there’s actually great resources for getting started online. There’s a site called start playing games dedicated to matching new people to a DM. Note that services like that cost money. There’s also the virtual tabletop roll20 which has a group finder for you to find a game. It will have a mix of free and paid games. Alternatively, you can crowdsource that such as on r/lfg on reddit (unfortunately the LFGs here on lemmy don’t seem to be active enough to find games), or through various discord servers, including the official D&D discord. Another that has reasonably active LFG type sections to try is the Fantasy grounds (another VTT) discord.

For in person play, you can also look in to local gaming stores that might run adventurer’s league, which is the sort of ‘official’ play wizards of the coast sanctions at local stores and at conventions.

I haven’t heard terribly many people talk about draw steel, honestly. I’d be interested to hear what you think about it after trying it out.

yep, you are correct; i always accidentally lump it in together because of how related/similar they are, my bad.

“thing over rice” is nigiri. Nigiri, sashimi, and Maki rolls are all types of sushi.

@eerongal. (How did you tag people in here?)

Yeah, you can tag people, you have to use @username@instance and it should popup a context window on the regular UI, i believe. Like this - @roflo1@ttrpg.network - it will then normalize it into a link format that looks like:

[@roflo1@ttrpg.network](https://ttrpg.network/u/roflo1)

They also recently did a reprint of the first ~5 or so books in paperback. One of the neat things they did with the reprints is they’ve included dice rolls at the bottom of every page, so instead of needing to use dice, you can flip to a random page instead and use that as your roll.

Presumably, someone attempting to mug you would probably be a bandit (+3 to hit, +1 to damage), not another commoner

yeah, i could see using a mix of windows midi fonts and like a real crunchy sega genesis like soundfont if i were to make/commission music for it or something (i can’t make music in any way)

As far as the game master term, I’m using “Knight Commander”, it’s one of the early intro sections somewhere.

Thanks! I’ve been working on it off and on, but i think its turning out pretty good overall.

yeah, like i said, the “main” book is done, i just wanted to write a pack in adventure (which ive been too lazy to even start so far). As far as what’s next, i’m not sure. I usually focus on specific side projects without trying to think about what’s coming up in the future. I’ve been working on a metroidvania game with a friend of mine (i make video games as a hobby), but i’m thinking i’ll put my focus on finishing up that, since i’ve somewhat been splitting my focus between this and that for the past year or so.

As far as my next tabletop project, haven’t even thought about it. I usually make whatever i feel like at the time before tossing it on to my drive thru account.

I mean, as i stated, i can’t really vouch or argue against pf2e, since i dont play it and haven’t really read the rules of it since it was in playtest. That said, just googling, i see some things that could be considered exploits like a reddit thread talking about being able to do 520 damage in one attack, some chatter about a “resentment witch” being able to make power word stun or color spray effectively permanent, and a youtube video by the rules lawyer about “OP builds”, so it seems like there’s at least some system exploitation going on.

Obviously a tighter controlled system is less vulnerable to exploitation (see D&D 4e), but that also doesn’t mean that is necessarily doesn’t exist. Another counter example system with lots of rules and lots of exploitation of them would be shadowrun, especially older versions, which were even worse than D&D in some respects.

yeah, unfortunately the CoC rules have always been kind of a mess. it still has a lot of that early RPG “stream of consciousness” aspect to it.

But yeah, at the end of the day, the number of rules you have is far more relevant to how many “exploits” there are, so CoC/VtM being less “crunchy” will result in less exploits.

A character is limited to one successful treatment of both First Aid and Medicine until further damage is taken.

Pg. 65, under first aid.

i mean, if youre wanting exploitative rule mechanics based on wording/interactions, you need to look no further than base first aid and medicine in CoC; You’re able to make 1 of each per wound you take. Unlike older editions, they’ve done away with the heal cap on it, so if you’re down HP, simply deal yourself 1 HP of damage, make a first aid check. and then make a medicine check to heal at minimum 2 HP. Repeat until full. You can easily reheal yourself to full this way, which is definitely “unintended” based on how healing works (and older editions).

Edit: at the end of the day, my point is that pretending other games cant or dont have exploitative mechanics/builds/whatever is naive at best? It’s not a D&D only problem. It’s just more prevalent in D&D because 1) it has more rules and 2) it has more players.

It’s legit not hard to make an OP/powerful character in either VtM or CoC, assuming youre talking about making a character good at combat (which is usually what people talk about in this context with power gaming). I don’t play PF2e, though, so i cant speak there.

CoC take high dex, put 90+ in handguns, take the pulp talents rapid fire and quick draw, wear a bandolier of guns, and dual wield pistols that you fire 6 shots from per turn. If you dont care about going first, then fast load if you care about reloading, if not, then just take shadow and start combat hidden for two attacks with a bonus die at the start.

For VtM its easy as take fist of caine and lightning strike. If you aren’t playing as elders, this requires gaining some exp first. I know there’s other combos that i cant think of off hand that are pretty potent too.

Each of these do have counters in the form of monsters immune to guns (CoC), or celerity 5 opponents (VtM), but thats no different than a DM in D&D always throwing fireballs at the guy with high AC. It begins to be apparent when its happening all the time that the GM/DM/Keeper/whatever is specifically targeting your weakness.

i mean, thats part of what gives it away. all the current AI generated music has a flat, auto-tuney quality to it. There’s also a fairly limited number of voices it ends up using, so its pretty distinctive when you hear one.

the art and the music are both definitely AI

in 3e, the tarrasque had regeneration, and couldnt die from negative HP. So the idea of building a town that “farmed” an unconscious tarrasque for its meat/bones/whatever was a popular thought experiment for a setting back in the day. IIRC there was also someone who took the idea and published it as an actual book at some point too (which honestly felt kinda scummy to me, since it was basically a big community project/collaboration)

in 3e, summon spells specifically conjured the spirits of creatures that couldnt “die” per se. They would desummon if they lost all their HP and reform later.