Some newbie questions

[shamrock_uk]

Good evening all [img]smile.gif[/img]

I've been reading through several of these roleplays for the last few months and am wondering about getting involved the next time one comes up.

Naturally, I have a couple of questions (I read through the stickies but still have some queries)

1) How much knowledge of AD&D is necessary to participate? (I would only really be interested in a FR setting I think) In some games I see much virtual dice-rolling! My knowledge is limited to that of the BG2 engine (which I know intimately) and NwN (which I understand quite well). I understand that BG2 is AD&D 2.x, whilst NwN is v3? How far have these games altered the respective rules systems though? Would my current understanding be sufficient or will I need to be trotting down the bookstore to buy a rulebook? Or is it essential to have taken part in PnP games beforehand?

2) How much time is needed to participate? I might only be able to spare half an hour a day, maybe an hour. I have a permanent connection at university though so regularity shouldn't be a problem.

Hmm..thought I had more questions than that! I'm sure more will come to me [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks in advance for your patience [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Morgeruat]

well, if you do a google search you can find most of the rulebooks you'd need online, I also have soft copies of the 2nd ed books from the Core Rules CD-ROM I could email out upon request, they are RTF, help file, or html (most lack the images from the hard copy books). Most of the games are pretty loosely based on AD&D 2nd or 3rd edition, with a few like Lord of the Forums that is a bastard child with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and (I'm trying) some Hackmaster 4th edition material. Many don't use any real rule system, and some are tied pretty tightly into one or the other.

How much time is needed depends entirely on the game? I've had to drop out of a few because the pace was too great (several pages of posts in one day), and some have fallen by the wayside due to lack of interest and extremely slow posts, most are somewhere in between. I recommend checking out a few games and seeing what interests you, then PMing the person running it (usually but not always the person who started the thread).

BG2 is mostly 2nd edition, it has a number of spells from 3E, and some more leeway in the rules than straight AD&D 2nd Ed (rangers and paladins can put 2 *'s in weapons instead of only 1) Several people know 3E only through NWN, nothing to be worried about, Larry himself knew primarily NWN 3E when the last LoF game started, and in fact created his character Brendon Grey using the NWN character generator if I'm not mistaken.

btw great to see you here, If your RP posts are anything like your posts in CE it'll be a real treat to have you joining the family here. (If Larry or Cyril need a recomendation before letting you in LoF you can count on me) If you lack experience, well that's easy to correct, hop in and get your feet wet.

[Morgeruat]

Oh, and in most games it's polite to turn off your sig, it reduces clutter, and keeps page length down (and helps them load faster)

[dplax]

When I first started roleplaying in a post per play roleplay here on Ironworks I had nearly no experience of D&D rules (only BG1). Since then I played BG2, NWN with its expansions. These help to give you an understanding of the rule system, but really when you are a player all the knowledge you require to take part in the game is how to make a character and even if you are not sure about that the person running the game can help you to create your character. If there are dice rolling going on behind the scenes 99% of the time it is the game master rolling the dice.

Then about the pace of games. I spend about an hour or two playing the games daily, some days less, depending on how active the games are. But I am taking part in two games and am running one.

So for one game half an hour per day should be pretty much enough. And don't worry much about the rules. People are friendly here and if someone is not familiar with the rules they shall allow more room for error.

Other than that Morgeruat also gives excellent advice.

[Cyril Darkcloud]

shamrock_uk,

Well met! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

And welcome to the RP Forums. More than any specific knowledge of the various rulesets and game systems, whether AD&D or something else, an ability to roleplay a character’s personality is helpful, as well as a willingness to work at telling a good story that involves not just your own character, but the characters of the other gamers. Some games here require a bit more attention to rules matters than others, but all of them involve having fun by writing about the characters being played.

If you’re willing to give something like that a shot, the rules issues can be cleared up as we go along – all of us had to learn how to play the games at some point, and the best way to do that is by playing and having fun and picking up things along the way.

I’d caution you about restricting yourself to a specific setting such as the Forgotten Realms as most of our games do not use that setting and you might end up limiting your RP options too drastically to really enjoy yourself. Rather, I’d suggest that if you see a game that looks like fun you send a PM to the person who started it and ask about being able to join. Most of our games are running at a slower pace right now and so you shouldn’t need to worry about not being able to spend a lot of time each day gaming. Right after “Have fun!”, the second most important rules here are “Be considerate!” and “Real life is more important than RP life” – if life gets too busy for posting, just let the other players know and things are generally fine. In general, being able to put up a good post 2 or 3 times a week should do the trick with regard to a reasonable level of activity.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask them, and if I can help you figure out how things work here just let me know. I’m sure our other gamers would feel the same way.

Again, welcome.

[shamrock_uk]

Hello Morgeraut - thanks for all the advice [img]smile.gif[/img] I found a link to a 3.5e reference guide in one of the discussion threads so that should keep me going for a bit. Thanks for your offer of emailing material though, much appreciated!

Dplax, thanks for your post - your experiences are very re-assuring!

Well met Cyril and thanks for your advice. Restricting myself to FR was more from a need for some familiarity, but really any fantasy-esque world would do me [img]smile.gif[/img] I shall take heed of your three rules too, all good stuff - the third especially given the tendency of the internet to suck your time away!

I shall maybe PM Larry about FoS, but ~1000 posts is a lot of background to get through (for a sufficiently good understanding of the prior course of events) - I may wait until the next one gets established!

Once again, thank-you all for the welcome and advice [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 03-09-2005, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[Morgeruat]

LoF is actually probably closer to 4000 posts, if taken in it's entirety, and I can provide a summary if you want, detail depending entirely on how much you want.