Dice and Group Roleplays?

[easilyoffended]

Hii,


I'm a little bit confused and wary about group roleplays. Haha, I guess I'm kinda looking for advice on how to enter one and not fail. I tried once since I'm a hands on learner but that was a complete fail. So, I want to avoid that. Big time.


Also, I have question: what is that whole "roll dice thing"???

 

[Pine]

Hey there!


Hmm... well, I guess you first have to know if you're actually interested.


What usually does it for me is reading over the plot (usually found in the overview tab) and seeing if this is something that immediately inspires me with ideas, like scenes popping up in my head or just a character already beginning to shape itself (or I guess more often an already existing character that I could throw in there haha).


Then this is just a personal thing for me, but I like to glance over the characters that have already been submitted and see if they're interesting and feasible, if I might like the role player's writing style, and even sometimes if my character could have some relationship with someone else's (with permission of course, and I guess a classic example of what I do sometimes is role play a dragon for someone to be the rider of or vice versa in that sort of high fantasy setting).


At that point, I've pretty much decided whether or not I like the role play.


If there's nothing else you take from my rambling, it's that you make sure that you read everything the person who created the role play has written in their first posts in the various tabs.


At the VERY least, you should read and understand the rules (and be sure that you have the capacity to adhere to them), then when it comes time to make your character, make sure you do so within the parameters of the role play.


It's also important to understand the direction the role play will be going, which requires familiarizing yourself with the plot and the setting of whatever world it's in.


Some role plays will have a sort of clan life with characters constantly around each other and interacting, some will be driven by world events (i.e., a giant revolution), and some others will kind of be a 'do your own thing' sort of deal.


If you've read over everything and you know you DO want to join the role play but there are things that you're still confused about, don't be afraid to ask questions in the out of character tab (though in all actuality, you'll usually have more luck if you just send the person in charge a message, because they don't always check the ooc thread).


As for dice... that isn't something I really mess with, but I think I have the general idea.


I mean, do you know Dungeons & Dragons at all?


Dice role plays are typically more of the mind set of a role play being a "game" where the person in charge (game master/GM) will provide NPCs (non-playable characters) for your character to interact with and for events to happen, and they're generally a lot less descriptive than other role plays.


The main thing with the dice is to create a more balanced system of what a character is allowed to do and what they can or cannot successfully do, based somewhat on chance, and there's more stats involved...


I'll take an example from an actual DnD game I witnessed in real life.


Someone wanted to rip the arms off of a zombie and basically bitch slap him across the room with them, so after that, he rolled the dice, and lo and behold, he got whatever number that allowed him to do that (poor zombie).


(but in DnD that kind of goes for any move you try to do by my understanding, like how someone later also attempted to intimidate a harp with scissors as payback for making him dance (which sadly failed))


Still, I think there are cases where people will try to implement a dice system into a descriptive role play anyway whenever combat situations are involved, and this is to avoid people being unfair and playing God with their scrawny-ass pre-teen character with no fighting experience suddenly having the stars align just right and some divine being blessing them with their hand and suddenly off-screen making them a martial arts guru that dodges everything and hits their unworthy foe's nose in just the right angle to send that bone straight into their brain.


(But using your judgment of when to not do this is sort of a role player maturity thing and a lot of people struggle with this, partly because they're afraid of their character dying I guess haha.)


Err, I may have gone off on a bit of a tangent, but hopefully you get what I'm saying... and hopefully all of what I typed is even remotely helpful haha.


If you have any specific questions, feel free to lay them on me and I'll do my best to clear it up for ya'.


and welcome to the world of procrastination role playing

 

[White Masquerade]

Oh my God Pine. Stop.


Easilyoffended, don't be easily offended but I'll answer this too.


Just have fun and go with the flow of events. Don't try to go against what's happening; work with it. As for dice role-plays, it's basically the same thing, but you're going to be using the dice-roller a bit.

 

[Pine]

*offended scoff*


Um excUSE ME for being HELPFUL unlike sOMEONE HERE.

 

[Psylion]

From my experience, mind you I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things, I've found that group roleplays are easier to join than dice roleplays. Yet of course it does fall into the whole personal preferences factor. Anyhow, what I 'personally' do when I want to join a group roleplay is basically the same thing Pine said. I have a sort of checklist that I follow before jumping in:


Read the plot > Do I like the plot? > If yes, check out submitted characters to help get an idea of what my character sheet/ skeleton will look like completed and to see who I'll be roleplaying with > Does anything spark your imagination for a character? > If yes, start building character > Submit character to roleplay for evaluation.


From there it's simply a back and forth with the roleplay creator to build a character that fits the world, but still fits into your imagination. I know it's short and simple. Let's be honest here Pine's got me beat in details, I simply tried to crunch that down.


Now for dice roleplays I actually do have experience with Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder along with other tabletop roleplay games such as Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy and variants here and there. Now I don't have any experience using the dice roller system here, but I can take an educated guess and say it runs just like any other dice roller program. Again Pine, great details all hail the master tree lol. Following what Pine said, dice are generally used in D&D and similar games to determine the actions that player characters do. I'll use an example myself using one of my characters from a friends campaign I'm currently a part of.


I wanted to snoop round a bit more and find a clue as to what destroyed an ally outpost. I would take a 20 sided die (or d20 for short) and then roll it. I rolled a 13. Next I add my Investigation skill which was a whopping 3. So my total was a 16 to find any clues. I had to go against a difficulty check (DC) made by the DM (Dungeon Master) to see if I could find anything of value. I didn't succeed in that check so my character stared intently at charred remains of what was left of the outpost and the people who manned it.


Combat works kinda the same way. You roll a d20 plus 'math' against an enemies 'math' (in this case Armor Class/ Spell Resistance) to see if you hit. If you meet or beat their 'math' then you roll for damage based on whatever it is you used. More math is involved but combat becomes fair because there is less detail involved. The best part about dice roleplays is how you, the party, and the DM interpret the rolls. It's boring to go and say as the DM "You hit the goblin with your sword." I mean look at that, that is dull, boring, tacky, whatever you want to call it. But if you say something like: "Tanthios swings his greatsword down onto the goblin. The goblin, unable to move due to the fear presented by the mighty warrior, is cleaved in two. A shriek of pain and fear fills the room as the body falls to the ground with a sickening thud." That's exciting and in turn entertaining.


As long as you can imagine it, and the DM/GM allows it, you simply have to roll well and fill in the detail. Again though there is math so enter at your own mental well being. I'm sorry,maybe my newbie advice won't be much help, but I'm hoping my DnD experiences can transition into this and hopefully my explanation was helpful. I do plan on trying the dice roller system out eventually but I'm just not sure when. Also be aware not all dice roller roleplays run on a d20 system. Most from what I've seen use systems like GURPS where they primarily use d6's or they make up their own dice system. Again quoting Pine, even in more free form (descriptive) roleplays as I like to call them, dice are used simply for combat to make things fair. This in turn requires the DM to come up with a dice and stat system usually. Anyways best of luck out there, hope to see you out there in the forums.

 

[White Masquerade]

Oh my God Psylion. Stop.

 

[easilyoffended]

Ahhh, super sorry for the super late response!


I haven't gotten around to answering you because I really haven't had the time!


I would like to say that your advice has been super helpful! I can see where you're coming from. Honestly while it still seems overwhelming, it doesn't seem so out of my league now? I'm not sure if that make sense? I still seem to be more inclined to do one on one just because I like being able to speak about the plot and characters more in depth. I don't know, group rps seem more messy in a way that one on one doesn't. But I might do a rp with two more people so with all of the advice given, it doesn't look like I won't be able to handle it now.


Numero dos, I'm kinda getting what the dice is. It's to make things fair, right? I have never played DnD ever or ever heard of it but it's a game that relies on rp and fights, right? Like how much damage one character makes and how much it hurts the other? That's what I understood but correct me if I'm wrong. Would you use it in another context or only in fights? I can only see it in fights....


OH AND


a personal thank you to pine and psylion, I appreciate the time you took to write me your long responses!


FYI: Dude, I have tried to like your post or something but my internet/computer just isn't going for it??

 

[White Masquerade]

Oh my God Easilyoffended. Stop.


I wish you the best of luck in your group RP. About the DnD, never played it but it's dice are used for nearly everything. Whether your character chokes on the glass of water they're drinking, whether they can dodge a flying arrow, etc. It's like a normal RP, just with dice and stats I believe.

 

[Doctor Calgori]

I should like to add that it is up to the discretion of the DM how frequently dice are rolled. There are no explicit mandates that dice must be rolled at every turn. That being said, there are times when dice are used outside of combat. Generally the rolls are saved for important things: do you unlock the door, does the guard see you trying, can you convince him you work there, can you patch up after he drubs you into next Sunday, etc.

 

[Ixacise]

Said stuff

Well first thing the way to get used to the style of gameplay of pen and paper rpgs is to git gud. To git gud you must simply play and consume more products.


Also the dice and stats are what it make it "fair" since they provide something tangible and quantifiable within the confines of the game in terms of measure power/prowess/ability and other thngs rather than leaving it all narrative undefined. The dice themselves however make it/unfair for everyone as they add that wrinkle that allows for epic fails & wins with the luck element. If two people have roughly the same numbers in stats they should be evenly matched more or less.


However depending on the game/system being run and the power disparity it will have different effects running from inconveniencing and difficult to shatteringly lethal.

 

[Pine]

Heh, I can understand not having enough time.


My priorities are so skewed that I just "make" time for things, but let's save discussing what a wonderful influence I am for another time.


Hnnn, yeah, I'm afraid that's as much help as I can give you regarding dice role plays.


(Listen to Doctor Calgori and Ixacise, they actually do them lol.)


Now with descriptive role plays...


I honestly started out with group role plays, so I'm kinda' used to them, but I can see where they might appear like a bit much if you've only been doing one on ones.


It's hard to find reliable long-term one on one partners, but coordinating with a group gets to be even more difficult and it generally slows things down a lot.


I honestly don't have a preference between group and one on ones.


Finding someone who actually shares my precise interests for one on ones is a little tricky because I'm weird and not much of a fan of romance in my role plays, but having a single person to coordinate with definitely makes it easier to focus on character relationships and stuff.


I guess group role plays are better for bigger plots that usually have universal events and also being able to have the other characters from other role players to interact can make it seem a little more realistic and less of a need for NPCs...


Ughh, it really depends on the plot and setting and I might just be rambling now.


Let me try again, since obviously comparing the two isn't working. lol


A group role play can look very organized if it's done right.


Unfortunately, this is tricky for some people that are new to GMing, and honestly GMing just isn't for everyone, because it requires both a lot of planning and then the willingness to be flexible if you want it to last long in the long-term.


I don't know which role plays you've looked at thus far, but generally fantasy/sci-fi would have a lot of more detail, which may be why things seem a bit much.


(Except in the case where a GM got lazy like I've never done before *coughs discreetly* in which case that's probably where you got the impression that they're sloppy.)


I think a good example for a fantasy role play done right (probably... I didn't read any of it but I know Sky put a lot of work into it) is The Hexosphere Chronicles.


https://www.rpnation.com/threads/the-hexosphere-chronicles.66461/


But fandom role plays kind of depend and slice of life generally doesn't have as much things to talk about because it's more liable to be character-driven than plot-driven.


https://www.rpnation.com/threads/the-laity-hostel.66978/


^ that's my own that never got anywhere which I think was at least decently organized (though there was an element of modern fantasy of it but let's not worry about that).


In any case, I generally like role plays where I can easily pair my character with another or fitting them into a group of people, which I may have mentioned before.


So at that point, I've had people I've collaborated with some much that it still kind of had that one on one feel of rapidly developing character relationships.


I've created mini-plots that honestly have overtaken the plot from time to time. *nervous laugh*


Idk, I guess another thing about group role plays is that they may be slower, but at least things don't have to all necessarily come to a screeching halt just because one person decides to bail, so they can last longer (again, depending on if the GM knows what they're doing and cares enough about doing it).


You put more into starting a group role play a lot of the time, so you're a little less inclined to just hopping to the next idea (though there are people who still do that totally not me *discreet cough*).


BUT AGAIN


ONE ON ONES ARE TOTALLY COOL AND IF THAT'S YOUR THING, THAT'S YOUR THING lol


I have friends who haven't ever even done that, partly because everyone is so dang obsessed with romance... bleh.


So if you never do a group role play, there's nothing wrong with that.


It's just a different experience, but not quite as different as you may think.


so yeah no problem


i love acting like i know what i'm talking about