Are You A PnP RPG player?

It's obvious that anyone that visits this forum is at least somewhat interested in computer RPGs, and it's probably fair to say that most of us are at least close to being hardcore CRPG addicts.

My question, and poll, is have you ever played tabletop (pencil-n-paper, PnP) RPGs. I think (and I could be completely wrong) that having played PnP RPGs tends to make a person look for a certain type of CRPG.

I myself have been playing PnP RPGs for over 25 years. I've spent about 95% of that time DMing (bein the game master). I have a group of friends that have been playing together for that entire time, and I have another group that has been playing together for over 5 years.

I'm going to be 40 on Sunday and with a family and demanding job I still make time to run my PnP campaigns. Although we don't get to play as much as when I was younger, we still get together when we can, and we still have a blast.

I've even been lucky enough to begin working (2nd career) as a freelance RPG writer. All those years of creating worlds and adventures actually paid off (much to the surprise of my parents who thought RPGs were a waste of time).

So, chime in on the poll and let me know how playing PnP RPGs (or not playing them) has influenced your computer RPG experiences, and even your life.

narpet

Well, as I voted, I only played PnP RPGs twice, but that really got me into RPGs in general. Especially into C-RPGs.

I was playing the Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge, DSA) RPG system, the one that was the basement for the Realms of Arcania series. I never played another one, although I was one day in a group playing Midgard. They were looking for another player and I was interested. They found another one, however.

I'm still buying the bi-monthly "Newspaper" for the Dark Eye world of Aventuria since 1997. It's running since the mid-80s.

I run a D&D-ish (for those who care, Grim Tales -- a really awesome take on applying d20 Modern class-rules to any type of setting or gameplay) play-by-e-mail game for my old gaming group back in California (we started up with 3rd Edition D&D came out, and I ran a 3-year campaign that took them from goblin-fighting to world-saving). I also play in a weekend game of heavily-modified D&D with some work buddies. And every once in awhile, I'll run a Mutants & Masterminds one-shot for my my wife and her friends.

It has been a *really* long time since I did any PnP ... but my boys are getting older - and interested, so who know

Only October last year I did my first "tip of the foot" into D&D with a starter kit. It really helped me understand TOEE.

Up to then, I was never interested, only in DSA.

Well, back in the 80's DSA (Das schwarze Auge = the dark Eye = Realms of Arkania ) was nearly the only RPG you could get in Germany, so I started with DSA somewhere around 1984 (@ Alrik: The Gamemasterset had still this stupid 3rd-Eye-Mask) and played it till I finished School... after that the Group disbanded. A few years later, somewhere at the End of the 90s I started another Group, this time with AD&D-Rules - the Fighting-Rules seemed better and we were always more the Hack&Slash-Crowd - but we stopped playing about a year later - just not enough time between Jobs and Computer-Games

While I liked the Player-Part more than DMing I ended often as Gamemaster, because no one else wanted to do the Job

Been playing pnp rpg's since I was 8 years old (which would be 21 years ago).

Started playing pnp when my cousin brought the first edition of AD&D from the States back in '82. Switched to GMing soon. I have played and GMed several systems since then... AD&D, old D&D, Tunnels & Trolls, DSA, Traveller editions 1 to 4, GURPS, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Star Wars, Dark Conspiracy, Mechwarrior, Justifiers, Twilight: 2000, Merc: 2000, Karma, Vampire, Earthdawn, Fading Suns... and many others. Our longest campaigns (Mechwarrior 2nd ed. and Star Wars) lasted for over three years each.
Roleplaying also started my love for GW's Fighting Fantasy books (basically solo adventures/choose your own adventure) of which I own roughly 50, about 80 solo game books in all.

Most of my friends are role players, we still play nowadays (although irregularly), mostly on holidays or in our vacations. The systems we still play are GDW's Star Wars, Traveller, Dark Conspiracy and the :2000 games, and finally, Fading Suns. And I started to read solo books to my not-quite-three-year-old son - fights and tests are automatically won .

I used to write reviews for several role playing fanzines and print mags back in the 90s; nowadays one of my two side jobs is writing solo game books.

Does my love for pnp RPGs influence my CRPG selection? I don't know. In CRPGs, I usually don't like TBC or having to put up with a party, unless it's in a military setting. I also don't like isometric view in CRPGs.
Generally, I like games where rules don't hamper the flow. We had pnp gaming sessions without a fight or a single dice roll, which worked well because everybody did stay in character. The less visible the rules, the better I like them, and it's the way for me with CRPGs as well.
Hubby, on the other hand, is a rules fetishist who built his own RPG system because he thought others were lacking while I prefer games like Traveller (first ed... where the only rule a player needs to know is '8 or better on two dice = success').

I had begged and pleaded and generally drove my parents nuts until they finally gave in and bought me the basic D&D boxed set, back in the 80's. I think I was in like 5th or 6th grade. I remember cracking open that set, and reading the entire contents over and over, I was totally enthralled by it. My background was monster and fantasy movies, Thundarr the Barbarian, etc. so I ate it up. I spent days making up different characters of every class, and kept my blue dice with me almost everywhere I went. Unfortunately, I was the only one who felt this way that I knew!

And that's the sum of my prior experience, or "story of my RPG life". Ive always had the stuff, had the interest, but never been around other interested people who wished to seriously play anything other than one-shots with hardly any structure of rules. CRPGs filled that void, and Ive been playing those in lieu of actually playing with other people.

Alas, this story has a happy end tho. I finally came upon some people at school who seriously play, and networked thru them, and now Im playing all the time. Have a game tomorrow AM!

I'm astonished how many people began roleplaying with "Das Schwarze Auge". It's kinda funny. I too, started out with that game. I played a lot of pnp rpgs, but could never really develop an affinity to D&D... it's a bit too much fast food pnp for me really. Anyway, guess the next milestone in my "roleplaying career" was the old warhammer rpg (the first edition) - man, that was fun... we had the best gm ever I think. He really showed us what roleplaying and storytelling really is, and how it should be done.
In the more recent years we ended up playing the best rpg that was ever made - yes, 7th Sea (the original, not the D20 stuff).

Shame on me but I've never even tried any PnP RPG. It's probably because of two things. One being that I came to RPGs 5 or so years ago. So it was already time of computer based RPGs. Second reason is that during the golden era of PnP RPGs it was communism here blocking this imperialistic threat from us poor childer .

I GMed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay back in the late 80's, its Death on the Reik module would make the perfect basis for an open-ended CRPG.

Danicek said:

Second reason is that during the golden era of PnP RPGs it was communism here blocking this imperialistic threat from us poor childer .

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Wizards of the Coast and their evil card trading empire are certainly running dogs of international capitalism

MudsAnimalFriend said:

Wizards of the Coast and their evil card trading empire are certainly running dogs of international capitalism

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Right, I've just checked because I was quite young during that era and really, this type of games were not imported here and they were generally prohibited, played by few chosen that got hold of them somehow.

Started with D&D, but also played Palladium RPG, GURPS, Runequest, Chivalry & Sorcery, Traveller, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, and Tunnels and Trolls.

Played both AD&D and Palladium online and in person. Only DMed Palladium online.

Tunnels and Trolls: Played in person, the solo modules, and the CRPG. Take That You Fiend!

Been playing PnP RPG's since the first edition of D&D, well over 20 years ago. My current group of players has been together ten years this spring. We have a session every other Sunday at five, barring vacations and other interruptions. Currently we're frotzing around in the Planescape setting...

I have played a quite a few other RPG's on the way too -- Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0, Star Wars, and Paranoia spring to mind. D&D is the only one that's stuck, though. I really like the d20 system -- it's dead simple and flexible enough to handle just about anything. I'm not sure if it works as well as a CRPG though.

cutterjohn said:

Star Frontiers

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Oh, this was my first SF RPG; I have fond memories of some of the tougher adventure modules, but the game in itself was horrible . Three classes, three races, one enemy race, a handful of planets to explore, and it took roughly 9 gunshots to down an average character.
I also had the first expansion set (was there ever a second one?) Knight Hawks - then I managed to get my hands on Traveller, never to return. Star Frontiers/Knight Hawks was the only RPG I ever sold, but I was positive I'd never play it again, and the other lad wanted it desperately (and paid quite well).

I played some D&D many years ago; that's where my screen name actually comes from. Good times but eventually I had to move away and all members were already kind of falling out... We lost track of each other and never really got back. I stopped playing Pen and Paper by then, though I still managed to take on some MechWarrior wargaming for about half a year a couple of years ago.

I recently heard of an anniversary edition of Tunnels & Trolls. I'd like to see that, but I doubt I'll be able to get it here (haven't ever seen this sytems in shops).

Tunnels & Trolls was fun... in a satirical way . The adventures (especially solo) were quite good, but game mechanics were somewhat silly - sometimes purposely so, as the game was a not-so-serious reply to D&D.
Think of the combat add (a die roll modifier), for example... it increased with character level and was always added to the damage you dealt IIRC. From a certain level on you could have killed your enemies with the add alone! Of course you had to do the attack roll first, but pffft...
Or fairies. It was extremely difficult to create a fairy character even though fairies were a player race.... but the rules just weren't suited for fairies .

EDIT: Back then I ordered it by phone... the Fantastic Shop had it. Looks like they don't have it listed anymore, not even in their used stuff section.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

I recently heard of an anniversary edition of Tunnels & Trolls. I'd like to see that, but I doubt I'll be able to get it here (haven't ever seen this sytems in shops).

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I have the anniversary edition. It comes in a nice tin, hinged box, and it's a pretty good collector's item. The new rules are easy (as always with TnT) and pretty well written. It also comes with a book of monsters and magic, some six-sided dice, and a book of alternate rules. Also included are a lot of card-stock tokens that you can punch to use as play-aids in place of miniatures. There are adventurer, and monster tokens. And a CD is included with character sheets, and adventure PDFs. It's a pretty good deal for $25.

Keep in mind though, that if you get it, don't expect a full-sized 8.5X11 inch box and books. This set is small, about 7X4 inches.

If you want to get it go to:

30th Anniversary TnT

narpet