OCC: Out of Character Chat

[Rex]

We were playing Hyperborea in the original setting with just humans. But, I made the reincarnation spell more available than raise dead so we eventually ended up with an abonimal snowman in the group LOL. The player loved it. The game that just started is a homebrew setting and the standard D&D races are allowed plus a few non-standard. But, of the 5 characters and 2 hirelings only 1 started out non-human. An Owling Purloiner actually. The owlings in this setting are halfling sized and don't have wings though. We now also have a Troglodyte (my Magician). Our first adventurer was B1 and the DM changed up the pools in the pool room and the one I drank from had me roll on the reincarnation table and when I woke up the next day I was a Troglodyte. Actually pretty fun to run so far, although I have had to hide outside of the town we are using as a base.

Damn, that sounds crazy
Where are you getting the inspiration for the mechanical bits and pieces for the different races and so forth? Using the usual 'Dwarves have +1 to Con and -1 to Cha' stuff?

No bonuses for non-human races. They need to meet minimums. We either steal them from the 1e rules or just make them up on the spot. Not complicated stuff really. That and a few special. The owling is minimum wisdom and dexterity of 9 and max strength of 16 plus gets bonuses to discern noise, move silently and hide. Speaks Owl, the language of giant owls. Darkvision of 90 feet. Can't use two handed weapons and max of d8 HD. The owling purloiner uses the witch xp chart and my troglodyte magician now uses the witch xp chart. In some cases we just do a +25% or even 50% xp penalty.

I started out with Holmes Basic so just making stuff up has been ingrained in my DM/play style since day 1.

We played 5e for a year to see how it went. I was a player not the DM. In the end we decided it wasn't for us and gave Hyperborea a try. Great system and everyone in my group really likes it. I have played 5e on here several times as well, never seems to last like the games with the older systems though.

[gurusql]

Sadly I have not had the pleasure of in-person game since about 2005. Oh my that is 20 years.

[Rex]

That stinks gurusql. I very much enjoy pbp, but there is just something special about sitting around a table with friends. I am lucky in that role playing games is one of the glues that bind multiple friendships. There are 6 of us, I have been playing with 3 since junior high (early 80s) and the other 2 since 2001 (my wife and the son of another player who has since passed away). We take a break every year in the fall for hunting season so really only play weekly (or occasionally every other week) for 10 months out of the year.

[ravenn4544]

I'd say it's been 40 years for a F2F game for myself. One thing led to another and here we are. I'd be nervous sitting down for an 'actual' game vs. something like PbP or a RPG on the computer but definitely open to it. I have two friends who I grew up and we've been friends all that time (since we were like 5 years old) - one has gone the way of World of Warcraft and the other could not care less about playing that 'nerd' game . Nobody's perfect as we all know!

So i keep re-re-re-re-re-re-reading all my original 1e books and modules, learn about and pick up some new ones, read a lot of books in that genre and keep at PbP to scratch that D&D itch. Well, way more than itch really

[Doctor Crunch]

Wow. I'm really lucky.

I'm the primary GM for a group that's been meeting in roughly it's current form for about 8 years and includes one person I've been playing with for more than 40 years. That group plays mostly D&D and Savage Worlds, but spent last summer playing Star Trek Adventures.

I have another small group where I run The One Ring for my wife and a couple of her work friends, and a third group that does board and puzzle games but occasionally dips a toe into something like Call of Cthulhu. Those two groups sometimes go on hiatus when work or grad school gets heavy.

My wife plays in all three groups, and the basic limitation is how often she wants to play. I'm pretty much stuck as forever DM (we did have someone run 3 sessions of Vampire 5 this year, she decided not to go forward with it), but get to play a bunch.

I'm also really lucky to have a group that is open to a bunch of different games. In the last year I've run Star Trek Adventure, The One Ring 2e, Call of Cthulhu 7, and D&D 5.24. I've gotten to play MgTraveller 2e, D&D 5.14 and Vampire 5, although none of those games went more than 3 sessions.

There's also a local Blood Bowl league that I play in from time to time.

[Rex]

Sounds like you get a bunch of playing time in for sure. Overall probably more than I get in. I am also lucky in that my wife loves to play TTRPG so I don't end up having to work around that.

My group is pretty willing to play all sorts of games and we have over the years but we have fallen into the habit of sticking with what we prefer. None of us really see the point in mixing up different editions of D&D type games for example. We just stick with Hyperborea for an example. We have played tons of games over the years, everything from Rifts to Fate. Like most gamers I have a large assortment of games available. If nothing else I use them for inspiration.