The Beginner's Guide to Table Top Gaming

What is a table top game (or alternatively, role playing game)? The easiest example to use is that of Dungeons and Dragons, established in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Although blighted by an ill deserved reputation of lameness, D&D is now racing towards it’s 5th incarnation and is still as popular as ever. However, there’s a vast library of RPGs to choose from and if you want to dabble in it, you’ve come to the right place.

Grab some mates

To play, you’re going to need a bunch of friends involved. Unlike an evening spent fighting each other in Smash Brothers, however, you’re going to be working as a team during your game. Together, your goal will be to defeat the particular evil of your chosen game rather than battle to emerge the lone victor. Also, now is the time to choose who will be the GM, or ‘game master’. Their job will be to run the game, know the rules, and otherwise be in control. If you’re struggling to involve mates, have a nosey to see if there are any role playing clubs near you. They’re always willing to accept new members, and are usually lovely people.

Grab some dice

Yup, you’re going to need dice. Nope, the set that came in the Monopoly box ain’t going to work. You’re going to need a set of polyhedral dice, which are easily obtainable from a nearby comic or role playing store, or of course online. If you ask very nicely, of course, you might be able to borrow some.

Pick your game

As I said earlier, there’s a lot more to it than D&D, although it is a great example. What genre do you want to play in? Horror? Sci Fi? Fantasy? Do you want a more ‘mainstream’ fantasy adventure within the lines of the LOTR franchise, or something more quirky, such as playing a small child with an imaginary monster friend as in Monsters and other Childish Things? Experiment!

Create your character

Depending on your choice of game, you could be playing for several weeks or even months. Your character will be the avatar you use within the game for that time, so make sure you create one you’ll be happy to play as for an extended period of time! Character creation differs depending on the game you’re playing, so check the instructions in the rule book for advice.

Start playing

In your initial session, your GM will set up the game for you, telling you where you are, and what’s happening around you. The rest is up to you. The joy of table top gaming is that you can go wherever your imagination takes you, thinking up fantastical ways to get around obstacles in your path. Don’t be afraid to get creative!
(We may, once, have taken a wizard to a tavern, in order to get him drunk and extract some crucial information. Yes, it was crude, but it worked!)

Have fun!

Review me Amadeus.

Its time for some more reviews from Monday Richard.

PC Game – The Sims Medieval.

This is a hard one to review, I have played quite a few hours of it now and watched Tuesday Shanice play a whole lot more of it (maybe she will do a full review of it tomorrow)

But the problem is, I'm not entirely sure what I think of it..

Its not really the Sims any more, most of your Sim needs are gone, build mode is gone and you don't make family's any more. What you do instead is make “hero” Sims and then use your hero sims to do quests, instead of learning skills your heroes level up aand improve as they level up.

Now to someone who plays RPG's often I thought I would really like this, but... it sort of sucks...

The sims system is not really built for this type of game play, the camera is stupid and hard to get pointing at what you want it too, and while you can still speed up time, everything takes too long to do. I'm going to give it some more time, but at the moment I give this...

2 out of 5 brains.

TV Show - Skithouse

I doubt you have heard of this, but it as an absolutely awesome Australian sketch comedy show.

I have the “Classic Skithouse” DVD, and it has me in stitches every time I watch it, the sketches are hilarious and it features the music of the very entertaining comedy band tripod.

If you can find it I highly recommend it, go hunt it down.

4.5 out of 5 brains.

Film – The Simpsons Movie

I rewatched this over the weekend and in my opinion I think it totally stands up. I love the Simpsons, I have always loved the Simpsons and I might be one of the few people that thinks the newer episodes of the Simpsons are as good if not better than some of the old episodes.

The Simpsons Movie is a great example of how the Simpsons keeps delivering I put it on while playing Pokemon white and it kept distracting me, even though I have seen it a few times already. I even hold it to blame for me losing to the elite four the first 2 times (that and my lack of defence against ghost Pokemon)

If you have not seen it, go see it, Spiderpig is awesome, the Dome is awesome, and Homers vision quest is, you guessed it, awesome.

4 out of 5 brains.

Pen and paper RPG – Dragon age.

I reviewed Dragon age 2 the xbox game last week, this week i'm going to be looking at the Pen and paper Rpg, now I play pen and paper rpg's every week, and I run games more often than I play them. At the moment my Thursday evenings are taken up running the Dragon age RPG,

The system is simple, you roll 3 D6, (dice to normal people) add your modifier and that's about it, what keeps this system interesting is the “Dragon dice” this dice tells your level of success (so a one on a dragon dice means you only just made it, and a 6 means you blew it out of the park) this dice is also used in combat to generate stunt points adding cool and interesting things you can do in a fight.

The system is fast and fun, combat is quick and exciting, and the world (as they got to draw on all the back story from the Xbox games) is rich and exciting.

This would get a 5 brain review from me, if it was not for the fact that they decided to split this game into “sets” the first set only covers the first 5 levels and the second set is not even out yet. Its an expensive set as it is and depending on how many sets they end up coming out with, getting a full set is going to be a hell of an investment.

So I give it 3 and a half out of 5 brains.

Card game – Pirate fluxx.

I have loved fluxx for a long long time, since the first set came out, its a fast past, totally bonkers card games when the rules can change with ever persons hand, a a single game can last one round or 20 minutes with the win conditions changing as fast as the rules do.

Now there are a bunch of versions of Fluxx, Zombie fluxx, Stoner Fluxx, Eco Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx even Jewish Fluxx, to name just a few.

The latest is Pirate fluxx, and I have to say, this might just be the best one yet.

Everyone ones to be the captain, the talk like a pirate card has everyone doing pirate impressions. This game also adds cards that you play out of turn to effect other players turns, a fun new addition to the fluxx series.

I highly recommend this game, Way to go loony labs, you have done it again.

5 out of 5 brains.