Help! I'm old, but want to start playing roleplaying games!

Cafe Society
1

I seem to be the type of person who never realizes that opportunity is passing me by. I spent four years at college with all the free time and access to geeks that that implies, and though I wanted to get into something like D&D or Vampire the Masqerade, I never did, largely because I was intimidated by the idea of being in a room full of guys who’d probably played D&D since they were in the womb and would be annoyed by the stupid noob girl who didn’t know all the rules.

Now, I still want to pursue adventures of gamey glee, but I am long since graduated and live in a special area of hell where I have no real life friends who’d be interested in this stuff. So I ask you, doper millions, which of the zillions of internet-based role playing type thingies would be good for someone who’s really new to this stuff, but is smart and learns fast (but is not interested in becoming permanently attached to her computer seat – a little addiction is fine, but I have a job…) I like fantasy and magicy stuff, and the supernatural in general, as a theme for games. (The only thing I ever did that was geek-gamey was play Magic cards…I had little file boxes for them and everything!)

Any help would be appreciated kindly…

2

Do you really want to play online, or would you like the social interaction part of face-to-face gaming? If you’re looking for face-to-face experiences, tell us where you are – chances are good we have someone with experience in your area of the world.

If you’re interested in online gaming… then we need to know a bit more about what you expect, and what kind of computer you’re sporting. :smiley: Do you want to have small-group role-playing experiences online, do you want to have a character that you build over time, or ?

What is it about RPGs that entices you?

3

There are huge differences between playing tabletop and playing online. There really is no comparison.

4

There is no shortage of Role Players on the board. I bet geographically we cover a large portion of North America and the UK. Central Jersey here with an Email address listed in my profile. I still play AD&D on an occasional basis but I have friends that can put you in contact with large gaming groups. I can’t help you on-line. SDMB is my on-line addiction. Good Luck and post a general local.

Jim

5

You might try Guild Wars. (Female player here, there are a lot of us.) It is not pay to play, and is quite fun. All you buy is the game disc, your account is free. Check it out, you might like it. They have an expansion coming out soon, which I am eagerly awaiting. I will “merge” my core account and my Factions expansion account so I can take the characters I already have to the new areas. Here is a special wiki with information on Guild Wars, be sure to look up the various class combinations there to see the pros and cons, as well as the warnings about how to avoid getting scammed. ***** Here is a site that has decent quest information, their Pre-Searing Ascalon guide is very useful to someone who is just starting out in the game, and their armor crafting index is quite handy. (You will start out in Pre-Searing Ascalon I do believe.) Everquest, Everquest 2, WoW and several other online games have referance sites also, some more extensive than others. Let me know if you decide to give the game a try.

The other posters are right though, there is no comparison between online RPGs and good old fashioned pen and paper games played face to face, with lots of soda consumed and various candies and chips devoured by all. For that, check out Amazon.com for the referance books. They sell quite a few, that varies often. It isn’t hard to find a group looking for more gamers, and quite often they are willing to help teach you too.

***** [SUB]This is found in any online game, some are worse than others. It isn’t as easy to “scam” people in pen and paper type RPGs, but it can still be done. I have had the misfortune to play with such a player, combined with a DM who was permissive because we were all his friends. This guy took all the rest of our characters for a ride and it got to the point that we would work to backstab him in any way we could before he could rip us off or betray our characters. We eventually managed to persuade him to dial it down a notch after getting his character permanently slain. [/SUB]

6

Well…on a certain level, I would like to hang out with actual people, but on the other hand, like I said, I’m kind of old for this (26) and I feel very embarrassed about not knowing what I’m doing. If I’m sitting there fumbling for an idea, or having to ask dumb questions about the rules, I don’t want people staring at me like “why did we let this twit play with us again?”

I live in the wilds of northwestern Connecticut, close enough to interesting places to be teased by their proximity, but not close enough to go very often. heh. :slight_smile:

I don’t know what to expect, that’s the problem. :slight_smile:

I’m a writer, so my strength in any game would be in thinking up a good character ahead of time, so I’d sort of prefer to make up a person, come up with backstory for them and stuff, and then have them get stronger/learn things through adventure, while still being that person I invented.

A small group would be nice, but a more expansive type of thing would be cool too, as long as it wasn’t overwhelming or discouraging for a new person (I hate the type of thing where people take sadistic glee in killing off people who get distracted for .2 seconds, make one little wrong move, etc., so that all you learn as a new person is, “apparently, you have to be born knowing this game, because no one is allowed to have a learning curve.”)

I’m not sure how much this matters in this type of rp stuff, but I have terrible reflexes and so I can’t do any real time fighty stuff like in video games. Everything has to be turn-based or i will lose very quickly.

I have a 2 and a half year old computer, running Windows XP, with a 2.3 ghz Celeron processor, 49 gb left on the hard drive, and 256 mb of RAM.

The appeal of RPGs for me is the storytelling aspect of it…that it’s like writing a book in real time with other people, coming up with neat stories and adventures and seeing how a character from your own head fares alongside with ones made up by others. I just really love stories. :slight_smile:

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

7

As for why my gaming group did what we did to the aggressive player? It was due to frustration. We couldn’t get anything accomplished because he was always wheeling and dealing, stealing from us, or outright being a double agent working to get our party captured and killed. He was playing “go up the ladder in the mafia” while we just wanted to rescue hapless knights or damsels, or stop a plague.

8

This was your first mistake. From my experience, at least at the HS and College age, RPG guys are just glad a girl is in the room and will bend over backwards to help you. (I went from rolling my first character to “Wonder Woman” in a weekend :smiley: )

Also, 26 is NOT too old in any way shape or form. I’m 37 (ugh) and I still game. If you feel funny about not knowing “anything” there’s tons of info out on the web or get yourself to the Barnes and Noble, grab the AD&D rulebooks and a coffee, and flip through them. You’ll get the jist quick enough. And, don’t worry that people may roll their eyes - chances are, they won’t. No one was born with this knowledge - we were all noobies at some point.

The online RPGs are a lot of fun. And I echo Zabali with the Guild Wars suggestion. But I haven’t really found one where the people actually “roleplay”. Maybe my friends and I were just weird, but we really playacted our characters.

9

Oh, my, don’t be intimidated by gamers! We’re an extremely open, welcoming, nice, friendly community!

You shouldn’t worry at all about being a beginner. There are always new people of all ages coming into the hobby, often when they get dragged in by a friend, but sometimes folks like you just decide to give it a try. Gamers want there to be a future for the hobby, so they are very encouraging to new people. And even experienced gamers have to learn new systems all the time. Most gamers are delighted to teach their favorite system. Learning a new game can seem intimidating, but really there are usually just a small number of things you need to learn how to do for your character, and you can take notes and make a list for quick reference. (That’s what I do when I learn a new system, anyway, and I’ve been gaming for 15 years.)

If you have a friendly local gaming store, you can ask about campaigns that are starting up or looking for new players. Another place to look would be a gaming group at a local college—far from being just for students, they’re often the nexus of the local gaming community. Ask around, tell them what you’ve told us about wanting a game that’s more character- and story-based, and hopefully you will be able to find a group that will be a good fit for you.

I don’t know much about online gaming, but I hope you’ll give face-to-face gaming a try!

10

And I see your post once I hit submit. You might like Guild Wars then, it has a very good storyline. However, it is a set storyline and every player gets bits and pieces of it as they complete quests and missions. You have more freedom in a way in Everquest and Everquest 2, but it also still has a set storyline. The storyline is more part of the game in Guild Wars, in the Everquest games it is more background setting. I do not know how the storyline is presented in WoW, but I know it is also premade. I am not sure there are any online games that allow you to make history, beyond the idea that is in Guild Wars. In Guild Wars, you live through the history of the land quest by quest and mission by mission. I will try to illustrate by hosting a couple of screenshots I took in missions a while back so you can better see what I mean. Look here, and here to get a better idea. All images I linked in this post are hosted by ImageShack. That is from a cinematic scene, Serra Silverhand is an actual player’s character, (not mine, a friend’s) and at the end of the mission the Ascalonians have to retreat and regroup, but hope is far from lost. The game is set up so that each character/player progresses through the historic events. I like that the players who have progressed further in the plotline do not spoil it for those who aren’t as far along in the history as they are. (What I showed isn’t huge spoilers, I had sumrised that part before I did that mission.)

11

As for reflexes? I am 33, and wasn’t ever very good at Nintendo, I did beat Spyro the Dragon and the second game in the Spyro series on Playstation as well as Star Ocean: The Second Story. You learn as you go, I have played Everquest, Anarchy Online (science fiction RPG) and Guild Wars. I don’t think you will find the interface hard to figure out, in the beginning it isn’t about how fast on the draw you are, as much as how wise you are as far as what you do. You get a chance to learn, and get used to the interface. With time, you will be able to click faster. Even then, you might not even have to really worry about clicking fast depending on the class you play.

12

WoW has DEEP background (3 different previous RTS games (and another 2 expansions) worth), and it’s revealed bit-by-bit through quests and books in-game. There are specific servers that are set aside for role-playing (RP servers) and on RP servers, player-vs-player (player-killing) is purely optional. You cannot be attacked by another player unless you specifically set your PvP flag to be on.

The starting areas, even on RP servers, are awful for roleplaying, but it gets better as you get higher in level and get into other zones.

Everquest I played for six months and never roleplayed. Hell, I never grouped! It was like playing a confusing single-player RPG with a lousy quest system.

13

By the way. Here is what the Master has to say about RPGs http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_309b.html

This is my favorite part:

:smiley: is it any wonder we love the man?

14

See, this is part of the problem…there are no local gaming stores (there used to be one, but it went out of business within six months…there just aren’t a lot of young people here) and no local colleges, either. The closest college is about 45 minutes away. (Other than the community college, and they don’t have a gaming group, i think.)

Also, in response to a couple of different people, I think it’s necessary to add that I’m fat and not pretty, so it’s not like the guy gamers in college would have been like “mmm…hot wanna-be gamer chick…must give her pizza and extra stats…” :slight_smile:

15

Cecil is incorrect about the mathematical finagling, you didn’t need to be a genius in math to be able to play first or second edition AD&D (or even D&D). His assertation is especially moot now, since the release of 3rd edition rules, in which they threw ThAC0 out the window/turned it upside down, and now instead of a very low AC (even below 0) being good, the opposite is true. That was a big sticking point for people new to the game, because they would think that a higher number with regards to AC was better. Well, now it is.

16

So? I played with all kinds of gamers. Old, young, rail thin, and overweight. One group I was involved in had a woman who was a brilliant wit, she was very short, and rather round. She could do a kender imitation that would set you rolling on the ground laughing. (Kenders are basically haflings who also happen to be unconcious kleptomaniacs, who are very childlike, innocent, and absolutely fearless.) She had a childlike face, and would take a butcher knife and stand behind the counter peeking out, then imitate a kender in battle fury. All you could see of her was her hand and the knife, while she sent one liners winging at light speed. I guess you sort of had to be there and witness it yourself. My point is, she was beloved for her wit, not her figure or face. Why not see if there are any groups meeting near you, and then look into getting the gamer’s manuels secondhand from Amazon.com? It is worth a try. There might be a way you could carpool to the gaming session, or maybe there is a mobile group that games close to you frequently enough?

17

You definitly want to get in on a table-top game, then. Even if you’re lucky to get in with a group that likes to role-play in an online game, all you can really do is talk to each other in character. It can be fun, but there’s no way to really influence the story line in any meaningful manner. Sure, you can all gang up and kill the evil baron, but it’s kind of hollow, in that you know he’s just going to respawn in thirty minutes. A good table-top game, you can find yourself changing the destiny of empires at your whim.

And a surprising number of us bathe, too!

Seriously, though. The thing about gamers is, we’re geeks. And geeks love to share. Most groups are going to be glad to welcome a noob. (Frankly, the hobby needs all the fresh blood it can get.) Being a girl gets you double points, as it’s still a pretty male-dominated pastime. Just take the proper precautions and you’ll be fine.

As to finding a group, as mentioned, the Dope is a great resource. You can also see if there’s a hobby shop in the area. There will usually be a tackboard in the back for people looking to start up a group. The store itself probably runs games on the weekends, too, specifically to introduce new players. That’s a great way to try out a few different games to see what you like.

A table-top game session is usually an all-day event. At least four-to-five hours. A fory-five minute trip is pretty common for this hobby, just because the players are so often scattered around the area. I’m about a half-hour drive away from where my old group plays.

You’d be surprised. One thing that can be said for gamers: on the whole, we’re not superficial.

Most of us can’t afford to be.

18

It occurs to me that another resource for finding gamers in your area might be the message boards for the various companies’ websites. To get you started, check out the websites for Wizards of the Coast, publishers of D&D, and White Wolf, publishers of Vampire.

19

Great Post and great Comic in your link it sums up so much Geekdom, right down to the Holy Grail Homage.

meenie7: Bump this tomorrow and see if anyone is in your area. Tabletop Gaming very different from online Gaming. (Tapletop is better)

Good Luck
Jim

20

About the age thing, 26 would make you the youngest in the D&D group that I was in until just recently. I joined them a few years back at the age of 32, after not having played since high school. Took a few weeks to get into the swing of it, but it wasn’t all that hard and we were on a level playing field pretty quickly.

Btw, don’t be put off by Cecil’s article about D&D. He wrote that over 20 years ago when D&D was in its first edition, which was indeed a non-intuitive mess of tables and formulae. The current incarnation (version 3.5) is much more intuitive and it’s very easy for new players to get into the swing of things.

p.s. the group broke up last month mainly for wife/girlfriend reasons. One guy’s gf took a job in foreign service, so he was moving to South America for three months to be with her, our DM broke up with his gf who’d been the only reason he was living in Tokyo, so he moved back to the countryside, and my wife was starting to complain about me not being around on Sunday afternoons.