Looking for Turhan the Red in Anchorage...

[tylermalan]

Hey Turhan, I saw your post on the big enworld map that recently went up, and I'm in Anchorage too! Anyone else ever notice the category for Alaska/Hawaii should be AK/HI, not AL/HI?

Anyway, do you have a regular gaming group up here? Where do you game at? I hope you find this thread... I can't pm!

 

[Turhan]

Greetings,

I just noticed that as I scanned over and said, Hey! Alabama?? I better see why Alabama and Hawaii are together-- I already know the answer.

Anyway, You're the first poster I've seen that admitted to even being from Alaska, although there is a Kodiak pushpin on the map today.

So what games are you into? Have you been hanging out at ENWorld for long?

My group is almost exclusively dnd 3.x.

 

[tylermalan]

Haha yeah, not many of us up here. I haven't checked the map in awhile, so I didn't know there was a Kodiak pin.

I'm into almost completely D&D 3.x as well, but mainly 3.5. That's really only as far as roleplaying goes though, I play some MMOs, and recently got back in Mordheim from Games Workshop pretty heavily. Great game if you've never played it! I play a little Magic here and there too, but not much. Every play the game Zombies? Also great...

I've been around the site for a few years, but only recently registered an account and got crackin on the forums. On that note, 2 days ago I started a thread about a debate over which was better, a level 20 wizard or a level 20 monk that you should check out, its gotten pretty big and there's some cool stuff in there. It's here if you're interested.

So yeah, I'm in the military, and I've got a few people around that are all about roleplaying, but its really hard to coordinate schedules in the military, so we've been out of gaming action for a couple months now. Lately I've wanted to play some Ravenloft, so I bought that book, but then had a really good basic homebrew storyline churning in my head involving psionics, so I'm running that as a PbP here. Otherwise, I've been wanting to try some d20 Modern lately, too, so I don't know, I'm all over the place!

What are you into? You ever go to or hang out at Bosco's? Not the ebst environment for role playing though, I know.

 

[Turhan]

Yeah, Bosco's is my spot for buying mini's. Pretty good selection. I'm not in the military anymore, and live in one spot so I can afford to collect stuff without worrying about storing it for deployments. Our chief DM is ex Air force and spent a lot of time training up players as he moved about-- but that was 1976-82 or so..... Since then he trained our curent group of 3 players. Lat few years, I've taken 80% of the dm duty.

Mini's are about half of my interest in gaming. Avid collector, painter. Almost all are used in game though.

I'm part of an old group of dnd'ers. The Old guy started in the 70's. I'm only 15 years in.

We tried Star Wars d20 a while back and enjoyed that but the player who dm'ed it had work conflicts so I had to revert to dm. That means good old dnd with orcs and dungeons and such.

I tried warhammer eyars ago, but it never caught my attention. Sold off a couple armies and went back to dnd. We tired a hybrid of dnd and Ars Magica and that went well, in a highly over powered sort of way.

None of our group likes vampires so ravenloft as a setting never caught on.

I bought a bunch of the Mordheim minis but we never played it. We have always sort of played our dnd as a mini's skirmish game anyway. Always used mini's on teh table, always use scenery. I build tons of stuff: rocks, trees, mountains, fountains, inns, hovels and palaces. A garage full of stuff. Some of it still gets used.

I'm now trying to figure out how to post pics on the Reaper Mini's forums, so if you get over to their Show Off or Terrain forums in future weaks, you may find some of my junk.

Reaper forums: http://www.reapermini.com/forum/

So you do the PbP thing? How does it work out?? I've wondered about trying that as a way to get an occassional extra dnd fix, butthen I figure, if you can't commit to a long game, better not get started.

What MMO do you play? Our group of four (gang of Four??!!?) started Guild Wars last month and are hooked. Buy the game, play on line for free. Nice deal- no monthly charges, but you need a cable modem or dsl. I was surprised when our "guild" all four of us, crossed "over the wall' to the dangerous area and got our butts handed to us because we tried to advance without tactical planning. In the easy area the four of us can wade in and slay. In the tough areas, no way. The enemy AI is fierce. Now we look for terrain and creep in slow til we can get in a good initial hit. Makes it a lot more fun.

Before Guild wars I played Neverwinter Nights on PC, but the rest of the crew is Xbox heavy, so they favored the action stuff.
Later, gamer.

 

[tylermalan]

Yeah, I'm in the Air Force now, stationed up here, making this my second upcoming winter. Good stuff!

I got into Warhammer pretty heavy a few years back, but eventually moved on to Mordheim, and like I said, am starting to play it again. I've played a little bit of Star Wars d20, but my main focus has always been D&D, and I guess I've been in it for about a decade now, currently on 3.5.

Yeah, I picked up the PbP thing because its so hard to keep schedules coordinated when you're in the military, and I just don't play as much as I'd like. It works out pretty well, but its harder to REALLY get into a game because the posting is so spaced out, and the games are so slow. Tends to be far more story-driven and serious though, which I like. But you're right about not getting into it unless you're in for the long haul - unless the DM says he's looking for it to be short, they usually last awhile as long as the players keep coming back.

I've played a few MMOs, including Guild Wars, but didn't really have any of my friends playing it, so I got bored. Also, I expected it to be a LOT like Diablo, like Diablo 3 almost, and it isn't, which kind of threw me off. Its a good game though, you're right about the strategy. Other than that, I played Ultima Online years ago, and WoW more recently, but quit WoW and now am getting back into Ultima. Funny you mention NWN, I just bought that and played it for the first time, but not on the internet yet. How do those games work out? Do you need someone there to DM all the time, or can you just get on and play?

 

[Turhan]

I never played in a persistent world campaign (though many have full time DMs). I downloaded several modules and played single player stuff though, and some of those are great.

For more on NWN, check out Neverwinter Vault. They have news, game ratings, module recommendations, custom portraits and such stuff. Lots of it.

I've found recommendations for persistent world games, but the best ones sound like they require inteview processes and you have to have certain modules, hak paks and other support stuff to make your base game compatible with their world. Then you have to coordinate play times because the people may be all over the planet.

I enjoyed the single player game several times, then bought a couple expansion packs from the producer (Bioware) and enjoyed them. Then I set up a 2nd computer at home and my buddy played two person multi player for 6-8 months once per week. That was a blast. I heartily endorse the game, but I dont have any first hand experience with joining the "community" games. The Bioware people though regularly recommend folks just pick out a game, email the host dm to see what he requires then set up to play once you get the go ahead.
My understanding is that one shot games are common. I know that some folks even play the core game this way, just like I did on my LAN.

http://nwvault.ign.com/ Try this site out.The part about Neverwinter Connections is a game matching service that might be just what you want. Make sure you can handle yourself in the main game first though as I bet the online folks are pretty experienced and if you are still learning, you could feel a little left behind.

If you feel like trying Guild Wars again, we can try to connect. Our group is called Arctic Northern Knights and the abbreviation is ANK. We usually play Tuesday evenings. My game name is Wolfram North. We have 4 in our group, and I don't know if we can add more yet, but pretty soon I understand we'll be able to adventure with up to 6 in a party. I'm not too clear on all the limitations yet.

 

[Basin_AK]

Hey, I just wanted to say Hi. I moved to Anchorage in July and have been on an unsuccessful hunt for a DnD group (or any RPing) since then. I'm presently in contact with a guy in a similar situation and we're posting and otherwise advertising for players wherever we can.

 

[tylermalan]

Yeah Turhan, I'll have to check up on the NWN website, see what I can scrounge up, and I'll let you know if I get back into Guild Wars!

Hey Basin, yeah its kinda hard to find groups up here. You wouldn't happen to be in the military would you? Have you checked out Bosco's yet?

 

[Turhan]

Bosco's is a gaming store and a sports memorabilia store in one. The one on Spenard Road that is. The one at the Dimond Mall is a little more mainstreamish, but still good. Geeks only (in the good sense).

The one on Spenard Rd used to have a bulletin board on the wall for gamers seeking gamers. Might still be there.

Like anywhere else, the old established game groups are hard to break into and there are so few people playing over all that it's hard to connect. I haven't tried looking out on the UAA campus as I seldom take classes anymore.

The gamers are out there however. Some friends of mine used to run a gaming coffee shop so PC gamers and rp'ers could all enjoy the day. They went under a couple years back though....

Feel free to post around here on ENWorld-- the folks are very nice. Online anyway. Who knows what they do at work....

 

[tylermalan]

Started up Mordheim pretty strong again, and its fun as ever! Might take some time to play at Bosco's now that I think about it...