Questions about the mistborn adventure game

[Bowiespoon]

Now, I have no experience in tabletop games or D&D-esk stuff, heck, I've no idea what you even call it. However, the concept has always interested me, and I wanted to ask if it was fun. Probably akin to asking a someone, "what is a maths?" I'm sure, but if you could describe what it's like, that'd be awesome.

[Pathfinder]

It is a ton of fun. There are numerous styles and campaign settings for everyone. D20 rules tend to be more grounded, while Dresden, and Mistborn tend to be more loose and easy/story driven. The biggest thing I have always liked about table top roleplaying games is that what you can do is only limited by your and the DM's imagination. When you play a video game, you are limited by what the programmer thought to include. I played in one campaign where we were evil characters, and I made a moltov cocktail using the spell burning hands, and a bottle of liqour, and then we turned the town into silent hill (thanks to the necromancer). I played in another campaign where we were on a desert world, and with a high charisma, I convinced a low intelligence ally that courtesans were a form of fruit, and he should go around to every vender asking to sample them. And finally I DMed a campaign once where a character was a roach yeti, that every time he saw a bright light, he had to roll a 6 sided dice on the chance he would walk over entranced and get electrocuted. So yeah, loads of fun 

[Pagerunner]

The way I've always liked to describe it to people was comparing it to a video game RPG. Each character in a game has different kinds of skills; some are better at attacking, some have special abilities that no other player has, some can "unlock" different conversations with NPCs. These mechanics play out in various pre-programmed challenges and scenarios.

 

With a pen-and-paper RPG, the events and NPC scripts are all generated by a single gamemaster, who presents a world and its characters to the other players. This gives a lot more flexibility to the stories. Have you ever played a video game and felt frustrated by the "invisible fence" stopping you from entering a certain building? Ever wished you could write in new conversation options? In a pen-and-paper RPG, the players aren't limited by what has been pre-written. (This obviously presents challenges to the gamemaster, who needs to be able to adapt a story to fit what the characters are doing. It can be kind of tricky to think faster than four other people, all of whom are trying to derail the mission as best they can!)

 

Also, instead of one main character, there will typically be several main characters, one for each player. (Often recommended to have 3-6 main characters, depending on the game system.)

 

Depending on the specific game system you're using, the play experience can be drastically different. Dungeons and Dragons is very focused on combat; you spend a lot of time fighting monsters, you collect different kinds of items and equipment, you gain new abilities that are very specific. For the Mistborn Adventure Game, each character is not as well-defined; each player gets some "traits" that describe who they are, and those are used to determine how well a character can respond to situations or pull off tricks.

 

But, at their cores, video games and pen-and-paper games can be very similar: they both use rules to describe what the characters can do. Pen-and-paper just take it out of the computer and into rulebooks and the players' minds.

[Bowiespoon]

It is a ton of fun. There are numerous styles and campaign settings for everyone. D20 rules tend to be more grounded, while Dresden, and Mistborn tend to be more loose and easy/story driven. The biggest thing I have always liked about table top roleplaying games is that what you can do is only limited by your and the DM's imagination. When you play a video game, you are limited by what the programmer thought to include. I played in one campaign where we were evil characters, and I made a moltov cocktail using the spell burning hands, and a bottle of liqour, and then we turned the town into silent hill (thanks to the necromancer). I played in another campaign where we were on a desert world, and with a high charisma, I convinced a low intelligence ally that courtesans were a form of fruit, and he should go around to every vender asking to sample them. And finally I DMed a campaign once where a character was a roach yeti, that every time he saw a bright light, he had to roll a 6 sided dice on the chance he would walk over entranced and get electrocuted. So yeah, loads of fun 

Sounds fun, guess I'll give it a go.

[Bowiespoon]

The way I've always liked to describe it to people was comparing it to a video game RPG. Each character in a game has different kinds of skills; some are better at attacking, some have special abilities that no other player has, some can "unlock" different conversations with NPCs. These mechanics play out in various pre-programmed challenges and scenarios.

 

With a pen-and-paper RPG, the events and NPC scripts are all generated by a single gamemaster, who presents a world and its characters to the other players. This gives a lot more flexibility to the stories. Have you ever played a video game and felt frustrated by the "invisible fence" stopping you from entering a certain building? Ever wished you could write in new conversation options? In a pen-and-paper RPG, the players aren't limited by what has been pre-written. (This obviously presents challenges to the gamemaster, who needs to be able to adapt a story to fit what the characters are doing. It can be kind of tricky to think faster than four other people, all of whom are trying to derail the mission as best they can!)

 

Also, instead of one main character, there will typically be several main characters, one for each player. (Often recommended to have 3-6 main characters, depending on the game system.)

 

Depending on the specific game system you're using, the play experience can be drastically different. Dungeons and Dragons is very focused on combat; you spend a lot of time fighting monsters, you collect different kinds of items and equipment, you gain new abilities that are very specific. For the Mistborn Adventure Game, each character is not as well-defined; each player gets some "traits" that describe who they are, and those are used to determine how well a character can respond to situations or pull off tricks.

 

But, at their cores, video games and pen-and-paper games can be very similar: they both use rules to describe what the characters can do. Pen-and-paper just take it out of the computer and into rulebooks and the players' minds.

As someone who plays to many games, and has even built one or two, this sounds like fun

 

Also, in my favorite game, dark souls, you have the exact opposite problem with invisible doors. It turns into, "Oh god, there are HOW MANY enemies in that room!!? Why can't I just skip it......"

 

but yeah, sounds like a lot of fun, just need to get friends to play with me.....

[Quortle]

I am currently GMing a game of this, but would really love to find a group where i can just play a character.

[Herowannabe]

1 hour ago, Quortle said:

I am currently GMing a game of this, but would really love to find a group where i can just play a character.

I feel ya!  If you're interested in playing via skype/discord, it's not to late to get in on this.