As far as tabletop stuff goes, what's the worst you've ever been rused?
>>46643411
They told me WHFB wasn't going to be axed
>GM: Hey, you wanna play some tabletop games?
>Me: Sure, I'll play!
>GM: Nevermind, it fell through. And all my other games are full.
>Me: Online looks good...
>Game1: LAWL ITS JUST PORN
>Game2: I'm so edgy my edges have edges
>Game3: Dare you enter my magical realm?
>Game4: I'm a half-angel half-demon half-catgirl with a thirty-two inch dick that's also a katana.
>Me: :(
>>46643464
There should be a tag or something on gaming sites to tell 1 and 4 type players to keep walking.
>>46643411
>"Don't worry anon, I'll write a nice backstory for my character!"
>>46643411
mtg casual. guy played hug deck. was not hug deck.
>>46643517
What did he write?
>>46643611nothing
>>46643618
I almost want to make a thread about this, so as to not hijack this one, and I just might later. Have backstories worked for anyone? I really like them on paper but you hear more times where it was disappointing on account of the GM or Player
On the GM side of things
>player writes fucking nothing
>player writes a backstory to justify being a straight up murderhobo
>player writes a ridiculous novel full of feats exceeding their current level
>player does the above to justify their munchkin build
On the player side of things
>GM just uses family & friends as cheap death fodder for drama
>GM just uses family & friends as hostages, and then death fodder for drama
>player writes an open ended backstory, reasonable for their level, trying their best to fit it into the setting
>only to have the GM use or acknowledge none of it much less use any of its story hooks
>>46643757
I ask my players to "come up with a backstory", but don't ask them to write it down or show it to me. It helps with role playing, but I don't want to make people do homework. A couple of times people have told me their backstory because they wanted me to use it in the world. Best was the guy who wanted to be a banished prince who wanted to depose his father, so I made his father a fucking badass wrastling motherfucker who demands you 1v1 him but fights dirty as fuck.
As nominal forever Dm i usually do the rusing.
The worst I ever rused my players was an obvious as fuck, damn near straight up Wizard of Oz set up. But unlike Dorthy they never looked behind the curtain.
"Didnt bring a character sheet? No problem..."
"You're Olaf, a Level 0 commoner. Should've made a character"
>>46643411
As I've mostly been the DM, I've only really been 'rused' the once, and I hardly think it counts given the circumstances.
>"A mysterious customer in a shop you're helping out drops a platinum piece."
"Well, as a Lawful Neutral Monk, I feel it's necessary to restore him his property. I follow him to give him back his coin."
>"HAHAH fuck you, he was a red dragon in disguise!"
"What."
>"Now you have to bring him all of your earnings or he'll kill you."
"How the fuck is that fair?"
>"You followed him, you took the risk. Aren't I clever? ;^)"
Obviously, I quit at the end of the session, even though I honestly should have quit on the spot.
Oh, and DM?
Fuck you, man. We were level what, three?
I stood through three months of your last godawful campaign, I was not taking your shit any longer.
You know who the fuck you are.
Your bullshit kills fun at the source, and I hope the next campaign you run is exclusively rulelawyery, randumb murderhobos, just like you whenever you take a player's seat.
You and the guys we used to play with are decent enough guys, but awful-ass players. I learned what not to do by playing my worst characters with you all- only got better after leaving, though.
>>46643430
when the Red Shirt told me Tomb Kings would just be getting a re-basing, I 'll tell you, was never more punked in my life, my pants were downa nd everyone could see my balls
Was convinced that mana burn was still a thing
>>46644260
>Red Dragon
>Parting with money
>In hopes that people will be nice and bring it back rather than keeping it
>In order to then threaten them with death if they don't bring them more money
>Rather than just skipping those steps and just walking up to someone rich and taking all their money
Nothing more annoying than a DM pulling out bullshit in an attempt to seem clever.
>play 5e its fun
>>46643757
I tend to find it's good for everyone to have their character in mind, though there are usually issues in my experience.
What I often see is players who write pretty solid backstories, but often have a 'secret'. Not necessarily a dark secret or some special snowflake thing, just something about their character that's rather interesting, and serves as a driving motivation and explanation for their actions, but wouldn't reasonably come up in normal conversation.
Just to give a hypothetical example, a player might have in their backstory that they were once enslaved by Orks, and thus their character hates slavery and Orks.
That's all well and good, but unless slaves or Orks show up, it's never going to come up. Even if the DM does include them though, if none of the other players have their characters ask 'wow, you really hate these Ork slavers, what's the deal?' then nothing progresses with it.
And the reason nobody asks is because people tend to like making these backstories on their own, and enjoy having a 'secret' from the other players so they can have a 'reveal' when the time is right.
Thus you'll end up with RP that's mostly characters sitting around awkwardly waiting for someone to ask about a specific keyword related to their past, which never occurs because the other players are just as in the dark as their characters.
It's a mess.
>>46644484
This one actually got me too. I'm not trying to bait or cause a controversy here, I just really thought it was gonna be fun and it was for all of 15-ish hours. Then it just got incredibly stale and since nobody else was in love with it in the first place we just stopped playing it.
>>46643411
Rused into thinking I was playing a real game>GM is literally fapping instead of, you know, GMing
>>46643757
My table rule on Backstory:
>Have one, or I shall decide one for you.
Stopped my players from saying "lol amnesia" all the goddamn time. Because I am cruel to amnesiacs in my games. One found himself the amnesiac murderous traitor to an army of vengeful ninja assassins. Another found out he had been at the center of a love triangle that had left everyone but himself dead or maimed beyond repair.
There's always sick adventures tied to them, but most of my players now only pick amnesiac backgrounds because they want to punish themselves.
>>46644260
Why would a red dragon rob a monk of all people?
>>46643411
>some anon advertises to get together a group for a game I've been dying to play
>group emails going strong talking about character building and the setting and all that
>fuck yeah
>Me: alright so when are we doing the first session
>...
>Me: Guys?
>...
>Me: ... anyone?
And then no one heard from anyone else again.
>>46643757
>player doesn't make a backstory
>the rest do
>everyone get interesting scenes according to their characters and plot ideas that they gave me
>"WHERE IS MINE????"
>>46644469
>>46644579
On mobile at the moment, but the DM gave us a chance to earn some 10,000+ gp apiece, I guess so that he could take it away.
Keep in mind he was the same guy who had us carting a bunch of potions in a wagon which was stacked retardedly high, so that we had to roll an strength AND acrobatics check or suffer a random effect when a potion fell on us.
I asked if we could take multiple trips or tie down the wagon, throw a tarp over it, ANYTHING, and he said no, and the only reason he gave was that that was the way the quest giver wanted it done, I shit you not.
God, I'm getting angry just thinking about it.
He's the reason I accepted the truth of no game is better than a bad game.
I've both been rused and rused hard.
Been:
>Star Wars game
>We're friendly with Jedi council
>Things go into chaos, planet is in chaos
>Get rused by BBEG into thinking the last remaining Jedi Master is the culprit (DM did a damn fine job of fast talking us)
>That Jedi Master stole the cortosis weave armor that I had taken as a trophy from a Sith Apprentice I nearly single handedly defeated
>More credence to the issue
>Got mercenaries and bunch of other people
>Ganged up on Jedi Master
>Severely weakened but we killed him
>BBEG reveals we just killed the only person he was worried could stop him.
>Fight ends up with Jedi Council room torn off the building
>Falling to the surface of Coruscant
>Oh fuck, effectively 0-g combat.
>Got my lightsabers disarmed
>Padawans go down
>Get my experimental light-whip I took from a raiding cloning/research facility earlier in the game disarmed
>Mercs go down
>Really bad because BBEG is using all of the disarmed weapons simultaneously via Force
>Thought-dead cut in half at the waist mercenary tosses me his sword
>Score final critical hit against BBEG, killing him.
>Severely weakened
>Building crashing into the surface of the planet
>Use the last of my remaining power to push my fallen allies and padawans to safety
>Structure collapses on me killing me.
>>46643757
I've had it work out pretty well in a supers game. As the only character with a backstory relevant to the current era, one of the NPCs (who was a rival before we were both supers) from my backstory went super-villain and was a major player in the story, using my character's lost love interest (as he now had the body of a house cat) to try to force our group's hand in a very cartoon villain-y kind of way.
I loved it.
I'll very frequently play up bad guys introduced in my player's backstories, frequently giving them unexpected twists.
In the end it has produced a lot of unusable mess. But it sill produces some a small amount of gems, so it's still worth doing, imo.
>>46644657
>Quest giver wanted you to break half of his potions
Yeah, that guy sounds dumb. Good on you for getting out.
>>46644664
Rused my players hard:
>Tactical free form mission-based game.
>This NPC has existed across multiple runs in this game by multiple DMs
>NPCs goal is to kill the leader of his own organization because leader went cuckoo and is sacrificing all his minions for personal power
>Organization leader is stupid powerful
>NPC is crazy smart, but incapable of using the super-powers in setting
>Uses his smarts to use others' powers to enhance people through experimentation, mad science style
>Finally a group comes that may be capable of succeeding.
>NPC sets up all the pins
>Players happily go knock down pins as requested, use item provided by NPC to best super powerful organization leader
>Turns out that item was made to allow the NPC to take all of the organization leader's collected power.
>Left stuff inside his subjects, the players, to neutralize them
>Reveals he's an extremely high ranking member of an even more evil and dangerous organization who had infiltrated this one.
>Takes the player characters' father figure/mentor with him in the betrayal, though the mentor figure seems reluctant.
>Players never saw the betrayal coming at all despite numerous subtle clues dropped throughout the course of the game.
Admittedly, they know if I want them to know something there will be numerous not very subtle clues, because otherwise I expect them to be incapable of figuring things out.
>play The Resistance
>am commander, last mission, on the Resistance. I have to assign all the non-spies.
>it's down to one of my two brothers
>"I am not a spy, you can trust me" he says completely deadpan and serious
>send him on the mission
>he's the fucking spy
>>46644725
In what might have been the most cringe worthy public gaming moment I've ever done, I was the spy, and I was picked for the final mission.I chose to have it succeed.
Of course, everyone else was confused out of their minds.
>>46644522
I think that's an RP and expectations problem in general. If your character really hates Orks then they really hate Orks the backstory is simply the 'why' that exists because it has to. It's not something you need to discuss but only something that shapes their outlook. Just like in real life people have experiences that shape their outlooks, but how often do they ask one another about why they see things the way they do? And when it does happen, how often does one monologue about it? I think 'secrets' that actually need uncovering should be slightly bigger things that affect more than one person.
>>46643411
I helped the new Everchosen become Everchosen.
>>46644725
>>"I am not a spy, you can trust me" he says completely deadpan and serious
Bro
Bruv
Bra
MY FUCKING NEGROID
RED
FUCKING
FLAG
>>46643411
They told me advanced dungeons and dragons 5th edition was going to be good
>>46643757
Yeah. I will always make my players have backstorys unless I'm running a few session pickup game or something combat heavy. It gives them something do with their downtime, lets me come up with cool plot hooks, and gives them a better motivation for stuff.
also:
>I will not let them kill me! I'm going to see my daughter again!
Epic roleplaying moments are epic.
>>46644601
So much this.
I was running a game recently with three players who were all part of a mercenary/bounty hunter guild for one reason or another.
Player 1: I'm here because the guild hunts criminals and a few years back a group of criminals kidnapped my mentor. This is my way of piecing together who they are and rescuing him or finding out why.
>Me: OK, this is great, I can constantly drop clues throughout the RP and even have the character take out members of this criminal ring over the course of the game, Assassin's Creed style.
Player 2: I'm here because I support the "true" queen of the country and her legitimate claim to the throne. By working with this group, I help ensure her supporters are safe and serve as an example of the kind of good and righteous people fighting for our cause.
>ME: Ok, this also works. I can have the Queen's politics going on as a sub-plot in the game and get the player involved in politics as a representative of the faction. Can also throw in some stuff with propaganda and intimidation of the commoners (to sway public opinion) by some of the major players involved. Politics is full of dirty plots.
Player 3: Yeah, my character is in it for the money... also he knows how to fight because he practiced alot as a kid. (I ask the player for a reason why, and a list of important people or events from the character's past... basically get nothing except that the character was used to surviving on his own).
Me: Uhhh... well... I mean, it's bland, but I guess there's nothing that's really a red-flag there. Sure, I'll let Anon's character tag along, doesn't seem too disruptive.
Of course, the game starts, I drop all kinds of plothooks for Player 1 and 2's characters, some of which become full-blow plot-arcs taking several sessions.
Player 3 constantly bitches about whatever of the other two players is currently dominating the plot... Still refuses to come up with anything about his own character's past I can use for a story arc...
>>46644809
One of my players got the BBEG to temporarily stand down because he, as a paladin, appealed to the guy's consience- successfully.As a child, said BBEG wanted to be a paladin (of the same god, no less), but felt he lacked the moral conviction and clarity for it.He was right.
>>46644758
Well, I was mostly using it as an example. It's less the specific things and more the expectations of the players have with them.
People spend time writing their backstory, and so take the time to put in those sorts of details, but then just sit on them waiting for a good moment to bring it up in conversation. Less monologue and more just being able to mention it.
While people don't often ask eachother about why they see things the way they do, in a group of adventurers who are getting to know eachother, most people would assume some of those questions would come up.
Again, when I say 'secrets', I'm not talking the most dramatic things ever. It's usually just little stuff that people think 'oh, this could be a fun RP moment' when the other players learn they used to play the Tuba or whatever, but if the player just sits around waiting for someone to mention Tubas, then they're going to be focused so much on that they'll miss out on other things, such as the fact the rest of the players are all doing the exact same thing for other musical instruments.
>>46644576
I hope my new DM has this rule. Made a broad strokes backstory character with something along the lines of amnesia (a part of his being was taken from him), but I pussied out at the last minute and stated the consequences could be far reaching or just a face value quirk. Mainly because it could eat too much of the plot and maybe he wouldn't be enthusiastic about it to begin with.
![4a3c3e9ddb89babe1ae32689dd958171[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/nU18ORN.jpg "4a3c3e9ddb89babe1ae32689dd958171[1].jpg")
>>46644820
>my character is in it for the money
>he knows how to fight because he practiced alot as a kid
>was used to surviving on his own
I tried Shadowrun.I'm sure it's fine once you're all familiar with the game, especially if you're all players with good memories for lots of little bonuses. Unfortunately not all of us have that luxury, and playing twenty to thirty hours of "where the fuck is _____ modifier listed" before we get to have fun just doesn't appeal to me. The books are ridiculously expensive here, too.And if you're gonna redpill me on using software like everyone else I've voiced these concerns to: if it's the norm for your system of choice to be run using computers, it's poorly made. That doesn't make you wrong, or the system necessarily bad, as badwrongfun doesn't exist. But nobody seems bothered by how poorly organized and obtuse the books are, everyone thinks it's a great system, and I just can't agree.
As this ruse cost me 90 prison colony dollarydoos, two weeks of waiting on delivery and four sessions with my group, it is officially the biggest ruse possible.
>>46644809
Cliff's Notes on backstories are the best, though. Name two people that are important to them for different reasons, their hometown and pick the region it's in, the region they were in most recently before the game and connect those key points to the scenario the GM has provided. Any number of secrets or quirks can be provided, but that's the important stuff. There's no way a person could ever have no living connections to the world, unless they're some form of literal genocide survivor - which might be okay but generally isn't.
If the GM doesn't provide a scenario for the players to write themselves into, they're just as much at fault as the players would be if they'd provided no backstory. The world is an important part of the story too, and it should have a similar connection to the players.
>>46644828
You did good son. Damn good.
>>46644868
Yeah, I know, those SHOULD have been red-flags... but honestly it didn't seem too offensive in light of the some of the blatant Mary Sue stuff I've gotten from other people in the past.
I figured the player was just sorta new at this or not that great at RPing, and just wanted to tag along and learn how the game works (it was his second time playing as far as I know).
I did not expect the constant whining every single session while Player 1 and 2 were driving the plot.
>Me: OK, so Player 2, an informant from the Queen's spies just gave you a dossier on someone who might be involved with the criminal ring who kidnapped Player 2's mentor.
>Player 2: OK cool, I'm going to tell Player 2 about this right away, and help confront this person, because our characters are comrades and care about eachother... besides, not gonna let the squishy mage go face armed thugs alone.
>Player 1: "Thanks for telling me about this! By the way, I did a little research on this information, this guy might also be a smuggler for the Queen's opposition.
>Player 3: *whiny tone* Welp! guess I'll just sit here and almost get killed again, even though I have no reason to care about any of this!
>Me: Just kinda give Player 3 this look thats somewhere between annoyance and exasperation. Explain after the session, for the 5th time, that I'd gladly throw in plothooks for his character if he can come up with a reason or cause his character cares about.
>*next session happens a week later, Player 3 has nothing new*
>>46644997
>>46645008
I'm not blaming you of anything, I just feel your pain because I allow a player do the same thing because he can't bring himself to think a character. Still, my player is lighthearted and fun so I let it slide most of the time, until he starts to whine.
>>46644657
Oh god more of these please!
>>46643411
I rused my players into never knowing the true motivations of some NPCs in the campaign.
They only knew that they were on their side, they gave some really convincing reasons for being there, but they lied about those reasons.
They never betrayed the players
They kept their promises
They helped them to their last breath
Yet the real reason of going such terrible lengths was because theywere lovers and wanted to end with each other's misery.
My players will never know the truth, and will always think that those two weird guys were only best friends.
>>46643913
>>46645175
What's the fucking point
>>46645263
Motivations mostly.
When the players began to draw conclusions from the plot to make decisions, they started to notice that various decisions made by some NPCs didn't make logic sense under normal situations, but that's because they didn't bother into actually poking on some characters' backstories.
Agreeing that it was a plothole of mine, they decided to ignore that aspect of the story and why the antagonist wanted to destroy a city at the other side of the continent.
>>46645149
Fuck, man, you're having me dig up some bad shit here.
>SW d20
>As a player, this guy was a Jedi
>The only party Jedi, because he was the oldest
>I'm a tech specialist, because this is my first real campaign, and I'm naive
>I'm assuming that the classes are balanced, and that I'll be able to contribute to the party outside of situational rolls and tech-style lockpicking
But I repeat myself.
>This Jedi goes and buys an astromech droid
>Which has higher skill levels than me
>And effectively only functions as a better version of my skill monkey-ness.
Nah, you know what?
I take back what I said about him being a decent guy. The more I remember him, the more I recall what a smug fucking asshole he was.
We were in high school, though, so I just hope all his shitty behavior drained out of him when he graduated and went to community college for... something.
Maybe I'm just bitter, and he was a decent guy deep down.
>He teaches me Force skills, but himself has maxed out skills in all of the force powers that matter so he can electrocute everything to death, charm it on a whim, or throw people around
>Fucking minmaxed out the ass because he knows the system
>Turns off the life support of a cruise barge for the explicit purpose of getting the XP from killing these innocents- while still claiming to be a Jedi (or something).
>Fucking teamfights to TPK to end the campaign for no reason other than he was bored of it, without telling anyone other than the DM and one other player
But wait, there's more!
>Without fucking fail, any campaign of his that lasts more than a few sessions will run into a Deck of Many things or the equivalent
And then there's the very second time I played D&D, which nearly turned me off of roleplaying altogether.
>>46643411
My character thought they were marrying the second princess as a reward for saving the kingdom. They married the prince instead and were forcibly castrated.
>>46645492
sounds like a shitty dm anon
>>46645518
Nah, it was my fault. Iwas playing From Another Time, Another Landwhich was probably a dumb idea.
>>46645533
decent dm then
>Second game ever, I'm playing a cleric because I want to help the group and I don't have a lot of experience
>Botch a ride roll while escaping, nearly die
>DM laughs about how my cleric is crushed under his makeshift steed
>He keeps rolling and talking about how my ride keeps rolling over me and crushing me until I'm basically flattened underneath it
>Not three minutes in, and I'm already in the negatives
>Pic related
>Get really emotional as he keeps pushing it, laughter is sounding mocking by this point
I was a sheltered, introverted, low-self-esteem kid, and I had wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons since I was little. honestly, as thin-skinned as I was back then, I was nearly crying because this fucking asshole was ruining my enjoyment of the game by mocking the suffering (which he was exaggerating for shits and giggles) a character who had been made for the express purpose of helping the party and helping me understand the game.
>I get fucking fed up with it, tell the DM that he stops it or I leave
>He looks at me like he's done nothing wrong, tries to turn it back around on me by calling me a crybaby
>I was willing to admit that I'm thin-skinned, so I suck it up and keep playing.
>Thankfully, he stopped, or I really would have left.
And that's where the battered wife syndrome began, ending with a shitstorm of a three-month long campaign and the deal finally being sealed with the red dragon incident, the literal last time I've ever played with that group.
I've considered DMing for them from time to time, but for the sake of sanity I think I'll keep things the way they are.
>>46645657
Let's play rugby together.
After a couple of months let's throw a ball at that cunt and tackle him until he's in negative (emotional) hit points.
>>46645692
Sorry, I'd love to, really, but I nearly got my skull split open playing American football (also during high school, somewhat unrelated), not going to risk another concussion after what the original did to me.
>>46645657
>literally getting bullied in D&D
>>46645744
Honestly, yes.
Telling him to finally piss off after dealing with his crap for upwards of two years felt exactly as presented in one of those shitty high school films.
Liberating as fuck.
Only reason I haven't sought him out again to tell him how much he sucked as a DM is because it's been long enough that he might not be such a shitter, like I stopped being a little bitch.
That and picking fights isn't really my thing, mostly because I have better things to do and nowadays it's a who can pretend to be the bigger victim contest.
>>46645710
It's okay anon, just work up your physical and inner strength through sports or whatever helps you, and feel free to tackle those issues when you feel capable to do so.
>>46643430
>squats is the last army that we will discontinue
>>46645785
Been there, done that, play tennis now.
Blogtime's over, get back to producing OC.
>>46644599
Are you me?
>>46644484
But it is
I was promised dungeons and dragons.
I have yet to heroically slay any kind of dragon or dragon-like creature.
I have yet to delve into a proper dungeon that wasn't just a long hallway leading to a big room with a boss fight.
I feel robbed.
>>46644752
Goddamn it I hate people like you.
>>46647314
I'd hate to break it to you, anon, but a dungeon proper is just where you keep all your horse thieves so they don't go thieving more horses.
>>46643757
>I tell the players I DM for that a pet peeve of mine are edgelord characters
>players write edgelord backstories
I think they're doing this on purpose.
>>46644725
I was playing the resistance with my sister and my cousins at a family get together. We started before dinner. and I figure out my sister is a spy almost instantly-- I don't remember how, I think it was something she said. She knows she's blown and starts going full bore on disinformation, claiming anyone and everyone else is the spy, saying things like "oh, trust so-and-so, he isn't the other spy", just non-stop obfuscation. I keep telling my cousins "Don't even listen to her, she's going to say anything, it's all reverse reverse reverse psychology and trying to figure out when she's lying and when she's telling the truth is pointless. Don't even let her words enter your head, it's all disinfo one way or another..." as she just kept spouting her crap.
Anyway, we're about to start the last round and one of my cousins is leader and has to pick every non-spy to win, and we have to break for dinner. I get seated at one table, and my cousins get seated at another with my sister, and I'm sitting there pretending to pay attention to what my uncles are saying while I can faintly hear my sister talking to my cousins all through dinner.
We get back to the game afterwards and she's convinced them that I'm the other spy. My cousin leaves me out of the mission, and the second spy, one of the other cousins, fails it, losing us the game. Jesus I was furious.
I actually stopped playing Resistance at all for a while; my sister had played such a strong game, and I recognized how well she had done, and it occurred to me that the things you had to do to be a good spy player were things I actually didn't want to be doing to other human beings, even in the context of a game. I got over it eventually, but it's still something I don't play nearly as often as I used to.
>>46649084
Is this like a more complex game of drug dealer?
>>46649567
I've never heard of Drug Dealer, but Resistance is a Hidden Traitor game, like Werewolf or Secret Hitler. Thre are a certain number of traitors among a larger group of loyalists. Every round a Team Leader will try to complete mission. Each mission requires a certain number of participants, and the Team Leader will nominate people a group to go on the mission. There'sa public vote to approve the team, and if that vote fails the next person becomes Team Leader and proposes a new group. If five of these votes fail in a row, the resistance cannot organize itself and the traitors win.
Once team is approved, each member of the team secretly votes to pass or fail the mission. If even one fail is voted, the whole thing fails, although rarely a mission will demand two fail-votes.
The first team to get three missions to go their way, pass or fail, wins the game.
>>46643411
>YOU JUST KNOW
>damn aku looks like THAT?!
They told me that Infinity was intuitive and fast paced.
Holy shit, this thing is a clusterfuck of references and you have to stop at every goddamn thing.
>>46644468
What a dick move
>>46643913
Ur awesome. Keep up the good work
>>46645453
>>Turns off the life support of a cruise barge for the explicit purpose of getting the XP from killing these innocents- while still claiming to be a Jedi (or something).
What fucking GM would allow this shit?
One of my players went deep cover in the enemy organization. He ended up liking them so much he switched sides. One session later we convince the group his character was found out and killed. He creates a new character and plays with group while doing secret side sessions every so often. 4 months later the ruse was revealed as his original character revealed himself to be a traitor to the main group. Their reactions were priceless as the enemy Captain took of his helmet to reveal the face of their former comrade.
>>46647067
Only if your dm knows what fluff is. The 5e system is simplistic, and needs a good dm to handle fluff, create and interesting world, and keep the players engaged for a fun time.
I guess the same could be said of all systems but 5e needs it the most for lack of any content in the system.
>>46643601
>Anon, let's play D&D!
>I hever have played D&D
>I buy 5e starter kit
>Read free player guide and DM guide front to back multiple times
>Get 4 free player guides printed at FedEx with nice spiral binding
>Hand them each a character sheet and guide
>Explain to them how to make a character
>Anon, this seems like a lot of work
>Never touch it again
They are trying to do the same thing with casual Magic, but I've learned. I'm not buying any packs until they do.
>"Yeah sure I'll chip in some cash for the pizza!"
>>46643618
sounds like the most metal character backstory of all time to me.
>>46643411
My Paladin in 5e got duped pretty bad.
Our party rolled up into a frontier town that was more or less controlled by a mercenary group and the cleric (who was actually a bard charlatan) became my unofficial guru/mentor.
It turned out that even on top of that he was a Rakshasa who was trying to get me to fall so he could use me as a vessel for the soul of the cult he was associated with's master/champion. And it basically worked until we used a wish to go back in time and confront him knowing who he was ahead of time.
>"Of course I'm going to balance the difficulty of the game appropriately, anon."
Now imagine a d100 system where most of the time, you've got a 50-60% chance of passing a roll at best. Now take a new GM who is a super strict, by the books kind of guy. (If the game rulebook doesn't give a table for roll modifiers based on the difficulty of the task, he won't use them, even if the original game it was based on did include such tables). Then, just to top that off, have it so that every time you have to roll, you have to pass multiple rolls in a row at a 30-40% chance each, and even one failed roll means you've failed the entire sequence.
>>46647314
I'm sorry bro, I'm trying my best but I'm new to the DM thing.
>>46651833
The first line explains it all. People who play d20 tend to be the dregs of the hobby. Most people new to table-top start with d20, and these are people who are so arrogant, close-minded, and self-centered, they refuse to try anything else because of their cocky certainty that they're playing the only good thing.
This isn't d20's fault, it's just the first system they play that does this and its almost always d20, because d20 is, in and of itself, filled with these people who are proliferating d20 and making it larger and more autism-filled than you can comprehend.
Generally (and this is just my experience) when playing d20 with strangers there's an absolute certainty that you'll have a human piece of shit in the party. Meanwhile I found an Exalted game with a bunch of strangers and every single one of them is cool. I find it simply baffling that I scored a fully decent party in my first pick-up game of Exalted than I did in the maybe one hundred d20 games I've been in.
>>46653633
The biggest lie in gaming
My jimmies get ten thousand kinds of rustled whenever old grognards shit on indie/art/narrativist RPGs and refuse to admit that maybe some good ideas have entered the roleplaying game sphere in the last decade.
>tfw /tg/ flies into retard rage whenever Fate, GUMSHOE, or Powered by the Apocalypse get mentioned
>tfw you've literally never seen Dramasystem/Hillfolk mentioned here
>>46654485
/tg/ is fine with Fate overall, the only game /tg/ has gotten autismal about to the point of REEEEing it off the board was Dungeon World.
>hey guys, I'm going to ruin a campaign with lots of politics, roleplaying, and player choice
>jk, you're trapped in my never ending combat slog with roleplaying snippets
I've lost count of how many times this has happened.
>>46643464
>>Game2: I'm so edgy my edges have edges
Sounds maybe playable atleast.
>>46654368
Are you sure it's not
>Don't worry, I won't be late.
>>46654485
The owner of Mt flgs propagates the ''4e= WoW'' meme to anybody who comes in asking about breaking into rpgs. I've seen it in person twice now, and it breaks my heart.
>>46654637
>a campaign with lots of politics
Unless you're running a system where this is guaranteed and goes without saying this is always doomed to fail in some way or another.
>>46654779
4e is a perfectly fine tactical combat game and I wish people could admit that.
That said, it was my introduction to RPGs and is probably the reason I exclusively play rules-light games with almost no combat in them.
>bro, I don't think there's any way I can beat you now
>you have a huge monster on the field, I only have 1 card on mine, it's pretty much over
>what? No, I don't run any battle traps, that's for scrubs
>>46654311
>Exalted
>Finding decent players
Well yeah. Not to belittle Exalted or its players, because I fucking love Exalted, but everyone who plays Exalted knows what they want out of the game. They want to play a literal god slayer and do crazy wacky shit in a crazy wacky setting. Since everyone's on the same page, where generally won't be complications. Unless you run into one of "those" Lunar players. You know the kind.
>>46653553
I feel your pain. I usually buy in heavily to whatever my groups doing, and they stop because it was either a fad, starts requiring effort, or don't want to use resources I provide (but don't like my access to said resources). Done playing games with them. Never should have stopped going to my lgs.
>>46655233
My game group is just way too casual. I explain something to them, and it sounds cool, but if it takes more than 10 minutes to explain, they are gone.
>>46654531
Is Dungeon World good, by the way? I've been thinking about trying to round up some players for a game.
That Roll20 was an acceptable substitute for in-person games.
>>46654951
Well I've heard some horror stories about the hobby, particularly related to sup/tg/'s Exalted community, so I figured it was a fair comparison to make the point that d20 players are pretty bad if I've had better luck with Exalted players.
>>46655649
Good as FATAL
>>46656262
In all fairness, Exalted is a munchkin magnet. However, even with all the munchkins, I've found that you'll still get a better game experience out of a group of gamefinder munchkins playing Exalted than out of gamefinder d20 players.
>>46644657
This is why for better or worse I like my group. They have on more than one occasion said. "That's dumb were just not gonna do it."
And regardless of gm bait the players will just resist and go do their own thing pretty much forcing the gm to either A: cut the shit and do something more reasonable
Or b: try and force us which 90% of the time ends with the players walking away.
It helps that out of our group only one gm is really bad (out of the 5 that sometimes take the mantle) and we actually bother to make the game something fun rather than a contest of how quickly I can piss off my friends
>>46643411
The freshest time I can recall was in a sci fi game.
>be bounty hunter having had several unsuccessful bounty pursuits in a row (mostly my own dumbass fault)
> in space station bar deciding to drown my sorrows
> woman getting harassed by shitty scumbags
> perfect excuse to vent frustration proceed to wipe the floor with them.
> woman says she needs a lift off station .whythefucknot.jpg
> ask her where to
I dunno.
> ask if she has a home
Nope
> do you have any money?
2$
> realize I've done the equivalent of adopting a stray puppy.
> place this new problem on the shelf next to shit I won't deal with. And move on.
> later in game gm notes she copies my character during his daily work out and practice. Decide fuck it and try and teach her some basics maybe make her useful.
> first hit puts me half way through a bulkhead with multiple broken ribs. Bitch is a escaped bio weapon. What follows is a occasional trail of horseshit involving the government trying to get her back.
All in all it actually was pretty fun and this was back before firefly came out so it actually was pretty cool
>Dumbass ally pissed off the wrong gang
>Got riddled with bullets and left in the negatives.
>Had to endure 4-5 rounds of sniper fire as I dragged my dying team member to safety
>Encounter NPC that offered to save us and him in exchange for delivering a package to designated location
>NPC practically had a small army at his disposal with the snap of his fingers, scaring off the irate gang
>Take friend to hospital to get healed up
>Dropped package off at hospital as instructed
>We left hospital
>Giant explosion. The 10-story hospital collapsed and crumbled
>NPC returned, revealing he gave me a set of explosives
>There was one witness, we weren't heartless enough to kill her. She was upset with us, but thankfully not out for our blood. Yet.
>We chose to take her back to the refuge town, but now someone knows what we did
>mfw I got rused by the GM to murdering hundreds of people and doctors just because I was desperate to save my teammate
>This was a post-Apocalytic setting, so I essentially destroyed an incredibly valuable resource akin to fresh water
>WhatTheFuckMan
I dunno why I kept playing with the GM after that, but thankfully I dropped him like a bad habit several months after that. Normal players shouldn't be subjected to this kind of crap.
>>46643601
>Be 14, new at MtG, have a Selesnya deck I saved up for and love
>First time playing at FTM
>I bomb out because I mess up, but still have fun
>Middle-aged dude asks me if I want to play while we wait, saying I have a "cool deck"
>Sure, what can go wrong?
>He pulls out a completely proxied squirrel deck, proceeds to mercilessly destroy my standard deck
>He doesn't even do it quickly, he waits until he has an arbitrarily stupid number of squirrels to attack
>Just picks up his cards and leaves, doesn't talk to me for the remainder of the night
>I never come back to that store again, I stop playing Magic altogether until about 3 years ago
I suppose I should thank him, I learned a few years after that the the shop closed down after the owner went to prison for possession of child pornography.
>>46659680
Oh god, a blessing in disguise. Still a shitty player though, being That Guy.
>>46658716
I dunno man. Making player choices have extremely negative consequences is sometimes appropriate, and a gritty post-apocalypse setting even more so.
Unless you had absolutely zero red flags and/or failed the setting equivalent of Sense Motive.
>>46661493
Practically 0 red flags, the GM gave no hints/warnings we'd have to blow up people for the sake of living. It seemed it was gritty for the sake of gritty. Plus it was either that or TPK, and like hell I'd croak because someone pissed off the wrong neighborhood.
Also the GM was incredibly cheeky. I did roll a Sense Motive to see if he was lying about helping us, but it was only that and exactly that. The GM could've hinted me there about killing people with that package, but nope. Exact action, exact result and nothing else when I sense motive.
>>46661699
Okay then yeah that sounds like bullshit. Sounds like a post-apoc version of forcing a paladin to fall, kinda.
FUCK, I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS PVP GOD FUCKING DAMMIT THAT CUNT.
Once I was in a quantum ruse.
The GM knew we thought everyone we encountered were assholes, its 40k so it makes sense. We tried to make nice with a noble, assuming he was the heretic we were sent to investigate. The moment he could've been cleared, he attacked.
There was no good solution and everyone felt dumb, save for the GM who was pic related.
>>46658716
There's always a catch.
Sometimes you just need to dig a grave.
>>46661999
There's digging a grave for a target, and then there's blowing up many innocent/sick people and doctors. It feels like I violated the Geneva Conventions or something.
>>46644725
>Playing One Night Ultimate Werewolf with bros
>One announces that they're a werewolf right off the bat
>The Minion and Tanner are both in play
>>46643411
I tried to play D&D once, but the couple people I was going to play with ended up not caring about it very quickly.
tfw nobody you know wants to play role playing games.
Why do we still use the word "ruse"?
It got old two years ago
>>46654811
I feel you.
4e is at its best when you all play it as a grueling dungeon crawl.
When I was starting to play 4e I stumbled upon this obscure niche called "Fourthcore" where a couple of mildly notable DMs made extremely challenging dungeon crawl modules. Every combat, every puzzle, every npc, every detail about the modules was a challenge that required serious thought and consideration and at least a little bit of luck for the players to overcome without very serious consequences. The thing is, each module had an in game time limit that you represented with an out of game time limit, everything had a sense of dread to it, but at the same time, every challenge was just possible enough, just within the players' reach.
These modules made me feel a specific set of things that I hadn't felt since Tomb of Horrors. Honestly a few of these modules were *better* than Tomb.
Further, these are the only modules where I've TPK'd the party and they've responded with "that was fun ***let's do it again until we beat it***"
---
The original authors of the modules have moved on with their lives and their websites are mostly defunct now, but you can probably still find them here and there online, just google these titles:
Crucible of the Gods
Fane of the Heresiarch
Revenge of the Iron Lich
Tower of the Ascendants
Vault of the Wyrm Prince
Murder of the Maelstrom Queen
Hmmm that's a tough one. Probably have to go with being tricked into a relationship with an Illithid.
>>46656663
Kill yourself, Virt.
>>46663360
A word from the English language describing the situations being described is inappropriate to use?
Thanks for telling me anon!
>>46663360
Because /tg/ is always 2 years behind the meme game.
>>46645710
I almost split my own skull open while playing americ anfootball one time.>tfw not strong enough to pull the trigger.
>>46654368
>TFW you don't carry cash
>TFW you want to chip in for pizza but there's nothing you can do
>>46654637
>ruin
Typo, or freudian slip?
>>46649084
Your sister sounds cool as hell. My group retired The Resistance because me and another guy were so good at it that games came down to me and him.
It wasn't like we were particularly better than the other players in our board game group at games, it was just that the rest of the players didn't have the personality to go out there with their plans or the ability to take charge. If one of them was outed, they'd usually sit quiet or make some poor counter-argument and that'd be it.
It's my dream one day to play at a cutthroat table of The Resistance where everyone is using all the tools they have available at the table.
>>46663613
But Virt likes FATAL.
>>46647314
Go play the Tomb of Horrors module and tell the DM that you are looking for a dragon to piss off.
You will learn your lesson.
>>46659680
>I suppose I should thank him, I learned a few years after that the the shop closed down after the owner went to prison for possession of child pornography.
He knew; he was protecting you.
>>46643411
>an old friend of mine from high school invites me to some Star War tabletop fun
>his father will be the GM
>fuck yes, I know he's an avid star wars fan
>he literally has fuck tons of books, comics, and other star wars junk
>pumped, star wars is my life.
>first session and everything is fucking wrong
>neutral good Sith character
>neutral good Jedi executes criminals
>Sith and Jedi character are friends now
>Zombies
>white firesaber
>don't even know what year it is
>someone is playing as an alien race from mass effect
>"I just wanted to create my own version of Star Wars"
>>46667036
>Expected the most grognardian, autistic Star Wars railroad plot ever.
>Got someones fanfics slapped together.
Well, I am surprized by it...
>>46643411
Jack fell for this trick twice with Aku, and I mean its super obvious on that occasion since she literally has Aku's color scheme.BALLS DEEP
>>46643411
Just started watching this show last night.
Pretty good.
>>46643411
>HEX, game
>team is Wealthy newly oil rich Arab investor, fast talking con man, British Spy, Lenny from Mice and Men, scholar
>fighting some SS/Thuile queen bitch
>racing around the globe, stop nazis from getting magic artifacts, save hollow earth tribes, dont let nazis and lizard alien homies make dino-tanks.
>Nazis always one step ahead but we win more than not
>4 month of real time later, turns out the scholar was the nazi's little brother, spying on us the whole time.
It was good
>>46647501
>not executing your horse thieves
>>46666228
He also likes making music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFqd8NBKqTc
>>46654736
>Yeah, I'll be there to GM on [day].
Who's driving you?
>[Flakiest motherfucker ever] is.
[day] arrives, I travel 50 minutes to FLGS, wait an hour, receive text.
>So [Flake] can't drive me for [inane reason, usually just not feeling like it].
Fucking pissbutter.
>>46654802
Why is that?
>>46644573literally?
blumps
>>46666228
Holy shit, my sides are dying.
>>46643411
Paizo told me Pathfinder fixed D&D 3.5's problems, and I believed them.
I will never trust Paizo about anything ever again.
>complaining about plot focusing on other characters
Fucking morons with no taste. I already know what I can come up with, but I don't know what other players are thinking. It's more fun to see new things.
>>46666228
Is that thread archived somewhere?
>>46681925
Yes.
>>46644682
>M. Knight Shwarmalamalong ending: the quest giver was Loki, just wanting a laugh at watching some gullible idiots get potions dropped on their head, random shit happening in the process, while trying to push a cart of comically overstacked potions
>have to unlock guy from magic artifact shackles
>have set of 32 keys
>no indication in room or anywhere on which key might work
>each shackle uses a different key
>every time you get it wrong you get zapped and it bypasses energy resistance/immunity
god that was the shittiest fucking "puzzle."
>>46645657
>betas
>>46666228
does he still post on that trip or did he quit yet?
>>46644576
I'd be amnesiac for you senpai
>>46665369
>>TFW you don't carry cash
>>TFW you want to chip in for pizza but there's nothing you can do
You say this as if carrying cash or not is out of your control. Nothing you can do? There is something you can do; bring cash, you cheap fucker.
>>46683537
Who carries cash these days? It's all about plastic now
>>46684673
Anyone with half a brain who KNOWS they're going to need it. It's not like game nights are a random encounter, catching you with your pants down on the toilet with you powerless to bring what you need. I hardly ever use cash myself, but I know to get and bring some when I know I'm going to need it.
>>46644820
>mfw starting a game and have a guy that tier of bland whom the other players like and root for his second signup revision to be accepted
Got pressed to play through the DMs magical realm, and then suffered the consequences of it in game.
>>46644828
That's literally the plot of The Incredibles.
>>46672615
>That video
Oh god Craig, seek help.
>>46683537
Well take some cash for the chip in?
Or once in a while order the whole pizza with online pay.
>>46681925
>>46681984
archive.4plebs.org/tg/post/42780693 Lesseee
>>46658084
>The freshest time
>this was back before firefly came out
That's not very fresh tbhfam
>>46643757
>GM just uses family & friends as cheap death fodder for drama
I've attempted to manipulate GMs into doing that before. More or less implied that my character's father was a Raven in an AC refluff of Jovian Chronicles. Game ended after the first session due to me being the only one interested in the game, unfortunately.
>>46643464
Might as well just play game 1, at least it's upfront and honest.
>>46665112
Alright I laughed, good one anon
>>46654531
That was just one asshole tripfag
>>46686536
>42782893's post
>tfw someone thinks you're virt when you were drunk one night and put in your nickname
