Today we had the first session of my first DnD campaign as a player. Myself and another player both showed up with clerics with a hermit background. Not only that but both of us have the deaths of our mothers as key backstory. (We're different races, though.) The birthday paradox is at play here. Get a half a dozen people showing up with independently created characters and you're more likely than not to have two of the same class.

Still, it weirded me out, like we're copycating each other or something. I haven't been this weirded out since I found out another person on the cross country team had the same middle name as me. (I have a unique first and last name, so I'm not used to sharing a name with other people.) I'm probably definitely overthinking this. It doesn't help that this is my first character and I'm self conscious about the whole thing.

Have any of you other Tilda Swintons ever had a character that was similar to another player in your party? How did you react? How did they react? Have any of you had a hermit cleric with a dead mother?

Hey folks, we had our 3rd meet for the current campaign last night all went really well. Last time our Rogue upset everyone he met, stole everything that wasn't and was nailed down, including the nails. Then managed to get killed by an NPC that we were helping, it was amazing.

Now I wanted to get a little more creative with my character and since level 3 for Paladin is the oath level I went with Vengeance and wrote an Oath. I posted it in my last thread but will post again if anyone is interested.

Now I also wanted to have a go at making a dice bag, the first one is reversible but was too long so I made a few smaller ones. Then had the thought of making each of the guys a small bag with their names on them, each has a name longer than my leg so that failed before it started. I ended up with the initial of their first names, the Rogue wouldn't give up the name or initial so I did something different for his. The guys all loved the gifts especially the Rogue (now a Monk) these are the bags I made next thing I try will be a multi compartment job. All was done by hand because I couldn't get the sewing machine to work ...

Has anybody had much experience playing DnD or other tabletops with children? I've been toying with the idea of making a fairly straightforward and simplified RPG using Story Cubes and GURPS that kids can get involved with easily and have fun playing. I'm specifically aiming to play with my daughter (8) and my niece (5) on a big family holiday in August, though I see no real reason that this couldn't work with adults as well.
Essentially, the conceit would go along the lines of each player rolling a limited number of story dice to help with character creation and such. I'd ask the players a few simple questions about their powers (for example, are you more of a wizard or more of a warrior?) to get some basic stats stats together (STR, DEX, INT, CON), and then use story dice myself to quickly improvise a short one-shot session.

Does anyone have experience playing with kids, and if so - any pointers? Am I being too ambitious about children's ability to imagine stuff in this way? If so, are there any good systems out there that are good for young people to pick up and get stuck into roleplaying with?

howdy all, been a few weeks since I posted about our last meet for the first campaign we ran.
So one of the other players has stepped up as the DM so our first DM could actually play since it was his idea to get us altogether in the first place, the new game is running on milestone leveling and so far feels like it will move a bit faster. Our first meet we only just survived the night, all of us having to use the death save rolls at least once each, the new DM made a comment of "If I thought you lot would roll so horridly I would have toned it down way more" but hey it made things more fun and we had to work as a damn team.

Last night we had our 2nd meet and our first PC death. It was the rogue that tried to steal everything nailed down including the nails, he tried to pick pocket the NPC that was with us and rolled a damn 1 the NPC rolled a nat 20 and it just went from there, this was also after dealing with the big bad of the evening so spell slots had been spent and half the party kinda said he had it coming. He is brand new to RPG games so went all out with the role playing side and doing what he wants, personally I thought it was amazing he also has taken some pride in being the first to go down.

Anyone else have something fun or cool to share about their campaign?

Ive been playing D&D for the last year with life and stuff happening it's taken us a full year to finish the campaign, something that should not have taken as long as it did but honestly it's been an absolute blast. I've met new friends, gotten to know a co-worker better and picked up a new hobby (mini painting) our DM has gone all out over the last few months, he started off by making 3D maps for us to play on he made tiny little styrofoam blocks and made house's, towers and all that fun stuff.

The biggest thing be did was have a map printed, he was going to draw it all out on a king single bed sheet, got five minutes into drawing it and his wife asked "can't you find someplace to have that printed?" and this is what he came up with when we got together again.

This thing is ridiculous in size. I've thrown in a few other photos from the night and have a small adult and cat for scale.

Any other tabletop RPG fans here? What system do you play and what kind of character are you currently running?

I'm in two D&D 5e campaigns at the moment. In one I play a Gnome Mystic, and in the other I play a Tabaxi Monk.

D&D isn't my favorite system, but it's difficult finding groups for other systems. I'd prefer playing something where character ability progression is more freeform, like GURPS.

So I'm running a D&D 5e campaign, and so far have been doing "theatre of the mind". But it has it's limitations when I want the players to use actual combat strategy in some areas. I have experience a few years ago with using a 25mm paper grid for 3.5e and Pathfinder, which worked well because it was quick to draw a map with whiteboard marker.

Now I have a 3D printer, and I'm wondering if anyone has any dungeon tile recommendations, considering the following:

Firstly, are there any systems that are quick to assemble/disassemble as the players discover new rooms, or we need to clear table space?

Second, stability of the map is important. If a player knocks the map with their hand, will everything collapse, simply shift slightly, or is it rigidly held together?

Third, community: A larger community that contributes (and takes contributions) would be better than a propriety system that doesn't allow homebrew designs.

I've seen a few systems (openlock, openforge, and almost any keyword combination that I can think of is on kickstarter), but I'm finding it hard to get a feel for how popular the systems are, and how well they actually work when on the table.

Does anyone have any recommendations on a good system? I guess i'm most interested in the game flowing smoothly, but I'm not opposed to going to a blank paper grid if that's really the better solution.

I started playing D&D a few months ago at adventure league, and I've had a ton of fun. The problem, however, is that more of my friends want to come with me than there is room for at my AL table. The solution is obviously to host my own game, so I got the starter pack and DM guide on amazon(D&D stuff is heavily discounted right now!). We decided not to use the premades, and I've already helped most of them build their own characters.

Anyway, this will be my first time playing as the game master, and many of my friends first times playing D&D at all. Any advice to make it a smooth and fun experience?

In the latest DnD 5e session, we basically invalidated about 10 sessions of prep, due to jumping over a lot of plot points.

Should the DM have railroaded us a bit, or was it a good decision to just let us say fuck it, and do what we want?

So our little group gained an extra player and after our last session two people were going away for sometime (married couple) so our DM came up with a fantastic way to introduce our new person, our DM asked all of us to come up with a backstory for our characters and what he did was very creative.
We are playing The lost mine of Phandelver, our last session we had run into a Nothic not long after we had a long rest. So our DM set the scene that our married couple would watch over us while the rest of us went to sleep, this is where the backstories we created came up. We all had reoccurring nightmares about the worst moment in our lives and had to change the pivotal point of the dream, as each of us changed the dream they would pop up into the next person to help along the way. Once the dreams were all complete we found ourselves in a 5th dream with an unknown Gnome wizard who fought a necromancer and became cursed and was the Nothic, once we broke that spell our new member joined the party.
I should add this was the first time our DM tried anything like this and since we are all rather new to the world of table top RPG it was really great.

So how was your last session? anything fun or not so fun happen?

I'm not sure what to make of this. I'd really like to hear others' experiences as well.

Without getting into too much detail in the OP, I find myself constantly needing to reflect upon my actions due to things that transpire in my group's weekly D&D sessions. I need to constantly examine and readjust my behavior so that our group can survive.

I don't mean "survive" as in our characters, nor reflect upon my character's actions. I mean my own. The way I express myself to others. The lack of attention I have given to my teammates when they narrate their dazzling combat maneuvers. The visible disinterest in an RP dialogue that doesn't involve my character which makes my friends uncomfortable and unable to enjoy themselves. The offhand comments I make about a character, or the DM, that has a huge impact on the player (it's easy to get hurt when you put your heart into building a world or a hero and someone slights that). The time I knocked my friend's character unconscious to beat the bad guys, which resulted in him sitting there for multiple turns just watching us play. All of these things have had a real, out-of-character impact on us as a group, and have caused major conflicts.

Our group is still going strong. We are working hard on being good friends to one another. But we're all really putting our heart into this game and it's so easy to hurt one another. It's been teaching me so much about being a patient, respectful, and "honorable" human being. I'm shocked, honestly. I hope I haven't hurt my friends too much on the road to this path.

How about you, Tilders? Has D&D just been a game to you, or have you also found an avenue for personal growth?

It's been a while since the last one of these, so whether you're providing an update or a brand new story: What's been going on in your game? What excitement has transpired in your life-on-paper?

-LTADnD

(First post on Tildes, feel free to blast me if I screwed something up posting this.)

So, as the title says, I'd love to hear about how your game is going. Also, if there's a lot of D&D discussion, we might talk the admins into going ahead and making us a ~games.dnd (wink, wink).

Disclaimer: If anything cool happened, I may or may not steal the idea. =]

There isn't really a great mechanic for learning skills and languages in dungeons and dragons. This makes it a bit lacking if there is a certain amount of off-time between adventures and missions. It would be cool to think some sort of mundane dnd. Like mini-games in video game RPGs that make your character a little bit more personal. A quirks mechanic, that adds a certain way your character acts in the every day or what your character normally does. The risk is that it could turn into too much of a dice roller and the players might engage less with the story. What do you think?

I notice quite a few people on here play RPGs, whether it's D&D or another system. I have an hour to spare until my game starts, so I thought we could chat a bit about the hobby.

GMs, players - what's going on in your game right now?

If you're just browsing ~games and have never played - ask questions!

-LTADnD

My DM just sent me the following great tactic for use in a D&D campaign: the Peasant Railgun. What do you think about it? Any other impressive tactics that you know about (whether also available on the 1d4chan wiki or otherwise)?

Hello ~games

Do any of you have experience finding D&D groups who still play traditional table-top, IRL, Minis-inclusive, dice obsessive D&D in Toronto? I have never played outside of Roll20 and I can never figure out where/what to look for in a group (preferably one that's just starting out like me). Having grown up watching the likes of Acquisitions Incorporated and Critical Role, I've always wanted to experience that sort of camaraderie :(

I want to hear stories about your beloved characters that you've created. What's their backstory, their style, their hooks, their interesting achievements, etc. Got a pic? Post it! Wrote a lengthy history? Share it!

I'll post mine too in a bit. After a character death in Curse of Strahd, my DM and I decided to reveal Rictavio's secret identity as my new character, a Water Genasi Tempest Cleric :)

On that note, no Strahd spoilers please!

Hi guys!

I've always being curious about tabletop games, RPG, DnD and so on. The fantasy, creativity and engagement always interested me, but I've never met anyone who played it and never being involved with it (I'm in São Paulo, Brazil, btw).

So, to be direct, does anyone has any tips on how to start? I know there are "internet based" tabletop sites/communities, but I don't know how it works.

I'd appreciate any direction! Thanks!