Tabletop RPG campaign.

[Kaleion]

Ok so the other day I casually mentioned on this https://intosanctuary.com/index.php?topic=5784.0 thread that I'd be interested on running a Virtual tabletop RPG campaign on Sundays, and it seems like some people are interested, so in order to do that we need to determine a couple of things.

Schedule: So if I'm to GM it would need to be on Sunday that's for certain, but there are people in different timezones so we have to decide which would be a good hour to start & to stop, my RPG group tends to go hard, we normally play for at least 7 hours straight but I don't think you guys will want that, so it'd be good to see what the consensus is.

System/setting: So I'm fine with doing D&D 5e since I'm familiar with that but I'm also familiar with Nuemnéra, Pathfinder & D&D 5E to some extent, I also like Sci-Fi better than fantasy, so I'd also be willing to run Starfinder, Shadowrun, Stars without numbers and even Battletech, I'm also familiar with Old School D&D so if people want to do an OSR megadungeon that would be fine too, and I'm also willing to learn new systems such as Call of Cthulu, Burning Wheel, Etc.
Might be worth mentioning that I'm also familiar with Legend of the 5 Rings and I love it, but I don't feel confident in my ability to run that because I'm not that into Japanese culture and I really don't understand them so I don't think I'd be able to run that.

Format: I would very much prefer a pre-written campaign or a megadungeon but mostly what I want to discuss is virtual tabletop platform, I'm thinking Roll20 since it's fairly popular and supports most systems, I could also do Tabletop Sim since I do have that, but I would like to know the preference, and also Voice chat, look I know some people are nervous or not comfortable with their voices but it makes the whole thing faster, tabletop RPGs take a long time and voice chat simply makes information flow faster and it would simply be more convenient, I'd be willing to try text only but I really do feel like that would be too slow so I would prefer if we have voice chat.

It's also worth mentioning, that we might be wanting to start with a short campaign that lasts between 1 to 3 sessions before seeing if people actually want to do a months long campaign.

 

[Arnox]

In terms of voice chat, trust me. I would LOVE to do it, but in these days of social media and constant outrage, and as the sole owner and admin of Sanctuary, I feel I should and have to remain as anonymous as possible. You can kick me out though if you like. I'll also leave for you if it gets too crowded.

In terms of system/setting, why don't we do a one-shot campaign just to start off? It will give us a feel for running tabletop stuff online and be a pretty risk free way of doing it. Then we transition to full campaign mode.

In terms of schedule, Sunday should work fine. I'm pretty flexible. Just let me know a week in advance what the time is.

 

[Houseman]

In terms of voice chat, trust me. I would LOVE to do it, but in these days of social media and constant outrage, and as the sole owner and admin of Sanctuary, I feel I should and have to remain as anonymous as possible.

You have a little girly voice, don't you?

 

[Arnox]

In terms of voice chat, trust me. I would LOVE to do it, but in these days of social media and constant outrage, and as the sole owner and admin of Sanctuary, I feel I should and have to remain as anonymous as possible.

You have a little girly voice, don't you?

Tee-hee!

 

[Kaleion]

In terms of voice chat, trust me. I would LOVE to do it, but in these days of social media and constant outrage, and as the sole owner and admin of Sanctuary, I feel I should and have to remain as anonymous as possible. You can kick me out though if you like. I'll also leave for you if it gets too crowded.

In terms of system/setting, why don't we do a one-shot campaign just to start off? It will give us a feel for running tabletop stuff online and be a pretty risk free way of doing it. Then we transition to full campaign mode.

In terms of schedule, Sunday should work fine. I'm pretty flexible. Just let me know a week in advance what the time is.

Well we can try text only but I really would prefer voice chat, we could do a mix of the 2 but that may cause the text to be overlooked, the one advantage text has is that it can be very easily archived for future reference, so it might not be all bad.

As for starting with a one shot, yes that would be fine, maybe a basic dungeon or something.

In terms of voice chat, trust me. I would LOVE to do it, but in these days of social media and constant outrage, and as the sole owner and admin of Sanctuary, I feel I should and have to remain as anonymous as possible.

You have a little girly voice, don't you?

Profile says female but I've heard arnox mention being male in the past, my guess is that it has something to do with that, in any case it's none of my business so I'll lay off.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I'm down for it. Always wanted to try some tabletop gaming.

I'm okay with both Fantasy and Sci-Fi, though I prefer Sci-Fi.
Mostly. Sci-Fi is better in general, but Fantasy can be awesome as well.
There is this current "book" I'm reading via HFY that have the Fantasy adventure setting, but is actually set in a far future apocalypse aftermath. But I'm digressing.

Converted to PST, I can game from 12 PM Friday to 12 PM Sunday.
I have a mic, so can do voice chat, but not during the night, which is 1 PM to 11 PM Friday & Saturday.

 

[Elfgore]

Just saw this, but I might be interested in something. I lack a mic, but I can change that pretty quick.

I've only played D&D 5E, but I have books for stuff like Mutants & Masterminds, Numenara, World of Darkness, Pathfinder/Starfinder, and Fantasy Flight Star Wars.

Best time for me Sunday is anytime between 2-10 P.M. EST

 

[Kaleion]

Just saw this, but I might be interested in something. I lack a mic, but I can change that pretty quick.

I've only played D&D 5E, but I have books for stuff like Mutants & Masterminds, Numenara, World of Darkness, Pathfinder/Starfinder, and Fantasy Flight Star Wars.

Best time for me Sunday is anytime between 2-10 P.M. EST

Got it, the issue is that you will be available at an hour in which Vendor-Lazarus won't be available, so I don't know if we can do it between those hours, for me personally I'm free any hour Sunday and since I work late Monday it's not any trouble at all as long as it's Sunday but I don't know if we can acommodate an hour for everyone, let's see if someone else is interested, depending on overall availability it's the hour that will be chosen.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Just saw this, but I might be interested in something. I lack a mic, but I can change that pretty quick.

I've only played D&D 5E, but I have books for stuff like Mutants & Masterminds, Numenara, World of Darkness, Pathfinder/Starfinder, and Fantasy Flight Star Wars.

Best time for me Sunday is anytime between 2-10 P.M. EST

Got it, the issue is that you will be available at an hour in which Vendor-Lazarus won't be available, so I don't know if we can do it between those hours, for me personally I'm free any hour Sunday and since I work late Monday it's not any trouble at all as long as it's Sunday but I don't know if we can acommodate an hour for everyone, let's see if someone else is interested, depending on overall availability it's the hour that will be chosen.

I've talked to my boss, and managed to change the schedule.
My new time available is Friday 1 AM to Monday 1 PM.

 

[Kaleion]

Got it, the issue is that you will be available at an hour in which Vendor-Lazarus won't be available, so I don't know if we can do it between those hours, for me personally I'm free any hour Sunday and since I work late Monday it's not any trouble at all as long as it's Sunday but I don't know if we can acommodate an hour for everyone, let's see if someone else is interested, depending on overall availability it's the hour that will be chosen.

I've talked to my boss, and managed to change the schedule.
My new time available is Friday 1 AM to Monday 1 PM.

That's awesome, then for simplicity's sake it's going to be a dungeon (Not a long one) and it's going to be Dungeon's & Dragons 5E, I'll allow every officially published book, that is not marked as playtest (That means Eberron is out, nothing against it but I haven't read it), I'll post more details later when I get out of work, I'll do a one-shot I've done before so we should be able to do it this Sunday or next if that is too short a notice, I review the schedule later to assign the hour OK.

 

[Signa]

Let me know if you guys ever use pathfinder. It's the only ruleset IP comfortable with and I can't be bothered to learn another.

 

[Kaleion]

Let me know if you guys ever use pathfinder. It's the only ruleset IP comfortable with and I can't be bothered to learn another.

I know Pathfinder, I've played it before but the problem with it it's that it's not very newbie friendly, so I'm not sure about using it for first timers when using something far simpler and more streamlined like D&D 5E or the Cypher System are options, plus I find Pathfinder to be a bit easy to cheese but we could certainly consider it, after all I do have all of the rulebooks, I don't have any adventures for it but that can be fixed easily.

As for only learning Pathfinder, that's fine but actually most of it translates well to 5E, just think of it as a simpler version of Pathfinder, I'm more inclined to try Starfinder though, I don't know if you would be on board for that, though O most certainly wouldn't be able to have Pathfinder or Starfinder ready for this Sunday.

 

[gaijinkaiju]

I've never played d&d before, always wanted to give a go though, so if you don't mind a newbie I could be interested. My schedules super flexible right now, so any time works for me

 

[Arnox]

Let's just not complicate it and do a single session of 5E for now. Although either way, I don't think we're gonna be able to play it this Sunday regardless. We still haven't had our "session 0" where we make all our characters and go over the rules and (if any) house rules. That usually takes a long time.

 

[Kaleion]

Let's just not complicate it and do a single session of 5E for now. Although either way, I don't think we're gonna be able to play it this Sunday regardless. We still haven't had our "session 0" where we make all our characters and go over the rules and (if any) house rules. That usually takes a long time.

Like I said it's going to be D&D One-Shot, I've run it before and it also easily transitions into any campaign in case people like it and want to continue, however, I think it would be reasonable to have the session 0 this Sunday if possible, at least 3 players should be fine for this but let me see if I can get at least one more (5 is fine, 6 requires reblancing but slight, and doable and 7 onwards it's way too much as even balanced it's just too slow.) to have a more balanced party, though considering how versatile most classes are in 5th E it's not really necessary.


Just a warning, it's a dungeon, there will be fighting though if you're clever a lot of encounters are avoidable, it's recommended to have a Scout type character since it's filled with traps and preferrably also a magic user, but it's also recommended to be able to fight, stats I overall prefer rolling due to tradition, however Point-buy as written in the book is allowed, for new players I will be recommending to stick with the Player's Handbook for simplicity's sake, however if someone is experienced and wants to use something from a different resource you can consult directly with me to see if I would allow it.

Everything on PHB is allowed so if you want to use something from there you can, everything else we can discuss this Sunday.

If someone wants to do point-buy I find this to be pretty handy http://chicken-dinner.com/5e/5e-point-buy.html we will discuss Stat rolling later.

Setting for the One-shot will most likely be Forgotten Realms due to that being the vanilla flavour but I'm well versed on DragonLance and the conversion is stupidly easy that there would be no issue if you prefer that, and with the new Eberron book that's also very easy too, note that if you are interested in something more long-term afterwards I would recommend we save all that discussion until after the dungeon which may not be exactly a One-shot as it is possible for it to take up to 2 sessions, after we see if this seems like it is worth doing in a more long-term fashion.

 

[Signa]

Let me know if you guys ever use pathfinder. It's the only ruleset IP comfortable with and I can't be bothered to learn another.

I know Pathfinder, I've played it before but the problem with it it's that it's not very newbie friendly, so I'm not sure about using it for first timers when using something far simpler and more streamlined like D&D 5E or the Cypher System are options, plus I find Pathfinder to be a bit easy to cheese but we could certainly consider it, after all I do have all of the rulebooks, I don't have any adventures for it but that can be fixed easily.

As for only learning Pathfinder, that's fine but actually most of it translates well to 5E, just think of it as a simpler version of Pathfinder, I'm more inclined to try Starfinder though, I don't know if you would be on board for that, though O most certainly wouldn't be able to have Pathfinder or Starfinder ready for this Sunday.

Is Starfinder a spaceage Pathfinder? I love sci-fi, but I sat in on my roommates playing it in their group, and I didn't know what to think about it. I did play some Shadowrun (poorly) and Warhammer: Dark Heresy (less poorly), and I think the non-medieval fantasy settings just don't work for me. Modern and post modern weapons are too lethal for me to really see the dice-based simulation working in my head. And while post modern tech is a good replacement for magic, I'd rather read a spell book than find a gadget that does the same in game effect.

Sorry to come across so finicky, but I know what I like. I probably could learn to enjoy some other rule sets, despite how little I feel Pathfinder leaves me to desire, but the tech level makes a HUGE difference in how immersed I get in the game. It also doesn't help I've had some amazing GMs that have built out their worlds and stories to the point where I get to play a character with a different personality instead of a dungeon runner.

 

[Kaleion]

I know Pathfinder, I've played it before but the problem with it it's that it's not very newbie friendly, so I'm not sure about using it for first timers when using something far simpler and more streamlined like D&D 5E or the Cypher System are options, plus I find Pathfinder to be a bit easy to cheese but we could certainly consider it, after all I do have all of the rulebooks, I don't have any adventures for it but that can be fixed easily.

As for only learning Pathfinder, that's fine but actually most of it translates well to 5E, just think of it as a simpler version of Pathfinder, I'm more inclined to try Starfinder though, I don't know if you would be on board for that, though O most certainly wouldn't be able to have Pathfinder or Starfinder ready for this Sunday.

Is Starfinder a spaceage Pathfinder? I love sci-fi, but I sat in on my roommates playing it in their group, and I didn't know what to think about it. I did play some Shadowrun (poorly) and Warhammer: Dark Heresy (less poorly), and I think the non-medieval fantasy settings just don't work for me. Modern and post modern weapons are too lethal for me to really see the dice-based simulation working in my head. And while post modern tech is a good replacement for magic, I'd rather read a spell book than find a gadget that does the same in game effect.

Sorry to come across so finicky, but I know what I like. I probably could learn to enjoy some other rule sets, despite how little I feel Pathfinder leaves me to desire, but the tech level makes a HUGE difference in how immersed I get in the game. It also doesn't help I've had some amazing GMs that have built out their worlds and stories to the point where I get to play a character with a different personality instead of a dungeon runner.

Well Starfinder is literally Pathfinder thousands of years after, so it is Pathfinder but in space, there's both Magic as understood in the regular Golarion world, the rules are overall very similar as it is a very drivative book, however there a few changes to the core-mechanics but it's mostly just streamlining some things but not even close to as much as 5th E D&D, if you are familiar with Pathfinder it should be easy to understand, also all material from Pathfinder is convertible to Starfinder so it is even possible to play and advanced class of Pathfinder of a Race that isn't even on a Starfinder book, it does require a bit of fiddling but most of the more popular classes and races have already been converted by fans using the conversion rules provided in the Starfinder book.

But yes, it's Pathfinder in Space.

 

[Arnox]

since it's filled with traps

Please no.

Too many traps turn a dungeon run into a longgg slog every damn time. Enter a room? Check for traps! Find a chest? Check for traps! See a mouse run by? Check for traps! And in any case, it defeats the whole point of traps if players are constantly expecting them.

BTW, I have gone through the Handbook a little bit and have made these mods for my own games. Use whichever ones you like, if any. (I have these mods actually laid out very orderly in an .rtf document that even tells the pages in the PHB that are being modded so it may be a bit confusing to read with the messy copypasta layout.)

Spoiler

“Bard” class renamed to “Adventurer” class.

There will not be any bards as a serious class at all in this modded D&D universe. Singing, dancing, or playing instruments will not have any impact whatsoever in combat and will be purely an optional side activity that any person can do should they wish. Instead, the adventurer will be a jack of all trades class. The class to pick when someone does not know what they wish to do or if they want to try and specialize in everything. Otherwise though, the nitty gritty stats and stuff that did apply to bards should also carry straight over to the adventurer class with little change. Further relevant mods to the bard class will be detailed in the other pages of this document.

“Bardic Inspiration” renamed to “Courage of Adventure”.

Feature otherwise works the same.

“Song of Rest” renamed to “Enhanced Rest”.

Due to the adventurer's focus on the party and their expertise, the party's rest is enhanced. Feature otherwise works the same.

“Bard College” renamed to “Discipline Focus”.

You now pick between the Lore Focus or the Valor Focus. No change otherwise.

“Font of Inspiration” renamed to “Overwhelming Courage”.

Refer to page 6 in this document for more details. No other changes besides.

“Countercharm” slightly rewritten.

An adventurer can focus on the party and bolster them with their skill and charisma, allowing the members to resist being frightened or charmed. No actual mechanical changes however.

“Cutting Words” renamed to “Intimidating Presence”.

Feature otherwise works the same.

Ranger's favored enemies can be changed.

When the party initiates a long rest and only on a long rest, a ranger can change and prepare for different favored enemies if they so choose. On creation, at level 1, a ranger can pick one non-humanoid enemy and two humanoid enemy types and they can also pick any additional language to learn on top of the regular ones they choose instead of being limited to the language of their favored enemies. At 6th and 14th levels, they can pick another language to learn that, again, is not limited to their favored enemies and they may also pick an extra non-humanoid and humanoid enemy type on top of the three that they are able to select for a total of 3 non-humanoids and 5 humanoids at level 14.

Ranger's have a max of 5 favored environments.

Rangers earn their first favored environment at level 2, and then another at level 6, 10, 14, and 18.

Rangers get +2 to AC if defensive fighting style is picked.

No other changes.

Ranger's primeval awareness shows general location.

The awareness will make the ranger aware of the direction each entity they detect is at but nothing else.

Lifestyle expenses changed.

For the average campaign, lifestyle expenses up to Modest are free. If the players so choose, regular lifestyle expenses can be restored for a more realistic campaign.

Material components are generally not required.

Barring special spells that will be listed here by the DM, spells will no longer require a material component to cast.

Imprisonment

Sorcerers have access to Shapechange.

They gain access to it at spell tier 9.

Maze lasts a minimum of two minutes.

Upon casting Maze, the target must wait a minimum of two minutes of in-game time before they can roll to escape. If the roll doesn't succeed, they must wait another two minutes before they can roll again. If they fail it a second time, they must stay in the maze for the full 10 minutes of the spell. Concentration is not required to sustain. The initial casting cannot be saved against. Only things that block Conjuration type spells or magic in general through some means can block it.

Speak With Dead lasts 30 secs.

You may ask the spirit as many questions as you like but you only have 30 secs. After the spell is over, you must wait a day before you can do such again.

Fighters get +2 to AC if defensive fighting style is picked.

No other changes.

Champion fighters get full proficiency bonuses at level 7.

At level 7, instead of only half the player's proficiency bonus applying to all Constitution, Strength, and Dexterity checks, it applies to all of them except Dexterity which still only gets half bonus.

Sorcerers can replace as many spells as they want.

Whenever a sorcerer levels up, they can replace whatever past spells they have memorized with any other spell, provided that they can actually cast that level of spell and do not exceed the number of spells they can know at the new level.

 

[Signa]

Is Starfinder a spaceage Pathfinder? I love sci-fi, but I sat in on my roommates playing it in their group, and I didn't know what to think about it. I did play some Shadowrun (poorly) and Warhammer: Dark Heresy (less poorly), and I think the non-medieval fantasy settings just don't work for me. Modern and post modern weapons are too lethal for me to really see the dice-based simulation working in my head. And while post modern tech is a good replacement for magic, I'd rather read a spell book than find a gadget that does the same in game effect.

Sorry to come across so finicky, but I know what I like. I probably could learn to enjoy some other rule sets, despite how little I feel Pathfinder leaves me to desire, but the tech level makes a HUGE difference in how immersed I get in the game. It also doesn't help I've had some amazing GMs that have built out their worlds and stories to the point where I get to play a character with a different personality instead of a dungeon runner.

Well Starfinder is literally Pathfinder thousands of years after, so it is Pathfinder but in space, there's both Magic as understood in the regular Golarion world, the rules are overall very similar as it is a very drivative book, however there a few changes to the core-mechanics but it's mostly just streamlining some things but not even close to as much as 5th E D&D, if you are familiar with Pathfinder it should be easy to understand, also all material from Pathfinder is convertible to Starfinder so it is even possible to play and advanced class of Pathfinder of a Race that isn't even on a Starfinder book, it does require a bit of fiddling but most of the more popular classes and races have already been converted by fans using the conversion rules provided in the Starfinder book.

But yes, it's Pathfinder in Space.

Do players still generally use melee weapons? It sounded like they weren't all using laser rifles and AK-47s. It might be playable for me. Like I said, there's nothing I can think about in the PF ruleset that makes me wish it was better.

 

[Kaleion]

since it's filled with traps

Please no.

Too many traps turn a dungeon run into a longgg slog every damn time. Enter a room? Check for traps! Find a chest? Check for traps! See a mouse run by? Check for traps! And in any case, it defeats the whole point of traps if players are constantly expecting them.

BTW, I have gone through the Handbook a little bit and have made these mods for my own games. Use whichever ones you like, if any. (I have these mods actually laid out very orderly in an .rtf document that even tells the pages in the PHB that are being modded so it may be a bit confusing to read with the messy copypasta layout.)

Spoiler

“Bard” class renamed to “Adventurer” class.

There will not be any bards as a serious class at all in this modded D&D universe. Singing, dancing, or playing instruments will not have any impact whatsoever in combat and will be purely an optional side activity that any person can do should they wish. Instead, the adventurer will be a jack of all trades class. The class to pick when someone does not know what they wish to do or if they want to try and specialize in everything. Otherwise though, the nitty gritty stats and stuff that did apply to bards should also carry straight over to the adventurer class with little change. Further relevant mods to the bard class will be detailed in the other pages of this document.

“Bardic Inspiration” renamed to “Courage of Adventure”.

Feature otherwise works the same.

“Song of Rest” renamed to “Enhanced Rest”.

Due to the adventurer's focus on the party and their expertise, the party's rest is enhanced. Feature otherwise works the same.

“Bard College” renamed to “Discipline Focus”.

You now pick between the Lore Focus or the Valor Focus. No change otherwise.

“Font of Inspiration” renamed to “Overwhelming Courage”.

Refer to page 6 in this document for more details. No other changes besides.

“Countercharm” slightly rewritten.

An adventurer can focus on the party and bolster them with their skill and charisma, allowing the members to resist being frightened or charmed. No actual mechanical changes however.

“Cutting Words” renamed to “Intimidating Presence”.

Feature otherwise works the same.

Ranger's favored enemies can be changed.

When the party initiates a long rest and only on a long rest, a ranger can change and prepare for different favored enemies if they so choose. On creation, at level 1, a ranger can pick one non-humanoid enemy and two humanoid enemy types and they can also pick any additional language to learn on top of the regular ones they choose instead of being limited to the language of their favored enemies. At 6th and 14th levels, they can pick another language to learn that, again, is not limited to their favored enemies and they may also pick an extra non-humanoid and humanoid enemy type on top of the three that they are able to select for a total of 3 non-humanoids and 5 humanoids at level 14.

Ranger's have a max of 5 favored environments.

Rangers earn their first favored environment at level 2, and then another at level 6, 10, 14, and 18.

Rangers get +2 to AC if defensive fighting style is picked.

No other changes.

Ranger's primeval awareness shows general location.

The awareness will make the ranger aware of the direction each entity they detect is at but nothing else.

Lifestyle expenses changed.

For the average campaign, lifestyle expenses up to Modest are free. If the players so choose, regular lifestyle expenses can be restored for a more realistic campaign.

Material components are generally not required.

Barring special spells that will be listed here by the DM, spells will no longer require a material component to cast.

Imprisonment

Sorcerers have access to Shapechange.

They gain access to it at spell tier 9.

Maze lasts a minimum of two minutes.

Upon casting Maze, the target must wait a minimum of two minutes of in-game time before they can roll to escape. If the roll doesn't succeed, they must wait another two minutes before they can roll again. If they fail it a second time, they must stay in the maze for the full 10 minutes of the spell. Concentration is not required to sustain. The initial casting cannot be saved against. Only things that block Conjuration type spells or magic in general through some means can block it.

Speak With Dead lasts 30 secs.

You may ask the spirit as many questions as you like but you only have 30 secs. After the spell is over, you must wait a day before you can do such again.

Fighters get +2 to AC if defensive fighting style is picked.

No other changes.

Champion fighters get full proficiency bonuses at level 7.

At level 7, instead of only half the player's proficiency bonus applying to all Constitution, Strength, and Dexterity checks, it applies to all of them except Dexterity which still only gets half bonus.

Sorcerers can replace as many spells as they want.

Whenever a sorcerer levels up, they can replace whatever past spells they have memorized with any other spell, provided that they can actually cast that level of spell and do not exceed the number of spells they can know at the new level.

My favourite class is Rogue, it'd be weird to not have traps, in any case I didn't mean to say there are traps everywhere but there are traps on every floor of the Dungeon.

As for the changes proposed, it's fine, for siplicity's sake let's stick to the book as-is, however if you want to change the flavour of the class I'm willing to discuss it, as long as it's not mechanical I'm pretty open to any changes.

Well Starfinder is literally Pathfinder thousands of years after, so it is Pathfinder but in space, there's both Magic as understood in the regular Golarion world, the rules are overall very similar as it is a very drivative book, however there a few changes to the core-mechanics but it's mostly just streamlining some things but not even close to as much as 5th E D&D, if you are familiar with Pathfinder it should be easy to understand, also all material from Pathfinder is convertible to Starfinder so it is even possible to play and advanced class of Pathfinder of a Race that isn't even on a Starfinder book, it does require a bit of fiddling but most of the more popular classes and races have already been converted by fans using the conversion rules provided in the Starfinder book.

But yes, it's Pathfinder in Space.

Do players still generally use melee weapons? It sounded like they weren't all using laser rifles and AK-47s. It might be playable for me. Like I said, there's nothing I can think about in the PF ruleset that makes me wish it was better.

The use of guns is more wide-spread than Pathfinder but the game still very heavily relies on melee, most classes include both melee and ranged options but there are some more specialized in melee and there's even one that is very jedi-like.

And just so you know there is a four armed race, and yes it can quad-weild and yes there is a feat to do it effectively.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

As a newbie, never done this thing before sort, what should I do to prepare?

 

[Signa]

As a newbie, never done this thing before sort, what should I do to prepare?

In general (since i've not played D&D5) find a character sheet, and think of a class. If you have a rule book to reference, look at some stats there. You can start looking at the fields on the character sheet to fill in.

Example: in Pathfinder, each class adds a chance to hit and general resistances each time they level, and there's fields on the character sheet to note that. Use the character sheet to figure out what you need to know about your character's stats, and see if you can find out how to get the numbers for those fields. In Pathfinder, it would be looking at the level chart and seeing what the attack bonus is for level 1, as well as the 3 resistance types. Boom, that's like 20% of what you need right there.

The biggest time sink is trying to figure out your starting money, and how to spend it all so that your character can use it. There should be some weapon charts somewhere too. In the versions I played, there are different classes of weapons and armor (light, medium, heavy) and there is rules against wearing/using equipment that your class is ill-suited to use. You could be a thief wearing heavy plate mail, but there's a lot of thieving you wouldn't be able to do[nb]Technically, you can, but there's like a -50% chance of succeeding a sneak attempt that you'd be a fool to try. Still, the rules allow it![/nb], like sneak, and you'd lose other bonuses too. Find out what your class can use and go with that.

I also would strongly consider a fighter or a monk as your first character. You get to engage with the combat mechanics directly, you'll be doing the most important stuff all the time, and there's little management to attend to like counting your spells, or figuring out which ones to select. Spells are amazing, but you can't just crack open the players guide and point at a spell and say "I cast this one!" I can't imagine D&D5's spell casting is radically different from 2.0, 3.5 and Pathfinder. Some casters can cast all the spells they know, but they have to rest before getting a new set. Other casters get a limited pool of spells, but can cast any from that pool without preparation. And all casters have limits on the total set of spells they are allowed, so you can't have a mage casting priest healing spells. It's not noob friendly.

 

[Kaleion]

As a newbie, never done this thing before sort, what should I do to prepare?

Well we will be playing next week so we will discuss that tomorrow but if you want to give a look to the player's Handbook I have uploaded a copy here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1o5CxKZBUzzQqTzV_rYwf0Vpd6sAgmnFI

As for what Signa mentions, generally spellcasters are the hardest to start with since you have to study spells but if that's no issue for you the Wizard and the Cleric are fairly simple, the Bard is simple-ish too but since it can do practically everything (seriously even tank is feasable if you choose the correct spells and feats, not going to be the best tank but point is that it's doable.) it's not recommended, non-spellcasters the Fighter and the Barbarian are both relatively simple, the Monk is actually fairly complex in 5E unless you choose way of the open palm, in that case it's fine but still more complex than Fighter or Barbariancand if what you want to do is out of combat stuff the Rogue is super simple, gets very few combat abilities but gets one of the strongest attacks in the game and some cool ways to evade damage, it's actually also a very good starting class, for me personally my 1st character was a level 8 Rogue and I didn't find anything remotely complicated about it even starting at such a high level, and it also gets a lot of things to do out of combat without being able to do absolutely everything like the Bard.

As for starting wealth, don't worry about it, 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons let's you choose between money and partially pre-selected starting gear based on your class, detailed on every class, we can either use that or at least you can consult it to see what is reommended for you to start with.

As a newbie, never done this thing before sort, what should I do to prepare?

In general (since i've not played D&D5) find a character sheet, and think of a class. If you have a rule book to reference, look at some stats there. You can start looking at the fields on the character sheet to fill in.

Example: in Pathfinder, each class adds a chance to hit and general resistances each time they level, and there's fields on the character sheet to note that. Use the character sheet to figure out what you need to know about your character's stats, and see if you can find out how to get the numbers for those fields. In Pathfinder, it would be looking at the level chart and seeing what the attack bonus is for level 1, as well as the 3 resistance types. Boom, that's like 20% of what you need right there.

The biggest time sink is trying to figure out your starting money, and how to spend it all so that your character can use it. There should be some weapon charts somewhere too. In the versions I played, there are different classes of weapons and armor (light, medium, heavy) and there is rules against wearing/using equipment that your class is ill-suited to use. You could be a thief wearing heavy plate mail, but there's a lot of thieving you wouldn't be able to do[nb]Technically, you can, but there's like a -50% chance of succeeding a sneak attempt that you'd be a fool to try. Still, the rules allow it![/nb], like sneak, and you'd lose other bonuses too. Find out what your class can use and go with that.

I also would strongly consider a fighter or a monk as your first character. You get to engage with the combat mechanics directly, you'll be doing the most important stuff all the time, and there's little management to attend to like counting your spells, or figuring out which ones to select. Spells are amazing, but you can't just crack open the players guide and point at a spell and say "I cast this one!" I can't imagine D&D5's spell casting is radically different from 2.0, 3.5 and Pathfinder. Some casters can cast all the spells they know, but they have to rest before getting a new set. Other casters get a limited pool of spells, but can cast any from that pool without preparation. And all casters have limits on the total set of spells they are allowed, so you can't have a mage casting priest healing spells. It's not noob friendly.

5th Edition is like a really dumbed down version of Pathfinder, so actually all purely martial classes are super easy to understand for newbies with the exception of specifically the Battlemaster Fighter which gets a lot of maneuvers which can be overwhelming for newbies, but that basically makes Fighter, Barbarian and Rogue the most common starting classes since they are the only classes in this edition that can have 0 spellcasting (Yes, even the Monk gets spells though they are fairly limitted).

I'm not sure if I'm a fan of 5th Edition D&D but it's certainly very good to introduce new players into the hobby, I would recommend you give it a try since most of what you know from Pathfinder is transferrable with a few tweaks such as having less types of actions and more simplified and streamlined mechanics, personally I like Pathfinder but it has too many rules and frankly some of them feel unnecesary and due to it's need to explain absolutely everything it's not good for newbies at all, it's very intimading when even the Core Rulebook is over 500 pages (granted not all of them are for players) and you know there's at least 3 more player's books (There's way more but I've never seen a Pathfinder table that doesn't use at least Advanced Player's, Advanced Class & Advanced Race guides), and sure someone like me that enjoys reading rulebooks finds no problem with doing that, in fact read all of those 4 books in cover to cover when I first played Pathfinder and found it fun, but for most people that is very intimidating and they aren't going to want to bother with that.

I like playing Pathfinder, it's fun but I'm not sure I'm into running, it's a bit overwhelingly complex and since I like to read books cover to cover it sounds exhausting to me to read all that, I mean 4 books is already pusing but the GM has to read the GM's guide and at least one of the 6 bestiarys and the also the adventure so that would be like 7 books, and that's not counting that I like horror and mysticism so maybe Occultic Adventure or Horror Adventures would be things I'd like to incorporate and I'd probably would also like to read Pathfinder Unchained to see which rules are worth replacing for the ones proposed there and due to my personality we're already at 10 books, but I know I would read more than one Bestiarty and probably also the Psionics book and the Ultimate Magic and Ultimate equipment and we're already at over 15 books and now you see why it's hard to convince people to play that game.

I mean I really would like to give it a chance but I'm also not joking when I'm saying I would read all of those books, so it might take a while and to be honest I'd much rather play Burning Wheel which so far has had the rules I've liked the best but I don't know anyone that wants to give that game a chance and I wouldn't play it over text.

 

[Signa]

Snip

I mean I really would like to give it a chance but I'm also not joking when I'm saying I would read all of those books, so it might take a while and to be honest I'd much rather play Burning Wheel which so far has had the rules I've liked the best but I don't know anyone that wants to give that game a chance and I wouldn't play it over text.

I mean, yeah, you're not wrong, but all that is just because of the maturity of the ruleset and you being OCD about it. Same thing happened to D&D 3.5 before Pathfinder came out. You can just choose to not incorporate certain rulesets from books outside of the standard PHB. I certainly wouldn't ask my GM to be up on all the rules in that 1 book, let alone all the rest. At most, if I heard about a rule in a later book, I'd run it by the GM to see if they want to play with that rule.

I don't even know if I've ever played the those expanded rules, but the only thing I can think of are the co-op feats, and no one will take those anyway. Oh, there's also a few alternate race mods, like I was able to sacrifice my dwarf's stone abilities to enhance something else once. I can't remember what it was, and even though we were mid-game, I just asked my GM if I could swap and he was cool with it. After marking it down on my character sheet, nothing else mattered about the source of that ruling.

 

[Kaleion]

Snip

I mean I really would like to give it a chance but I'm also not joking when I'm saying I would read all of those books, so it might take a while and to be honest I'd much rather play Burning Wheel which so far has had the rules I've liked the best but I don't know anyone that wants to give that game a chance and I wouldn't play it over text.

I mean, yeah, you're not wrong, but all that is just because of the maturity of the ruleset and you being OCD about it. Same thing happened to D&D 3.5 before Pathfinder came out. You can just choose to not incorporate certain rulesets from books outside of the standard PHB. I certainly wouldn't ask my GM to be up on all the rules in that 1 book, let alone all the rest. At most, if I heard about a rule in a later book, I'd run it by the GM to see if they want to play with that rule.

I don't even know if I've ever played the those expanded rules, but the only thing I can think of are the co-op feats, and no one will take those anyway. Oh, there's also a few alternate race mods, like I was able to sacrifice my dwarf's stone abilities to enhance something else once. I can't remember what it was, and even though we were mid-game, I just asked my GM if I could swap and he was cool with it. After marking it down on my character sheet, nothing else mattered about the source of that ruling.

The funny thing is that I'm not actually super into following exactly as, and don't mind bending them if it feels like a better fit but I still like to know them.