Fate / Arcana OOC

Nope, haven't played it.
Sounds like fun though. : o

It is.

Unfortunately, I've only gotten to play it a handful of times since I got it two Christmases ago.

well, if you're interested in joining in on a dungeons and dragons session, I'll let you know whenever I have a group for it again. : o

might be a while. my last group sort of fell apart without warning.

I guess I can give it a try. :0

well, I'll let you know next time I have a group together. : o

usually, I do a practice session for a new group before I actually run them through a campaign, just to make sure they're on board with the stuff that can happen to them.

Well, I know how it works in-theory. You pick your character. They have a set of stats according to whatever rules of the game are. You lead the through a scenario where each character takes a turn. You usually have to do die-rolls to see if certain things happen - avoiding an attack, working a spell, etc. And unlike our rps where everything is story-based, the story is subject to the game - meaning if you roll incorrectly, your character can die regardless of whatever plans you had for them. I guess it's more random and unforgiving in that sense.

somewhat, but not quite. : o

a good D&D session is only 1/3 combat.
the other 2/3 of the session are RP and problem solving.

Well yeah, I know it's not a constant battle. From what I know, it's mostly piddling about in Lord of the Rings style.

it does have a similar feel to Lord of the Rings because of the primitive setting. : o

but in some ways, the culture is actually more advanced because instead of machinery, they have magic.

if done right, the dungeon master can setup some really interesting scenes.

So how do you get to make your character(s)?

depends on the game. : o

if it's a "one shot", the DM usually makes a handful of random characters, which are then handed out to the players to use just that one time.

for a campaign, all the players make their own characters.
you'd pick:
- race (such as elf)
- background (such as urchin)
- class (such as rogue)
- attributes (strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma)
- skills (like stealth or knowledge of history)

it seems fairly complex at first, but anyone who's been playing for a while can throw together a fairly interesting new character in about half an hour.

Ugh. The human/elf/dwarf/orc race selection is so boring.

if you follow standard tropes, yes, it can be.

part of the fun in it is picking something that doesn't fit though.
orcs are known for having a low intelligence. so, making an orc wizard can be rather comical, because half the time, his spells will fail, and he'll just club you with his staff instead.

I guess it could be funny... if you wanted it to be a comedy.

Can you make up races/classes, or is there only defaults?

a great deal of the game is comedy though. : o
sure, it's about your character growing through struggles, but without some humor, the storylines would often be entirely too dark.

generally, only defaults are allowed, since each has their own lengthy list of traits, but a lot of people doing what we call "home brew" campaigns rework them or simply create new ones. in general, it's easier to make a new race than it is to make a new class, since about 75% of your abilities come from your class.

Comedy is well and good in its place. We've certainly had some in our rps. But I think too much and it swallows up everything else.

Well, I think making new races would be more interesting than new classes anyway.

true. I think the best humor is when someone gets entirely too into their character.

for example, a while back, I was in a group with someone playing a Gnome Rogue, and one of her character's flaws was that she was a kleptomaniac...

so, she would literally try to steal EVERYTHING.
not only that, but she was a horrible liar. so, every time she got caught stealing something, she made up the most ridiculous story that no one above the age of two would believe.

the default races are:
- human
- elf
- dwarf
- half-orc
- half-elf
- halfling
- gnome
- tiefling
- dragonborne

That kind of sounds amusing.

The first five are pretty obvious. I'm assuming Halfling is a hobbit. Gnome... well, I wouldn't presume to know what it's like in this game. I mean, I know what garden gnomes are.

Tiefling... No idea.

Dragonborne... well, I can sort of guess based on that first part.

A halfling is a hobbit, and gnomes are very similar to halflings.
The major difference is cultural. Gnomes usually live in colonies underground, and halflings tend to wander the land in big family caravans.

Tieflings are humans that have suffered some kind of demonic curse, due to some event in their family history. They're human in size and shape, but they usually have a purple or red skin tone, accompanied by horns and a prehensile tail.

Dragonborne are exactly what they sound like. They walk and talk like a human, are roughly the same size as one too, but they're descended from dragons in some way, and depending on what color their ancestors were, they have different abilities.

Hmm, I see.

So they're basically cartoon devils lol. Red humanoids with horns and tails.

Can they shapeshift into dragons? How did dragons manage to have humanoid offspring?

Yes, although they're usually shunned by society for being different. Some of them accept their strangeness, but most feel as if they suffer a curse all their life.

No, they cannot shapeshift into dragons, but they do have "breath weapons". Most of the lore surrounding them isn't that they were directly descended from dragons. It's more along the lines of a dragon saving a human with its blood, and that human's offspring become dragonborne.

I would expect as much lol.

Hmm, I see.

Well, I'm struggling to keep my eyes open, so I'm going to get to bed. Night, Payne. :0

Night, Kitty. ^^

Payne wrote:

well, if you're interested in joining in on a dungeons and dragons session, I'll let you know whenever I have a group for it again. : o

might be a while. my last group sort of fell apart without warning.

Prisma*Illya wrote:

I guess I can give it a try. :0

Payne wrote:

well, I'll let you know next time I have a group together. : o

usually, I do a practice session for a new group before I actually run them through a campaign, just to make sure they're on board with the stuff that can happen to them.

Not sure what you use but maybe with a little work, this software could be a good enough experience

Tabletop Simulator & D&D (pretty decent tutorial/introduction to the software)

Spoiler:

Do watch it to the end and don't skip anything. Everything is informative

If you aren't already using it


Some more links:

http://www.nexusmods.com/tabletopsimulator/mods/277/

Steam Store
http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160/

Some Gameplay (that I haven't watched all off but one may get the picture)

Spoiler:

DnD's pretty fun, especially if you get a good cast of characters and DM.

I think there's a free supplement Wizards of the Coast released which has a few extra races: https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/player%E2%80%99s-companion

Roll20.net is a pretty good free website that lets you host DnD campaigns.