $$$s.

EiL is an utter retard. Not just because they have no ruleset (my money's on PbtA, since that's where all the low-effort shit goes in the end), but because the setting makes no sense. The "history" of it is that a fleet sent to exploit and/or colonize the rest of the world by a nation built on slave-trading got sucked to another, already-inhabited world, which they then proceeded to colonize. Sooo... Basically they just did the same thing the euros/asians were doing, but somehow claim that they're doing it better and without anyone getting their feelings hurt for... reasons. (It's because they're black.)

What would actually have happened is that the plant people would have been brutally butchered and used for firewood, and the hyena people would be hunted to the current day because someone started a rumor that eating hyena dick was a cure for syphilis, which the fleet brought with them in abundance.