Normal is probably the wrong word, but what I'm saying is I don't usually dress in chainmail, or drink actual blood in order to get into character.

I've been playing pen and papers since I was a kid, almost exclusively as a GM/Storyteller, unless I had the rare opportunity to be a player at a convention or what not. I am almost OCD about my games, in that I plot out lots, and that means I read a lot, which means I own a lot of books and know quite a few of the rules. It may be unbelievable, but I also managed to have a typical social life, don't ask me how, I'm just a closet geek I suppose. Anyways, the Pen and Paper Games I am the most familiar with and well-versed in are:

- Shadowrun
- Star Wars: RPG (specifically around the KOTOR, SW:TOR period)
- Legend of the Five Rings
- Paranoia
- Kobolds Ate My Baby (barely counts, but still fun)
- (Yes, I know World Of Darkness, but if you want a WoD fix you probably wanna check out the Camarilla group here. However, I do have an idea for a World of Darkness parody game involving a Zombie plague...)

So, have you ever wanted to play a pen and paper? Or do you have some experience but want to try a new one? I'm new to Bloomington, but I'd be more than happy to start up a bi-weeklyish group. (As a side note, this semester sucks for me, but from now until whenever I manage to graduate, the offer is open). Understand it would not be a LARP (Live-Action), nor would it be the type of game in which we'd sit there and argue the rules, I'd give you a premise, you'd give me a detailed character, and we'd have tons of fun!

So lemme know boys and girls. Contact me here, or however you wish, lookin forward to it!

You don't wear chainmail?


Well I *WAS* interested..

hahaha.

It's not that I wouldn't. But were I to see 6 guys running around boffing, decked out in full apparel, I'd be a lot less likely to walk over and ask to join, then if they were a bunch of everyday blokes sitting around and hanging out. People I know who would have sworn dungeons and dragons was played only by the nerdiest of nerds, have given it a shot and come to love it because they know me, and believe me when I say it's a hobby that can be enjoyed in full without becoming so engrossed in the character you do just god awful things. I remember a news story back in Massachusetts about a man who came out of a gaming shop and reenacted a fight his character had just been in - but his staged battle, with himself, eventually got him arrested and charged. So uh. I'm not that guy.

I did eventually meet him though, and he was wearing chainmail.

Rifts? I have plenty of books and exp with that game....

Little DnD.

Unfortunately my only real experience with Palladium was a couple convention games of Dead Reign (Zombies galore), they were pretty light hearted, I've always been meaning to check it out more.

I played D&D. then I discovered other RPGs. then I stopped playing D&D.

I love Star Wars RPG, I actually just got done with a game a couple of weeks ago, haha. And DnD has always been a blast. But other than that, I actually don't play all that much since school started. If I do find the time, I'll definitely have to see where you guys are headed with this and maybe join in the fun.

The updated edition of Star Wars is so well done, especially the setting books for around KOTOR, plus I'd love to run a game that existed around 50 years before SW:TOR, 250 years after KOTOR, so it's right as the Sith are about to attack Coruscant. I think that'd make for a fantastic campaign, I've worked up some stuff for it.

If we were to do D&D, I'd probably suggest 3.5 Forgotten Realms, it's what I know the best, I think its the most detailed campaign setting (no offense to Eberron), and I'm not a huge fan of how 4.0 basically turns the game into a pen & paper video game.

If you're looking for a radically different, but incredibly entertaining combat system, Legend of the Five Rings (influenced chiefly by Japanese and Korean culture) has a great one, as does Serenity (the Firefly RPG, though it isn't nearly as fleshed out) and Shadowrun (without a doubt the most complicated, but is one of the most open ended, advanced character creation systems I've ever seen).

Oo, that does sound like a fun campaign! I'm a huge Star Wars fan so that definitely sounds like fun.

3.5 is the only version my friends and I go by, really. 4.0 really feels more like a downgrade to me.

I heard about the Legend of the Five Rings, it actually looks pretty cool. The Game Preserve, downtown, had a LFR card game tourny awhile ago. The winner got a katana from the company, it was pretty cool. But as an RPG it seems like it could definitely be a lot of fun.

The L5R RPG definitely gets the shaft compared to the card game. the RPG, compared to other RPGs, is just ridiculously superior than the card game compared to other card games. Problem is, card games are a fantastic business model. Takes very little money to make 'em, you sell them for a ridiculous amount of money per pack, you come up with updates, make others obsolete...it's a huge cash cow. They are neat, in that they take the results of the card game tournaments and apply them to the storyline that effects both the card game and the RPG. Each winter on their forums they simulate a Winter Court, where players can apply to act as one of the major characters participating in the court, and then their actions in the forum-based game, ran by the designers, effect the storyline. It's cool, but the RPG doesn't get the attention it deserves. For example, the 3rd edition rulebook left out some serious shit, it gave the stats for Boars, but not. say. Horses. Those things, that Samurai ride sometimes. So the Revised Edition came out and fixed a lot of that stuff, except they apparently didn't have a copy editor, so there are hundreds of minor mistakes. If you're meticulous like me, you've gone through and edited it yourself with the 50-something pages of errata.

Now that I just scared you out of it, I will say this. The setting and the constraints it puts on your character makes for the most entertaining roleplaying I've ever experienced. You want to lie? Well, you can't without severe consequences, so come up with an honorable alternative. You want to marry your true love? Unlikely, your family probably won't allow for it, and if you do get married, all your enemies will go right after her. Much better to get an arranged marriage and see her on the side...but what if its discovered you're cheating? The result is some seriously conflicted characters, a lot of big choices, and some Shakespearean quality tragedies. I highly recommend looking into it, though it is definitely the RPG with the most work for the GM, and it's only for those who love to come up with a backstory, to come up with a reason for every skill, etc.

D6 is the only star wars for me.

I'm way too old school for all these "kids these days" games, and varieties thereof.

Classic Shadowrun was great though, and it's back in production thanks to Catalyst game labs...

Catalyst is doing a fantastic job with it too, the 20th edition book made some nice changes, definitely helped clarify some of the rules pertaining to magic and the matrix - definitely two of the coolest (but most confusing) parts of Shadowrun. I'm waiting for a Boston sourcebook, the old one was fantastic, and some of the fluff is still useful, but decades have passed in game time since then.

It's been a long time, but it's summer now, and I have a place, and I've been craving some pen and paper and some board games

I'm thinking of inviting some people over, having some beers and food, and sitting around playing board games or starting an RPG off. It's totally fine if you've never played one before, I'm just seeing if there is anyone out there in B-town that's interested. I'm thinking Shadowrun, a fantastic futuristic pen and paper (scroll up in this topic for a little bit more on it), and I have a lot of experience running it. So, anyone down? I'm unemployed (sigh), so pretty much any day or time works for me. Yarr!

This Shadowrun campaign has been a lot of fun so far!

I'm new to tabletop gaming, I've played one campaign of Vampire the Masquerade, but I wanted to see if Gaming @ IU has tabletop groups I can join. I'm flexible on the game and campaign, WoD was really fun and I want to get back into a campaign.

There's a group on Facebook I started called Settlers of Bloomington. Feel free to join that group to find more people in town to play Settlers with, if you play that. Otherwise, there are some of us here who play tabletops occasionally, myself included.