Question of the Day

Good morning GamersPlane! I am hoping that we can spark some good conversation in the GP Forum, so let's start a Question of the Day! Note, this doesn't have to be every day; lets just try to be engaged!

To start with, here is a question I asked in the GP Discord server:

What was the first game you played on GamersPlane?

For me, it was a B/X game of Temple of Elemental Evil with an amazing cast of players and characters! I played Eltrezar the Medium, a human magic-user far more interested in finding gems and cool clothing than doing actual good. And despite what @KCC says, he was a practical man who only left them to die at the hands of ghouls because his own death would have been needless!

My first game here was back in 2019 - a DnD 5e game run by Qralloq. I played Mavis, a dwarf rogue with a Yorkshire accent so thick she might have been speaking Orcish. I joined halfway through the game and the game went on to completion where we rescued a dragon.

I know, right? A dungeons and dragons game with an actual dragon!

My first game was a homebrew campaign for Pathfinder 1e, almost precisely 10(!) years ago.

Life changes had broken up my face-to-face group, and when I sought a new venue to TTRPG, I found my way to GP. It ended up being a series of duet games (me as GM) with a few players from my previous group and fizzled out after a while.

I stuck around, though, and haven't looked back.

My first game was also in 2019. A Smallville game of college-aged superheroes, run by @bowlofspinach once our original GM ghosted the game. There were four of us, and we had amazing drama in that game. It is still one of my favorite gaming experiences here or anywhere since I started this hobby back in the early 80's.

I played Olivia "Shockwave" McLellan - great superhero, bad girlfriend.

My first game was #8. Golden Sea Chronicles run by Azzorak, using Numenera. Keleth and I are likely the only two people left who were in that game.

As it happens sometimes, that game died on the second page.

That didn't stop me from getting the bug though, as evidenced by still being here. In fact, my love for Numenera started there in that short game. So much imagination was sparked.

My very first game was a short-lived Pathfinder 1e game of Mummy's Mask, but the first game that lasted was (same system) Curse of the Crimson Throne. It is a 6-book adventure path, and I had already GM'd the first book in a live setting by that point. Their game was just starting book 2 and needed a player so I jumped in with Brackit, a gnome bard.

That was in early 2021, and the game is still ongoing! We've lost some people, added some people, and I actually ended up taking over as GM last year to make sure it lives on. It's been a fun game and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes!

What was the first game you played on GamersPlane?
It was a Lasers and Feelings game by onceandfuture. It was a short run, run to completion, and I really appreciated playing a true L&F game since I had previously run an L&F hack on Discord.

I made a very weird android and gave her an even weirder ending. I wanna give @onceandfuture a shoutout because I love RP’ing stories that end, and this one ended well and overall had a campy vibe all the way through!

My first three games on GP were SWADE games (Sagas and Six-guns, Legion of Liberty, and some kind pranormal government agency game) that all ended before they began because the GM ghosted right after character creation. Maybe it was a serial ghoster?

Two of those games were salvaged by kind people who stepped in to give us a chance to play the characters, but neither of the replacement games lasted long. FlyingSucculent was the one that continued the paranormal agency game, and I was grateful that I got a chance to play the young troubled telepath Maia Brown for a short while.

Someone also ran a short one-shot adventure for Ragnhild Gudrunsdottir, an exiled Valkyrie that had settled down as a ranch hand until destiny called again :). For some reason, I cannot find a trace of that game any longer and I am ashamed to admit that I no longer remember who took over as GM.

My first was a 5e homebrew campaign which lasted for about a months in Summer 2024 and then the GM disappeared. I pulled out of that one; @Arrcher101, you were in that one. What was it called?

Mine was in 2019, a Savage Worlds horror one-shot ran by Windyridge.
It involved the passengers of a greyhound bus who got stranded in a sort of cursed village. Good fun!

I immediately saw the great potential of this medium and of this specific platform, and I have been a regular player / GM here ever since!

A friend invited me into a game he was running, using GP. The world was incredible.
It was a homebrewed D&D setting. It started off with a fight you can't win. But, I didn't know that. At the last moment before you die, you get sucked to another place and given a choice, serve by working for a powerful patron for a specified amount of time or go back and die. Then the world was full of twist, turns, action, mystery, rival guilds, it was just awesome.
It was also, unlimited posts per day. So, it was constantly moving.

Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, which is still being run.

I ended up running two different characters, and had some fun, but left after a while. Though definitely unique, that system is a bit too cozy for me.

But I'm still RPing with users from that initial game, so I guess we can't get rid of each other. 😎

Back when I started on Gamers Plane, I'd just come out of playing a Numenera one-shot with a friend of mine run by a random guy he met at work, and I'd left somewhat dissatisfied because, while I had fun, the GM was new to the system and kept doing things wrong (for example, he kept rolling dice), so I felt like I wasn't actually playing Numenera. Appropriately enough, then, the first game I played in here was a Numenera game that started back in May 2015 (the 53rd game on Gamers Plane). That was a lot of fun (a lot better than that one-shot). I'm tickled that @Qralloq also got started with Numenera.

As far as I recall (which may be wrong), a few months later (while I was still playing Numenera), I worked up the nerve to get into another game (game 109): a D&D 5e game that was reskinned to be sort of a Star Wars science fantasy adventure. That game had a bunch of players, and we were all excited to play...but the game was slow getting started, so I started running games myself with 111 (All Outta Bubblegum) and 114 (Skyrealms of Jorune). Somewhere in there the DM for 109 abandoned the site, before we'd done anything more than make characters, so I started another game, 136 (a D&D 5e conversion of module N1), which I'm still running to this day. Those were my early games, all from 2015.

My first ever game was one that @Nezzeraj recruited me to! He and I were in a live group at the time and he asked the group chat if anyone wanted to join this PBP site he knew!

I played Okri Merryhelm in a Dragonlance game. I didn’t fully understand what that was or that it was even on rails, as such! Had a good time, but the game did fizzle out, or at least my time with it did!

First game I created here was in late 2018, while I was surveying PbP sites and testing out new places to play. It was a Fate game I put together just to see how it all worked, and I don't think I understood what the hell I was doing at all.

I then disappeared for a couple of years and resurfaced in early 2021, when I ran The Spudfield Good Girl, an OSR two page dungeon using Knave. Actually running / playing on the site hooked me immediately -- the site features, the community vibe, the quality of the players... so good.

I'm not sure how I got looped into the gang of ne'er do wells I've ended up playing with a lot over the last few years, but I do know that KCC's Tales from the Loop game was a big part of it.

Three cheers for GP and the beings that infest it!

My first game was 6 years ago. It was a d&d5e game, where the GM had us starting in our own solo-tread and then would have us meet up for the "real" adventure. I don't remember who, what and why.
What I do remember is that I really enjoyed narrating the effects of a healing potion, what did it feel like to my barbarian character. This was something there was never time to do in a tabletop game.
I also remembered that the game never got far, as I think the GM ghosted, but then I found another game... and another... and another... then I ran some games and then 6 years have passed.

Technically, my first game here was Bowl's tutorial game in December 2021. Which was just a very short story to get to know how GP works. It was a Tales from the Loop game, which I had never played before. Since I could tell Bowl had been doing the same story so many times before for other new members, I tried to make my actions a bit more exciting :D

After that the first real game I joined was a World of Dungeons game called Fresh Faced Adventurers with vagueGM. That was supposed to be step up from the tutorial where people come and go as they find other games to play. But I ended up being in that game for about 3 years!

Both were great experiences, especially for someone new to PbP.

Ok it took some research but I found it! It was a Shadowrun: Anarchy game that started less than a month after I joined the site. Even though the game lasted 4 months, we only got to the second page of posts lol.

My first "real" game that lasted awhile was a Dragonlance game using 1e D&D! My first time playing 1e too. It was definitely interesting and memorable!

@runestone, hey, I'm just saying, but the offer to go back to it is still on the table! :D Well, maybe not *exactly* it, but I still regret the way that game went, so I'd be happy to try to do it again and better. Mayhaps as a one-shot of sorts? So if you ever want to return to playing a troubled telepath... I'll be happy to see Maia again! She is a great character.

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I joined a bunch of games when I first appeared on the site in 2019, probably because instead of making an introduction thread I just went to the Games Tavern looking for a game directly. XD I even found the thread for the fun of it, and isn't that an interesting read considering it's been nearly six years since then.

Most of the games I joined weren't very long-lived. The one which probably had the most long-lasting consequence was CESN's playtest for their 5+ homebrew system - not because of anything that happened in the game, but because it resulted in both me crossing paths with bowlofspinach (spinach-friend! :3) and, indirectly, in me writing a short story for Qralloq's anthology some time later.
I played a living stone gargoyle winemaker there, and I still like that character a lot. (Please, GP, give me a game where I can play him again.) I think the fact that I *could* do that was one of the reasons why I actually stayed on the site initially!

Is there any way to see old posts. I joined in 2015 and didn't last very long. I had a much more stressing job back then (technically same job, different owner). Returned in 2021 a bit older, a bit more mature and apparently more senile as I can't for the life of me remember what my first game was.

@Furmyr Could it be this one? Just searched for your name on the full forum :D

Wow. That was two editions of Shadowrun ago :P

Can remember that character. I don't think it ever saw play, so it could be that I actually never found a game until I returned in 2021.

We had a group together for that game but wanted one more player and I remembered you from the Delta Green game we played in together, so I suggested you and nobody had any objections, so you found yourself with an invitation.

Ne'er do wells, eh? Hmph. 😬 Actually that Loop game is in my top five best games played so far at GP, and the Discord channel associated with it was as fun as the game itself!

As for my first game, I initially played in a few games that caved early on due to GM ghostings around about the time I took part in Qralloq's Numenera adventure that came to a natural end. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing having never played TTRPG's live or otherwise, and I was still pretty green on the site. I've posted every day here since then, bar maybe one missed day, since June 2019. I think it's fair to say that I love being here.

Ah yes! I remembered you reaching out, bowl, but not that we’d played in that short-lived but fun DG game first.
How times change, eh? =]

and more importantly if there was an answer!

And I come across this thread/question.

My first GP was a game of The One Ring from Cubicle 7 version of the game which (firestorm approaching, take cover) is overall a better, more Tolkienesque, game than the Free League version now in production. (My opinion, and its a minority one).Naturally, since theCubicle 7 materials are now not supplied at all, this will be a fading player base.

This was only last year, because Tavern Keeper was breaking apart then a little. And it was a great trial run for me. (THANKS GP)
Now I am involved with 5 games and observing another. All five of these games are carry-overs from Tavern Keeper. I am GM for four of them, and people are welcome to examine/join in those.

But names like C1inder and KCC are involved in the game I am observing.

@Dunheved, if you mean something like this,
then it's a "grid" quality for tables. Just do [table="grid] when adding a table. :D You can find more qualities in the BBcode guide.

(This thread feels like it's older than it actually is, huh.)

@ Flying Succulent.

Yep, thats the sort ofthing.

Many Thanks. I will try it out when childminding duties end this afternoon!

Is anyone else having trouble uploading images? Even ones that loaded in the past get 'Undefined' error

You mean to Imgur? Haven't been able to upload them for awhile, figured it was something on my end, as it usually is the case. It did work when i first joined semi-recently, pretty sure images for the game ad i'm running now were uploaded through GP.

I use the Imgur upload function all the time.



There, just used it now.

I just get a small pop-window with "unable to upload file" in one browser and "unidentified" in the other. Not that big of a deal, really. Either something on my end or something to with imgur itself, which would not be surprising given the abomination it turned into after selling out.

I haven't tried to run a game on GP yet. I'm still in set-up and learning mode. I'm a refugee GM from the former Tavern-keeper.com hosting site. So, I've had plenty of experience running my game on that site for over four years, but have yet to begin on GP.

However, I have had a brief adventure as a players in Psybermages TinyIntro game.

That happens to me when I try posting an image that is too large.

If it you are on a VPN

I guess the question of the day is: Why did this thread die? It's a fun thread!

It's hard to pin down the first game I played on GP because apparently I joined a whole bunch simultaneously shortly after I joined the site mid-2015.

I remember this Ravenloft game started by Biscuitfiend in which I played Grizel the Orphan, human paladin. I believe I'm the only one still around from that group.


There was also a Dungeonslayers game and a Starslayers game in which I played Hereixth "Hotwire" T'ayil, ship’s engineer. Of that group, only @kalajel is still around.

No, wait, it was this game! Run a couple of months earlier than those other two I mentioned. It's where I first played with @Qralloq. I was so impressed by his roleplay. Definitely influenced how I roleplayed from that point on.

I think this thread perished because the second question never came, and most people who wanted to participate already answered the first. :D
(I'm not necroposting, I'm answering the new question of the day!)

Ooh, I’m happy for the necrothread, since I missed this. My first game was a one-shot by @GreyWord from Mar 2023, and I was shocked that I actually got into a PbP game that finished. Had a blast with the other 2 players that were in there, and we ended up playing a few more games together.

I don't recall much about my first game, but what I do remember was that I had the time to explore and express the physical sensation when my barbarian drank a healing potion. That was the power of PBP

I also remember that the game didn't go fare, and I think the GM is no longer on the site

If we count being a DM. My first game was actually running a demo of Lost Mines of Phandelver for a handful of my irl friends. To me, this was supposed to just be a way to roleplay with friends that didn't require our schedules and availability to sync up for table sessions. I didn't really intend to start joining games with others until I realized how slow games are.

I think I then joined a very intimidating set of games. Everyone had these author level writing skills and I was just going with fake it till you make it.

To answer an earlier question, the thread died because we discussed having individual question threads. We bring GPers on the Discord.

I wish community stuff wasn't so focused on Discord. :( I understand it, but I still wish it wasn't. Did this discussion ever result in anything though? :D

Believe it or not, this thread and the other Question threads were an attempt to move more community discussion here! There were a couple questions, and then the community as a whole didn't keep asking them. We have a couple good ones right now, though!

Was community supposed to? I don't think the first post indicates it anywhere. If I knew it was expected/allowed that someone else continue it, I would've asked the next one! :O

Edit: I guess I can see it with hindsight knowledge, but back then it really didn't read as "anyone can ask a question" to me. D:

Be the question you want to see in the world!

I have a question question for y'all. What's your go to icebreaker question? (Not a pickup line or a would you rather . . .) Something that actually gets an interesting conversation started?

Oh, good question! I like to ask "If your friends had to describe you with three words, which words do you think they'd choose?"

Or, around birthdays or other milestones... "Who were you this last year, and who do you hope to be in the following year?"

Edit: ignore all that, was writing when the previous question got posted. :)

I just throw in a bunch of questions about all of my hobbies, see if they get interested in any of them, and go from there. And if they aren't interested, I get cognitive dissonance and a flight response. XD (Interesting plant facts are surprisingly helpful. It's also good to ask about something the person has, like pins or prints on clothing.)

That was such a brilliant game, one I wish had continued longer. I, too, was amazed by the RP and imaginative stories that came out of the players.

I remember this bag of endless food. The main character was a barbarian (AD&D, early 1990s) and everytime he raged he would get super hungry and would have to eat enough food to fill like six people. The food bag became this amazing solution to that problem, and a prized possession.

I'll answer both questions.

I try to find a common connection. Normally it'll be a shirt with a band I like or something like that. Maybe asking if they've ever played Dungeons and Dragons before. I don't have a clear approach. It's always catered to the person.

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I don't normally care about magic items, but I won't lie. Getting Zariel's sword in D&D was cool. More so because She gave it to me. I'm not very loot motivated. Stuff can be cool/useful, but it rarely drives me. Getting the sword itself was nice, but it was more a symbolic gesture. At their first meeting. My character was admonished by his idol. The sword represented the full circle of that relationship. He was seen as the person he always wished to be.

Guess you could say I value relationships far more than objects of power.

My opening line is: "Hey, little [gender], do you want to play a game?"

No, not really! Cheese and rice, do I come off as that kind of person?

I look for a prompt like a fantasy/sci-fi t-shirt or book in their possession first. If so, I usually just ask, "Have you ever tried D&D?"

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Regarding magic items, oddly enough, my wife's character (also a barbarian) had a similar magical item to the one Qralloq described. It was called the bag of the cornucopia, a magical item that I created. You placed a food item into the bag, and the food was consumed, but thereafter, the bag could produce any food it had ever been "loaded" with on demand. Delta was always snacking, so I created this item so that she would have an in-game explanation for always having food handy. It was funny when, in one adventure, they traveled to (then) modern-day London ("City Beyond the Gate", Dragon magazine #100) and loaded the bag with the McDonald's menu. She still has the character and the bag.

I also created bath stones, a set of three magical stones; red, blue, and black. If placed in a non-living container up to the size of a bathtub, and the command word given, red would fill the tub with hot water, blue with cold water, and both with temperate water. If placed in the vessel, black would empty the water, leaving the vessel clean and dry (to prevent abuse, it only worked on water created by the other stones).

WARNING : incoming dad joke

Q: how much does a polar bear weigh?sorry, I couldn't stop myself

As someone who does not (and probably never will) use discord, i've tried making a couple discussion threads myself for that same reason - to have some stuff to chat about in between games to decompress. Just gotta find topics that interest people enough.. I'm a bit surprised that the "Romance in PbP" didn't hit as hard AI stuff. I was prepared for elongated tales of swooning and spooning..
Don't have one. I don't really approach people. When they initiate conversation, i'm the "stare silently and occasionally mumble" type. Though if they keep pocking and chatting to (at) me, in couple of months, when i being feeling comfortable around them, they will be treated to the occasional leaks from my stream of consciousness, which usually confuse, weird and (probably) terrify. Oh, the fun of human interaction!

I, like most people, appreciate good food. I find that asking about nice restaurants someone's recently been to or what their favourite recipes are to always lead to a good conversation for at least a little while.

And, of course, I will jump at the chance of talking about TTRPGs with any fellow nerd that indulges me. On a side note, if you ever find yourself in a country/city where people speak little english (And you don't share any other language), locate the nearest game shop for anything you might need. They will for sure speak english fluently there 😂
I'm having fun in my D&D campaign with a recently acquired sentient armor. Sentient items are always fun to deal with, but I had never gotten one of my own until now.
It's an ancient elven armor inhabited by the soul of an equally ancient elf, who now sees the "modern" fantasy world through my character's eyes. He has lots of opinions, as you might imagine. Same goes for opinions about my character's personal life and thoughts that wander through her head. The banter it originates is always fun.

Apparently, for me, my ice-breaker is breaking someone else’s car. I made a very good impression on a teenage girl and her dad yesterday after the girl sideswiped my SUV. Last month, an old man thought I was "a man of honor" for admitting I backed into his parked car.

But today, when I pushed a woman’s car (uphill) because it broke down and was blocking a highway on-ramp, I almost broke the spoiler while pushing the car, but adjusted my hand so I didn’t break her car. She didn’t even roll down her window a crack to thank me. (🎻)

I use my imagination and subvert preconceptions. More often than not, though, I don't even try to break the ice. I think people built their barriers for a reason and it's on them to choose if they want to open the gates or not.

Question: How did you find your current roleplaying group?

I found my group at a FLGS and we eventually moved the game to my house.

one group evolved from a miniatures game group
the other were family and friends before we were an RPG group

I wanted to try table games again and convinced some friends to put up with my GMing a Star Wars game. The rest are games on this site with a typical background of "Saw an interest check for a game that I was, in fact, interested in."

I have a group that is old high school friends. I actually started us playing RPG's by randomly getting the FFG star wars game and running it for them, blind zero TTRPG experience...wasn't great but we then moved to someone else DM's in DnD and have been playing for like 4 years now.

Other group is some co-workers. been fun, I DM that one but trying to convince someone else to DM a game of Daggerheart

Here's a question: Is the read/unread bug fixed?