Hobbies "Wait, bdt2002's making a Dungeons & Dragons thread?" (Title pending)

[bdt2002]

Indeed I am. Of all the topics for me to make a general discussion thread for, good ol' D & D probably wasn't the first topic that came to mind. Originally I had wanted to create a discussion thread for tabletop games, and while I still might do that in the near future, I found while looking through existing threads that D & D in particular doesn't seem to have an ongoing and/or active thread where people can just... talk about stuff, you know?

My introduction to Dungeons & Dragons came at some point in the later half of 2019, when a few high school friends of mine wanted to start an RPG Club at school. It was fun for them, which was nice, but I had a really hard time understanding any of what they were talking about. I knew that character creation was a thing, and I understood the bare basics of a campaign, but other than the entry-level knowledge of what was happening, I was clueless. It sounded like they were speaking another language. I knew I didn't want to give up on D & D just yet, since this felt like the kind of thing I could be really interested in with enough time and practice that I just didn't have yet.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait very long to find what I was looking for, as my first college roommate would later reveal himself to be quite the D & D fan, being a long-time-running DM himself. The two of us had connected pretty quickly with some of our. other shared interests, notably that of writing, so it only felt natural that I would want to start learning more about Dungeons & Dragons from him and the rest of our friend group. Two and a half school years later, my friends are still doing campaigns when they can, but it's hard for me to want to participate. The problem isn't their stories, their campaigns, or their characters. The problem is we're all just really busy college students and it's hard to find time to organize play sessions. I'm the kind of person who enjoys watching and listening to them play, but is afraid of holding the rest of the group back with my lack of experience with the game compared to them.

So, as for what this thread can be used for... honestly, this would pretty much just be what you're expecting from a D & D thread. I've read some on other websites prior to making mine, and I think I understand how most of them functions. You can talk about characters you made, classes or races you want to try out, campaign ideas you've had or have played as of recent... so long as it's on topic and isn't breaking any posting rules, I don't care what you guys use this thread for. I just wanted to make this thread since I couldn't find an active relevant one, plus it seems like something me and maybe even my college friends (who don't have Smogon accounts at the moment, if you're wondering) would be interested in. Happy discussions, and safe travels!

In the meantime, here's a picture I can put on this thread's initial post because this kind of feels empty without one;

 

[Ironmage]

I got into the scene around 2013, I think? Anyway, my family was preparing for a road trip and wanted a long-running thing to keep the driver awake and entertained. We went with Pathfinder 1e as a result of the main D&D line being out of favour at the time.

I would like to say that it blossomed into something I enjoy presently, and the number of PF1e books I own would lean that direction, but all my efforts have failed. Heck, even the family game has dropped off due to moving out and my sibling now preferring D&D 5e.

It feels like how I enjoy these games isn't compatible with the rest of the community. I'm what MTG refers to as a Johnny archetype: I want to make interesting combinations of stuff. But that category doesn't seem to exist in the TTRPG sphere. If you're mechanics-focused, you must be optimizing to win (MTG's Spike archetype). The term "rules-heavy" makes no distinction between a dense algorithm with minimal player input and a set of building blocks from which art can be made. I flunked out of my University's Pathfinder game for being unable to write a backstory, just as well since a later scripted event would have driven me nuts anyway. I've made some attempts at other systems, but the number I can have fun making a character in is small and the number I feel I can enjoy GMing for is smaller (in encounter design as well as player design, I want components, not a blank paper). I feel like I've taken a step in every direction, but the "we'll take anything" from my parents as I hold onto a system abandoned by its developers is still a local maximum and I have no method to find the global one.

Following the release of Pathfinder 2e, in which I felt that stuff could no longer be combined, I've mostly stopped trying in favour of leaning into TT wargames under the belief that a reduced focus on direct story helps expand the resolution of how gameplay can be looked at. I still exist on the edge of the RPG sphere in the vain hope that things might improve, doing the occasional personal project (such as back-converting PF2e's more exotic race selections, the only part of the system I've found to be salvageable). Much like where I am with the current Pokemon games, I suppose. But, well, Warhammer 40k is all but guaranteed to get a rules rewrite this summer while a lot of what I see online is cries that "stacking effects makes the game too complex." I need a contingency plan or three.

So I guess in the off chance you're interested in the Tabletop equivalent of one of those Romhacks that changes nothing except the AI teams, I have Iron Gods available and can move on to fighting against my difficulty in scheduling anything online.

 

[Shedinja-43152]

In games as Dragon & Dungeons I don't like that much because they are very eurocentric.
I miss in this kind of games elements of African and American culture.

 

[Candelia]

D&D's pretty interesting. It's currently in a dip because of how scummy Wizards is being, but regardless, if you have a good group of friends it's very fun.
Of course, there are other TTRPG systems, such as Shadowrunner and Pathfinder, but D&D's the easiest to access.

I got into TTRPGs (mainly D&D) in about 2019-ish, had a hiatus on it when COVID struck, then about 2021 or so I got back into it full swing (and got smote with Magic: the Gathering too which is also great), though I've mostly been doing homebrew since the D&D module books are... not so great.

 

[koista12]

In games as Dragon & Dungeons I don't like that much because they are very eurocentric.
I miss in this kind of games elements of African and American culture.

I think you might like Kobold Press's Southlands campaign setting (which is set in the same world as their Midgard setting). It's basically fantasy Africa. If you want to, you can DM me and I'll share with you a Google drive link to the book.

I'm currently DMing a campaign in Southlands and it's been great (aside from scheduling which is a nightmare). My party is evil aligned, and they just finished creating and killing some cloned abominations of themselves to get rid of a Geas spell they were under. They also are under a contract with a devil to deface three holy sites in a year. It's seven players and about half are brand new to the game, so most of the time it's really just shenanigans and them trying to find treasure, which has been fun for me. I think the Southlands campaign setting really lends itself to two things: political intriue and pulp fiction, sword and sorcery stuff. We've been doing mostly the latter; the PCs all have pretty low intelligence scores lol.

 

[Shedinja-43152]

you can DM me and I'll share with you a Google drive link to the book.

I send you a DM