Prospective Player

Prospective Player

TavisAllison 1212323438|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I think the idea of just-in-time Basic/OD&D games is a great one! I'm looking forward to partying like it's 1979.

I saw on the chatter forums that some folks are interested in checking out 4e (or even 3e). I'm doing a 4e tournament at Gen Con that needs playtesting, so I'd be delighted to give interested parties a run-through of the new era. No guarantee that you'll enjoy it, but I do guarantee sufficient DM-fu that if you don't, it'll be because you genuinely dislike the new-school approach.

Re: Prospective Player

James_Nostack 1212325715|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi Tavis, welcome aboard. Lemme give you the low-down:

1. We're pretty easy-going over here; our main goal is just to hang out and have a good time playing a fun game. We all know each other from earlier friendships or other games. We're friendly to strangers, but gaming, as a hobby, tends to attract very passionate or eccentric people. These folks make the world a lot of fun, but can sometimes make the tabletop very awkward. So it might take a session or two before we all know we'd like to game with each other.

2. By design, sessions occur irregularly on a "just-in-time" basis. A couple people start a thread saying, "Let's get a game going on this night, with this goal" - if the DM is free that night, and you get at least 3 players, the thing happens. Right now we're averaging around once a month, though there are signs that's going to pick up. Sessions usually last 2-3 hours during the work-week, and so far have been in Midtown Manhattan.

3. Right now we've got two games running: I started up with the Black Peaks game, and Eric (Quendalon) began his Glantri game last week. I'm deliberately intending the Black Peaks game as an all-are-welcome sandbox style game without any plot beyond the players' exploits. I'm not sure if Eric is taking this approach or not, or how he wants to handle new players.

4. Rules in play are Moldvay Basic & Cook/Marsh Expert. I'm using Mentzer's BEC as a gloss on the Moldvay rules where they are unclear, with occasional references further afield. I'm not sure what Eric's using.

5. If you haven't checked out NerdNYC you might give it a look, it's how a bunch of us met.

6. Yeah, 4e sounds good. I know Adrian (Invincible Overlord) was thinking of running Keep on the Shadowfell sometime, but if you've got something you want to playtest, we could probably give that a whirl instead. (That okay with you, I.O.? Because you'll be spared the effort of GM'ing D&D 4e, you can relieve me of GM'ing Burning Blossoms! Everyone's happy.)

last edited on 1212325842|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by James_Nostack + show more

Re: Prospective Player

skatay 1212329319|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Welcome Tavis, thanks for stopping by! I am interested in trying your 4th edition game if our schedules coincide (I'm a new father, so it's not as easy as it sounds)! Are you in NYC? Care to tell us a bit about yourself from a gaming standpoint? Where did you read about this?

-Scott

Re: Prospective Player

Invincible Overlord 1212368900|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hey Travis waasssup!

I got to run a couple of games of 3.5 crawling with Travis around September. He is a fun and decent guy, a gamer through and through, and has no discernible smell.

Travis it would be great if you could jump in on these games!

And I'd love to play some 4e.

James, you're not gettting out of running BW that easy! Or if you are, let's make Scott run it!

Re: Prospective Player

James_Nostack 1212372670|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Scott is already going to be running some Shadow of Trollbabe's Donjon when I win my wager against him, so you're the last man standing to run Burning Wheel, Overlord.

Re: Prospective Player

Invincible Overlord 1212374831|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Wait, what? You said YOU would run it, James. I hesitate to mention this, but some years of gaming experience has encouraged me to get this kind of thing on tape. Don't make me take it to the committee.

I mean, The Committee (cue music).

Is committee really spelled like that? It just seems like too much, but I looked it up and …

Re: Prospective Player

James_Nostack 1212375996|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I.O., take those d20's out of your nostrils. The lack of oxygen to your brain is making you delusional. "Invincible" should have been my first clue, but you seemed kinda harmless at first. You keep that wheel away from me!

Re: Prospective Player

Quendalon 1212414671|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Welcome, Tavis! As with James, my game accepts all new players for old-school mayhem (or a reasonable approximation thereof). Keep an eye on the scheduling threads, or start your own if there's a particular day/week you'd like to play.

Also, playtesting 4th Ed. sounds fun. Keep us apprised!

Re: Prospective Player

TavisAllison 1214787365|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi all!

Sorry it's taken me a while to respond, but I'm eager to hit the ground running! I got my copy of the Red Box a few days ago, and it has me way stoked. I grew up on Holmes' blue box, with AD&D shortly after, and it's burned into my cortex pretty deep. Reading Moldvay's take on things lets me see it afresh - like hearing an alternate take of a Beatles tune, the over-familiar becomes surprising again by emphasizing the things that are essential and giving a unexpected perspective on elements I thought I knew all about.

I'm also reading Andre Norton's Quag Keep, which adds a great resonance to the Red Box's law/chaos dualism (the heroes take it for granted that they can detect the smell of followers of Chaos!) and also serves to make me see Greyhawk anew via a profusion of weird gods and concepts.

Good to see you again, A.O.! I must regretfully report, however, that in summer I do have a discernable smell. Today I had two - my son and I went to Governor's Island, where I smelled sweaty, and got rained on, after which I smelled mildewy. Hopefully my own contributions to the olfactory miasma that is NY in summer will prove relatively minor.

I'd especially like to play over the 4th of July weekend. Here are some ways I'll try to make that happen:

- I'm going to set about posting character ideas to the Black Hills and Giantri games, and perhaps suggesting an adventure in their just-in-time threads.

- I'd be glad to run something with 4E, although it's fallen on my priorities list. I was a playtester, so have been playing versions of 4E since January and finding it almost entirely un-enjoyable. Since then I've been able to confirm that the problem was largely the attitude of my group, primarily due to the playtesting mindset that requires you to look for problems & meta-talk about them, and secondarily due to edition-wars. I'm now reassured that when played for its own sake, 4E is potentially plenty of fun, although it's certainly a different flavor of fun. I reckon I'll post a suggeston in the 'other games' thread.

- Upthread are mentions of Donjon and Burning Wheel, which are currently higher than 4E on my want-to-play list! If folks are actually interested, I think I know Donjon well enough to run it; the same's not true of BW but I'd be an enthusiastic player.

Oh, and I'm down with the NerdNYC love! I'm also a fan of http://odd74.proboards76.com/ - they're tightly focused on '74-era, Little Brown Books D&D, but I find that a rewarding focus and they're more welcoming to other editions than the other old-school boards I know of.

- Tavis

last edited on 1214787434|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by TavisAllison + show more

Re: Prospective Player

James_Nostack 1214852843|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi Tavis, good to see you back on the boards again. My own involvement will necessarily be curtained throughout July and August due to personal obligations, but I wish you luck in this stuff.

I suggest that the best way to progress toward playing some of those games is to throw out a couple of dates spanning maybe 2-3 weeks and see what sticks.