Warning: Contains Nerdity
(yes I have a blog; STFU)
So, um, a thing has happened in my life.
I bought the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Player's Handbook with a gift certificate over Christmas, just to get a look at the new game system. I didn't fall in love with it or anything, but I also didn't hate it. I've heard a lot of people moaning about how it makes the game more like a video game and discourages roleplaying, but I didn't get that feeling. To me, there's very little in the rules of any game that will affect whether your group roleplays or not. As I said to my brother the other day while discussing it, "People can roleplay without rules and they still can. Now, at least, the people who like hitting things and taking their stuff have more interesting ways of doing it."
Anywho, this is not a review of the game. This is a comment on an interesting facet of my life. I was looking for other board games to get and I talked with Kat about what kinds of board games she had liked playing, and she said she enjoyed the ones with strong story elements best. For us, that's Arkham Horror and Fury of Dracula. We haven't gotten enough out of Android to really make a decision there. She hinted (for about the fifth time) that she might enjoy a full-on RPG more than a board-game version of one, so I started thinking about running an RPG for the first time in ten years.
At first, I kinda wanted to run Call of Cthulhu, but we already have Arkham Horror and I was excited about exploring the new D&D stuff. I asked a couple of people who I knew had played before, but they both turned me down, saying they had just gotten into other games and wouldn't have the time. I thought the idea of running a game would die there, but then I got the idea to just do what I usually do: make gamers out of people I already enjoy hanging out with (instead of trying to find gamers who I can stand to hang out with). I sent out a bulk message on Facebook to everyone I thought might be geeky enough to enjoy it, and got all kinds of responses.
Here's the weird thing: I didn't get a single response from a guy. One guy jumped on-board after his wife had already signed on, and another one looks like he'll be joining under similar circumstances, but all the direct interest in the game was from women. One of the experienced RPGers at the first session even commented, "For not being a Vampire game, this group is very female."
So, yeah, I'm running D&D for the first time in over ten years and I'm having a blast so far. The biggest help I've found so far is a site for hosting a campaign wiki where we can keep track of everything that happens. Lots of fun now, and should be lots of fun to look back later at our old adventures.
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/scales-of-war-az
So, um, a thing has happened in my life.
I bought the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Player's Handbook with a gift certificate over Christmas, just to get a look at the new game system. I didn't fall in love with it or anything, but I also didn't hate it. I've heard a lot of people moaning about how it makes the game more like a video game and discourages roleplaying, but I didn't get that feeling. To me, there's very little in the rules of any game that will affect whether your group roleplays or not. As I said to my brother the other day while discussing it, "People can roleplay without rules and they still can. Now, at least, the people who like hitting things and taking their stuff have more interesting ways of doing it."
Anywho, this is not a review of the game. This is a comment on an interesting facet of my life. I was looking for other board games to get and I talked with Kat about what kinds of board games she had liked playing, and she said she enjoyed the ones with strong story elements best. For us, that's Arkham Horror and Fury of Dracula. We haven't gotten enough out of Android to really make a decision there. She hinted (for about the fifth time) that she might enjoy a full-on RPG more than a board-game version of one, so I started thinking about running an RPG for the first time in ten years.
At first, I kinda wanted to run Call of Cthulhu, but we already have Arkham Horror and I was excited about exploring the new D&D stuff. I asked a couple of people who I knew had played before, but they both turned me down, saying they had just gotten into other games and wouldn't have the time. I thought the idea of running a game would die there, but then I got the idea to just do what I usually do: make gamers out of people I already enjoy hanging out with (instead of trying to find gamers who I can stand to hang out with). I sent out a bulk message on Facebook to everyone I thought might be geeky enough to enjoy it, and got all kinds of responses.
Here's the weird thing: I didn't get a single response from a guy. One guy jumped on-board after his wife had already signed on, and another one looks like he'll be joining under similar circumstances, but all the direct interest in the game was from women. One of the experienced RPGers at the first session even commented, "For not being a Vampire game, this group is very female."
So, yeah, I'm running D&D for the first time in over ten years and I'm having a blast so far. The biggest help I've found so far is a site for hosting a campaign wiki where we can keep track of everything that happens. Lots of fun now, and should be lots of fun to look back later at our old adventures.
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/scales-of-war-az