So a post I placed elsewhere about how much people enjoy dungeon crawls got me thinking.
I started playing Table top RPG's in the mid 90's warhammer fantasy roleplay was my intro, then from there Cyberpunk, Paranoia, mercs 3000, the world of Darkness, legend of the 5 rings, deadlands. I didn't actually play DnD until late on when 5th edition came out. Mainly because there was a general view amongst everyone that DnD was one dimensional. Go to dungeon, clear dungeon, get gold, go to town, buy magic items, than next dungeon, and Pathfinder was a rules heavy nightmare. The experience I had playing those other system has def shaped how I approach running my DnD campaigns and I have since learnt that there is a lot more nuance to DnD then the general opinion of the groups I played in. But I still really dislike the idea of running, or playing, in long dungeon crawls :).
So how many people discovered TTRPG's through DnD, or like me did other systems bring you to the table with dice?
DnD taught me the concept of TTRPGs, but other than some solo modules I didn't really get to play it, except once or twice in late grade school. In Middle School I got into Twilight: 2000 and sort of really cut my teeth in game mastering with that game, but also played and DMed almost an equal amount of AD&D/2nd edition. Twilight: 2000's lethal yet clunky combat system is probably why I fell in love with the simplicity of 1st edition Cyberpunk's Friday Night Firefight. High School was a split between Cyberpunk and West End's d6 Star Wars, plus some dips into playing Chill gave me a better sense of how to play different sort of games atmospherically and how mechanics ideally help support atmosphere. Largely skipped 3rd-4th editions, and played CP2020 and Delta Green, which also taught me a lot about playing with tension. Came back to D&D with 5th edition and like it because I feel I can largely DM on autopilot, and only sweat the fun stuff I want to think over.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
D&D 5e was my first and for several years only tabletop RPG, mostly because for a long time I found the system versatile enough to satisfy most of my needs and so other systems were never exactly crucial for me. But of course everything wears thin eventually, and I just got curious about the other systems I've heard about, so I've started branching out in the last year or so (got into Microscope recently, for instance).
By, I think, late fall of that year, or early 1983, we had hold of Champions and probably Star Frontiers (SF may have been later 1983). By late 1983 we were also playing AD&D instead of Basic/Expert.
By the mid-80s, the only games we played to any great degree were Champions and AD&D.
In later H.S., we tried the Indiana Jones RPG for like 1 night... Later I bought but could not convince anyone to play Torg, and we switched our fantasy RP from D&D to Rolemaster, which game I still like better in almost every possible way. The only game we stuck with all that time in between playing other stuff, was Champions, which became sort of our "main game."
After college, I did not play any TTRPGs until last year, when I started with D&D 5e.
I still like Champions better....
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I think my fav system of the many I have tried, to play and DM has to be paranoia. I don’t think any other RPG truly keeps you on your toes more then that game. Both in terms of player interaction with each other, the world and the unique NPC that is friend computer, and DM interaction with the players, both as a DM but also as friend computer.
Oh and paperwork, any RPG that allows me to issue mandatory bathroom forms for players to complete if they have to leave the table is just amazing :).
I first played D&D, my first TTRPG, in the late '80s. There wasn't much else around to be found, to be honest - I live in Belgium, was a teenager and this was before the internet, so not everything that was out there was necessarily available to me. White Wolf wasn't even founded yet, GURPS was just released but definitely not on my radar, and for some reason I could only find German material for Das Schwarze Auge early on and German isn't my forte. If I'm not misremembering some Chaosium games (RuneQuest, Pendragon) were the only other TTRPGs I could readily find and they weren't played by anyone I knew. It wasn't until well into the '90s I started branching out.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
By, I think, late fall of that year, or early 1983, we had hold of Champions and probably Star Frontiers (SF may have been later 1983). By late 1983 we were also playing AD&D instead of Basic/Expert.
Ha, I forgot I played Star Frontiers too! I even made a joke a few weeks back questioning whether the sun goggles that were ubiquitous to the Yazarians was a Randy Macho Man Savage thing or just a precursor to extreme sports signtature look a decade later. I played the Star Frontiers with a group before I had the Knight Hawks set. I did put a group through the 2001 module (which was probably the best thing the whole game like put out, never checked out 2010). I really wanted to try out the Zebulon's Guide rules (and some cool rules from Dragon magazine articles for power armor and armored cavalry respectively) but never got a group inclined to play.
Curious neither Top Secret or Top Secret S.I. seems to never get mentioned in threads like these, those were popular games if I remember.
Even though I was a comic books store type, I never got into superheroes so never tried Champions. There were folks in my gaming circle who swore by it. They weren't the same people who swore by Traveller ... and honestly I think my gaming and mechanic style at the time skewed that way.
not convince anyone to play Torg,
I was curious about Torg, but I could barely keep up with West End's Star Wars output and I remember both Torg and Rifts were sorta big on extensive supplements. I think I remember hearing Torg was the better game compared to Rifts but that was back in Palladiums hey day, plus the D&D-adjacent Palladium system gave that game a quicker learning curve which is too bad because Torg system was much more mechanically interesting if I remember.
I think my fav system of the many I have tried, to play and DM has to be paranoia. I don’t think any other RPG truly keeps you on your toes more then that game. Both in terms of player interaction with each other, the world and the unique NPC that is friend computer, and DM interaction with the players, both as a DM but also as friend computer.
Oh and paperwork, any RPG that allows me to issue mandatory bathroom forms for players to complete if they have to leave the table is just amazing :).
I've yet to have a chance to play Paranoia but I'm hoping to some day. An old friend runs it ... for his kids. I'm not sure what to think about that. He's otherwise a very upstanding person.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Yep. I started with Basic D&D and B2: Keep on the Borderlands in 1982 before discovering Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Star Frontiers (only played a few games) and Top Secret (remember playing an Assassination guy in Lady in Distress and having to blast a dude right after touching down.....12gauge pump-action shotgun FTW!). I played a few others in those early years like Timeship (where we ran around the doomed city of Gommorah before it received the "Smite from God!"....I don't think we survived). Then it all changed when I discovered Robotech: The Role-Playing Game from Palladium Books in 1987 (I had seen a few episodes scattered here and there and had loved it and am still a big fan to this day). That eventually lead me to Rifts and then the other non-D&D games of the era: Shadowrun (still love the setting to this day) and The World of Darkness (Vampire was never my thing, but Mage, Wraith and then later Demon were my jam). Later on got to play with a group that ran Deadlands: The Weird West (no joke, the people I played with were notorious on the old mailing list, known by their unflattering nickname The Dynamite Gang for their penchant for using explosives to resolve encounters....often with really bad results). Had a long running character in a WEG Star Wars D6 game throughout the 90s and into the early 2000s (played d20 Star Wars and the new FFG Star Wars...not overly impressed with either).
I've played every edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeons & Dragons except OD&D (even though I have had the books for decades) and 4th Edition (which after reading the PHB decided it was godawful). I've played Pathfinder, Hackmaster and Castles & Crusades (and run C&C games at conventions too).
Played lots of different games at various cons over the years like Call of Cthulhu (often getting smoked in the process, though I did manage to survive a few times), Kobolds At My Baby! (which is utterly hilarious, especially with a big group and you get into the funny aspects of the game), Toon, GURPS and Advanced HeroQuest (which is really just a hybrid boardgame/minis game & RPG). Probably forgetting a few....
Then it all changed when I discovered Robotech: The Role-Playing Game from Palladium Books in 1987 (I had seen a few episodes scattered here and there and had loved it and am still a big fan to this day).
I liked reading the expanded game world, all those branches of the Souther Cross! Rules for Genesis Pits! I could never get players to enjoy playing it. They thought it was drag from character generation and onward. I did dig building mutant animal martial artists and road warriors with TMNT and After the Bomb on the same press. Was curious about Revised Recon, but I figured I was already playing T2K so...
There's a new Robotech RPG, just the Macros saga that's come out in the past couple of years totally under my radar. It looks gorgeous art wise, and its got good reviews, but game reviews are pretty easy for presses to gain through comp copies these days. It's on.my list of things to check out though, there's a fairly chunky PDF of the rules available for preview.
Had a long running character in a WEG Star Wars D6 game throughout the 90s and into the early 2000s (played d20 Star Wars and the new FFG Star Wars...not overly impressed with either).
As I mentioned, was a big fan of d6 Star Wars, still am. I don't know much about WotC Star Wars other than the first version is to be avoided and the SAGA edition is to be played (I think they're derivatives of 3.0 and 3.5 D&D/d20?) there's a live play stream I like whose doing a Star Wars campaign straddling the old EU and Disney Canons but leaning more to the EU and it sounds like fun. I did binge on the FFG game this path May 4 and I sort of like the books, I haven't really sat down to figure out the dice (which I'm told is actually pretty quick to pick up) and I think I like the system. I don't care for the format of three core books with massive overlap and the cycle of hardcover splatbooks. Kind of curious what Asmodee is going to do with the license since clearly they're still big on banking off X Wing and the other miniatures games but the TTRPG seems to be basically in the closet of a holding company with little English language in house product development. It seems strange a viable license like that gets sorta squandered on that front. Not sure if Wizards lost the license post or pre Hasbro which if it's the former is another head scratcher.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
D&D was the first RPG I ever knew of. I started in 1981 with the red Basic box set and the Village of Hommlet inside and the red dice that didn't have the numbers colored in but they included a little white crayon and you had to color the numbers in yourself. I played steadily through the 80s and early 90's, then just off and on since then. I also dipped into Gamma World, Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, and the White Wolf games (Vampire, Werewolf, etc). Back in 2015 during a visit to a game store two towns over I got in with a new group and have been playing every week (pretty much) since then.
Back in the day, I saw D&D mostly as just a combat strategy game. Characters didn't usually last long enough to merit a backstory or anything, and we were more focused on ""winning"" the adventure and finding the treasure. But now, since I got back into playing regularly, and since I'm much older, I find that the roleplaying is much more fun than the combat. I just love the backstory and the character development and the moments of discovering new things about my fellow party members. If we go an entire session with no combat, just sitting around talking in character about our pasts, I am perfectly happy. Sure, I still enjoy the combat too, but now I prefer to play the support person rather than the leader. I would much rather be the cleric who keeps everybody going rather than the hero who lands the killing blow. Maybe that's age, maybe that's a new perspective of the game, I don't know.
Of the other games I've played, CyberPunk and Shadowrun were mostly combat and spy intrigue with little character development. That was fine back then, but I wouldn't be satisfied with that now. the White Wolf games were much more my speed, with an emphasis on character and tremendous leeway for heavy R.P. I'd love to get back into those games now. But for now, with life the way it is, playing on Roll20 and DnDBeyond due to the Plague Year, I'm happy to have D&D as an outlet for R.P.
I can't imagine how I would have made it through this last year and a half without being able to pretend to be a light cleric once a week. It really has been an incredible stress reliever.
There's a new Robotech RPG, just the Macros saga that's come out in the past couple of years totally under my radar. It looks gorgeous art wise, and its got good reviews, but game reviews are pretty easy for presses to gain through comp copies these days. It's on.my list of things to check out though, there's a fairly chunky PDF of the rules available for preview.
Yep, I know the fellas doing the Savage Worlds version. Talk with them constantly (and have been helping on The Masters War and New Generation portions). Even helped (and got a special credit) in the Palladium Masters War,New Generation and Genesis Pits books.
D&D was the first RPG I ever knew of. I started in 1981 with the red Basic box set and the Village of Hommlet inside and the red dice that didn't have the numbers colored in but they included a little white crayon and you had to color the numbers in yourself. I played steadily through the 80s and early 90's, then just off and on since then. I also dipped into Gamma World, Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, and the White Wolf games (Vampire, Werewolf, etc). Back in 2015 during a visit to a game store two towns over I got in with a new group and have been playing every week (pretty much) since then.
Back in the day, I saw D&D mostly as just a combat strategy game. Characters didn't usually last long enough to merit a backstory or anything, and we were more focused on ""winning"" the adventure and finding the treasure. But now, since I got back into playing regularly, and since I'm much older, I find that the roleplaying is much more fun than the combat. I just love the backstory and the character development and the moments of discovering new things about my fellow party members. If we go an entire session with no combat, just sitting around talking in character about our pasts, I am perfectly happy. Sure, I still enjoy the combat too, but now I prefer to play the support person rather than the leader. I would much rather be the cleric who keeps everybody going rather than the hero who lands the killing blow. Maybe that's age, maybe that's a new perspective of the game, I don't know.
Of the other games I've played, CyberPunk and Shadowrun were mostly combat and spy intrigue with little character development. That was fine back then, but I wouldn't be satisfied with that now. the White Wolf games were much more my speed, with an emphasis on character and tremendous leeway for heavy R.P. I'd love to get back into those games now. But for now, with life the way it is, playing on Roll20 and DnDBeyond due to the Plague Year, I'm happy to have D&D as an outlet for R.P.
I can't imagine how I would have made it through this last year and a half without being able to pretend to be a light cleric once a week. It really has been an incredible stress reliever.
I think that was the opinion of DnD back then generally, it wasn't a roleplay game like you say it was a combat simulator, I think the fact I got into the enemy within campaign in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as the first ever TTRPG campaign I was part of set me up for those types of open world games as opposed to a dungeon crawl.
I have just finished a Cyberpunk Red campaign, and after the summer we plan on then restarting a full campaign now the new physical book is out. I will say that I think it is very much an age thing, I remember Cyberpunk being about the cool guns and cyberware and having cool, but brutal, combat. But the recent campaign the fact we where all late 30's early 40's we really leant into the roleplay side of it, exploring night city, building up reputation, meeting new and interesting characters. We also all created fairly complex backstories full of secrets and space for the GM to play with. Over the 40 sessions we played I would say we actually rolled dice for combat in about 10 of those.
I have thought about expanding into other games besides D&D if this plague ever really comes to an end. But I'm not sure I could get back into CyberPunk or Shadowrun. When I played them back in the 90s they were based in super hi-tech societies with unimaginable computer technology and such. But the stuff we have in real life today at least matches, if not far surpasses, much of what was available in the games back then at least in terms of computer power.
I would like to get back into a Werewolf/Vampire game though. Someday. Role play is so much more rewarding than combat.
There's a new Robotech RPG, just the Macros saga that's come out in the past couple of years totally under my radar. It looks gorgeous art wise, and its got good reviews, but game reviews are pretty easy for presses to gain through comp copies these days. It's on.my list of things to check out though, there's a fairly chunky PDF of the rules available for preview.
Yep, I know the fellas doing the Savage Worlds version. Talk with them constantly (and have been helping on The Masters War and New Generation portions). Even helped (and got a special credit) in the Palladium Masters War,New Generation and Genesis Pits books.
I was looking more to the Strange Machine's Game Macross Book that came out last year, but I've seen the Saveage Worlds "exiting" stuff (sorry had to). Looks like both are developing Southern Cross and Mospeda expansions. What's the sell for Savage Worlds, as I'm not familiar with the rule system other than name.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
So a post I placed elsewhere about how much people enjoy dungeon crawls got me thinking.
I started playing Table top RPG's in the mid 90's warhammer fantasy roleplay was my intro, then from there Cyberpunk, Paranoia, mercs 3000, the world of Darkness, legend of the 5 rings, deadlands. I didn't actually play DnD until late on when 5th edition came out. Mainly because there was a general view amongst everyone that DnD was one dimensional. Go to dungeon, clear dungeon, get gold, go to town, buy magic items, than next dungeon, and Pathfinder was a rules heavy nightmare. The experience I had playing those other system has def shaped how I approach running my DnD campaigns and I have since learnt that there is a lot more nuance to DnD then the general opinion of the groups I played in. But I still really dislike the idea of running, or playing, in long dungeon crawls :).
So how many people discovered TTRPG's through DnD, or like me did other systems bring you to the table with dice?
50/50 wow
DnD was my first,started when was 7 doing something with it everyday since.
Check out my homebrew subclasses spells magic items feats monsters races
i am a sauce priest
help create a world here
DnD taught me the concept of TTRPGs, but other than some solo modules I didn't really get to play it, except once or twice in late grade school. In Middle School I got into Twilight: 2000 and sort of really cut my teeth in game mastering with that game, but also played and DMed almost an equal amount of AD&D/2nd edition. Twilight: 2000's lethal yet clunky combat system is probably why I fell in love with the simplicity of 1st edition Cyberpunk's Friday Night Firefight. High School was a split between Cyberpunk and West End's d6 Star Wars, plus some dips into playing Chill gave me a better sense of how to play different sort of games atmospherically and how mechanics ideally help support atmosphere. Largely skipped 3rd-4th editions, and played CP2020 and Delta Green, which also taught me a lot about playing with tension. Came back to D&D with 5th edition and like it because I feel I can largely DM on autopilot, and only sweat the fun stuff I want to think over.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
D&D 5e was my first and for several years only tabletop RPG, mostly because for a long time I found the system versatile enough to satisfy most of my needs and so other systems were never exactly crucial for me. But of course everything wears thin eventually, and I just got curious about the other systems I've heard about, so I've started branching out in the last year or so (got into Microscope recently, for instance).
Basic set, 1982, was my introduction to TTRPGs.
By, I think, late fall of that year, or early 1983, we had hold of Champions and probably Star Frontiers (SF may have been later 1983). By late 1983 we were also playing AD&D instead of Basic/Expert.
By the mid-80s, the only games we played to any great degree were Champions and AD&D.
In later H.S., we tried the Indiana Jones RPG for like 1 night... Later I bought but could not convince anyone to play Torg, and we switched our fantasy RP from D&D to Rolemaster, which game I still like better in almost every possible way. The only game we stuck with all that time in between playing other stuff, was Champions, which became sort of our "main game."
After college, I did not play any TTRPGs until last year, when I started with D&D 5e.
I still like Champions better....
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I think my fav system of the many I have tried, to play and DM has to be paranoia. I don’t think any other RPG truly keeps you on your toes more then that game. Both in terms of player interaction with each other, the world and the unique NPC that is friend computer, and DM interaction with the players, both as a DM but also as friend computer.
Oh and paperwork, any RPG that allows me to issue mandatory bathroom forms for players to complete if they have to leave the table is just amazing :).
I first played D&D, my first TTRPG, in the late '80s. There wasn't much else around to be found, to be honest - I live in Belgium, was a teenager and this was before the internet, so not everything that was out there was necessarily available to me. White Wolf wasn't even founded yet, GURPS was just released but definitely not on my radar, and for some reason I could only find German material for Das Schwarze Auge early on and German isn't my forte. If I'm not misremembering some Chaosium games (RuneQuest, Pendragon) were the only other TTRPGs I could readily find and they weren't played by anyone I knew. It wasn't until well into the '90s I started branching out.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Ha, I forgot I played Star Frontiers too! I even made a joke a few weeks back questioning whether the sun goggles that were ubiquitous to the Yazarians was a Randy Macho Man Savage thing or just a precursor to extreme sports signtature look a decade later. I played the Star Frontiers with a group before I had the Knight Hawks set. I did put a group through the 2001 module (which was probably the best thing the whole game like put out, never checked out 2010). I really wanted to try out the Zebulon's Guide rules (and some cool rules from Dragon magazine articles for power armor and armored cavalry respectively) but never got a group inclined to play.
Curious neither Top Secret or Top Secret S.I. seems to never get mentioned in threads like these, those were popular games if I remember.
Even though I was a comic books store type, I never got into superheroes so never tried Champions. There were folks in my gaming circle who swore by it. They weren't the same people who swore by Traveller ... and honestly I think my gaming and mechanic style at the time skewed that way.
I was curious about Torg, but I could barely keep up with West End's Star Wars output and I remember both Torg and Rifts were sorta big on extensive supplements. I think I remember hearing Torg was the better game compared to Rifts but that was back in Palladiums hey day, plus the D&D-adjacent Palladium system gave that game a quicker learning curve which is too bad because Torg system was much more mechanically interesting if I remember.
I've yet to have a chance to play Paranoia but I'm hoping to some day. An old friend runs it ... for his kids. I'm not sure what to think about that. He's otherwise a very upstanding person.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Yep. I started with Basic D&D and B2: Keep on the Borderlands in 1982 before discovering Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Star Frontiers (only played a few games) and Top Secret (remember playing an Assassination guy in Lady in Distress and having to blast a dude right after touching down.....12gauge pump-action shotgun FTW!). I played a few others in those early years like Timeship (where we ran around the doomed city of Gommorah before it received the "Smite from God!"....I don't think we survived). Then it all changed when I discovered Robotech: The Role-Playing Game from Palladium Books in 1987 (I had seen a few episodes scattered here and there and had loved it and am still a big fan to this day). That eventually lead me to Rifts and then the other non-D&D games of the era: Shadowrun (still love the setting to this day) and The World of Darkness (Vampire was never my thing, but Mage, Wraith and then later Demon were my jam). Later on got to play with a group that ran Deadlands: The Weird West (no joke, the people I played with were notorious on the old mailing list, known by their unflattering nickname The Dynamite Gang for their penchant for using explosives to resolve encounters....often with really bad results). Had a long running character in a WEG Star Wars D6 game throughout the 90s and into the early 2000s (played d20 Star Wars and the new FFG Star Wars...not overly impressed with either).
I've played every edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeons & Dragons except OD&D (even though I have had the books for decades) and 4th Edition (which after reading the PHB decided it was godawful). I've played Pathfinder, Hackmaster and Castles & Crusades (and run C&C games at conventions too).
Played lots of different games at various cons over the years like Call of Cthulhu (often getting smoked in the process, though I did manage to survive a few times), Kobolds At My Baby! (which is utterly hilarious, especially with a big group and you get into the funny aspects of the game), Toon, GURPS and Advanced HeroQuest (which is really just a hybrid boardgame/minis game & RPG). Probably forgetting a few....
I liked reading the expanded game world, all those branches of the Souther Cross! Rules for Genesis Pits! I could never get players to enjoy playing it. They thought it was drag from character generation and onward. I did dig building mutant animal martial artists and road warriors with TMNT and After the Bomb on the same press. Was curious about Revised Recon, but I figured I was already playing T2K so...
There's a new Robotech RPG, just the Macros saga that's come out in the past couple of years totally under my radar. It looks gorgeous art wise, and its got good reviews, but game reviews are pretty easy for presses to gain through comp copies these days. It's on.my list of things to check out though, there's a fairly chunky PDF of the rules available for preview.
As I mentioned, was a big fan of d6 Star Wars, still am. I don't know much about WotC Star Wars other than the first version is to be avoided and the SAGA edition is to be played (I think they're derivatives of 3.0 and 3.5 D&D/d20?) there's a live play stream I like whose doing a Star Wars campaign straddling the old EU and Disney Canons but leaning more to the EU and it sounds like fun. I did binge on the FFG game this path May 4 and I sort of like the books, I haven't really sat down to figure out the dice (which I'm told is actually pretty quick to pick up) and I think I like the system. I don't care for the format of three core books with massive overlap and the cycle of hardcover splatbooks. Kind of curious what Asmodee is going to do with the license since clearly they're still big on banking off X Wing and the other miniatures games but the TTRPG seems to be basically in the closet of a holding company with little English language in house product development. It seems strange a viable license like that gets sorta squandered on that front. Not sure if Wizards lost the license post or pre Hasbro which if it's the former is another head scratcher.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
D&D was the first RPG I ever knew of. I started in 1981 with the red Basic box set and the Village of Hommlet inside and the red dice that didn't have the numbers colored in but they included a little white crayon and you had to color the numbers in yourself. I played steadily through the 80s and early 90's, then just off and on since then. I also dipped into Gamma World, Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, and the White Wolf games (Vampire, Werewolf, etc). Back in 2015 during a visit to a game store two towns over I got in with a new group and have been playing every week (pretty much) since then.
Back in the day, I saw D&D mostly as just a combat strategy game. Characters didn't usually last long enough to merit a backstory or anything, and we were more focused on ""winning"" the adventure and finding the treasure. But now, since I got back into playing regularly, and since I'm much older, I find that the roleplaying is much more fun than the combat. I just love the backstory and the character development and the moments of discovering new things about my fellow party members. If we go an entire session with no combat, just sitting around talking in character about our pasts, I am perfectly happy. Sure, I still enjoy the combat too, but now I prefer to play the support person rather than the leader. I would much rather be the cleric who keeps everybody going rather than the hero who lands the killing blow. Maybe that's age, maybe that's a new perspective of the game, I don't know.
Of the other games I've played, CyberPunk and Shadowrun were mostly combat and spy intrigue with little character development. That was fine back then, but I wouldn't be satisfied with that now. the White Wolf games were much more my speed, with an emphasis on character and tremendous leeway for heavy R.P. I'd love to get back into those games now. But for now, with life the way it is, playing on Roll20 and DnDBeyond due to the Plague Year, I'm happy to have D&D as an outlet for R.P.
I can't imagine how I would have made it through this last year and a half without being able to pretend to be a light cleric once a week. It really has been an incredible stress reliever.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
Yep, I know the fellas doing the Savage Worlds version. Talk with them constantly (and have been helping on The Masters War and New Generation portions). Even helped (and got a special credit) in the Palladium Masters War, New Generation and Genesis Pits books.
I think that was the opinion of DnD back then generally, it wasn't a roleplay game like you say it was a combat simulator, I think the fact I got into the enemy within campaign in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as the first ever TTRPG campaign I was part of set me up for those types of open world games as opposed to a dungeon crawl.
I have just finished a Cyberpunk Red campaign, and after the summer we plan on then restarting a full campaign now the new physical book is out. I will say that I think it is very much an age thing, I remember Cyberpunk being about the cool guns and cyberware and having cool, but brutal, combat. But the recent campaign the fact we where all late 30's early 40's we really leant into the roleplay side of it, exploring night city, building up reputation, meeting new and interesting characters. We also all created fairly complex backstories full of secrets and space for the GM to play with. Over the 40 sessions we played I would say we actually rolled dice for combat in about 10 of those.
I have thought about expanding into other games besides D&D if this plague ever really comes to an end. But I'm not sure I could get back into CyberPunk or Shadowrun. When I played them back in the 90s they were based in super hi-tech societies with unimaginable computer technology and such. But the stuff we have in real life today at least matches, if not far surpasses, much of what was available in the games back then at least in terms of computer power.
I would like to get back into a Werewolf/Vampire game though. Someday. Role play is so much more rewarding than combat.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
Yes... it has utterly ruined me for any other superhero RPG (on table-top... I still enjoy City of Heroes on the computer).
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Aha, I see you too are a Master of Bun-Fu!
Started out with the German pen & paper "The Dark Eye" / "Das Schwarze Auge" in its 3rd Edition in the early 90s.
Followed by Shadowrun 2nd Edtion, then AD&D 2nd.
Later played D&D 3.5 and now D&D 5e
I was introduced through Heroquest, although it's more of a board game hybrid than a true TTRPG. It definitely primed me for D&D though.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I was looking more to the Strange Machine's Game Macross Book that came out last year, but I've seen the Saveage Worlds "exiting" stuff (sorry had to). Looks like both are developing Southern Cross and Mospeda expansions. What's the sell for Savage Worlds, as I'm not familiar with the rule system other than name.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Did anyone else play Warhammer Fantasy Role Play?