What's a Tabletop RPG? - How to Pen and Paper

Heard of Dungeons and Dragons but not sure what it is? Thinking about trying a tabletop RPG for yourself, but unsure where to start? If you're looking for guidance, you've come to the right place. In this new series, Oxventure DM Johnny explains what tabletop RPGs are and how to get started in the hobby. First up, what is a tabletop RPG anyway?

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Why not give us a follow on our social channels?

[seaborgium]

3:10 sometimes they're also called Literally Everyone Else In The World.

[tanner]

Watching Johnny DM for the Oxventure was my first time watching anything D&D related. That led to Critical Role, which led to playing at my local adventure league, which led to my about to DM my first home brew campaign this week. That's for the gateway Johnny, it's been a blast.

[exquisitecorpse]

I've been playing for 20 years; here are some character creation tips -
*Have loved ones:* There are WAY too many orphans running around; having loved ones will create cool story opportunities.
*Have a goal:* Good characters are highly motivated, and quests write themselves when you have important things to chase
*Have a habit:* Smoking, telling jokes, meditating; it doesn't matter. A habit makes your character feel more alive.
*Have disadvantages:* Your weaknesses often give you more substance than your powers. So be afraid of things, have asthma, break out in hives; give yourself something to overcome on a daily basis.
*Play nice:* If your friends are lawful good, don't be chaotic evil. If they're master hunters, don't be a vegetarian. Being a contrarian in character creation will kill fun later down the road, and the joke dies pretty quickly.

[theodorepinnock]

Woah, woah, one at a time. We can't have literally everyone else in the world talking at once!

[thecloudpeoplecollective.]

Haven't played D&D, but I really want too. So I'm excited to get some knowledge.

[BuBuReLoAd]

i love pen and paper too. but i love more that Ghost T-shirt

[dennisl]

Me and a friend want to start our own DnD group, because we are both kinda annoyed with our current groups. As neither of us has previously played the role of DM before and because we are relatively unsure on how to go about it, we decided to take turns on being the DM for each adventure while sharing one character, an elfen druid.

Buuut because we couldn't decide on the animal she could turn into, we decided to make her have a split personality, one for each of us with differing animal transformations and skills depending on who's playing.

We both totally freaked out when we came up with this twist. It's going to be amazing.

[CaitlinRC]

As a DM I've adored watching my players react and interact with the world I've made so I can't wait to expand out into more RPG games :D

[ethanwebb]

This is coming just in time - just yesterday, I was starting to think about playing D&D.

[Liveebee]

I do have a tip for anyone trying to find an online group, when you apply, try to start a conversation, it will increase your odds of being picked greatly and will also inform you on if the DM is right for the game you want.

[Hollyboppers]

I started a D&D 5e campaign at university for a group of people & we had lots of varying experiences with the game (most had never played before, some had watched shows like Critical Role & High Rollers). What started as a simple one session story turned into a weekly campaign in a homebrew world. I loved being the DM for this group and, after we finished our campaign, the group still keep in touch. So pen and paper RPGs have an amazing knack for bringing together a group of strangers & making them real friends - the fiction of the game & the characters becoming a real party was mirrored at my table.

[thewelshdm]

Thank you for this. I'm in the middle of running my first (proper) game as GM, and I still need a lot of help.

Also looking forward to hearing about other systems than DnD. Scion is a big interest to me as a concept

[adylfs]

Well, I'm very much on board with this. Top banana, best of luck with the channel! Spent a lot of time years ago working on games with friends, but nothing quite clicked back then, a real shame. Then I played Quake, remembered how much Elite fascinated me as a kid and swapped horses. Heretic! So this channel has reignited my ancient interest. You filthy bunch of pen and paper pirates! Nice. Onward to mainly rule based dice driven story world building glory! (...can I still play NMS and E:D though? Yeah? Sweet). You're a level 2... frost troll with a bad back and dodgy knees who only talks in half remembered Opeth lyrics. Wait, what?

[FistOfFiori]

Nice to see these fun little informative pieces. I get the gist of DnD etc because I've watched a little bit on YouTube (Oxventures of course, Critical Role, Twits & Crits, and Playstation Access doing Cyberpunk 2020), but I've never played myself. I enjoyed video game RPGs and Fantasy fiction as a kid but never ended up playing it, nor as an adult. None of my friends did it. Video games, board games and card cames yep, but not tabletop roleplaying/DnD. I'm 35 now and would still love to try, heh. One day!

[phylion]

I'm on a break from D and D this year and watching this and watching all the Oxventurers really makes me miss it

[welshsteve]

I've never really fancied the idea of tabletop RPG (or any type of RPG) but wow, the way you described it in this video with the example scenario has really opened my eyes. I'm now quite interested in playing. Thanks for yet another great video 😀

[chrisgolliher]

I’ve always known DnD existed but about two weeks ago I came across the oxventurer sessions and completely fell in love with it and was really excited and finally got the nerve to ask a few people I thought may be interested in playing. And they said yes and asked me to DM because I was the one to bring us to the game as none of us have played ever and the past two weeks have been looking up guides and dm tips and stuff to assist me to basically not screw it up and make it as fun as possible and honestly watching how Johnny DM interacts with the oxventurers and play style is what inspired me so I’m trying something similar but the first “campaign” we are doing is the starter set one with my own twists I’ve been trying to work into it to start us off and get into it and go from there :D thank you for al you do and I really took to heart the lessons videos you made with “Dob” to help him in his first DM experience. I took a lot of notes while listening to it. The session “zero” is this coming weekend to get character creation and expectations and such out of the way and the first part of the starter set at the end hopefully I can put my studies to use to allow everyone to have fun. Thanks again for the inspiration and joy your bringing to our lives in these dark times. Much love from California.

[Justforvisit]

Just another of these days where I try to create my own Pen&Paper, it's always already so much fun to think out the world, the setting, the circumstances and if existing races, classes, places etc.

And videos like these are really nice to get into the right mood and getting some inspiration, thank you for that :)

[CortashGaming]

Very cool Johnny!.i know this channel will grow fast because of the hard work you put into it.i hope the best for you!.

[ralphbutcher]

What do you mean “if it all goes a bit sideways” the point when it goes sideways is usually where the game gets fun