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13:32, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Anyone looking for an OST style game? (ADnD) (5e-ish)

Posted by Crazy_Roleplaying_Gnome
Crazy_Roleplaying_Gnome
member, 1229 posts
He's Crazy, He Roleplays,
AND HE'S A GNOME!
Mon 21 Nov 2022
at 06:21
  • msg #1

Anyone looking for an OST style game? (ADnD) (5e-ish)

Hey guys, I've been gone for a long time but I'm definitely looking to getting into a new game. I'm also not really sure how active this site is anymore? I'm sure the pandemic did a number of good things for the site... As it did with role playing online in general.

So to the point...

I'm wanting to run something that reminds me of the older games that I played years ago back with the older systems in person and on this site... I feel like I was lucky in that some of my first RPG experiences were with those bitter old guys that played in their basement and I'm feeling nostalgic for that sort of vibe again. So I'm looking for people who are either old school, or really interested in playing that style.

I used to be pretty obsessed with updating everything, seeing the updates on the systems, etc. But I know I'm getting old because I've been obsessing over content from first edition and second edition, including stuff like Dragon magazine.

The later editions just don't have that same grit I'm used to and most of the players are 5th edition are whiners when it comes to me trying to put restrictions on things or claiming that a dragons breath should be 30d6. I think they're restriction breeds creativity, and I think that forcing people to work around conditions, mechanics, and can't just rush in and murder hobo everything without there being serious consequences.

So what's the idea?

I'm really interested in having a self contained homlet style town that we can kind of explore / Dungeon delve / long-term play by post sort of thing. One of us posts, the other posts, I'll post the results, that sort of thing. If we go off on a tangent in the roleplay areas that's fine, but we'd be posting in turn order with combat and delves.

Hopefully we'll be posting more than a few times a day for awhile... Then maybe after we feel like we've thoroughly explored this town we could move on to another location nearby, thereby spiraling out and growing the world organically over time. Like maybe there's a big bad in-game boss and the location you guys are starting in, and the goal is to build up your characters to eventually face this villain. Sort of like how Elden Ring has locations that have boss centric storylines leading up to the fight.

The main real life game I run is in the Forgotten Realms... But I kind of want to do something different, so either like a brand new world or something like greyhawk?

Not sure if I'm able to do NSFW games anymore as when I was in high school I was trying to get away with that shit and didn't. Lol.

But if I can I'd like to have that sort of mature / adult vibe as I'd really like to focus in a grim dark setting with more consequences, NSFW stuff, etc... Still holding on to the fantasy tropes of a variety of races, some costly high magic, eldritch gods, etc. I know grim dark is kind of overrated at this point but I really wanted Elden Ring / Berserk / Warhammer kind of vibe, where Gods are eldritch horrors and injury has serious consequences like losing limbs or eyes... Stuff like that. Where characters dying is really commonplace and most of you won't even get past level 5 let alone level 10.

What is that, like medium fantasy?

I'm not exactly wanting to restrict as tough like having your stats define your race and stuff like that. So think of it kind of a looser form OGL 5e combat using old school stats, monsters? I guess? Like how it specified that magic weapons glow with a dim light. Or that skeletons basically just had 1d6 hit points and hit for 1d6 damage.

I'd like to get some interested players together to discuss some of the possibilities.

Would anyone be interested in playing in something like this? I'm only planning on running maybe two or three games total on the site for now... And this will likely be one of the only games with a system that I run. (Though it would be fun to run a marvel superhero game as well. Maybe without the marvel stuff since that's overdone. Lol.)

I need something to do in between my other projects and long stretches of boring nothingness to and I'm feeling really nostalgic for the play-by post style game.

What do you all think?
This message was last updated by a moderator, as it was in need of a minor tweak, at 15:56, Mon 21 Nov 2022.
Larson Gates
member, 30 posts
Mon 21 Nov 2022
at 13:03
  • msg #2

Anyone looking for an OST style game? (ADnD) (5e-ish)

If you're looking for several posts a day from players then I'm afraid you're living in cloud cuckoo land.
The OSR game I'm in most of the player can barely maintain a post every 3 days, and in my own game once a week.
Even once every other day is often openly optimistic as RL has a habit of getting in the way, even for those of us who might be able to post more frequently, but RL affects us as well.

So would your concept include such classes as the Dragon Monk (as in the revised Monk from Best of Dragon)?
This message was last edited by the user at 20:53, Mon 21 Nov 2022.
V1510n
member, 9 posts
Suffering for her art
Tue 22 Nov 2022
at 21:54
  • msg #3

Anyone looking for an OST style game? (ADnD) (5e-ish)

Dark Fantasy is a fabulous theme and can really tie back to some of the pulp sword and sorcery/lovecraftian crossover stuff from people like Clark Ashton Smith. Having it as Adult, with due consideration for the RPOL ToS allows for some descriptive writing and scenes.

Consequences can be fine as long as the GM isn't trying to play against the players to prove how smart they are. Telling a story is still, IMHO, the most important element. You should have a clear mechanism to allow people to resume, somehow, with a new character. Having a concept like a luck/fate point which is refreshed every so often to allow for a miraculous escape can mitigate some of the "well I rolled a 20 so you're all dead" stuff. It can also move the story along.

If I was going to look at the levelling I think I'd either start at lvl 3 or halve the xp to get started, and at least give the characters a chance to survive the GM rolling max dmg. Then you can slow levelling down from lvl 5 onwards when most classes have their core abilities in place. Levels 3-7 always felt like the sweet spot.

I think the benefit of 5e is the degree of consistency and simplicity for core rules relative to the sprawling and inconsistent stuff from earlier years where Dragon felt like an arms race sometimes. It doesn't mean the classes are balanced for 5e of course.

I agree with Larson, you prob won't get a few posts a day as RL and people waiting for someone else to post ties it down. It doesn't mean it couldn't be a creative, high quality game. One way around this is for a smaller group i.e. 3 characters, maybe a hero and sidekicks but that raises the stakes not to just kill off the characters randomly. Innthat scenario I think you need to de-power the monsters to reflect the true strength of the characters.

I like the idea of something Hommlet style. Keep it manageable. Sure, the characters need to understand something about the wider world but, if they are starting at Lvl 1, then what they know is probably just rumors and gossip and may not even be consistent between each of them. Having an entire FL or WoG map is unecessary.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:10, Wed 23 Nov 2022.
Smoot
member, 165 posts
Wed 23 Nov 2022
at 05:06
  • msg #4

Anyone looking for an OST style game? (ADnD) (5e-ish)

Out of curiosity, have you heard of Five Torches Deep? It seems like just what you're describing (mix of 5e mechanics and OSR outlook).
Andhaira
member, 579 posts
Wed 23 Nov 2022
at 19:21
  • msg #5

Anyone looking for an OST style game? (ADnD) (5e-ish)

Shadow of the Demon Lord or Best Left Buried would be the systems I would recommend for a game like this, and I would be up for it.
Smoot
member, 166 posts
Fri 2 Dec 2022
at 13:33
  • msg #6

Anyone looking for an OST style game? (ADnD) (5e-ish)

I'll keep an eye out for this, too. Variety is great.
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