Face-to-face RPGs (D&D) still going in my area

I had posted in the gaming group, but got no response...
>>>
I had thought the "face-to-face" RPG hobby was slowly fading - maybe not dying, but certainly losing popularity with the rise of online RPGs and other forms of entertainment. Especially since two gaming stores in my area closed over the past few years - one was a real shocker, as I remember the store from my childhood 30-35 years ago.

I recently moved from one side of Connecticut to another and my wife also gave me permission to host a game at our house every other week. And, since I didn't really know anybody in my new area, I posted on a few gaming sites online asking for people to game at my place. My old gaming group is about an hour away down near New Haven, CT and my old DM has been laid up for a few years after some major surgery. (yes, I said years) - so, they're basically out. The guys that were the more reliable ones were probably even over an hour away along the CT shoreline.

But, anywhow, I've been pleasantly surprised at the amount of people that have responded so far - I think I've gotten like 10 responses so far and 5 or 6 seem pretty good. I know when I tried similar in the late 90s, I got far less response and I was living in a more convenient area at the time.

So, starting in a few weeks, I could be starting a brand new D&D campaign. Woo-hoo!

Not sure why the change in interest, or maybe I just had good timing? Maybe it's partly related to old-time gamers getting back into the hobby now that they're settled down with kids?

I like it a lot better than online rpgs. In fact, I'm playing this saturday! Yay!

I got involved in a fantastic campaign in 1998-99 while I was suffering through my marriage to and divorce from my ex-wife. It honestly kept me sane.

But, I've just had so many problems gaming regularly since 2001 that it would take a very long post to get through it all.

3 or 4 times a year maybe. But it's well worth it.

The DM of my old group is likely bedridden for life due to some major surgeries (and he's under 40) - but, a few of his former group stop down every few months to game on Sunday nights.

But, it's tough remembering what had happened 8 or 10 weeks before in the previous session... the last time we played, we were supposed to start finding these special magical weapons that would enable us to defeat this powerful dark warrior. But, there was confusion because we had forgotten exactly which weapons were where and even how many there were.

That's why we take notes that the DM keeps, in order to stay appraised of the situation.

Plus he rarely gives us cool stuff, so that's not that hard to remember :D

it's just a matter of finding everything every 2 months or so.

Anyhow, I'm not too sure how he does it, I just know that he does :D

It seems that most people play in the stores now. The gaming stores have tables in the back, keep their customers there buying stuff. I can't travel anymore, and I certainly couldn't haul the books and dice with me. :(

I've thought about hosting here at home. I have the room for it.

Good luck, if you do try to get a group together.

My big worry is that nobody knows each other, so who knows how the personalities will mesh?

That, and I'm always concerned about having strangers in the house because I have a lot of regulated meds in the house.

Some gamers I've met over the years are not exactly social butterflies, to put it mildly... we even booted one guy out of our old group 8-9 years back because he was supposedly staring so intently at the one female in our gaming group that it made her feel very uncomfortable. And, she is not the type to complain, either. I was oblivious because I was at the other end of a large gaming table and we had a very large gaming group at the time. But, we should have had alarm bells go off when the guy showed up to a new group of gamers (us) and wanted to play as a PC a former prostitute (with really large breasts) who used her feminine wiles to break out of jail and begin her life as an adventurer.

But, the guys that have responded to my online requests are married and have kids - one even wanted to bring his 16 year old son along.

I started in the 80's with first edition. Found another gaming group in the early 90's that dragged me into second edition - which at first I resisted then later came to like. I dont know if I could invest more money into yet another edition with what seems like dozens more books just to play again.

which is 3.5 - an updated version of 3rd Edition.

I don't think you really need more than the Player's Handbook if you want to be a player in 3E/3.5. And, just the DMG and Monster Manual (in addition to the Player's Handbook) if you want to be a DM.

One big difference between 3E and previous editions is that Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro is a lot more open about 3rd party material now. So, other companies have sprung up creating D&D material for 3E... in the past, TSR really came down hard on any company that attempted to make something compatible with D&D.

But, it also makes it easy to have a game/campaign that is strictly "core rules" instead of incorporating a lot of 3rd party material. In 2E or 1E, core rules could have meant any number of books & supplements that had variant rules.

Wrong place.

interest seemed to really die down since computer and video games really took off.

I did 40k for several years in the 90's, its highly addictive.

and painting, but have started to take more interest in the gaming aspect. My local shop has several tables, and the people there are very informative and eager to get new people into the hobby.

he just got a Golden Demon award at the Chicago convention. incredible work.

I sold all my 40K minis on eBay in 1999. couldnt find any players in my area after a move, so I gave it up and sold everything. Got about $2,000 for my painted Eldar army.

I'm still in the decision process of what army to collect. Leaning toward Orks or Tyranids. Seems like everyone has Space Marines.

or at least they were when I was playing. that and Chaos.

The bad thing about Ork or Tyrranid armies is that you need a lot more figures for a similar point army, which gets expensive. The good thing is there is a lot more opportunity for individuality in your painting. Marines are always the same color, very boring. Orks love to customize their uniforms, so you can have fun with it.

Congrats to him on winning.

I've actually commissioned a few works over the years from Golden Demon winning painters, just so I can have something to aspire to when I paint - my black orc general was painted by Matt Verzani. And, I managed to snag a Jen Haley miniature off of eBay for a mere $40 before she got too popular and won a zillion awards.

I have rather large fantasy armies for Orcs & Goblins, Empire and Dwarfs, and what I guess what would go for an Ogre Kingdoms battalion. I have a few small regiments of other types as well - Saurus warriors from the 5E box set, skeletons, wood elf waywatchers...

You can certainly bet that those orcs & goblins will see some use in D&D.

That would be fun! I may have to look for a group, lol. :D

Back in the late 80s, the game was still on what is called "1st Edition" - with those hard cover books many of us know & love: the player's handbook with the two thieves crawling down a demonic-looking statue to steal its gemstone eye; the DMG with the big demon holding the scantily clad blonde; and the monster manual with a plethora of monsters on the cover.

Around 1989 or 1990, 2nd edition came out - which was kind of evolutionary in its changes from 1st edition. It added things like "non-weapon proficiencies" for things like tumbling or diplomacy, but kept the same basic system. In the meantime, TSR almost went under and were bought by Wizards of the Coast, the creators of Magic: The Gathering. One sad thing with 2nd Edition was that they bowed to the Fundies and took demons & devils out of the game and called them something like Ba'atzu and Tannari.

In 2000, they came out with a more revolutionary change to the system in 3rd edition. The rules were more streamlined - everybody needs the same amount of XP to get to the next level; races and classes were more interchangeable; non-weapon proficiencies were replaced with skills; and characters could be customized through the use of Feats. And, the good thing was that demons & devils were now called demons & devils again. They got rid of THAC0, and rolling high is always good now - a base armor class is still 10, but 20 is better.
The system still has its flaws and can be abused, but I think it's a bit more balanced than before.

I haven't played in a year or so... all of our old group simply got too busy, got new jobs, couldn't arrange their schedules to fit.

Sometimes I miss it, but then I just plug in my Neverwinter Nights CD and satisfy my cravings.

What I really wanted to do was create a d20 game based on my books, but found I was just so burnt out from creating the original game system (percentile based) on which I originally BASED the books, that I just don't have anything left.

Too bad. It was a blast to play the old game.

I never played the pen and paper version, but the computer game kicks butt: www.DDO.com

You'd probably be very popular in face-to-face games, as it's still a male dominated hobby. Not nearly as bad as 20 years ago, when it was like 95%+ male... it's probably closer to 80% male now.

I did notice when one guy brought his girlfriend into an old campaign of ours in the late 90s, the guys in the group suddenly started playing better in-game (tried to be heroic, etc) and also behaved a bit better out of game. Though, as I noted above, we had one new guy in the group for a very brief time that we booted because he was staring so hard at the young lady that she felt uncomfortable. And, she was not the type to complain if it were something minor (i.e., the occasional glance)

Most of the players are male on DDO as well and most are VERY sweet, flirty and wonderful. It's the little things really...like waiting for me when I stop at a rest shrine to replenish my spell points, lol! I'm a sucker for nice guys though so I love it.

I usually play with my husband and there have been a few times when a player would start to get crass. That's when Paul usually steps in and says something like "don't talk to my wife that way". He normally doesn't have to do that though because my sarcasm can usually cut pretty fast. Only once has someone said something that pissed me off...I was the team leader and he made some sort of comment about how a chick shouldn't run a quest so I dropped him from the party on the spot.

As for playing D&D face to face...I would get jealous because my best friend's older brother would play with his friends and they wouldn't let me play. They let me sit and watch once but kicked me out of the room because I kept asking too many questions. :( Perhaps this is why I like DDO so much?

most of the guys bent over backwards to be nice to them... it was just that one guy that I had mentioned in my above post. I think she might have been the first girl he'd be within 10 feet of since high school, though.

the majority of the guys are wonderful. My main character is a cleric so in DDO, instead of looking at the battles (or where I'm going for that matter), I'm focused on the HP bars and making sure everyone is alive. This means that I have no sense of direction so many of the guys bend over backward to either find me when I'm lost or guide me when I'm found.

on edit: Fortunately I have no issues with being stared at in DDO. I can see how it would be hard to concentrate with someone staring at you face to face though. :)

Can you give us a quick $0.50 summary? :)

Sorry it took so long to respond, work has been hell this week.

Let's see...you start by building your character by choosing your race, class, feats, skill points, enhancements as well as facial features (hair, skin, nose, lips, etc). Once your toon is created, the game takes you through a training quest to get you familiar with the controls and to make sure you know the basics like how to go up ladders, through doors, swim, fight, etc.

After training, you'll typically go through numerous solo but short quests to get use to playing. Level one is really the only level you're expected to do anything solo, the rest are typically multiplayer. Most quests can have up to 6 players while raids can have up to 12 players. Most of us communicate through a microphone but others prefer to chat through the chat box provided. It's very difficult to game and type at the same time though.

You can join a guild if you want. Some guilds are very serious and strict, others are laid back and there are some that are more family oriented than others (which usually means "don't cuss", lol). I am in a guild that I enjoy but most of my quests are pick up games (PUGs) with people outside of my guild. DDO has a cool feature that lets you find groups looking for players for specific quests and they list out what players they need. I've never played a computer game before so I don't know if that's something every game has, but it's nice.

When I ask people in the game if they've played pen and paper D&D, 98% say yes (probably because I don't play with kids usually) and they love playing both versions. I do find that pen and paper players are much better at building DDO characters than those of us who have never played before. I've been gaming DDO for almost a year now and I still don't exactly understand the finer details of toon building. It's fun to learn though.

There's so much I could say but from what I've been told, the company that created DDO (Turbine) has been very true to D&D so you would probably know everything already. I assume the biggest difference is that there's a greater chance of dealing with assholes in DDO because it's not face to face. Most people are great though...we're all there to have fun and relax.

I'm not sure if this weak intro is worth $.50 so I really recommend visiting the website: www.DDO.com. (I need to start charging Turbine for the advertising, lol) They have a really cool video to watch and there's a "newbie" section in the forums for people who have questions.

on edit: I forgot to mention - there are guilds that are big on role playing and staying in character too if that's your gig

I am probably going to check it out at some point soon.

I have problems with my hands and can't move very quickly on a keyboard. So I will have to see if I can reasonably play. If I can't keep up with the controls I won't bother, just because who wants someone along on a quest who can't keep up?

I appreciate the intro. :)

Prior to this, the only type of games I played were on a sony playstation which is totally different from a handling perspective.

My issue is that I'm left handed and games are always laid out for right handers. DDO allows you to change the key functions though so I normally steer my character using my mouse (click the mouse for using spells or fighting) and the letter O for going forward. I like to keep it simple. :)

Given my episode with anxiety disorder, I'd lost contact with most of my old friends, and getting back into D&D was a way to make new ones. These are people I can relate to, and we have a great time. It's social and kind of brings you out of your shell.

We play AD&D and the newer D&D. Sometimes, we also play Shadowrun.

when I get together with my old gaming group every so month, the guy that was the old DM would tell old gaming stories and I'd be laughing so hard, I'd have tears coming out of my eyes. (even though he is flat on his back and can barely lift his head because of his medical condition, he's still a great storyteller...)

and, back in 98-99, while suffering through a disastrous short marriage and painful divorce, the gaming group was kind of my escape from reality.

In fact, I GMed a regular game.

However, now that I'm done with college, my regular group is out of my reach.

Perhaps if I can find work in a college town or big city, I can get back in it again.

Anyone know of anyone looking for somone with TV and Radio broadcasting and journalism experience?

Just wanted to talk to people nad play.

Asking for a reason...

since it was one of those "kits" (I think) from 2E.

Of course, I'm sure they came up with one for 3E, but I don't have all the books.

It was a sort of specialist magic user introduced in The Tome of Magic back in 1991 (IIRC).

Fun stuff, though it wasn't ideally suited for serious or low-fantasy campaigns.

Sort of a bit like Chaos Magic in Warhammer.

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