Hello and welcome everyone!
Welcome to the place where we can discuss all our favorite tabletop hobbies. Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Scythe, Dominion whatever you enjoy. Share pictures of your models, your games, what you are looking forward to or even LFP if you want to play with your fellow D-PAD members.
RPGs
If you are the kind of person who enjoys partying up, fighting monsters, looting gold, completing quests and interacting with you environment then the classics such as Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, FATE and Shadowrun are the games for you. These are all pen and paper games where people sit around the table and play with or without a board. The best place to encounter other players is either via all the different sub-reddits or the Roll20 website. Dungeons and Dragons is effectively the Warhammer 40k of tabletop RPGs currently but thanks to Roll20 you can find other games as well.
Roll20 specifically is a great place to play RPG games online. You can play using Discord and use the Roll20 website as a virtual table, where you can share character sheets, dungeon layouts, play music, roll dice, write journals etc.
Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder are basically the same thing. Party of adventurers go on quests or whatever the DM/players decide, interact with the environments and npcs (weather, hunger, thirst, random encounters, story/random npcs etc.) and fight all kinds of monsters, villains. It really is about the imagination of the players and the DM unless you are playing a module or a scenario (both official and unofficial). There is an official lore and all official modules work around it but you can easily just use the rules and make basically anything out of it, even sci-fi games.
If you want to read some funny stories then I would recommend the RPG Horror Stories sub-reddit. The 5th Edition D&D sub-reddit has worthwhile discussions on it about the game, people discuss class synergies, build strategies etc. Then of course there are plenty of sites that provide all the necessary tools to play the game, like D&D Beyond and other less reputable sites which I cannot mention here.
FATE is a bit special in that it doesn't have any lore, it is basically a rule set which you can use to play anything. My group used it to play all kinds of games, high-fantasy, Starship Troopers, NieR and others.
Shadowrun is an old classic pen and paper cyber-punk RPG. I have no idea in what kind of state it is in now, but it used to be THE game when I was a kid next to D&D.
Other than that the obvious best way to play RPGs is old-school with people around the table, there is simply no proper substitute for direct social interaction with actual dice rolling across the table.
Wargaming
When it comes to wargaming there really isn't much of a choice at the moment. There are dozens upon dozens of games that tried to eat a piece of the wargaming pie like Flames of War or Firestorm Armada but eventually they all died off and anybody who wants to play the classic tabletop Wargaming has to play either Warhammer 40k or to a much lesser extent X-wing, Infinity and Age of Sigmar. The last three are played regularly in most gaming clubs so you shouldn't have any issue finding other players. Every other game out there also has a community but it is very tiny in comparison and getting any kind of game regularly in them is much more difficult (Blood Bowl, Battlefleet Gothic, Star Wars Armada or the aforementioned Flames of War and Firestorm games). A few games are becoming more popular now but I have very limited knowledge when it comes to them, games like Star Wars Legion and I also saw some Lord of the Rings players recently.
Warhammer 40k is a futuristic combat game featuring many different aesthetic styles (diesel, steam, renaissance, cyber punk and many others) where you collect, paint and build your army to face another player on generally large tabletop with terrain features, lots of special rules and hundreds of dice. It is quite a complex game and not very newbie friendly thanks to the extremely elitist attitude of most players, but if you can get a friendly player to teach you all the systems, faction specifics and traits, unit interactions etc. then you will have a good time. Be warned though, it is a hobby that has been evolving for over 30 years now, the amount of content, especially contradictory, is staggering, no two people will give you even a similar opinion on the game and definitely not on the lore which is just a total mess. Best way to get into the game is by ignoring the lore, just have someone teach you how the game works and you can worry about all the nonsense later, otherwise your head will explode one minute into a lecture from a "veteran". The games can also be quite long, with standard tournament format being 2000 pts, which can takes professional players about 3 hours to complete, newbies playing 2000 pts game would probably take them more like 6+ (I have seen people play a 500 pts game for 4 hours and they didn't even finish it).
Best place to get info about Warhammer 40k is the Warhammer competitive sub-reddit. Here people ask actual questions and don't just post awkward memes and "hey look, my first ever mini" shit. Honestly the only Warhammer sub-reddit that isn't completely idiotic from my experience. Here you can ask whatever about the actual game and you will get actual, proper, articulated response from inteligent or at least semi-inteligent people (as much as any Warhammer player can be intelligent anyway). Warhammer Community is a lot more corporate but has all the news about products. Just stay away from Youtube shrills, most of them are completely insane and/or pretentious as hell, buy the rules and codex books if you want to know lore and absorb it naturally. Black library is a huge mess, some books are ok, most of them are garbage. Don't expect any quality literature.
Star Wars X-wing is a fine and simple skirmish game between a few ships (minimum of two) on a small table. Very easy to get into and quite enjoyable. Definitely not as popular as Warhammer 40k and arguably not as enjoyable, which would explain the lesser popularity, nevertheless, the game is insanely accessible which is one of its most attractive features. No need to assemble or paint anything, you just pop a few ships on the table and move them around using templates, roll a few dice (as opposed to dozens upon dozens in a single shooting in Warhammer) and declare victory in less than an hour.
Infinity is a sci-fi tabletop game with miniatures similar to Warhammer but focusing more on black-ops and other clandestine-ops between a small number of figures. The game focuses on actions like suppressive fire, counter attacks, giving orders, stealth, etc. The lore is pretty decent, basically futuristic Earth with mega-corporations and organizations trying to maintain or usurp power. The factions are varied and the gameplay is different enough to feel fresh to other wargamers.
Age of Sigmar is a thing. Basically a re-make of fantasy Warhammer that is somewhat popular but doesn't come even close to 40k. The people just aren't into it as much. The lore and models are pretty generic and there really isn't much to draw more people in. Most are just waiting for the return of the old Fantasy Warhammer. Practically though it is similar to 40k, you collect, paint and fight with fantasy armies on a large table.
Tabletop
Here lie all the other tabletop games like Pandemic, Dominion, Scythe, Arkham Horror, Caverna etc. The best place to learn more about these games is on the website https://boardgamegeek.com/ here you got all the news, upcoming releases, current top games, forums, reviews, marketplace and everything you will ever need. If you are looking for a high quality reviewer then I recommend the Youtube channel The Dice Tower. When I worked at a board game retail store I got most of my news and quick-looks at games from The Dice Tower, this allowed to me to stay always one step ahead of my coworkers and thanks to that I always had the highest sale numbers (the downside was that the boss always wanted me in the store for holidays).
Welcome to the place where we can discuss all our favorite tabletop hobbies. Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Scythe, Dominion whatever you enjoy. Share pictures of your models, your games, what you are looking forward to or even LFP if you want to play with your fellow D-PAD members.
RPGs
If you are the kind of person who enjoys partying up, fighting monsters, looting gold, completing quests and interacting with you environment then the classics such as Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, FATE and Shadowrun are the games for you. These are all pen and paper games where people sit around the table and play with or without a board. The best place to encounter other players is either via all the different sub-reddits or the Roll20 website. Dungeons and Dragons is effectively the Warhammer 40k of tabletop RPGs currently but thanks to Roll20 you can find other games as well.
Roll20 specifically is a great place to play RPG games online. You can play using Discord and use the Roll20 website as a virtual table, where you can share character sheets, dungeon layouts, play music, roll dice, write journals etc.
Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder are basically the same thing. Party of adventurers go on quests or whatever the DM/players decide, interact with the environments and npcs (weather, hunger, thirst, random encounters, story/random npcs etc.) and fight all kinds of monsters, villains. It really is about the imagination of the players and the DM unless you are playing a module or a scenario (both official and unofficial). There is an official lore and all official modules work around it but you can easily just use the rules and make basically anything out of it, even sci-fi games.
If you want to read some funny stories then I would recommend the RPG Horror Stories sub-reddit. The 5th Edition D&D sub-reddit has worthwhile discussions on it about the game, people discuss class synergies, build strategies etc. Then of course there are plenty of sites that provide all the necessary tools to play the game, like D&D Beyond and other less reputable sites which I cannot mention here.
FATE is a bit special in that it doesn't have any lore, it is basically a rule set which you can use to play anything. My group used it to play all kinds of games, high-fantasy, Starship Troopers, NieR and others.
Shadowrun is an old classic pen and paper cyber-punk RPG. I have no idea in what kind of state it is in now, but it used to be THE game when I was a kid next to D&D.
Other than that the obvious best way to play RPGs is old-school with people around the table, there is simply no proper substitute for direct social interaction with actual dice rolling across the table.
Wargaming
When it comes to wargaming there really isn't much of a choice at the moment. There are dozens upon dozens of games that tried to eat a piece of the wargaming pie like Flames of War or Firestorm Armada but eventually they all died off and anybody who wants to play the classic tabletop Wargaming has to play either Warhammer 40k or to a much lesser extent X-wing, Infinity and Age of Sigmar. The last three are played regularly in most gaming clubs so you shouldn't have any issue finding other players. Every other game out there also has a community but it is very tiny in comparison and getting any kind of game regularly in them is much more difficult (Blood Bowl, Battlefleet Gothic, Star Wars Armada or the aforementioned Flames of War and Firestorm games). A few games are becoming more popular now but I have very limited knowledge when it comes to them, games like Star Wars Legion and I also saw some Lord of the Rings players recently.
Warhammer 40k is a futuristic combat game featuring many different aesthetic styles (diesel, steam, renaissance, cyber punk and many others) where you collect, paint and build your army to face another player on generally large tabletop with terrain features, lots of special rules and hundreds of dice. It is quite a complex game and not very newbie friendly thanks to the extremely elitist attitude of most players, but if you can get a friendly player to teach you all the systems, faction specifics and traits, unit interactions etc. then you will have a good time. Be warned though, it is a hobby that has been evolving for over 30 years now, the amount of content, especially contradictory, is staggering, no two people will give you even a similar opinion on the game and definitely not on the lore which is just a total mess. Best way to get into the game is by ignoring the lore, just have someone teach you how the game works and you can worry about all the nonsense later, otherwise your head will explode one minute into a lecture from a "veteran". The games can also be quite long, with standard tournament format being 2000 pts, which can takes professional players about 3 hours to complete, newbies playing 2000 pts game would probably take them more like 6+ (I have seen people play a 500 pts game for 4 hours and they didn't even finish it).
Best place to get info about Warhammer 40k is the Warhammer competitive sub-reddit. Here people ask actual questions and don't just post awkward memes and "hey look, my first ever mini" shit. Honestly the only Warhammer sub-reddit that isn't completely idiotic from my experience. Here you can ask whatever about the actual game and you will get actual, proper, articulated response from inteligent or at least semi-inteligent people (as much as any Warhammer player can be intelligent anyway). Warhammer Community is a lot more corporate but has all the news about products. Just stay away from Youtube shrills, most of them are completely insane and/or pretentious as hell, buy the rules and codex books if you want to know lore and absorb it naturally. Black library is a huge mess, some books are ok, most of them are garbage. Don't expect any quality literature.
Star Wars X-wing is a fine and simple skirmish game between a few ships (minimum of two) on a small table. Very easy to get into and quite enjoyable. Definitely not as popular as Warhammer 40k and arguably not as enjoyable, which would explain the lesser popularity, nevertheless, the game is insanely accessible which is one of its most attractive features. No need to assemble or paint anything, you just pop a few ships on the table and move them around using templates, roll a few dice (as opposed to dozens upon dozens in a single shooting in Warhammer) and declare victory in less than an hour.
Infinity is a sci-fi tabletop game with miniatures similar to Warhammer but focusing more on black-ops and other clandestine-ops between a small number of figures. The game focuses on actions like suppressive fire, counter attacks, giving orders, stealth, etc. The lore is pretty decent, basically futuristic Earth with mega-corporations and organizations trying to maintain or usurp power. The factions are varied and the gameplay is different enough to feel fresh to other wargamers.
Age of Sigmar is a thing. Basically a re-make of fantasy Warhammer that is somewhat popular but doesn't come even close to 40k. The people just aren't into it as much. The lore and models are pretty generic and there really isn't much to draw more people in. Most are just waiting for the return of the old Fantasy Warhammer. Practically though it is similar to 40k, you collect, paint and fight with fantasy armies on a large table.
Tabletop
Here lie all the other tabletop games like Pandemic, Dominion, Scythe, Arkham Horror, Caverna etc. The best place to learn more about these games is on the website https://boardgamegeek.com/ here you got all the news, upcoming releases, current top games, forums, reviews, marketplace and everything you will ever need. If you are looking for a high quality reviewer then I recommend the Youtube channel The Dice Tower. When I worked at a board game retail store I got most of my news and quick-looks at games from The Dice Tower, this allowed to me to stay always one step ahead of my coworkers and thanks to that I always had the highest sale numbers (the downside was that the boss always wanted me in the store for holidays).
