Pen and Paper role-playing games.

[TimmyThink]

When ever I tried playing these as a kid they always dissolved in fights and accusations of cheating. Playing super nintendo was just easier cause when you got your ass kicked in Street Fighter 2 there was no excuse other than getting your ass kicked.

Also they always seemed tedious tracking your own states and having do math, it just seemed like way to effort to play a game.

[Puck]

Also they always seemed tedious tracking your own states and having do math, it just seemed like way to effort to play a game.

Ah, but that's where part of the fun lies in being a player my friend...complete and total control over how you wish to customize your character mile: Only the most basic math skills are involved (if you can add and subtract, you can play these games mile: )

It can seem a little overwhelming with all the options presented to you when designing your character at first...but if you invest the time into making one with a memorable and unique personality, he or she will leave a lasting impression on the game and feel like a real integral part of the fictional world, rather than a bit player set against a papier mache background.

I will give you props for mentioning Street Fighter 2 however....that game kicked ass when it first came out :biggrin:

[TommyinKY]

I always liked the translucent polyhedral dice. They made me think of a bag of jewels.

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[Puck]

I always liked the translucent polyhedral dice. They made me think of a bag of jewels.

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Some of those dice are ridiculously expensive though...check out this Amazon link and see what I mean.

http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-The-Requie...264&sr=1-2

[Pix]

Is Vampire any good?

I personally enjoyed it, it was a well thought out world that made sense to me (of course they made changes to history, etc, to account for vampires and other supernatural forces), but mostly I liked the sophisticated “let's pretend” and making a story together with all my friends. But then that's pretty true of other role playing games as well.

Pix...those sound like amazingly fun times. I have always wanted to run a Planscape session myself, but could never find the books:

Planescape was fascinating to me because of a concept that didn't survive past the 2nd edition: the concept of "philosophers with clubs" who held extremist views, and the power of belief on the Outer Planes (the spiritual realm of gods, moral & ethical alignments, and the souls of the dead) can impose special abilities (and limitations) not only on believers (in an extreme case a child believed his toy sword was magic so hard that he manage to wound a deva that could only be hurt by magic) but enough together could even affect gods (which is why they wanted worshippers as their belief gave them their power) and planes, and if enough people in a town started to believe differently then it could actually move, sometimes to another plane completely. Or as explained in a fanfic of mine (the one featuring kender):

His dad was such a clueless sod. A hyped up Measure, that is commander, of the Harmonium, he was always going on about the need to combat chaos, and the glorious new age that the Harmonium would bring to the multiverse. Things like fun, joy, individuality were threats to be guarded against, lest they topple the universal harmony.

Yeah, right. What a screed.

If the planes were shaped by beliefs, moral and ethical alignments, and other philosophical and spiritual concepts, then he'd choose the beliefs that shaped Arborea rather than Arcadia. It scared him to think that if the Harmonium—who were attempting to control all the planes by uniting everyone under a single philosophy-succeeded in their goals to stomp out the very concept of freedom, fun, and whimsy, that Arborea would cease to exist.

If the Harmonium were to ever decide that mercy and compassion were as important as law and hierarchy, then maybe there'd be something redeemable about their vision. He knew that some of the paladins and celestials in the faction were trying to impart these values, including Faith who had become the Factol since the assassination of her husband, but had not yet succeeded. In fact, the Harmonium had even faced conflict from some of the celestials and beings of Mount Celestia, the plane where Goodness was just as important as Law (much like how Goodness was as important as Freedom in Arborea). And Lenny's own father, Measure Two Tyrm, considered the question of Good and Evil (essentially defined as to whether a being thought helping others or harming others was important in achieving self-fulfillment) was a distraction to be ignored. His only concern was Order through Harmonium Law

His family liked to say that a carefully considered plan beats spontaneous action every time. Maybe that was true in Arcadia, given how belief shaped the planes and those that believed that tended to live in Arcadia and not Arborea, but here in Arborea he found the exact opposite was true (just as the locals believed).

Sylvie dropped her eyes. "Sorry. I'm still mad at those Hardheads. I mean, if the Hardheads manage to establish themselves here, White Sands will be ejected from beautiful Arborea into the Outlands, and might even be dragged all the way into their nasty realm of mindless obedience and ridiculous order, where dusk and dawn don't even exist, since everything is black or white, day or night, there!

As you know, the prevailing beliefs, morals, and ethics affect the locations in the Outer Planes, and the evil the Harmonium did caused many of their prison camps to be ejected from the plane of Law with a preference for Good. And if they get control of White Sands, then this place will be torn from Arborea, and possibly dragged to their own idea of Heaven. Though what they call Heaven is what I'd call Hell!"

This game got me very interested in philosophy, and many of the factions were based strongly on real world counterparts (though again taken to extremes as the planes seem to respect extreme, uncompromising beliefs most of all and are most easily shaped, that is reality rewritten, by them, which just encourages a fanatic extremism, including in alignments as many beings, spirit and mortal, sought to be paragons of their alignment, and all too often try to convert the rest of the multiverse to their beliefs & alignment, even with war).

But I wouldn't recommend getting the game books now as they're far too expensive, and to make it worth it you really need to get the boxed sets, Factol's Manifesto, etc.

In both cases V:TM and Planescape it had a slang and unique vocabulary that drew me into the story as well and made the concepts more real for me. It was not only escapism at its finest (without commercials, canned laughter, or lack of suspense as the hero attempted a heroic deed they get away with in movies all the time as we knew the hero just might not make it!) but a good way to socialize with others as well (another difference between almost all other media).

[jaxc]

i used to have a ww2 themed D&Dish board game(never actually played though and was lost in a house fire).

[TommyinKY]

V: TM was really crafted from top to bottom to be a modern gothic horror game. You play the protagonists but not really the good guys.

It's fun to play because it allows quick definite immersion with some conflict.

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[Puck]

I mentioned this previously in the "favorite video game" thread...but has anyone played the computer game "Planescape Torment?"

Keeping with the traditions of the Planescape setting from the books, this has got to be one of the most deep and philosophical video games I have ever experienced....and a great introduction to the multiverse for newbies to the Planescape setting mile: