Mastodawn

Lilith, Mother of Darkness

I was flabbergasted when I learned that for many, many people who play ttrpgs, that hobby essentially means D&D. Seemed like very few had played, or actually even heard, about other systems.
Which seems insane to me, considering how many other systems there are.

Play D&D if you like it, that's absolutely okay. I'm certainly not knocking it. I just personally don't really care for it. To me, it kind of is like picking the vanilla flavour, when there are so many other different options to choose from.

Also, a little side note regarding how ttrpgs are more acceptable now, and more mainstream. While I'm happy to have more people in the hobby, there is one downside: we old timers lost all street cred the hobby gave to us.
When people saw us carrying a bunch of roleplaying books in the streets, they feared us! Parents ushered their kids to other side of the street, scared that I will use my demonic witch powers to convert little Timmy-Sally to a goth who plays vampire the masquerade.
That is respect. Well, that's fear, to be precise. But fear is better. Respect can vanish quickly, but most people can't stop fearing easily. 🤘

@Lunalucardrose20 The only TTRPGs I personally own are ones I've stumbled onto in second hand stores and just couldn't resist. So I have a Starcraft one and a LotR one in swedish. 😅
Husband has a few D&D books but we're not social enough irl to get any games going.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 3d ago

@Gulleko Oh my god, you have a starcraft ttrpg book!? I didn't even know such a thing existed.

I'm pretty jelly right now.

@Lunalucardrose20 I can take some pictures when I'm done eating my midnight snack (that's neither at midnight or light enough to be a snack). 😅

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 3d ago

@Gulleko Ooh, I'm game. You don't have to if it's a bother, no need to burden yourself for my sake.

@Lunalucardrose20 If the box is too deep into the boardgame pile you might have to wait until tomorrow. 😂

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 3d ago

@Gulleko I guess I can live with that.

blobfoxfloofhappy

@Lunalucardrose20 It wasn't too difficult to access, so here's the Starcraft TTRPG. I have no idea if it's complete or not (I needed to buy a set of polyhedral dice to play it), but it's complete enough to play. 😄

I was the gm for my husband and his best friend a single time, and even though I followed the encounter modifier (more players = more/scarier monsters) they died horribly to a swarm of zerglings. 😂

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@Gulleko Oh wow, looks like something I'm gonna have to try and hunt down for my collection.
Dying to a swarm of zerglings does emulate the game pretty faithfully.

Thanks for taking the time to take some pics of this, appreciate it.

@Lunalucardrose20 It's just collecting dust on a shelf, so I'd be willing to part with it. I have no idea how much money this kind of thing is worth though.
*searches* Oh jesus christ the cheapest I can find it for is 80 USD.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@Gulleko Depending on the price, I would be willing to buy it from you. 80 USD is acceptable to me, or more if you want.

@Lunalucardrose20 80$ plus whatever the shipping costs sounds good to me!
If you want to DM me your address (or add me on discord or get my email) I'll probably send it in like a week. I need time to find a good box for it and figure out how to best pack it (and then get a ride to the post office). 😅

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@Gulleko That would be okay for me. If you are not in a hurry to sell, would it be possible to wait until the end of next week? Due to some unfortunate vet expenses, I'm a bit tight on money for the next 8 days. We could arrange it then.

If you do find another buyer before that, then no sweat. There's no reason to hold it for me.

@Lunalucardrose20 Of course it can wait. I wasn't planning on selling it until I talked to you about it, so I'm not about to go looking for another buyer (I'm too lazy for that). 😅

jendefer 2d ago

@Gulleko @Lunalucardrose20 Oh, wow, an actual StarCraft ttrpg! My group played a StarCraft campaign using the generic system Genesys.

#ttrpg #StarCraft

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@jendefer @Gulleko Yeah, I had no idea this existed.

@jendefer I had no idea it existed until I stumbled upon it in a second hand store and felt a mighty need to buy it. 😅

Captain Button 2d ago

@Gulleko @Lunalucardrose20

Obviously, you will need additional pylons...

Problem Fox 3d ago

@Lunalucardrose20
What!?! There are so many more...

This post brought back so many happy memories of my old group back in the late 90s. When I started it was a DND group that became a AD&D2E (Forgotton Realms, Ravenloft, Al-Quadim) group. We also had DMs running GURPS Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, plus White Wolf VTM and MtA.

Then I added a Cthulhu campaign for 18 months and never once introduced a monster. The players decimated themselves... best was the accident with the 4ft summoning circle in a small library and the massive god that was summoned riding a giant polar bear. Led to a long talk about biology, physics, and the properties of cylinders!

Good times. Makes me want to do something again... I've a copy of Mouse Guard on the shelf behind me, might be time to dust it off.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 3d ago

@Herne Yep, surprised the hell out of me. I see that we have played many of the same games. I've played cyberpunk 2020, shadowrun, world of darkness (especially vtm), exalted and call of Cthulhu a ton.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 3d ago

@Herne I miss my old gaming group so much.

S. John Ross 2d ago

@Lunalucardrose20 Yeah, it's like realizing there are "foodies" who literally only know McDonald's and are unaware of non-McDonald's sources or types of food.

But there are quite a lot of them.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@SJohnRoss Perfect analogy.

@Lunalucardrose20 one time I called it "AD&D" and the person I was talking to was completely confused. I guess she had no rpg experience in the pre-2000 games 😂

EXP system 2d ago

@Lunalucardrose20 Agree on the D&D being the basic vanilla flavour! I haven't had the chance to play that many TTRPGs, but I was a player in a Lancer game and that was fantastic. It was better than most of the D&D experiences I've had, I think partly because it felt like the rules and gameplay were holding hands with the story/setting, whereas D&D groups I've played with its always felt more "well this is the default and you can just slap anything onto it".

Aria.DNE [grim]2d ago

@Lunalucardrose20 I have no desire anymore to run or play D&D I did it for 20 years. I collect small/medium press TTRPGs and different systems. I love the many ways that RPGs can be played, designed, and modded.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@grim_elsewhere I've run D&D a few times, and was a player for a couple of sessions. I just found it fairly standard and kind of... boring. Medium? Something like that.

Aria.DNE [grim]2d ago

@Lunalucardrose20 Yeah. It has so many flaws that really get in the way of fun for me. And hearing so many DMs who insist on stupid rules and enjoy player punishment. And yeah, it's kinda boring! Especially at higher levels. Combat rounds should not take 30 minutes each.

I had one player who would tell others about a game of paranormal noir hard-boiled Fate I was running with them, and they kept saying, "We're playing D&D." And I (no judgement, this is a me thing) cringe and go, "Not D&D." Like, I want to show people there are so many other options.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@grim_elsewhere Same. I love showing people that "hey, look at this mountain of different games and systems. There is so much more to this hobby than D&D".

Unholy/Syn(ACK)

@Lunalucardrose20 That's an interesting take on TTRPGs, and I can sort of identify with it. As a kid that grew up right in the midst of the Satanic Panic, D&D was (of course) the gateway straight to hell and it was the one that engendered all that fear that you mentioned in your post.

However, when I got into college in the early 90s, I knew so many more people that played things other than D&D - and honestly I didn't know very many people that did play it. College was where I learned about Shadowrun, G.U.R.P.S., Paranoia, Chill, Vampire: The Masquerade, and probably a few more. My crew was pretty heavy into Shadowrun at that time. I did a short stint in D&D with a crew from my first "real job" after college, but once I moved to my current city of residence it was pretty much all Shadowrun, all the time. And most recently Cyberpunk 2020/Red (although I haven't actually played the TTRPG of that with live people - just have some of the sourcebooks).

D&D was the most popular by far, and I think that popularity served to sort of water it down in the circles I ran with because that was the only one that most "normies" knew. I think that once more genre-specific TTRPGs came to be that a lot of the TTRPG players finally found what they were looking for and left the "vanilla" stuff to the hardcore fans and n00bs.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@SynAck Hmm, that's a good point about leaving the "vanilla" stuff to those groups.

We've seemingly played a lot of the same systems. Although Chill is definitely one that I'm not familiar with.
My biggest ttrpg loves will always be Cyberpunk 2020 and Vampire the masquerade. (Well, really the whole old world of darkness as a whole, but Vampire is the one dearest to my black heart)

Unholy/Syn(ACK)

@Lunalucardrose20 Chill was a horror-based TTRPG kind of based around classic movie monsters in modern times - mummies, werewolves, vampires (of the "blah-blah-I-vant-to-suck-your-blood" type) kind of mixed with a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen/Van Helsing monster-hunter vibe. It was interesting.

One other one that I remember was one called TORG, which was like a horror/cyberpunk/sci-fi mish-mash game that also seemed to have a lot of techno-religious overtones to it (like one of the major NPC villains was the "cyber-papacy" where the pope was like some sort of AI). I didn't play that one, but found a couple of sourcebooks at a garage sale or something at one point and it seemed interesting enough.

Chill was pretty fun, though. Played that one for about a year or so.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@SynAck Sounds interesting, I'm going to try and find those in some form. Would like to read them.

Unholy/Syn(ACK)

@Lunalucardrose20 well, if it helps, TORG was published by West End Games and Chill was a Mayfair Games property.

Lilith, Mother of Darkness 2d ago

@SynAck This will undoubtedly help, thanks choom.

I'm really interested in older ttrpgs. And board games... and card games. I seem to have a thing for gaming that existed before or shortly after I was born.

Phil @ MaceGames 2d ago

I tried posting references to other game systems on a FB group, but the admins never approved any non-D&D comments 😂

🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦2d ago

@Lunalucardrose20 I agree with you on both counts.

1. There's nothing wrong with playing and enjoying D&D. Barring hurting someone there's no such thing as BadWrongFun™.

2. On the other hand, I don't play D&D. I don't like it. It's not even "vanilla". It's … well I'd compare it to a McDonald's hamburger (which I personally hate eating).

It is possible for both states to be true, and my not wanting to play D&D is not a judgment on others wanting to.