Tabletop Gaming Thread?

Hey buddies, long time. What do you guys do for tabletop games? RPGs, board games, war games, card games, dice games? Lets talk about this shit, because lately it's the only gaming I've really been into.

At the beginning of this year I got heavily into D&D 4e. Bought a ton of books, and found a google drive folder with nearly all of them as pdfs (except for a few). But I was relegated to DM, which is cool--I dig it. Then I kind of got sick of having to DM it and its easy-yet-hour-long encounters and its hard hours-long encounters, so I started fudging them, allowing for more "cinematic"/improvised options, and so the fights became more puzzle-like than anything (hard at first, but once they figured out how to use the environment or creative combos, easy as pie). But I still can't stand D&D's skill system. It's a trash, primitive set of checks not meant for RPing, not meant for simulating (not 4e, not 3.x). As a tactics game, it's pretty excellent, but after a while it started to wear on us all.

So I picked up the 13th Age, which really rocks. We switched over after one really sloppy (on my behalf) single-encounter test, because it just felt right for us. I'm so glad only myself and one other dude are familiar with previous D&D editions, bc it seems like 3.x and PF players really fucking love their 3.x baggage. I'd be elated to set up an RMRK 13A post-by-post play if there's interest. Two of us want to play FATE, Cyberpunk 2020, and Traveler sometime, but it's hard getting my group to try new things (since they're kind of lazy with rules).

Spoiler for:

if anyone's curious about the 13 Age system let me know (there's that other section for that), but here's the SRD at least

But I'm a huge sucker and pre-ordered the D&D 5e Starter Set, anyway. For $16 I could do a lot worse.

My gaming group also started playing Android: Netrunner, the FFG living card game revival of the original Richard Garfield game. It's a lot more dynamic and fun than Magic, imo, and a lot cheaper. The flavor and atmosphere are fantastic, too. There's OCTGN support, if anyone's interested. It's pretty ok, but by no means a replacement for the real thing. Amazon sells the core set for less than $30, which is a steal for what you get.

Then there's the assortment of odd stuff we play, like farkle, bang! and cards against humanity. I think one of my friends has Munchkin, and we might try that soon. I really want to get into more boardgames, but they're just too expensive to really buy on a whim. I'm looking at Descent: Journey in The Dark 2e, and I'm really, really thinking of pulling the trigger on it, but it's $60-80 bucks, depending on how soon I want it, and with summer here and vacations around the corner, my group all  transferring in the fall, it becomes hard to justify the price. I know


So what do or did you guys play?

I used to play Warhammer 40k, not anymore.

Try Pathfinder in place of 4e. A lot more fluid and balanced in both skills and organization. I can't play D&D anymore after being with Pathfinder for so long.

I'm willing to try PF, and I've got a friend who keeps bugging me to try it with him (our schedules never aligned during the semester tho), but I can't really get into the PnP 3.x (the video games are still good and all though).

Honestly though, the 13th Age is just too good for me to invest time or money into a different d20, and I cannot wait for 13 True Ways, the first supplement. The core classes are the staples, but 13 True Ways classes are just off the wall. It's got a lot of core conceptual differences from most other d20 games, and it the crunch for a lot of people. But when you get the ball rolling with a good adventure and party, I really think it makes the adventure seem a whole lot more real and cohesive.

I used to play Warhammer 40k, not anymore.

I really want to get into Warhammer 40k, but it's just too expensive for me. One of the local game shops I go to has a huge open gaming room and, while I've only played back there once, the 40k battles that went on were pretty awesome.


also, for those who build their own maps and whatnot, visio is a fantastic tool for making maps and other basic graphical stuff. I've been building old blue-style dungeon maps in it. here's something I've been working on lately: http://i.imgur.com/0BGUW2V.png