For DnD, I normally aim for six players, and I run if there’s at least four present.
Knowing that the game will go on anyway without you is really good motivation to not flake out (I speak as someone who flakes out a bunch.) - and DnD is a very easy game to just have someone be not present for a week.
Yesterday, one of my players just plain forgot that we scheduled a game.
Luckily, the party was split up doing downtime activities anyway, so we decided that they simply could not locate that character quickly (time was somewhat of the essence). Near the end of the session, the party realized that they need that particular character’s alchemical expertise, giving them a great reason to actually go look for him.
Serious question, I don’t mean to offend (at least not yet ;) ) - do you only ever play DnD? Because this community is called RPGmemes and I rarely (if ever) see anything but DnD.
Swapping my own group to PF2e and we’ve all played other systems (lancer, sw saga, vtm, cyberpunk, kids on bikes, etc). I do think if a meme says something different than DnD (using it as a generic term for TTRPG) you’ll get more people commenting on the system rather than relating to the meme (like if this said Traveler there’d be more comments about never played Traveler or if it said PF2e comments would be more about the system war).
Personally, I also like genericizing D&D.
It’s a shorthand for folks outside or new to the hobby, it skips a hurdle to talk to people about other RPGs with those people, and it weakens the brand identity. Considering how much D&D has coasted on brand identity as the game suffered, I’m all for that.
I’m less likely to do it places like here, because it causes more confusion, but still. It’s fun to say, “Pathfinder is a great way to play D&D.” :P
I prefer TTRPG because it doesn’t give free advertising to Hasbro. Even if most people know what you mean, someone googling D&D ends up at Hasbro’s product.
I use RPG. CRPGs can have a more-than-four-letter-acronym.
Personally, the game I run the most is Shadowrun. Managed to transition my DnD group to Pathfinder 2e and it’s great. Pathfinder is DnD but so much better.
My group plays 3.5e and I’ve become That Guy that talks about Pathfinder every session to exactly zero avail 🥲
Classic Pathfinder basically is 3.5e, so I would hope that they would want to switch just to get away from Hasbro. Pathfinder 2e is basically a good version of what D&D5e wants to be, but they didn’t test out the rules well enough to do. It’s fairly simple and easy, without tons of contradictions. D&D3.5 and Pathfinder are great too though, but most modern TTRPG players want the simplicity of the modern systems.
If you play 3.5e, Hasbro shouldn’t be affecting you. You’d be using old books and PDFs anyway and Hasbro has no control over that.
so I would hope that they would want to switch just to get away from Hasbro.
I’ll say this as a relatively newer player, I don’t care about the company that made the game when I’m trying to find something to play. As a player in 2 campaigns and a baby-DM for another, I think the only money I’ve paid that hasbro would get anything from is a Nolzurs mini I bought before I started making my own.
I’m not saying that people shouldn’t look outside of DND for other RPGs, there’s a ton of other great platforms out there, just trying to offer some perspective. I don’t think the average DnD player really gives a crap about Hasbro (again, not saying they shouldn’t care, just that they don’t), let alone have a desire to change platforms based on the manufacturer.
Players playing 3.5e are not average players. They’ve invested a lot of time into the game already. They should care what the company does, especially considering what they did after 3.5 that they should remember.
You probably will care who makes the system soon though because Hasbro is going to require subscriptions for everything. It’s going to sucks. You can always pirate the PDFs, but just play a better system. D&D 5e is so janky and you have to remember so many exceptions. Pathfinder 2e just works how you’d expect.
I see, I missed that tidbit of the conversation. My bad.
I don’t see myself caring if Hasbro tries to require a “subscription”. Like I said, none of the gaming I’ve done with DND has been through any legitimate channels they offer, I’ve got the PHB and DM guide on my phone and all the games I’ve played are either homebrew or stolen PDFs that work exactly the same way a “subscription” would.
I have been interested in checking out Pathfinder, but honestly don’t care enough to push my friend group towards it. If anyone approaches me with a PF game I’ll join, but not going out of my way to find one.
Pathfinder is the vegan crossfit of the ttrpg world.
Never played DnD but the US community is 90% DnD so…
I play Shadowrun and Blades in Dark for now.
Mostly play PF2e nowadays, but I’m open to other systems. I get the feeling that some people use DnD as a shorthand for all TTRPGs tho
What is stopping you from posting non-D&D TTRPG content?
Be the change you want to see in the world
We finished a five year D&D 5e campaign, now we’re bouncing between Fiasco, Brindlewood Bay (murder she wrote with Cthulhu), Mothership (Alien or Starship Troopers vibes), and soon a Star Wars EoTE. Most every game is fun!
yeah we need more of the other rpgs
Was wondering about that, too.
I play Warhammer Fantasy right now after a 10 year break or so.
Before that some other stuff using GURPS.
Never played DnD
Warhammer has its own community but theyre of course welcome here
This meme format is great!
…and now I want to play darkest dungeon again.
Our DM (who is awesome and cool) has 2 campaigns going:
The main one for if we all are there
An episodic, side campaign if 1 or 2 people are missing
I don’t get group who can’t play when one player it missing. We all know that life happens. If a player miss, we play without them, if she GM miss, we do a one shot
If it’s the first session on a new system. Then it gets weird.
Context: we did char creation in August. We haven’t even gotten to session 1 yet.
First session is the easiest! You just meet the missing player in the next session. Avoids the forced “you meet in a tavern” trope.
Issue is the new system. It’s not dnd. It’s genesys(Legend of 5 rings). It’s all samurai here (technically not yet)
I’ve heard of L5R, don’t know much about it. Are you saying the system makes it hard to add/remove players once campaign starts?
We actually started the game. The concepts are ways enough. Weve all been helping each other with mechanics because they’re not as intuitive starting out, compared to the star wars tabletops that use the same system.
It’s just such a different genre that it’s easier to get as many people in at once to explain everything. 2 of the people are new to tabletops and the genesys system is a bit complex. Especially L5R.
One player down is still a regular campaign day. I ain’t organizing a one shot every time someone’s got to cancel.
In the face of death does true heroism show, or cowardice.
“Many fall in the face of chaos…but not this one. Not today.”
