My introduction and seeking guidance.

Hi Everyone Thank you for taking the time to read my post and offer me some advice :) It's great to be here and meet you all! My name is Casey and I'm 26 years old. I live in England so I am currently at BST or GMT+1. I am new to table top gaming but I have quite a good history of computerised rpgs. I enjoy mostly the older dos games such as MegaTrav and Al Quadeem. I have tried to play the more modern MMO but I find them to be such a big frantic rush for reward with very little role play and the only real goal to be had is min/maxing. I love exploring these worlds but you never get a chance to take a moment to appreciate the world you are in as the other players will complain that you are being too slow. I like Dwarf Fortress and that helps scratch the itch I am after, I enjoy having a lot of abilities and a big character sheet ^_^ I have been interested in Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing games for as long as I can really remember and I started off with the fighting fantasy books and lonewolf. But I have never found the social group to play which is unfortunate but it looks like this website could be the answer I have longed for. However, as I am quite new I don't really feel that jumping into something like DnD head first would really be for the best. I wouldn't want to promise to commit to something that I might at first struggle with and really I would prefer a game that I can spend a few hours playing that ends when the game ends so to speak. I have been given advice to start on, and apologies if I get spellings wrong here because I have only heard them in voice, but Hero Quest, Dragon Strike, Castle Ravonloft, Wrath of Chardalon or Descent journeys in the dark have all been recommended to me. What I need to know is though how popular any of those are on here so I can balance time it takes to find a game. I do have the problem though that I don't actually have any of the rule books for these games and it might be difficult for me to get them unless they provide something like a free cheat sheet that can give you all the basics and the DM I am paired with is willing to be a little patient with me. Hopefully in time I will get to know some nice people and I can ease into something a bit more detailed later. I am completely willing to take on any character that the DM would like me to as I am still new and I feel it would be nice to experience a range of different play styles, again this is why I find the one session model to be a lot more appealing. The most complicated game I have ever played albeit briefly was space hulk so I do feel ready to take it a little bit further ^_^. Many thanks once again and hopefully we can roll some dice together soon Casey

Just for the record, most of the games you listed are more board games than pen-and-paper RPGs. they share a lot in common by design, but the reason you're unlikely to see them here is that they require special boards and cards and dice mechanics that require a lot of effort to set up on Roll20, and I don't know as anyone has done it. If you're looking for an actual group, you may want to consider applying in a thread for a newbie-friendly D&D game of any edition, or whatever other system you're interested in. 5th Edition just dropped, so a lot of people are new to that, seems to be popular, but 4E is very easy to learn too. And props for knowing how to play Dwarf Fortress.

Thank you for such a quick reply. Oh I knew they required boards but that's okay. I really don't know the limitations/features of this website yet but I thought it best to ask :) With Dungeons and Dragons is it possible to just play a single game or is the only way to play it in a big campaign that spreads over months? I have no idea which class I would like to play yet so really it would be nice to play a few small games until I get an idea if that's possible? Otherwise I guess I should hop on ebay, buy and read through the book and find a time slot to commit to :)

It's certainly possible, though one-shot games tend to be a bit more difficult to organize, it all depends on the DM. It really depends what system (D&D is certainly not the only one out there) you choose, but 3.5/Pathfinder is entirely open source, meaning all the rules are online for free, so it may be a decent reference point if you're considering it. Outside of that, try and assemble a group of people that want to play what you do, I guess? New player groups are an iffy proposition, so I don't tend to put them together often, but I sometimes run Pathfinder and 4E one-shots if I have time.

Here is a link to a UK based group of players , in case you are looking fro something in your time zone.

I have heard good things about starting off with Pathfinder, and if the rules are free then that's even better! I've got a bit of insomnia tonight unfortunately, but I will give the rules a read tomorrow and if it sticks then I will try to find a group :) Thanks for the advice guys. One last question though, do I need to wait for a new campaign or is it possible to join one half way?

The one I can offer you is not exactly what you are looking for (we do NOT have big character sheets, we have small sheets). But my campaign offering meets several other criteria for you. It is easy to start and welcomes new players. There is moderate role playing (but minimal back story), and plenty of monsters and treasure. It is in the style of "old school revival" and "dungeon crawling". There are different ages & genders among the players. Your character can do lots of things from your narrative imagination. However it is not a long list of abilities, more of an opportunity to imagine and describe how your character acts and what they try to do. The game system is "Basic Fantasy RPG" and the campaign is titled, "Explore dungeons inside a strange world." The rule book is a free PDF download! You only need to read pages 1-53 to fully understand being a player. You can start playing without reading it. There are 4 species (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling) and 4 classes only (Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Magic-User). We make the character in about 10 minutes. My game style is an "open table". You can join the game when-ever you're free, if we are playing. You can leave the game when you need to go. We play usually once or twice a week. You don't have to commit. Just show up when you want. If this interests you click my Campaign link & read more about it & get the free rule book link there. Then reply in one of the campaign threads ("Scheduling") to say when you can actually play it. We are actually playing it tonite & tomorrow, Sunday and Monday this week. Also Friday. For tonite we are starting in about 1-2 hours from the time of this posting. If any of our times work for you, great. If you want to propose another time and request me to run your character through the introduction, we can set up a different time that works for your time zone and schedule. LINK IS <a href="https://app.roll20.net/join/214613/lJYbmA" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/join/214613/lJYbmA</a>

Hi Casey, here is the link to the free online rules for pathfinder: <a href="http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/" rel="nofollow">http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/</a> . Now there are many views on what system is best to start off with. Oldschoolchris and I are of the view that the more simpler systems are the best to start with while there are others that feel pathfinder or 4e is better. It depends on the complexity of rules you wish to learn. I would stay if you want to start out fresh and new in this hobby of pen and paper gaming, take a look at 5e (latest edition of D&D), you can get the basic beginners rules for free: <a href="http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules?x=dnd/basicrules" rel="nofollow">http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules?x=dnd/basicrules</a> I like to play using the free system called Basic Fantasy Role-Playing System and there is a group here on roll20 that is for playing one shots and teaching beginners: BFRPG Group Friday Night Pickups . There is games running usually on friday in various campaign boards that use that board as a messaging and announcement center. Gold is one of the GM's. Casey E. said: . One last question though, do I need to wait for a new campaign or is it possible to join one half way? That depends on the GM so you will have to find a game that you are interested in and post a request to join. The Gm will either put you on a waiting list, tell you no, ignore you, or invite you in. Give it a shot if you see something and good luck.

Thank you for the offer Gold. I would love to play with you, however I think your 8pm is my 4am, it's not impossible for me to play but it could be challenging, however, if you are happy for people to join and leave then it sounds like it could work out between us :) I will see what I can do but I can't promise anything. Thank you Pat, the friday nights for beginners sounds like a perfect first port of call for me as well! Once I have read some of the rules I am sure I will feel a bit more confident. Could you possibly pencil me in for that? I had a quick look for Pathfinder games that run during a more reasonable time for me and I found that most of them are full and have a lot of people asking to play so I feel like I might not be able to get into that just yet. I think dungeons and dragons has always been a popular game but I don't really want to try and memorise an entire rule book if I don't get to play it for a while, so really I would like to reserve a spot first and then read up on everything while waiting for it to start. It's not that I dislike reading or anything, but I do have the worry that if I try to learn several games at once my mind is going to confuse all the rules, if that makes sense. I think that Pathfinder is built on top of DnD though so I'll see what I can find :) Thanks again for all of you!

Hey welcome to the Community. I'd say look for 5th edition D&D Next, and work from there. it's easy enough to run that games of it pop up all the time. And you do not have to commit to a campaign. you can do what is called a One-shot, meaning one and done, move on. Those happen a lot too.