Beginner

I'm completely new to this board and traditional gaming in general, but I really want to play pic related. Where does one start in the world of table-top games? Is there anything I should read up on? etc.

Other urls found in this thread:

roll20.net
actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

Bump

Read the rules, then find a group to play with. Finding the group is the hard part.

Even on here? There's nobody irl I could play with. Also, is there anything about Veeky Forums in general I should know?

bump

Just about every system has a section in the beginning about "How to play Tabletop RPGs." check that out.

>Even on here? There's nobody irl I could play with.
Welcome to the hell that is enjoying tabletop RPGs. It's very hard to find a game and most of the games you find will suck.

Someday you may find a group that you can stick with consistently and play with them regularly across multiple campaigns. Then you will be forever sad when like any group of friends it inevitably breaks apart do to people moving or members getting into a fight.

>Also, is there anything about Veeky Forums in general I should know?
We're a bunch of autists that like playing pretend. You'll see a lot of terminology. Most of it you can discern from the context but otherwise just ask. You'll probably get an answer, even if it's sarcastic.

cont

I enjoy Call of Cthulhu a lot, particularly Delta Green (a slightly modified setting with different focus). However, I dunno how well it'd go as as a GM's first game.

Were you set on CoC? Veeky Forums will always recommend other systems if you can describe what kind of game you're looking for. Inevitably someone will suggest GURPs. I especially don't recommend that for a first time GM.

Also I have never played 3rd edition of CoC. I have no idea if it's any good. I've mostly done 6th and the latest is 7th.

Thanks for the help user! As a side note, how easy is it to start a game here?

>Even on here?
Especially here. Trust me, you don't want your first game to be with a bunch of fa/tg/uys.
>There's nobody irl I could play with.
There are online platforms both for finding and playing games online. Roll20 is a bit of both but it's somewhat dominated by 5e. Look around.
>Also, is there anything about Veeky Forums in general I should know?
Other than some one-liner general guidelines, not really, especially if you're getting into your first game.

A. In most games, it's not the players vs. the GM; it's a collaboration.
B. Some groups expect you to roleplay your character right down to coming up with a distinctive voice and accent, some don't really care; if one group's not doing it for you, keep looking.
C. You can be the GM even if you've never played before; it's a collaboration, and the GM isn't the only one responsible for knowing the rules and making the game fun.
D. Rules are general abstractions; if they don't make sense for some situations, change them, or abandon them if you need to.
E. Published modules, especially the special introductory ones, are a great way to get a new GM or player into the hobby; a provided setting and adventure means you have fewer plates to keep spinning

Never played any tabletop before, just CoC really got me intrigued, I recently downloaded the PDF for the 7th edition as it was the latest, so if I were to start it'd be that one

There is usually a Game Finder thread up all the time. Here's the current one. The tricky part with online games is multifaceted.
1. You have to find people interested in your chosen system.
2. They have to be interested in the type of game you're going to run with that system.
3. They have to be willing to use the same medium.
Generally this is IRC, Skype, or any other chat program that can support a dicebot. Usually helps if it supports some kind of logging.

There are also virtual tabletops. The most common are roll20.net and MapTools.

4. You have to figure out a time to play between everyone's schedules. If any of your players work retail/service industry this is a pain due to shifting hours.

Yeesh, that sounds a lot more time consuming than I thought. Is it required to voice chat, or does it just not work-out otherwise

Depends on the people. Like I said, gotta find people who all agree to use the same medium.

Some people won't do anything but voice because in text games the flow is much slower and people tend to multitask during them. Whereas over voice it's usually an ongoing conversation to keep them engaged.

Some don't like voice and prefer text. The reasons vary anywhere from they want to get their writefag on and enjoy banging out descriptive paragraphs, they're just shy and like the separation that text provides, they want to play a character of the opposite sex and not have their voice make it awkward.

At the other extreme you have people who fully embrace text and to Play By Post. These are generally done on forums. Instead of a getting together at a set time during the week everyone just makes posts throughout the whole week.

These games generally run SUPER slow but some people really enjoy the opportunity to write a lot.

>Play By Post. These are generally done on forums. Instead of a getting together at a set time during the week everyone just makes posts throughout the whole week.

This seems like it would work out best for me. Is it unpopular method though?

I wouldn't recommend pbp for your first game. The game moves realllllly slow, communication isn't smooth, and it eventually just becomes a chore, if it even was ever fun to begin with.

What would you recomend for a first game, voice chat is a bit too much of a hassle considering my current situation, so

I've never done a pbp game. Asked my friend.

"Pretty slow, though it depends on the player. I'm usually fine with a couple or handful of posts per day per player, but monstrous writefags might do dozens of posts a day
Combat can be reaaaaaally slow, though
You know how a single encounter can take up the bulk of one of our [text games]?
In a PbP game, a single encounter can take several days or a week, if not more"

He's probably right. Wouldn't recommend it for first game, let alone GM.


I've got random thoughts on running CoC I'll post in a bit.

In order of goodness
Face-to-face
Online with video and voice
Online with just voice
Realtime text
Play by post

All but the last one are good

>Realtime text
how does one initiate this?

...

Okay, there's a few ways to run Call of Cthulhu. Sorta applies to any game really. All of them are valid ways to play, but make sure your intentions are known to the other players.

> 100% Straight
You run it completely serious and don't hold back on describing the horrors the players run into. Keep even the atmosphere of the OOC serious.

> Semi-straight
Maintain the seriousness of the in-character aspects but feel free to laugh at them out of character. It's perfectly reasonable to find black humor in the terrible fates of your player characters and make jokes about it.

> Beer & Pretzels
This is a general term for any non-serious game using any system. Usually because the people playing it are meeting in person, drinking beer and eating snacks. The game is mostly just an activity to do while everyone hangs out.

Ask anybody else and they can probably describe all sorts game types all along that spectrum. If you want some examples of how to run CoC somewhere between semi-straight and B&P then check out Roleplaying Public Radio (RPPR). actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/
They have a number of audio recordings of games, a large chunk of which are Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green.

Thanks, user! Semi-straight would be a good pace in my opinion

What do you mean?

How do yoy set up an rtt game, also, is this through phone or some other form of media. What separated it frompbp

PBP is done asynchronously on a BBS, mailing list, or something like that. A realtime text game is done on something like IRC, or Roll20 using the chatbox, or any other platform that offers realtime chatting and some way to roll dice without cheating.

The way you find a game like this is just like any other, except you specify thatyou're lookibg for a text-only game.

You post somewhere (here, roll20 forums, or any number of other sites) advertising a game you'd like to run.

Describe the system, the campaign/scenario you intend to run, how many players you're looking for, tell them you're a first time GM, what medium you prefer, and the days you're capable of running.

IDEALLY you get a ton of applicants and are free to pick whoever among them seem the most likable. Otherwise you take what you can get.

Once you've got your players, try and pick a reoccurring time every week (or every other if need be) you can all play. Then just login to whatever you chose to run in. IRC, skype chat, discord, roll20 chat, whatever.


Additional other point I forgot to mention. I would not suggest diving into trying to run a campaign first thing. Try doing a one-shot scenario instead.

Scenario/Adventure/Investigation: The exact term varies by system. But it generally involves the PCs going off to do a specific objective.
> Defeat the bandits terrorizing the town
> Something is killing people in Tinyville and you're FBI agents.
> Your friend claims to see ghosts at night and you've decided to stay the night with him.

Generally these are relatively simple things that can be achieved in one session (a one shot). Depending on your speed and session length it might be anywhere between 2-4 sessions also.

Campaigns are much longer. These are generally a series of scenarios/adventures/whatever linked together by a common theme.

An easy example might be a tv show. A single episode might be a session which is resolved by the end or may be part of a longer arc. An entire season might be the campaign.

Thanks for all he help anons! I think I'm about ready to start up a game (or at least try to)

godspeed, user

in fact, anyone here wanna play? Email's [email protected]