4 ms·

I have read books where the authors have actually “played” the character behind the scenes, taking dice rolls to decide critical events and rolling with them, n

I have read books where the authors have actually “played” the character behind the scenes, taking dice rolls to decide critical events and rolling with them, no matter how catastrophic. It definitely lends the work this “internal coherency” that is mentioned in the article. Feels much more real. And being in a solid tabletop group has been great for my life. Not only do you maintain friendships, but you take part in a shared story. It’s great, and I’d definitely recommend it to HNers who have never tried it before. If someone ever asks you, don’t turn it down - it’ll be worth it.

baud147258 7y ago
I've heard there are also mangas which were based on actual tabletop campaigns like Record of Lodoss war.
jetbooster 7y ago
The author of the web serial Worm did this for a particularly brutal encounter in Arc 8, rolling die for pretty much every character (there were at least 40 involved), even rolling for the main character. Those that failed straight up died. It really added a sense of scale, legitimate risk and downright bleakness to the encounter.
blotter_paper 7y ago
> If someone ever asks you, don’t turn it down - it’ll be worth it. I have enjoyed tabletop games immensely, both as a player and a DM. That said, I wouldn't feel comfortable making the above claim -- I've also had horrible experiences, including one session with a group I never returned to where the DM kept having the only female player's character get raped. Like, three times in one session. It was weird. Other times a DM can try to railroad players way too hard and turn the thing into a short novel that gets read aloud with minimal player interaction, or an overly placating DM can let one inexperienced player run the game off the rails entirely by playing a sociopathic cannibal who impulsively eats key NPCs without natural repurcussions kicking in. I'm not trying to be a downer, but if somebody has a bad first experience roleplaying they should be aware that not all sessions are created equal; I've had all of the above horrible experiences as well as many magical nights of collaborative storytelling, puzzle solving, and tactical decisions with friends. It's a social thing, you need the right mix of people to make it work, and the kind of game that one person enjoys might be horrible for another person (Robin's Laws covers this last point well and has good tips for finding the right mixture of elements for a specific social group, IMO).
- xvector 7y ago
  Sorry, for a moment I forgot how disgusting humanity can be.

baud147258 7y ago

I've heard there are also mangas which were based on actual tabletop campaigns like Record of Lodoss war.

jetbooster 7y ago

The author of the web serial Worm did this for a particularly brutal encounter in Arc 8, rolling die for pretty much every character (there were at least 40 involved), even rolling for the main character. Those that failed straight up died. It really added a sense of scale, legitimate risk and downright bleakness to the encounter.

blotter_paper 7y ago

> If someone ever asks you, don’t turn it down - it’ll be worth it. I have enjoyed tabletop games immensely, both as a player and a DM. That said, I wouldn't feel comfortable making the above claim -- I've also had horrible experiences, including one session with a group I never returned to where the DM kept having the only female player's character get raped. Like, three times in one session. It was weird. Other times a DM can try to railroad players way too hard and turn the thing into a short novel that gets read aloud with minimal player interaction, or an overly placating DM can let one inexperienced player run the game off the rails entirely by playing a sociopathic cannibal who impulsively eats key NPCs without natural repurcussions kicking in. I'm not trying to be a downer, but if somebody has a bad first experience roleplaying they should be aware that not all sessions are created equal; I've had all of the above horrible experiences as well as many magical nights of collaborative storytelling, puzzle solving, and tactical decisions with friends. It's a social thing, you need the right mix of people to make it work, and the kind of game that one person enjoys might be horrible for another person (Robin's Laws covers this last point well and has good tips for finding the right mixture of elements for a specific social group, IMO).

xvector 7y ago
Sorry, for a moment I forgot how disgusting humanity can be.