Tabletop Games Thread

[Ratman]

Mahou Shoujo is the best sparklies. Even better if you were running Princess: The Hopeful, I've been trying to track down stories by people who've actually played the system for ages.

We're playing a big fat mess of a homebrew. It should be accompanied by plenty of art I made for it through the years, so that's something to look forward to.

I know a few people who attempted to play Princess, but those games don't go far, since generally new WoD GMs wipe their parties very easily and seasoned WoD GMs want to play anything but WoD. Even a Vampire campaign that has successfully finished in some sort of a whole shape is a thing of legend, because people are too likely to realize they don't agree with the thematic premise of the game, or each other's take on it, and want to have their cake during it and eat it too at the end.

[SpoonyViking]

Hey now, Werewolf and Mage are great games and I stand by them.

[Ratman]

People have actually played Werewolf, I guess. I'd imagine it would face similar issue to Vampire though, where people either feel tied up, or already grew out of it.

I love reading Mage, and about Mage, but actually running it is pretty tough to imagine. You'd need a set of basically perfect players, who are willing to not destroy the world when the opportunity presents itself two sessions in.

[SpoonyViking]

Yeah, actually running Mage was really difficult. But Werewolf is a game which - apart from White Wolf's standard blunders - doesn't have the same issues Vampire has vis-à-vis outgrowing it.

[Saiga]

What are these issues, with Vampire/Werewolf?

[Deathhappens]

Probably powerlevel. Vampire is a game where the players SHOULD, in theory, be building up to wealth and social status in vampire society first and foremost, but when ST's and/or players try to run it like your usual DnD campaign and ignore the incessant bickering, infighting and general political maneuvering inherent in the game it becomes hilariously easy to break the game in half combat-wise.

[Ratman]

What are these issues, with Vampire/Werewolf?

In case of Vampire, it's a game that attracts scene kids with its surface, and then promptly reveals them to have significant misunderstandings about their identity. Goths want to play a game about self-determination in face of being persecuted, wheras Vampire just flat out tells them they are truly evil and truly guilty people with zero hope. It's kind of a game about Old Testament morality, and its very premise is that if you were a good person, you would have killed yourself a long time ago but here you are now.

Of course, a seasoned roleplayer understands this as the thought experiment that it is, but to a new player, being hit in the face with the reality of of the curse can be surprisingly traumatic. Cue that episode of South Park about goth kids and emo kids.

I could talk about Bloodlines 2 now and how it plays up the minorities and stuff, and tries to whitewash the blackest of black settings, immediately making it into something different and much less interesting, but that horse has been beaten to death.

[Twelveseal]

Cue the Monte Cook version, where it's not even something you were Embraced into, implying some degree of personal choice to be a Vampire and thus inherent evil, but where you're basically just some ordinary person who was randomly possessed by the soul of a dead murderer thanks to Eldritch Abominations invading. Can literally happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time, with no rhyme or reason.

[SpoonyViking]

What are these issues, with Vampire/Werewolf?

Well, a general trend White Wolf had in all of its books is the astonishing lack of knowledge and sensibility regarding real-life issues (prejudice considered only as an individual issue, not a systemic one, for instance - or worse, the result of direct manipulation by supernatural creatures). And some of that could be fine if the writers knew what they were actually saying (instead of what they thought they were saying) and wanted to play it up for horror, since Garou culture is supposed to be horrific to some extent, but no, they just weren't skilled or knowledgeable enough to tackle those subjects.

Ratman did touch on Vampire's main issue - it's a game where you're supposed to struggle against your inner monster and retain your humanity, you're supposed to have at least an inkling of hope that you can beat the odds, but nope, you really can't, everything in the setting is conspiring against you, oh and by the way every single achievement of the human race has been manipulated directly or indirectly by super-powerful vampires -, so I'll talk about Werewolf. With Werewolf, the main problem I've had with drawing in new players and / or helping them get the game (not just the metaplot, but the actual spirit of the game) is that you need a specific mindset to appreciate Werewolf for what it is: it's an anarcho-punk game where being angry at the system actually gives you power and lets you fight the machine in quite a literal manner, while also letting you explore real-world myths and mythemes (and all the anthropological considerations those bring with them) in a fantasy setting. I've seen many people who, for one reason or another, never quite got that and only looked at the surface: "furry eco-terrorists".

Plus, on a more prosaic note, it is a combat-heavy game by default, but the Storyteller system sucks.

ETA: Right, the "outgrowing it" thing. See, I've seen people dismiss Werewolf as a very 90's game, but considering we're still plagued by so many of the same socioeconomic issues of that era, and in many ways we're actually worse off, I think the game's premise can still resonate with a contemporary audience.

[SteelBeowulf]

the entire V20 plus some sourcebooks and an updated world with some homebrewing can make a really awesome single-player power fantasy RPG. The complexity of disciples is great but hard to translate to a pc game. I just hope Bloodlines 2 isn't shit.

[Deathhappens]

Oh, ok, so we're talking fluff, not crunch. Well, while my view on these things tends to differ substantially from Spoony's, there's no denying that some of White Wolf's writings, especially the older/more exotic supplements, could be all sorts of -ist (as well as inconsistent, clashing with info given on other supplements, and quite likely actually written while on drugs). Still, credit where credit is due, it took significant balls to write an RPG whose premise cleaves so closely to modern society and its issues, especially back in the day where simple fantasy escapism reigned supreme. However indirectly and however warped by the conceits of the game they were trying to sell, they did adress such issues as drug abuse, mental health issues, corruption, pollution and destruction of the natural environment... even some historical events, like WW2 and the Holocaust (Wraith:The Oblivion has a stand-out well written supplement titled Charnel Houses of Europe - The Shoah). So yeah, while OWoD in general has its share of flaws, most if not all of them can be attributed to bring written by what was still essentially "nerds in the basement".

As for the people who tend to flock to the game and misunderstand it completely (and, I should say, form communities and persist in spreading their misunderstood version of Poor Beautiful Monsters, typically frothing at the mouth when someone points out they haven't read the books), well, D&D and its d20 system has been stretched to fit every possible setting imagineable, I don't consider that a failing of the game itself.

[mAc Chaos]

Diablo: Descent

---

The kingdom of KHANDURAS lies in ruin.
At the center of the devastation is a cursed cathedral,
from which nightmarish monsters emerge to prey on the countryside.

The beleaguered town of TRISTRAM, filled with the last survivors,
is terrorized by a demon called THE BUTCHER.

Cleaving through the cathedral's horrors,
adventurers come from far and wide to delve beneath the cathedral,
and free Khanduras from its reign of terror.

---

With the advent of 2020, I'd like to announce that we're looking for another player (1) to join Diablo: Descent! We've been playing this entire time, with the game taking the form of "seasons". We're about to start season 2, and this is the perfect time to add some new blood!If you want to join this game in progress as a new character, then make a character sheet and submit it to me by January 16th, 2020. We have an active group that loves to engage, so if you want to play in a game where everyone is giving 100% to the experience, this is the game for you.Here are some details to help you make a sheet:

• This is D&D 5e with heavy changes to make it feel like Diablo.
• The game is currently at level 5, but you can (and perhaps should) submit your sheet at level 1, just like the original submissions. Then it can be leveled up later, if it's picked.
• For the most part, we play on Fridays around 8 PM EST.
• Diablo's aesthetic is gothic horror.
• Being unfamiliar with Diablo is OK. Being unfamiliar with D&D is OK!
• This is a game with a heavy focus on exploration and lore, piercing the mysteries of the evil beleaguering Tristram, and crawling the dungeons beneath it. Kind of like a mix of Metroid and Castlevania.
• Danger is high, tactical gameplay is high, and roleplaying is high.
• It's a text based game.
• You need a full body FC for this game, because the tokens are full body.
• Don't stress over backstory length; the important part is getting a sense of the character's personality and what presence they'd have in the game.
• The game's premise is that the town of Tristram is beleaguered by some mysterious evil, and your character should be invested in getting to the bottom of it, for whatever reasons (gold, glory, duty, debts, honor, redemption, curiosity, etc.).
• Diablo characters tend to have a tragic bent to them.
• Games consist of 4 hour sessions, and take place in "seasons" where we conclude an arc then take a break.

The basics of character creation can be found in this google doc, but I've been greatly expanding on it at the google site. (I've been adding new content to it as the players have unlocked it.)

One unique thing about this game is that every character has a secondary Diablo class on top of their normal D&D class. For every level you gain in your normal class, you take a feature in your Diablo class. The google doc and site has most of the extra content related to this. You don't need to be a Diablo expert to play in this game -- in fact, almost everyone involved is fresh to the concept. You'll immerse in the game and learn what the world is like as you peel back its layers.

If you want to get an idea for the setting's aesthetics and atmosphere, watch this Diablo 4 trailer. Sometimes a video communicates it better than just words.

If you have any questions, please ask!

[Twelveseal]

It's a fun game, folks. Speaking from experience.

[Zurvan]

Imma apply rn

[Deathhappens]

Diablo: Descent

---

The kingdom of KHANDURAS lies in ruin.
At the center of the devastation is a cursed cathedral,
from which nightmarish monsters emerge to prey on the countryside.

The beleaguered town of TRISTRAM, filled with the last survivors,
is terrorized by a demon called THE BUTCHER.

Cleaving through the cathedral's horrors,
adventurers come from far and wide to delve beneath the cathedral,
and free Khanduras from its reign of terror.

---

With the advent of 2020, I'd like to announce that we're looking for another player (1) to join Diablo: Descent! We've been playing this entire time, with the game taking the form of "seasons". We're about to start season 2, and this is the perfect time to add some new blood!If you want to join this game in progress as a new character, then make a character sheet and submit it to me by January 16th, 2020. We have an active group that loves to engage, so if you want to play in a game where everyone is giving 100% to the experience, this is the game for you.Here are some details to help you make a sheet:

• This is D&D 5e with heavy changes to make it feel like Diablo.
• The game is currently at level 5, but you can (and perhaps should) submit your sheet at level 1, just like the original submissions. Then it can be leveled up later, if it's picked.
• For the most part, we play on Fridays around 8 PM EST.
• Diablo's aesthetic is gothic horror.
• Being unfamiliar with Diablo is OK. Being unfamiliar with D&D is OK!
• This is a game with a heavy focus on exploration and lore, piercing the mysteries of the evil beleaguering Tristram, and crawling the dungeons beneath it. Kind of like a mix of Metroid and Castlevania.
• Danger is high, tactical gameplay is high, and roleplaying is high.
• It's a text based game.
• You need a full body FC for this game, because the tokens are full body.
• Don't stress over backstory length; the important part is getting a sense of the character's personality and what presence they'd have in the game.
• The game's premise is that the town of Tristram is beleaguered by some mysterious evil, and your character should be invested in getting to the bottom of it, for whatever reasons (gold, glory, duty, debts, honor, redemption, curiosity, etc.).
• Diablo characters tend to have a tragic bent to them.
• Games consist of 4 hour sessions, and take place in "seasons" where we conclude an arc then take a break.

The basics of character creation can be found in this google doc, but I've been greatly expanding on it at the google site. (I've been adding new content to it as the players have unlocked it.)

One unique thing about this game is that every character has a secondary Diablo class on top of their normal D&D class. For every level you gain in your normal class, you take a feature in your Diablo class. The google doc and site has most of the extra content related to this. You don't need to be a Diablo expert to play in this game -- in fact, almost everyone involved is fresh to the concept. You'll immerse in the game and learn what the world is like as you peel back its layers.

If you want to get an idea for the setting's aesthetics and atmosphere, watch this Diablo 4 trailer. Sometimes a video communicates it better than just words.

If you have any questions, please ask!

Can I reuse my submission from last time?

[mAc Chaos]

Yes. However, I'd strongly be looking for something new.

[Draconic]

Oh…
D’arvit!

Maybe I could add some flavor to the retainers…?

[Deathhappens]

Yes. However, I'd strongly be looking for something new.

I am nothing if not creative.
Dice rolling it is.

[SpoonyViking]

Oh…
D’arvit!

Maybe I could add some flavor to the retainers…?

That's just window dressing, Drac. Focus on a strong concept and build from there.
My personal advice? If it didn't get in the first time, maybe take it back to formula. Or even find a new idea.

[Optimus]

So, I'm looking for some tabletop games reccommendations for game nights, what kinda tabletop games do you guys play? I'm looking for new suggestions for at most 2 hours board games that I might not have tried/had a look at yet.