Tabletop RPG's (D&D)

[Aroura]

My family has recently become interested, though perhaps re-interested would be more accurate, in playing tabletop RPG's.
My husband grew up playing classic D&D, and I played quite a bit of MERP (Middle Earth), though I didn't stick with it as long as he did, as I did not have any girl friends interested in it, only boyfriends, and those tended to change more frequently than the girls...lol.

Our daughter is now of an age where she is able to get in such thing, and she enjoys computer RPG's quite a lot, and is always roleplaying something or another around the house, or even while out doing errands.  So we thought this would be a fun thing to do together as a family.

My husband did some research, and settled on Pathfinder, a sort of branch of D&D that has become quite popular.  It was created by gamers for gamers, as it were.

Hubby plans on being our DM.  We are currently reading class and race guides, trying to design our characters, but it has been so long, I feel quite clueless!  I'm reading the books now, but there is so much info, it is really overwhelming.

Right now I'm leaning towards picking Witch, with my second choice being Occultist, and third being Arcanist.  I like the spell variety and role play possibility of Witch, but am also drawn to the idea of enhachanting objects with Occultist.  However, both of these classes seem like they could be a bit cumbersome, and Arcanist looks a little more straightforward in the magic department.  

My daughter looked at a few classes, including Druid and Range, but after some days of reading, has really gotten her heart set on Rogue.  We recently finished reading the Hobbit together (she hated the movies, and I told her the book was better. She didn't believe me, but after reading it with me, she now loves it).  She seems to be enchanted by the idea of being  halfling thief, but one with a heart of gold. lol

Does anyone here play any Tabletops?  Any ideas or suggestions in general as we get started?  I thought it would be fun to see if there are any other turbo nerds like us here on AF, to chat with.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Haven't played an RPG for a long time but I'd really love to play again. It's quite ironic that the stereotype of RPGers is that of an anti-social nerd, yet it's actually a really social activity. I very much doubt I'd be able to do any RPG'ing when I finally move back to Germany unless my language skills really improve. I really need to find some people to play with in Edinburgh.

My favourite RPG is Warhammer although I heard that it's been discontinued now. I also like Call of Cthulhu.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I used to play quite a bit of 'Traveller'. Being science fiction-based, it made a nice change from the fantasy-based games.

Most of the basics are similar: You choose a character, establish baseline skills, select a career and so on. You can also design ships (which have to be paid for), planets, aliens, choose government types, etc.

But the BEST thing about the game is that it utilizes only six-sided dice. If you need extra, you can always raid the 'Monopoly' game that's been gathering dust in the hall cupboard for the past several years.

Boru

[I_am_not_mafia]

I bought an RPG called Dark Conspiracy and it was really great, but no one else wanted to play it. It was set in a near dystopian future where odd things were starting to happen and some kind of portal had opened letting in all kinds of nasty weird creatures normally found in the fantasy genre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Conspiracy

[Aroura]

Haven't played an RPG for a long time but I'd really love to play again. It's quite ironic that the stereotype of RPGers is that of an anti-social nerd, yet it's actually a really social activity. I very much doubt I'd be able to do any RPG'ing when I finally move back to Germany unless my language skills really improve. I really need to find some people to play with in Edinburgh.

My favourite RPG is Warhammer although I heard that it's been discontinued now. I also like Call of Cthulhu.

It is funny that people think of gamers (all sorts of gamers, too) as being anti-social.  But really, MOST games are social.  From Cards to arcade stuff, lots of playing with partners at the very least.  I'm no social butterfly, but I love playing games with my friends and family.

I wish we could invite you over for a game.  Wonder if we could skype a game with you?  That might be pretty awkward, but interesting, lol.

And yeah, Warhammer is dead.  We actually own some of the last released version for some reason, and it is just bad.  They took out a lot of the creative aspects.  Characters are mostly predesigned, players get role cards that are fixed.  It also uses proprietary dice, and the whole game feels mechanical now.  IT is somehow both over complicated and totally uncreative. They totally wrecked it.

[abaris]

Back in the 80ies we had or D&D rounds and Call of Cthulhu rounds. Long time ago, pushing 30 years. So I can't say I'm up to scratch. The people I played with sort of drifted apart. Getting married, moving, the lot.

[KevinM1]

I wish I still played, but I have no one to play with.

I got started on a now out-of-print TSR game called Star Frontiers.  It unabashedly stole from Star Wars (this was the mid-to-late 80s), but it was really fun.  Came with a rather large map of the starting spaceport city, and a ton of player/vehicle/enemy/animal tiles to put on its grid.  You could have combat robots help you (tiles for them, too).  My brothers and I played it a bit differently than it was supposed to be played.

Instead of doing it Star Wars style, we did it more like a futuristic A-Team.  We were a group of mercenaries that the authorities would use when threats were too large for them to handle.  Each of our characters had a special role they filled in the team.  My main character was a Yazarian (think Chewbacca mixed with a flying monkey... yes, with the flaps of skin that allow gliding) named Wang Toi (yes, pronounced that way... I was a little shit even when I was only 8 or 9 years old ) who specialized in melee weapons.  His job was to get in close and skewer people with his sonic sword.

Lots of fun, lots of memories.  It's what gave me the RPG bug, and I've had it ever since.

EDIT: here's an image of the map, Port Loren -

[Angrboda]

I played a lot of FRP games when I was in college and the decade that followed, but now everybody has moved apart. I haven't played in years. It's amazing the drive to soak up all the detail when you get involved in an FRP game.

[Jesster]

I still play when I can. My roommates and some of their friends used to run some games with me, but I stopped having fun with them. Collectively, they produced the entirety of quirks that made it no longer fun for me. My boyfriend loves TRPGs too and we'd love to get more games together eventually, but it takes more than two.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I used to play and DM AD&D, Gamma World, and Arduin. Been a while.

Best advice I could offer is focus on the story and characters ... much more interesting than endless dice-tossing.