Getting to know some of you

[KILLGORE]

Casual conversation, what game systems have you played over the years? Do you have any that might be older but still playing or just into modern systems?

I played just about every edition of D&D except 4th. Pathfinder, Starfinder. I cut my teeth on 1st edition in 1982 and had my dad buy my first box set that weekend getting into AD&D. Since then I have enjoyed many years of playing and DMing games. I still enjoy it all these years later if that shows anything. Fantasy Grounds really helped me accomplish that. Thanks Smiteworks!

[claedawg]

Played all iterations of D&D from redbox to 5E (haven't tried 5.5).
Pendragon (really wish they would add this to FG!!! I tried making a character sheet using XCore but it needs to be updated as there are errors that cause it fails. Has something to do with using arrays and a 0 being in the field it is calling.)
Call of Cthulhu
Runequest
Shadowdark
A couple of others back int he 80s and 90s I can't remember now.
Been looking into the Symbaroum ruleset and may try that in a bit.

[Oberoten]

I am old... I focus mostly on Ars Magica, BRP, Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, Disaphora, Fate, Savage Worlds and Warhammer FRPG. Been GMing for a bit over 40 years by now.

[Egheal]

Hi, also an old player here. I started in 1979 with D&D obviously. I tried, with my group, a lot of RPG. The most memorables are Runequest, Call of Cthulhu and James Bond RPG (very underrated system). Actually we are enjoying the Free League system with Alien, Vaesen, Blade Runner (in Foundry because no FGU) and Dragonbane (also Foundry). We are still playing a lot of CoC and we are going to play Traveller mongoose 2e.

[HywelPhillips]

I'm an old fogey too. Started playing in 1980 with Homes Basic edition of D&D. Played through school, then was lucky enough to go to a University with multiple thriving RPG societies ranging from traditional tabletop in the RPG society, through a wide range of self-written free forms and one-shots in the Science Fiction society, and a whole bunch of running around the local hills with rubber swords and costumes in the Treasure Trap society. Lucky enough to get together with a bunch of housemates who were all roleplayers, and still playing games with them almost 40 years later.

Favourite systems over the years - in University when we had time and energy used to love the hackability of Rolemaster and the background of RuneQuest. When time became tighter we appreciated the low-overhead prep of Saga Dragonlance (which we customised heavily). Had a run of enjoying D&D again with 3.5 ed Ptolus and a homebrew 4E campaign. As the group drifted apart in terms of where we lived, we lost the weekly games for a while but still had roleplaying weekends once a month and often a week-long roleplaying holiday as well. Amber Diceless was a big part of those. We've tried dozens and dozens of systems, homebrewed and hacked and made up system lite games and freeforms. Call of Cthulhu, Mage, Ars Magica, The One Ring, Deadlands/SWADE, Warhammer FRP, Dark Heresy, DCC, Band of Blades, Vaesen, Tales From The Loop, Star Wars, Pendragon, MYZ, Dragonbane, Space 1889 and those are just the ones I can remember campaigns for off the top of my head, we've played dozens more as one-shots to try.

We prefer medium crunch games - Pathfinder, 3.5E (and RoleMaster now) are too heavyweight for us to really enjoy. Anything where you need a spreadsheet to plan your levelling-up is out!

We tend to fantasy because that's my forte, and I'm the main GM for the group most of the time.

COVID lockdowns were a blessing in disguise for us because it made us try out VTT online play. I ran a couple of sessions of Mine of Phandelver for them in Roll20, got frustrated with the lack of GM tools, tried FGU and here we are, five years on, with weekly sessions again... and I've somehow acquired a second weekly group too! We did a series of 5E campaigns but have recently swapped over to SWADE for a lot of our games.

Cheers, Hywel

[Jiminimonka]

Also fairly old though no as old as err that fella. Been playing D&D since 1980. Still got the complete dice set that came in the red box.

[M0d1usPy]

I To have played many systems over the years, my personal favs are Becmi (love me some mystara) Traveller, Star wars, star trek, pathfinder 1e and 2e, starfinder, dcc, CoC, Conan, fate, Vampire, werewolf, M&M, paranoia, cyberpunk, shadowrun ect But on FG i mainly run Pathfinder 1e, Mongoose Traveller 2e and FFG Star wars though i have run lot's of one shots of other systems.

I also prefer Medium crunch games though in the last 10 years been finding the more narrative systems to my tastes like ffg star wars (i might be odd but i actually enjoy the weird dice)

Also as with Hywel Covid got me into the vvt space, luckily with my in person group (no more carrying around 2 rucksacks worth of pf1e books!) i did try roll20 but swapped other to here because of the pf1e support.

[KILLGORE]

Also fairly old though no as old as err that fella. Been playing D&D since 1980. Still got the complete dice set that came in the red box.

Funny I still have mine also. They are plain red with white numbers circa 1983 or so.

[KILLGORE]

So many of you have played settings I have not. Very cool as I start thinking I missed out on these! Keep them coming, as I love to hear about your gaming adventures. Some of my best memories were from a gaming table.

[KILLGORE]

I'm an old fogey too. Started playing in 1980 with Homes Basic edition of D&D. Played through school, then was lucky enough to go to a University with multiple thriving RPG societies ranging from traditional tabletop in the RPG society, through a wide range of self-written free forms and one-shots in the Science Fiction society, and a whole bunch of running around the local hills with rubber swords and costumes in the Treasure Trap society. Lucky enough to get together with a bunch of housemates who were all roleplayers, and still playing games with them almost 40 years later.

Favourite systems over the years - in University when we had time and energy used to love the hackability of Rolemaster and the background of RuneQuest. When time became tighter we appreciated the low-overhead prep of Saga Dragonlance (which we customised heavily). Had a run of enjoying D&D again with 3.5 ed Ptolus and a homebrew 4E campaign. As the group drifted apart in terms of where we lived, we lost the weekly games for a while but still had roleplaying weekends once a month and often a week-long roleplaying holiday as well. Amber Diceless was a big part of those. We've tried dozens and dozens of systems, homebrewed and hacked and made up system lite games and freeforms. Call of Cthulhu, Mage, Ars Magica, The One Ring, Deadlands/SWADE, Warhammer FRP, Dark Heresy, DCC, Band of Blades, Vaesen, Tales From The Loop, Star Wars, Pendragon, MYZ, Dragonbane, Space 1889 and those are just the ones I can remember campaigns for off the top of my head, we've played dozens more as one-shots to try.

We prefer medium crunch games - Pathfinder, 3.5E (and RoleMaster now) are too heavyweight for us to really enjoy. Anything where you need a spreadsheet to plan your levelling-up is out!

We tend to fantasy because that's my forte, and I'm the main GM for the group most of the time.

COVID lockdowns were a blessing in disguise for us because it made us try out VTT online play. I ran a couple of sessions of Mine of Phandelver for them in Roll20, got frustrated with the lack of GM tools, tried FGU and here we are, five years on, with weekly sessions again... and I've somehow acquired a second weekly group too! We did a series of 5E campaigns but have recently swapped over to SWADE for a lot of our games.

Cheers, Hywel

Thats so crazy how invested you were into that. I thought I had experience. Compared to some of you here, I played generic crap. I am glad you picked Fantasy Grounds for all the gaming you do.

[KILLGORE]

You know I was thinking...all these years of Dungeons & Dragons rule sets, 3.5 is going to go down as the best they ever made. Sure lots of people play 5th to start these days and the new rules, but lots of them also get into 3.5 eventually because it offers the most for players and DMs. Its totally my opinion but I think its true. Lots of revived 3.5 players coming back and playing with new players.
I really think anyone really invested in role playing games should roll back to 3.5 and see what it was all about. Be it any of the bazzillion systems that used it.

[LordEntrails]

I don't know... depends upon what you want. I left 3.5 because it was too crunchy and too easy to break.
If I remember the builds correctly there is a dual wielding bastard sword drow ranger and a minotaur with a brute feat. Something like that.
I get the appeal. Been there, done that. But at some point finding the special cases isn't fun for me anymore, it doesn't help the story.
I now care more for the story than the rules.
I guess that's why I even left 5E this year and went oldish school sci-fi opera.

[KILLGORE]

I don't know... depends upon what you want. I left 3.5 because it was too crunchy and too easy to break.
If I remember the builds correctly there is a dual wielding bastard sword drow ranger and a minotaur with a brute feat. Something like that.
I get the appeal. Been there, done that. But at some point finding the special cases isn't fun for me anymore, it doesn't help the story.
I now care more for the story than the rules.
I guess that's why I even left 5E this year and went oldish school sci-fi opera.

Im not a fan of those players though I get the allure seeing how much material was available and DMs not being able to say no to those types of characters. They ruin alot of fun just like the DM ruining an encounter with adding too much to the challenge rating.

[KILLGORE]

I don't know... depends upon what you want. I left 3.5 because it was too crunchy and too easy to break.
If I remember the builds correctly there is a dual wielding bastard sword drow ranger and a minotaur with a brute feat. Something like that.
I get the appeal. Been there, done that. But at some point finding the special cases isn't fun for me anymore, it doesn't help the story.
I now care more for the story than the rules.
I guess that's why I even left 5E this year and went oldish school sci-fi opera.

Im not a fan of those players though I get the allure seeing how much material was available and DMs not being able to say no to those types of characters. They ruin alot of fun just like the DM ruining an encounter with adding too much to the challenge rating.

Remember back in like 1988 there were Bladesinger builds in 2nd edition that were min max to the bone. Been dealing with it for a long time.

[HywelPhillips]

Definitely not going to get into Edition Wars, but our group prefers 5E to 3.5E.

For us, there was too big a difference between a "casual" build and a mini-maxed build in 3.5E, to the point that they felt obligated to run spreadsheets and optimise their characters purely because the combat effectiveness was so radically different if you got the right combination of feats etc.. This ended up in them feeling they had to plan what their character was going to take level by level, so they never ended up taking features for fun or for flavour, they took it so as to be able to take this-or-that-feat at 9th level. Honestly, it felt (to us) like WORK. We were OK with that sort of thing back in the days when we were students, but now we all manage or run businesses we just want something that is a bit more kick-back-and-enjoy with the ability to do character generation and experience "on the fly" without having to have a spreadsheet to make sure you didn't miss out on your 12th level feat by taking something sub-optimal at 4th level.

As a GM, I didn't like the endless modifiers of 3.5E. I was forever forgetting a +2 here or there and either feeling like I had to retcon or steam ahead and feel like I was short-changing someone.

In my opinion 5E's most brilliant innovation (for D&D - other systems had it before) was attempting to collapse all of that into the advantage/disadvantage mechanic. It's a shame they rowed away from that as 5E progressed, heading back towards the +1 coz it's Wednesday -2 coz it's twilight but oh no ignoring that penalty because I have such-and-such item/feat.

We played 5E for quite a few years for extended campaigns, with other systems as shorter campaigns in parallel.

We've now largely switched to Savage Worlds which does have a bit of the stacking modifiers syndrome. I never remember crap like unstable platform or recoil, but it feels much easier just to declare that the setting rules for my campaign means we don't use those- SWADE is modular by design, so you can just cross off an edge or two and the whole thing runs smoothly. You can deal with pretty much everything else with "distracted/vulnerable/shaken" or "good idea roll at +2".

The main disadvantage of Savage Worlds and similar classless systems is that the choice of edges (= feats) is overwhelming for newcomers, and we're still finding our feet with them several years in.
The main advantages are (IMHO) meta-game support for more storytelling and player influence over the story, especially if you use adventure cards. It still has a lot of tactical depth in combat but plays much more quickly than D&D, and it's much more flexible in tone and setting than D&D (although it always retains something of the pulp feeling).

So for us it is a better fit for "throw a character together and take options for fun or roleplaying" and still have the character functional and useful in combat and other situations.

I really like the Free League Mutant Year Zero system and its derivatives too, although I think they are better suited to a shorter campaign with a smaller group size.

Cheers, Hywel

[KILLGORE]

If someone ran a spreadsheet they just got eaten by a tarrasque...period. I am also not trying to get in edition war im just talking here.

[KILLGORE]

Has anyone played the newest Star Wars RPG? If so, is the system it uses, i think d6, any good?
I e also been interested in a Voltron kickstarter RPG i saw mentioned here.

[LordEntrails]

Haven't tried the new Star Wars rules. Though I'm trying to get my son to run a Star Wars campaign. He knows the universe really well. No idea what system we would use :)

In the 80's we ran everything we could get our hands on. But starting in the 90s we only ran D&D. It hasn't been until the last few years that I've been running and playing other systems. I don't feel I have to try every new system out, but I am enjoying trying other things :)

[Nylanfs]

The big thing for 3e & 35e that is the big standout, for me at least, was the OGL (& the d20 STL that got dropped along the way). People really don't realize how close we came to D&D largely getting lost with TSR almost going bankrupt. It's future would have been VASTLY different had Peter Adkinson not purchased TSR, and he & Ryan Dancey hadn't championed the OGL.

[JonStormbringer]

I started in 1979 with DND. Although I really enjoy 5E, there are times I miss 1E/2E. A little of it is nostalgia, of course, but everything was fresh and new--not simply a rehash or re-invention of established content. Back then, I played everything TSR made...DND, Top Secret, Boot Hill, Gamma World, Star Frontiers among others. I found myself branching out to other companies/systems. Played the hell out of some Rolemaster... Original Rifts. FASA Star Trek. Had some great pulp adventures with a game called Justice Inc. I also began wargaming slightly before DND. I ended up owning probably two thirds of everything Avalon Hill made...man I miss that company...another casualty of Hasbro. Also played countless hours of Star Fleet Battles.

Today I mostly play 5E. All of my gaming is done through FG. I tried Foundry, and while I won't say anything bad about it, I simply like FG more. I have a pretty well established group of 6 players, none of whom I knew before we started playing DND together on FG. We've been playing together almost 4 years now. We are planning our first meet at PAX Unplugged (Philadelphia) in November. It will also be my first game convention. We started out playing 5E together with me as forever GM. Finally one of my players asked if I'd like to play and offered to GM Starfinder. So we alternated weekly between DND and SF. Lately, we're still doing DND, but that same player has fallen in love with Dungeon Crawl Classic. We've had a blast running through a couple of funnels and we're getting ready to start a full Lankhmar campaign. Lankhmar is one of my favorite settings, so I'm really looking forward to playing through it. Two weeks ago, we took a break from DND and played the Alien RPG. Most of my group are fans of the movies/setting. I'm not going to lie, it was the most fun I've had GMing something in a long time and my players, who are usually a pretty crunch loving group, stepped out of their comfort zones and dove into playing the pre-made characters--all of whom have their own secret motivations/agendas. We got just half way through the intro adventure, the Last Days of Hadley's Hope. The game really surprised me and even though I know it's not feasible in FG, I'd love to drag and drop the stress system into my DND game.

While I enjoy the content of Critical Role, I held off on Daggerheart, for now. I'm really intrigued by Draw Steel though. I saw a couple video reviews and liked what I saw. Enough that I'm considering swapping out DND for DS. I'm not trying to get political--I love my DND, but I'm not a fan of Hasbro and while I believe DND will survive, I wonder if it will have the same soul.

[KILLGORE]

I started in 1979 with DND. Although I really enjoy 5E, there are times I miss 1E/2E. A little of it is nostalgia, of course, but everything was fresh and new--not simply a rehash or re-invention of established content. Back then, I played everything TSR made...DND, Top Secret, Boot Hill, Gamma World, Star Frontiers among others. I found myself branching out to other companies/systems. Played the hell out of some Rolemaster... Original Rifts. FASA Star Trek. Had some great pulp adventures with a game called Justice Inc. I also began wargaming slightly before DND. I ended up owning probably two thirds of everything Avalon Hill made...man I miss that company...another casualty of Hasbro. Also played countless hours of Star Fleet Battles.

Today I mostly play 5E. All of my gaming is done through FG. I tried Foundry, and while I won't say anything bad about it, I simply like FG more. I have a pretty well established group of 6 players, none of whom I knew before we started playing DND together on FG. We've been playing together almost 4 years now. We are planning our first meet at PAX Unplugged (Philadelphia) in November. It will also be my first game convention. We started out playing 5E together with me as forever GM. Finally one of my players asked if I'd like to play and offered to GM Starfinder. So we alternated weekly between DND and SF. Lately, we're still doing DND, but that same player has fallen in love with Dungeon Crawl Classic. We've had a blast running through a couple of funnels and we're getting ready to start a full Lankhmar campaign. Lankhmar is one of my favorite settings, so I'm really looking forward to playing through it. Two weeks ago, we took a break from DND and played the Alien RPG. Most of my group are fans of the movies/setting. I'm not going to lie, it was the most fun I've had GMing something in a long time and my players, who are usually a pretty crunch loving group, stepped out of their comfort zones and dove into playing the pre-made characters--all of whom have their own secret motivations/agendas. We got just half way through the intro adventure, the Last Days of Hadley's Hope. The game really surprised me and even though I know it's not feasible in FG, I'd love to drag and drop the stress system into my DND game.

While I enjoy the content of Critical Role, I held off on Daggerheart, for now. I'm really intrigued by Draw Steel though. I saw a couple video reviews and liked what I saw. Enough that I'm considering swapping out DND for DS. I'm not trying to get political--I love my DND, but I'm not a fan of Hasbro and while I believe DND will survive, I wonder if it will have the same soul.

Your story is very similar to mine as in going back into dnd after many years playing other systems. I enjoyed reading this.

[Mytherus]

This is only my 7th year playing dnd with fantasy grounds. Which also coincides with the same year I came back to the hobby. I played AD&D in the late 80s to early 90s. In high school a couple summers I’d run short games for some friends . I also played twilight 2000 GURPS car wars robotech (literally it was one game though) on or two others I forget. Then the in the mid 90s until 2018 I didn’t play any ttrpgs I only played computer game rpg games. But I got my brother using fantasy grounds too but he plays with a separate group . We don’t play together.

Since I’ve been back to playing using fantasy grounds 98% of everything I e played in the last seven years had been 5e. I played a couple sessions of star finder I think as starting a pathfinder game (as a player) but that fell apart for weird reasons before it ever started. I keep wanting to play different systems but I do like 5e and I have just so much material for 5e and this so much more money tied up in 5e than any other system. That with limited time it’s very hard to switch to playing a different system. I lm making a go at learning daggerheart. There’s stuff I already do not like though in that system but with some of the options for more organized play might fix some of it. (I do not like the no initiative thing not for playing over a vtt with just voice comms , a live in person game that’s different) so if I run that I’m going to use the optional spotlight rule or whatever they call it in the book. (I’ve only just started reading the pdf ).

[Blahness98]

I got into the hobby when a few college friends invited me to play 3e in the tail end of 2002. The group then moved to 3.5e and kept playing for a while before it broke up because we graduated and moved out of the area. My sister and her friends were running a Cyberpunk 2020 game that I was able to join in with for a while before she moved out of the area. And then I kinda just drifted. Reading PDFs of various systems, collecting digital versions of the games I wanted to play but couldn't find a group for. The usual when you couldn't find a group to join in/didn't have time to join in with. Didn't do much aside from read for a few years. Got the bug to play again and went looking for a way to play online. Found FG and thought it was a good tool and managed to score a Dragon Lance game with an awesome GM. Played that until the game broke up in the second book. Tried playing in a few other games, swapped over to the brand new Pathfinder rules around 2010 and started running that. 15 years later, still running PF1e.

A lot of different systems have come and gone in that time that I read and wanted to play. Had fun with Cyberpunk 2020 and really want to give RED a try. The Cypher System is something I want to run at some point and am working on my own take of LITRPG using the system. It will be interesting if/when I get the basics down. I tried but couldn't get into 5e after playing PF so long. Couldn't wrap my head around the cookie cutterness of the characters and the lack of options. Blades in the Dark and the spinoffs of that system have me interested as it seems like an RPG version of the TV show Leverage. Outgunned looks like a fun action RPG. Pathfinder 2e is something I want to play, but my PF1e brain doesn't let me differentiate between the editions even though I do like 2e. Starfinder 1e was just PF in space with unchained rules tossed in, so that wasn't as bad.

Eventually, I'll run some of the settings and systems I have on my shelf, maybe even some of the stuff I have in PDF form from Drivethru. Just got to break my PF1e addiction first..

[mhossom]

I started playing in 1978 with the Blue Box. I still have it and the full set of dice, btw. Over the years, I have played every version of D&D except 4e and 5e 2024. Along the way I have played many other systems, including Traveler, Rolemaster, PF1e, Savage Worlds, and a couple of homebrewed systems.

My current group has been using FG for a number of years now and is currently playing PF2e. I'm pretty impressed how easily FG seems to adapt to all of these systems.

Next up will probably be a Starfinder 2e campaign.

[BushViper]

I'm closing in on 50 and started playing D&D in the late 80s. However, I really cut my teeth on 2nd Edition. I played 3.x, but skipped 4e entirely and have a plenty of time in 5e, but haven't played 5.5, yet.

Over the years I've tried several other systems (Vampire, Shadowrun, GURPS, Mech Warrior, and several others), but I've never gotten even remotely as invested as I have in D&D. My physical D&D collection is truly massive -- which includes 500+ hardbacks (official and third party) and more than 1500 total unique items such as boxed sets, softcovers, etc.

I'm a forever DM and I don't ever see that changing because I don't have much typical creative talent, but worldbuilding is something I'm actually pretty good at so it gives me the needed creative outlet.

My last campaign ran for nearly 3 years and I'm gearing up to run another one of similar length.

[sorvan76]

I'm closing in on 50 and started playing D&D in the late 80s. However, I really cut my teeth on 2nd Edition. I played 3.x, but skipped 4e entirely and have a plenty of time in 5e, but haven't played 5.5, yet.

Over the years I've tried several other systems (Vampire, Shadowrun, GURPS, Mech Warrior, and several others), but I've never gotten even remotely as invested as I have in D&D. My physical D&D collection is truly massive -- which includes 500+ hardbacks (official and third party) and more than 1500 total unique items such as boxed sets, softcovers, etc.

I'm a forever DM and I don't ever see that changing because I don't have much typical creative talent, but worldbuilding is something I'm actually pretty good at so it gives me the needed creative outlet.

My last campaign ran for nearly 3 years and I'm gearing up to run another one of similar length.

Ditto on closing in on 50, lol. Remember getting invited to my first D&D session and I bit their hand off, as I was big into fantasy and had a bunch of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy books, which were choose-your-own adventure books. My first character was a thief, I didn't get to pick as the group were wary of the newcomer, lol.

Anyway, fast forward to now and here I am playing 5e and 5.5e, sort of a fusion at the moment. I've played loads of different stuff over the years. Was really into the Palladium stuff in the 90s, like Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas and Superspies. Always came back to D&D though. 2nd Edition was my favourite. :)