Kokuryuu Flameshifter Posted February 18, 2003 Report Posted February 18, 2003 I've always wanted to start playing this game but the problem is I know close to nothing about it... Thats why I ask you all! Can anyone tell me how to get started? -A rather clueless Ryuu :dragon4:
Degenero Angelus Posted February 18, 2003 Report Posted February 18, 2003 Only way you can learn is to find people in your area who play. It's a ton of fun, if it's your kinda thing, but it takes a bit to get into if you don't have an experienced person in your playgroup. Have fun
Vigil StarGazer Posted February 18, 2003 Report Posted February 18, 2003 I can tell you it depends on a lot of variables: First you need a good Dungeon Master... (rules are no priority and one rule proceed above all else, Have fun) second you need a good vivid imagination.... in essence, it is a story telling with you as part of the story and you get to control the plot to a certain extend... D&D is roleplaying, but to a questionable limit... while in 'freestyle' roleplaying on character could almost have immunse power... characters such as yourself are restrained by the rules... and the rules are there to make things challenging... you don't need to memorized the rules because each Game master have different interpretations or extention to the rules, and even variations.... i would suggest to gather a bunch of friends, and just play irl on table top... it seems to be the more efficient way... then again you can always form a campaign on irc...it works...
Brute Posted February 18, 2003 Report Posted February 18, 2003 To add a bit on the good advice given, I would suggest that if you find people to play who are inexperienced llike yourself, go through the rules together. Decide how the rules will be interpreted as a group, but with the thought in mind that the rules are simply a guide. they are there to help progress the story, for that is what I've always tried to make the game to be: a story told by each of the participants. Starting up can be overwhelming sometimes, but a bit of patience helps. After you get the nuts and bolts of your characters down, begin to add flavor and background to give your characters personality. Trust me, a low-level character who has a great background and a few personality quirks is more fun to play and more memorable than a mid to high-level character who has one of every magical item and incredible stats. In summary, have fun. You and your friends use your imagination to tell stories with the characters you create.
Lady Celes Crusader Posted February 18, 2003 Report Posted February 18, 2003 At first, go with the basic stuff. With time, you'll add the sourcebooks you want to try.
Tamaranis Posted February 24, 2003 Report Posted February 24, 2003 (edited) What's wrong with being crazy? Well there is this: In a recent RP session most of the party was travelling on a track suspended high above a pool of acid. Another party member who was supposed to be watching the entrance fashioned his armour into a sort of slide, and came rocketing towards the rest of the party down the track... Myself to the GM: How easy would it be to just sorta hop over him as he passes Crazy Player to no one in particular: I start flailing my legs in the air! Myself to GM: Is my ice spell powerfull enough to freeze him to the tracks, or create a wall of ice, or stop him in any way? GM: No, not really. Myself: Okay then, is it poweful enough to make him fall off? GM: Yeah, you can do that Myself: Okay, I ice the tracks. GM to Crazy Player: The tracks suddenly get really icy, as you come around a turn you slip and fall to your doom. And so being crazy sometimes lands you in a pool of acid. Edited February 24, 2003 by Tamaranis
Kokuryuu Flameshifter Posted February 24, 2003 Author Report Posted February 24, 2003 Thank you Tamaranis.... That was a "special" story. Cute though. Thankie Brute and Lady Crusader. There is still the problem of finding that group of people who have an active enough imagination as my own to do this with! -Ryuu :dragon4:
Tamaranis Posted February 24, 2003 Report Posted February 24, 2003 I'm a little off topic now... but really, just join. RP threads are usually just sort of "for fun" anyway. Unless the story is at a particularly crucial point you can't actually do any damage to it. Back on the topic of AD&D... I actually got started when I mentioned it to some friends who thought it would be a good idea to play, and we got some stuff and just sorta played. I think the first adventure we went on was a short one published by TSR, then after that whoever would DM came up with all original stuff. DMing isn't really THAT hard, but you've got to be ready for players that don't do what you expect them to. You could have a nice ruin all ready for the players to explore, but they might not go there. One of their characters might hate lizard men and the party might go and hunt lizard men instead. You could just throw a black dragon at them so they leave the swamp, but some one might take it into their head to slay the dragon... and so on.
Vlad Posted February 24, 2003 Report Posted February 24, 2003 I never bothered to learn, even though I always wanted too. Guess I don't have that much free time. Wait, there was this time when I tried to play, but my friends were crazy, and it was too complicated. The moral: take baby steps.
Kokuryuu Flameshifter Posted February 24, 2003 Author Report Posted February 24, 2003 Baby steps for a Dragon... Does that happen??? -Ryuu :dragon4:
Tamaranis Posted February 24, 2003 Report Posted February 24, 2003 I was always under the impression that dragons didn't spring from the earth, fully formed.
Quincunx Posted February 24, 2003 Report Posted February 24, 2003 Roleplaying systems give your group a setting and standards of behavior around which to create. The dice are there to hold disruptive idiosyncrasies in check ("I'll go up and lick the giant frog!". . ."Roll something or another to see if you have the common sense to not do that."). For pencil-and-paper, I have played: Little Fears, a very loosely structured system for the roleplaying of children; Legend of the Five Rings, a far Eastern medieval setting with sorcery and strict moral consequences; Planescape, an extension of the D&D ruleset, a nexus of planes where anything is possible (they got to meet Minta ); Seventh Sea, a swashbuckling game with more rewards for overwhelming hordes and very little magic; and most recently Exalted (trying to port Tzimfemme, after a fashion), which all my friends describe as overbearing power in the anime style, but I have had only one session yet and can't comment. I've played Vampire: the Masquerade and Vampire: the Dark Ages (the origin of Rosemary) in live action--even trickier, that. No rolls to determine your wit, and even if you use your stats to recover a flub, people still remember it. On the other hand, if you're glib, you can dispense with challenges and dominate a game full of older, more powerful characters without risking your neck. Impress your opponent so profoundly they don't feel the will to challenge--if they still do, you've found a ruleslawyer and will have to subvert him in ways statistics won't defend against--be creative.
Jareena Faye Posted March 1, 2003 Report Posted March 1, 2003 You mean dungeons and dragons? I'd advise against it. I don't mean to say that everyone who plays is a sicko or pathetic or anything (we do know one guy who loves it), but in my opinion too many people have been hurt because they liked the game TOO much. I wouldn't risk it. All role playing has its dangers. Random person: Is that why you play it? Jareena: Um... yeah...
Tamaranis Posted March 2, 2003 Report Posted March 2, 2003 There are many many bad things said about AD&D and role playing games in general. I've played AD&D and other role playing games for six years or so now and I've never known anyone to be hurt because of it, excepting a single occasion, but six years ago I was pretty young and a similar conflict could just has easily arisen over something like monopoly. Come to think of it in the last six years I've witnessed far more damaged caused by monopoly than by AD&D RPing is just pure fun. Sometimes people argue over things, but people argue over everything. *note, no offence to young people or anything, It's just that I was less controlled six years ago than I am now.
The Big Pointy One Posted March 2, 2003 Report Posted March 2, 2003 Not to start an argument or anything, but I think the problem isn't liking the game too much, it's just self-control. The same can be said about just about anything, really. All in all, everything should be done in moderation. You do something too much, and you're right, you will get hurt. Or burned out, or something like that. Do something too little, and you may miss out. I say if you want to try something, even once doesn't hurt. (Unless it's getting shot... but I don't know many people who *want* to get shot.) Anything can get addicting, if you let it. But from my point of view, it doesn't seem like much of a problem (AD&D that is) ...unless you have a *lot* of free time, and a lot of friends who do, and money to waste on the books and what not, Ryuu. ~Shrugs~ But anyways, on topic, I think the people who like AD&D around here (including myself) should try running a campaign online. (I.e. over msn or some other chat function...) Of course, this requires matching schedules and what-not, but it could be done, and turn out pretty fun. The important thing to remember about roleplaying though, is not to worry so much about stats and level-gaining, and getting powerful and all that, but to actually roleplay. I promise, it's a million times more fun that way ^.^ (And seriously, I don't mean my first comments in agression to your comments Jareena, I'm simply stating my opinion, and I respect the fact that you are stating yours ^.^ )
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