Any new players interested in PnP-style play, including roleplaying?

[Soixante]

Good day to you.

So I'm about to start playing DDO. Basically, what I'm interested in getting out of it is a play experience similar to the real thing, that is, PnP. So I'm looking for any others who might be interested in progressing together through the game as a group, taking our time in the dungeons and roleplaying all the way. You know, the immersive and fun parts of DnD. I guess I'm mainly looking for new players as they, like me, wouldn't already know every dungeon by heart (that seems to me to take all the fun of exploration out of it). But I also realize one cannot be too picky, so anyone interested is certainly welcome to join, new player or not.

I have also heard that there are quite a few existing players that play the game with a permadeath ruleset. This intrigues me. However it's not a must if others don't want it. Basically, RP and permadeath together = awesome, but RP is the most important factor for me.

Oh, and I'm on European time, so this would be mainly for the evenings in that timeslot.

[helicalius]

exploring is good an all, but eventually all the quests are the same thing!(levers,switches,hidden rooms,and mazes) many p&p players have complaints about ddo yet they do not grasp the meaning of it. try to play it your way, then try to play it the normal way. by normal i mean a fast pace hack and slash quest after quest type gaming style. where instead of taking your time to investigate and complete a single quest using your ability, persistance, and organizational skills. in ddo its not a question of succeed or wipe, its a question of how much xp you can get in as little as time as possible with as many xp bonuses as possible taking as much loot as possible in the shortest time possible, wipe is not an option! you will find that noone will want to team up to do a risky quest at low lvls.

However, on higher lvls its a whole other story. it is inevitble that eventually youll confront quests that noone seems to know what to do and the whole party depends on their organizational skills and thinking methods. i believe its just a little something the devs left for us on porpuse, seeing that some quests are designed in a way that even reading about them on the internet will not tell you all the answers. generally the ddo population hate those sort of quests and once any of the ddotizens complete a quest like that they vow to never do it again!

[crispyballs]

I am very interested in this. I have only been playing for a few days now and have gotten a character to level 3. While I find the game very interesting, I think I would get a lot more from it with a solid group that shares my love for RP to play with.

I am a great roleplayer. I've been playing PnP for about 10 years, and I'd really love to get the same type of experience out of DDO, which I think is very possible.

The only thing I see getting in the way of me joining up with you is I'm on US time not EU, though I am a night owl so that might work out...

Let me know what timezone you're in and what times you're usually on. I will see if that fits into the times I'm normally online.

Also: I'm very intrigued by the permadeath playstyle as well. I would be more than willing to give that a try.

[samthedagger]

I strongly recommend you find a Euro guild with a healthy player base that plays around the same time as yourself. We are all attracted to DDO for different reasons, but one of the reasons we all undoubtedly share is the ability to log in at any time and play a game we love. Due to the realities of life, your "any time" is not likely to match up with very many other players' "any time" exactly. But if you find a guild that prefers to play at a certain time (which many do), then you will get the shared experience of playing through the game with the same people.

If you want to take each quest with the same six people at the same time and never diverge from that path, well then I wish you good luck. But I have been playing D&D and other roleplaying games long enough to know that no one can be expected to make even a single weekly session of gaming 100% of the time.

If what you crave is someone to share stories with, then I suggest you just start playing then come to the forums and share your experiences. Many of us love to do that and love talking about our own individual exploits and comparing them to others. A whole thread devoted to "Ways You Screwed Up The Shroud" is far from uncommon around here and many players enjoy contributing to them. Part of what makes an MMO so enthralling is that you don't have to limit yourself to playing with a small group of people around a table. The whole world becomes your gaming table. You will meet people, learn their names, their play-styles, and their personalities. The community of each server becomes smaller the more you play.

[ReaperAlexEU]

exploring is good an all, but eventually all the quests are the same thing!(levers,switches,hidden rooms,and mazes) many p&p players have complaints about ddo yet they do not grasp the meaning of it. try to play it your way, then try to play it the normal way. by normal i mean a fast pace hack and slash quest after quest type gaming style. where instead of taking your time to investigate and complete a single quest using your ability, persistance, and organizational skills. in ddo its not a question of succeed or wipe, its a question of how much xp you can get in as little as time as possible with as many xp bonuses as possible taking as much loot as possible in the shortest time possible, wipe is not an option! you will find that noone will want to team up to do a risky quest at low lvls.

However, on higher lvls its a whole other story. it is inevitble that eventually youll confront quests that noone seems to know what to do and the whole party depends on their organizational skills and thinking methods. i believe its just a little something the devs left for us on porpuse, seeing that some quests are designed in a way that even reading about them on the internet will not tell you all the answers. generally the ddo population hate those sort of quests and once any of the ddotizens complete a quest like that they vow to never do it again!

no, there are other ways to play the game and still get a lot of fun out of it. just because its assumed a PUG will be going at speed that doesnt mean its the only viable way to play the game, nor is it the correct way to play the game.

the correct way to play the game is the way you get the most enjoyment out of the game. for the power gamers that means completing a quest at break neck speed to get their character closer to that god like power they are working towards, and there is nothing wrong with that. for the RPers that means taking the quest a bit at a time and exploring it and noticing the little touches the developers put in, and there is nothing wrong with that either.

[ReaperAlexEU]

as for the thread in general, there are RP guilds out there that enjoy seeing new players explore a dungeon for the first time, even if that means the vets biting their tongues and walking into certain death of a trap/event they know well.

you can check out the server sections of this forum, each will have a guild recruitment section in and you can hunt for RP guilds there. if you can't find any on your server try thelanis and sarlona as they are the 2 unofficial RP servers.

[Nieche]

I'm always up for some RP questing for some atmosphere.

[platonicx]

exploring is good an all, but eventually all the quests are the same thing!(levers,switches,hidden rooms,and mazes) many p&p players have complaints about ddo yet they do not grasp the meaning of it. try to play it your way, then try to play it the normal way. by normal i mean a fast pace hack and slash quest after quest type gaming style. where instead of taking your time to investigate and complete a single quest using your ability, persistance, and organizational skills. in ddo its not a question of succeed or wipe, its a question of how much xp you can get in as little as time as possible with as many xp bonuses as possible taking as much loot as possible in the shortest time possible, wipe is not an option! you will find that noone will want to team up to do a risky quest at low lvls.

However, on higher lvls its a whole other story. it is inevitble that eventually youll confront quests that noone seems to know what to do and the whole party depends on their organizational skills and thinking methods. i believe its just a little something the devs left for us on porpuse, seeing that some quests are designed in a way that even reading about them on the internet will not tell you all the answers. generally the ddo population hate those sort of quests and once any of the ddotizens complete a quest like that they vow to never do it again!

You (and most people) thing about the game as more exp+more loot + higher level=More fun
There are some other people though for which more challenge+more risk+less loot+slower pace=More fun

You dont have to believe it but its true
You would be surprised how much i love doing proof is in the poison on elite with a lvl 4 party ... and such stuff.
Its better to wipe in a challenge after half hour of progress then to complete it in 10 mins like a childs play .. even if both difficulties get you the same rewards .. doing it harder is just more fun for some people.

[nibel]

OP,

Try to find a static group that works under your rule. Thalion's Dedicated Teams guild (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=57433) in Sarlona is a good starting place. We usually play once a week, in the same time, and try to complete all quests in the game on normal. No rush, getting all optionals if possible, and absolutely, no spoilers (except if we wipe 2 or 3 times in a row in the same place and are frustrated, but you'll understand this).


exploring is good an all, but eventually all the quests are the same thing!(levers,switches,hidden rooms,and mazes) many p&p players have complaints about ddo yet they do not grasp the meaning of it. try to play it your way, then try to play it the normal way. by normal i mean a fast pace hack and slash quest after quest type gaming style. where instead of taking your time to investigate and complete a single quest using your ability, persistance, and organizational skills. in ddo its not a question of succeed or wipe, its a question of how much xp you can get in as little as time as possible with as many xp bonuses as possible taking as much loot as possible in the shortest time possible, wipe is not an option! you will find that noone will want to team up to do a risky quest at low lvls.

You, sir, is complete and utterly wrong. I know many peoples, 4-years vet included, that dont give a **** about the lvl 20 game. They think is about the voyage, not the destiny. Running to cap and them farming epic tokens is not the one and only way to have fun on DDO.

Me myself, usually lose interest in the game past gianthold, because from GH and onward, all the game is a big grind. Grinding for relics, grinding for tapestries, grinding for sigils, grinding for greensteel, grinding for runes, grinding for essences, grinding for TOD sets, grinding for epic tokens...


However, on higher lvls its a whole other story. it is inevitble that eventually youll confront quests that noone seems to know what to do and the whole party depends on their organizational skills and thinking methods. i believe its just a little something the devs left for us on porpuse, seeing that some quests are designed in a way that even reading about them on the internet will not tell you all the answers. generally the ddo population hate those sort of quests and once any of the ddotizens complete a quest like that they vow to never do it again!

And thats why, after they twink the desert quests to give a decent xp, most people took 6 months or more to TRY it again. Because 3 years ago, Desert XP was laughable and no one used to do anything in the desert, besides farming a bloodstone. Or that Faithful Departed now is almost impossible to fail, because you need to let ALL venerable dies instead of only one?

Yep, the population can get used with the one and only path to powerlevel, but this game is changing every day. One day, Ringleader will not give 1k xp in 2 minutes, and people will find something else that is worthy of running for a big xp/minute. But first, they'll flame on the forums of how "ringleader xp was good and now its not worth anymore".

[Lerima]

"progressing together through the game as a group, taking our time in the dungeons and roleplaying all the way."
I've been scouring the forums all morning and that is the most concise description that I've seen of what I'm actually looking for. I just started yesterday and I am totally loving DDO, but I've only been soloing so far and I feel like I missing a big part of the fun! I've always wanted to play PnP, but as I am still in high school there are very few others who would be interested in that sort of thing, let alone willing to commit to a game. So, if you're not too put off by my rambling, I would love to be part of your group. Though, like crispy there, I am in the US. I'm not an especially busy person, though, so I'm sure we could find a time where we can all be present.

[katana_one]

Ah, I would love to do this, but as others have pointed out a static group can be hard to maintain. I participate in two PnP groups, and it's inevitable that someone will miss a session once in a while. In PnP you can fudge it (in our groups, everyone progresses equally regardless of an occasional missed session) but in DDO you can't - the person who misses the scheduled run will have to make up the quest(s) on his/her own time to catch up.

Still, I'd be willing to try it depending on the scheduling.

[Soixante]

Great to see some interest in this!

Unfortunately, I doubt we'll be able to make the same times, as I currently have a very busy schedule and can really only realistically hope to be able to play in the evening, Euro-time. So I'll just throw this out there and see who's up for it:

Mondays at 1900 GMT. Five-man group, one spot is taken by yours truly, so four spots remain. This would be a once-a-week session, at least to begin with, where we all start with new lvl 1 characters and progress together as a group. 100% RP in game. That means, 100% RP in dungeons too. Yes, it can be done. Just don't expect to lvl up very fast. We'll need to coordinate our characters so we have at least one tank, one rogue, one healer for a balanced party. Personally I could play any class so I'll let you choose first and I'll try to fill in the blanks.

If you want to be a part of this, you should

- be able to make the suggested time regularly (though I realize we won't all always be able to make it, but atleast most of the time)
- be a reasonably mature person
- want to play more for the roleplay than for the xp
- play this particular character only at the weekly session (I'd recommend having another character that you can play more freely and powergame as much as you want with;))

If still interested, please reply with character name, race and the class you'd like to play. We can work out any additional details after I see if there's enough people interested to get a group going from these criteria.

[crispyballs]

Mondays at that time would currently be fine for me. I would really like to be a halfling rogue, but if somebody else wants that combo, I can easily do something else. Just let me know what server and when we're starting. I'd prefer any server but Argo, as I already have 2 toons there, but neither are high level at all (as I said, I've only been playing a few days) so if that's the one everyone else wants I can delete.

[Lerima]

Well, I suppose I'm out then. That's about 2 pm for me (est), right? I don't get home until about 3:00 pm on weekdays. Good luck, though!

[katana_one]

Yeah, that excludes me as well. I should be working at that hour, not playing DDO. :)

[crispyballs]

Well, I suppose I'm out then. That's about 2 pm for me (est), right? I don't get home until about 3:00 pm on weekdays. Good luck, though!

Actually, unless I'm mistaken and assuming they have daylight savings time where you are, it would be 3:00 PM you're time until daylight savings time ends. Then it would be 2:00 PM.

[katana_one]

Actually, unless I'm mistaken and assuming they have daylight savings time where you are, it would be 3:00 PM you're time until daylight savings time ends. Then it would be 2:00 PM.

Daylight Savings Time ends in less than one month.

[Lerima]

Either way I definitely wouldn't want to start playing with you guys and then have to leave the group because of the time difference.