What's a "Moral Compass Cricket Thingy"?

[Maniakkid25]

It doesnt feel any different, tbh. Just...another year older. Yay. Whatever, I guess.

[ShiraNoMai]

Shit, I forgot to come here and wish you a happy one! Did you do anything exciting or just another day another nickel situation?

[Moonface]

Do you play or have ever played Dungeons & Dragons?

[Maniakkid25]

A little bit of 4e and 5e. Most of the time, I play Pathfinder (I prefer the nuts and bolts of Pathfinder; it's complex enough to keep my interest, but simple enough that it can be picked up), and I've played around with a few other systems (Call of Cthulhu, Of Dreams and Magic, OVA, FF d20[which is really just a heavily modded Pathfinder], and quite a few others). I've even ran a few games (I'm running one right now in Starfinder, which is itself a halfway house between Pathfinder and Pathfinder 2e)!

[Moonface]

You have way more experience with it than me then. XD
I only just started playing a game with @ShiraNoMai and some friends, with some story about Waterdeep (I think the campaign is called The Heist) if that rings any bells for you at all.

[Maniakkid25]

I did have to look it up, tbh, but as soon as I saw the setting, it clicked. Forgotten Realms is pretty much the go-to setting for any DnD video games (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter MMO are all set there, as was Sword Coast Tales before it died a flaming death), and I really like that setting. I probably unconsciously base my homebrew settings largely on it (I tend to not use established settings because I don't usually run pre-written adventures). IIRC, in fact, that setting is what 5e is largely written for. And I'm assuming its 5e you are playing because its the most recent edition, and I found an adventure book called "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist" which is meant for 5e, so yeah.

In fact, tbh, I've had the idea of running a game with some of the crew here for a long while now (I mostly play on Roll20 anyway since most of my other players are in Europe). I've just never had the free time to actually ask if there are at least 3 or 4 of us who could meet up on Discord or something for a game.

[Moonface]

Roll20 is what we use too, even though everyone in the group I play with are in the States and don't have any time differences that are notable. I thought Roll20 was the only site to use though, but you make it sound like there's other options you would use if your group wasn't based in Europe?

[Maniakkid25]

Roll20 isnt the only option; Tabletop Simulator immediately comes to mind. We just use Roll20 because, well, we know it, so why rock the boat?

[Moonface]

Is TS also integrated with DnD Beyond like Roll20 is?

[Maniakkid25]

Not that I know of, but I didn't even know DND Beyond was integrated with Roll20. I doubt it is, however. But there are so many mods for Tabletop Sim that I bet someone has fully integrated all of 5e into the damn thing.

[Moonface]

Not that I know of, but I didn't even know DND Beyond was integrated with Roll20.

Well, it's supposed to be but as of late DnD Beyond doesn't want to sync what you do to your character on there with Roll20. You have to manually update your character on both sites but apparently it isn't supposed to be that way.

[Maniakkid25]

Yeah, I just use the in-built character sheets on Roll20. I've got friends that use a sitr called Myth-Weavers, but the Roll20 sheets have built in macros so that you can just click a button, and it does things like attack for you and the like.

[ShiraNoMai]

If we were to do a UG D&D or Pathfinder campaign, did you have any particular ones in mind?

[Maniakkid25]

I actually do; it's a homebrewed story of mystery and conspiracy, where the players inadvertently get caught up in a massive plot that threatens to upset the very fabric of society! It's actually something I've had a skeleton of for a long while, but I tend to make up the specifics as I go along, reacting to the players as much as telling a story.

[Moonface]

Happy Birthday @Maniakkid25! Hope you manage to have a good day despite Covid limiting the options.