It Came From the Tabletop! - Betrayal Legacy, Dungeons & Dragons, and Magical Athlete

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I loved this, especially the D&D and Magical Athlete segments. You nailed why those games are not only fun but important.

Magical Athlete is seriously fucking magic. That box is pure ridiculous fun every single time it hits the table. Definitely a personality test for me as well. If you can't laugh at the Troll body blocking everyone as he slowly plods to first place through sheer luck we probably aren't going to enjoy each other's company long-term.

Thanks!

It’s crazy how there are so many other RPGs out there that not only do what D&D does but does it objectively better, but we all keep coming back to it. I wish I could put my finger on why that is.

Blade Randall: Celestial Invention Agency operative. The Doctor may have had a scarf, but he had a black leather long rider. I still have the base books around her somewhere. (^when Al says something about the Doctor who role playing game and it sparks some memories)

Josh Look wrote: It’s crazy how there are so many other RPGs out there that not only do what D&D does but does it objectively better, but we all keep coming back to it. I wish I could put my finger on why that is.

Ask 10 ten people what it is that D&D does. You'll get 10 different answers.

WadeMonnig wrote: Blade Randall: Celestial Invention Agency operative. The Doctor may have had a scarf, but he had a black leather long rider. I still have the base books around her somewhere. (^when Al says something about the Doctor who role playing game and it sparks some memories)

Found it

Oh man, not you guys too? I did my time int he RPG mines and I had fun but I'm done and not going back. Seems like I'm the only one though, as everyone around me is doing D&D and other indie RPGs now.

Legomancer wrote: Oh man, not you guys too?

Don't worry Dave, my board game time still FAR outweighs my RPG time. This may not be true for Josh, but it certainly is for me.

Legomancer, I’m feeling that way too on this site. I could care less about RPGs and feel like every other post is about how they are better than board games recently.

I’m interested to hear what you guys think of Betrayal Legacy. My friends became obsessed over it and we played the full campaign. You’re right, a dedicated group will have more fun with it (we had 4 regulars, and one family that one of three people subbed in as). I think it’s the best designed Betrayal game yet though I’m sure there will be cases where it can be unbalanced (we never really encountered that though).

I can confirm that the D&D Art & Arcana book is fantastic. I am also reading the source book for Dungeon World right now and am looking forward to trying that one out.

Dungeon World is really cool. It’s a bit of a challenge to run because you really need to go in with *nothing* planned. The way you formulate what’s going on (which should not be confused with what’s going to happen) is pure magic.

I’m sorry some of you were less into this episode. I’m not sorry for doing it though. I know the timing kind of puts it at what is fast becoming a saturation point on the site, but summer has always been my biggest D&D time. It deserves its moment on the show. Without it, I’m not here in this community, this show does not exist and I don’t have my extremely valued friendship with Al. Magic may have been the first hobby game I played, but D&D is where my love for what games can do was established.

I’m very much not in the “D&D killed board games” camp, however. After the clumsiness of 3.5 and the outright garbage of 4, D&D returning to a form that was more to my liking did make me realize that board games cannot tell stories like an RPG can. These moments in board games where we feel the need to stop gameplay and narrate our what just happened as a means of immersing ourselves in story never feels as good as having it play out in real-time like it does in an RPG. In a board game that has always felt like grasping at straws to me.

YET, at the same time, this gave board games a whole new lease on life for me. Instead of trying to find games that told satisfying stories, I was able to really focus on compelling mechanics and how those abstractions or familiar concepts can facilitate interactions with my friends that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Returning to D&D after a 10+ year hiatus really cemented how these two types of gaming are separate and, while I might not be quite as avid over “thematic” games, I think I actually like more types of games than I did before.

I’m not saying everyone needs to be into RPGs, but they’re the backbone of my place in the hobby and talking about them is inevitable.

Board games and RPGs scratch entirely different itches for me. What D&D 5th did kill is the boxed dungeon crawl. There is no board game that beats it in that arena.

I think the wave of people around here being so satisfied with D&D is a direct result of playing lots and lots of mediocre simulacrums over the last 10+ years,

It killed the dungeon crawl as it was.. I’ve only played three dungeon crawls since the release of 5e and all three (Gloomhaven, Warhammer Quest and Hellboy) all feel like they’re thinking outside the box, but I think they’re all embracing more board game-y mechanics.