Dungeons And Dragons

Huw Dawson · Tue 18/04/2006 09:56:22

Dungeons and Dragons rocks. It has done for the last 15 years, ever since the original pen-and-paper system came out, to the delight of Monty Python-starved university students everywhere. Two films, two amazing game series (Neverwinter Nights and The Elder Scrolls/The Temple of Elemental Evil) , a tv show and an MMORPG later, I just have to ask...

How many people here actually play? Who do you play with? Any daft stories? Gimme details, people!

- Huw
PS: Other than NWN, I've never played any DnD game unfortunatly. I'm just being nosy.

Loki · Tue 18/04/2006 10:18:21

Hm. I used to play DSA back then, but i have a friend, that wanted me to play D&D with him. But i'm busy with school atm and can't play.

btw: the d&d movie was one of the worst movies that i've ever seen.

greetz
loki

P.S the d&d rules were also used by "baldur's gate"

Anym · Tue 18/04/2006 12:26:36

I prefer GURPS to D&D. You say it rocks, even though you never played it, your opinion mainly based on the amount of licensed products it spawned? The first movie is bad. I haven't seen the second one yet, but didn't hear too much good things about it either, although it appears to be slightly better. The Elder Scrolls have nothing to do with D&D and I fail to see the connection between Monty Python and D&D. The Temple of Elemental Evil is good, but not it's neither amazing nor a series. Until the release of its sequel and depending on the quality of said sequel, Neverwinter Nights, despite all of its expansion packs and despite being amazing in its own right, also falls short of being a proper series of games. IMHO Baldur's Gate is the only truly amazing series in more than 20 years of D&D computer games (and more than 30 years of D&D), better than Dark Sun and even the gold-box games, although I certainly haven't played all of them. I never saw the D&D animated series, I don't think it ever was on TV around here, so I can't comment on that. I used to enjoy R.A. Salvatore's D&D novels when I was younger.

Andail · Tue 18/04/2006 12:55:38

Played the Swedish equivolant table top rpg when I was 12-18, apart from that I enjoyed Baldur's Gate highly.
The movie was absolutely horrible, and Neverwinter Nights was boring.

Don't know much about the mmorpg, although I'm a bit intruiged. It still doesn't strike me as the optimal mmorpg in my taste.

Helm · Tue 18/04/2006 12:57:58

I didn't enjoy Baldur's Gate, but I loved Dark Sun II back in the day.

Elder Scrolls is not based on the D&D system.

I was playing second edition a lot, gave up a little after third ed came out. I only play CoC now once in a while as far as pen and paper rpgs go.

voh · Tue 18/04/2006 13:51:30

I played ADnD 2nd ed. and at some point 3 and 3.5, but I'm totally out of the DnD loop as it is.

Instead, I play wuxia kung-fu set in the Weapons of the Gods world (it's a kung fu comic) with my friends, and a bit of Mage (new World of Darkness) from time to time

I be nerd.

ManicMatt · Tue 18/04/2006 17:49:39

I like computer RPGs, I dislike the *ahem* real life erm.. thing.

I used to read those fighting fantasy adventure gamebooks and cheat on them.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Tue 18/04/2006 22:10:02

I played 1st and second edition ad&d (don't like most of the changes in 3rd) and did the convention circuit for awhile...Even dabbled a bit in GURPS (blech), Rifts, Vampire, Car Wars (yay), Battletech, and a few other less well known p&ps. As for Temple of Elemental Evil and Baldur's Gate, I didn't really like either of them. Dungeon Hack and Menzoberenzan were more fun imo. Also, I quite enjoyed the power of the NWN editor, it really allows alot more customization than I've seen available in quite some time for a game editor.

lo_res_man · Tue 18/04/2006 22:15:40

sorry, but whenever I think of D&D I think of a d&d type game played by your dorm buddies "Sorcery 101: sorcerers get all the girls"

MarVelo · Thu 20/04/2006 01:24:25

*Admitted former D&D addict*

Kaelem Gaen · Thu 20/04/2006 07:19:26

Wow, it seems to have not that many followers. I Must admit I do not like D&D 3.5 mainly cause I figured there really wasn't a point to it. Much to my contention though since they completely stopped making 3.0 books in general I've been Dabbling in 3.5. On a Side note I really Enjoyed Baldur's Gate and Dungeon Hack (still have the CD-ROM around here somewhere.) I wouldn't say I'm an addict but that is cause most of the DMs I played with were Hack-n-slash-kill-to-level types that didn't put much thought into storyline. That is changing finally.
Oh I should probably put here I've been playing D&D since I was 7 (though at that young age my parents and uncle watered it down of course.) I think I've played D&D, AD&D, AD&D2e D&D 3e and D&D v3.5 (more like... 3.2/3.3 by mixing the systems up abit.) Though I will admit I'm sure if I could find people I'd become a Shadowrun 3 or 4 Addict.

Nostradamus · Thu 20/04/2006 09:05:08

I never played the PNP but I had played througholy Betrayal at Krondor which got me into the genre years ago, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 and currently Neverwinter Nights with all its countless user made modules which are much better than the original campaigns.
I also like the written word of the genre - fantasy books - as Tokien's LOTR started it all. I read Hobbit, LOTR & Silmarillion. Now I'm reading Robert Feist's series starting with Krondor: The Betrayal which is based on the plot of the game which I've finished and now will start reading the series from the start. Also started on book 1 of the Wheel of Time although currently at page 150 I'm a bit disappointed but we'll see (650 more pages to go).
When talking abot books I have to mention although it's not fantasy but sci-fi that I've read all 12 books of the Dune series which are by far the best books ever.
I dislike the people who are producing products of the original D&D firm because they are disgracing there own product - first there was the animated series which was stupid then the movie which I found more funny and satiric and not in the spirit of the game plus all the CGI and special effects sucked and were very visible to be CGI. Now they have released a RTS game (like Warcraft or C&C) with D&D characters and creatures which is absouloutely horrible.

auhsor · Thu 20/04/2006 09:42:04

I've had a few games of pen and paper D&D recently. I don't know... I just didn't get into it. It just feels to be very nerdy, even though it is fun. I'd still be playing occasionally, but I work on the night that my friends play.

Radiant · Thu 20/04/2006 12:12:25

I used to play 2nd edition D&D until I/we got tired of the plentitude of rules and moved on to more rules-light and roleplay-heavy systems, such as Whitewolf, Amber and Paranoia. I dislike GURPS for pretty much the same reason - rules get in the way of enjoyment. But roleplaying is fun, and D&D is probably the most accessible RPG.

Regarding computer games, I used to love Eye of the Beholder I and II (not III though) and was kind of fond of Dark Sun; although for most CRPGs the ruleset doesn't matter all that much so I might as well list Might & Magic here, too. I haven't played most of the other classics, such as the Krynn games. I was rather disappointed with Dungeon Hack (way too simplistic) and Baldur's Gate (way too easy to die at the beginning, and the plot is cliche with the 'demons' in the mine and stuff).

The cartoon series sucked big time, and really doesn't have anything to do with the roleplaying game. The movie sucked even worse; the guy who made it obtained the rights at a bargain during T$R's final days when he was nineteen, and WOTC tried really hard to stop him from making the movie but since he owned the rights they couldn't. It has bad actors, the only character ever worse than Jarjar, a horrible plot, poor special effects, awful music and plastic weapons (and for the geeks among us, gets nearly all of the D&D references wrong), and several scenes are quite literally copy/pasted from the Star Wars movies. I don't think it got a single good review ANYWHERE, and definitely makes my top ten Worst Movies Ever list.

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I never played the PNP but I had played througholy Betrayal at Krondor

You probably know that BAK isn't based on D&D. However, most of Feist's books are in fact based on his roleplaying campaign, which I suspect of being mostly related to D&D.

Helm · Thu 20/04/2006 12:17:54

Radiant, some of us might play jparanoia soon, since you have prior experience you might be interested?

Dark Sun I is more robustly coded than II but II is prettier. Al Quadim was nice if only because of the now discontinued campaign setting, and Ravenloft was playable also.

Radiant · Thu 20/04/2006 14:49:59

Quote from: Helm on Thu 20/04/2006 12:17:54
Radiant, some of us might play jparanoia soon, since you have prior experience you might be interested?

Absolutely. Praise the Computer!

Quote
Dark Sun I is more robustly coded than II but II is prettier. Al Quadim was nice if only because of the now discontinued campaign setting, and Ravenloft was playable also.

Haven't played II. I had forgotten about Al'Qadim and Ravenloft, but both were pretty nice. Especially the first.

Ishmael · Thu 20/04/2006 16:58:36

I've never been into roleplaying.

My RPG experiences on the computer are quite limited. I know for sure that I dislike turnbased RPGs. I have The Temple of Elemental Evil, but it fails to interest me much. But then, Elder Scrolls... Morrowind didn't impress me, Oblivion posessed me

Realtime RPGs with a proper amout of beating things with a huge sword are fun. Diablo 2 was a bit of a shootthrough... We played through all five acts on a LAN in three or four days, and all I remember of it is that the game involves a lot of clicking...

I saw a preview thing of D&D Online: Stormreach a while back and I think it might be an interesting game. I think EVE Online would maybe be a fun MMORPG to play, tho I dislike MMORPGs too. One reason is that they cost so friggin much to play...

I saw the D&D RTS in the store a while back and was wondering what's it like. It was a bit too pricy for blindfold buying, so I got some other RTS instead which cost about nothing... What's the name of that game? Dragonsomething..?

lo_res_man · Thu 20/04/2006 17:21:02

I was once (and I still might write a novel about it) going to write a pen and paper scenario. Basically the party goes on this little quest the defeat this terrible foe and then on the moment of victory, get transported to an alternate universe, were all the civilised races are savage and all the savage races were civilised. Thought it was a good idea and I still do.

ManicMatt · Thu 20/04/2006 22:40:53

Quote from: Radiant on Thu 20/04/2006 12:12:25
The cartoon series sucked big time

What? The cartoon with the annoying unicorn? Except for the unicorn, I loved that cartoon!
And when I used to watch that I had no preconceptions about the RPG connection, nor did I know what it was.

I saw the complete four series boxset in WHSmith's for about 22 pounds, in a nice boxset.
Was tempted, but just like old C64 games, I don't want to risk spoiling the memories.

Kaelem Gaen · Thu 20/04/2006 23:45:39

You know, One thing people seem to forget (if you look at the DVD case) They say WoTC Tried to stop the release of the movie BUT it is actually produced by them... or at least that is what it looked like... The movie DID suck, horribly, but so did the Star Wars movies released recently... (The CGI was just bad... but I LOVED JarJar so sue me) especially the third one... but that is off topic. On the DVD of the D&D movie, they actually have a PDF for the plot that you can play as an adventure... WoTC decided it would hopefully bring it to more light and it did.
Anyways. I also really liked the Sci-Fi D&D2 Movie... it may not have had the same atmosphere as the WoTC movie but it had a better story line. Though I believe there was very little D&D refrences.