Welcome palemantle

Welcome palemantle.

What at you hoping to get from this game?

I see you imply some PbP experience in a past lifetime, what was that with? i addition to 'forums' like this, I have done email, IRC, and even a bit of Discord with new groups that "don't want to sign up for another service". They each play a little differently.

It is fine of you don't consider yourself to have any experience (anymore), we can teach you as we go along. I have not followed what is being covered in the TinyD6 Dungeon Intro game, so we may end up asking you to repeat yourself, but let us know what you already know, and ask questions about anything you want to know more about. Someone here will help you.

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Do you have any past experience: with this game system (World of Dungeons) or PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) games in general, I see you mainly list older DnDs (I left DnD around 3rd edition and never read 3.5 or Pathfinder 1).

Being only a few pages long, World of Dungeons obviously does not contain all the 'rules' or any guidance at all, it assumes the players have some experience or will rely on the GM to teach everything that is needed. It is fine of you choose to just follow our prompts and ask lots of questions, but it can also help your understanding if you choose to read some PbtA game with full rules or articles about the game type and philosophy. There are several free PbtA games, the closest to this one would probably be Dungeon World (you can read the rules on the SRD) many claim the 'Dungeon World Guide' is useful to learn the difference between this and 'traditional DnD'. Apocalypse World (the OG) --while a very different tone-- is a good read as well (and the first edition is often available free on the official website, and the latest 2e is often given away free on itch.io).

For further afield Sci-Fi options Impulse Drive is a good place to look. That Pay What You Want version contains all the text of the paid version (minus the example scenario) but lacks the layout- and art-work. Impulse Drive can do a wide variety of Sci-Fi styles, from Firefly to Star Wars to Star Trek, and more.

None of these are needed. They are mentioned purely for interest's sake.

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Take a look at the Help! thread for guidance. Feel free to ask any question here or in the General Chat depending on where they seem relevant.

You can find the Game's Rule Book copied here for easy access. You may find Character Creation section useful as well.

Thank you for the welcome/invite and for listing various resources. I'll look to invest in some of those over the coming days. I've looked through the short World of Dungeons document and will definitely read more about PbtA.

I'll natter on a bit now and try to answer your questions. Apologies if this is too much info.

What at you hoping to get from this game?
In no particular order:
- I'm intrigued by the idea of shared storytelling and an keen to participate.
- I understand - philosophically anyway - the general concept of RP-ing and am drawn to it. I've got no tabletop gaming experience whatsoever. I read a *lot* of what I'd call speculative fiction and have a played a fair few RP-heavy CRPGs, some of it online - Baldur's Gate as opposed to Diablo, to draw a distinction. However, I'd be fairly clueless about the mechanics of a game like this one, practically speaking. For example, when does my PC roll, what should they roll, what would be considered metagaming etc. I'm hoping I can learn more about some of that and, hopefully, give others a hand down the line.
- I'm quite particular about not detracting from others' experience while I fumble around initially so the relatively simple (but far from simplistic) ruleset would be a plus.

Let us know what you already know
- I have no prior experience with either World of Dungeons or Powered by the Apocalypse.
- I bought a ton of DnD 3.5e books about 15 years ago and own a copy of the DnD 5e PHB and one of the Star Wars FFG PHBs. Have read through most of that but haven't used any of it in anger.
- I've played Neverwinter Nights - based on modifed DnD 3.5e rules - on some RP-heavy servers. I started when the game was on its last legs and those plays eventually morphed into some sort of DM (GM) run PbP sessions. When those petered out, I tried getting into more general DnD 3.5e PbP games but it was pretty much a non-starter back then.
- That was at least 15 years ago and I hope to do better and have better luck now.

I'll shut up now and go read some of the material you've mentioned. Thanks again.

Minor edit to add: You asked about where the Tinyd6 game stands. Enjoying that one but it's early days there. Haven't run into any combat yet or had a proper IC interaction yet.

No, it was perfect.
Some of that is PbtA, but mostly it is my style. Many people found PbtA a revelation when it came out, my reaction was pretty much: "Er, yeah. That's how it is done." So PbtA suits my style and is how I was playing games already, but not everyone leans as heavily into the collaborative element.
That is not a problem at all. World of Dungeons (and other such simple, GM-reliant games) are excellent for complete beginners --who have to rely on the GM for guidance anyway-- and also good for experienced players --who don't need much more detail. They can be hard during the middle part of one's RPG life, where one is branching out on one's own and experimenting with ideas and really wants to get as much input from a game system as possible. There are other systems available that are better for that middle part, so no worries.

It sounds like you enjoy reading game systems, even if you were not playing them. I am the same and, when time allows, often read systems I know I will never play, just for interest's sake. If you want I can (maybe later) recommend some other systems that teach worthwhile things even if they are not directly helpful to this game or anything you are playing (Blades in the Dark and Monsterhearts come to mind as games containing some solid advice about RPGing).
Hey, computer games I actually did play! Yay! I can finally relate! :)
Out of interest: What would you call 'speculative fiction'? That term is a bit overloaded and means different things to different people.
Don't worry, knowing that we will take you by the and guide you every step of the way until you tell us you don't need it anymore. Then you just have to ask, and we will guide more.
That will quickly become apparent. Read though the pages linked above and ask if anything is unclear, but we will tell you what to roll when as you play.
This game's rules don't define that, we use our common sense and work that out from the fiction. It should be apparent from what your character is doing what they need to roll, and if a couple of options are valid, take the one that you are best at. A real person, when presented with a challenge that can be beaten in two ways will do what they know best, not so?

Play your character like a real person that fits in the world as established, and it should all just work out.
Don't worry about that. It is almost never a real thing, and we will talk about it if it ever comes up. When most people say 'metagaming' they really mean 'cheating'. It is not easy to cheat in simple systems like this, the more detail the rules give about simulating the world (compare DnD 2e's loose rules to 3.5's 'try to define everything' style) the easier it is to find loopholes and 'cheat'. I don't expect that to come up, but if you are being too liberal we will gently tell you where and how, and chat about how to do it instead.
That is why we teach. :)
That is always a concern, which is why I made these games with such 'initial fumbling' as the purpose. Those who stuck around after that initial stage are all happy to take the time to guide new players.

A benefit of learning RPG on PbP is that we can use this threat to conduct detailed discussions about what you are doing and not significantly impact the other players at all.
Indeed. You can concentrate on the RP part and let the G part fade into the background. That is one of the big reasons I selected these rules for this.
DnD 5e is a pretty good system. It is popular enough that knowing it helps a lot in terms of finding games. If those games are not DnD, they will often use DnD as the lingua franca for teaching their own rules. I shall do the same quite often.
I have not been convinced by those systems. But I do mean to try them more.

Many thanks, @vagueGM. A number of questions answered already.

I'll just respond to your query about what I meant by spec fiction and then go away and research some stuff.

I read anything from secondary world fantasy to hard science fiction and everything in between, possibly barring horror.

Within that genre, I've got a fairly eclectic taste. I enjoy reading "difficult" borderline literary (in my mind anyway) fantasy such as Erikson's Malazan books and might follow that up with a an eminently accessbile Riftwar run-through. I own and a copy of everything Asimov has written (and have read each multiple times). I've also read loads of Star Wars "Legends" (there is no "Canon", only "Legends" :D) books all the way through the New Jedi Order, including some *really* crummy ones. And, as you say, I enjoy reading gamesystem books - when I can justfiy the cost to myself - and some associated fluff (Warhammer "30K" for example).

Thanks again.

Me too. :)

Welcome Palemantle.

You couldn't have come at a better time since we're about to engage in a dangerous battle being hopelessly outnumbered.
Well ... We MIGHT... Maybe... ☺️

All jokes aside, don't worry at all about not knowing how to play or doing something 'wrong'. Vague is very patient in explaining things over and over again to me. We actually don't roll dice that often, it's all about the story. I'm sure you'll have a great time with us.

Welcome palemantle! Nice to have you on board.
It's a perfect match! :D

I do have a very important question for you.

Cheers, both. Dice-godsRaynor permitting, I might come up with a cleric-y character just to keep Albert on his toes a bit :D

So you probably had not gotten there yet, but this is a excellent example. This site does not tell me that you edited a post I had already read, so unless someone mentions it, there is no reason I would go back and reread your post to see the edit.

Just add a new post with the new information, that way the site tells us about the change, and we can clearly see what you added. If it becomes necessary to change content within a post, drop us an OOC message with exactly what changed (so we don't have to work though the old post with a fine-toothed-comb to find it).

Noted, @vagueGM, and I completely understand the rationale now. I've now looked through all the resources, I think. Still haven't finished going through the latest chapter of the RP thread.

No worries.