Does Anyone Ever Use DDO to Substitute the Experience of a PnP Session as I think the Game may have Originally be Intended for?

[kmoustakas]

Does Anyone Ever Use DDO to Substitute the Experience of a PnP Session as I think the Game may have Originally be Intended for?
Cause in my DDO experience, all I seem to find are most the standard MMO type players who zerg and power thru content like they got the life span of the worst case of terminal illness, making almost all groups unfun cause I feel the whole time I just am preoccupied trying to keep up with the Road Runners and Speedy Gonzolez's. So I just end up soloing or multiboxing(no autofollow or any type plugins either, closest I get is making my hire and pet follow if I got any with me).

Nope. That's how I got started on DDO though. There are some quests that's it is nice to go alone, take it easy and smell all the flowers along the way for sure.

I use BG3 as a substitute for actual D&D.

 

[Uska]

A group of us did 18 years ago it took us forever to reach the cap of 10 the group died beause we ran out of quests game was a lot harder back the.

 

[Titus Ovid]

I started to play DDO 14 years ago because my pnp group couldn't meet regularly anymore. We wended up all around the world. But DDO can't substitute that feeling. It is a video game. At the start it was all fun nevertheless but with all the repetition the fun shifted. For me personally it is the people I met in this game that keep me here. And there is a lot of things that is happening outside of the game: The forum, the wiki, the discords, twitch, builds, plans and strategies, wise cracking, nerd talk. But if you listen to people a lot of them have DnD experience. So it is still a base in all of this.

Cheers,
Titus

 

[Sturmbb]

Does Anyone Ever Use DDO to Substitute the Experience of a PnP Session as I think the Game may have Originally be Intended for?
Cause in my DDO experience, all I seem to find are most the standard MMO type players who zerg and power thru content like they got the life span of the worst case of terminal illness, making almost all groups unfun cause I feel the whole time I just am preoccupied trying to keep up with the Road Runners and Speedy Gonzolez's. So I just end up soloing or multiboxing(no autofollow or any type plugins either, closest I get is making my hire and pet follow if I got any with me).

I believe the best mode to experience what your looking for is Hardcore. Unfortunately due to the year of the dragon it is taking a break this year. I am hoping it comes back next year.

I have given up on Live, i have tried many times to play live, but unfortunately unless you get a static group, you end up with a multiple TR in your party who demolishes the content, while everyone else just runs in his wake. For me this is an MMO and i refuse to play it solo, there are much better single player games you can play than DDO.

The Narc has put together an amazing group that runs DDO as it was meant to be played (teamwork etc). unfortunately due to my RL location there playing times are outside my available playing hours.

Anyway hope you find what your looking for

 

[DDO Gaming]

my pnp group couldn't meet regularly anymore. We wended up all around the world
Cheers,
Titus

Roll20?

 

[Titus Ovid]

Roll20?

Nowadays yes but not 2010.

 

[mbartol]

It's even worse when you're frozen in 2nd ed. Luckily, there's old character sheets and their memories.

We 2nd ed players have difficulty relying on our memories, though I do remember it fondly.

I played 2nd ed from middle school through college and took a couple years break when I started grad school. That couple of years stretched out another few years until some friends were starting a 3rd ed campaign.

 

[Jupp]

No. The game lost that spirit a very long time ago, if it ever existed at all. And if it was there, it certainly vanished when the stat and attribute inflation started.

 

[The Narc]

I believe the best mode to experience what your looking for is Hardcore. Unfortunately due to the year of the dragon it is taking a break this year. I am hoping it comes back next year.

I have given up on Live, i have tried many times to play live, but unfortunately unless you get a static group, you end up with a multiple TR in your party who demolishes the content, while everyone else just runs in his wake. For me this is an MMO and i refuse to play it solo, there are much better single player games you can play than DDO.

The Narc has put together an amazing group that runs DDO as it was meant to be played (teamwork etc). unfortunately due to my RL location there playing times are outside my available playing hours.

Anyway hope you find what your looking for

Hey Sturm,

I didnt realize your gametime was preventing you from playing with us regularly, what time zone are you in lets see if we can put together a group in your slot of playtime.

The Narc

 

[Varr]

Lol, for remembering indeed. 3.5 wasn't released until 2003. 3rd edition was 2000. My core experience must also have been the 2nd edition. The good stuff.

 

[Mordenkainen]

Nothing can replace the experience of OG PnP.

 

[Gobs]

I used to run with a small group that flowersniffed and roleplayed through the content in the game (we wrote backgrounds for our characters and used guild or party chat to "talk" as our characters would, hung out in taverns between quests etc). It was a good time and a really fun way to play the game, especially as we all were new to it and had no idea where a trap or a dangerous monster might be waiting for us.

What we eventually found out was that the pace of us consuming the content, even if going so slow at it, far surpassed the time it took for new content to arrive. Classic MMORPG problem of course, but after a while we had done most of the quests on different characters to a point where we knew them in and out.

Exploration and flower-sniffing lose their charm with repetition. DDO is a game (now) built around repetition. I do feel like it was more of a dungeon crawler in the past, and more of a runner now, but that might just be rose-tinted glasses and/or being new and thus slower.

 

[The Narc]

Nothing can replace the experience of OG PnP

Extreme Mortal Voyage permadeath brings a harder than hardcore enviroment that does its best to provide as close as possible pen and paper enviroment.

Limitations such as no hirelings questing, no gear twinking, no spoilers, no house p buffs, no ship buffs(there are 3 we use that have little impact on questing), starting as a first life toon and running quests in an appropriate level range that is more difficult than hardcore. This format brings players together to play in a much more synergistic group with the blood pumping feeling of risk of loss that was always present in PnP.

And for those really wishing to push it further we have some other alternate groups that push the envelope by adding other limitations such as our named only group that only allows non rng gear(named gold trim items or cannith crafted items) or our even more intense naked group that allows only weapons and ammunition slots plus a crafted deathblock only belt plus one other item allowed to be worn(this is not for the feint of heart)!!!

We do also have some guildies that want to do a more involved roleplaying group, but as it is not something i am particularly interested in it has not been organized by anyone with enough drive to lead one of these.

But hey maybe we can put a poll together to see what would make it more possible for DDO to mimic PnP as close as possible.

The Narc

 

[Br4d]

There's nothing about DDO that is round or turn-based. D&D is a different game altogether.

 

[The Narc]

There's nothing about DDO that is round or turn-based. D&D is a different game altogether.

A round or turn is the equivalent of time in pen and paper, in DDO all actions by players and mobs consume a certain amount of time. It can be said they are equivalent, the real difference is in PnP you have extra non game time to think about which action you wish to take where as in DDO it is live action so your actions need to be taken inmediately and concurrently. Synergistic groups do this and permadeath forces this kind of behaviour for survival, i am betting the Rabidfoxs first life R10 forces this behavioqur as well.

 

[Lazuli]

I answer while my players plan their strategy in my game

I don't think DDO is a substitute for pnp, neither now nor when it started. It is not that the rules have differed from the original game, nor, as some say here, about the greater need to play as a team. This is because DDO does not have role-playing elements. It is an action, combat game. But there is no opportunity for real interaction with NPCs, for role-playing social scenes, for character development beyond a combat facet. There is no room to make decisions either: what to do, where to go, everything is predetermined. Acting for or against your alignment has no impact. The gods of the DDO do not have any substance, and the dimension that they could have as a background has been removed from the divine classes.

So no. DDO is not a substitute for pnp because it does not have a role playing dimension, which is the most important thing about pnp, above the rules, above everything else. There are very good substitutes online (rolld20, foundry, etc.) to be able to gather your friends scattered around the world and play real D&D, with the edition that you like the most. Heh, even skype and a dice generator makes the game. It's a human DM that allows your players to make decisions, go off script, develop character personalities, and provide interactable NPCs, which really makes a difference with an action game like DDO.

 

[The Narc]

I answer while my players plan their strategy in my game

I don't think DDO is a substitute for pnp, neither now nor when it started. It is not that the rules have differed from the original game, nor, as some say here, about the greater need to play as a team. This is because DDO does not have role-playing elements. It is an action, combat game. But there is no opportunity for real interaction with NPCs, for role-playing social scenes, for character development beyond a combat facet. There is no room to make decisions either: what to do, where to go, everything is predetermined. Acting for or against your alignment has no impact. The gods of the DDO do not have any substance, and the dimension that they could have as a background has been removed from the divine classes.

So no. DDO is not a substitute for pnp because it does not have a role playing dimension, which is the most important thing about pnp, above the rules, above everything else. There are very good substitutes online (rolld20, foundry, etc.) to be able to gather your friends scattered around the world and play real D&D, with the edition that you like the most. Heh, even skype and a dice generator makes the game. It's a human DM that allows your players to make decisions, go off script, develop character personalities, and provide interactable NPCs, which really makes a difference with an action game like DDO.

Agreed for the most part, but ddo does have the opportunity to include more things like this and certainly you could roleplay certain quests and encounters to follow alignment restrictions if you so choose.

One example for alignment is the first room in prison of planes that is alignment restricted, other alignment restrictions still impact build options(ie no lawful barbarians).

As for roleplaying choices they definitely have a lot of skilled base choices in the feywild which impact how certain encounters go, other areas have these too. Would love to see more of these options.

As for going off script, any and every single game that isnt pen and paper doesnt have the option of off script because its pre-formatted, even baldurs gate has a limited number of options.

To the OP, the best way for you to make the game fell as much Pen and Paper as possible is to do the actions in game that lead you down that path.

Things like permadeath are not openly encouraged in game simply because it does not equate to value for the masses, the masses and SSG want you grinding at end game for more population,doing that is considered beneficial to them and the game. You need to filter that stuff out and continue to seek what you are looking for.

The Narc

 

[Lazuli]

Agreed for the most part, but ddo does have the opportunity to include more things like this and certainly you could roleplay certain quests and encounters to follow alignment restrictions if you so choose.

One example for alignment is the first room in prison of planes that is alignment restricted, other alignment restrictions still impact build options(ie no lawful barbarians).

As for roleplaying choices they definitely have a lot of skilled base choices in the feywild which impact how certain encounters go, other areas have these too. Would love to see more of these options.

As for going off script, any and every single game that isnt pen and paper doesnt have the option of off script because its pre-formatted, even baldurs gate has a limited number of options.

To the OP, the best way for you to make the game fell as much Pen and Paper as possible is to do the actions in game that lead you down that path.

Things like permadeath are not openly encouraged in game simply because it does not equate to value for the masses, the masses and SSG want you grinding at end game for more population,doing that is considered beneficial to them and the game. You need to filter that stuff out and continue to seek what you are looking for.

The Narc

Be careful, I haven't said that DDO is bad or that it is worse than other games. If I'm still here despite all my anger with the devs, it's because I like the game.

But DDO is not a role playing game. It is an action game. Talking about both is talking about apples and oranges. Two different things although both are fruit. And incidentally, many people, including myself, may like both.

But DDO has a bad chassis for a role playing game. It really has few decisions you can make, and the ability it leaves to develop a role-playing game outside of combat is very limited. Indeed no electronic game currently achieves the versatility of a human GM, but DDO has specifically been developed to be an action (combat) game, not a role-playing game.

 

[ProllyDidItWrong]

I've converted some of DDO's quest into pen and paper adventures for the kiddo's cause I was too lazy to come up with something original....

It works

 

[Br4d]

A round or turn is the equivalent of time in pen and paper, in DDO all actions by players and mobs consume a certain amount of time. It can be said they are equivalent, the real difference is in PnP you have extra non game time to think about which action you wish to take where as in DDO it is live action so your actions need to be taken inmediately and concurrently. Synergistic groups do this and permadeath forces this kind of behaviour for survival, i am betting the Rabidfoxs first life R10 forces this behavioqur as well.

The difference between combat in D&D and DDO is like the difference between a cockroach race and the Indy 500.