Want to try...

[Atomicwarz]

I wanna try roleplaying. No idea where to start though. Anyone got a good example, or a game that would let in a total newb?

[gallagher]

well i started with 3.5, and really enjoyed myself. go to your local hobby shop, ask if there is a game that is accepting a new guy, and see if the DM will help you go through the rules so that you can maximize your total experience.

then play a sorceror and blast everything. nothing draws you into a new kind of game quite like explosions. some will say that you should play a wizard, but when you start out, preparing spells is a biotch. sorc's are more limited, but dont have to decide ahead of time what to prepare.

[Atomicwarz]

Well I'm homeschooled, have no car, and I don't think there's a hobby shop within 20 miles (Curse you, alabama!)
So online games are more or less my one and only chance.

As for my first char, I already plan on playing a chaotic evil pyro mage. Someone who burns things for the lulz. And I look forward to the day he meets an unburnable monster, just so he can assume the fetal position and have a mental breakdown.

[gbprime]

Indeed. You want to get into a group where you can make a difference with your actions, and that often means combat effectiveness.

Also check into what KIND of gaming the group does. Do they just kill things, do they run a soap opera with the occasional monster, or somewhere in between? People who are new to roleplaying know more about acting than they do about the rules of the game, so a game that allows for doing or saying things "in character" is often an easy stepping stone.

We had someone's sister participate in the saturday night game for the very first time a few years back. Didn't know the first thing about the rules. So we built her a barbarian chick with a large axe and told her what dice to roll when. She was an absolute scene-stealer, and entertained the whole room with her conversations and total failures at social etiquette. Gimmicky? Sure, but fun.

[Mystic Muse]

Here's what finally allowed me to learn to play.

two words.

Library card.Oh yeah, I'm homeschooled too.

[gbprime]

As for my first char, I already plan on playing a chaotic evil pyro mage. Someone who burns things for the lulz. And I look forward to the day he meets an unburnable monster, just so he can assume the fetal position and have a mental breakdown.

Two peices of advice...

First, whatever you play, don't make yourself insufferable to the other players or too much of a liability to them. Burning things for lulz is well and good, but don't make the other players dislike you. (They can dislike YOUR CHARACTER, just as long as you add to the fun of the game.)

Second... there's no such thing as an unburnable monster if you're playing D+D 3.5 and take the Searing Spell feat. (But you'll find out more about that kind of rules stuff from whatever group you locate.)

[Atomicwarz]

I could probly learn the general run of things with enough time in google. And I played a few online roleplaying games, though they were more casual or round-based. And the round based one was overtaken with people who worry more about metagaming to kill the randomly-chosen traitor than roleplaying. Ah, the day that I spent hours framing other people and cutting off power to the station while they desperately tried to reboot the auxilary engine while I secretly sabotaged primary systems every step of the way. By the end of the round, not a single light was turned on, the station had no atmosphere, no oxy tanks, plasma tanks, or any tanks were left, and everyone was just killing each other in chaos...

... But I digress.
I could do a google search to find what I need most likely, but I haven't a clue what to search for. But lately I've been dying to play a roleplaying game.

EDIT:

there's no such thing as an unburnable monster if you're playing D+D 3.5 and take the Searing Spell feat. (But you'll find out more about that kind of rules stuff from whatever group you locate.)

As I said, it's unlikely I can find a group here (My neighborhood is surrounded by a farm, and as I said, I have no car, and my parents have to share one truck at the moment.)
So if I can't do it online, chances are I won't be able to at all.

[Reynard]

Well, there's the SRD, which should give you all you need to play 3.5. Not all the classes/feats/what-have-you that exist for it, but enough to be getting on with. The you could apply to join a Play by Post in the lower regions of the forums.

[Atomicwarz]

Well, there's the SRD, which should give you all you need to play 3.5. Not all the classes/feats/what-have-you that exist for it, but enough to be getting on with. The you could apply to join a Play by Post in the lower regions of the forums.

Your offer intrigues me and evil goatee.


What is this 'SRD' you speak of?

[ghost_warlock]

Hypertext SRD.

[Reynard]

Bah, the Hypertext one is horrible.

This one's much easier to navigate and look at.

[Atomicwarz]

Thanks, I'll look through it when I get the chance. My dad wants to watch an episode of Lost with me, so I'll be back soon. I haven't been too into tv shows lately.

[Eloel]

www.d20srd.org
The compilation of MM1 and PHB1

Edit: That's what happens when I go afk at a page

[TheThan]

Thethan’s guide to starting roleplaying games:

part one- So you want to be a role player.

(spoilered for length)

Spoiler

Show

So you’re interested in this weird thing called role-playing. Well first thing is that you need people to play with. Friends come to mind first of all, but if you don’t have any (or don’t have any that are interested in it), then your next course of action is to try to get into an existing group. There are lots of different ways to go about this, libraries, college hobby clubs, local gaming stores etc. If you can’t find one then your last recourse is to go online.

Now you need to decide on what rules you want to use. I recommend DnD 4E, the books are easy to find (local bookstore should have some handy), and it is very new player friendly. But its not the only game out there, there are plenty of other systems to choose from. Now that you have some books and hopefully some people to play with, you need to decide on who’s going to be the DM. Since you’re initiating the whole thing, its probably going to be you.

The Dm is the one in charge of the game, he provides the encounters, directs the general action and provides a story, and not to mention he’s in charge of making sure everyone is having fun. The Dm should have a lot of knowledge about the system that you’re using.

After that you’re going to need to get some dice, if you’re playing dnd, you’ll need polyhedral dice. There are seven of them, 4 sided, 6 sided, 8 sided, 10 sided, 12, sided, 20 sided, and lastly the percentile dice, which are two 10 sided dice, with one representing the 10s digit and the other, the 1s digit. You can easily order online or download a dice roller (though part of the fun is rolling your own dice) if you can’t find any place that sells them. Now if you’re not using dnd, a lot of other systems use standard 6 sided dice, which you can get from just about anywhere (board games come to mind).

There are tons of other gaming aids out there, grid maps and paper, miniatures, all sorts of things come up. You’ll probably want to start getting this stuff in the future, but right now the only other item you’ll need is a few pencils (preferably with erasers) and blank paper. All and all this should run you about $100, as the books cost a bit of money and you’ll need the “core three” to start with. They are the dungeon’s master’s guide the player’s handbook and the monster manual. You might be able to find the books on Amazon.com or Ebay at a discount so that might be a good place to look. There are plenty of supplemental books that you can look into, but I wouldn’t bother until you get a good grasp of the system.

After you’ve gathered this stuff its time to start learning the game. This means you get to do a lot of reading. I’d start with the first chapter of the DMG (dungeon master’s guide), or whatever the equivalent is as it should give you a good understanding of what your getting into, though if your reading this then I suspect you already have an idea. Take your time there is no need to rush, the important thing is that you understand what you’re reading. Now if you haven’t noticed the DMG guide doesn’t really have a lot of information on the system, well at least none that you’re likely to understand right away. That’s because the PHB is where all that’s written, which happens to be the next stop. Each chapter of the book should deal with a different aspect of the system. You can read them in any order you like. I would start with the first chapter, then skip down to the adventuring chapter (chapter 8), then the combat chapter (chapter 9), then I would go back and read chapters 2-7 as they deal mostly with character generation. After you have read all this, and understand at least the basics of it, then its time to go back and read the rest of the DMG.

Now that you have a basic understanding of roleplaying and a basic understanding of the system, you can try your hand at actually doing something. I’m talking about character generation here. Open up your
players handbook and follow the directions it gives you. When you’re done you should have a level 1 character. Feel free to show it to other gamers if you’re not sure about it, he should be able to point out any glaring mistakes you make (this site is helpful in that regards). Don’t worry about mistakes, you will make them.

Now that you have an understanding of the rules, and a character we can move on to part two. which I will write tomorrow.

[Amiel]

If you're interested in online games (I regularly see games for and by newbies), I suggest heading off to the Finding Players subforums. You'll definitely find what you may be looking for; by participating in games, you'll also have a chance to learn some tips and advice from the regulars.

[Atomicwarz]

Hmm, lots of good responses. Now it's just a matter of understanding what I'm reading. It's a good thing I know I can't be expected to know the rules like it's the bible (Which is ironic, since I can't even remember that well), because I don't understand a bit of it. Alot I do, alot I don't. Still, going along well. I hope to play tomorrow or so, since I have to work on weekdays sometimes (No set work days. Don't even know if I'm working till the night before, so it's hard to schedule things)

Since it's late, I'll try to join one tomorrow. How long does it typicaly take to get a game rolling and finished?

[TheThan]

Hmm, lots of good responses. Now it's just a matter of understanding what I'm reading. It's a good thing I know I can't be expected to know the rules like it's the bible (Which is ironic, since I can't even remember that well), because I don't understand a bit of it. Alot I do, alot I don't. Still, going along well. I hope to play tomorrow or so, since I have to work on weekdays sometimes (No set work days. Don't even know if I'm working till the night before, so it's hard to schedule things)

Since it's late, I'll try to join one tomorrow. How long does it typicaly take to get a game rolling and finished?

While you can go down to the finding players subforum, it’s really not the same as gaming at a table with friends. Its not necessarily bad, its just a different dynamic, some people love it and some hate it.

It’s a good place to find people to help you out through the rules of the game. Which is not always an easy thing to find, when I first got into rpgs, I had to self learn, so I know what its like to not have someone there to help you out.

One advantage of doing a forum game is that it’s not time sensitive. You don’t have to be online at a certain time in order to get a post in. the forums here have people from all over the world all in different time zones, so not being time sensitive is very nice. Also there is a track record of what happens in game, which is useful for the dm, but also for a player, and they can go back and review their previous posts and keep their character consistent.

The downsides is that play by post tends to get bogged down in combat, in fact, that’s where a lost of PBP (play by post) games fall apart at. People wait to post in initiative order, and wait for others to post so they can do something and it just gets slowed down and tends to not work. There is also the problem with people not posting and generally abandoning games.

That’s not to say you can’t have a successful dnd game via pbp, its very possible, but there are obstacles to overcome.

[Atomicwarz]

Like I said, if I had the means and possibility to find a game in real life, I would. But alas, no chance there. I've played a few forum roleplaying sites, but those weren't quite as high a standard. The lack of time constraints is quite appealing to me now. I've read through the general stuff, but I need to practice if I want to learn anything. Hopefully my first group wouldn't mind helping me along a bit.

Thus far, the people on the site have been very helpful.

[Godskook]

Let's see:

1.Study the guides. Don't feel required to follow them, but they'll point out obvious traps, like Monk 20(You should never have more than 6 actual levels in Monk in most games)

2.Aim for games starting at 3rd to 5th level, as these are the easiest to survive for a newbie. Lower level games are far more swing-y and higher level games take a lot more system mastery.

3.Despite what anyone tells you, optimization is important to roleplaying. After all, you can't have an angsty inner monologue if you're dead. On the other hand, there's a point, past which, it is not ok to keep optimizing, and like the matrix, no one can tell you where exactly it is(On the other hand, it gets rather easy to identify things that are on the other side).

4.Beware of DMs that have obviously skewed concepts of balance. In pbp, a tell-tale is any DM who bans ToB for power reasons while keeping druids untouched.

(Note: There are valid reasons to ban ToB, but if you're ok with the power of a druid, you should be ok with ToB power. The most obvious two are that the DM lacks a copy, and that blade magic simply doesn't exist in his setting)

5.Be prepared to make stupid gaming decisions in the interest of "That's what my character would do" every once in a great while. An example of this is when my CG Daggerspell Mage leaves a village of refugees(and his party) he just freed because their speech was essentially "Thanks for saving us, you have one day to leave town." While the Lawful party said "ok" and began making preparations in town, my Daggerspell left, to wait for the party outside the town. I risked being a monster's toothpick over it, but that's my character's response to the said situation, and I feel it was worth it. Left me feeling very Rorsarch about it, which is perfect.

Don't over do it though, and be aware of just what you're getting your character into before you do it. In my example, that was the only time I openly defied party consensus, and I made sure I did it in a way that didn't penalize the party, since we're in an 'intermission', so to speak, and aren't likely to be attacked by anything other than a random encounter, and even then, not likely.

[Atomicwarz]

... Wait, what's optimizing?

[Mystic Muse]

... Wait, what's optimizing?

it means using good options to make your character better.
Taking power attack instead of cleave,
using fireball instead of a dagger if you're a wizard (Bad example I know.)
Warblade instead of fighter.

things like that.

[Greenish]

it means using good options to make your character better.
Taking power attack instead of cleave,
using fireball instead of a dagger if you're a wizard (Bad example I know.)
Warblade instead of fighter.

things like that.

…Putting high ability score to Int and low to Strength as a wizard, using a longsword instead of bastard sword to save a feat, casting Haste to boost your party instead of doing a bit of damage with a fireball and so forth.

[The Glyphstone]

... Wait, what's optimizing?

Like Kyuubi said, choosin things that make your character better at what he's meant to do. Sometimes these are blatantly obvious things, but sometimes not.


Taking, say, Skill Focus (Swim) for a Fighter, would not be optimizing (except in rare cases, such as Stormwrack campaign), because it spends a valuable resource (a feat slot) on something that doesn't improve your Fighter's ability to fight, which is what he's meant to do.

Or, as another example, it's commonly accepted that HP-damage spells are less optimal for spellcasters to cast compared to status effects, buffs, or battlefield control spells. This is by the logical path that anyone can do HP damage, but only the caster can bring the unique effects that magic provides to the fight, so it's more effective to focus on that.

And then there's builds like the Mailman, a sorcerer or wizard with specific PrC's, feats, and spells all completely centered around dealing HP damage, maximizing synergy and effectiveness to where it can to incredible amounts of damage with its spells, making it hyper-optimized into a specific role.

[Touchy]

Also note, surprisingly true to fantasy, 99% of the time dwarves can do everything elves can do, but so much better. I feel this is worth mentioning to a newbie, so everything goes on track in mindset.

[gdiddy]

Basically, the 3rd edition of DnD, both iterations, were designed by Wizards of the Coast, the same company who made Magic: The Gathering.

Like Magic, there is a design element in the game that gives characters options that make their characters either more effective at dealing with the world, or less effective. Certain classes, feats, skills, and abilities are more effective than others.

This was done on purpose, to cultivate a community of gamers, who were dedicated and could study the game. Essentially, a person who puts more time and thought into a 3.5 character will have a better character than someone who doesn't. Likewise, they sold many many books, which have power creep. (Some very bad people have scanned these books into pdf format and put them on the internet. This is why 4th edition makes its money off of miniatures and basically requires them.)

DnD 3.5 is a somewhat competitive game, because of this.

IE. A human Warblade (a class from Tome of Battle) using the Shocktrooper feat (from Complete Warrior) is more effective at hurting people with a sword than a Half-Elf Fighter (from the Player's Handbook I) using the Einhander feat (from the Player's Handbook II).

Most of the people on this board tend to build (and help other people make) very optimized effective characters. These are often called "builds". They have nothing to do with background or story, just the numbers that back up the story. There are multiple arena leagues here where characters are built to fight each other. In several of them, certain classes are banned for being too weak or strong. When things get so optimized they no longer make sense, its called "Cheesy".

[ghost_warlock]

IE. A human Warblade (a class from Tome of Battle) using the Shocktrooper feat (from the Player's Handbook II) is more effective at hurting people with a sword than a Half-Elf Fighter (from the Player's Handbook I) using the Einhander feat (also from the Player's Handbook II).

/nitpick: shocktrooper is in Complete Warrior.

[gdiddy]

/nitpick: shocktrooper is in Complete Warrior.

Gasp. Fixed.

But yeah, Atomicwarz, don't sweat it. I've been playing since 2e, and I'm not a big optimizer. Because there are always ways to make a character better, I just generally make it optimized enough that I'll have fun and leave it at that.

Example: My most recent character is a Warblade, but I gave him the Improved Feint feat instead of Improved Trip (which no truly optimized melee character shouldn't have) and he fights with a bastard sword instead of a great sword (he does 1 less damage per attack because of this). Making choices like these for style are fine, as long as you have fun with it.

[Atomicwarz]

Well you could go on any game or forum and make a tough char. I'd rather roleplay with a believable char. That's why I'm dedicating my next/first char to a fire-loving mage. Fire-type spells being his only used spells. Just to watch things burn... Mmm... Fire...



Other than that, I seem to be having a bit of trouble finding a group. Most seem to me midway in what they're doing, doing other various stuff (I saw bleach and naruto and whatnot. Didn't think you guys did that here as well), and the only other one had the starting level around 8.
I think I'll just sit in standby until someone starts a new one thats more... Newbish?

[gdiddy]

At least half a dozen games open recruitment on the boards per day. They have a high infant mortality rate, and usually end inside a month. Mostly, this hinges on the DM keeping it going. But if you make your own recruitment thread with a title like "[3.5] Noob Looking for an Experienced DM and Other Players for My First Game", and they'll be able to help you. Lots of new players show up constantly, and you won't learn until you try. A few of my players are brand new to DnD and joined just because my game sounded cool. Your best bet if you think you're a fast learner, is to jump in, tell the DM your situation, and go from there.

*thumbs up*

[Godskook]

For a pyro, go sorcerer at first, and the prestige out. Snag Fiery Burst, Rapid Metamagic, Heighten Spell, Searing Spell and Quicken Spell for feats.

Fiery Burst + Heighten Spell means you'll always have a half-decent attack against non-immune enemies.

Rapid Metamagic fixes sorcerer's metamagic issues, and Quicken/Heighten allow you to cast most of your spells in useful ways.

And of course, Searing spell, for dealing with the horribly annoying immune and highly resistant enemies that you might face.

And as far as not casting non-fire spells, you're shooting yourself in the foot. Spells like "Fly" are perfectly acceptable for a pyromancer(The Human Torch?), its just a matter of picking the few that best fit your character while at teh same time round out your usefulness to your party.