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Hello my fellow roleplayers.
I have been wondering. In all your sessions, campaigns and dungeons you have defeated. When you think back on it all. Which group - did you really like to play with? You know.. That one group that you sometimes miss and think about on all the awesome stuff..
I want to know this, to get inspiration on groups, that I'm going to be playing for in the future. To improve my and those you read this, experience on playing.
What was your group? Which classes and races? What was your builds? And why was this group so good? Good chemistry between the real life players? Was the GM just amazing and the mood always fantastic? Was the campaign quests just really exciting and you discovered a lot of new lore about the world?
Just think back. And give your description of one of the best groups you have been in. So I and the rest of the forum can learn something.
Now that I think about it, most of my memories are of characters dying in funny or unusual ways. We had one player that went through 3 or 4 characters in a single campaign because he always rolled a 1 on save or die. Another time, same campaign, a monk got eaten by a crocodile because 3 separate players rolled 1s on ranged attacks. We had a kender set off a massive trap that killed him and almost killed the dwarf behind him, so we stuffed his body in the secret compartment in the same chest. In a fight with a BBEG, the only person left standing was a cohort witch, the same witch what was taken by a Roc that nobody could stop. An entire party was afraid of any inanimate object in a dungeon that went so far as to light ropes on fire and lightning bolt piles of rags. A fighter got swallowed by a dresser only to destroy that one and get swallowed by another one. One we thought we heard the DM say "The alter looks at you menacingly." so we cast stone to mud on it, not knowing that the bad guy was hiding behind the alter. And most of that stuff was in the first campaign I was ever in!
My best adventure was probably my first true 1-20th campaign. D&D 3.5, playing all of the old AD&D modules. We played Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, Maure Castle, Treasure Hunt, Forest Oracle, Dwellers of the Forbidden City, Ghost of Lion Castle, Lair of the Frost Giant Jarl, Hall of the Fire Giant King...
Those were such great adventures. Our party consisted of my human wizard, an elven cleric, and a half-orc fighter/barbarian/ranger, with a few other characters here and there.
Probably the single best fight was when we were second level, and fighting a water naga. Naturally we were having our butts handed to us, until I pulled out the Wand of Wonder I had discovered. The ensuing blast of fire killed the naga...and my fellow party members.
I survived, escaped the dungeon, and went on to adventure until level 20, at which point a great wyrm red dragon slaughtered me.
Sorry to double post, but I re-read the OP, and realized that I had been too busy being nostalgic and never answered the question.
Anyway, I would suggest looking at some of those AD&D adventure modules. They provide a very fun, classic, dungeon-crawling experience. Although there are a lot of nay-sayers to this, dungeons are the heart and soul of Pathfinder/D&D.
The old modules reflect this, offering some of the best dungeon crawls. Maure Castle, Expedition to Castle Greyhawk, Castle Ravenloft, Expedition to the Demonweb Pits and Undermountain are all massive adventures updated to 3.5. With a bit of work, you can turn them into PF modules, or just run them as is.
Although some "snooty" role-players deny it, there is precious little that is more fun than battling through a dungeon, getting loot, risking your life, and slaying monsters.
Though I've played a variety of different roleplaying games and some people joined or left them on the way, I would say I only had 5 distinct groups, but the best one by far is my current one, which is with my two roomates, and the other friends that join us when they can.
My favorite adventure was actually my first time running Pathfinder. We had an oracle, witch, barbarian, and alchemist to start with, and I managed to built a fairly compelling adventure based on all of their classes and backstories. I was making it up as I went, but it was a collaborative storytelling effort and it was incredible. I started out with no real conception of what this fantasy world was like as a whole, but now I'm running my second adventure in the same setting and it's really developed into a breathing environment.
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Your histories are great. Thank you all.
And I will also tell about my best group.
We played this very long campaign that went hand in hand with Rise of the Runelords in Varisia.
We where all of Cheliax race and part of the same big noble family. The family was big, but not rich and not much influence. It was moved to Varisia to try and be big compared to the very big families in the heart of Cheliax Empire.
We where 5 man. A cavalier, paladin, ranger, wizard and rogue.
Our goal in Sandpoint was to make a name, money and family influence. So we brought a house and began to make a stronghold. There was alot of exploration in the wilderness and minor quests. As we leveled we all got mounts. And it fit really well into most combats. It was great.
The best part was the completely detailed background and the characters.
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Probably me and my dad.
I really play PFS a lot, so I don't see recurring characters with the exception of him. I am a Cavalier, him a Fighter. I talk and bluff, and he makes enemies wet their pants. My favorite GM is a kill-happy guy named Arran. When he killed our main healer in 2 rounds (Dual hobgoblin sneak attack.) he was cheering and we got himn a little skull sticker. The guy was fine with it.
Ahh that would be my college group. We played most saturdays for marathon 12 hour plus sessions. Campaign started in Krynn and went to Planescape.
Leveling wasn't as important back then. Kobolds were worth 7 xp and you needed more then 2000 xp to get to 2nd level for some classes.
Castle Ravenloft, Dragon Mountain, we were talking about these the other night actually. Can you even play those style modules in 3.5/pathfinder?
If you kept the same level spread it seems like you would out-level the place before you got 1/2 way through the map.
Or if you scaled it to match the new/faster leveling scheme, with the open-ish design, easily wander into an area that was too high a level for the party to handle.
Was with a group of college thespians. All actors. We barely touched our dice and most people got naked.
Never been the same since...
Was with a group of college thespians. All actors. We barely touched our dice and most people got naked.
Never been the same since...
Ahh college.
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Was with a group of college thespians. All actors. We barely touched our dice and most people got naked.
Never been the same since...
HAHA!
We are three engineers (two chemist and a physicist) , a doctor and a taxi driver.
Sometimes things get really technical and the discussions about something VERY detailed and scientific. And the taxi driver is just like...
.... wha' cha' talkin' bout?
Probably me and my kids and some friends. My daughter still sometimes brings up the campaign and events from the campaign even though she no longer plays any RPGs.
It wasn't the most effective, most lethal, most brilliant, most strategic or most complex campaign ever. But it was definitely the most fun.
Hmmm.... groups I have played in... many were good. Hard to pick one (I feel like I would insult someone by not including them).
Most memorable games...
A Mage the Ascension game, where I played a rogue Akashic turned Cult of Xer, along with a Verbena, a rogue Man in Black, and a teen werewolf.
An Exalted game where I played an Eclipse Caste from the South, with a Dawn Caste from the North and a Zenith Caste from the East.
A Forgotten Realms game where I played a half-elven fighter-cleric of Sune amidst a dwarf cleric, dwarf wizard, and dwarf fighter/barbarian. My cleric felt very tall. Probably my favorite story to tell about crazy stuff that happened in a game comes from that campaign. It involves a misunderstanding, a love potion, and a sort of accidental assault on the mayor's manor. We were a good group of players there, good mix of personalities and play styles.
Many more, but drawing from the past those are the ones that stand out. Not picking games I was GM in 'cause I feel biased.
I've enjoyed every group I've played with, although the one I'm in now would be my favorite. Of course my beautiful wife and two darling teenaged daughters are in that group, so I'd better say that. :)
In all seriousness the best adventuring groups I've played with have nothing to do with which race, or classes or what kinds of builds people have. It's all about the characters. The game for me is most fun when people create vivid and memorable characters for me to interact with. Characters that have real personalities, including quirks and flaws, that make you almost feel like they could be real people. Characters with backstories, friends and families. Characters that fit into the campaign world in a way that makes it seem real. Characters with believable motivations for doing what they do, beyonf leveling up and getting more stuff. Characters that you feel a real pang of loss for when they die, feel anxiety for when they are in danger, and feel pride in when they triumph.
For me, the characters and the story they create together with the GM are the essence of all that is good about this hobby, and what differentiates it from a tactical wargame or a computer game.
I enjoyed one online 3.5e game with some excellent houserules the most.
Sadly I had to leave the group due to time zones causing me to lose sleep.
My favorite gaming group was my very first group. It was a 3 man team with my brother as GM.
The reason I liked it so much, was that we all had the same understanding on how we wanted to play the game (as in how much combat, how much roleplay, how much puzzles, same humor, etc...).
Nobody had to be afraid to hurt someone's feelings regardless of in-character actions. People would not b**** around when loosing a character. We trusted our GM to sometimes limit out options cause we knew whatever he had planned would be awesome and fun.
We had two big groups running over 5-6 years (we only played 8-10 times a year, but we were very efficient and didn't loose much time discussing and stuff cause we all knew what we wanted).
Tsjo - Capoacinth, Clerik/Sacred Fist (my char)
Hudruff - Dwarf, Fighter/Juggernaut (evil, name is german phonetic pun meaning "Hit it")
Chochones the Mighty - Human Barbarian (idiot, name means "Has mighty balls")
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Our story was that Chochones and Tsjo became agents for a dying goddess whose only worshipers were the ghost of a paladin and my cleric. We were to bring her faith back to the world. Hudruff was a mercenary we hired for the hitting stuff.
Another god (Talor I think) wanted the goddess power and was our enemy. We fought his minions several times until we finally beat the high-cleric and champion. And then Talor made Hudruff an offer he could not refuse. He switched sides.
And in the next session we had our confrontation and we knew one of us wasn't going to live (Chochones had left during an earlier part of the adventure and his new character had died during the endboss battle and was resurrected as half-lightning elemental to aid Hudruff).
So it was only me, against my old comrades with their whole army, marching into our little village (we had built up from scratch over the past years).
To make it short... I won... sort of. I knew Hudruffs weakness (swimming) and as aquatic creature I was totally dominating him once I flooded him into a river with "Control Water".
However... there was a lot more to it than I can write here. Just the battle between our characters took roughly 8 hours of real time. And it lasted I think at least an 30-60 minutes of in game time (the pure battle, playing round for round doing stuff each round).
After the victory we started a new group (all evil this time):
Ming Suhl - Psionic Human (forgot the exact name of the race) Hexblade/Soulknife/Soulbow/Weapon Master
Krazz - Kobold Wizard/Artificer/Mystic Artificer
MX52 - Warforged Berserker/Juggernaut
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We played in the Underdark, starting as slaves for one of the Drow Queens and worked our way up, to the main... Trouble Makers. As you can guess from the class combinations and all the cheese we pulled of (with GM consent) we were extremely powerful for our level (we also had gestalt levels in NPC classes I have not mentioned) and where we went we caused a lot of collateral damage.
Near the end we faced off with Lolth herself in the demon web pits at level 12-14 I think (that was our last big quest we finished before the group came apart... Build a prison that could hold Lolth).
1. Group:
We needed to break down the large entrance gate, but no ram is in sight. So my cleric (who has ram horns) shouts "Use me!". And it worked well. After two 20's of a charging specialist and a barbarian with huge strength bonus we obliterated the castle gate, trapping the guards underneath. We just continued running, mowing down all opposition up to the top of the tower for the boss battle. Good thing Gargoyles (and their swimming cousins) have DR.
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We were attacked from Taldor's armies in our home village from 3 sides. We looked at each other and said: "I'll take the left army, you take the front army and you the right army."
It was a glorious day :D
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2. Group:
After winning a battle in the Arena in the Abyss, we had to flee (they found out the Silverdragon egg we stole and sold here had been replaced with a fake). We had to flee back to the portal to the material plane, the demon army on our tail. We hijacked a demon hound carriage and rode off. With no way of steering or stopping we just let them run as fast as we could until we reached a chasm. Krazz used an Iron wall spell to build a ramp to jump over the chasm, and a second on the other side to make a protrusion for us to land on.
As we raced on the carriage took repeated damage that was again and again repaired by the artificer. In the end though there was only a single piece of wood left which the Warforged surfed (we rode on the warforged).
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During a battle with a powerful Illithid, we had him trapped at the bottom of a large hole. Krazz made an iron wall shaped like a huge coin with his face on one side (giving the finger) and his butt on the other and pushed it off into the hole.
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During another escape (yeah we ran away a lot ^^) in the Demon web pits Ming wanted to blast an opening into the blockage. Unfortunately he used too much power and instead blew off the whole web strand from the pit (which we were currently riding on).
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To extract the center of such a web strange (which we needed for Lolth's prison) We created a custom magic item. Krazz' self-lubricating tube of powerful sucking.
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My favorite group was on the USS Kearsarge with my fellow Marines of the 24th MEU. We played often and I really enjoyed it.
DM was Chris, he was super. Cast as follows
Merick Flarebourne- The Paladin of Helm, dumb son of a powerful Wizard family
Dondomir "Don" - The lazy gnome pyromaniac wizard, and best friend of Orin Silvertongue
Orin Silvertongue - The best dwarven bard in history.
Sebastian - Oftimes Confused and conflicted Rgr/Sor half silver dragon.
Brother Adamous - The worst cleric ever.
We played nearly every night during the deployment, and had some of the biggest laughs. It was also my first gaming group.
My favorite group was our "to slay the immortal" group. Originally another campaign, the two returning members were the human paladin and the halfling fighter/rogue/shadowdancer. We added a ranger/wizard/arcane archer and my cloistered cleric/contemplative. When the paladin left, he was replaced by a human fighter/sorcerer/eldritch knight. Best parts:
After a bad Knowledge check regarding dragons, the halfling continually reminded the arcane archer that "yes, there are dragons. On the Continent."
Learning that my character didn't bother to eat due to a ring of sustenance, said arcane archer regularly offered her bacon.
The halfling on separate occasions ended up being snatched up in a dragon's mouth. And then exited by various and sundry means. Now he needs that armor enhancement added to his armor that makes you taste bad if swallowed whole.
Invisible paladin being run into by a frost giant, who fails to bullrush/overrun him. This spawned the "you must be this tall to join this fight" joke.
Halfling and EK go into sewers to seal up our means of entry to a city. EK comes back naked and covered in all sorts of gross stuff. Poses for my priestess, who just tells him to get cleaned up and doesn't want to know what happened. Spawns "there are oozes in the sewers" joke.
Many other great points, some serious, some not.
My best group was some years ago. (It may be getting close to 20 now)
We played Call of Cthuluh and most of the time the GM made lots of potential PCs, handing them out at random. When your PC somehow met his or her end (sometimes by violent death, sometimes by turning mad or changing into something else) we got another one.
But even if it may sound that way no PC ever was seen as trash. It was no hack and slash, instead it was one of the most RP heavy games I have been in, ever.
We tried to play everyone with the same zeal, be it the heroic war veteran or the colledge nurse.
And often times in the end it became a race to save the world before all the potential PCs were dead or mad.
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I have a Venture Captain and a Venture Lieutenant in my group. Once, every now and then, they lock all doors and hold us at gun point to play Master of the Fallen Fortress again.
One of us tried to make a break and run once. Once.
If anyone gets this message, please send help. Oh god, I hear them. They're coming, no no nonooo-
** Message Interrupted**
Lol, dotted
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Red Hand of Doom. I played this with a group of friends with our LG characters. It was a blast. We still talk about some of the things we managed to pull off. This includes:
Enlarging the half-orc monk and having her grapple several dragons.
Turning around the hydra ambush on the hydra. (Oh, so you've got a 15' reach? I just enlarged the guy with the spiked chain, so he's got a 20' reach. Take his AoOs, jerk!)
Saving the front line fighter from certain death by shooting him with arrows. (He was unconscious, and the baddie was threatening to kill him if we didn't retreat. They were non-lethal arrows, but the villain threatening him didn't know that.)
Solving waaay too many fights in the Fane of Tiamat with confusion. (Open the door, have the bard cast the spell, close the door, and hold it shut until things quiet down.)
Jor. He was a throwaway character, but he ended up being a better combatant than our archer ranger. We kept asking if we could bring him along instead of the PC!
I'd also run a L5R game for many of these same players - it was also a blast. I think it comes down to this: "If you have a good group of players, you can enjoy just about any game." Even 4E can be entertaining if you have the right players. (Pathfinder would be better, but still, the axiom applies.)