RPG

[Euphoric Sunrise]

Well i've heard so many different types of RPGs lately that i don't know what is what anymore. So hopefully all of the ones i'm about to mention are actually RPGs. I don't play games too much anymore though.

Nox. I can't find any information whatsoever about that came on the internet. There's no website or anything, so i can't show you it if you don't know.

I used to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time a lot. I almost finished it, but then i had to return it to the video store. Then i hired it again and almost finished it and had to return it [] The console is cheap enough for me to just buy it and the game now though.
In my opinion it's one of the best games ever made. It's almost as good as Shenmue on the Dreamcast.

Right now i'm taking a trip down memory lane and playing through the Doom games []

[Veccolo]

I don't play any RPG atm, so I list these I have played.

Baldurs Gate 1 - rocks

Baldurs Gate 2 - rocks even more! Incredibly long game. I read that the average player needs 300 hours to complete the game if he does all quests and exploration

Planescape Torment - THE game for probably most people here. In the game they talk about different planes of existance and so on. Very nice game. Check it out

Deus Ex - First-Person-Action-RPG. Cool story. Many ways to play the game

Diablo 2 - Hack & Slay & Item collecting. Makes addictive

Zelda: Links Awakening - Cool game. First Zelda game I played

Zelda: A Link to the Past - Probably the best of the whole series

Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Never managed to get all the skulltulas

Zelda: Majoras Mask (sp?) - Never played through it. Maybe I will start again ...

Zelda: Wind Waker - Interesting style. I look forward to the next game

Morrowind - Probably the best RPG out there. Huge, incredible freedom of action, huge, nice graphics. Did I tell that it is huge? Has a nice editor.

Never Winter Nights: Baldur's Gate goes 3D. Nice game, but not as good as BG. Cool level editor.

Vampire: Had good graphics back then. Nice Story, cool multiplayer mode. I look forward to the sequel.

[Nagual]

Ultima / Ultima Underworld
Bard's Tale
Eye of the Beholder
Quest for Glory
Lands of Lore
Baldurs Gate
IceWind Dale
Diablo

[Kazbadan]

No, i was not talking about that kind of RPGs. That are not rpgs, but computer rpgs, something different.

RPG, are Rol Playing Games, played on a table with your friends. The first rpg game was dungeons and dragons (somewhere in the early 70s).

Basically the game work like this: there is a GameMaster (GM) and the players. One of the members of the group must be the GM (or storyteller). Before the game begin, some things must be acomplished:
-everyone one knows the rules
-everyone have a Character  (for example, i play with a mage, my friend with a fighter, etc). The character information (like skills, age, height, equipment, etc) is recorded in a sheet.
-The GM as prepared everything is need to know about the world to be explored.

After this, the session will begin. The players will live adventures, that occur in their imagination. They will control characters and will build a story around them. The GM will be th one controlling all the other characters living in that world. The GM is the one that knows what happens if you make A or B, etc. He is the referee (how do you spell this word?!).

After the previous preparation the game will begin. Basically, the playes will say what their characters will do, and the GM says what happens (this is a very restricted vision).

Here is a short example: Charles is playing Korg, a big fighter; Ana plays an elf female mage named Sythia and Lee plays Vec, a thief master of the shadows and stealth actions. Maria is the GM (she prepared the adventure before the session begin, and she as maps of the castle, she knows what is in every room, etc).They are ready, they have taken out any doubts before the begining of the game and are ready to start. The group of adventures (the charcters, not the players) knows each other very well. They heard about the tower of Arin, the evil mages that is planning something bad, and they want to know what is it (this is a very basic and simple plot, only for show). they start the session right in front of the tower.

GM: It´s morning. The sky is cloudy, promissing rain. It´s a little cold. The tower is in a open space, in the middle of the forest that you passed through. It´s is 15 meters high (50 feet), with solid stone bricks. You see a massive door, closed and some windows in higher levels. What do you do?

Charles(korg): Let´s get in by the front door. It´s the easiest way.

Lee(Vec): Good idea, i have some lockpicks and we could try to open it! My character, Vec, starts to search for the lockpicks in the bag and says: "Here it is, let´s open the door!". He starts to move in the door direction.

Ana (Sythia): What the hell?! Wait there! Are you crazy?! The door it´s an invitation for a trap, for shure. Let´s make in other way!

GM:Charles, your character Vec listened Sythia. Do you stop or do you continue to the door?

Lee: Vec stops and says: Ok long ear women, what´s your option?

Ana: With a sarcastic laugh Sythia says:"You dont even look as an expert of infiltration. Do you see that window? It´s easier to go through there". My character looks at the most grounded window and tries to see how high is it.

GM: Syhthia thinks that it´s 3,5 meters high: it´s her height twice.

Charles(Korg) How do i get in? You two are small enough to climb that wall, but with this heavy armou i have no chances!

etc...the game continues. If they trie to climb the wall, the GM will throw some dice and see the results compared to the "climb" values of each character, in order to know if they had sucess.

Besides this kind of rpgs, there are rpgs with space adventures, horror storys, modern stories (spies, cops,etc), hero storys (you play a super-hero), cyber world rpgs, etc. The list it´s endless. The most famous rpgs (each one possess it´s own rules and core books) are:
dungeons and dragons: magical and fantastic worlds (like in Lothr rings, but with even more magic if you like). This is the best rpg ever.

vampire: you play a vampire character. It´s based on Anne Rice and Dracula storys. Very cool

Call of Ctulhu: terror and horror storys. You are a normal character, investigating strange phenomeons and facing terrible forces. This one must be great!

Hero the Champions. this one is based on Marvel comics. Very cool because your fantasy world can be your town. This tpg have the best system rules ever (it´s what every one says)

[Veccolo]

Oh you meant Pen&Paper rpgs? No, never played one.

[Risu no Kairu]

I have been deceived!!

This topic is not about explosives at all!

Why?! Why would you trick me so?

[Nagual]

Never played the pen/paper style either.

I have a pretty creative imagination but, for me, watching/listening to some friends disguised in some wizard/fairy/troll/gnome... would spoil the "fantasy".

Reminds me of: http://www.cybermoonstudios.com/8bitDandD.html  []

[Blackstream]

That 8 bit flash movie is such a classic and it's so true of any and all family rpg games I've played.

Yes, I've played P&P RPGs.  I've played a little bit of d&d.  I never really played it enough to get good though.  My 2 highest level characters was a level 4 cleric and a level 4 ranger :/

The other RPG I've played (and it's much better system in my mind) is BESM.  It was hella fun but we only got to play one session  My stepbrother who was orchistrating it never did any more sessions despite my prompting.  Got too lazy I guess or something : (

Oh ya, I've also played a discussion board based rpg.  I.e., we make posts saying what our character did.  There were very few rules in that game, but everyone who posted was very good so there was no god playing.  The game was progressing along nicely, but then the mods dropped out due to real life (and I think laziness), and the game was forced to drop  Probably the best rping I've done in my life too.

[ThE_MaStEr_Of_PuPpEtS]

Just by reading the example makes me want to round up some buddies and play dungeons and dragons. I actually started to get into the example[]. It sounds like a great game, plus my eyes wont get sore because im not gazing at a monitor for hours. Kazbadan can you PM me the rules and how to play dungeons and dragons please.

[Kazbadan]

Well, it´s diffivult to explain the rules by internet because it´s 3 books filled with rules:
-The player Handbook
-The Dungeon Master book
-The Monsters Handbook (the names are not exactly these, ii dont remember)

YOu must buy it or sdownload it on the internet.I bought the books but, even being illegal[], you can download it in the net (kazaa, imesh, e-donkey,whatever). You must be aware because there is the 2 edition and the third edition (the new one). And both editions were desigend for people that experienced with D&D and with rpgs. So, you must get a little pack that is good for newbies.

I dont have it but i will search it, and if i found i will give you (by email).

It´s very difficult and it take many time to explain the most basic rules via internet. Maybe later i can do that and if you want you can play with that basic rules, umtil get the complete guide. But, whatever it happens, it´s possible, in theory, to play D&D without rules. Just imagination and a good DM are necessary. For example, you could build very basic characters like this (a very,very simple process): "my thief is good at climbing walls, because while cild he was like a monkey. He is very fast and reasonable with dagger fighting. He swims very well too." Thiw is your character (better add more details about him, like clothes, etc).

Now, in the middle of the game, if you want to climb a very difficult wall, the DM may think (and act) like this: it´s a dificult task but he is good at climbing walls, so i will launch the 2 dices (normal). If the result is equal or better than 8 he will suceed.". If the climb is easy to climb, the result (for sucess) may be let´s say, a 5.

This really basic rules will give you a hint on the game until you have the rules.

[gamer666]

I never played any but i learned about them from watching dexters lab

[Phong]

That 8-bit movie audio was taken from the "Summoner Geeks" video (http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps2/summoner/summonermov.html). Wow, I must've watched that 100 times with friends in the newsroom computer lab back in high school. Even the people who never heard of d&d thought it was good.

[Jenia_San]

I don't wanna boast but...
I completed all existing RPG's on 4 consoles []
and soon it will be 5 [8D]
but now...[]
once I finish tht one...
I will have nothing to play!
[][][]

[WalkerInTheWoods]

I have played P&P a few times. I have not played much mostly due to no one to play with. In my younger days I played my share of video game RPGs. I wore the first Final Fantasy out on the NES. I don't play games much any more, though occasionly I will. Neverwinter Nights is pretty good bringing the best of both worlds, video and P&P, as you can go online and connect with other players on servers created by players. Some can be pretty good.

I remember seeing the Summoner video several years ago. That cracked me up. The 8-bit version is pretty good too. Thank you for sharing.

[Gandalf]

ah, its a sign of the times, in the old days when you mentioned RPG or 'role playing game' everyone knew what you meant:
pen and paper role playing that activly involves several people sitting round a table with character sheets and activly using their imagination. (not 'dressing up as gnomes' as one poster put it, you are gettting mixed up with theatrical 'role playing!).

pen and paper (true roleplaying) was at one time very popular, so popular that in the 1980's it actually attracted concern from the christian right who thought it was a veil for satanism, sad people that they are.

Computer RGP was in its infancy and you always had to say COMPUTER rpg if you wanted people to know you were talking about this style.

computer rpg was never that popular at first since the whole point of rpg was about a group of people coming together to play this game and use their imagination.
Forget so called computer 'interaction'. with real RPG you truly know what it means to 'get interactive', making the computer version pale into insiginificance, even by today's standards of online games.

Most people now actually have no idea of the level of interaction and immersion that can occur in a paper rpg, and it goes way beyond any multiplayer online game.

Unfortunatly, nowadays, people don't have the attention span for real rpg anymore and have to have everything generated for them.
This is much more unhealthy imo.

I have a great imagination and I put a lot of that down to the rpg 'training' I learned when I was younger,
I think most younger people now, confronted with a pen and paper rpg simply coudnt handle it.

A small light shines on in some areas but computers have killed off rpgs over the past few years. I know that people will say that online gaming has come a long way and are very interactive but you have still lost immersion as you are now no longer responsible for the generatin of your enviroment and what goes on there, and you miss the very real interaction with other players right there and then, in a very real way, much more than being on the other side of a modem.

Ask anyone who has experienced a really immersive paper rpg session and they will tell you that any online rpg pales into insignificance.
For those who have never experienced this, my last statement will simply be incomprehensible!

Regards,
Douglas

PS my favourite rpg is Call of Cthulhu... some games I have played have scared the excrement out all concerned!

[WalkerInTheWoods]

True, Gandalf. But I think what is even worse about computer "rpg's" is the linear mentality that seems to have developed with many players and games. You can hardly call it a Role Playing game when all you do, by design or choice, is run around killing everything. That is an action game, but some companies think that by placing a game in a fantasy setting they can call it an RPG. Worse yet is that the populus in general has come to accept this, more or less. But I guess there is only so much you can do without a DM.

[narfellus]

I play RPG's Kazbadan. I started with D&D when i was probably in 4th grade, and played on and off from 1st to 3.5 edition now. I've stopped for a while, only to pick it up again because i missed it. I'm the DM/GM 99% of the time because i like telling the stories. I like to live in the imagination, it's fun, and makes life a BIT more interesting (beats the hell outta TV).

Next month i'm running a Call of Cthulhu tournament at TrinoCon in Durham, NC. I did it once at NV Gameday a few months ago. It's the same adventure sequence set in 1928 New England called "The Gut of Essex" where a team of investigators have to look into odd happenings at a defunct Danver's Asylum.

Check it out, it's a real place!

http://www.danvers-state-ia.com/

The movie SESSION 9 was filmed there, and i swear it is the creepiest movie i've ever seen, like Amittyville crossed with Exorcist.

Anyway, i ran the original adventure for my gaming group 2 years ago and i spend a while downloading pictures from the websites to use as props. I TERRIFIED THEM.

I used zombie pictures from old Fulci films, soundtracks from horror films, screams and babies crying and footsteps, so when Gameday came up i just rehashed the old adventure. I'll do the same thing next month at TrinocCon and see if i can scare the crap outta newbies. It's hard to do though during the day at a convention with people everywhere. The first time we played was at night by candlelight, which is how CoC is MEANT to be played.

did i mention i like to run adventures sometimes?

[narfellus]

QUOTE: "Unfortunatly, nowadays, people don't have the attention span for real rpg anymore and have to have everything generated for them.
This is much more unhealthy imo.

I have a great imagination and I put a lot of that down to the rpg 'training' I learned when I was younger,
I think most younger people now, confronted with a pen and paper rpg simply coudnt handle it."

I hear ya Gandalf! Face to face play incorporates expression, laughter, and a level of shared energy that cannot be reproduced by a computer screen. It engages the brain technically, creatively, artistically, imaginitively and socially. Role playing games are VERY difficult to play correctly, to learn the rules and pacing and quality, and i'm lucky to have been a nerd since birth! []

no, really, rpg's are a fantastic resource that exercises all of the DM's talents, and it is a great pleasure and joy to share that exhileration with willing participants.

[Gandalf]

Face to face play incorporates expression, laughter, and a level of shared energy that cannot be reproduced by a computer screen. It engages the brain technically, creatively, artistically, imaginitively and socially.

Exactly!
THAT is the difference between rpgs and computer 'rpgs'.

Unfortunately, for those who have never played real rpg, they will not understand this, and will probably not believe you if you try to describe it to them, they will prefer to load up 'Balder's gate'.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against computer 'rpgs', but for someone used to real rpg, computer rpgs are only ever a substitute for the real thing, not as good but enjoyable in their own way, but they certainly cannot be called 'true rpg' the way some people refer to them.

It's like pornography vs. sex.
(ok maybe I shouldn't use that analogy!)

Douglas

[Kazbadan]

Gandalf, i agree with you totallu. We can say even more good things related to the old apaer and pen rpgs:

- They are an excelent tool to use in the classroom, with kids. I tried for myself, with my students, and it works very well! Their learnings increase more and they have a bigger motivation. Of course that the rpg must be adapted to the situation, and to their ages. We can use rpgs to explore volcans, the space, historic facts, etc. After that (the rpg itself) the kids will have bosts of motivation to write (somrthing that they dont like) the situations.

It can be used even with kids with 6 years ( i tried) but in a lower level. Almost with no rules. Basically the GM (teacher) tells a story that they will continue.

- More on rpgs: NASA (i think that was NASA) said that the best game to use in the space, for the future explorers of Mars, it´s rpg. Even better than Chess (the master choice for the astronauts) because chess it´s a very competitive game that causes some problems within the astronauts, particulary with Russians. With rpg that it could never (almost never) happen, because rpgs are a cooperative game. It is not players vs gm or players vs players but instead players and gm trying to build, more than a story, a world by itself in their imaginations.

Advice for the one, here in the forum (sorry i forgot your name) that wants to play: th GM must be a good storyteller, someone motivated for that, or else...

You can use little tricks to improve your GM function. If you search in the net, you will find thousands of tips. For example, in horror rpgs, you must be careful in the way that you play:
-never show the danger to the players: "Suddenly, in the room, you see a ghost" can be substituted by something better, like "The room is almost completly dark. You can barely see things, like the bed, a chair, and some week and pale light coming from the closed window. [now change your voice tone and game speed] In the far corner of the room, you see something like a column of fog, it´s white, maybe with some selfillumination. That strange thing is moving very slowly. Th only thing that you can ear it´s th wind whispering in the trees outside, the silent of room, and your heart beating. What you are gonna do?"

This much more nice than the first one description. Of course that for this kind of good play, you must encourage your players acting in the same way. They must (if they like) to play in a more slow pace, more realistic. If it´s a horror rpg, before the terror scenes, you must contrast with that: give descriptions of a sunny day, with lots of nature sounds, etc, because with that, when reaching the scene that you want, the terror will be bigger.

There are much more things to say about rpgs, but for a final touch, i must say that maybe you can find playres that are not truly rpg players. Generally, this kind of players (the fake ones) love treasures and killing monsters, and for them power is everything (the want more magic powers, etc). The real players give more emphasys to the character development (the background, the real behavior of their character even if that is bad for them,etc) and to the story itself.

You can play in both ways, but i find more pleasure in last one.

[roni]

I love rpgs! I play everything and I have gm-ed a few. My favorite systems are unknown armies and storyteller

[narfellus]

D&D is my favorite for combat strategy and balls to the wall fighting and monsters, but Call of Cthulhu is the SCARIEST by far because the players are just normal people up against invincible powers of the cosmos that eat humans for breakfast.

[Gandalf]

Call of Cthulhu is one of my favourites.
I remember being genuinly unnerved when playing it once!

Douglas

'Ai Ai! Shub Nigaruth...the black goat of the woods with a thousand young!'

HP Lovecraft was one screwed up individual!

[Nagual]

In my case, I would not say it's a lack of imagination/creativity...  In my case, it's more of a social problem.  The computer screen and anonymity allow me to fantasize a lot more than if I had to do it in front of others...

[Kazbadan]

When i was younger, a little boy, i used to fantasize many times with things of my own. I liked to creat worlds in my own mind and live adventures there. I could be an elfe, a warrior, a mage whatever.

Part of that creative mind is what makes me play D&D and read Tolkien books. Sometimes i still being a child.