let's re-populate this newsgroup

[~lkh]

Hey, anyone reading here?

I just posted a call to action over on mastodon:

https://tabletop.social/web/@wandererbill/108713232989174473

It's an experiment, I guess :D

Cheers!

[Eric Gillespie]

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?

Lurkers unite!

Post by ~lkh
It's an experiment, I guess :D

I starred and shared. Hope springs eternal...

(I was a GURPS GM for many years, don't think I
ever posted here though.)

[~lkh]

Post by Eric Gillespie

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?

Lurkers unite!

Woohoooo!!!

Post by Eric Gillespie
I starred and shared. Hope springs eternal...

we'll see XD

Post by Eric Gillespie
(I was a GURPS GM for many years, don't think I
ever posted here though.)

Cool, I'm going to run a second session of DF Adventure 3: "Deep
Night and the Star", this upcoming friday. I haven't run a lot of
GURPS so far, but it kind of amazes me every time.

Yay!

[Lafe]

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?
It's an experiment, I guess :D
Cheers!

I'm still reading here. Would love to see this place get more active!

Lafe

[~lkh]

Post by Lafe
I'm still reading here. Would love to see this place get more active!

so, what do we do? Some kind of #introductions thread?

lkh

[CBRPunk]

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?
It's an experiment, I guess :D
Cheers!

I'm in the lurker camp (here, rec.games.frp.dnd, rec.games.frp.gurps,
and a few alt.games.frp groups), along with some others unrelated to games.

I'll try to post here too, instead of just on mastodon or my blog.

[~lkh]

Post by CBRPunk
I'm in the lurker camp (here, rec.games.frp.dnd, rec.games.frp.gurps,
and a few alt.games.frp groups), along with some others unrelated to games.

Ah, cool, I didn't know about the alt.games.frp groupsi, will have a look.

Post by CBRPunk
I'll try to post here too, instead of just on mastodon or my blog.

yay, please do!

lkh

[Arnaud Gomes]

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?

Yep, still around. :-)

[Laurens Kils-Huetten]

Post by Arnaud Gomes

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?

Yep, still around. :-)

Hey Nono,

good to see you over here ;-)

I'll try to post something interesting eventually.

lkh

[Justisaur]

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?
It's an experiment, I guess :D
Cheers!
--
SDF-EU Public Access UNIX System - http://sdfeu.org

I was just thinking randomly I should check here. Glad to see more than one
person as I still post rarely to RGFD, but it's dead dead.

- Justisaur

[Lafe]

Post by Justisaur
I was just thinking randomly I should check here. Glad to see more than
one person as I still post rarely to RGFD, but it's dead dead.
- Justisaur

I mean, it's only as dead as we allow it to be.

Lafe

[JG]

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?
It's an experiment, I guess :D
Cheers!

Oh wow, I don't read this group for like a year and all of a sudden
there's stuff here.

I guess I should try to boost that Mastodon post as well. Or maybe not,
considering the audience by this point is drastically different.

[Justisaur]

Post by JG

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?
It's an experiment, I guess :D
Cheers!

Oh wow, I don't read this group for like a year and all of a sudden
there's stuff here.
I guess I should try to boost that Mastodon post as well. Or maybe not,
considering the audience by this point is drastically different.

2 months between activity isn't exactly alive.

Though my virtual 'tabletop' gaming is about as alive. :(

- Justisaur

[kyonshi]

Post by Justisaur

Post by JG

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?
It's an experiment, I guess :D
Cheers!

Oh wow, I don't read this group for like a year and all of a sudden
there's stuff here.
I guess I should try to boost that Mastodon post as well. Or maybe not,
considering the audience by this point is drastically different.

2 months between activity isn't exactly alive.
Though my virtual 'tabletop' gaming is about as alive. :(
- Justisaur

I have mostly seen usenet after it's glory days, so 2 months is like
bustling with activity here. :D

I actually haven't played a proper game since early in the pandemic.
After a few tries over Discord I noticed that just making time to be
able to play was a chore with kids around.

I really should start something again, but I might be a bit stuck in my
ways right now.

The only roleplaying I did was introducing my kid to it. He normally
tries to gang up with the orcs and steal all the treasures in the dungeon.

[Justisaur]

Post by kyonshi

Post by Justisaur

Post by JG

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?
It's an experiment, I guess :D
Cheers!

Oh wow, I don't read this group for like a year and all of a sudden
there's stuff here.
I guess I should try to boost that Mastodon post as well. Or maybe not,
considering the audience by this point is drastically different.

2 months between activity isn't exactly alive.
Though my virtual 'tabletop' gaming is about as alive. :(
- Justisaur

I have mostly seen usenet after it's glory days, so 2 months is like
bustling with activity here. :D

Usenet was 'dying' when I joined, but it was pretty bustling in the
groups I was following. RGFD sometimes had hundreds of posts in some
threads within days, and I couldn't keep up with all of it. The only
one I'm in with much left going on with posts almost every day is
comp.sys.ibm.pc.gaming.action. The monthly 'what have you been playing
this month' threads are usually pretty active. The Elden Ring thread
reached over a hundred posts too. No one limits it to action any more
though, any pc gaming, and even a little console/mobile has leaked in,
and even a touch of tabletop once in a blue moon. The monthly thread
typically has a bit of neighbor like non-gaming updates too.

Post by kyonshi
I actually haven't played a proper game since early in the pandemic.
After a few tries over Discord I noticed that just making time to be
able to play was a chore with kids around.
I really should start something again, but I might be a bit stuck in my
ways right now.

Same here, kids. I tried discord with r20 with the locals, wow that
was over a year ago now! It went a bit too late and I kept falling
asleep, it was also 5e D&D which I find slow and boring which didn't
help with the falling asleep. I never used to fall asleep at games,
even in my college days when they'd go to morning, but I'm getting on
in years.

I also tried running some PBP. I did get a couple months running
FASERIP a couple months ago. It's was fun, but I was having trouble
coming up with things to do, and finding reading modules and sources
too boring.

I keep thinking of trying some AD&D on PBP again as I'm intimately
familiar and could run that off the top of my head endlessly, but I've
tried in the past and players just don't give me enough info eventually
and it peters out.

My favorite was before covid when I ran some chat D&D & Mutant Future
(Gamma World clone) games on roll20, that was voice though, and
scheduling was rough again. Getting people for text chat seems to be
more difficult now. Also my last one imploded spectacularly due to
some conflicts amongst players and playstyles.

Post by kyonshi
The only roleplaying I did was introducing my kid to it. He normally
tries to gang up with the orcs and steal all the treasures in the dungeon.

Awesome! I tried a little with the kids right before covid, didn't get
very far. My son doesn't want to play, even though he was a natural.
My daughter does, but she wasn't far enough along to do much last
time. Also we moved into a small space temporarily 2 years ago, the
it's really cramped, there's nowhere I could put a battlemat down any
more, which I prefer to play with. I was going to try to run Star Wars
original d6 for them, as my son reluctantly agreed to try that, but I
couldn't even get through the book myself.

- Justisaur

[kyonshi]

Post by Justisaur

Post by kyonshi

Post by Justisaur

Post by JG

Post by ~lkh
Hey, anyone reading here?
It's an experiment, I guess :D
Cheers!

Oh wow, I don't read this group for like a year and all of a sudden
there's stuff here.
I guess I should try to boost that Mastodon post as well. Or maybe not,
considering the audience by this point is drastically different.

2 months between activity isn't exactly alive.
Though my virtual 'tabletop' gaming is about as alive. :(
- Justisaur

I have mostly seen usenet after it's glory days, so 2 months is like
bustling with activity here. :D

Usenet was 'dying' when I joined, but it was pretty bustling in the
groups I was following. RGFD sometimes had hundreds of posts in some
threads within days, and I couldn't keep up with all of it. The only
one I'm in with much left going on with posts almost every day is
comp.sys.ibm.pc.gaming.action. The monthly 'what have you been playing
this month' threads are usually pretty active. The Elden Ring thread
reached over a hundred posts too. No one limits it to action any more
though, any pc gaming, and even a little console/mobile has leaked in,
and even a touch of tabletop once in a blue moon. The monthly thread
typically has a bit of neighbor like non-gaming updates too

Every time I come back it's a bit less than before. rec.games.frp.dnd
used to be more or less active, but even that seems a bit slow right
now. Maybe I should check on comp.sys.ibm.pc.gaming.action as well.

Post by Justisaur
Same here, kids. I tried discord with r20 with the locals, wow that
was over a year ago now! It went a bit too late and I kept falling
asleep, it was also 5e D&D which I find slow and boring which didn't
help with the falling asleep. I never used to fall asleep at games,
even in my college days when they'd go to morning, but I'm getting on
in years.

I think 5e must be quite nice as a game, but it really isn't what I want
to be playing. I am more into the whole OSR thing with faster and more
minimal rules. I got burned out on 3rd edition at one point and just
don't want to spend time grokking three giant books anymore.

Post by Justisaur
My favorite was before covid when I ran some chat D&D & Mutant Future
(Gamma World clone) games on roll20, that was voice though, and
scheduling was rough again. Getting people for text chat seems to be
more difficult now. Also my last one imploded spectacularly due to
some conflicts amongst players and playstyles.

My last campaign I noticed that they expected Critical Role and got.
Well. Labyrinth Lord Keep on the Borderlands. It went over well, but
thue pandemic killed that. I noticed I have to make allowances for the
fact that players now are coming with preconceived notions of how play
works, even if they never played before.

Post by Justisaur

Post by kyonshi
The only roleplaying I did was introducing my kid to it. He normally
tries to gang up with the orcs and steal all the treasures in the dungeon.

Awesome! I tried a little with the kids right before covid, didn't get
very far. My son doesn't want to play, even though he was a natural.
My daughter does, but she wasn't far enough along to do much last
time. Also we moved into a small space temporarily 2 years ago, the
it's really cramped, there's nowhere I could put a battlemat down any
more, which I prefer to play with. I was going to try to run Star Wars
original d6 for them, as my son reluctantly agreed to try that, but I
couldn't even get through the book myself.

I think it helps that I was using both my old HeroQuest copy and some
terrain from Mantic Games for that. Also a few assorted minis. I think
the whole physicality is something kids really respond to. I remember I
was completely smitten with HeroQuest at the same age, when I saw it at
my best friend's house, even though I didn't have a clue how it worked
(and quickly found it to be way too limited to what I wanted to do).

[n***@zzo38computer.org.invalid]

Post by kyonshi
I have mostly seen usenet after it's glory days, so 2 months is like
bustling with activity here. :D

Well, I think that NNTP is better than mailing lists.

Post by kyonshi
I actually haven't played a proper game since early in the pandemic.
After a few tries over Discord I noticed that just making time to be
able to play was a chore with kids around.

In the beginning of the pandemic, I have still played GURPS, on the
computer, using a direct connection (since I am the only player and
there is the GM, we do not need something more such as IRC). I used
a command like:

ts '%.s>' | tee -a send.log | nc -Clvt 15154 | ts '%.s<' | tee -a recv.log | sed 's/$/\x1B]0;CONNECTED\a/'

The other side just used PuTTY (since they were on Windows, while I used
Linux), and sent a bell upon connection to notify me they were ready. (I
could also see the window title, which is what the "sed" at the end does.)

Afterward, I used a command like the following to combine the logs:

cat send.log recv.log | sort > full.log

If you want to play by computer, this is a simple way to do it.

However, that has not been used in a while; these days I play in person,
and do not need to do it by computer. We both prefer to do it in person,
rather than by computer.

I also would hope this and other newsgroups would continue to be used. I
have written some ideas before, and perhaps with communication, will be
able to work together to make them. (I wanted to make up "Scientific Role
Playing System", which is fully public domain; I have already partially
done so. I use TeX for typesetting.)

[kyonshi]

Post by n***@zzo38computer.org.invalid

Post by kyonshi
I have mostly seen usenet after it's glory days, so 2 months is like
bustling with activity here. :D

Well, I think that NNTP is better than mailing lists.

Well, it is. Mailing lists have their uses, but they also have a
tendency to die off at one point or another when they become
inconvenient to the hosts (see the old ADND lists, or Yahoo Groups)

Post by n***@zzo38computer.org.invalid

Post by kyonshi
I actually haven't played a proper game since early in the pandemic.
After a few tries over Discord I noticed that just making time to be
able to play was a chore with kids around.

In the beginning of the pandemic, I have still played GURPS, on the
computer, using a direct connection (since I am the only player and
there is the GM, we do not need something more such as IRC). I used
ts '%.s>' | tee -a send.log | nc -Clvt 15154 | ts '%.s<' | tee -a recv.log | sed 's/$/\x1B]0;CONNECTED\a/'
The other side just used PuTTY (since they were on Windows, while I used
Linux), and sent a bell upon connection to notify me they were ready. (I
could also see the window title, which is what the "sed" at the end does.)
cat send.log recv.log | sort > full.log
If you want to play by computer, this is a simple way to do it.

That's a very low tech method for something that still uses a computer.
I am impressed.

Post by n***@zzo38computer.org.invalid
However, that has not been used in a while; these days I play in person,
and do not need to do it by computer. We both prefer to do it in person,
rather than by computer.
I also would hope this and other newsgroups would continue to be used. I
have written some ideas before, and perhaps with communication, will be
able to work together to make them. (I wanted to make up "Scientific Role
Playing System", which is fully public domain; I have already partially
done so. I use TeX for typesetting.)

[Laurens Kils-Hütten]

Post by kyonshi
The only roleplaying I did was introducing my kid to it. He normally
tries to gang up with the orcs and steal all the treasures in the dungeon.

But isnt't that what most D&D players like to do? :D

[kyonshi]

Post by Laurens Kils-Hütten

Post by kyonshi
The only roleplaying I did was introducing my kid to it. He normally
tries to gang up with the orcs and steal all the treasures in the dungeon.

But isnt't that what most D&D players like to do? :D

Most murderhobos I think murder the denizens instead of trying to build
their own little domain with orc minions

[Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha]

Post by kyonshi

Post by Laurens Kils-Hütten

Post by kyonshi
The only roleplaying I did was introducing my kid to it. He
normally tries to gang up with the orcs and steal all the
treasures in the dungeon.

But isnt't that what most D&D players like to do? :D

Most murderhobos I think murder the denizens instead of trying
to build their own little domain with orc minions

That comes later, after enough murder hoboing for it get boring.

(And it's not like there isn't precedent in mythology. Have you ever
read Beowulf?)

[kyonshi]

Post by Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

Post by kyonshi

Post by Laurens Kils-Hütten

Post by kyonshi
The only roleplaying I did was introducing my kid to it. He
normally tries to gang up with the orcs and steal all the
treasures in the dungeon.

But isnt't that what most D&D players like to do? :D

Most murderhobos I think murder the denizens instead of trying
to build their own little domain with orc minions

That comes later, after enough murder hoboing for it get boring.
(And it's not like there isn't precedent in mythology. Have you ever
read Beowulf?)

I think he doesn't actually want to play the usual DnD conflict game, he
rather wants to skip ahead to the part where he builds fortresses, or
when he is the dungeon master.
Which might be good. He wants to play DnD because I got some terrain for
it and he is fascinated with that. But what I think he might be much
more interested in games that are much less about conflict. Not that I
play DnD as a combat simulator anyway.

I have to think what sort of things might hook him into some adventure.
The rules for now are just something for me anyway. Maybe something
about exploration, or a game where he has to build something up somewhere.

[Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha]

Post by kyonshi

Post by Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

Post by kyonshi

Post by Laurens Kils-Hütten

Post by kyonshi
The only roleplaying I did was introducing my kid to it. He
normally tries to gang up with the orcs and steal all the
treasures in the dungeon.

But isnt't that what most D&D players like to do? :D

Most murderhobos I think murder the denizens instead of trying
to build their own little domain with orc minions

That comes later, after enough murder hoboing for it get
boring.
(And it's not like there isn't precedent in mythology. Have you
ever read Beowulf?)

I think he doesn't actually want to play the usual DnD conflict
game, he rather wants to skip ahead to the part where he builds
fortresses, or when he is the dungeon master.

More experienced players often do, until they reach their "second
childhood" phase, and pine of the "good old days" of breaking into
people's homes, murderign the inhabitants and stealing all their
stuff, usually after a night of drinking beer and telling old
gaming stories.

Post by kyonshi
Which might be good. He wants to play DnD because I got some
terrain for it and he is fascinated with that. But what I think
he might be much more interested in games that are much less
about conflict. Not that I play DnD as a combat simulator
anyway.
I have to think what sort of things might hook him into some
adventure. The rules for now are just something for me anyway.
Maybe something about exploration, or a game where he has to
build something up somewhere.

There are a lot of mystery/investigation oriented games out there,
though fantasy ones are less common. Swords of the Serpentine is
based on Gumshoe, which is very narrative in nature and designed
specifically for investigation games. "The rules adapt the GUMSHOE
system to create a fantasy RPG with a focus on high-action
roleplaying and investigation inspired by the stories of Fritz
Leiber, Terry Pratchett, and Robert E. Howard." I suspect one could
easily do a Discworld City Guard setting with it.

(Gumshoe *can* get pretty . . . out of hand and violence oriented,
if you want it to. I refer you to the tale of Old Man Henderson, a
Call of Chtulu game using it, for an example.
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Old_Man_Henderson )

There are also heist games out there, and a heist is pretty much a
failure if there's combat. The joy of a good heist scenario is the
careful planning. If it's done right, the actual heist is an
afterthought. Setting up the scenario can be a *lot* of work for
the GM, though.

If you want to stick with D&D specifically, you can mine those
other games for ideas, and just . . . not use the combat rules
much, if at all.

And, of course, pure exploration, and building things settings.
Both of which can also be a lot of work to set up.

[gbbgu]

Post by kyonshi
The only roleplaying I did was introducing my kid to it. He normally
tries to gang up with the orcs and steal all the treasures in the dungeon.

Ha, I tried a quick one shot with the two teenage boys:

You're in a tavern, there's a distressed lady, lost son etc etc, what do you
do?

I cast magic missile at my brother!

[Alex Schroeder]

Post by gbbgu
I cast magic missile at my brother!

Love it! Well, not really, of course. But it made me laugh.
:D

[Lafe]

Post by gbbgu
You're in a tavern, there's a distressed lady, lost son etc etc, what do
you do?
I cast magic missile at my brother!

I did a one-shot with a 9 year old son and 12 year old daughter.

"You're standing outside a cave on the side of an active volcano. There are
numerous holes in the ground around you, some of them are venting noxious
gasses. What do you do?"

Son: "I look at the holes, what's coming out of them?"

"Roll a perception check." (dice rolling instructions ensue)

"You notice that one of the holes is releasing wood smoke instead of volcanic
fumes."

Son: "I poop in that hole."

I'm not sure what I expected, really.

Lafe

[gbbgu]

Post by Lafe
I'm not sure what I expected, really.

Ha, that gave me a good laugh.