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So, for someone wanting to get into P&P Roleplaying Games...

ColCol

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I have no friends who will play these types of games. So, where should I start if I want to try to play some? Should I try meetups in my City? Should I look for online communities? What would be a better experience in your opinion?

Also, what games would you recommended for a first timer.
 

Akasen

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All possible situations. You could well try to find a game here on the Codex, or more specifically make a group with your bros here on the Codex (we probably need a looking for group sub-forum. Maybe?). Pursuing a game over the net is probably gonna be your best bet in my opinion though. In my experience, there is a major decline the public roleplaying scene and Magic: The Gathering players call most local gameshops home. Well at least to me.

I personally though could not tell you what to play for a first time game. Everyone will have their own opinion on the matter.

What I know and heard are things akin to Vampire: The Masquerade, or any Storyteller system game is relatively easy on the rules and shouldn't be hard to master and thus makes a good first game to play. Shadowrun is also a good choice so I've heard. But really, I couldn't really tell ya. I just look for an interesting setting or something and just learn the rules. I sit and read tomes of arcane knowledge just to learn the rules.

But hey! Pathfinders rules are all on one website, content and all. You could look there if you want.
 

Telengard

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Where you can go and what is available will depend a lot on how large/type of city you live in.

Some independent gameshops have a poster board, or some equivalent, where people forming PnP groups can post. If you've got that, it's often the source for the best experience.

Large cities will occasionally also have a forum where people can post for groups, but getting anything but DnD and Vampire out of them is quite unlikely.

There are virtual tabletop tools these days too, usually with a forum attached for people to form groups in. That is by far the easiest to get going, and often has the best choice of games, but the interplay over the net often lacks a certain something.

*

The quality of the group depends a lot more on the quality of the people involved than the quality of the game. Finding a good group is seriously hit and miss.

D&D is by far the easiest system to find groups for, but these days it is really resource intensive to get into. ie, there's a lot of expensive books to buy just for making a character. And then you have to make a character using all of them, requiring you to draw from rules spread across multiple books, thus demanding a great deal of time and study. Large upfront outlays of money and time aren't a great way to start. (Technically, vanilla D&D only requires the purchase of the main handbook, but good luck finding a group that doesn't use every book available.) Pathfinder sidesteps part of these issues by putting everything online, freely available. But there are still a lot of books for character creation, and more being added all the time.

In that sense, games from companies with low outlay are the best for starting out, such as Chaosium's Cthulhu or Pendragon, which you only need the one main book for, and both of which you have a chance (if slim) of getting a group for, or something like FASA's (now out of business, but popular enough to still find groups) Battletech, which doesn't place any demands on the player for purchasing anything at all. It is also still possible to find 2nd ed D&D groups, or even OD&D groups, both of which only require the one handbook. Vampire/Werewolf/Mage is really easy to learn, but the Storyteller system is a system built for storyfags, so you should be a storyfag if you look to go in that direction (though, as always, the group determines far more than the game system).
 
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Ulminati

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If you don't want to take your chances with whatever sketchy types frequent your local game store, you could try one of the virtual tabletops.

RPTools has a pretty nice program - that happens to be free - and lots of people looking for DMs/players for online campaigns (text or skype) in their forums.

http://forums.rptools.net/

Nothing beats playing with friends in person, but it's easier to disentangle yourself from wierdos in an online game than if you've had to invite them over to your place of residence.
 
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Beware that you will have 'munchkins' guys who study the rule book for overpowered builds and then endlessly boast about how strong their characters are.
In shadowrun the guy who chooses to be an adept and puts 15 dice into katana is the munchkin.
 

ColCol

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The main advantage, for me, that online seems to have over live-random meetups, is the fact that online promises longer and more consistent games/campaign. Most of the live meets I'm finding seems to be one-two day mini-campaigns.
 

oscar

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I'm a pen-and-paper virgin who'd love to join.
 

ColCol

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oh, okay. How about this. I have about a week left of school and a work project. So, how about during this time we start planning? I think for now we should find 2-3 more people. 2 being players, and one serving as a dm. Once we have a stable group we can start planning on what game to play and when to play it.

Does that sound good?
 
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Ulminati

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Not interested in playing or DMing - already got 3 regular groups - but I thought I'd chip in.

A lot of people are only interested in playing a specific system or 1-2 of their favourites. So getting a group together before deciding on the game is getting things backwards. Likewise, only about 1 in 10 people who'd want to play a campaign is willing/qualified to DM it. I'm not saying you should scrap your plans altogether, but the typical way to go about things is that a potential DM picks the system and adventure, then advetizes for players. Since the DM has the biggest workload by far, they should be the one deciding on a system they're familiar with and interested in, or the campaign will quickly fizzle out.
 

ColCol

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Not interested in playing or DMing - already got 3 regular groups - but I thought I'd chip in.

A lot of people are only interested in playing a specific system or 1-2 of their favourites. So getting a group together before deciding on the game is getting things backwards. Likewise, only about 1 in 10 people who'd want to play a campaign is willing/qualified to DM it. I'm not saying you should scrap your plans altogether, but the typical way to go about things is that a potential DM picks the system and adventure, then advetizes for players. Since the DM has the biggest workload by far, they should be the one deciding on a system they're familiar with and interested in, or the campaign will quickly fizzle out.

Well, aren't you a little role playing machine. I was thinking about your point. I guess I will at least find a DM first and see what he/she wants to do.
 

Angelo85

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When you are planing to play a campaign online, just keep in mind that typing takes waaay longer than talking. What a group manages to accomplish in a handful of sessions at a table will potentially take a dozen of sessions online. So using voice might be preferable.
Also communications discipline is important, or everyone will type/talk at the same time, adding further to the DM confusion. Though with a smaller group of 2 to 3 players that might not be as big of an issue.

That reminds me of that one time we had a nice Codex Pathfinder group going and then our DM suddenly abandoned us a couple sessions in because he finally scored and gotten laid :p


Summoning lightbane Mrowak Quilty anyone of you guys interested in giving a Codex PnP Group another shot?
 

Angelo85

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I was actually paging the old players to draw their attention to this thread and your potential group :)

We were using RPTools' MapTool for the sessions, which worked quite well.
Also, if you wanna read up on our Pathfinder adventure, here's a link to the Thread, session logs/recaps included.
 

Quilty

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That Pathfinder game Ulminati DMed for us was a lot of fun, I'd be up for something along those lines, sure. Though I have to be honest, I haven't played Pathfinder since then, so I'd need to refresh my knowledge of the system.

I have since DMed a Realms of Cthulhu game over RPtools, which was a lot of fun, and I'd definitely suggest learning Savage Worlds as your first PnP system. It's light on rules, building a character is a breeze, and there's tons of great settings to choose from (you can basically take any PnP game and turn it into a SW game just by slapping its rules on it). However, if you're looking for something more hardcore in the rules department, SW might just be a letdown for you. It's nowhere near as complex as DnD or Pathfinder, but it's an easy system to use if you're just starting out. It's not simplistic, it just does its best to remove some of the bookkeeping for the DM and the players. It is rather geared toward action, though, which is what I like so it's fine for me.

I've been looking into Dark Sun recently, with the (GASP!) 4th edition DnD ruleset. I really like the world and atmosphere of Dark Sun, and having it all laid out in the 4th ed. ruleset makes it easier to use. One can always just tweak stuff to downplay the annoyances of 4th ed, anyway.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I'd prefer to play in a smaller group, like Angelo said, 2 to 3, maximum 4 players. I prefer action and combat in a game, rather than roleplaying conversation and investigating stuff, so my taking part in the group might depend on what kind of game we'd be setting up.
 

Dire Roach

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I would strongly recommend starting your own group with friends who might be curious about PnP games or at least willing to give them a try. In my experience, groups of first-timers tend to have more fun as they learn the rules together and build their own gaming style. Newcomers who join already established groups often feel very out of place as they catch up in learning the rules and integrating with the group's culture.
 

dibens

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I'm a pen-and-paper virgin who'd love to join.

Same here.

Speaking of pen-and-paper. I'm looking for a story driven game, one that is more akin to choose your adventure than statistical combat bonanza to play with a lady-friend. Something that would tickle my gamer and her bookworm fancies. I heard Masquerade is like that, but have no idea what to buy on Amazon/Ebay.
 

ColCol

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damn you bros, can't you all be alike in your interests. You are teearrring me apart!

Regardless, I'm searching for a dm in a few places. I will try to keep everyone's requests in mind.
 

Akasen

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I would like to plug www.roll20.net as a browser-based alternative to thing like MapTools and the such.

Actually, I recall that on Roll20, there is a section where players look for groups or GM's look for players. I think it is quite originally called "Looking For Group".
 

Akasen

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I'm a pen-and-paper virgin who'd love to join.

Same here.

Speaking of pen-and-paper. I'm looking for a story driven game, one that is more akin to choose your adventure than statistical combat bonanza to play with a lady-friend. Something that would tickle my gamer and her bookworm fancies. I heard Masquerade is like that, but have no idea what to buy on Amazon/Ebay.
Ah! Interested in Vampire: The Masquerade are you? I personally have taken a light, small step into my favorite setting with its 20th Anniversary Edition Book, which can be found on DriveThruRPG. I find it a terrific book myself and would place it next to my bedside and read the sacred tome each night.

Anything else? Yes and no. You could basically venture over to the White-Wolf wiki for any questions regarding lore that isn't heavily touched on in the 20th Anniversary Edition. Although the book is generally, I parrot, setting agnostic. In other words, you don't really need to know a lot of the setting, history, lore, and whatever else to play with 20th Anniversary (Although hindsight this would be true with any game).

Short and simple, 20th Anniversary Edition is said to contain within its lovely 529 pages nearly all information in Masquerade. This includes Clans, Disciplines, Bloodlines, Paths, and so forth. Don't know what any of that is? Don't worry, book has it.

And now if you excuse me, I must now root myself into the ground and call myself a plant D:
 

ColCol

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Just to let to let people know I have found at least three more potential players. Still talking to dms also.
 
Self-Ejected

Ulminati

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That reminds me of that one time we had a nice Codex Pathfinder group going and then our DM suddenly abandoned us a couple sessions in because he finally scored and gotten laid :p

That had better been some grade A freaky sex in public places for a DM to callously abandon his BROs like that :rpgcodex:



















...It was. :smug:
 

Quilty

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:bro:
 

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