Hello -- I've only ever done PBP roleplay (play by post, you write on a forum) but my circles for that are drying up every day. I don't live in area where TTRPG is really a thing unfortunately, so I was wondering if anyone here could spoonfeed me a way to get into it? And maybe answer these questions too:
>Does actual writing ever occur?
>Do you really have to voice act as your character?
>Are "face claims" a thing? E.g. when you pick a random image or existing character to represent your own.
>Is the storytelling really that good?

>>96074170 (OP)
as with all social activities, you can find a group that does exactly what you want
"I want writing, don't want to voice act, use character art, and good storytelling" is a pretty damn normal online text-based game, the only part you're going to miss is the "good" storytelling cause 90% of the people just want to ERP or do teehee silly shit
you sift through dogshit until you get lucky

>>96074170 (OP)
Join a beginner game on StartPlaying.

>>96074170 (OP)
>Does actual writing ever occur?
Sure, anything you homebrew you have to write down, and players write backstories - usually short and to the point, but depending on player and game these can turn into several pages of writing.

>Do you really have to voice act as your character?
No. You can, you can also not do it. Some tables love it and some tables hate it.

>Are "face claims" a thing? E.g. when you pick a random image or existing character to represent your own.
I googled face claim and that says its real people, which I've never seen in TTRPG spaces IRL or online, but people draw their character(s) or find a drawing that fits.

>Is the storytelling really that good?
I've never done play-by-post so I don't know what quality you're used to, but it fluctuates. In my experience it's good to great with regulars, and dogshit to good with randoms.

Good luck getting into the hobby, fren

Hello!
>Does actual writing ever occur?
Some people do write about their games, but I don't imagine it to be common. Games are usually played in person or with voice chat and such, so there doesn't tend to be much writing involved in the first place.
>Do you really have to voice act as your character?
If you don't voice act or do funny accents Gary Gygax burns down your house. It's true I done seen it.
>Are "face claims" a thing? E.g. when you pick a random image or existing character to represent your own.
It depends a lot on the game. Some pick artwork to represent their characters, some do artwork themselves, some use of the many character creator tools around, and some don't care at all.
>Is the storytelling really that good?
It can be! It can also be much worse.

Now, how do you get into this? The ideal way is to grab your friends and force them to play with you until they enjoy it, but barring that there are some alternatives. Roll20 is a group-finding site, but as with anything else primarily online, there's a lot of sewage there. If you have a local games store, you could try asking around. Apparently, you can get a lot of things if you can stomach the humiliation of asking.

Thanks for the replies.

>>96074202
>is a pretty damn normal online text-based game
So I could search for these...how? Just 'text-based TTRPG'?

>>96074259
there's the gamefinder threads (mostly ERPers and autists, avoid any public discords like the plague but jump on any posting of a GM who fits your bill and links an email or other private contact)
reddit /lfg (normalfags which will ghost/flake most of the time, can get lucky and find good ones)
roll20 dot net (ESLs, children, and random dads)
random facebook groups (total wildcard)

in all likelihood you'll go through a lot of shit groups, just stay in contact with the solid individuals and try to form a group out of them if you can't luck into a good one naturally

>>96074170 (OP)
>Does actual writing ever occur?
Depends on the medium. If you're going text-based, yes, but definitely not in person.
>Do you really have to voice act as your character?
Thank god no.
>Are "face claims" a thing? E.g. when you pick a random image or existing character to represent your own.
Yes, but that's cause generally nobody cares where you get your image from. You get more points for drawing it yourself, obviously, but just picking an image off of google that isn't obviously cropped porn is enough.
>Is the storytelling really that good?
Always depends on the group. Most don't have the chops to do more than a dungeon crawl, and honestly that's fine. Everyone has limits on either talent or just what they care to do. But when you get a really good group with a narrative you're all invested in, it gets really good.

>>96074235
>StartPlaying
Please kill yourself for recommending that pay-to-play garbage. I can't think of anything worse than faggots charging to GM.

>>96074170 (OP)
What do you mean by "that good"? What are you referring to?

>>96074235
Had to look this shit up
>Charges money per session
Piss off.
>>96074170 (OP)
OP whatever you do don't pay money to play at a table (outside of bringing snacks). Rather play on a public Discord before you pay your GM. p2p games attract the worst of the worst.

>>96074170 (OP)
Bump, answer later

>>96074170 (OP)
As someone who survived the dry season in my country between 2006 and 2014 via playing nothing but PBP, few tidbits to share:
>Does actual writing ever occur?
Rarely. If you are playing online, you can get write-ups, since they are easier to handle, but tough luck beyond GM hand-outs with any writing done
>Do you really have to voice act as your character?
Never did that, never understood the point, either. And in some games, I just give third-person commands. You can easily do this stuff talking in your regular voice.
>Are "face claims" a thing? E.g. when you pick a random image or existing character to represent your own.
Only with eternally online people that only ever play online.
>Is the storytelling really that good?
Depends on millions of factors, game in question, group and players.

Some rule of thumb stuff
>Don't expect elaborate shit, because the actual tabletop format doesn't lean itself to it, 3-4 sentences is a mouthful as compared to a single paragraph to write/read and it's just not practical
>Unless you play games that are actively build on the concept, pretty much forget about "what my character feels/thinks" (unless prompted for) and similar antics
>Descriptions are very brief and to the point. It doesn't mean there aren't any, the format just doesn't allow to play in any other way
>There is no such thing as "area where TTRPG is not a thing" - you can find players in rural nowhere, the joys of it being 2025 and not 1995 anymore
>Avoid like hell LGS groups and similar - those are rejects of rejects, the people that nobody could stand in any format
>When playing online, keep in mind that one person at a time can speak, which is the main and biggest disadvantage of playing online, to the point people would rather not play than bother with this shit
Good luck with finding new writing space, and I would unironically suggest also visiting /qst/, especially given it's summer, so activity is slightly higher than usual

>>96074170 (OP)
>faceclaim
So that's a very modern term, but the general concept of "if the campaign was a movie, who'd play your character?" has been around for decades. I distinctly remember being asked this about a cyberpunk game I played circa 1995.

>>96085675
>LGS group
What's that? Thanks for the detailed response.

>>96092628
LGS = acronym for Local Game Store, aka your nearby tabletop nerdstuff store(s) that sell ttrpg/wargaming stuff

I'm a different anon and I also have questions.
I couldn't find the gurps thread.
How would you guys model a 40k powersword in gurps? Force sword but if the lightsaber turns off there's a regular sword still underneath?
Also, any good armor divisors for swords in stuff other than ultratech?
I like swords that look like swords while also being relevant in higher TLs.
I know there's always vibroblades too.

>>96093735
Step one: Check stats for a broadsword
Step two: Check stuff for Ultra-tech swords
Step three: Mash them together
Step four: PROFIT!

>>96074202
>>96074325
surprisingly solid advice

>>96074170 (OP)
>>Does actual writing ever occur?
If you're playing by text, then absolutely. This tends to slow games down.
If you're playing by voice, a good GM will still do a fair bit of writing just preparing important descriptions and keyphrases ahead of time. Creating a dungeon or larger module for yourself is essentially a writing exercise, where you're trying to account for people being able to make different choices. If you're very lucky, and got the players excitied enough, they will spontaneously do some writing about their character, though this doesn't always yield perfect results, and tends to be an expression of them wanting more attention.

>>Do you really have to voice act as your character?
No, not really. It's a nice bonus if you can, but tabletop gaming is not necessarily performative. It cane be, but that's not where the draw is.

>>Are "face claims" a thing? E.g. when you pick a random image or existing character to represent your own.
If you're a huge nerd this will happen, but in longer-playing groups this will be seen as lack of creativity on your part. Interesting characters become interesting through their actions within the game, not because of their sheet or anything else established beforehand.

>>Is the storytelling really that good?
Short answer: Depends on the people at the table.
Long answer: Tabletop gaming is the easiest way to achieve an emergent narrative, a phenomenon you will not really encounter in another hobby very easily. Emergent narrative essentially means having a story write itself in a way that ends up being better than anyone at the table could have come up with on their own, since it's the sum of everyone's contributions. There are many times when dice decide that things are going to happen that nobody expected. So, it could be said that the storytelling is bad when someone at the table thinks that they know best (typically this would be a bad GM, but it can be a bad player pushing over everyone).

>>96074170 (OP)
>frustrated author, rpgs are social
>no, but the guy who does will get more attention, mush mouth
>face claim is a very gay phrase but yes, people pick up art for characters
>no, eighty percent of DMs use published material because nugamers want to have their own heckin ebin strahd experience. also games are not meant to be storytelling by the DM,

>>96097350
Why are you being so hostile to a noob?
>no, eighty percent of DMs use published material because nugamers want to have their own heckin ebin strahd experience. also games are not meant to be storytelling by the DM
This might be hard to believe since you've only played D&D and it's knockoffs, but there are TTRPGs besides the bastard children of Dave Arneson