Daggers & Dragons: Ask me stuff

[Dagger Dias]

I never played Dragon Quest, outside of one of the GBA games I believe (or DS, can't remember... it wasn't the actual RPG one I think), so explain?

Dragon Quest 3 had one of the most groundbreaking and innovating job systems of all time. You are able to create party members (other than the Hero) at the first town from the classes of Soldier, Fighter (this is like a Monk), Wizard, Pilgrim (this is like a Cleric), Goof-Off (more on him in a moment), Merchant, and in updated versions Thief. This was a huge enough deal at the time, but it gets better.

When you reach the Dhama Shrine you are able to change classes and for anyone who reached level 20+ you get to keep the abilities you learned along the way. By doing this you could create a something along the lines of a Paladin by having a Pilgrim reach level 20+ then change him into a Soldier so that you have a full plate mail wearing warrior who can also cast divine magic. You could create something similar to a Red Mage by having a level 20+ Wizard change into a Pilgrim so he can begin adding divine magic alongside his offensive spellbook. Lastly.... the seemingly useless Goof-Off class at level 20 can become a Sage which is what every Red Mage wishes he was, the Sage learns EVERY divine and EVERY offensive spell. You retained stat bumps from your previous classes. You could create a Wizard with a higher Health Point count and better base attack bonus this way too by changing a Soldier or Fighter into a Wizard.

Now, here's the kicker. This game in its original form was released on the NES in 1988. This game was ahead of its time.

I recommend honestly the entire series. 4 is my personal favorite, being the most traditional of the bunch. It does not have 3's brilliant job system but it has a great cast who each bring something different to the table such as in the older FF games. 6 is the medium between these two extremes having a very similar job system to use by a cast almost as memorable as 4's. 8 is also very popular, it was the one to finally take the series out of the classic visual style. 2 is so hard it's legitimately unfair towards the end, but if you want the challenge try that one too. 5 has the best story, and a lot of replay value because you pick a wife for the hero so it's fun to play through seeing what families with each love interest are like. 7 is another I look back fondly on but it's LONG.... I clocked in over 250+ hours on that game.


I'm still thinking on the rest of your question. I'll try to have an answer tonight or tomorrow.

 

[M]

So.... how did this go?

The guy we had that was going to DM for us had to pull out, leaving is with just a starter set and no players handbook so making out characters took freaking forever, but was pretty fun. I lost on a dice roll so I had to be the temporary DM for the first little patch of play we had, so to make my character still part of the story I made it so he was recovering from falling out of a tower and had become temporarily deaf and blind. It was pretty funny since I made him a fighter and said that someone had to be next to him at all times to lead him along, and that whenever he was to attack someone woul have to point him in their direction and he'd just run swinging his axe wildly until he hit something. I had no idea how to DM though so the flow of the story wasn't very good and I didn't know how to handle a lot of the situations that the players came up with; one of them wanted to hide inside of the dead corpse of a horse for protection from some arrows and rolled a 20 so I couldn't exactly not let that happen for instance. There were some other crazy things but that probably topped it.

I'd definitely play it again and most of my friends would too but I really really don't want to be the DM since the sort of stuff the group comes up with is way too creative for me to handle

 

[Dagger Dias]

Speaking of classes, pulling from all your RPG knowledge:

Best 5 classes

Mime (FF5)
Sage (FF3)
Ninja (FF3)
Hero (Dragon Quest 3)
Mystic Knight (FF5)

Mime in Final Fantasy 5 is the best class of all time. It depends on how much you have unlocked from all of the other job classes, as you had access to every unlocked ability from other classes with you being able to equip 3 of said abilities while also being able to Mime others. Bartz summons Bahamut. Faris, Krile, and Reina all Mime him. Or if you equip all with 2-handed which allows you to equip two weapons, X-Fight making them being able to attack four times in the same turn, and then have the everyone Mime this? Congratulations, if you are facing once target he just got attacked 32 times in the same round of combat. Battle over.

Sage from FF3 is awesome because it allowed you use of any spell from any school of magic in the game. Ninja was the other side of that coin, being able to equip any weapon except the Onion equipment. These two were crucial for the final tower. Best caster and best fighter of all time respectively.

Hero from Dragon Quest 3 got access to some cool spells, had good equipment, good stats, and learned some of the Wizard/Priest spells along the way. Extremely useful class to make up for the fact that he/she cannot change his/her class or be removed from the active party.

Mystic Knight from FF5 is a lot of fun. It casts magic on your weapons so that fighters can take out enemies that are weak to magical attacks. They can make an already powerful party downright lethal.

Worst 5 classes

Goof-Off (Dragon Quest 3)
Conjurer (FF3)
Onion Knight (FF3)
Berserker (FF5)
Dancer (FF5)

Goof-Off from Dragon Quest 3 only has one good thing about it. At level 20 they can turn into a Sage. If you keep a Goof-Off a Goof-Off forever though, it's a 100% useless class and has my vote for the worst class of all time. They are ONLY good for unlocking the Sage class. That's it.

Conjurer in FF3 is completely outclassed by the Summoner. They use the same spellbook as the Summoner, but it casts spells of random results. All of which are worse than the Summoner counterpart. Incredibly stupid class and I have no clue what they were even thinking when they made this class. I never use them. Ever.

Onion Knight in FF3 is pretty useless. The only reason they do not top this list is because they can use the Onion equipment. The worst class in the game suddenly becomes one of the best, if you are lucky enough to find the Onion equipment in the first place.... Not even worth the frustrating effort it takes to find their stuff, thus they are on this list.

Berserkers in FF5 are always berserked. I never really use them as their abilities aren't worth unlocking and you cannot control them. Having a party of 4 Berserkers won't end well no matter what your level is.

Dancer in FF5 is only good for unlocking the ability to equip the Ribbon item. All of their other abilities suck. Unlock the Equip Ribbon ability and then never use this class again. Unless you like seeing the Game Over screen.

Top 5 classes you wished were better

Hero in Dragon Quest 6, mainly because of how much work you have to put in to unlock it for anyone other than the actual hero. The game should have rewarded you with a much more powerful class. It's good, but not as good as its DQ3 counterpart.

Ninja in FF5. It unlocks some useful abilities although it pales in comparison to its FF3 counterpart. Having FF5's Ninja be able to teach a skill for equipping all weapons and all armor would have been nice. I'd have made it his last ability and made it cost around 900 points to unlock. The highest other than Mime or RedX2. While this new ability would not do anything for Mimes or Freelancers, it would help the other classes a lot to be able to equip any weapon or any armor.

Bard in FF4. This class (and Edward himself) are what I place all of the blame on for the stereotype of Bard being a weak class. Edward should have been able to do all sorts of buffs on the party using his Songs. Then again in most versions of the game he's not around long enough for any of this to get unlocked, had it existed. Still.... if you ever hear that Bards suck, it's FF4's Bard that you can thank for that.

Merchant in Dragon Quest 3. You had to have one for a specific event, but as far as abilities go I found it mostly useless. I'd have combined it with the Thief class into a Rogue class that uses both classes' skills.

Black Mage in FF4. Palom is overshadowed by Rydia the Summoner. Not to hate on Rydia, but she should have been restricted to summon magic and not had any Black Mage abilities. Rosa overshadowed Porom too, so in the GBA remake the twins didn't bring much to the table aside from their portion of the optional quests which required them.

Top 5 "overpowered" classes

I already touched on FF4's Summoner outclassing its Black Mage. There isn't much else I wish to downgrade. I tend to like broken classes.

 

[DarksideEric]

Hardest to use Class in RPGs and D&D? (not necessarily "bad" classes, just ones that require more mechanics to be effective, more planning, etc)

Were there any ever Race / Class pairings in D&D that you thought would be bad but turned out well?

Top 5 classes in D&D
Worst 5
Wished Were Better 5

and

Best classes you've seen fill a leader position in a party? (friend of mine played in a group where the Thief was the leader amongst a team with a Monk, Swordmage, Paladin and Archer)

 

[Dagger Dias]

Hardest to use Class in RPGs and D&D? (not necessarily "bad" classes, just ones that require more mechanics to be effective, more planning, etc)

Casters tend to be more difficult for me. It depends on the handler's preference really as those who like melee types more generally will prefer relying more on feats and your weapons in battle. They may find it tedious to do all of the spell preparation in-character and keeping up with spell lists out of character. On the other side of the coin, those who prefer casters or even rogues may find it harder to play characters who let their weapons do most of their thinking. They may feel restricted, compared to the handlers who prefer fighters that may be overwhelmed when trying a caster.

Were there any ever Race / Class pairings in D&D that you thought would be bad but turned out well?

We have an Orc Cleric in one of my campaigns.... I never thought that'd work, but so far it has. Disregarding the fact that he's come the closest to death multiple times in that party.

Top 5 classes in D&D

1. Druid
2. Cleric
3. Wizard
4. Warblade
5. Paladin

Surprised to not see Paladin or Warblade top the list? Druids if set up properly can be virtually unstoppable. Clerics are not far behind. There is so much manipulation that can be done through their magic, not to mention being able to HEAL which is so crucial in any party. I don't particularly care for Wizards myself, but they have a ton of potential due to being able to learn so many spells. Then there's that old saying of "Everyone mocks a low level caster, everyone fears a high level caster" this really holds true. Warblades are THE most powerful melee class. The maneuvers combined with all the feats you'd already get can make them manipulate the better into their favor. Did I mention them tying with Barbarian for having the best Health Point count in the game? Excellent equipment selection too. Paladins round out the top 5 coming in at 5th. They are in a similar position to Clerics but their potential is lowered due to not having the Domains and not being as gifted in magic. They have good Health and equipment selection. They also have Smite Evil and Holy Sword though.... Probably my two favorite D&D abilities ever.

Worst 5

1. Chaos Mage
2. Chaos Mage
3. Chaos Mage
4. Chaos Mage
5. Chaos Mage

In all seriousness, I do not honestly have a bottom 5, but I do rank Chaos Mage as the worst D&D class. A good handler can, through smart character set-up, can make nearly any class work. Any class, except this one. No amount of preparation can make it to where this class does not backfire. The chance is always there of this class ruining an entire battle, heck an entire CAMPAIGN due to its instability. I legitimately hate this class. They are far too unpredictable and the risk of "friendly fire" is huge with one of them around. I generally try not to tell people what to play, but if anyone ever suggests this class I try to encourage them to play something else by explaining how through bad luck they may end up killing one of their own party members. NEVER PLAY THIS CLASS! I cannot stress that enough. If you do, play it at your own risk because you will make your allies very unhappy both in and out of character when (notice I didn't say "if") your spells hit them instead of an enemy.

Wished Were Better 5

No major issues to note here. A veteran handler can make pretty much anything work. I'll admit I'm not at that point with casters or rogues yet, but with melee types I am. Give me any melee fighting class of any race, any alignment, with any given personality type.... I would find a way to make it work in the party.

EDIT: I do have one on second thought. Bards can use Magic Missile in 2nd edition and in general were more useful back then. Anything they could do in 2nd that they cannot in 3rd, should have remained unchanged.

Best classes you've seen fill a leader position in a party? (friend of mine played in a group where the Thief was the leader amongst a team with a Monk, Swordmage, Paladin and Archer)

That depends primarily on the handler. A veteran handler can and should have their character assume the leadership position if most of the characters have handlers who are still fairly new to the game. This makes it easier for rookies to settle in to the gameplay.

It can also depend on the setting of your current chapter in the campaign. A Paladin of Torm should clearly lead if you are investigating temples of Torm or any deities that are allies/enemies of Torm. If you're trying to form a rebel faction to take out an evil army then you may want to have any mercenary Fighters in the party lead. Sneaking around in a trap-filled cavern or tower? Might want the Rogue to take charge while in this lair. Traveling in a magical realm? The Wizards and Sorcerors should lead the way.

Disregarding both of the above factors.... Paladins make the best leaders. By class structure they are supposed to be honorable and do what their deity would want, which unless you're a Dark Knight (evil Paladin) generally would means ensuring the safety of your friends, protecting NPC's, and of course smiting evil. Fighters and Clerics make good leaders. There's a reason so many console RPG's have turned this into a stereotype. The overwhelming majority of heroes are sword wielding Paladins, Fighters, or some type of melee Cleric. There's a reason for that, and D&D started it. Rangers and Bards I have seen it happen, but not as often. For classes like Rogues, Druids, Wizards, and Sorcerers you really just don't see it happen unless a veteran handler wants out of character to lead the group. Barbarians probably make the worst leaders, you generally want a smarter character making the final call on important decisions.

 

[DarksideEric]

Do you ever use your real life knowledge in your D&D games to "cheat"?

A friend of mine told me her husband made an Alchemist character because he was a chemist in real life and the DM didn't know it. In one sort of "trap" situation the chemist was able to get them out of it by using his real world knowledge of chemicals and such to get them out. The DM later said if he had known the guy was an actual Chemist he wouldn't have laid out the trap the way he did.

You play melee a lot, how often do you find it hard to counter act the natural advantage ranged classes have vs. melee? Which melee classes have harder and easier times when outside of their desired fighting range?

What's the best "Support" melee? If I remember right, the one time I played my Genasi Swordmage (Water element) I took the version where I was "marking" enemies so that the main DPS (we had a Warrior) could do more damage with his attacks. How many melee classes do this?

 

[Dagger Dias]

Do you ever use your real life knowledge in your D&D games to "cheat"?

A friend of mine told me her husband made an Alchemist character because he was a chemist in real life and the DM didn't know it. In one sort of "trap" situation the chemist was able to get them out of it by using his real world knowledge of chemicals and such to get them out. The DM later said if he had known the guy was an actual Chemist he wouldn't have laid out the trap the way he did.

A lot of my DM's have had strict rules against using "out of character knowledge". If your character couldn't possibly have known something, then you should not act like he does. I have played the Sunless Citadel campaign multiple times. I knew what was waiting for us down in the citadel out of character, but my level 1 Fighter from my most recent time playing it had never been in the citadel before so I had to act based on what he in-character knew. If your friend's character could never have known what he stated he did, he shouldn't have gotten past that trap. It sounds like a less extreme example than mine, but it's something that should be in the actual handbooks if it isn't already and I somehow missed it. Never bothered to look since most handlers I've played with follow that rule whether it's official or not, and nearly all my DM's enforced it as a rule of their own. No out-of-character knowledge. Ever.

You play melee a lot, how often do you find it hard to counter act the natural advantage ranged classes have vs. melee? Which melee classes have harder and easier times when outside of their desired fighting range?

If you have a Fighter using the Quick Draw feat (one I give to nearly every character I make) then he can quickly switch to a Bow from a Sword. Give him some ranged feats such as Rapid Shot if your Dex modifier is high enough to help him in this scenario, and he's good to go. Ranged opponents will never be an issue for a properly set up Fighter. Those extra feats really come in handy if you allocate the right ones. Theron's namesake has the upper hand that my Fighter from this example does. Melee or ranged, he gets multiple attacks on you per round and his Armor Class is through the roof. In melee he is still more dangerous, currently getting potentially 6 attacks in the same round if the enemy is close enough due to feats, compared to having 2 if ranged.

As for other classes, they are still proficient with simple and martial weapons so they can use similar weapons as Fighters.... but the Fighters have an easier time dealing with ranged enemies than other melee classes due to having extra feats to allocate.

What's the best "Support" melee? If I remember right, the one time I played my Genasi Swordmage (Water element) I took the version where I was "marking" enemies so that the main DPS (we had a Warrior) could do more damage with his attacks. How many melee classes do this?

I'd say Rangers. A dual weapon using Ranger (rather than the traditional Bow & Arrow using Ranger I have seen many handlers create) makes for a good sidekick to the Fighter/Paladin/Barbarian who likely took on the tank role in a given example party. Duskblades can also be cool in this role since they can both attack and cast. I'm not familiar with "marking" and have never had a Swordmage in my party before so I may have to do more research to answer the last part of your question.

 

[DarksideEric]

This is what I played, I only have experience in 4.0.

Swordmage

 

[Dagger Dias]

This is what I played, I only have experience in 4.0.

Swordmage

You should try 3, 3.5, or Pathfinder. The latter is regarded as the true 4th edition by many of those who played any of the previous editions. I've only played 4th once and hated it.... and no it wasn't due to a bad DM or endless drama from handlers of the other party members. There's wanting to simplify the system, and then there's 4.0.... Wanting simplification is an understandable wish for anyone who ever had to endure THACO from 2nd edition or the lack of balance between whether a 1 was good or a 20 was good.... 4 is my least favorite edition and I'll probably never play it again. 5th from what I have seen so far is a big step back in the right direction. The DM Book and Monster Manual will tell more when I get those this semester.

 

[DarksideEric]

Not sure if I've asked this or not but do you/have you played anything other than D&D?

I played RIFTS for a little bit, was pretty cool.

What's the most "epic" thing you've done in a campaign?

During a RIFTS game my character was alone in his apartment and a guy in Power Armor busted in and attacked me. Only weapon I had in range was a flare gun so I made a "called shot" after he had thrown me across the room and rolled a 20, hit him square in the face and melted the armor faceplate to his face which killed him.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Not sure if I've asked this or not but do you/have you played anything other than D&D?

Gamma World, Pathfinder, Vampire The Masquerade, another World Of Darkness game with a name I forgot as it's been over 7 years since that was played, a Pokemon D20 game that an old roommate tried to create with us testing it, D20 Modern, Star Wars, and Don't Rest Your Head.

What's the most "epic" thing you've done in a campaign?

Haven't done anything all too epic yet honestly. The craziest things that the "real" Theron has done have involved winning affection of attractive female NPC's, in strange ways. In character he is rather girl-crazy and due to high ranks in Charisma and Appearance he rarely fails in said attempts. Here's an example. We were in this big town where all the trade routes go through, so one of the biggest in the whole region. We were supposed to meet with the local Lord at his manor to form a strategy of attack against a murderer of a local town hero, who 3 of our party members had trained under during their backstory (including mine) but the Lord was not available when we got to his manor. His daughter, a highly attractive blonde female human Ranger was going to run the meeting. She walks in ready to start the meeting in a more serious tone. Theron immediately goes love-struck, I roll a 19 Charisma check in order to attempt to impress her and it results in her jumping into his arms and they run off to go on a date. This left the rest of the party confused and unable to plan anything since the girl was supposed to run the meeting and help us form the plan. So they were stuck making akward conversations with the guards in the room for a few rounds. Some then went to the tavern to gather information, two female party members went shopping, while our Paladin and Necromancer tried to find the enemies in town on their own. Theron's date ended and the next morning we left that town to start a different quest. In my initial application Theron here was going to be a ladies man also, that part hasn't really been addressed outside of his crush on Lexi and even there he hasn't shown the confidence that would have suggested, but that's for another topic.

 

[DarksideEric]

I'm talking about open world RPG games. Games where you are supposed to be able to go where you want and do what you want (for the most part). So what if you have really good gear at level 1? You deserve to get that. But apparently gaming companies want to make their game boring and turn them into farm games. If I really wanted to play a farming game I would just play Farmville or something. But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop trying to "balance" games that aren't meant for PVP (Diablo, Elder Scrolls, etc).

Respond to this as an RPG fan and a designer.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I'm talking about open world RPG games. Games where you are supposed to be able to go where you want and do what you want (for the most part). So what if you have really good gear at level 1? You deserve to get that. But apparently gaming companies want to make their game boring and turn them into farm games. If I really wanted to play a farming game I would just play Farmville or something. But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop trying to "balance" games that aren't meant for PVP (Diablo, Elder Scrolls, etc).

Respond to this as an RPG fan and a designer.

Really good gear at level 1 should never be an option. You also shouldn't have to have terrible gear when you first start out. No one wants to fight random encounters for 10 hours just to earn money to upgrade your stuff in between every quest.... A happy medium between the two is necessary. Maybe make it easier to find the equipment upgrades, or easier to make money. Dragon Age offered a ton of side quests that you could do in between the main quest by talking to the right NPC or reading it on a quest board. Things like that should be done more. Do the optional content, get more stuff. Make the person earn the better stuff, within reason.

I will NEVER and I mean NEVER play Farmville. Same goes for 99% of all the other facebook app's. I got tired of people suggesting them, and even more tired of them showing up as "notifications". How is "(name) wants you to play (insert game I'm not interested in here)" a notification? That should go in the inbox. I do agree that too much balancing is a bad thing and I have rather low interest in PVP unless we are talking multiplayer mode of Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Goldeneye, etc.... I am oldschool and will always prefer Human VS Computer. I loved more traditional games like Dragon Quest 4 and Final Fantasy 4. Every character brings something different to the table, you don't end up with everyone having access to every ability. That just gets old to me.

Not sure if that was the type of answer you were looking for, if not let me know.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

So what your saying is, I should start playing Farmville and send you a million requests to play it everyday? Good idea.

 

[Dagger Dias]

So what your saying is, I should start playing Farmville and send you a million requests to play it everyday? Good idea.

No, that would probably not be a good idea.... lol in all seriousness I'd just roll my eyes and ignore it like the barrage of requests I keep getting for all the other apps. Mafia Wars and some Avengers game were really bad for a while there but those finally stopped coming, Farmville a couple of years back annoyed me more than any of the above. People just wouldn't stop suggesting it.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

No, that would probably not be a good idea.... lol in all seriousness I'd just roll my eyes and ignore it like the barrage of requests I keep getting for all the other apps. Mafia Wars and some Avengers game were really bad for a while there but those finally stopped coming, Farmville a couple of years back annoyed me more than any of the above. People just wouldn't stop suggesting it.

I get requests about once a week from one of my friends to play Dragon City or something like that, despite me telling him I don't play it. About a year ago I had to block app requests from 2 people because they keep sending me invites about 5-10 times a day for a game I had stopped playing.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I get requests about once a week from one of my friends to play Dragon City or something like that, despite me telling him I don't play it. About a year ago I had to block app requests from 2 people because they keep sending me invites about 5-10 times a day for a game I had stopped playing.

You had me interested in it for roughly 4 seconds there, from it having the word "Dragon" in it. I've never been interested in facebook games though and I doubt that will change anytime soon.

 

[DarksideEric]

I know you're old school, so I may already know the answer for this, but how do you feel about "pattern bosses"?

Personally, especially after I started getting into design and going to school for it, I ended up disliking it in newer games. Old school games were fine, but seeing it in God of War, Devil May Cry, etc got very old.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

You had me interested in it for roughly 4 seconds there, from it having the word "Dragon" in it. I've never been interested in facebook games though and I doubt that will change anytime soon.

I imagine it's nothing fun. I believe it's like raising dragons or something.

I've played a few games on facebook over the years but when I do I don't send invites to anybody who isn't playing the game already.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Daggershield walks into a bar (eh, tavern). What does he order to drink?



Ramparte learns "Put You Inside A Book" Spell. You have to battle your way through one Fantasy Story. Now:



-Which story do you think would prove to be the most difficult Fantasy story for your hero?

-Which one would be easiest for Daggershield?

 

[Dagger Dias]

I know you're old school, so I may already know the answer for this, but how do you feel about "pattern bosses"?

I'm completely fine with them in older games like the classic side scrolling beat-em-up's. The newer the game, the more out of place this style feels.

Daggershield walks into a bar (eh, tavern). What does he order to drink?

Something strong enough that he can calm down on a bad day, but nothing too strong. He also won't drink anything made by orcs and he prefers elven drinks to human or dwarven made drinks.

Ramparte learns "Put You Inside A Book" Spell. You have to battle your way through one Fantasy Story. Now:



-Which story do you think would prove to be the most difficult Fantasy story for your hero?

-Which one would be easiest for Daggershield?

The most difficult ones would probably be anything he cannot fight his way through. Any type of story where there's no questing or battling of any kind he would struggle in. If he had to talk his way out of a tough spot or somewhere he'd have to pull a Macgyver, that'd be a real tough one for him to get through. He's charismatic, but mainly with the ladies. He's no diplomat and certainly not roguish even in the slightest. If you put him in something like Lord of the Rings or The Odyssey, he'd have a blast.

 

[DarksideEric]

Okay, simple but maybe complex one...

Why D&D?

What got you into it? How did you first outing go? Why'd you stay? Etc.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Okay, simple but maybe complex one...

Why D&D?

What got you into it? How did you first outing go? Why'd you stay? Etc.

D&D is in a way an ancestor to Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, having served as a large inspiration to the first games in both series. FF1 is literally electronic D&D. You generate characters from very similar classes facing similar monsters in a traditional Light Warriors VS Elemental Fiends storyline. D&D can be considered the ancestor to virtually the entire console RPG genre. I had to try it at least once for that reason.

I had a group I went to high school with who played it and I played it my very first time with them. I knew it was the ancestor to my favorite series, but I didn't know that not all of the mechanics translated over. My first ever character was a Human Paladin, but he talked like he was in a Final Fantasy game. I joined an ongoing campaign so our Rogue asked me in character where I came from. My response (and first ever in-character line) was "I've always been here. You just swapped me in using the menu command earlier. Where's the save point?".... Man I've come a long way since then. Granted this was over 12 years and dozens of characters ago. I look back on it now and laugh.

Why I stayed? It's fun. You get to do all sorts of cool stuff using your imagination and anticipate high dice rolls. Questing, goofing off in towns, RP'ing at the party campsite, it's a blast and a great way to hang out with friends. In college I fell in with a group who was even more into it than my teenage group and they helped me better understand the mechanics. The rest is history. It's been the highlight of my week ever since.

EDIT: On a related note.... I made new characters for two campaigns today. Elilia Norrerae a female Wild Elf Summoner and a yet to be named male Aquatic Elf Water Shugenja.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

I'm bored, hi Dagger. What's up?

Do you find Lexi easy or hard to write for when we do scenes with her and Theron in our RP's?

How strong do you picture the friendship being at the moment between Theron and Lexi?

 

[DarksideEric]

Worst Save mechanic you've ever seen in a non-FF RPG?

Worst Save mechanic you've seen in a FF RPG?

Worst Save mechanic in a non-RPG?