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While I was reading the Girls and Gaming thread, I was wondering about another kind of gaming: pen-and-paper RPGs. It seems to me that the stereotypical RPGer is the D&D geek, who is inevitably male. But I want to know what's beyond the sterotype.
I don't personally know any girls who do pen-and-paper, but I'm sure they're out there. So, mis amigas de Hatrack, how many of you have ever played RPGs?
Posts: 1631 | Registered: Sep 2001
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Back when I played P&P RPGs, the girls were few and far between, and I never played with any. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I knew several girls who RPed online, if that counts. It was World of Darkness stuff, most of us playing Mage.
Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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We had a game going for a coupla years. Then 3.5 rules came out and we quit. We had 4 guys and 3 women.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote: We had a game going for a coupla years. Then 3.5 rules came out and we quit. We had 4 guys and 3 women.
Really? How come? I thought the 3.5 rules were a massive improvement, especially with the ranger and the monk....
Posts: 1631 | Registered: Sep 2001
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Come to think of it, I also had several girls in a different gaming group, a Marvel Supers game (also online). The best of them was also running her own post-apocalyptic Supers game, which I was invited to join. Unfortunately, she died of an alcohol overdose a few months later. Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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3.5 nerfed casters to oblivion. The reason casters have such a hard time at low level is because they become uber at high level.
They not only nerfed casters at high level, where they were over powered, but made it even harder on the lower level casters.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I've played D&D in the past. Actually a group of the girls in the department were thinking of starting a game once summer started. I don't quite understand why RPGs are stereotypically male. I mean it's make believe, story telling, and hanging out with friends. I suppose it's just the geek association or something. And that just doesn't deter me.
Posts: 872 | Registered: Mar 2002
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In what way? It's true that 3.0 and 3.5 have tried to eliminate the "scaling" that used to be present in earlier versions (so that fighters, once supreme at low levels and weak at high levels, remain consistent -- and so that wizards remain roughly as powerful throughout, rather than slowly arcing up and over other players), but this hardly represents a "nerf;" it simply means that people playing high-level campaigns now have more options available to them.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I use to play D & D and AD & D. Online games frighten/intimidate me, but I play AD&D computer/PS2 games presently. I do tend to gravitate towards the elven characters Posts: 72 | Registered: Jan 2004
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I played a few D&D campaigns as a kid. My older brother was the DM. He did a really great job, I thought. Those games were a lot of fun. Haven't played since though.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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pre buffing your ability scores goes away and you can't haste to double cast in a round. I forget what else was troubling about it but those are the things that stick in my mind.
Especially the double casting. With monsters being magic resistant at high level, the fight will be over before you get a spell to stick. With double casting at least you have a shot.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I play RPGs. I started with LotR a few years ago, and then moved on to Star Wars, D&D (2nd ed.), and some other random RPGs. My favorite would have to be D&D, though. I have a pyromaniac mage. Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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So your primary objection to 3.5 is the single change to the Haste spell, which almost everyone agreed was overpowered in 3.0 -- and which in no other version of D&D permitted a mage to cast twice a round?
In fact, ONLY in 3.0 and 3.5 is it possible for a standard mage to cast twice a round; while Haste no longer makes this possible in 3.5 (transforming it from a must-have third-level spell for munchkins to one that is, as it used to be, merely a nice way to improve the fighters in the party), it's still possible to Quicken spells and cast more than once a round in this fashion. That's one more way than existed prior to 3E. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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No Tom, that's just the one that stuck in my mind, along with the nerf of the +1d4+1 stat buff spells.
I also seem to remember they did some change to sleep I found objectionable but I can't detail what that was. It's been a year or two since I played. (when DID 3.5 come out?)
But back to the haste spell.. with the end of the extra "partial action" it destroys the pace of the game for casters as well.
Wiz: "Ok, I cast Polymorph other on that dark elf" DM: "Roll your spell resistance." Wiz: "3+level" DM: "You fail. NEXT!" Fighter #1: "I will now roll all 6 of my attacks individually and fumble over the math. My turn will be over in 7 minutes" Fighter #2: "Then it will be my turn for my 6 attacks and bad math."
You get the picture.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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It sounds like your REAL problem is with spell resistance, not with the spells themselves. While I agree, to some extent, and think some of the SR values were definitely jacked up too high (which is why I house-ruled the way SR works in my game), I should also point out that high-level casters have NUMEROUS ways to improve spell penetration and save DCs. If they don't avail themselves of these, they kind of deserve what they get.
That said, I had enough quibbles with enough of the changes in 3.5 -- especially facing (which should NOT be square, IMO) and the duration of buff spells (which are useless under the new system) -- that I now run most of my games in a sort of hybrid.
I find it odd that you stopped playing ALTOGETHER, rather than just deciding which ruleset you preferred. Why did you do that?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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We tried a hybrid of 3.0 and 3.5 for a while, but nothing new was coming out for 3.0 and we'd been playing for years anyway so we decided to put it to bed.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Okay. With all you women playing D&D and whatnot, how do I convince a girl to get into an PnP RPG? Specifically, I'm trying to get my girlfriend interested.
What's strange is that she knows a lot of the mechanics of 3rd ed D&D because she plays Neverwinter Nights religiously, but she won't play it PnP. D&D isn't my favorite roleplaying game (it's too much of a rollplaying game, if you know what I mean), but it would be a step in the right direction. The problem is that I can't even get her to try it.
[edit] I have the core 3.0 books and refuse to get the 3.5 books. They're not different enough to warrant the $90 or whatever to buy the new ones. I don't have that kind of money to spend. I don't even play D&D that often, my d20 games of choice are Star Wars and Spycraft (happily, I'm GMing a Spycraft game this summer and playing in a Star Wars game, too!)
Does anyone here play any Silhouette games? Heavy Gear, Jovian Chonicles, Tribe 8, Gear Krieg, or even Core Command? That's a truly great RPG system.
How about Nobilis? Fading Suns? Shadowrun? Any non d20 or non-White Wolf games?
AD&D 2nd Edition D&D 3rd Edition Rifts/Palladium White Wolf (Vampire/Werewolf/Mage) Deadlands: The Wierd West Traveller Call of Chuthulu (sp?) Boot Hill Mechwarrior Shadowrun Paranoia Elfquest (the RPG) Babylon 5 (the RPG) Toon Marvel Superheroes Various other sci-fi/fantasy PnP games
I also play tabletop wargames- Warhammer 40k Warhammer Fantasy Battletech Babylon 5 Warmachine
On PC I play or have played within this past year- Battlefield 1942 Medal of Honor Sacred Neverwinter Nights Everquest Final Fantasy Online The Sims Command and Conquer Master of Orion 1&2 Half Life Birth of the Federation Civilization Dungeon Keeper Diablo 2 Freelancer Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
As you may be able to tell, I am a geek.
My advice to get your girlfriends/wives to play is to play *with* them. For computers, set up a LAN and play multiplayer. For pen and paper run a mini game with you as the GM, just you and her. She may feel intimidated with a lot of other people around, so this lessens performance anxiety. Plus its special time for just the two of you. Focus on roleplay interactions with NPCs and allow her character to get to know them. Keep dice rolling to a minimum (you can work that in once she's gotten used to the idea of roleplaying/telling her own story). Don't have her come up with her character background unless she wants to, use your plot to *make* her character's background. Make sure any combat you feel like doing is for a good purpose (not just "you have been spotted by an orc and it runs in to attack") and make it an integral part of the plot. Above all, make sure she's having *fun*. The more fun you make it, the more she'll want to play.
I probably won't ever stop gaming, but I can tell you this... I wouldn't have nearly as much incentive to play if my husband didn't play along with me. Its just more fun that way. Posts: 262 | Registered: May 2004
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