D&D style strategy forum games

The Game Room
1

So there are a number of forum games that I’ve played with people elsewhere that I suspect a few Dopers might be up for. Most of them are not unlike a very unstructured D&D, with players taking the role of a historical or fictional nation instead of a hero. Here are a few examples.

Is anyone interested in maybe starting something along those lines here? People on this other forum can be a little flaky and many Dopers post regularly and are history or fantasy nerds to boot, so I thought it might be worth a shot. Oh, and I’ve got official mod pre-approval on this one.

2

Could you give more detail here in this thread, it sounds interesting, but I am going to be lazy and pass on reading the linked threads.

Would we all be of the same time period? What time period?

Jim

3

Whatever time period we decide on.

The best way is to read a linked thread; the first one is my personal favorite. It’s a (rough) simulation of Germany in about 920 A.D.; at the time, Germany is a loose collection of duchies theoretically bound to a kind elected among the dukes, and each player takes a duchy. Actually, each player takes one duke; the duchy can spiral out of your control if you’re not careful. There’s also the moderator, who I suppose is analogous to a DM in D&D (I’ve never played D&D, but I think I understand the idea). It ends up being like a turn-based strategy game like Civilization, limited because there’s a human on the other end deciding if anything you do works and controlling NPCs, which can be slow, but also freed up a little because you’re not limited to things the programmer thought of beforehand- it makes for a lot of leeway with diplomacy, strategies, and intelligent playing from other players and NPCs, because a moderator is controlling them.

4

Alright, so after a general failure of this thread to get noticed, could I ask a passing mod to change the title to “D&D style strategy forum games”?

5

Done.

6

Thanks!

7

Well, I actually haven’t played any D&D outside of computer games, but this looks fun.

Count me in if knowing the game isn’t a requirement :slight_smile:

8

But this forum doesn’t have a dicerolling function, and are you sure you want to trust us to be honest with random numbers? :wink:

(I wouldn’t be opposed to some diceless roleplaying/round-robin improvisational writing myself, but then again, I’m a little biased.)

9

Are dicerolls even needed?

I use to use a double system for doing some stuff over the phone. I would roll a D20 and the player would role a D20 and I would add them together and subtract 20 if > 20 to get the roll. This easily works for any die roll.

Sometimes it makes things easier for the Ref and the player. No temptation to cheat and the Ref has an easy time fudging things.

Jim

10

The games (see links) that I’ve done in the past left things up entirely to the ref. But I’d be willing to play however the ref wants to.

11

When you post the post number relative to the board is generated. A fairly random number can be generated by addition of two or more of these numbers.
For Example post number 10 returns the following information:

Dice rolls can be as simple as odd/even or as complex as SUM2=6 (out of a range of 2 - 18), or SUM7=30 (out of a range of 7 - 63).

This number will be difficult to manipulate as it counts all posts on all forums.

As an example: Say I swing at appleciders and my post number says “p=9512345” he blocks and his post number is “p-9512366” If we are using SUM2 as a to hit, then my SUM2 is 9 and applecider’s SUM2 is 12, the block is successful.

Let me know if this makes sense as a random number generator.

12

An alternative to make it easier, is that everyone describes their actions at the same time and you let the GM resolve the dice rolls and after effects of all actions.

It allows the game to flow round by round instead of action by action.

13

All right, sounds interesting. And since the Mornington Crescent game will be over in 12 posts, I’m ready to go!

14

Side question:

What ever happened to the dungeon crawl that we had 2 teams doing? Working for a looting/salvage company?

15

Well I took a look at the links above and they seem closer to D&D Birthright than anything else. More strategy/diplomacy in a D&D setting than anything else.

So what kind of game do people want to play

  1. A strategy type game set in D&D style.

  2. A D&D style game where everyone has a character sheet and there are plenty of dice rolls.

  3. A freeform game in a D&D setting where the GM holds all the stats and the players just describe their actions.

Any other suggestions?

I would certainly be interested in playing something.

16

I’d be interested in minimal (if any) dicerolls, particularly in the style that I linked, like option 1. 3 would be fine too. But I’ll play anything.

17

Definitely interested. There are dice rolling forums out there, too…

18

I think I would be willing to run a D&D style game with Middle Earth as the setting. It would be fairly easy for me as I am running a mostly 1st edition D&D game in ME currently. The game would lean to the heroic rather than the mundane. Magic Items will rarely match up to the rulebooks and monsters are different; heavy on Undead, Orc types, Trolls and evil humans.

Character Races would come from Humans, Dunedain, Woses (Drúadan, Pukel Men), Beornings, Noldorians, Sindarin or Silvan Elves, Khazad and other Dwarves and of course the Hobbits.

The time would be the early Fourth Age, under the reign of King Elessar.

I would prefer a dice free game, where I just resolved the rolls. Any extra headaches from a dice rolling system are probably not worth it for a forum game. This will also stress the role-playing aspect of the game.

Notes: this means that Aragorn, Faramir, Arwen, Merry, Pippin & Sam, Gimli & Legolas are all around. Elrohir & Elladan keep Rivendell going with Glorfindel among the Lords still in residence. Radagast is maintaining his residence in Southern Mirkwood and is currently training up a small group of specialized spell casters that we will call Druids. I won’t encourage Clerics, but I can accommodate one if truly desired. The Cleric would pick a Patron from among the Valar. The abilities of the Clerics would be less generalized than in the players handbook.

As a compromise for game play, alchemy is flourishing and potions are available. Wizards are training up in Minas Tirith, Dol Amroth, Ithilien, Fornost and Umbar.

Rangers always do well in my games as do Hobbit treasure finders. Dwarves make great front line fighters, I try to start them with better armor than average.

Elves have a huge advantage in life span and resistances.

As I have a lot of Undead roaming around, I generally don’t have automatic life drains. I usually give characters a saving throw against paralysis, possibly with a +/- depending on the creature. Expect to see a lot of Orcs, Uruk Hai and Wargs.

My main concern is how much time would we expect to put into this and what time of day. Would we roughly play out a round a day in combat situations?

I can handle character development by PM and of course, that works for asides and clarifications quite well.

I guess the next question is if there is any interest.

Jim

19

Count me in, Jim.

ETA: I want a human archer type, preferable with scout skills, but not a ranger. Think Bard, from the Hobbit.

20

I’m up for a D&D game, I suppose, but as I’ve never actually played a formal D&D game before, I haven’t a clue where to start. The books involved are still under copyright and therefore not online, right?

I strongly agree with the “no dice” rule.