So this part of the forum seemed kinda unused so I thought - 'Hey! Why not make a thread about Tabletops in the Roleplaying section! Not sure if I'm the only one, but I play a lil every monday with my group and thought, if anyone else played or was interested, this could be a place to post stories and the like. Maybe past Characters, future characters, ect.

Neat! I thought about making a topic about this a bit ago but decided not to. Glad someone decided to do it! That said, I think this section is for actual RP threads instead of just topics about role playing games. Perhaps a moderator should move this to the General RPG Forum?

Currently playing D&D most every Saturday with my GF, her brothers, and a few other people. We’ve actually a few different campaigns active right now, one which follows the Rise of Tiamat official content, and two other homebrew campaigns that are set in their own madeup worlds. I’ll post some info on my characters a bit later.

Ha! Heres hoping there is a bit more interest! I'll start things off. So Most of you that remember me will know I used an Argonian with an axe as my Profile pic- Not the Fox there now. Said fox is some art I paid for a while back, his name is Afell Tale and he is one of my first Tabletop characters in years-

He comes from a Pathfinder game I played with my current group in the Adventure Path of Rise of the Runelords. Kitsune Tiefling with the Infernal Sorcerer Bloodline. Tale is a runaway from home, home being the Infernal empire of Cheliax ruled by a Tyrant who claimed her throne via her Ancestors who made Devilish pacts with Hell to tip the scales in a civil war. Tale's family are a bunch of Cultists and Tale was the be a vessel for their patron Devil. He was young when he ran away from home, got picked up off the streets by a monk and adopted into a Monastery- A very Buddhist monastery under the Pathfinder god of self perfection Irori- Tale thought he could find away to remove his Devilish taint through self purification. He makes it his personal quest in fact, studying old magics, Transmutation, ect. Anything he thinks will help him separate his Devil blood from himself. Unknown to him his Mother and leader of the Cult, Apsara, has been looking for him. Had planned for a confrontation later down the line. But Tale ended up joining the adventuring party he's with for lodging, a study, and an income in which to fund his experiments.

I've got several other characters with this group, we're currently running Wrath of the Righteous, a Crusade against Demon hoards pouring from a portal in the Pathfinder world.

I have not played tabletop RPGs in ages. Maybe 15 years or more? Back in the day I ran a Marvel Superheroes campaign, and later ones in Earthdawn and Shadowrun. Oh, and Star Wars, using the original 1st edition rules from West End.

What was the Star Wars one like?

Star Wars was a ton of fun. The adventures they put out really embraced the pulp action style of the genre. It was all about being fast-paced, and fun. Every adventure started with a script that you would hand out to the players, and each would read their part. It would set up the adventure, and usually drop the group right into the action at the start. When I made my own adventures, I carried that over.

Here is an example of one of mine:

Couriers

Adventure Script

Drizz’t-That Imperial Frigate just launched two more TIE fighters.

Jorbret-She’s hailing us.

Imperial Frigate-This is the Imperial Frigate Red Wind. Halt and state your business freighter.

Du’Sar-This is the freighter Redemption. We’re carrying business representitives and product samples, bound for Amma.

Red Wind-Lower your shields and prepare for inspection.

Du’sar-Affirmitive Red Wind.

Kell-This sounds like fun.

Drizz’t-Try not to get too excited.

Renfro-Those spies better appreciate the trouble were going through to get them these supplies.

Kell-They could sure use the help.

Drizz’t-That’s the easy part, sneaking off Bacrana with the spy that they think is comprimised, that’ll be the real fun part.

Kell-I’m looking forward to that.

Jorbret-Just remember, we don’t know if this guy’s gone over to the Empire or not. They could be just feeding him false information.

Du’Sar-Yes, never underestimate Imperial Intelligence. On my homeworld, they have destroyed more than one underground cell by feeding false information to loyal resistance fighters.

Renfro-Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In case no one’s been keeping up on current events, there is a Frigate about to board us.

Kell-We just have to stick to our cover as a tramp freighter with business reps, that’ll be a breeze.

Drizz’t-Just try not to throw any grenades into the boarding umbilical.

Kell-Hey, you can’t throw a party without party favors.

Jorbret-Shh, They’re docking, everyone act like businesspeople.

Tabletop gaming changed my life in high school! It literally kept me out of trouble, because I was no longer out running around with a crowd od near-hoodlum druggies. Instead, I was staying indoors with a group of friends. My parents approved a hell of a lot, of course! ... Mostly we played The Fantasy Trip, which was similar to DnD, but its character generation & dice rolls were a lot more realistic. I continued tablegaming into college, but somewhere in the late '80s, but eventually dating and real-life stuff began to take over.

That's really great you are able to still keep gaming in this way, Arcry. It is really fun gaming with a group of others, You'd think it might be boring because it's so slow, right? A fight which takes 30 seconds in a videogame could take well over an hour with real dice rolls / book notations. But the truth is, time really does fly, because we were all having fun

Yeah I started gaming in my High School years too. Was introduced to it by my cousin after his brother died. He, myself, and my step brother became kinda close after he lost his own brother and I think the Tabletoping really helped him. I know I had a good time.

My first system back then was a homebrewed system by a local friend of our DM. It saw limited print- Adventure Maximum or Admax for short. I still miss those games. Our DM was also a published author, he used tabletop to help flesh out his books. Was a heck of a time.

So for you, it was tragedy which started you table-gaming. Interesting how for a lot of us, it wasn't just getting interested in nerdy stuff.

See, we did not have a DM. Well, I guess originally the guy who got me into tablegaming played the role of DM, but eventually we all became equals. We incorporated DnD rules into TFT's system, since DnD had a much broader "world" and lots more rules. We also began writing our own adventures. I can remember I was learning about Feudalism in World History class, and added this into our game as well. I like to think of this as my very first mod.

For me it was all because I was Queer. I was not Out at that time of course. But ever since I was old enough to know anything, I knew I was different from everyone else. I knew that the world I lived in was not made for me, and was not particularly welcoming to me. So I started looking elsewhere. That is what got me into reading sci-fi and fantasy, and history. They were ways that I could escape from the real world that I was trapped in, at least for a little while.

In my early teens I suffered from major depression, to the point of being suicidal. I went to a psychologist, and he is actually the one who suggested I try playing D&D. He got me in touch with some gamers, and I just sort of branched out from there. For me role-playing was an even better escape from the ugliness of the real world than reading books.

I’m super glad that psychologist prescribed something that worked for you. I haven’t been around here very long, relatively, but I greatly value your advice and feedback about the things I post, and I know others feel the same. We are lucky to have you here!

I was introduced to D&D early last year by my GF. I find it to be a good creative outlet.

Right, that sounds like a great psychologist. I had a couple really great shrinks in my life. This one lady, I wish I could track her down and import her back to Maryland, she really helped me in my 20s. Ironically, I think her help is what eventually caused me to get away from gaming. I had trouble forming relationships at that age, and so on.

Khajiit, you are actively tablegaming? Do you have more than one character? Are you using lead figures like these? Or are you play-acting everything? I remember there was one table group in my high school days which play-acted. If you were a half-orc or whatever, you'd be near-grunting at the table!

Ja, my group is currently running 2 different campaigns, and another that we squeeze in whenever the 2 DMs need more time to get their campaigns together. We alternate campaigns every other weekend. I have 3 active characters; one for each campaign. They are each of them represented by a plastic figure (or “mini”, if you prefer that term). The two I use the most were made on Hero Forge, and the one I use for the fill in campaign is just a generic “rogue with a bow” plastic figure. I’ll write about my characters and the campaigns I use them for here a bit later.

We used minis. Some of the guys had a bunch of unpainted ones, and a few that they had actually painted, and we pressed them into service to show who was who in battles. I remember I had a giant sheet of paper with a square grid drawn on it, which I had laminated. So I would roll that out across the dining room table, and draw out the walls of rooms and corridors on it with grease pencils. I had a dry erase board that I hung on the wall to write down stuff like Initiative Rolls, so we could all see who went when.

Funnily enough, the ones I use the most are unpainted and the rogue one is fully painted. I’ve been meaning to paint the others myself but I can’t ever seem to find the time and I don’t want to ask my GF’s brother-in-law (also the main campaign’s DM) to do it because he’s so busy. Maybe the next time we have an off week I’ll make time to get that done.

I forgot to mention, that Hero Forge link is awesome! Bespoke miniatures is an awesome idea, given that pen and paper RPGs seem to be more popular than ever.

Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I have a couple of small complaints about it, but the ability to create just about any kind of character you can imagine far outweighs those trivialities.

YES that is one thing i forgot-- the painting! We used to paint most of our figures, this is true. I got pretty good at it. I remember I'd even use a needle to add irises and pupils.

That's so awesome you are tablegaming, Khajiit. I bet it really lends a different perspective compared to videogames. I can remember way back in the mid '80s though, rolling dice and making notations. One day I thought "some day, somebody's going to make a videogame which simulates all this in real time." For me, Oblivion was that game. :cake;

So Khajiit has been asked to GM his first game! We were sitting around talking about the Netflix anime,Castlevania, and we all agreed it could be a cool setting for a D&D homebrew! So then they suggested Khajiit should GM it! It’s a terrifying prospect, but it could be a lot of fun! It probably won’t be any time soon though. This one is currently trying to come up with a story. Thinking about setting it in the 1200’s as there is a large gap in the Castlevania series timeline between 1094 and 1476.

That sounds very cool! Also sounds like a lot of work just to develop the setting. But at least you are not starting from nothing. You can use real maps of eastern europe and real history to build off from.

Khajiit, I agree with SubRosa. And I bet you'll be great at it!

Indeed! Khajiit has a starting point for the story, but not much else at this point. Also have an idea for a major villain, but there are some things about him that this one needs to work on and figure out. Will probably throw in an a-hole Belmont for the lulz. This is a time period they are supposed to be gaining a bad reputation with “dark magic” and other silliness.


Thanks A!

Let one of the player characters be that A-hole Belmont.

Khajiit would rather they didn’t, but he wouldn’t stop them from being an a-hole Belmont, lol

Instead of D&D, you might consider using Vtmb: Dark Ages. Or you might use a superhero system, like Champions/Fuzion. The Castlevania TV show was definitely a superhero show. Even Trevor Belmont, who was a "normal" human, was definitely a Batman-like super, with lots of skills and knowledge.

That would take everybody learning a new system and I doubt they’d all be willing to that. I may ask though!

Wow, Khajiit the Dungeon Master! That sounds like a lot of fun.

Back in high school we actually hated a few things about D&D (such as humans with hundreds of hit points) so we used The Fantasy Trip, which we thought was more down-to-earth and believable. However, we still used D&D's modules and books, mostly because the world Gary Gygax & crew had created was so much more expansive & comprehensive. Hundreds of potions & poisons, dozens of Classes, literally hundreds of creatures & monsters to encounter!

Anyway, enjoy yourself, Khajiit. Nothing like sharing a game with friends. Hours can go by like minutes...