I’ve been a player, GM, designer, writer, editor, play tester, and developer for a long time.
Anyone else into the hobby?
Are you playing online, or around your living room table?
I’ve played in the past. Haven’t been able to find time as of late.
I have not played since college. We were old school. Pen and paper. Our group then switched the Magic the gathering
A majority of my friends play DnD and similar games. I've been tempted to try it since I do enjoy tabletop/board games, but even a short campaign is too long for me.
@w8ed_blanket
Oh, that’s another interesting thing about the hobby. Whether or not people prefer longer story arc campaigns, short “chapter” style ongoing campaigns, or one-shots that have no connection to each other…
For me, as a player, I’ve learned to simply enjoy whatever game and group I am in, because it is difficult to get 4-6 adults together for a few hours a week/month for ANYTHING unless people are getting paid for it.
And one-shots with an ever-changing roster of characters (and new players) can be a lot of fun.
But a long running campaign, with characters developing over months, even years, can be super satisfying.
My two longest, best friends (30+ years each) both entered my life initially as fellow RPG players.
I don't play them anymore, I wrote them professionally for 7 years.
raises hand
DM here with 90% of the modules and all the hardback 2nd edition AD&D books, mostly in the Greyhawk milieu. I prefer long story arcs that are sustained over several months - INCREDIBLY satisfying. I used one-shots for bringing in and seeing how new players would mesh with current groups, and that strategy worked well - plus we always had a vote with the veteran players if the new player would be asked to come back or not.
Also played in a White Wolf/World of Darkness campaign for multiple years - every other Saturday night, from sun down to sun up. We had a core group of 5-6 players, and the DM took us from human into the world of vampires and werewolves through an arc of reclaiming our humanity. Still memorable many years later. We killed off many a pizza, multiple pounds of licorice and candy, and gallons of sodas/pops on these evenings. I can't believe I did this, worked full time, school full time, AND had time to hit clubs and party.
During Covid lockdown, tried a few sessions with a group that was already established and the vibe didn't work for me. I have friends that do weekly or semi-monthly campaigns on Discord, but I have yet to join them.
@Sideon
Ah, a youth fueled by pizza, ignorance, immorality, and the drive to simply have a good time!
ah, we live in such different times! Kids today have so many different ways of having a good time now. I bonded with my son for hours upon hours doing nothing in particular playing Minecraft. We would just loot the land and build stuff. Above ground. Under ground. Through mountains. No real goal. Just being together and seeing what sort of creative things we could build in the sandbox.
Now, when he's not outside playing basketball with his friends, they are online playing NBA 2K, MLB The Show, Madden Football, Fortnite, Call of Duty and Ark : Survival. It's fun hopping online and we play 2 vs 2 with online random people on MLB the show.
@MrAdmirer "I bonded with my son for hours upon hours doing nothing in particular playing Minecraft. We would just loot the land and build stuff. Above ground. Under ground. Through mountains. No real goal. Just being together and seeing what sort of creative things we could build in the sandbox."
I do the same with my little guy except with Animal Crossing, My niece used to play Minecraft a lot when she was younger so he prefers to play that with her.
@CharlesInWI - My DnD friends and people I met who play DnD all say it is the people you play with that makes or break the game. Some folks take it too seriously, which kills the fun for them. I am pretty sure I will play DnD one day since my friends don't take the game seriously and are there to just to have fun and socialize since, as you mentioned, it is hard to have adult friends and see them regularly. So this is the opportunity.
No question. As in all things, it isn’t what you know, it’s who you know.
One of the reasons I am here on Cuddle Comfort is to meet, and get to know, good people.
@CharlesInWI
Youths are allowed to be ignorant. They're youths.
I want to try but my problem is I don’t like making commitments to things because if I feel like I am being forced to do something, it ruins the fun for me.
I used to play star frontiers dralasite was my race of choice
My child loves animal jam. So I play that a little. I like a stack Attack mini game, and she likes to role play, which I don’t, but we switch back and forth between games and role play.
I only played once and it was about a week after high school graduation. It was a lot of fun but we started in the early evening and played for nearly 16 hours straight. I quickly realized I didn’t have time to make a habit of marathon games like that so that was my first and last D&D experience.
Love me some video games got my Ps5 let's party! 🥳
👋🏻 I've been part of a few rpg that fizzled out. Usually because people have fallen through on being able to show up regularly. Adult tings
I run a 5E every other sunday.
It's something I've always wanted to try but there's nothing local here. I have the software called tabletop simulator which allows me to play almost any game that's table based, I might try that and see if there are any games available to play with others.
I'm a life-long gamer, but unfortunately I don't have a group to play in, so it's been a while. In-person is definitely best. Snacks, shared wackiness, and dice thrown at you for bad puns. Plus multiple people talking online at once is just painful.
I enjoy a good RPG.
For fans of pin ball and anything retro/game related- will be staying in a pretty sweet game theme airbnb soon.
Looks like I’ll be playing again on mine soon. Starting next month the second and fourth Thursday of the month.
Does EQ count? I used to be heavily into that years ago. Now I wonder how I ever found the time. When in high school I played a table top similar to D&D that was made by a friend of my sister's, but never actual D&D. My kids play regularly though.
@CharlesInWI - now now. Immortality fueled youth? I dare say I had many more standards than my peers, to the point that I adopted my favorite bumper sticker slogan: "I've upped my standards, now up yours."
I'd be interested in an online group that 1) was once or twice a month 2) with a cohesive core group and 3) was structured and casual and 4) not 2-3 hours at a time. I have the attention span of a gnat most days and I can't do marathon gaming like I did in my 20s.
I think twice a month is certainly possible, and a core group that is structured, but not overly, erm, retentive is mostly about the tone the GM sets.
The less than two hours at a time gets a bit tricky, although I agree that 4 hour (and more) sessions are literally a pain in the butt, hips, lower back…. Long sessions are partly tradition and culture of the hobby, partly because of the nature of storytelling, and party because once you find a group of committed people willing to set aside scheduled time to play with each other, two hours goes by REALLY quickly. (Much like a cuddling session.)
That said, there are groups out there that do play by post, and as in all things, if we never ask for what we want we are very unlikely to find it.
For those of you interested in finding groups I recommend the r/lfg subreddit on Reddit. It’s a bit of work finding a good fit, and you will find the time wasters, flakes, etc just like you will with any human venture, but I have also struck gold a couple times and found not only good groups, but people that become friends.
I'm far too awkward/anxious to play in person, I stick to online games. 😊🤣😅🫣
I started in person over 20 years ago (mostly tabletop but some live action as well), and never really stopped, although I have shifted to entirely online in the last decade or so, due to having to move around somewhat frequently for work.
I do miss the face to face interaction, but with a good group playing on a virtual tabletop is almost as good, and significantly more convenient, currently I participate in four different weekly games in various systems.
@DocZed
Nice!
I have! My friends and I have been playing an ongoing all bard campaign for like 2 years now.