LFG - long time roleplayer, some d&d experience, new to FG

[therev]

Hi all,

Some friends got me hooked on tabletop (some of my frosh - I'm a college RA) but can't play very often. I'm looking for a group that plays once or twice per week. As a student I do have plenty of commitments but love to play and will make it a priority.

A bit about me: college woman. I've only been playing D&D for a few weeks but consider myself a casual gamer generally speaking. I was a MUDder for several years - mostly RPIs (role-play intensives). I played for 4 years over at Armageddon as well as a year or two each at Shadows of Isildur and HarshMUD. Love GW and GW2 but like the intimate, manual feel of tabletop.

I generally play rogues or rangers but I'm not afraid of branching out - just inexperienced. Also, I'd love to get some experience with FG and its communities so I can DM (and be a good DM).

ETA: I'm PST and like pretty much any style - hybrid RP/combat, RP, or even pure combat with the right group.

Signing out,
therev

[Caebhin]

Welcome, If you don't find a game, check out this thread. We are trying for a tabletop feel rather than a WoW kind of atmosphere.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18279

Hopefully, we can get this going. Only need a GM--like only needing a working rocket to get the monkeys into space.

[Andrepartthree]

Hey welcome to FG :) ... say regarding the DM'ing thing you mentioned you want to do at some point (which is great I think FG needs all the GM's it can get ! :) Lots of us fall into the "I have the time to be a player but not a GM " category :P) ... I GM'ed an FG game for about a year and found Xorn's videos to be SUPER helpful in terms of teaching me the finer points of FG and how to organize my data/info in order to input it into FG in a way to make it "flow" smoothly when GM'ing.. the "downloads" link at the top of the page will take you to his video tutorials :)

You'll find that most of the games here are either D&D version 3.0/3.5 or version 4.0 though I've seen a lot of savage worlds recruitment posts too.. were you leaning towards a particular game or is it more the game itself doesn't matter as long as you find a group you can have fun with? :) .. You mentioned playing D&D for a few weeks prior to this - you'll find you'll pick up the rules pretty quickly simply by the process of gaming itself and same goes for how the FG program works (or that's the way it is for most gamers myself included ) but if you have the time and inclination I find reading over the rulebooks when you're new is kind of cool in that you look it over and you're like " Oh I didn't know I could do THAT " then you bring previously undiscovered new cool ability into the game you dug up from the book :) ... for example from the RP point of view I really liked the idea of a rogue/fighter wielding weapons 2 handed and relying on Dexterity more than Strength to connect with each blow... looking up the appropriate info in the books showed me how to best "build" that character and minimize penalties for wielding a weapon in each hand at the same time while designing the character in such a way as to emphasize DEX over STR ...I've found that spellcasters such as wizards (playing one for the first time) can be loads of fun but COMPLICATED too since each individual spell they can cast practically requires it's own set of notes so would definitely recommend grabbing the rulebooks and reading over their spells in advance if you decide to go with a wizard or cleric (priest) or what not ... since I'm cheap I'm a big believer in buying books used from say amazon :P ... version 3.0 of D&D is virtually identical to vers 3.5 but much cheaper like seven or eight dollars probably and a great intro to 3.0/3.5 .. version 4.0 is more expensive at around $16 used on amazon .... in both cases you'd want something called " The Player's Handbook" (vers. 3.0 or 4.0 depending on what you decide to grab).

There was .. and quite possibly still is :P .. a big debate on FG over which is more fun , version 4.0 or version 3.0/3.5 ... those who like vers. 4.0 argue that it is more streamlined and doesn't slow the game down with a huge number of rules .. those against it tend to argue it is "video-game-ish" and unrealistic because of the same lack of rules... vers 3.0/3.5 gives you more options because there's so many more rules but games can get bogged down sometimes because of the same complexity (or not , if the GM really knows his/her stuff re: the rules and you don't have too many "rules lawyers" who decide to start an argument with the GM about it :P ) ...

Some FG games use voice chat (like skype) some don't ... some FG campaigns rely solely on voice chat for most of the communication far as " My character does so and so " (particularly if you have players who are slow typists I've met a few of those while playing FG ) , others use voice chat only to clarify out of character type stuff (questions about rules or clarification of what's going on right now in the game " When you say my character sees ' X ' do you mean... ) and everything you do or say "in game" is typed (which is NOT a good situation to be in if you're one of the aforementioned slow typists)... other FG games avoid voice chat entirely because they feel it "ruins the atmosphere" so to speak. Might need a headset with a microphone if voice chat is used but you can pick those up pretty cheap anyways :P so ..

I'd advise looking over the recruitment posts on here and PM'ing a GM directly with your interest in playing the game or posting directly on the thread (I find PM's work better myself personally ;) ) ... I usually give a 1 or 2 paragraph summary of the concept for my character (character class, personality , race, alignment , background) in the PM ...

Big thing you'll need on FG is patience.. I've been in situations where the GM starts out strong but splutters to a stop after a while far as being able to run the game as real life stuff starts to interfere with the GM's ability to run the game after a while (nope blahness that's not a comment about your campaign in case you're reading this :P.. you have done an AMAZING job of being able to run the campaign on a routine and regular basis despite all the stuff you have going on in real life .... everyone other than blahness ignore what I just said since that's probably confusing as all hell :P ) ... or the GM is more than capable of running the game but half or more of the players "flake out" and stop showing up after the first few FG game sessions and the angry GM quits in disgust (quite understandably given how much work they put into said campaign). After enough "false starts" however you'll eventually find a game that will last for a while.. half a year, a year, I've heard of some lucky souls who find a campaign that runs SEVERAL years ...

[Andrepartthree]

This probably shows how ignorant I am about the gaming world in general too :P but.. to be honest when you mentioned " I was a MUDder for several years - mostly RPIs (role-play intensives)".. I did a google search on it and still wasn't sure what it meant :P .. just out of curiosity what's that stuff ? :)

[PhorgottenSon]

This probably shows how ignorant I am about the gaming world in general too :P but.. to be honest when you mentioned " I was a MUDder for several years - mostly RPIs (role-play intensives)".. I did a google search on it and still wasn't sure what it meant :P .. just out of curiosity what's that stuff ? :)

MUD - Multi User Dungeon - online Text based gaming; think early, early PC RPG's before graphics, often tight knit communities where one player could have an effect on the world and the game for others, mostly single shard ala Eve Online,

RPI - Role-Play Intensive - means the MUDs were light combat communities, mainly teamwork and puzzle solving vs combat, the focus is to embody your character and live that life, if this character needed to work a day job or start business, what would that be, and then go do it and interact with the village of other PC's accordingly

[Andrepartthree]

MUD - Multi User Dungeon - online Text based gaming; think early, early PC RPG's before graphics, often tight knit communities where one player could have an effect on the world and the game for others, mostly single shard ala Eve Online,

RPI - Role-Play Intensive - means the MUDs were light combat communities, mainly teamwork and puzzle solving vs combat, the focus is to embody your character and live that life, if this character needed to work a day job or start business, what would that be, and then go do it and interact with the village of other PC's accordingly

Ohhhhh ok.... thanks! :)

[Draeus]

Take a look here: https://virtualrpa.guildlaunch.com

As well as our Saturday club there are some GM's that run fortnightly games that might suit your needs. No experience is needed and all GM's are Ultimate Licence holders so all games are free.

All GM's and players are willing to teach new players the ropes :)

Hope you find a game to play soon.

[Mad Nomad]

I am starting a new campaign soon and still looking for players. Thursday nights.
Info is here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/?id=996

and on the campaign website here:
https://shatteredheavens.webs.com/