Gwardinen

You guys can work that out between yourselves, but as I said it's probably a good idea if we rotate the DM role a bit as we go so I'm sure your talents will be utilised eventually. Do you or OssK have any thoughts on the setting for the second group?

Forgotten Realms is fine by me. Truth be told I'm not particularly familiar with any of the settings as the most experience I've had with D&D is a brief spate of 3.5-based Pathfinder a while back. OssK can take over from Hermie as DM of the other group if they wish to do that, I'm not trying to railroad anyone into a position here, just trying to keep this train rolling so that it actually gets off the ground (mixed metaphor I know). Groups like this have a tendency to say "yeah let's do it!" and then never get anywhere, so I just want us to get something running and then we can switch people out and rotate roles and so on as we go. That Myth Weavers site might be useful for your NPC and monster creation needs, Orvidos, I recommend giving it a look. Also I have no idea what those official D&D Adventure Tools include, but they might be good too and are free. As for a fixed version of Fantasy Grounds, I don't have a personal problem with it. I'm all for supporting the hobby (I used to work in a tabletop wargaming, etc. shop after all) but the barrier to entry on this stuff is so high in terms of all the things to buy and finding and starting and educating a group, we can use any help we can get to start off with.

It might be best, if possible, to have the two parties do two different settings. That way we can pick based on which we like more/works for our character ideas better. There are also actually three players handbooks now, I believe, but yeah we can find PDFs of them. I think #1 has all the rules in and 2 and 3 are more classes and races. I'm going to guess you don't want to do Eberron, Orvidos, so are there any of the other three that particularly appeal to you? Are there any that particularly appeal to you, Hermie? If you guys think you can do a better story in a specific setting that is a good reason for me. Alternatively if you can find some starter stories that are specific to one or other setting... I had been looking for a couple of those without much success. As for character creation, like I said I can probably upload the old character creator for you guys if you so wish. It should be up to date as of PH3, I don't know if there's anything crazily different after that.

The game is totally playable with gamepads. It really is. I've played a fair bit of local coop using gamepads and there haven't really been any problems. That said, it is unequivocally not the best way to play the game. The keyboard is superior, without a doubt, but gamepads are adequate and in the Adventure it's not really about powergaming. In the Challenges... ok, you might not want to use a pad.

The Robot Chicken group was actually 5 party members and the DM, which is generally considered the standard party size, most are 4 or 5. There's no technical limit to it, since we control the game, but having more than 5 in is generally not recommended I don't think. Unless I've miscounted we currently have 8 people wanting to be players and 2 offering to be DMs - or at least willing to start off as DMs, I think we should take it in turns a bit to avoid burnout. We can either have two four-man parties, or the DMs themselves can be players in the alternate games if they have time, or some others in the party can cross over.

Well right now we're still in the stage of figuring out who is going to DM, if we're going to have multiple groups with multiple DMs and how we're actually going to do it on a technical side, hence all the links in my last post. So you're as welcome as anyone. There are also other settings but Forgotten Realms that have been written for D&D - for example Eberron which is like techy steampunky fantasy I think? Something like that. I wouldn't mind doing Eberron myself as then I could be a clockwork man!

Are you talking about using a different system from D&D, OssK, or using D&D with a different setting from Forgotten Realms? In truth I'm cool with either but D&D just seems like the most obvious starting off point, particularly from a system point of view, since most of us are relatively new to the whole concept. Hermie, as I mentioned I've used RPTools before and I think they can definitely work. They're Java based which makes them easy for anyone to actually use, and the MapTool works well for the actual bread and butter of moving characters around and fighting. However, I don't know how easy it is to find resources for them - ie. images to use as tiles and as monsters. Other things that I've heard of: Orokos - Dice Roller, Stat Calculator and Character Sheet holder if you are able to use the D&D4 character builder program. Fantasy Grounds - Hermie mentioned it, I believe it's pretty good but it's also quite expensive. Myth Weavers - Includes tools for generating dungeons, NPCs, towns and treasures. Also has some kind of online character sheet builder that I haven't had a chance to check out myself yet. This could be useful, so if someone tries it let me know! Invisible Castle - Mostly useful for play by post, I think, specialising in fair, open dice rolling. Might contain something else useful, though. EN World - Honestly not sure what this site provides, but it seems popular with online D&D groups. I have an old version of that that I might be able to give people, I think the old downloadable version is free these days. There's an updated web version that requires D&D Insider subscription. There are probably also lots of other good tools there, but frankly I doubt I have the money to get a sub. The official site does include a few other tools worth checking out, though, including D&D Adventure Tools and Character Sheets that we may use: Motherfuckin' Wizaaaaaaaaaaaards Tools "Test Drive DnD" Page

That's actually my problem with GTAIV too, I like the game but the combat is actually rather crap (especially when compared with the refined RDR system) and since I haven't played it for so long every time I go back I fail miserably and then don't want anything to do with it again for a few months.

You are a Prince among men, Orvidos, and that would be really sweet. If you want any help with figuring out programs to use let me know, Skype is fine for the communication side for me but I also know Mumble and Ventrilo and I know those can sometimes be easier for groups. I currently have control of a Mumble server which works some of the time. As for the actual game program, the only one I've used for a synchronous game is RPGTools, and that only as a player and fairly briefly but I'm sure we can figure something out.

Well 9 people have posted in this thread, which is nearly enough for two full parties. We could separate them into people who want to do synchronous and people who want to do asynchronous or we can just have two games going as synchronous. Alternatively we may end up with just one group as people drop out. It's MOSTLY up to those who end up DMing, as they're the ones doing the work to allow us to have a good time (we can totally rotate DMs though as we learn the system). Hermie and Orvidos are the two who have mentioned possibly DMing, are you two willing to try it? As I've said I'm totally willing to help set it up and run it in any way I can, I just don't think I could be a primary DM yet because I simply don't know the rules well enough.

D&D4 seems to be the most sensible jumping off point because D&D is the entry point for most people into tabletop RPGs and 4E is not only the most recent version but the most accessible version and the edition that is closest to the video game logic we all already understand (partly why it has generated controversy in the D&D crowd). Hermie, if you're willing to try to DM a campaign, and I realise this is a big deal, I would absolutely be on board to help get us set up technically and kick it all off. We would just have to all decide between us if using an asynchronous method such as Play by Post or Google Wave, which would allow us all to just log on and contribute as and when, is better than trying to set a time for a synchronous play session using some sort of online tool. The latter would possibly make for easier tactical play and (arguably) more flow, but the former allows for more description, characterisation and will potentially keep us going longer because we just have to post once or twice a day or something along those lines - and this is after all something we do around here anyway.

I've heard Play by Post is totally doable, the Penny Arcade forums are literally filled with PbP campaigns. However, I do wonder how well that would work with something like D&D, which in terms of combat is boardgame-esque, with positioning and ranges being very important. They seem to manage, but I don't know if there is a trick to it. An alternative, like Hermie said, is online tools - I presume you're referring to the official subscription-based stuff but there are some relatively decent free options too. I briefly used RPGTools as a player in a friend's D&D3.5 campaign, and that works pretty well, being basically a group map-with-tokens program that also allows the creation of macros. So for example you can macro up your various attacks and abilities so that you don't have to calculate their damage each time, you can just tell the program that it'll be 1d4+5 and it'll roll for you and add them up each time.

I was hoping there'd be a Thumb with DM experience, as I have none and frankly don't know any system well enough as a player that I'd want to try running a game unless there's no other option.

Well given this crowd, probably online.

Happy birthday awesome admin man.

I'm in the railway station and have only two dolls left to collect, I can't find one and I can't get behind the other. It's driving me nuts. Does anyone know how to get into the little guy standing on the boxes near the information/ticket selling centre?

Well I was originally intending to get this on the 360 anyway, but since my 360 is apparently dying, I'd best go for the PS3 version. That said, I am downloading it right now on European PSN, so it is officially active there! No idea about the North American store.

Sweet. I hope it moves along quickly, sadly there's such a backlog of interesting medical research and tech that needs to be ratified before it can be widely distributed. I understand the necessity of oversight, but the current systems are clearly far from perfect.

I've somehow miscommunicated or you've misunderstood, I know the books came first and when I said the TV series is heavily adapted, I meant from the books. I wasn't making a joke, simply stating that if anyone has seen the TV series and not enjoyed it, they shouldn't write off the books as the books are, in my opinion, much better.

I happen to be reading a book series at the moment that reminds me greatly of (but isn't) the Dresden Files. I recommend it to anyone who likes the idea of a magic in the modern world setting, and beyond that who likes funny but stupid and flawed characters. The first book is called Storm Front by Jim Butcher. I will warn that it's generally accepted that the earlier books are not as well written as the later ones, primarily because the author was just beginning to write seriously when he created the first three in particular. If you find enough to enjoy in the first couple of books I'd be very surprised if the series didn't keep you interested all the way. It's currently up to book 12 or 13 and is planned for more, but each one is not Wheel of Time sized. Edit: Also, if you've seen the Dresden Files TV series, ignore that. It's heavily adapted and, in my opinion, not nearly as good.

That is honestly the closest I've ever come to being swayed by the idea of the game. I did have a friend who kept threatening to lend me it, I may ask him to make good on the promise.

Thanks to you and your friend. That is pretty amazing.

Video is blocked for the UK apparently.

I still haven't played Demon's Souls, and I feel bad about it. However, I am also somewhat wary of the game. I don't necessarily think I need to spend my free time being punished my my choice of entertainment. Unlike some I don't believe difficulty to be a virtue on its own, and I've yet to really hear a convincing argument for why Demon's Souls is a good game that doesn't include references to how "hardcore" it is. Hopefully I will eventually play it and discover that I like it for other reasons.

I won't buy it, because I'm terrible at rewatching stuff. I might rent it or borrow it or have it in some other temporary manner, though. It sounds like it might be worth taking a look at when I get around to it but I don't need to jump on it right this second.