Is D&D fun? I'm thinking about getting into it.

[DarkCloud]

"They're just kobolds."

Kobolds.

In one campaign I played in The DM told us that he had run the scenario perhaps 15 times over 20 years. And OUR group was only the second to fail to eradicate the kobolds... and the first to fail as utterly spectacularly...

We were supposed to deal with an infestation of kobolds in a mountain. Well, we draw them out by accident... stealth failed utterly. We see there are about 300 of them. Instead of fighting, we decide to go evacuate all the outlying farmland since the Kobolds are marching toward us.

My character (who was a CN Thug... The actual class was a Rogue/Fighter (NOT optimal at all- chosen more for storyline purposes)... and who was borderline insane) and another (a NE Barbarian) absolutely hated each other (for various reasons...), challenged each other into a competition to evacuate the most people the fastest. So basically we ended up panicking half the countryside with "hasted" steeds running everywhere and both of us tearing up farmers houses if they didn't evacuate.

One guy gave me lip, so I knocked him out (for his own good) and dumped him on my horse, then dropped him off at the next farmer's house and ordered his family to evacuate- they did instantly.

Then we rode into the city and instead of going to the authorities, we ride in on dying steeds, looking like trash (we ended up falling into mud and having other awful things befall us) and scream that the kobold army is coming and for people to flee and evacuate. We inflate the size of the army because we are uncertain if it grew or not ... claim that perhaps 1600 kobolds are coming for the city of 6,000... logically, this should have caused us to realize something about proportionality... need I mention our Wisdom scores were both about 8 and our Intelligence was likewise dismal?

We are thrown in prison for disturbing the peace. Our friends (a CG gnomish illusionist, a human fighter, and a NG dwarf cleric) arrive in the city wiht their warning...delivered far more calmly- they join us in prison. A task force of perhaps 40 soldiers go and wipe out the kobolds.

We are banished from the kingdom.

Ex post: The DM explained that the Kobolds were Challenge Rating 1/4 to 1/2 and we could have taken 100 of them down fairly easily since we were level 3.

So, once again, I repeat:
Kobolds-

[Theben]

5 vs. 300? I doubt it. If the DM played them competently, you'd have stood no chance.

Still,

[DarkCloud]

He was an old-style DM, 1st edition style railroader. His claim was that after we killed 40, the rest would have fled. (Us modern players are more cautious and less heroic than the old groups (!))

Or We should have been able to sneak in and catch them by surprise in the tunnels, one by one before the army emerged, he said.

Aiya. I blame the gnome for blowing our cover. (Illusion failed).

----

Later in the campaign- the gnome while invisible, fell down a well in another kobold fortress (Because the spell was wearing off and he needed somewhere to hide... and he assumed there would be a ledge in the well... there wasn't), then came up when they drew their water. My, those kobolds were surprised.

The DM hated that gnome.

[Bosh]

Am having a lot of fun with my Call of Cthulhu campaign with my character who's a Scully-ish accountant (and scourge of financial impropriety everywhere!). So far I've managed to come up with a logical explanation for everything and the only time I've attacked something it was hitting a demon bug (a "giant mosquito" of course) with a book.

Great campaign, so far the biggest problems we've faced have all been from party members going crazy...

[Alinestra Covelia]

Yes, Call of Cthulhu will do that to you...

I played that a bit. Best horror system I've ever seen, hands down.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Heraclitus


The DM joked about that too, he now starts his online recaps with "previously on The Sopranos"

I ran a game of Twilight 2000 (RPG set in post WWIII Europe where characters are soldiers but all the armies etc have broken down and people are just out for themselves) and most of my campaign ideas went out the window as my players became a bunch of sadistic murderers and torturers. They called it the SAS Tour of Poland and would always leave one body mutilated on display to warn off pursuers. It was very hard to establish a narrative!


The worst thing about D&D IMO is the ****ty alignment system. Pick a personality and play that, get experience for playing in character, great, don't limit it to a handful of ridiculously limiting and unrealistic alignments. I would never use them as a DM these days. Not that I've played any pnp RPG for many years. Quite fancy a go at that Discworld one though, sounds fun.

This sounded great.

http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=77

[Wraith]

--"The changeling characters were unique."

Somehow, that doesn't surprise me ^_^

--"Toon. Why do changeling players always like toon?"

I wouldn't be surprised if Paranoia was another common trait. From the link above, Changeling seems like it'd appeal to the Real Roleplayers with more than a touch of Loonie. Rather more.

--"There was a PBEM game on apolyton?"

The thread is here, with some further information here. Unfortunately it didn't last too very long. Snowfire wa DMing and ran short on time.

--"We are banished from the kingdom."

Hehe.

Worst thing one of my groups ever did was to accidentally summon a Tarrasque. Powerful campaign and we had an artifact we probably shouldn't have been playing with but couldn't help. (A wand of wonder. Artifact. Think about this.) Talk about derailing the campaign... DM knew what he was doing, to, so no, we didn't come close to defeating it (this was Forgotten Realms), although we did eventually manage to get rid of it. So if a tarrasque with pink fur and bunny ears ever popped up mysteriously... sorry. Side benefit, though, is that we got to meet most of the prominent mages of Waterdeep. I'm sure we didn't leave a great impression, but we got to meet them.

Luckily, by this point the idiot of our group was dead. This was the archer, mind you, who, when in a dungeon full of traps is confronted by a stone face with a lever in the open mouth immediately... reaches in and pulls the lever. Finally died from drinking acid. *sigh*

--"Am having a lot of fun with my Call of Cthulhu campaign"

I'm not usually into horror stuff, but Lovecraft is an exception. I'd like to try that one some time.

Wraith
Concealed broadsword

[Theben]

One character had was a dwarf Cleric/Fighter (v.2) who cast "cure light wounds" by kicking the target and chanting, "Get up, get up, boy! Time's a wastin'!" Since he looked like a straight up fighter the others thought he had 'Boots of Healing'. He was overly aggressive, tho, so he didn't last long.

A favorite was Redbeard Rockjaw, another dwarf fighter (he actually started in MERP and transferred to AD&D). His claim to fame was being a cook and owning a "backpack of holding", so to speak. It contained every single non-living, non-magical item listed i the book, but he had only a small % chance of finding it in a given round. It always looked to be so stuffed that it would break at the seams.

One time he made a stew he described as "fine dwarven home-cooking". The DM made a point of noting to the others it didn't smell so good. One person asked "What is in this stuff!?" To which I truthfully replied,

"I don't rightly know."

To this day amongst our group I can repeat this phase and everyone knows the reference.

[DarkCloud]

One character had was a dwarf Cleric/Fighter (v.2) who cast "cure light wounds" by kicking the target and chanting, "Get up, get up, boy! Time's a wastin'!" Since he looked like a straight up fighter the others thought he had 'Boots of Healing'. He was overly aggressive, tho, so he didn't last long.

Amusing, sound like my kind of guy to play alongside.

My Rogue/Fighter was always on the cusp of death due to 1) a very poor build; 2) the fact that he thought he was a hardass and would rush into battle alongside the fighter; 3) he kept trying to screw over the barbarian... and it often did not work.

owning a "backpack of holding", so to speak. It contained every single non-living, non-magical item listed i the book, but he had only a small % chance of finding it in a given round. It always looked to be so stuffed that it would break at the seams.

...munchkin item...

---
That PBEM game was a long time ago... 2003, surprised you could still find the link.

...It seems like a lot of groups in the FR try to summon the tarrasque. What level were you when you tried to get it? 11th? Thankfully, no one ever decided to deal with that in the game I played in. The Worst things I ever fought were Dragons.

Side benefit, though, is that we got to meet most of the prominent mages of Waterdeep

Haha.

[DarkCloud]

MikeH- Discworld is indeed a great deal of fun!

Bosh- Ah, I love Cthulu. I think it's one of the more elegant RPG systems. It does what it does very very well for atmospherics. And frankly, it's the most accessible for newbies to the genre- the games can be sold as "this is like a murder mystery." and people who aren't gamers will flock to the tables!

[Alinestra Covelia]

Has anybody played Alpha Centauri GURPS?

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I have it, but never played it. Looked kind of interesting, but I suspect it works best with a bigger group than I used to play with.

[self biased]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
Pun-Pun the Kobold. The most powerful D&D character ever.

my current group is trying to slay the son of a dark god, and we're all for it, but we run in fear like little girls from a group of kobolds. it also doesn't help that my DM runs them like Vietcong, and gives them levels in his 1.7 game.

[self biased]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
Has anybody played Alpha Centauri GURPS?

no, but i've read through the rules. they weren't too shabby for a gurps ruleset. i have some notes somewhere of trying to engineer something apropriate for the fourth edition storyteller system, but didn't get too far.

[Fake Boris]

I know some hot chicks who play D&D.

Their female characters roam inns, looking for handsome knights, buying them drinks, and ****ing them.