Dippin' my toe in the Pathfinder pond once again...

So this past Saturday night I made my way to an acquaintance's house to play some Pathfinder. The group of guys I played with are technically "friends of friends," but we've known about each other's appreciation for RPGs for a while. It's just taken us a while to get together. I figure that, if we get together enough, we'll eventually take on a new level of friendship. You know how these RPG things can go ;-)

Anyway, there were four of us, one GM and three players. The GM is running the Rise of the Runelords adventure path. I played a half-orc rogue, and the other guys ran a cleric and a monk. We had a good time, joking around and killing some goblins, interacting with NPCs (in my case, lifting some valuables in the process), etc. It wasn't a session of earth-shattering excitement, but then again it's the first session we've ever played together. Hey, we were roleplaying, so that's a good thing!

I have to say that I still feel lost when I'm playing anything more complex than Basic D&D/Labyrinth Lord or Castles & Crusades. I may always feel that way. I'm not sure I can/want to grok the system, you know? As long as the guys are willing to have patience with my lack of system mastery, then we're good to go. I don't think these guys will give me the grief like my last Pathfinder group.

So, while I had fun, it was mostly due to the people I was gaming with, rather than an enjoyment of the game system. The experience has solidified for me the fact that I love the older systems, and am quite happy with them. I will very likely continue to play in the Pathfinder game, but I know I will probably never want to run a campaign using the system. Gimme the old games any day!

It's All D&D to Me

I'm just gonna go off here a bit. Just a short tidbit of brain spew, sort of an offspring of the post I wrote yesterday regarding what I consider the "flavors" of D&D (including Castles & Crusades, my preferred flavor, and the upcoming 5th edition of D&D). Please let me know if you agree or disagree.

Here goes, according to my brain:

OSRIC is D&D.

Labyrinth Lord is D&D.

Swords & Wizardry is D&D.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess is D&D.

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG is D&D.

[Insert title of D&D-inspired rule set] is D&D.

Are you seeing a theme here? A common thread?

Bottom line: for me, I don't care what you call it, it's all D&D. Like Shakespeare wrote, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

I don't care that there are small, medium, or large differences between the clones and the rules they emulate. I don't care how crazy the "house rules" found in rule sets like Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, and their ilk may be.

It's no accident that images of the original D&D Red Box grace the front of the three-ring binders I use for my GM's screen during my Castles & Crusades games. C&C is in many ways the successor of D&D. It's is a successor from a mechanics standpoint, as well as the spiritual successor. So when I'm using those rules, if someone asks me what I'm playing, I usually say "A version of D&D" or just "Dungeons and Dragons." If they ask for more detail, I'll get down to the nitty gritty, but otherwise, I see no difference between C&C and the system that gave birth to it/inspired it.

The same goes for all the clones and clones of clones out there. That's the main reason the Edition Wars make no sense to me.

Back to Castles & Crusades: It may have a different name, have some different terms scattered throughout (i.e. Castle Keeper instead of Dungeon Master), and differ in mechanics in some ways. But in the end, it captures the feel of both 1E and 3.X D&D, paying homage to both iterations. Yet, at the same time, it has aspects that make it its own creature, especially the mechanics of the SIEGE Engine.

I know this is all my opinion, and I'm not some sort of missionary that seeks to show others the "true way." This is just MY path to D&D nirvana. Yours no doubt differs.

I am curious to see what 5E will be. Heck, I may even get into the playtesting if I am able. But I already have my version of D&D that I enjoy above all others. And it's called Castles & Crusades.

Does anyone else out there feel the same? I'm sure I am not breaking any new ground here. Does anyone disagree? I know I've probably written the same sentiments on this blog before, but sometimes we need to be reminded of things. Lemme know your thoughts. Or am I just shouting into the void here?

*EDIT: I should mention that I also consider Pathfinder to be D&D by another name (wait, is that a stupid statement?). I would even venture to say the unthinkable: 4E is even D&D to me, though a vastly altered version. I can hear the outrage at that statement! I don't say 4E is D&D because it has the brand name and is currently in print (for a little while longer, at least). I say it because it bears at least some resemblance to the editions of the past. Though I would never play 4E, it still gets grudging acknowledgement from me. Heresy, I know...

Damned Barbarians!

Now, anyone who's been visiting my blog to read my infrequent posts should know that I have a relatively young campaign going called Tales of the Wanderers. I'm using a S&W Complete/Flame Princess hybrid rules set for it. There has been a bit of dimension hopping going on already, with characters starting off from Greyhawk's Oerth and Dragonlance's Krynn. Yes, a kender walked on Oerth for a short time, but alas he has now returned to his homeworld. His player had come to me to let me know that he has had a long-standing yen to play a monk character, and this was made possible after I aquired the S&W Complete rules (I had initially been using only the Lamentations of the Flame Princess deluxe box set rules). So the kender left our ongoing storyline, to be replaced by a monk.

The players characters are now on the world of Golarion, the default setting for Pathfinder. I find the setting fascinating, from the nations to the history and the gods, and at the moment found it more appealing than Oerth, Faerun, Krynn, or any other prepublished setting. Perhaps this is because I've done a lot of recent gaming in those worlds, and because at least one of my players has read a good bunch of novels based in Faerun. I felt like Golarion was new ground, and could be easily tweaked and reshaped into my own image. And I absolutely need a published setting to help me provide details for the campaign, because I just don't have the time to create my own world from scratch. But I am taking many liberties with the setting.

Anyone interested in knowing more about the goings on in the campaign can read the adventure log at Obsidian Portal.

Now, all that said, I want to stress that I really love what I've created with my players for the Tales of the Wanderers campaign. I like how I've blended S&W and LotFP, I like my smattering of house rules for the campaign, I like the characters my players' enthusiasm and the characters they are using. I have lots of ideas to throw at the players. Yeah, everything is good.

And of course, along comes the serpent in the garden. The serpent's name is Barbarians of Lemuria (referred to as BoL from here on out). You see, I have a weakness for swords & sorcery. Most of my roleplaying experience may be with epic or high fantasy, the default mode of Dungeons and Dragons-style gaming, but I love my Conan, my Elric, my Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, etcetera. So when I heard rumors of this BoL game, I had to seek it out.

I acquired a copy, and quickly I was ensnared! The system is simple and is well suited for games that aspire to capture the swords & Sorcery feel. I recommend checking it out.

But now I am eager to finally do a campaign set in Hyboria, something that has been gnawing within me forever! And though BoL has a the built-in Lemuria setting, it can easily be used for a game set in Conan's world.

Damn you, Gamer ADD! Damn you, "new shiny"!

So, here's what I'm currently planning. I am thinking of starting a campaign called "With Steel and Spell: Adventures Across Hyboria" using the BoL system. It will serve as a "side campaign" of episodic adventures, just like Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. This campaign will be a quick and easy game for those times when my players and I, for whatever reasons, are not prepared to delve into our main campaign. There are nights when some or all of us are not up to the demands of the more structured Tales of the Wanderers game (we may be exhausted from a hard day's work, I may not have had time to prepare materials for a session, etcetera).

That's where BoL comes in! We can still use our game night for gaming, but without worrying about the more serious campaign. So, that's how I am trying to contain the BoL beast, through compromise and not outright denial! Repressing one's urges is never good, right? Especially urges of a barbaric nature!

Questions for the masses:

Has anyone else out there recently been hit with a bout of Gamer ADD, and if so, how did you overcome/appease it (if you were able to do so at all)?

Has anyone had any experience with BoL, such as actual play? If so, please share!

Status Report: 8/9/10

Without any ado, here's my latest roleplaying status report:

Me as Player: So, I had my second Pathfinder session this weekend (you can read about my first session here). And suffice to say I had a lot of the wind knocked out of my sails, and found myself enjoying things much less than I did in my first session. I think during my first session I was just so happy to be gaming at all, after a long hiatus.

So, what happened to make my interest flag so dramatically? Well, there were several things that conspired to sap my enthusiasm:

• I had no experience whatsoever with Pathfinder going into the game
• My character started at 8th level, probably not a good idea for a Pathfinder newb like me
• The Council of Thieves adventure path is for high-level characters and fairly complex with all its intrigues, complex plots, and high-level/difficult opponents

Now, I know that given more time I could probably over come all these obstacles. But I think I should have probably started out at first level, or maybe I am just too steeped in the old D&D/1st Edition AD&D editions that the more recent rules don't compute. And throw into the fact that I am 34, almost 35. Not to say that an old guy can learn new rules, but I have so little time to study up in the midst of all my adult life junk.

But I don't think I will stick around long enough to overcome my rules deficiency.

Now, I want to tread carefully from here on out. I haven't addressed a big factor yet: the people in the group themselves. Now, I've read the recent Gamer vs Gamer post at Mr. Raggi's LotFP blog. And I read the Catpissmen? post over at Underdark Gazette. And I don't think I can be categorized as the "diva-like" players described in these posts.

I just want to say that I don't judge gamers harshly when I don't mesh with them (unless they are being blatant dicks that are attacking me/someone else personally or just being purposefully disruptive during a game), nor do I cry out and beat my chest and claim that there are no good gamers out in the world. I feel that if you don't mesh with a group, that's OK, no harm no foul. Just go find another group. And there are plenty of other games and gamers out there, both at physical table-tops and on the Internet.

So with that disclaimer in mind, let me discuss the people. I feel that the GM has a lot on his plate, because he runs three campaigns and plays several times a week. I think he has a lot to juggle, and therefore some things slip through the cracks. I think that due to the load he carries (voluntarily, of course) he, inadvertently or not, dropped me into a high-level game with a high-level character and didn't see the need for mentoring me a bit more. Nor did he relay to his other players that, while I have experience roleplaying, it's been years since I played at a table-top and I am used to much older rules. I think there was some miscommunication between me, the GM, and the group with regard to how to merge me/my character with the game.

There were several players in the group that seemed to get exasperated with my lack of facility with the Pathfinder rules. Again, I think they weren't warned beforehand that I didn't know the rules very well. There were some other players who were very helpful, however.

As for the GMs style and the theme of his campaign, I think that I just don't sync up with either. The GM seems to be a somewhat "killer GM." I don't really judge someone for running their games that way, I just don't like to be in those types of games. For instance, I've played in two sessions now and in both I nearly died (dropped to negative hit points and just barely saved by a cleric). In the most recent game, I was disintegrated and the cleric had to gather up my ashes and resurrect me. I just don't feel that I want to be in a game where characters are dying every game, and where the resurrection is done in a very mechanical way with no drama. Death is just a blip, where you are raised easily and just sort of shrug it off. There's no tension. Death is too cheap that way. But the GM seemed to be very gleeful when he mutilates the characters.

I also felt that the game is too combat-intensive for my tastes. I prefer some more interaction with NPCs, intrigues, puzzle solving, etc. In addition, combats are very time consuming in this game, apparently, with all sorts of player feats and powers and skill checks and all that rigamarole. I thought I would be able to get over the learning curve of Pathfinder and at least be a player, but perhaps this isn't the case. There are just so many rules that I don't feel comfortable with. I like fast combats, the type you have with older D&D rules sets.

For instance, I despise attacks of opportunity. I think it's just another way for more "striking" in a game. Every time I tried to move past the major creature we fought during the session, for some reason it got an attack of opportunity against me. I know it has multiple arms, but come on!

(Tangent: I was in a gaming store this weekend and overheard some guys talking about a table-top game they were going to that day, and I kept hearing characters described as "striker," etc. Makes me cringe...)

And don't get me started on magic resistance. You have to bypass the creature's magic resistance and then it also gets a saving throw? Why not just make the creature's saving throws really good? Why have this double layer of protection against magic?!

Also, I felt like I tried to do what I thought was creative thinking during the session's big combat with the giant, multi-armed creature, rather than just try to cast offensive spells and fireball it to death. At one point, the monster was walking on air and I decided to use dispel magic on it and make it plummet to the ground. Instead of throwing me a bone (like I would have done if I were GM) for doing something creative, the GM had someone check the rules and determined that when the airwalk spell is dispelled, the creature gently floats to the ground. Maybe he didn't think I was that creative (maybe it wasn't, I don't know). And of course, the creature turned on me and kicked my ass. But if it had been me GMing, I would have ignored the rules of the spell and let the character's action succeed, because he was trying to do something other than "strike" the opponent.

I felt that the players were constantly being barraged with dangers and most of the time our ideas were to no avail. It was a constant stream of thwarted plans and failed attempts. You have to let the players have some accomplishments, or the game becomes stagnant and the players demoralized. Or that's just me, I guess.

Bottom line: at about two-thirds of the way through the session, I was no longer having fun. And the point is to have fun, right? I mean, this is supposed to be an enjoyable pastime, right?

Suffice to say that I want to talk to the GM and let him know my misgivings. I think it's likely that I won't continue in the game. I just don't mesh with that they are doing with their game, and that's perfectly OK. It happens. I just have a different style and different tastes, and you can only learn what you don't like by playing. I just hope that the GM will agree to disagree and we can have an amicable parting. Wish me luck.

Me as Gamemaster: I recently got my copy of Lamentations of the Flame Princess roleplaying game from James Raggi, and I am delving into that now! I will put up a review sometime in the near future (I hope!). What I've seen in the box and what I've read so far is very entertaining, and I like Mr. Raggi's style. I think I will definitely use these rules (with some house rules included) for my return to GMing. I think it will be a good idea to start with something more straightforward with regard to rules sets. Once I get a campaign using LotFP under my belt, I may then move onto the other game system that I seem to have an affinity for: Castles & Crusades. I wonder how Mr. Raggi would react if he knew his game has supplanted that of Troll Lord Games in my gaming world?!

That's all for now. As always, have a good one, and happy gaming!

Interest in my first Pathfinder Session

Hi all,

There have been a goodly number of people telling me they are interested in knowing more about my recent Pathfinder session, the first I've ever played. The session report I wrote about it can be found HERE. I hope everyone doesn't find it underwhelming!

That's all for now, folks. Please write me comments on the session report.

Pathfinder Session: 7/25/10

So, I sat at my first table-top game in many many years on Saturday. I'm a new player in a group playing the Pathfinder Council of Thieves Adventure Path.

We played for about five hours, from about 1 PM to 6 PM. I haven't roleplayed at a table-top game in the early-to-late afternoon time period on a Saturday for about a decade! It's weird, and sort of depressing, each time something like that occurs to me.

For starters, it's a good group of people that I met! They accepted me very readily to the table for the most part. Of course there was some awkwardness, but that's to be expected in any kind of first-time human interaction, right? Most of them, I think, are around my age (30s). We didn't do too much sharing of our personal information, but I think more of that will happen as time goes on. There was a total of seven of us, six players and the GM. That's a bit of a bigger group than I have ever gamed with. My gaming groups in the past usually consisted of a GM and four players (though we often had only three players).

I never really played a game using the D&D 3.0-3.5 rules, even though I bought the three core books for that edition a few years after they came out (mostly out of curiosity). Now, Pathfinder is considered "3.75" because it sort of continues on with the 3.5 rules, with some tweaks. I find the rules a bit overwhelming, and I know I would never want to run a game using them. But I am willing to learn enough to be a player in such a game.

But it's going to take some time to become a bit more familiar with the rules. There's definitely a lot more going on than I like. I think there's too many esoteric rules during combat, for instance (I think this is where I have my biggest problem with 3.5/Pathfinder). Stuff like attacks of opportunity, Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, etc. Don't ask me to explain any of this stuff...at least not yet. But my gut reaction is that things seem needlessly complicated. Again, if I were to run a game, I would never go near this stuff. Give me old D&D combat any day!

Everyone seemed very willing to be patient with my lack of understanding of the mechanics. They were willing to guide me and give me suggestions for the most part. But my inexperience with the rules definitely detracted from my effectiveness in the one big combat we had during the game (in which I was reduced to negative hit points and barely saved from death by the party cleric).

Plus, due to the general busy-ness of life recently (on the part of myself and the GM), and the fact that I don't own the Pathfinder core rule book, my character Arvandos was only partially complete on my character sheet. I was missing many of my stats, and only had a partial list of equipment. In addition, my character started at 8th level, so I was also overwhelmed with all of the skills, spells, and feats that he has. I don't know quite yet what they all do, and I don't know when and how to use them!

I think my roleplaying skills were not as rusty as I thought they would be. My character is a sorcerer named Arvandos who has an infernal bloodline (sorcerers basically derive their power from a bloodline in Pathfinder, and these bloodlines include infernal, abyssal, celestial, etc). One of the group plays a dwarven cleric, and he plays his character as something of a lawful good zealot! I've decided that my character aspires to be Chaotic Good, so he and I sort of bumped heads. I tried to play Arvandos as something of a witty, handsome rogue (Charisma of 18!) and I seemed to manage to charm the group with my repartee...except for the dwarf, who only got more and more frustrated with my verbal fencing. But I guess we eventually got over most of our squabbling, since he's the cleric that saved me from dying!

The GM had us meet in a tavern (go figure!) where the group was looking to hook up with some more help in their endeavors. They definitely were looking for an arcane caster to add to the group. Their last sorcerer was turned into a vampire, they informed me. Hey, well, sign me up!

Of course, I joined them, and we went on our merry way about the city of Westcrown (the setting for Council of Thieves), seeking to...well, I'm not quite sure what we were seeking to accomplish! I have to admit, the plotline that I have jumped into is pretty complicated, and I don't know the world of Golarion (the default setting for Pathfinder) very well, and that goes double for the city of Westcrown. There's really a lot going on. All in all, the GM seems to be content with throwing me into the mix with minimal guidance, and I think I'm OK with that for the most part!

All I know is, toward the end of the session the group was trying to get into a certain well-guarded location that was protected by a large "force field." We bought a scroll with a teleport spell with the intention of using it to teleport through the force field. And of course, being the only arcane spellcaster, it was up to me to use the damned thing. I cast the spell, and due to the nature of the barrier we were trying to bypass, I had to role percentage dice in order to determine if we wound up where we want to be. I rolled too high, and the scroll teleported us to HELL! Needless to say, I really heard it after that!

In the end, I'm really just happy to be gaming at all, so at the moment I'm willing to put up with complex mechanics, a convoluted plot that the rest of the party is already well into, etc. I had fun, I like the people I met, and I am definitely willing to go back and see how things progress.

The group lent me one of their copies of the massive core rulebook, and I'm determined to have my character whipped into tip-top shape before the next session. On top of that, I'll be studying the mechanics and the setting as much as I can to improve there as well.

Sorry if this post is really long and redundant. I wrote this up pretty quickly (I started writing this post on Sunday but I'm finishing it up on a typical busy Monday at work), so I am sure I missed a lot of detail. Let me know if any of you out there have any specific questions. I'll also take hints and advice if anyone is willing to offer!

P.S. The sessions are every other week between 12 PM and 6 PM, and that should be fine even for a "30-something husband/father of two with mortgage" kind of guy like me ;-)

P.P.S. Just for giggles, I asked everyone if they knew about the OSR and retro-clones and the like...and they stared at me like I had two heads! No one had any idea what I was talking about! Only a couple of them knew what Castles & Crusades was. We on the blogosphere spend so much time talking about the OSR that sometimes we start to think everyone in the RPG world knows about the "movement." But it seems we are mistaken...

Status Report: 7/23/10

"Me as Player" Status: Well, tomorrow is the big day! I'm going to my first session of the Pathfinder campaign (Council of Thieves Adventure Path) in which I was invited to play! I'm almost done my sorcerer Arvandos (he's 8th level...which is where the campaign's existing PC's are at...I have to say I'm a bit intimidated by starting out at such a high level, in a system that I'm not quite familiar with, after years of not playing in a table-top game...but sometimes the best way to get into something is to jump right in, eh?).

I'm also trying to cram for the occasion, learning as much as I can about the Pathfinder setting so that I can at least inject some "local flavor" into my character's portrayal. I don't want him to seem like a "generic" character by not making any references to the setting's history, locales, gods, etc.

I'm nervous and excited. I'll be meeting most of the people at the table for the first time. It should be quite an experience no matter how it shakes out! Wish me luck!

"Me as Gamemaster" Status: I'm waiting for my copy of Lamentations of the Flame Princess to arrive (it will probably be a few more weeks). In the meantime, I am trying to take it easy on myself, so I am leisurely looking over gamemastery advice on the Web. I am also slowly looking through old Dragon Magazine issues (for nostalgia's sake as well as campaign ideas and advice). I've put my reading of the Castles & Crusades PHB on hold for the time being.

Once I get LotFP I will read that in its entirety. Then I will read Castles & Crusades (Troll Lord Games is working on a Castle Keeper's Guide but there's no word at the moment of when it will hit the streets). I actually have a copy of the D&D 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide, and I think I will read that as well (shocked, anyone?). I've also got a copy of Keep on the Borderlands coming, so I will peruse that as well. Then I'll take another look through my other RPGs on my shelf to see if there's any other stuff I might want to read.

All in all, I am taking my sweet time and not stressing out about a campaign. I'll get to it when I'm ready. I'm just studying up and enjoying the process.

Pathfinder Giveaway @ Troll in the Corner

Hi all. Just thought I'd share the following:

Troll in the Corner is having a random drawing to give away some Pathfinder stuff! Go here for details!

You know that I've done my work in order to get as many entries as possible! I would love to win the big prize, considering I am about to start playing in a Pathfinder campaign!

Happy gaming!

Status Report: 7/16/10

Now that I've told my life story as it pertains to gaming, I thought it might be good to start thinking about my current status, with regard to where I am in the gaming flux in which I find myself.

"Me as Player" Status: As I stated in the third part of my testimonial, I reached out through the Internets and came across a friend of a friend who is, in all appearances, a gamemastering superman! Seriously, this fellow runs three games, and plays in several others. He's gaming several times a week! I am very, VERY jealous. Anyway, I had a sit-down with him within the last week in order to see if I was a good fit for one of his games, a Pathfinder game using the Council of Thieves adventure path, and I think we hit it off very well. So, the next step is character creation. We talked about possibilities (I think I'm leaning toward a sorceror) and determined the next step would be another meeting (probably over phone, actually) in order to create my character.

As a player, Pathfinder wasn't my first choice of games to get into. I never really played 3rd Edition/3.5; I just collected the core rule books. But at this point I am just eager to get into a group with good people and start building up my roleplaying chops again, as well as grow a network of potential players, so that when I do start a campaign, I might have a good pool of people to mine.

Pathfinder might be a bit more complex of a game system than I like, but I think I'll be fine as a player. On the other hand, I definitely know that I would have NO interest in running a Pathfinder game. I couldn't handle it, with regard to rules.

At any rate, there's a game session on July 24th, and that might be my first session! Can't wait! I'm nervous and excited. I feel like a little schoolgirl.

"Me as Gamemaster" Status: Check out my post from last night. It pretty much sums up where I'm at with gamemastering at the moment. In summary: I know my gamemastering skills are rusty as heck, so I am holding off on starting a campaign of my own indefinitely. Realistically, I probably won't start a campaign until 2011, but you never know. It sort of depends on how things go with the Pathfinder game I am trying to get into. I pretty much can't run a game and play in one at the same time. That's just the reality of my life right now. So, I figure I'll play in a game, see how long that lasts, and let that help shake off some of the rust. Then, when it comes time to move on from that game, I'll turn my attention to gamemastering.

In the meantime, I am still very relieved that the furious months I spent this year vacillating between potential game systems, specifically the retro-clones (Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, Basic Fantasy, etc.) and went into a vicious circle of failed house rule attempts. Then I checked out Castles & Crusades and liked what I saw, determined that it had the rules set that appealed to me the most, and started buying. I'm still reading the C&C PHB at this point, but I'd like to give a review here before too long.

But again, along came James Raggi and his cursedly enchanting product! Now I'm second guessing myself, and I haven't even gotten my boxed set from him yet! I can be so fickle sometimes...at any rate, I'll try to keep reading my C&C while I wait for LotFP to arrive.

That's it for now! As always, happy gaming!