MeFi D&D game?

April 9, 2009 4:18 PM

AD&D playing mefites--- How about a campaign?

I haven't played D&D in over a decade, but I think an online game with mefites might be entertaining as hell. I have no idea what the current state of the technology is, though so I haven't a clue of how it would work. I also don't want to GM, but I'm sure there are people who have campaigns ready to go.

Ideally I'd like to do it online with a transcript so we can share with the class afterwards.

Anybody else interested in this?

posted by empath to MetaFilter gatherings at 4:18 PM (79 comments total)

I've never played, but I would love to take part. I've been listening to podcasts of games, and I love the story and the excitement but without knowing the mechanics I'm always lost.

If noobs are welcome, I'm in.
posted by Science! at 4:21 PM on April 9

Also -- not particularly set on AD&D, just the recent Penny Arcade podcasts of D&D games and the deaths of Arneson and Gygax have put it on the top of my list.
posted by empath at 4:21 PM on April 9

Curious but nooby.
posted by grobstein at 4:29 PM on April 9

If all you smart folks can set up the infrastructure, I'm in.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:33 PM on April 9

I'm interested. Not GM. Play-by-post?
posted by Night_owl at 4:36 PM on April 9

Be aware play by post games can take years. If you want to talk to someone that has done (and I believe is still doing) such a campaign, try to get in touch with this dude.
posted by piratebowling at 4:42 PM on April 9

Play by post strikes me as needlessly slow. An online game, run over skype or the like with some sort of digital dice rolling system would be doable. A quick search says there are some networked dice programs, they couldn't be that hard to build from scratch.

Somebody invite pb to the game.
posted by Science! at 4:46 PM on April 9

Thirding curious noobishness. Sitting in as an observer on a couple of sessions during college is the extent of my experience.
posted by notquitemaryann at 4:47 PM on April 9

There is, in fact, an effort to get a D&D 3.5 game going over at MeFight Club.
posted by The Pusher Robot at 4:58 PM on April 9 [2 favorites]

I played a few sessions over IRC a long time ago, and it worked well-ish. Dicebots, sending private messages to the DM for secret actions, etc.

I'd be up for it if there's some way to access the required info for character creation and whatnot (I've only got an 2e handbook and a couple supplements from way back).
posted by CKmtl at 5:03 PM on April 9

VERY interested, would NOT like to DM, and have strange hours which may or may not work with everyone else's, depending.
posted by jtron at 5:12 PM on April 9

I am not involved with Secondlife (except for checking it out quite awhile ago), but it seems something like that would be beneficial.
posted by edgeways at 5:14 PM on April 9

I'd play as well! It's really too bad that Wizards' online play platform (which was touted as a major selling point for 4e and would have been perfect for this) turned out to be so much vaporware.
That leaves us with basically a chatroom type solution.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 5:33 PM on April 9

Ooh neat. I'd be in depending on timing, but I have zero sourcebooks so would need help with that.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 5:34 PM on April 9

Potentially interested, depending on edition, timing, etc.
posted by never used baby shoes at 5:50 PM on April 9

I would recommend OSRIC as a free AD&D play-alike, Labyrinth Lord for Basic, and BFRPG as a hybrid. Of course, Swords and Wizardry is a workalike of the original edition of D&D, the one closest to what Arneson helped create, so it might be most appropriate. All simpler and more noob-friendly than 3E or 4E.

I'd be interested in playing. As a side thing I'd be up for DMing a play-by-post game of Swords and Wizardry, granted that play-by-post is a very quixotic way to play.
posted by fleacircus at 6:00 PM on April 9 [2 favorites]

I'd be interested but haven't played since Rifts.
posted by CwgrlUp at 6:21 PM on April 9

I've never been in an online game that's worked out (play by post is very slow and I've never had a game last more than about two weeks) but I'd definitely be interested in playing a 3 or 3.5e game, PPB or a more real-time method. (Maybe I'll have to check out MeFight Club.) I'd prefer to play rather than DM but if there are no other volunteers I might be willing to give it a shot. (We used to play a bunch in college and while I never ran a deep session, I did run a one-shot campaign based on Hotel California.)

What would be really great would be to find a couple of other interested Mefites in NYC or North Jersey and start up an in-person game.
posted by Godbert at 6:27 PM on April 9

I'm totally in. Haven't played for 20 years, but have been thinking about it recently.
posted by jbickers at 6:37 PM on April 9

Only if we can go out and not get laid afterwards.
posted by bardic at 6:55 PM on April 9

Totally in, almost doesn't matter what the details end up being to me. Also there's that dungeon-a-day thing that was FPPd a bit ago, that might be a nice addon if this actually happens more than twice.
posted by Skorgu at 7:08 PM on April 9

I like the idea of skype plus some kind of online mapping/dice rolling app. I'm kinds thinking of this more as another collaborative fiction project than just as a game. I'm hoping the results are amusing enough to share :) maybe have a set of characters that people take turns playing. With the same gm every week or a couple sharing duties.
posted by empath at 7:12 PM on April 9

maybe have a set of characters that people take turns playing

This is a cool idea! Imagine like a wiki setup where people submit characters. Everybody votes until there are six or seven total PCs. Then, some kind of equitable system is set up where various people can take over one of the characters for a session. Post the transcripts and such, everyone has a stake in the characters, we don't have to set up ten different games so that everyone can play who wants to.

Downside of course is that you don't get that special connection with your one character.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 8:22 PM on April 9

mmmmmmaybe....
posted by rmd1023 at 8:25 PM on April 9

I don't know about shared characters. I haven't played D&D, but I have played other games and even after just one round I wouldn't want anyone else messing with my guy.

Also, this is conversation seems to be trending toward a collaborative game with producing written record as a significant goal. I don't know about that. Written record, fine with me. Collaborative, please define.

I'm totally in for any D&D or D&D-styled/influenced game where we can play in real time over chat or VOIP, preferably without a need to lay out any cash. Though I understand for some games a session might be unplayable if everyone doesn't have X book.
posted by Science! at 8:34 PM on April 9

This sounds fun.
For both the single-player characters and the meta-characters; both sound fun.
I've never done it, but I've heard good things about IRC-based games.
posted by eclectist at 8:53 PM on April 9

It smells like cheetos in here. Where's the mountain dew?
posted by not_on_display at 9:22 PM on April 9

I would be interested, but my "XP" is nonexistent, not counting the hours I spent generating RIFTS characters that were never used since I didn't have any friends to play with.

[phone] SP

(Sadness points)
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:28 PM on April 9 [1 favorite]

the hours I spent generating . . . characters that were never used since I didn't have any friends to play with.

I had this problem so bad.
posted by grobstein at 9:52 PM on April 9

I'll bet this would be fun, but you know you're going to get a response way outstripping any DM's ability to run it.
posted by adamdschneider at 10:03 PM on April 9

I can't recommend enough actually meeting people for role-playing. 5 of us (all but one MeFites) have a regular (usually biweekly) Sunday afternoon game that's also a brunch-meet. We eat yummy food, drink good beer and kill goat-headed manifestations of the power of disease. It becomes a lovely routine fast enough. My current regular game got started out of the Gary Gygax obit thread, actually. That said, if you can't play face to face voice communication is essential. I tried to IRC RPG a couple of times and it's not the same at all. Too many things distracting from the experience. Besides, role-players are always looking for people to play with, sending off a couple of MeMails to local MeFites who've commented in the Arneson thread, the Gygax thread or other RPG threads should be a quick and easy way to get a game started.
posted by Kattullus at 10:58 PM on April 9

you know you're going to get a response way outstripping any DM's ability to run it

Maybe not, if it were run sandbox-style.
posted by fleacircus at 2:36 AM on April 10

Yes.

There are a bunch of tools out there for online play (with more coming down the pipe, or so claims Wizards, who are often full of lies).

Setting up local groups for brunch, beer, and brawling as Kattallus mentions would be a good idea. I wonder if it would be possible to get a "I Play RPGs!" type tag for our 'Also On' sections of our profiles. That way, you can look at people nearby and drop them a line.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:20 AM on April 10

Also, my arm could be twisted into running, bearing in mind that I'm in the process of relocating to the Witch City and would likely run flat out dungeon delves in 4e.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:22 AM on April 10

You know, if this takes off and the MeFi EVE Online corp goes moribund, I'm gonna be really pissed off.

And playing D&D online. That'd be awesome.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 3:22 AM on April 10

I would probably be down with this (not to GM, which I suck at). I would vote for Skype since it seems like the best compromise between being in the room with each other and having this be something that Mefites outside of the two or three cities with high concentrations of users can actually participate in.
posted by Your Time Machine Sucks at 3:51 AM on April 10

I'm in, though my experience amounts to a few games of Stormbringer over IRC a few years ago. It worked decently well. Don't have any resource books (and don't actually know how to work them), so will have to depend on other enterprising MeFites.
posted by Phire at 4:55 AM on April 10

I also am interested, though I am 3/3.5/4E only.
posted by subbes at 5:16 AM on April 10

i'm down with this as long as i get to be a kender.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:34 AM on April 10

BitterOldPunk: MeFi EVE Online corp

How are you guys doing? Have you tried to recruit over at MeFightClub? Unfortunately I don't have the time needed to commit to playing myself.
posted by Kattullus at 5:45 AM on April 10

I can't recommend enough actually meeting people for role-playing. 5 of us (all but one MeFites) have a regular (usually biweekly) Sunday afternoon game that's also a brunch-meet.

I haven't played in well over a decade, but I'd be in for an offline game in the Boston area.
posted by Izner Myletze at 6:32 AM on April 10

I might be down, time and schedule permitting. I don't care fuck-all about version. In fact, I'd be intrigued to play the new one.
posted by middleclasstool at 7:31 AM on April 10

So. Are we going to be totally gay and allow Unearthed Arcana or what?
posted by bardic at 7:44 AM on April 10

I'm totally down. I have a lot of D&D experience, having played pretty much every version put out by TSR and WotC.
posted by Cassilda at 8:08 AM on April 10

Are we going to be totally gay

Yes.

and allow Unearthed Arcana

Maybe.
posted by Your Time Machine Sucks at 8:29 AM on April 10 [4 favorites]

Play ADD? Yeah, let's ride bikes!


I've got my second edition AD&D player's handbook (I'm a player, yeah). I unfortunately left all my RIFTS/TMNT stuff back at my folks' house, so it does me no good.

I kinda wish there were an LA face to face game, but I think I'm the only one who'd admit to such nerd-dom, and I haven't ran a campaign since a particularly shitty Shadowrun game back at UCON in '96. Everyone died.
posted by klangklangston at 9:21 AM on April 10

I recently acquired every supplement for TWERPS ever created.

so...i'd be down for playing twerps. alone. over here, by myself.

METAPHYSICAL NINJA MANIAC CHAINSAW VITAMIN JUNKIES!
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:23 AM on April 10 [1 favorite]

I would very much be interested in being involved, whether it's online or even in-person.

As with many other folk, scheduling is the key. I couldn't swing a weekly game, but I could definitely do a monthly game.
posted by DWRoelands at 10:02 AM on April 10

Traveller... anyone?
posted by GuyZero at 10:09 AM on April 10 [1 favorite]

Any MeFites in the south Jersey / Philadelphia area wanting face to face, old school D&D, feel free to MeMail me or email me or whatever you like to do.
posted by graymouser at 10:24 AM on April 10

In related news.

.
posted by Night_owl at 10:26 AM on April 10

I'd totally be down with playing, either online or in the Washington, DC area.
posted by Inkoate at 10:31 AM on April 10

a particularly shitty Shadowrun game back at UCON in '96. Everyone died.

I don't know, that sounds like success to me.
posted by adamdschneider at 11:37 AM on April 10

OOTS updated today with a nice Dave Arneson remembrance.

and if you're a D&D fan who is not yet an OOTS fan, start here. Yes it's worth it.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 12:03 PM on April 10

I don't think I'm in, but I'm curious as heck to see what happens.
posted by cortex at 12:47 PM on April 10

Seconding fleacircus' recommendations both for a "West Marches" style game for anyone brave to DM in an alternative format, and the use of OSRIC/LL/BFRPG/S&W.

Especially after WotC's recent roll of a 1 on their "Digital Initiative" by pulling the pdf back catalog from all online retailers under the misguided notion of curbing piracy.
posted by ktrey at 2:58 PM on April 10

"I don't know, that sounds like success to me."

It was really that my pal Danny signed up for the game, then got all weird and petulant because he didn't want to be doing whatever the fuck the mission was (something involving large animals and outdoor combat that was mostly mindless) and so just kept trying to derail the campaign into anything else. As other players started getting into that, me, a novice GM, felt it all slipping away from me ("We've got a jet, right? Why don't we go to some clubs instead?") and I just kinda started in on the MASSIVE WAVES OF EVIL FOR NO REASON, then both Danny and I were pissed at each other for months. I should have never allowed pre-created characters, even though we only had three hours.

Thinking back, though, every single session I played in at that con, everyone died, though at least one of those sessions was due to a horrible spate of double-zero rolling in RIFTS that no one could have predicted and the GM seemed fairly apologetic about.
posted by klangklangston at 3:08 PM on April 10

It was really that my pal Danny signed up for the game, then got all weird and petulant because he didn't want to be doing whatever the fuck the mission was (something involving large animals and outdoor combat that was mostly mindless) and so just kept trying to derail the campaign into anything else.

That sounds like my entire experience with D&D in general :P
posted by Chuckles at 4:15 PM on April 10

Garbage in, garbage out.
posted by fleacircus at 4:21 PM on April 10

Why do people keep mentioning RIFTS?
posted by Max Power at 4:26 PM on April 10

Because in RIFTS, if you have the latest supplement, you are Totally Badass.

#1: I'm a dude hopped up on so many drugs ten minutes of machinegun fire won't take me down!

#2: I'm a dragon!

#3: I have a giant robot that has a giant gun that blows up anything!

#4: I have mystical tattoos that make me incapable of being blown up!

#5: I have mystical tattoos that make me incapable of being blown up, am hopped up on drugs, and drive a giant robot that is shaped like a dragon that can blow up anything.

#6: I have a high Science skill!

#1-5: GET OUT, NOOB!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:33 PM on April 10

GuyZero: Traveller... anyone?

NEW ERA! NEW ERA!

I might be the only person who prefers Traveller: The New Era to any other incarnation.
posted by Kattullus at 4:48 PM on April 10

I still have my original Traveller boxed set.
posted by Max Power at 4:51 PM on April 10

Oh, man, you know what would kick so much ass? Dark Sun.

YES I AM SERIOUS!
posted by adamdschneider at 5:29 PM on April 10

One nice thing about 3.5 is the free online System Resource Documents which contain all the rules except for those relating to experience, all free, legal, and easily browse-able. Our tabletop game runs on one set of books and a pile of laptops.
posted by kaibutsu at 5:39 PM on April 10

I would be totally stoked to play in any kind of RP through MetaFilter. (Well, not Rifts.)

Hell, I'd even run something, though D&D is not my strong suit. (I do have the books and a couple of canned adventures, but I do not have the patience to convert all that stuff to online format for moving minis around.) Still, if anyone wants to play a Spirit of the Century one-shot, or a game of Don't Rest Your Head, or field-test my Nobilis scenario for Gen Con...

(Or a World of Darkness game, new or old. I can do those, too. And I'd totally be a PLAYER for a D&D game, preferably 4th but I've got 3.5 junk lying around, too.)
posted by Scattercat at 6:13 PM on April 10

I would recommend OSRIC as a free AD&D play-alike, Labyrinth Lord for Basic, and BFRPG as a hybrid. Of course, Swords and Wizardry is a workalike of the original edition of D&D, the one closest to what Arneson helped create, so it might be most appropriate. All simpler and more noob-friendly than 3E or 4E.

Seconding this. Makes it much easier, since those playing can stick to one rule book, it's easier to learn and everyone can access it, since those are all free and online in PDF. My preference would be Basic Fantasy RPG (BFRPG) followed by Labyrinth Lord, but that's only because I don't like race as class.
posted by Gnatcho at 9:40 PM on April 10

If you're going to run D&D I'd recommend dndonlinegames. My personal game favorite will always be Call of Cthulu but I'll play anything that anyone wants to GM.
posted by Lokisbane at 10:49 PM on April 10

I'm with Godbert for a NYC table top game. The nice girl I am dating wants to play, and this could be our best chance to do so with a bunch of new people. I might be able to bring along my lawyer and his wife. What say you, people?
posted by vrakatar at 11:41 AM on April 11

I'm actually in an LA based game and we're looking for 2 more people if anyone's interested. It's 4th edition, so some people might not be down for the new school ways.

Also, there's 2 LA based D&D meetups based on the east side and west side.
posted by Derek at 4:20 PM on April 11

NEW ERA! NEW ERA!

WOAH WOAH WOAH

This just took a bad turn. I actually don't totally hate T:NE and I actually like the mechanics a lot, especially the original LBB Traveller basically lacks anything beyond char gen mechanics. But I am "meh" on the setting. I prefer MegaTraveller's setting, or the classic Third Imperium.

I still have my original Traveller boxed set.

I have Solomani & Aslan, Vilani & Vargr, the signed German hardback edition of all the original Aliens modules and... well, for a game I never play I used to spend a lot of money on it.

Anyway, MeMail me if y'all every get out to the Bay Area.
posted by GuyZero at 7:59 PM on April 11

Well, one of the things I like about New Era is that it has a lot of variety. You can play many different kinds of styles, from space opera to hard SF style miners-in-an-asteroid-belt kind of deal in a logical, fairly consistent world. All other SF RPGs, even top-of-the-line ones like 2300 AD and earlier Traveller focus rather sharply on a particular set of scenarios. That's not a problem but I like that New Era handles all these different possible styles equally well. One would think that GURPS would've put out a setting capable of that but I don't remember coming across one. Maybe the Humanx Commonwealth book would, but other than that nothing springs to mind.
posted by Kattullus at 8:37 PM on April 11

I haven't played in 20+ years and would love to again. Just heard of OSRIC and it sounds perfect as 1.0 is what I played. Plus it's free, which is nice.

OTOH, if anyone in Portland OR or points south (say, Salem) is willing to take on a n00b, I'd be willing to shell out for some new books and some quality brew.
posted by codswallop at 9:51 PM on April 11

I am also all for a NYC tabletop.
posted by Lokisbane at 2:39 PM on April 12

NYC table top, anyone else want to dust off their geek cred?
posted by vrakatar at 1:21 PM on April 13

NYC Tabletop ++
posted by Skorgu at 2:34 PM on April 14

Welp, if anyone decides to start something online, please let me know?
posted by notquitemaryann at 2:38 PM on April 14

AWESOME.

I think we have enough people for a group, here. I'll mefimail all of you shortly if I have not already, but right now I'm looking to meet up Saturday in the late afternoon to hammer out where, when, and who wants to gm. Does lower Manhattan work as a central-ish area to convene? I know roomy dark bar on Reade street called Quality Drinking Time.
posted by vrakatar at 6:29 PM on April 14

Lower Manhattan works for me.
posted by Lokisbane at 1:15 AM on April 15