Hail and well met, fellow badger!

So a while back after some reviewer likened Sea of Thieves to DnD I both baulked at that, and floated the idea of perhaps doing a Pen and Paper RPG over Discord or something similar. I have looked into running one with some pals recently, and I was just going to try and get an idea of if people were interested in this sort of thing, and numbers, scales, preferred systems, experience, the whole deal.

So why would you even want to do this?

Well, DnD and other P&P RPGs are pretty fun. I've played one or two, but I had a lot more fun running a one shot for some pals, and then part of the starter campaign for some other pals. Commitment and time is always an issue, but if you can get stuff rolling and organised it is a blast and there isn't much else like it. You make a character (or run a pre-written) and that means you can play your regular boring RPG protag, or you can make something like a dumb but charismatic half-orc bard who plays the triangle. Similarly, the scope to approach situations is so much broader than you'll ever find in any computer game, the only limits are your imagination and the patience of your DM.

Who can play?

Anyone who isn't a cunt, really. Ideally, you'd be able to commit to weekly or bi-weekly sessions, have access to a laptop or PC with discord, and a microphone on, and a pretty open attitude to actually playing the game. The upper limit would likely be 3-5 badgers plus the DM, though I reckon any more than 4 players would perhaps crowd out voice chat a little too much, depending on the game.


What are we playing?

This is partly where I need input/interest expressed.

There are a lot of DnD and DnD like games out there, so there are a lot of choices. There are many different systems that allow for many different rules and applications of player/DM feedback. Ultimately it comes down to what sort of world you want to play in, and how heavy do you want your Crunch (or mechanics) to be. I am quite an advocate of light mechanics, because no one wants to spend time waiting for people to roll a ton of dice and work out stats, and I also hate power gamers and min/maxers. I could never ever hope to list them all, so here are some:

Dungeons and Dragons 5e - it's DnD! The current system is really geared towards accessibility and expression and is thus light on mechanics. It has the advantage of having a billion resources available, in terms of campaigns and books. The setting currently is the Forgotten Realms, but there are campaigns that take it to different places, like the Curse of Strahd's Gothic setting of Barovia. 

Powered by the Apocalypse - a current favoured alternative to DnD. It has a slightly more expressive system that factors in varying degrees of success which takes a lot of work off the GM, allowing them to focus on the important parts. The most interesting part is that it isn't shackled to a fantasy setting. Its most popular wrapper is Apocalypse World - the post-apocalyptic setting the system was designed for, but there is also Dungeon World (like DnD) The Sprawl (Cyberpunk) Monster of the Week (Think Buffy: the RPG) Monsterhearts (Teen monsters deal with emotions and villains) and more.

Tales from the Loop - A game designed to evoke that Spielberg/Stranger Things style setting, with art by Simon Stlenhag, where you play kids that solve mysteries as well as their own relationships

Mouse Guard - It's DnD but you're mice? Think Redwall, etc 

Numenera - An RPG set 1,000,000,000 years in the future where magic and technology are no longer distinguishable from each other in any meaningful sense. It's mechanically fairly simple, and avoids a lot of the cliches of the DnD style settings. You could probably be a talking shadow of a memory if you wanted?

Call of Cthulhu - does what it says on the tin, an RPG where you investigate all that Cthulhu stuff and, in all probability, die or go mad.

Blades in the Dark - A game set in a Victorian London inspired world of endless night, where you play a bad person who does crimes. It's mechanically very light, which apparently puts a lot of influence on the handful of dice rolling you do end up doing.

More? Other? - You bet, there are bucket loads of them out there, and many of them are totally free, like LANCER a game where you pilot a big mech! There's pretty much an RPG for any flavour, but the above are a small slice of the most common.

Yes but say we pick one, what are we playing?

Good question. Ideally a good P&P RPG starts small and spirals out forever, but we're not at Uni and we have lives so that's harder to manage. Instead, expectations are better. There are a few possibilities.

1. A pre-made one shot. These are pre-written campaigns that last one long or a few small sessions. They're good for a taste and if you love your character you can always keep the sheet and roll them again.
2. a Tempy written one shot. As above, but I make it.
3. A pre-made campaign. These are available for games like DnD which has a lot of pre-made campaigns that are utterly full of content. The DnD 5e starter pack is one such example, and it's a really good little box that's totally full of stuff to do and lets you taste a bunch of the typical DnD fare such as: Dungeons! Dragons! Cults! Goblins!
4. a Tempy written campaign. The same as above but it's a nightmare for me.

Is it free?

Ostensibly... yeah. If I can get good materials on the High Seas it should be largely free. However... as a GM, having a physical copy of THE BOOK is often very helpful, because PDFs are the absolute fuck, so there may be a nominal by in of £3-5 depending on player numbers, and how good the PDFs and so on.

Do you have anything else to add?

Yes! In an indeterminate amount of time, this could be us!