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Dungeons and Dragons- where to begin?
yanyan
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Thread title says it all really. I've been throwing around the idea of playing DnD to my girlfriend and friends, everyone has been pretty receptive so far. We all live in the same house, have roughly the same schedules, and are bored of playing cards or watching a movie when theres nothing to do.
I've played a campaign once but otherwise everyone is new to this. Where's a good place to start? Which edition is easier for new guys, 3.5 or 4th? Any good bundles of starter sets/books? Also, any tips or advice on DMing, since thats what I'll be doing?
I've played a campaign once but otherwise everyone is new to this. Where's a good place to start? Which edition is easier for new guys, 3.5 or 4th? Any good bundles of starter sets/books? Also, any tips or advice on DMing, since thats what I'll be doing?
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This was the package that I bought when I first started playing 4.0. Since then I think there has been one extra players' handbook and dungeon master's guide released.
Another thing to consider is that 3.5 has almost all of it's basic material online because of the system reference document and such so you could really buy the 4th edition books while also indulging in 3.5 online.
I don't have a whole lot of experience being a DM but I played a campaign for about 2 years. Some of the things about being a DM suck - you're having to deal with the combined foresight of multiple players versus you working alone, trying to hamper them, all while making the game both appropriately challenging and engaging. Expect to be unpleasantly surprised by someone with enough insight to foil your plots and see what's coming next. On the other side, you may end up with a very dense player who just won't/can't figure out what is going on and winds up a burden on you and the other players. Those people NEVER quit playing, either...for some reason, it's always the good players that wind up getting a job that conflicts with a game schedule. Or finding a GF/BF that's WAY more fun than their friend's D&D game. Or have their car stolen, house burned down, or baby eaten by velociraptors.
My advice, take things slow. You may want to join a game and play for a while until you feel comfortable enough with the mechanics to DM your own campaign.
Also consider looking at some of the other systems out there. D&D's very good at what it does, but there might be something else actually better suited to the kind of stories you want to tell.
Other general DMing advice:
Don't overprepare. Put together a skeleton to cover every aspect of your story, by all means, but if you fill it with tons and tons of detail then you'll have watsed a lot of time when the players inevitably start doing things you hadn't thought of.
A maxim often misused is "say yes or roll the dice". What this means in practice is that players should probably succeed at anything they try to do that doesn't involve meaningful conflict, and roll the dice for anything that does. No need to push beyond the boundaries of common sense, but it can streamline play a lot if you simply allow the players to succeed at trivial tasks without rolling anything.
Describe things to the players. Don't say "you see an inkeeper". Say "you see a thin, long-nosed man in a shabby waistcoat standing behind the bar." Little descriptions go a long way towards immersing people.
I'd also recommend listening to the series of podcasts wherein the PA guys, Scott Kurtz, and later Wil Wheaton play a few sessions of D&D with one of WoTC's employees. Not only are they funny as hell, I also found them very informative with regards to both play mechanics as well as picking up some effective DMing tricks. Links section shamelessly stolen from the D&D 4E Discussion post in the Critical Failures forum.
Series 1: Part one. Part two. Part Three. Part four. Part five. Part six. Part seven. Part eight.
Series 2: Part one. Part two. Part three. Part four. Part five. Part six. Part seven. Part eight.
Series 3: Part one. Part two. Part three. Part four. Part five. Part Six. Part Seven. Part Eight.
After that, you really just need the Dungeon Master's Guide and Player's Handbook. The various Monster Manuals and stuff like that are completely awesome and a lot of fun to look at and read, but are definitely not necessary.
There are also a lot of pre-created adventures that you can buy. I think they run $5-$10 each and can be a lot of help when first getting started. I've got a few of them and they were well done and at least give ideas of how to put a campaign together, if nothing else.
As to DMing specifically, the biggest challenge for me was to not get too hung up on the rules. If you're not sure how to handle a situation, just make it up on the fly with something that makes sense - you may want to make it clear to your group that's what you're doing. You can look up the proper way to deal with it later and discuss with your group whether to continue using your way (fairly commonly done) or go by the books. If you look up the rules for every situation you don't have memorized, you'll spend 10x as much time reading the DMG and PHB while your players sit around getting bored and distracted by other, more fun things than you will playing the game and having fun.
If you're concerned about buying stuff, you can try things out by downloading quick start rules and the updated version of Keep on the Shadowfell here for free. If you like it, picking up the starter set is a great place to start. I would also recommend signing up for D&D Insider if you all want to keep playing. It gives you access to the full version of the Character Builder which you can all share, which makes making characters very easy. The compendium is also invaluable for whoever has the DM role, since you can look up basically everything in the game, including many of the rules.
Once you get to the point of buying books: For the players, Player's Handbook 1 and 2 are great investments. For the DM, the Dungeon Master's Guide 1 and 2 and the 2 Monster Manuals are also excellent. You should definitely head over to the Critical Failures forum and peruse the 4E general discussion thread. The OP has a lot of good information and links, and everyone in the thread discusses the system at length and we've all got lots of advice to give new people. You can also check out the various PbP (play by post) games in the forum if you want to get a feel for the kinds of things people are doing with 4E.
I also suggest checking out the prewritten modules for you, such as Keep on the shadowfel. It's not too expensive and has everything you need to run a full 1st adventure, including premade characters. The monsters, and thier tactics are clearly laid out for you. You'll need players handbook 1 and the dungeon masters guide 1. monster manual 1 wouldn't hurt. I got all 3 as a set.
If you're Really in to it, a subscription for a month or 2 to DnD insider for the character builder tool is a great investment.
As for models, are any of your potential players comfortable with painting miniatures? I personally find the D&D brand ones butt ugly. :}
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
Things you will need but don't need to buy (but it'll make it easy)
- Gridded tiles, you can print them off usually, not sure if pre-written adventures come with some.
- Playing pieces. We use starwars monopoly pieces but anything around that size will do. You can buy official ones as well of course.
- Monster pieces. This...might be hard, raid your boardgame cache, you will need:
-- Pieces that fit on one grid square of a tile only and are all generally the same. Checkers might be a decent stand in here.
-- Same as above, but unique, for boss monsters or less common monsters....chess pieces or other unused unique board game pieces.
-- Pieces that fit in a 2x2 square grid and maybe even 3x3, these represent large and huge monsters. Unique should be fine.
1) Dungeon Master's Guide
2) Player's handbook
3) Monster Manual
You can get them as a gift set for a reasonable price on amazon.
You also need a set of dice.
I have not got 4th ed but most editions come with a sample adventure for you to run.
Every player has their favourite edition, but if you are starting fresh, you might as well start with the latest.
Don't worry about getting rules wrong at first. Just play to have fun and learn the rules as you go.
Most places will sell you a standard set for around $5...10 if you get special ones. Here's the list if you need it.
20 Sided Die (D20)
12 Sided Die (D12)
10 Sided Die (D10)
8 Sided Die (D8)
6 Sided Die (D6)
4 Sided Die (D4)
Multiples of any are always good, seperate sets for each player is recommended once you guys decide you like it (IF you like it). As a DM, if you like it...I recommend multiple D20s (lots), and at least 4 of every other type.
Keep on the Shadowfell is kinda crappy. If all of you are new to D&D then that's okay, play it through as written. Hopefully you can find an experienced DM who can take liberties with the story and make it into their own thing, because KotS is basically written like a video game, and doesn't really encourage very much roleplaying.
Most of the 3.5 ruleset basic stuff is actually completely free, or as free as you can possibly get on the Internet. Paizo publishing has retrofitted a game called "Pathfinder" onto the 3.5 edition rules, which improves the ruleset and is actually available for free here:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/
Real roleplaying gamers, though, play One Roll Engine. *grin* Just kidding.
Your options are pretty simple here. Actual D&D minis, general figures(Lego figures and the like are popular), or tokens. Price is going to vary depending on what you want and how many you want, but tokens will pretty much always be cheapest, and are super easy to make. You're basically going to buy some label paper, and either stick it on some washers/coins/etc. and just write on it, or print a picture of, say, a zombie's face on it before sticking it on. Either way, the end result is just a cheap, simple little thing to identify a monster or player with. These can cut deeply into how much you need for your 'continuous' budget(ie. things you will need once you already have the rules, assuming you don't also buy premade scenarios).
On that front, you also have paper minis, which work much the same way. You can either buy 'em on the cheap, or just take a cool picture, trim it down in Photoshop, plant it and a few others on a sheet in Photoshop, print and cut them out. There're dozens of guides on making good ones with various mechanisms out there, and an array of character design tools to help with the task(Heromachine is a good one), just google around a bit. If working on a teeny tiny budget, these are a good way to give the 'big' stuff(PCs, boss monsters, etc.) a little more oomph than your penny-tokens.
With all that said, good luck, and happy gaming.
For miniatures, I print out little paper triangles that I weigh down with coins - I use openoffice writer or word to a 1-inch by 5inch strip with a picture (usually google image search) in the second inch and the creature's name (and number) on the third inch. Fold the fourth and fifth inch together and tape a coin inside, then wrap the first inch around under. Better explained if I had a photo. Makes it REALLY easy for my to keep track of which creature is which for HP tracking. Other people just use paper around coins, but I prefer the 3d-models.
Play with me on Steam
I have templates for Medium, Large, Huge, and Gargantuan-sized monsters.
I'll probably be getting the starter set mentioned earlier since it seems like a good, cheap way to get things rolling. I also have the mini's front covered (I've got a ton of old warhammer guys somewhere...) but I'll be looking into dice and paper monsters/tokens/markers.
Again, thanks guys! This has been super helpful.
This was the first module I ran for some freinds some of which were new to DnD and some who were not I freeformed a bit of the encounters. For instance, the caged goblin "splug" betrayed the other goblins upon his release and has been a valuable ally for my group who are now level 13. He maintains a shop for them selling loot that they find in their adventures and working out deals for them.
You'll play for five minutes and then advance to 8th level. At this point you'll have to go hang out with either a bunch of Wiccans or Shout At The Devil-era Motley Crue fans, hard to tell. Oh, you'll also gain real, actual magical spell powers, like mind control. Instead of using these abilities to make yourself a terrible GOD of dark might and awe, you'll just con your dad into buying you more D&D books.
Eventually your best friend will commit suicide (remember how the DM delcared her dead for no reason?). She got depressed because she couldn't play D&D anymore. It's hard to roll up a new character when you don't use dice, I suppose. That's when you'll want to keep a sharp eye out for the creepy, effeminate Christian. He will be your ticket to the tent revival meeting. It's here you can pretend your generally pleasant but slightly boring middle class hobby has somehow turned you into the equivalent of a ghetto heroin junkie prostitute. You'll get rid of your D&D books by attending a good old fashioned book burning, gain group approval by adhering to incredibly nonsensical norms and mores steeped in baseless magical thinking, and then spend the rest of your life desperately trying to convince yourself that something happens to you after you die besides the utter and irrevocable snuffing out of your consciousness.
Good luck.