Today I was invited to a Dungeons and Dragons one-shot party. I’d never played the game before, and I was idly curious, so I went.
It was not what I hoped for.
The scene:
The venerable Phi Tau fraternity bedecked in black, with robe-clad members chanting ominously whilst holding candles. In the middle of the floor, a pentagram. Nearby, a shaven goat.
The social chair of the frat approaches wielding a ceremonial knife. She beckons me to join my place.
We gather to chant “Lucifer, heart and soul, we invoke thee!” whilst a beast (who strangely reminds me of Lynn) begins to materialize. We slay the goat to appease this apperation. Dances, orgies, and fantasy ensue.
Lynnzebub, Infernal Administrator of Hell’s Dope Message Board?
Assisted by Tubadevil, with Manhattanoffeles at her side?
And of course, Hell’s Dope is written every week by Lucecilfer, the smartest demon in the netherworld!
For instance, right now, my imagination is letting me be surrounded by slave girls with huge breasts, dressed only in thick bandoliers and crotchless panties… when in reality I’m sitting in my room which has seen less action than a Star Trek convention.
Ahh… if it weren’t for imagination, I’d have put a bullet in my brain years ago.
Andygirl, I know what you mean. Sure, they’re fun to play with for awhile, but eventually they just get in the way of everything. Yeah, you can make Mickey Mouse ears and go “blub blub bluuububuleub” when you mash your face between them, but eventually you’re like, enough with the breasts already! Yup, I’ve also found myself disappointed by DDs.
The best FRP games were always an excuse for a big party. We always hated D&D/AD&D[sub]tm[/sub] as being too complex and intruding on the beer & random making-out (when the various girlfriends could be conned into playing). Fantasy[sub]tm[/sub] and Magic[sub]tm[/sub] by MetaGames (fore-runner to Steve Jackson Games) were much more playable, and to our engineering minds, more “realistic” (Looking for ‘realism’ in a FRP game: I told you I was a geek!) than the D&D stuff.
The games, sadly, have gone by the wayside as life has given us less excuse for getting drunk and snogging.
Bad thing about D&D is that the quality of the game is entirely dependent on those playing it. I love playing with a good DM - I just haven’t had the opportunity to in a while.
I’ll second what Badtz Maru said. I have only played two long term rpgs. One was terrible. It was a large group of friends and the DM sucked. The great game had two people that I had never met and we had a great DM who really had the great balance between imagination and rules.
One, it’s an interactive story. More like a continual puzzle-solving exercise. It’s only ever as good as the GM/DM. The dice rolling is just for a probability and a bit of chance but hardly noticed in good games.
Second, the trappings? Optional. We used to play around the lounge room sometimes and a casual observer would have thought we were just shooting the breeze.
And thirdly (hey it just came to me) it’s not for some people. Personally I think you’ve got the imagination and temperament for it (if you could find a good gm)but you do what you feel you gotta do. Life will go on.
{{{{{andygirl}}}}} (I’m just in a huggy mood) starts thinking about how long it’s been since an RPG
forgets to point out that one of the best RPG games he’s ever played was in a contemporary setting - FBI agents with the NYC loose cannon detective…hehe
Jack Chick. No wonder I couldn’t remember where I’d see it. The trauma caused amnesia.
Big-time ditto on the DM/GM quality thing… We had a small-ish group, and most of us could run a game, but a couple of the guys were really twisted, and ran fun, surreal games. Always fun trying to figure out why the dragon was quoting Caroll and Kipling, while half drunk and being distracted by Thog & Rainna making out in the corner.
D&D can be most excellent or totally lame depending on the players and/or DM(GM). I haven’t played D&D since I discovered EverQuest http://www.everquest.com totally immersive and to me way better than D&D ever was. Don’t get me wrong, I loved D&D, but I almost always got stuck being DM(GM).
With EQ I can do a quest solo, or group with friends and take on Giants or other “Monsters”, free slaves in Crusbone or deliver mail to Highkeep… Oops, sorry I started hearing the music in my head again :eek:
spit take What?!? If you found EverQuest more immersive than a real RPG, you had a real crappy group. EverQuest is amusing in a lot of ways, but in many respects it’s a purgatory of tedious hack n’ slash. There is no plot. The NPCs are automata, and the PCs are often only just above automata when they’re not being assholes. No thanks. I’ll take the real deal.
Feh – Paranoia beats D&D any day of the week. What could be better than framing your party members so they kill off each other in a frenzy of backstabbing rage, leaving you the sole survivor and One True Hero™ of the mission/quest?
Feh and feh again. Put Paronia with Machiavellian politics and get Amber*. Plots and schemes and cabals. Serious roleplaying with (and I can’t stress this enough) NO DICE!
But they’re right. No matter what game you play, if the Storyteller/DM/GM isn’t any good the game’s not so hot.
