DnD and other such things

I was wondering where I could get into any online or IRL sessions of any character-based RPGs like DnD. I'm very intrigued, (blame /tg/) and I'd like to see if all those awesome stories do come true. Any help is welcome, as is any information on other tabletops like Warhammer. Thanks for being a bunch of broes.

DnD is an entertaining system; go with 4e stuff if you're looking for something higher-powered; 3.5 is more old-school and much weaker (first-level 3.5 adventurers can lose in fights with housecats, I kid you not).

Pathfinder is a decent alternative, as it's basically a 3.5/3.2 retroclone with more balanced mechanics.

There's also White Wolf games, such as WoD (which I think you might enjoy, setting-wise). Thing about White Wolf games is that they tend to have amazing settings but lackluster or badly cross-referenced mechanics, where D&D and Pathfinder have forgettable settings and more balanced mechanics. Your choice there. I'm a big fan of Exalted, which is basically, "you're not just demigods, you're the weapons the gods used to kill the super-gods that created them. Thousands of years later, the world has gone straight to hell, and it's up to you to fix it or put the final nails in the coffin." If you ever decide to get into it, call me.

There's also more rules-light games like Fate and We're All Going to Die, which are good for getting new people into the idea of roleplaying.

For the ultimate fun one-shot system, there's Paranoia, which is a dystopian scifi game, where dying is first and foremost, and the best part is keeping secrets from the rest of the party. Just remember: knowing the rules of the game is treason.

For something ultimately adaptable, you can use BESM (preferably not the d20; I at least always used the 2d6 version). That's entirely point-buy, so it takes some GM oversight for the players to not entirely break something, but it's rewarding when it works properly.

Warhammer is less of an RPG and more of a battlegame, in that there's no real characters to it (unless you use the roleplaying supplements, which I think might exist). I'm not a big fan of Warhammer and 40k because they're really expensive to get into if you're using actual minis. That said, I've never played Warhammer, though I do have some brand loyalty to the Battletech franchise, and I would totally play that if I could find someone to do it with and would actually follow through on it.

I've played a couple of white wolf runs. They seemed fun, but they were more of detective stories than combat.
But ending a DtF game with a Molotov firestorm is great.

From a 4e veteran, combat is over rated. I mean it's the basis for a lot of systems, but it starts to drag after a while. Those stories you hear are admittedly rare. Far more often the party walks into a room, slogs through everything inside, and repeats with the next.

Don't get me wrong, I love TTRPG's, but combat focus never ends well.

I mean, I like peace. I love fluff. But having one fight to get the ropes of things...

how do you lose to something that does 1d3-2 damage?

and the DM will never have an introductory fight, because if he did you'd fuck it up. My third game of D&D we tarted by attacking a group of key NPCs

But where would I meet a group?

Grab some friends, find some books, and just do it.

We're not looking for members, but that's how I, some friends, and Eo, set one up.

Orright, seems simple 'nuff.
Well bloody Protestant hell my grandma hates these things for no reason

The Chick Tracts lied, man, the chick tracts lied.

It's also Satan's game you know. There's that.

Honestly I could mail-order things but eh effort

When in doubt, the internet.

Or I could Warhammer, but I heard the rules change more often than MTG standard sets.

Oh and the minis cost you all the money forever, yes. Ready to spend hundreds?

Oh dear. I-I think I'll just stick to home brewed systems.

They call it "40k" because that's how much your starter army costs. I have been offered used starter armies by a near friend for $200. That's at a 60% discount, mind you, for like seven or eight dudes.

When I said the internet, I was intentionally hinting at maybe well over 3/4ths of the books I own are technically on my hard drive and only quansi legitimate.

It's also technically free if you were to play Warhammer online, with virtual minis on a virtual table. But that's wargaming. You're not roleplaying, so much as just this wall of dudes versus that wall of dudes.

I'm actually considering running a prototype of a system I'm brewing here.

Okay, but fair warning. You know how we'd tell people on the Sporum to play in a few before making their own? That applies triple when you're making a system.

This is more of a civilization thing though, not a PC/NPC deal.

then even more so. You need far, far more rules for mass interaction than one-to-one interaction. you can't just role dice because that takes strategy out of it, and you have to have dice rolls because battles often hinge on luck.

I'm modeling it after the Civilization games by way of unit production and tech trees.

Well I modified an infamous copypasta...
>I was only 29 years old
>I loved Nurgle so much, I had all the joy and love
>I pray to Nurgle every night, thanking him for the love I have been given
>"Nurgle is Love" I say, "Nurgle is Life"
>Emprah hears me and calls me a heretic
>I know he was just jealous of my devotion for Nurgle
>I called him a git
>He slaps me and sends me to atone
>I'm crying now, and my wounds hurt
>I lay on the battlefield and it's really cold
>A warmth is moving towards me
>I feel something touch me
>It's Nurgle
>I am so rejoiceful
>He whispers in my ear, "This is my love"
>He grabs me with his powerful chaos god hands and puts me on my feet
>I'm ready
>I spread the love for Nurgle
>Bullets penetrate my flesh
>It hurts so much but I do it for Nurgle
>I can feel my flesh tearing as my eyes start to water
>He gives me force
>I want to please Papa Nurgle
>He fills me with regenerative abilities
>Emprah walks in
>Nurgle looks him in the eye and says, "It's all chaos now"
>Nurgle leaves from whence he came
>Nurgle is love, Nurgle is life

You know, I think you fine fellows may enjoy this. A video LP of Dungeons and Dragons as done by the ever-wise and perpetually unknown by anyone outside of the Retsupurea crowd: General Ironicus.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3467826

The Retsupurea podcast - Retsutalk - tipped me off to this project he is undertaking when Diabeetus interviewed him the entire episode:



The interview has a briefer-than-probably 80 episode overview of the DnD Let's Play project. As well as discusses some models and sites you'd find interesting.