# Anyone up for some D&D with a twist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 20, 2007, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220 "2007-08-20T05:13:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/1 "2007-08-20T05:13:00Z")
Not on the Board, of course. I’m leaning towards Gametable, AIM, or another free program that would let anyone who was interested join in easily. Anyway, getting down to business: I’m quite a fan of the Tomb of Horrors, nefarious, player-vs-environment style of adventure: very few beasties, but a plethora of traps, obstacles, riddles, and the like to take their place. Everybody has played ToH, however, and I don’t have a pre-written dungeon in mind… so what I’d like to propose is a sort of collaborative venture: after securing enough interested players to form a respectable party, we create a secret design thread that the party promises to stay out. While they bite their thumbs in anticipation, the rest of us work out the most fiendishly challenging (and fun, of course) dungeon crawl we can think of. After we have a decent amount worked out, I figure we could start holding online sessions and, with the players’ permissions, logging the game for the amusement of the rest of the board. Heck, if there’s enough interest we could even alternate DMs among any of the designers who were interested. This may be a far-fetched idea, but I thought it would be great fun for the people who have time to play and extremely amusing for anyone who wants to participate on the sidelines. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/2 "2007-08-20T05:21:02Z")
I approve of and endorse this idea. I may be interested in participating as a player. Of course, one of the pitfalls that online play usually encounters is getting people to sit down together at the same time. That sort of planning can get insane. Anyway, I thought I’d add a relevant [Nodwick](http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/gamespyarchive/index.php?date=2007-06-20) link. ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/3 "2007-08-20T05:42:51Z")
[QUOTE=Bosstone] I approve of and endorse this idea. I may be interested in participating as a player. Of course, one of the pitfalls that online play usually encounters is getting people to sit down together at the same time. That sort of planning can get insane. Anyway, I thought I’d add a relevant [Nodwick](http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/gamespyarchive/index.php?date=2007-06-20) link. [/QUOTE] That comic is _brilliant_. And more or less exactly what I was anticipating. 😃 The great thing about this type of game is that as long as you work out some kind of mutually agreed-upon resurrection or replacement system in advance, nobody is sad when a player dies; they’re either amused, or motivated to go experiment with the deadly trap some more. You’re right about the scheduling being an issue, but I’m sure we can work something out if we get enough players. We could even run single rooms in short one or two-hour sessions, if the scheduling is problematic; I’m not anticipating very much hack & slash, which should make it possible to pack more into an hour than players might be used to. Hmm. Actually… I want to hear from everyone else before I throw in ideas of my own, but now that I think about it a Mad Scientist theme might be really fun for this kind of game. [Girl Genius](http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070725) has been running an absolutely brilliant arc along this theme lately, ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/4 "2007-08-20T22:29:54Z")
I’ve never used IM, but I have a lot of D&D background. Started in the 70s, award-winning in tournament. That said, I’ve run some great campaigns set outdoors, in dangerous environments. Arctic, desert, & seagoing campaigns all offer unique opportunities. ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/5 "2007-08-22T19:53:33Z")
Bosda, that sounds pretty cool… I’ve always liked the idea of seagoing settings, but how do you typically make them stand out as anything other than a land-based setting with less mobility? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/6 "2007-08-22T21:38:44Z")
[QUOTE=Omi no Kami] Bosda, that sounds pretty cool… I’ve always liked the idea of seagoing settings, but how do you typically make them stand out as anything other than a land-based setting with less mobility? [/QUOTE] DUH! There is _more_ mobility! Foreign lands, strange places–and the deck/rigging of a ship is no smaller a fighting area than a dungeon room! Hell, larger…counting arrow room. Ship-to-ship…GRAPPLES & BOARDERS ME LADS! Or…STAND BY TO REPEL BOARDERS! Sea monsters, pirates, enemy warships, slavers, the Flying Dutchman! And uncharted islands allow for Lost Civilizations, mysterious races, & forgotton, Pre-Human temples. Treasure maps & buried treasure! Beware of hurricanes, tidal waves, hidden rocks to wreck on, & midnight mutiny of the crew! And send them ashore for dungeoneering. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/7 "2007-08-22T21:45:18Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] DUH! There is _more_ mobility! Foreign lands, strange places–and the deck/rigging of a ship is no smaller a fighting area than a dungeon room! Hell, larger…counting arrow room. Ship-to-ship…GRAPPLES & BOARDERS ME LADS! Or…STAND BY TO REPEL BOARDERS! Sea monsters, pirates, enemy warships, slavers, the Flying Dutchman! And uncharted islands allow for Lost Civilizations, mysterious races, & forgotton, Pre-Human temples. Treasure maps & buried treasure! Beware of hurricanes, tidal waves, hidden rocks to wreck on, & midnight mutiny of the crew! And send them ashore for dungeoneering. [/QUOTE] Or a collection of mini adventures just like in the _Odyssey_. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/8 "2007-08-22T22:12:03Z")
And you can fit in any & all premade modules by putting them on various islands. ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/9 "2007-08-25T07:41:23Z")
I once was witness to a rather hilarious campaign which, while officially D&D, suffered from extremely heavy house rules. The DM told us that he was planning on having a pirate theme, so we all took suitable roles. Things took an ugly turn early, however, and we ran into a pirate hunter while searching for vessels to plunder. His ship chased us for days, until we finally managed to lose him in a fog bank. Heavily damaged, we tried to figure out what we were to do; if we stayed in the area he would surely find us, but we didn’t have enough money to relocate to another part of the world AND continue pirating. After a brief conference, we decided to sail straight to the nearest port, and from there took a carriage to the capital, where we immediately sued the government for assault, material and emotional damage, and unlawful prosecution: we had never attacked a single vessel when the hunters came after us, in our backstory or during actual play, and as such we couldn’t _technically_ be pirates… the government threw the case out to avoid establishing precedent, but we were low on cash and didn’t want to waste the three gold that’d been spent forging our legal license… so we had the rogue take a level of the Lawyer prestige class that’d been made on the spot, and became the seagoing equivalent of ambulance chasers, finding pirates that’d been attacked and taking the government to court on their behalf. (courtroom scenes were eventually so fun that we all took at least one level of Lawyer. We worked out a trial system based on the Grapple system and everything.) ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/10 "2007-08-25T17:46:07Z")
I’ve been toying with an idea of a Silent Hill-based message board RP in the style of a text game. Unfortunately I don’t quite know enough of the SH franchise to do much in terms of game design. The thought of coming up with various ways to kill people was amusing for a while, though. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/11 "2007-08-26T01:06:20Z")
I am 52 and have never played, seriously crimping my geek cred. I’d sign on in a heartbeat if you all will let me play. Some poor sould would have to lead me through setup and all, but hell, I live to learn. The only experiences I have the would count are sailing ships and shooting plack powder. ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/12 "2007-08-26T06:44:57Z")
[QUOTE=brownie55] I am 52 and have never played, seriously crimping my geek cred. I’d sign on in a heartbeat if you all will let me play. Some poor sould would have to lead me through setup and all, but hell, I live to learn. The only experiences I have the would count are sailing ships and shooting plack powder. [/QUOTE] You’re definitely in! Unfortunately, it seems to be pretty difficult (as forcasted) to find a willing party; we have lots of knowledgable volunteer designers, but you’ll be our first party member. Hmm… if nobody else signs up, we could always try a few early concepts and beat the bushes for more peeps when they see how much fun we’re having. Anywhoo, enough of that sillyness; do you have a good idea of what the various classes are, and what they’re like? I’d be happy to provide a primer if you don’t, but I’m sure there’re more cohesive introductions floating around online. Oh, and if you do, any thoughts on what you’d like to be? Even if you don’t know the specific classes, if you talk out your character a bit, we can probably shove- _cough_ push you in the right direction. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/13 "2007-08-26T06:52:11Z")
I’m in the same situation as **brownie55** (albeit younger) and would also like to join. I do know many of the basic rules, and hope to be a thief with ambitions of multiclassing into a specialist mage at some point. ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/14 "2007-08-26T07:09:46Z")
[QUOTE=Paladud] I’m in the same situation as **brownie55** (albeit younger) and would also like to join. I do know many of the basic rules, and hope to be a thief with ambitions of multiclassing into a specialist mage at some point. [/QUOTE] You’re in! This is sounding better and better, now that some players have volunteered. 🙂 A thief with ambitions sounds fine… you might look into the [Arcane Trickster](http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Arcane_trickster), which is a [Prestige Class](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestige_class) that sounds pretty close to your ideal. Essentially, you would take a few levels of thief and a few levels of your prefered arcane caster, after which you would take Arcane Trickster levels that basically let you refine your thieving and magic skills simultaneously. We’ll have to wait until we’ve built our party and started the secret design thread to figure out what level to begin from, but there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll start the game around 4th-9th level, which would let you start out with at least one or two Trickster levels. ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/15 "2007-08-26T07:27:20Z")
[QUOTE=Omi no Kami] You’re in! This is sounding better and better, now that some players have volunteered. 🙂 A thief with ambitions sounds fine… you might look into the [Arcane Trickster](http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Arcane_trickster), which is a [Prestige Class](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestige_class) that sounds pretty close to your ideal. Essentially, you would take a few levels of thief and a few levels of your prefered arcane caster, after which you would take Arcane Trickster levels that basically let you refine your thieving and magic skills simultaneously. We’ll have to wait until we’ve built our party and started the secret design thread to figure out what level to begin from, but there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll start the game around 4th-9th level, which would let you start out with at least one or two Trickster levels. [/QUOTE] On reading up on prestige classes, Assassin provides some spellcasting. I’d rather go that route. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/16 "2007-08-26T07:53:18Z")
I’m in. I’d like to either play a psionic class, because I rarely get to play one, or a grappler who will eventually be able to wrestle a dragon. (What can I say, I like oddball characters.) ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/17 "2007-08-26T07:58:54Z")
[QUOTE=Paladud] On reading up on prestige classes, Assassin provides some spellcasting. I’d rather go that route. [/QUOTE] Ooh, sounds good to me! You should be warned that Assassin spells tend to be much more limited than trickster/sorcerer/wizard spells, but in return he’s a much more robust combat class. [QUOTE=sturmhauke] I’m in. I’d like to either play a psionic class, because I rarely get to play one, or a grappler who will eventually be able to wrestle a dragon. (What can I say, I like oddball characters.) [/QUOTE] In you are! It’s up to you, which class you play, but the psionicist might be a lot of fun to design puzzles for. It doesn’t see nearly as much use as it ought to, and I already have a few great ways to implement it. (Then again, I also have a few ideas about how a dragon-obsessed grappler could come into play, so the choice is yours. ^^) So far we seem to have: Paladud - Rogue/Assassin Sturmhauke - Psionicist and brave Dragon Wrestler brownie55 - Something cool, depending on what he wants to play Also, I’m intending on using a Courier Mage NPC as the Almighty Hand O’ the DM, and if anyone else feels like DMing later on, he’ll probably become my PC. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/18 "2007-08-26T08:07:53Z")
[QUOTE=Omi no Kami] Paladud - Rogue/Assassin [/QUOTE] Does this strike anyone else as highly ironic? Paladins are supposed to be exemplars of virtue and all that. 😃 Also, someone else around here mentioned [Heroforge](http://www.heroforge.org/), which is an Excel spreadsheet based character sheet that does all your stat calculations for you (total skill checks, BaB, saves, all that stuff). All you have to do is plug in the base information. I haven’t used it yet but it seems pretty comprehensive. ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/19 "2007-08-26T09:01:50Z")
[QUOTE=sturmhauke] Does this strike anyone else as highly ironic? Paladins are supposed to be exemplars of virtue and all that. 😃 Also, someone else around here mentioned [Heroforge](http://www.heroforge.org/), which is an Excel spreadsheet based character sheet that does all your stat calculations for you (total skill checks, BaB, saves, all that stuff). All you have to do is plug in the base information. I haven’t used it yet but it seems pretty comprehensive. [/QUOTE] Huh, looks nifty! I’m thinking of using [Gametable](http://gametable.galactanet.com/) for the actual game; it’s basically a whiteboard combined with an IM client, which should serve our needs pretty neatly. ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220/20 "2007-08-26T23:16:19Z")
I so want to do this. It’s time that this side of my geek nature gets explored. But I am totally new to this. So I’d like to start out as something I can do, some level of slash and grab, killing with weapons I know would be cool. I have no real feel for even the level of tech that we are talking about. I’d like a character that reflects me, shooter, knives, snappy banter, amazingly handsome; you know the type. I downloaded the Heroforge spreadsheet and it might be in Greek or Latin, but one thing is sure, it’s not anything I understand. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-up-for-some-d-d-with-a-twist/416220.md?page=2)