Cracked open a box, found my RPG books

[Senator]

I used to DM my friends when we were kids, and for some reason, one of them kept the module I hurt them the most in; but was so fun it is still talked about. About 5 years ago, he sent it to me on my birthday - framed. Tomb of Horrors, First Edition, with nacho stains still visible.

[Abe Sargent]

Tomb of Horrors was nasty. They made a revamp of it years later as a boxed set, but it was classic. Only one module in the AD&D 2nd Edition Days was as deadly, and that was Labyrinth of Madness. That was crazy hard too.

[Autumn]

Did someone say Tomb of Horrors?

Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Module S1 "Tomb of Horrors"

[Abe Sargent]

Nice find Autumn!

[Autumn]

Thanks ;-) I was reading that the other week. They've got some funny other ones as well.

[Axxon]

I always imagined how much fun Tomb of Horrors would be with a good gaming group. I did try to run a party through it but had no luck as they all climbed into that mouth thing straight off. That ended that gaming session right there.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Autumn

There's a lot of variety in the RPG world, so I wouldn't be so sure. There are also a lot of places where boardgames and RPG blur, so you might enjoy some of those games. What you think of as RPGs (most likely classic D&D) bears so little resemblance to other games out there these days. Some have a lot of the elements that draw people into board games, others emphasize storytelling, either directing a character or even just collaborative tale telling where the players compete for control of the narrative but don't pick a character.

A primary issue is getting people to play with. With board gaming, I play with my wife, DV, and occasionally with some others, but even that can be tough to play as often as I like. With RPG's, you need a bigger group and I don't have the people to play those.

I also enjoy the social, strategic and competitive aspect of board games. I am not entirely clear on how RPG's work, but am not sure they would fulfill those aspects the way I would want them too. Again though, I've never tried it and do not know a ton about it, so I could be wrong.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by Danny

Nah, you only whip this stuff out after the I Do's

That could be considered a dealbreaker by some judges.

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by Danny

A primary issue is getting people to play with. With board gaming, I play with my wife, DV, and occasionally with some others, but even that can be tough to play as often as I like. With RPG's, you need a bigger group and I don't have the people to play those.

I also enjoy the social, strategic and competitive aspect of board games. I am not entirely clear on how RPG's work, but am not sure they would fulfill those aspects the way I would want them too. Again though, I've never tried it and do not know a ton about it, so I could be wrong.

Well, just to continue playing devil's advocate...some games work well, or better, with small groups. The group I'm playing indie games with is only three of us and that works fine for a lot of games. We do have more in the other group we play more standard stuff, but sometimes that can even be too much. There are some games, like Burning Wheel, which work great with two players even.

On your other point, I think RPGs can scratch the competitive, social and strategic itches but in different ways than board games. I love board games also (I've been playing Tigris and Euphrates online with one of my gaming friends a lot recently). However, depending on the particular game, a lot games require a lot of strategic thinking. Most involve competition, though generally against the GM-led opponents, not all the players. Even this is not universal though. Some of the story games include a component of contesting for control of the narrative among the players. Or games like Capes where you try to generate conflict among the characters in order to provide you more narrative control.

We just played a tiny game called Final Stand which is basically meant to replicate classic kung fu movies. There was a lot of strategy involved in how to spend your dice on attacks or defense, when to use special moves. It was definitely boardgame-esque, but produced a pretty hilarious story as well. Roleplaying is definitely social. i often come back from the game session with a headache from laughing so hard.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Danny

A primary issue is getting people to play with. With board gaming, I play with my wife, DV, and occasionally with some others, but even that can be tough to play as often as I like. With RPG's, you need a bigger group and I don't have the people to play those.

If you have ever played games like Heroquest, Tomb or Descent, you are essentially getting the really basic mechanics in fantasy RPG games minus the roleplaying elements.

Wish my wife would play the same boardgames I played, but there is absolutely zero chance of that happening.. not even Stratego. I tried to show her how to play Heroquest once, but couldn't get past the basics of line of sight (what you see).

[Warhammer]

There are more people out there that play the RPGs than play the boardgames. That said, there are far more boardgamers I enjoy socializing with than RPGers.

[Abe Sargent]

I rerread the Giants trilogy of dungeon modules the other day for fun. I have the ones with one color covers. Fun stuff!

[Mustang]

I must really want to play D&D (or I lead a sad said life). I've resorted to listening to podcasts of people playing D&D.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Mustang

I must really want to play D&D (or I lead a sad said life). I've resorted to listening to podcasts of people playing D&D.

There are podcasts of people playing D&D? Weird.

Back in the day, when I played a lot of D&D and other RPGs, we used to have people want to come and watch us play. Girlfriends, other friends or what not. I hated it. It's sort of weird having someone just sitting there watching.

Speaking of D&D, I played some over the weekend. Things didn't go very well for our group. We were tasked to protect some mega-wizard's 11 year old daughter and she just got kidnapped by a group of ridiculously powerful assholes. Not good. Sets things up quite nicely for the next session at GenCon.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I also played a pretty good boardgame over the weekend called "Dungeon Lords." It's essentially a boargame of the old "Dunegon Keeper" PC game. Each player has his own dungeon. You build it up by adding more tunnels, rooms, traps, monsters, etc. You have imps that do work for you. And then at the end of 4 turns, a random group of adventurers come in and try to destroy your dungeon. You have to stop them as quickly as possible with your traps and monsters.

It's a fun game. I like it, because it's two games in one. The first part is sort of a resource management type game. You have to decide what resources you want and how to use your imps to best improve your dungeon. The second part, when the adventurers come, is sort of almost like a math puzzle. You have to figure out the best tactics to use to kill the adventurers as quickly as possible, because each turn they live, they take out one tile of your dungeon.

We also played "Pandemic." It's a great game. Very quick. I like it because it's cooperative. All the players act as a team working to wipe out various plagues that are spreading across the world. Each player has a different role and each role has a different power. The game is very hard. I've played it about 5 times and have never won.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

There are podcasts of people playing D&D? Weird.

Podcasts from Major Spoilers. Actually its a RPG/4th Edition tutorial thing. No worse than a audio book or other podcast so.. eh.

I'm not a big fan of people watching either (board games, rpgs, card games, etc). Grab a chair, sit down and play.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Podcasts from Major Spoilers. Actually its a RPG/4th Edition tutorial thing. No worse than a audio book or other podcast so.. eh.

Gotcha. I could see where that could be worthwhile. I'm much better at listening to people explain things or watching a demo of something than I am actually figuring out the rules to something by reading the instructions. My reading comprehension stinks sometimes.

That said, back in the day, ("the day" being around 1984-89) there was no one who knew the Battletech rules better than I did. I could rattle off just about anything and calculate any "to hit" or "piloting roll" modifier and if there was ever an argument, it ended the moment I reached for the rule book. The people knew.

Yeah, I was pretty cool.

[Autumn]

There is a lot of podcasts of various games. It's a great way to learn a new game, especially some of the indie games, which you haven't actually played yet. But I agree, it would be kind of weird to record it.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I also played a pretty good boardgame over the weekend called "Dungeon Lords." It's essentially a boargame of the old "Dunegon Keeper" PC game. Each player has his own dungeon. You build it up by adding more tunnels, rooms, traps, monsters, etc. You have imps that do work for you. And then at the end of 4 turns, a random group of adventurers come in and try to destroy your dungeon. You have to stop them as quickly as possible with your traps and monsters.

You're a bad bad man - I read this and instantly ordered it on Amazon ....

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

You're a bad bad man - I read this and instantly ordered it on Amazon ....

Well, given that I've bought probably six or seven different versions of Champ Man/Football Manager over the last 10 years, I think I still owe you a few.

Let me know what you think of it. I thought it was a lot of fun and ordered a copy myself off Amazon a day or two ago.

[gi]

Table Top Roleplaying is not a spectator sport. Grab and chair, pencil, paper, die, and step up and play.

[Sgran]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I also played a pretty good boardgame over the weekend called "Dungeon Lords." It's essentially a boargame of the old "Dunegon Keeper" PC game. Each player has his own dungeon. You build it up by adding more tunnels, rooms, traps, monsters, etc. You have imps that do work for you. And then at the end of 4 turns, a random group of adventurers come in and try to destroy your dungeon. You have to stop them as quickly as possible with your traps and monsters.

It's a fun game. I like it, because it's two games in one. The first part is sort of a resource management type game. You have to decide what resources you want and how to use your imps to best improve your dungeon. The second part, when the adventurers come, is sort of almost like a math puzzle. You have to figure out the best tactics to use to kill the adventurers as quickly as possible, because each turn they live, they take out one tile of your dungeon.

Sounds great. I'll bet it's a great break from a D&D game that's gotten weary.

[Glengoyne]

I thought of this thread. I've played my first D & D session in many many years. I haven't played since a session or two of 2.0. I played 1.0/1.5 for years though along with a lot of ICE's gameset in Middle Earth.

My Nephews wanted to play, and I found the books too expensive. I mentioned this in passing to a friend, and he announced that he had essentially all of the books, and that he would run a campaign.

I really like the 4.0 format. Very cool stuff.

Oh most importantly...we survived about half a dozen encounters. Well OK I died once, when I, a Minotaur, charged an 8th level Ogre. I had no idea that Ogres were 8th level, and this was a level 1 encounter in any case. It went down something like this.
DM "That was a bad Idea. I rolled a 10 and I hit you."
ME " I'm AC 19"
DM "He's plus eleven to hit."
ME "oh".
DM "You're only going to take 19 damage this round, I rolled poorly"

[Sgran]

On Sunday night we took a break from our usual D and D game to play the Order of the Stick board game. Although the box boasts that there are quick start rules, the details pop up quickly and result in a steep learning curve. 5 of us played for 3 and a half hours straight. At that point only one character had descended to the lowest level (4) and was soundly defeated by Xykon. We called it a night and concluded that the party needs to stick together to defeat him considering how much support he has. Overall, the game is fun, but it's best for saving until you're burnt out on your normal RPG and need a break.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Sgran

On Sunday night we took a break from our usual D and D game to play the Order of the Stick board game. Although the box boasts that there are quick start rules, the details pop up quickly and result in a steep learning curve. 5 of us played for 3 and a half hours straight. At that point only one character had descended to the lowest level (4) and was soundly defeated by Xykon. We called it a night and concluded that the party needs to stick together to defeat him considering how much support he has. Overall, the game is fun, but it's best for saving until you're burnt out on your normal RPG and need a break.

Just have Elan go down and touch the sigil...

[MacroGuru]

Alright...Wizards is releasing the Red Box Set again...Does anyone know if this is the old school rules or has it been switched up...I have the original red box set minus the box, but this really, really appeals to me.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Alright...Wizards is releasing the Red Box Set again...Does anyone know if this is the old school rules or has it been switched up...I have the original red box set minus the box, but this really, really appeals to me.

Unfortunately, it is a smaller set of the 4th edition rules.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Unfortunately, it is a smaller set of the 4th edition rules.

Bleh...never mind then...LOL

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Alright...Wizards is releasing the Red Box Set again...Does anyone know if this is the old school rules or has it been switched up...I have the original red box set minus the box, but this really, really appeals to me.

It sucks - I picked it up hoping it'd be more 'old school' than the new ruleset ... but not only is it the new rules but its a travesty of complication compared to the old ruleset imho ...

(do bear in mind this is just my personal 'take' on it and it might just be that I'm getting old and crotchety)

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

(do bear in mind this is just my personal 'take' on it and it might just be that I'm getting old and crotchety)

Not just you. I think many people are still attached to 3.0/3.5 stuff. I haven't even made an attempt to try to carry 4th edition stuff.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Not just you. I think many people are still attached to 3.0/3.5 stuff. I haven't even made an attempt to try to carry 4th edition stuff.

My group still plays with the 3.0/3.5 stuff. Granted, we don't play often and our on-going "campaign" started pre-4th edition, but, even if we were to start something new, I don't think we'd switch to 4th edition. I've skimmed the rules a few times and didn't like them at all.

It's quite obvious that the rules are geared towards making D&D play more like Wolrd of Warcraft.

[gi]

After trying Savage Worlds (After leaving DnD), we moved to Dragon Age by Green Ronin. Only played a couple sessions, but it's decent so far.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I kind of like the Dragon Age world, at least based on my experience with the PC game.

I also have the "Song of Ice & Fire" RPG books by Green Ronin, but have never tried them.

[Mustang]

If anyone has 'Other Suns' by FGU floating around and wants to part with it, drop me a PM.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I kind of like the Dragon Age world, at least based on my experience with the PC game.

I also have the "Song of Ice & Fire" RPG books by Green Ronin, but have never tried them.

How did I miss this? Awesome! Have you looked at them since this post?

My 10 year old is showing interest in role playing and table top gaming so I am looking at different worlds to introduce him too.

[Warhammer]

Some of you guys looking for an old school D & D fix might want to take a look at Hackmaster. One of the guys in my local boardgame group is a playtester for them and watching them play it has me itching to get back in. They've also released some of the old modules such as B2, only expanded (from what I understand, B2 was split into the Keep and the Caves as two separate modules).

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

How did I miss this? Awesome! Have you looked at them since this post?

My 10 year old is showing interest in role playing and table top gaming so I am looking at different worlds to introduce him too.

I never bought or looked at any of the "Dragon Age" stuff, but I did flip through the "Game of Thrones" books. I thought it looked decent enough and had some interesting mechanics.

Since I've been playing RPGs for 30 years now, it's hard for me to really say whether any particular system or world would be better for a 10 year old than another.

I know both worlds put themselves out there as being a little more "mature", but, at least with the "Game of Thrones" stuff, there's really nothing I recall that wouldn't be fit for the eyes of a 10 year old. And with the right GM, almost any game can be age appropriate.

The one thing to note about the "Game of Thrones" world is that it is very low magic and fantasy. There is very little in the way of magic items or monsters.

Thinking back to when I was 10, I was more into having my characters get cool powerful magic items and fighting dangerous monsters, than I was about role-playing, intrigue, etc. Based on that, the "Dragon Age" game may be a better fit. A little more traditional in that sense, where as in a "Game of Thrones", you're pretty much always just fighting other people.

[gi]

Dragon Age is great, old school feel with a rules light system. Played 14 sessions with it so far and it's working for my group.

[SirFozzie]

Yet another disaster relief bundle from DriveThruRPG:

New Zealand Red Cross Earthquake Relief - RPG Bundle [BUNDLE] - OneBookShelf, Inc. | DriveThruRPG.com

Highlights:

SCION (HERO): Interesting game from White Wolf, featuring Scions, the offspring of Gods and Goddesses..

Cthulutech: A weird mashup featuring eldritch horrors and mecha, sometimes fused into one. Mankind under attack from the servants of the old ones, and their only hope is taking the eldritch technology of the elders and using it against them...

SUPERNATURAL: Based on the TV show, take back the night from the monsters.

TALES FROM THE FLOATING VAGABOND: If you ever thought to play a Callahan's Cross-Time Saloon RPG, this is probably the best.. ultra-rare, and out of print for the best part of two decades.. fun stuff though

[MacroGuru]

I'm itching to play some Shadowrun again...

What is everyone's take on 4th Ed vs 3rd Ed rules for this?

They have both sets up on DriveThruRPG....

[cubboyroy1826]

Huge Savage Worlds fan here. Our group still plays some old school D&D, along with D20 Star Wars and a game called Corporation. As for Hackmaster I sat down and played at Gencon and I have to say it was way too boring and slow, which is why I like Savage Worlds so much.

[SirFozzie]

Get the 20th Anniversary 4th edition set of Shadowrun MacroGuru..

Hell, if there's enough interest, I'll run a Play By Post game of shadowrun.

[ntndeacon]

All I ever got into was champions. I have a 4th edition hero system rule book. and that is it.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Get the 20th Anniversary 4th edition set of Shadowrun MacroGuru..

Hell, if there's enough interest, I'll run a Play By Post game of shadowrun.

\

I grabbed it....along with every other 4th ed sourcebook I could get my hands on.

[SirFozzie]

good stuff. The only sourcebook I'd advise to avoid is War!.. That book has basically become an un-book (there's som really overpowered stuff in there, combined with some bad editing, etcetera)

[Mustang]

Anyone cracked open a box recently and found this?

hxxp://www.ebay.com/itm/HUGE-LOT-500-TSR-DUNGEONS-DRAGONS-BOOKS-SETS-GURPS-GYGAX-RPG-VINTAGE-/260861718798?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cbc91f10e

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Anyone cracked open a box recently and found this?

hxxp://www.ebay.com/itm/HUGE-LOT-500-TSR-DUNGEONS-DRAGONS-BOOKS-SETS-GURPS-GYGAX-RPG-VINTAGE-/260861718798?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cbc91f10e

HOLY! That is the trove! I might have actually spent the money on that if I would have known about it...that is an amazing collection..

[Thomkal]

<----cries over the missed opportunity. Of course I probably have a lot of that stuff already...

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

HOLY! That is the trove! I might have actually spent the money on that if I would have known about it...that is an amazing collection..

Gutted I missed a chance to bid on that - might even have been made enough to win it, admittedly my wife would probably have killed me .... but .....

I mean look at that stuff, some of it is hugely collectable its an investment honey

[DataKing]

Makes me wonder what I could get for my collection...