S4E28 - Tabletop RPGs in 2019 - “The Final Boss is… Scheduling!”

In This Episode:

In the beforetime, the long, long ago (season 3), we covered tabletop RPGs. It's 2019, things have changed somewhat, and we wanted to revisit the topic.

Beej has taken up playing Dungeons & Dragons with a local group, mainly with the Adventurer's League. Basically, the AL is the Wizard's sanctioned D&D league where rewards travel over between everywhere, and no matter where you go, you can find a table to play at.

It's a really interesting idea, and it lets newcomers to the game find a game immediately and anywhere. It sure helped Beej.

While Void hasn't really dug into playing tabletop RPGs again, it's been on his mind a lot. He still listens to The Adventure Zone podcast, and it makes him want to play more and more. And since his kids are getting older, they can do more as a family. Which fits directly in with how much he loves TAZ.

He mentions other actual-play podcasts, and he recommends specifically Friends at the Table. Beej has got to try this one sometime.

Scheduling is definitely the hardest part of playing tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. Beej wants to play Star Wars: Edge of the Empire more, but the hard part is finding time when everyone's schedules work together.

Void

Void is trying to find the right approach to playing tabletop RPGs with his kids. They've made D&D characters and have all the books needed to get started. The trouble is taking that first step.

Tabletop RPGs Overall?

One word: intimidated. Two words: intimated and overwhelmed. Okay, that's three, but you get it.

Void feels intimidated to start because it requires energy and time that he's not sure he has enough of right now.

For Beej, the whole thing is kind of overwhelming. He has a lot of stuff going on with family and friends this time of year, has a new foster doggo, so even taking that one extra night for a few hours on a weekly basis is hard to do.

The gaming itself is super fun, though, and the state of tabletop RPGs has really never been better. Someday, we'll get a chance to do that Geek to Geek playcast that we've talked about for years.

Someday.

Weekly Geekery Beej Spider-Man: Far From Home Just as good the second time. Less wow, but get to see a lot more of the nuance in characters and hidden things. Into the Spider-verse BluRay Still as good as I remember Comparing it to Far From Home is Apples and Oranges The colors, oh the colors! I think my Halloween costume is going to be Janky Old Broke Hobo Spider-Man Spider-Man PS4 The story is so good. I had forgotten how great the story was until I went back. New costumes from Far From Home Can’t wait for DLC Void No FFV FJF update I realized that I’m stalling out because in past years I played a lot over my lunch breaks at work I’m not really taking lunch breaks right now, so… yeah.  I’m stalled. I typically work 10 hours without really taking a break. Dr. Mario World Very much a mobile game Pills fall up instead of down, but outside of that… it’s basically Dr. Mario Dr. Luigi, Dr. Peach, Dr. Bowser, Medical Assistants like Goombas… I’m feeling very suspect of these people being properly credentialed. Stayability?  Not really, I’m already done with it The puzzles feel really punitive after level 20 or so It feels like they made them in a way that almost requires items so that you have to pay them more money to keep making progress. This is the worst monetization I’ve ever seen in a Nintendo game. FF Remasters FFIX Started playing FFIX with my kids! The intro is really good and does a lot of interesting things with jumping back and forth between characters while setting the scene and telling an interesting story I definitely will be playing more of this with my kids This is still my favorite FF game FFX-2 Rougher around the edges than I remembered Maybe because it’s an asset reuse game? It also does some things with letting you choose the order you experience the story which is interesting but might actually make a weaker story Wow, we’ve come a long way with animation and VO since PS2 The class & combat system is super interesting. This is the only reason I’m still playing around with FFX-2 and didn’t hard bounce off of the game So many classes! I’m maybe 2 hours into the game and have Gunner, Warrior, Thief, Singer, festivalist?, Black Mage, and White Mage You’re constantly picking up more The dress sphere system for swapping jobs on the fly is so cool Garment grid lets you lay them out in different patterns Example: think of a square with a node at each corner.  You can move along the lines of the square between nodes (jobs) but you can’t jump from one corner to the other corner without traveling through the in-between nodes That’s basically how garment grids work but with lots of crazy shapes. I’ve beaten this game once… But If I end up playing more of this game right now it will be for the job system and combat system It will not be for the story FFX I wanted to see if the storytelling, animation, and VO felt as rough in FFX as it does in FFX-2. It doesn’t.  FFX feels a lot better all around. I beat this game fairly recently so I’m probably not going to dig in very deep right now, but I’m having fun playing through the intro MCU Phase 1 with the kids Finished! Iron Man 1 is one of the least kid-friendly MCU movies (skip the first 20-30 minutes until he’s leaving the cave) Thor 1 was better than I remembered The first Avengers movie is still really good My kids are excited to watch all the MCU movies and catch-up! It sounds like my wife might join us once we get past Winter Soldier

 

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