Pen & paper or PC? Which one packs more fun?

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I know there's software that lets you play -- essentially -- PnP RPGs online with others. Anyone have more info?

 

Sir Fink, the only PC tool I know of is a virtual dice. But I'll look in the matter for you.

 

PnP for me, mind you about the only way I have contact with others who play PnP is the gaming shop I'm a patron of (I really run with the wrong crowd for D+D all together, I think I'd get tarred and feathered if most of the people I socialize found out my interests; I have 1 actual friend who plays table top). Anyway, I've always perfered the table top experience with any game (such as Warhammer) because of the limitless control that someone has over the situation. With PnP specifically, I also like that I can make my PC's actions perfectly reflect his or her character instead of using the usual good PC/bad PC pergenerated lines.

I really like to be able to play high Cha evil characters forcibly, specifically in regards to cohorts or NPCs who have joined the group (other PCs too, but I've got to draw the line somewhere). I really can't do on the computer, which really takes the flair out of a LE character who utilizes even the power structure of the adventuring party (assuming he or she is the group leader) to dominate those dependant on him.

The only real issue for me is with PnP, I have to make sure whatever I'm doing doesn't dominate the game and ruin the fun for others (which is why charismatic LE PCs are a dangerous route for me to take, but I seem to love LE characters for whatever reason). Often actively constraining your character feels like you are betraying the nature of the character.

 

There are quite a few around.

There's Open RPG, which is a free program that can run games. I'm really not a big fan of it, but haven't used it much.

I've also resently been told about Fantasy Ground, which seems to be great. The downside is that it's not free. And along similar lines, there's Battlegrounds: RPG, which is scheduled to be released this month.

Then of course there's always just IRC

 

Sir Fink, I know that IRC, especially the irc.magicstar.net server, have dicebots that do the same as regular dices. I've played about eight or nine different games on that server, and it works just fine.

 

Bah! Minstrel's Medallion, one of Sorcerer's Place chat rooms, works just fine. No need to go to any magicstar.net server

 

okay im new to this board and all but i've played the on the pc and i find that it just dosen't compare to PnP. With PnP it gives you the oppurunity to get together with friends and family if they play and just relax and have a good time. With playing on PC its just not the same feeling even if you do play with them and people tend to be more arrogant about things and squabble over trivial things and than you spend hours trying to settle it. If you are playing PnP you just grab a book look it up and its settled end of conversation and you move on with the game again

 

PnP is better when you can get your fellow gamers to show up to the sessions.

 

Oh, oh, I'm remembering the biggest reason PnP is better then PC. PnP doesn't have game destroying glitches that sometimes never get fixed. Uh, my video card, still to this day with the latest driver, still causes NWN to crash and corrupt my saved games.

On a lesser note, BG2 will no longer let me complete the Viccy romance, after a while the romance dialogue just phases out, despite claiming that the romance is still active. I've never had problems like then in PnP, PnP NPCs always do as the DM intends them to do.

I am much more excepting of delays caused by players who have to cancel a session then a freaking game with a problem I seem incapable of fixing.

 

Don't know. I think PnP is better for D&D fun, while games are better for game fun. Part of the charm of PnP is its not being done on the computer. A geeky thing not done on the computer, is it not charming? What's good about a cRPG is that it's always a game. PnP sometimes feels to me like a pointless display of poor actorship by people who could be doing something more constructive. And I'm not a big fan of PnP charts, either. All in all, I think I'm more and more inclined to pick cRPG, in a way against my once strong preference for PnP, even in a chatroom form, over computer games.

 

As I have gotten older I have less and less time to play in a PnP campaign. Between work and family obligations I just don't have the time. So right now cRPG's are the only viable option.

 

Ditto

 

I just finished a session with my friends an hour ago. It lasted more than 4 hours and everybody had lots of fun. We laughed, we got upset when a dragon smashed the skull of Dwary the Sadistic, and we cheered when Ormilog the Paladin cut the dragon's head of.We drank some beer, we ate a pizza and throwed some dices. Show me ONE, only ONE computer RPG that gives you the same thrill a PnP gives ya and I will never speak again!

 

— I don't understand all that fighting beetween "Pen & Paper" playing and "Computer" playing.

— I am very competent to speak of the problem, because,

# 1) I was playing AD&D 2nd edition during a time of near 20 years, with a private club of friends fluctuating among 4 and 10 players ; a large black sheet-cloth was covering a huge wooden board on 2 trestles, and on that black cloth, there were Floor Plans of all colours, black&white old-style character-pages, sharp-edged "gem" dice (often 1 color by player !) as beautiful sapphires, rubis, hyacinthes, topazes, ...etc ; and, for atmosphere, candles, paraffin little skulls and a false central treasure made of gold pieces (chocolate inside !) sprinkled of many pieces of strass-false rings and jewelry !
# 2) I was playing, on my old iMac, a countless number of sessions of BG1 and TotSC, plus several good hours of BG2 and IWD1.

Read ALL your posts above :

• Isn't obvious that the two systems cause two wildly different afflux of emotions and pleasure ?

• And the two inconveniences of a exciting night "Dice & Friends" and a quiet afternoon with your beloved computer of are not of the comparable sort, neither. Isn't evident ?

••• There will be, perhaps, a THIRD WAY IN THE FUTURE :

<< I HAVE A DREAM >> , as the president of your North America said ...

— Imagine a sytem which reunite ALL of the advantages of the "Pen & paper" style (friends, flexibility of new actions and dialogues !), AND ALL of the advantages of the computer (a beautiful world with marvellous landscapes, and calculations for you of all game factors, success or failure !)

— Then imagine :

• a room with a party of some merry friends !
•• a discreet black console on the ground, with a VERY SOPHISTICATE system of analysis and recognition of voices !
••• a ENTIRE WALL covered with LCD (or really-well-mastered projection) !
•••• then the friends saying (EVEN near in the same time !) orders as : << —I open the west door >> , << —My wizard begin a web spell centered right 10 yards in front of him >>, << Me, as a trusted paladin, I rush in combat with my favorite hand-arm against the ghoul at my left ! >>, etc, etc.
••••• then the computer of the console shows the moves as ordered, and calculate success or failure of your actions, and of the moves of the monsters !
•••••• after the fight, you can speak, heal, or search in the pockets of monsters, or just anything.
[ If you want say anything to one friend, outside from the game, you say a special word, as "Private-one", and, to act again in the virtual world, you say "Private-zero", for example ].

— I DESCRIBED, ABOVE, only ONE OPTION for the FUTURE :
In fact that subject is SO important, that I am going to create a new topic with a recall of that text, and I hope that YOU will tell in it :

1) How you value MY idea for future RPG games ;
2) WHAT are YOUR RPG-vision of the FUTURE, and what is that YOU wish for it !!!

That new topic will be named :
<< How are you wishing the RPG will be in the FUTURE ? >>

 

"I have a dream" was part of a Martin Luther King, Jr. speach, not a US President.

 

— If your had read the next topic, you had seen that I have ALREADY apologised for that little error, [ in the Topic : << What do you wish the RPGs to be like in the FUTURE? >> ]

Ppfff ! ...

 

It's PC all the way for me.

Heck, I don't even have the time to join internet role-playing servers for more than one or two hours a week, so I am even reduced to play single player campaigns!


@Cal:

If you like duplicating your posts around, you should also consider fixing all the copies accordingly. I can only speak for myself, but I don't read every single post in different threads before I answer a post made in one particular thread.

 

Having played both, I can say that PnP is far better. It's fun to sit around a table and go toe-to-toe with monsters with your friends.
Couple of beers, a pizza, and a dungeoncrawl. Good times.

 

Just bought all of Deathknell boosterpacks...new hours of adventure...for all PC gamers out there, hope new expansion packs will appear soon...>