Do you Tabletop?

[tragedyjones]

I have often said that I approach MUSHing from a tabletop background. But I know that some people, perhaps even a majority of us, don't have access to or never have tabletopped, or don't anymore.

So a quick survey, my answers to follow.

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past?
What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop?
Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop?
Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity?
Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop?
Misc:

[tragedyjones]

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past? I have in the past, for about as long as I have been a MUSHer, but more often overall
What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop? oWoD, nWoD, Shadowrun, Exalted, Aberrant, Cyberpunk 2020, D&D 2-4, Trinity, Scion, Adventure, BESM, Silver Age Sentinels, Alternity
Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop? About 50/50 for the first 10 years, less and less as time has gone on
Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity? I honestly don't know anymore. I have a group I could go back to any Friday, but I generally find myself doing DIFFERENT nerd things.
Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop? See above.
Misc: I think that tabletop is great when it works!

[Coin]

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past? Yes. Since before I even played any of these games online.
What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop? Vampire (both), Werewolf (both), Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, RuneQuest, Alternity, Call of Cthulhu, Exalted, Scion.
Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop? I have been many, many times, but not exclusively.
Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity? Absolutely.
Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop? No. My group's just lazy at the moment and on a downturn in activity.
Misc: Tabletop is a completely different experience from MUing. Ridiculously so.

[vaermithrax]

I did, and do.
I played Vampire: the Masquerade (Sabbat), Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Mage: the Awakening, Changeling: the Lost, Pathfinder, D&D 5E, D&D 3.5, Fiasco!, Shadowrun 4E, Traveller, and 40KRPG: Rogue Trader.
I DM'd Pathfinder, Traveller, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and Rogue Trader.
Yes, I would tabletop.
Yes, because I didn't want to play with some people.
Misc: Tabletop is superior to MUSH in many ways, but it's much harder to schedule and keep consistent.

[Derp]

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past? -- Yes, in the past. College makes it a bit more difficult to find a reliable tabletop group that actually wants to play the same game. Thus why I got into MU'ing just over a year ago. You can always find DnD groups but even then they're playing different settings/editions, and I'm sort of burnt on DnD.

What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop? - Mostly Mage, all of the editions, though I'm familiar with many of the others as well. There are few WoD games that I haven't at least played at one point. DnD, obvs. Rifts. Ummm.... others that I can no longer remember. What is the .. Sword and Sorcery stuff?

Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop? -- Have been! We tended to sort of rotate so that one person didn't get burnt.

Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity? -- Maybe. It's not just a matter of opportunity, for me, but also of time constraints. School is hard, yo.

Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop? -- Likely. I mean, I'm sure that there is some group somewhere within a reasonable distance, but I currently have other things to put effort into, and don't have the time to try and track down a group that I won't hate. Maybe in the future, but right now, priorities are different.

[Caryatid]

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past?: I have tried tabletop several times in the past but it never clicked for me.
What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop?: D&D, oWoD (VtM), Call of Cthulu and Traveller RPG.
Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop?: No
Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity?: Probably not
Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop?: Yes
Misc: For me MUSHing is a creative writing exercise. Tabletop isn't and so it doesn't have the same appeal.

[Templari]

I have in the past and am currently playing, yes.
Past Games: Mechwarrior/Battletech, Eberron, several editions of D&D now, Star Wars Saga, 40K Dark Heresy, V:TM, ShadowRun, Pathfinder Society.
I've GM'd for D&D, Mechwarrior, and SW:Saga.

I currently due Pathfinder Society, the official play.
I'd kill to try PFS as a pure TT setting so many more neat options.

[Misadventure]

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past? Yes. I've played in several multi-year games for Champions, RuneQuest, D&D, Chivalry & Sorcery and home brewed systems. I have run multiyear games for Thieves Guild, Rolemaster (dark ages Arthurian and space opera), Champions, GURPS Pulp, Vampire, Deadlands.

What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop? Tunnels & Trolls, Traveller Classic, ad&d, Thieves Guild, RoleMaster, Phoenix Command/Living Steel, Gamma World, homebrew fantasy, Space Opera, SpaceMaster, RuneQuest, Chivalry & Sorcery, AD&D 3.5, Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, Cyberpunk 2020, homebrew western, Pendragon, Mekton Zeta, GURPS, Hero System (age of sail and fantasy), Star Wars D6. Champions (Hero System super), Vampire, Deadlands, Silver Age Sentinels (BEBM Supers), Mutants and Masterminds (d20 wildly varient supers), Adventure!, FATE, Star Wars Saga.

Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop? Often.

Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity? If it was the right people and the right game, yes.

Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop?
Yes. There are public games run at physical game stores. There are several groups to try out various games here at work. I have friends I've known and played with for decades that I could join. I am not very interested in most folks gaming style. MU* style is closest as I always focus on personal (not solo, intimate) stories, and while I like action, i am not interested in "build" games (D&D 4E is an excellent example, and many other games are played that way such as various cyberpunk games). I am not interested in wild aimless shenanigans. I usually want a setting, and a theme to experience and work within. I dislike games where they place strong limits then its "ground breaking" to allow the players to break them (Like D&D and Apocalypse World classes). I use a game system to play in a world, not create a world that uses a game system.

[tragedyjones]

@Caryatid said:

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past?: I have tried tabletop several times in the past but it never clicked for me.
What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop?: D&D, oWoD (VtM), Call of Cthulu and Traveller RPG.
Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop?: No
Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity?: Probably not
Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop?: Yes
Misc: For me MUSHing is a creative writing exercise. Tabletop isn't and so it doesn't have the same appeal.

I find this quite intriguing, and not in a bad way. To me, RP was probably originally an escapist fantasy, and eventually as a bit of a creative outlet for drama and story crafting. But I have never considered what I do in a game to be "creative writing" so much as Roleplaying but with words.

[Misadventure]

RP was zooming in on the personal scale of larger scale conflicts. Which in turn led to persistence, which helps string events into stories.

[Three-Eyed Crow]

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past?: Technically, yes, but I never got into it. I had friends in high school and college who were in TT groups, and I occasionally played with them, but that was it. I haven't in a good decade.

What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop?: D&D primarily.

Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop?: Nope.

Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity?: I might try it again if I had friends IRL who were into it, but it never held the same attraction to me that MU*ing did.

Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop?: I guess, not that I'm actively avoiding it. I live in a pretty big city and occasionally do board game/chess nights at the local used book store, where I suspect it'd be easy to find a TT group. It's just never something I've actively wanted to seek out.

Misc: Agreed with @Caryatid that MU*ing is primarily a creative writing exercise for me, albeit a collaborative game of one.

[Arkandel]

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past? Yes.
What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop? AD&D, D&D, Shadowrun 2/3rd Ed, Vampire: the Masquerade, Hunter: the Reckoning, Vampire: the Requiem.
Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop? 95% of the time.
Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity? Yes.
Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop? Not quite. The groups in my area seem to be too young for my tastes and none of my friends play RPGs.
*Misc: Table-top is where it's at. Pizza. Dice. Bad jokes. Rules lawyering.

[tragedyjones]

Dice... man oh man do I miss dice.

[Sunny]

@tragedyjones said:

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past?

Yep! And I both play in one and run one, currently. I've also both played in and run LARPs, though never ever again on that one shudder I was a teenager, okay.

What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop?

Okay, so I started to list them out but it was getting ridiculously long. There's very little I haven't played, from Warhammer through HERO through Blue Rose through BESM. I've played Earthdawn and Rifts and Runequest, and that horrible game that...Rolemaster? Yes, that's correct. Ugh. I've played a LOT of tabletop games. We just paused a Numenera campaign, and I'm running a Pathfinder game; the other ST in our group is just kicking off a Dragon Age game.

Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop?

Mostly.

Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity?

Not with anyone but the group I already play with.

Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop?

There are many many many creepy groups out there.

Misc:

I have to agree; doing both fairly heavily, they are two very different types of fun.

[Cobalt]

@tragedyjones said:

I have often said that I approach MUSHing from a tabletop background. But I know that some people, perhaps even a majority of us, don't have access to or never have tabletopped, or don't anymore.

So a quick survey, my answers to follow.

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past?

• Past, probably aga in the future.

What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop?

• Hackmaster
• GURPS
• D&D 3.5
• D&D 4E
• D&D Next (brief)
• Pathfinder
• Star Wars d20
• Star Wars Saga Edition
• Star Trek - Decipher
• All Flesh Must Be Eaten
• World of Darkness (core)
• Vampire: the Requiem - MET
• Werewolf: the Forsaken - MET
• Changeling: the Lost
• Changeling: the Lost - MET
• 7TH SEA
• Fate

Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop?

• Mmn, mostly no. A couple of times yes.

Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity?

• Yes.

Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop?

• Not currently.

Misc:

• I am a pineapple.

[Cobalt]

@tragedyjones said:

Dice... man oh man do I miss dice.

I'm still upset that all of my d6's are in freaking Florida with the ex-husband. sigh

[Miss Demeanor]

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past? In the past, yes. Not currently.
What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop? oWoD, nWoD, D&D of various flavors, Pathfinder, Exalted
Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop? Only for LARP!
Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity? God yes. Being without a vehicle makes it decidedly difficult.
Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop? See above.
Misc: I miss the late nights, sitting around a table with the remnants of take-out scattered across a table, laughing and plotting with other people on how to make the DM's head explode.

[Jaded]

@tragedyjones said:

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past? Yes. We play every Friday.

What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop?
AD&D 2nd Ed (Various Settings), D&D 3.5, Star Wars WEG, Star Wars Legacy, Runequest/Hawkmoon/Stormbringer, Middle Earth, Call of Cthulu, Shadowrun 2nd, Shadowrun 3rd, Battletech, Mechwarrior 3rd, Earthdawn 2nd Ed., Toon, Middle Earth, Dragonlance 5th Age, Ghouls and Graveyards 1st Ed, Cyberpunk 2020 v3.0, Robotech/Macross, Rifts, OWOD Mage/Werewolf/Wraith, Aeon/Trinity, Starfire, Thieves World, Bubble Gum Crisis, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Trail Blazers Western RPG, Paranoia, Hot Rods and Gun Bunnies, DragonAge RPG, Firefly RPG, Blades In The Dark, Game of Thrones RPG, 7th Sea, GURPS, MiB

Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop? I am the active GM for 80% of our playtime throughout a given year.

Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity? We add people as they come and go.

Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop? I have one group. It is hysterically and disfunctionally wonderful.

Misc:
We meet with such clockwork regularity it has been joked that we should apply for some kind of church tax exempt status for our play-space.

[mietze]

@tragedyjones said:

I have often said that I approach MUSHing from a tabletop background. But I know that some people, perhaps even a majority of us, don't have access to or never have tabletopped, or don't anymore.

So a quick survey, my answers to follow.

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past?

Yep, I first played in high school.

What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop?

Started with GURPS and AD&D, but also Twilight 2000, Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, Earthdawn (was one of the playtesters for that actually). Oh, and WEG Star Wars too. I played once in a Werewolf TT game (WTA) in college, but since that particular group seemed more interested in drinking than playing I didn't go back to that particular group.

Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop?

Yes, though I was more the backup GM. When my Roleplaying Guild in college would do events, I would often run a game though. In my reguarly meeting gaming groups not so much.

Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity?

I'm not sure. I do meet every few weeks with a board gaming group composed mostly of old/current MUSHpeople. We talk about it--but to be honest, my days of being able to spend 12 hours gaming are over for the next decade now that I have an oopsie baby.

Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop?

Yes and no, see above. I actually think I would greatly enjoy checking out regularly meeting table top groups via the local game stores or wanted ads at AFK (a local gaming tavern) as I am very much a social person who enjoys meeting new folks and sometimes it's easier to do these things outside of a current friends group. But I don't have the time commitment ability right now, truly, so it would be a disservice for me to do that.

Misc:

I find that I find much more quality/satisfaction in /storytelling/ and actual storycrafting on MUSHes. But I do miss the days of TT because not only for the story (which was usually quite good) but the friendships developed, the teasing, the social aspect, the expanding my circle of friends RL. I do get some of that via MUSHdom (I really enjoy meeting and hosting people from online, and I have made some genuine friends there, and I hope that comes across with those I know) but I don't know. There's just something nice/cozy about sitting around a dining room or den table with people and playing together, physically present. What can I say, I like the vibe.

[SG]

Do/did you play in a tabletop game now or in the past? Yes

What games(s) do/did you play as tabletop? AD&D, Robotech/TMNT/Rifts, Palladium 1st ed, DnD 3, 3.5, pathfinder, Savage Worlds, Twilight 2013, Marvel Heroic, Dark Heresy, Starwars d6, d20, Saga, Edge of Empire, Warhammer 1st, second, third, Call of Cthulu, GURPS, Traveler and a few homebrews.

Are/were you the GM/ST/DM at your tabletop? Usually, but once in a while someone else will step up.

Would you tabletop if you had the opportunity? I rarely say no.

Do you have the opportunity but choose NOT to tabletop? The people I game with are becoming incredibly flaky with at least 1/3 of the group cancelling at the last minute every week, which is starting to make me think about putting mushing as a priority over table top. I know I'm through putting together campaigns for them.