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[D&D 5E] Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

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Posts

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    We roll for hp but the lowest we allow is the average, so some folks end up with a bit of extra hp but nobody has a lack.

    Also for barbs they are very much single target attackers. Throw crowds at to the party, ranged characters with cover. Things like that. Banish can be hilarious and it makes the party focus on the spell caster to get their tank back.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
  • NyhtNyht Registered User regular
    see317 wrote: »
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    I just read yesterday's PvP.... Is this simply nostalgic ball busting from PvP to PA? Or does this foreshadow Binwin coming back for a guest spot on the live Acquisitions Inc. show at PAX?

    If so, can I squee just a little bit? I think I'd like to squee.

    Looking at today's PvP, I'm feeling like it may be more of the foreshadowing a guest spot on AcqInc.

    He also guest starred on Dice Camera Action and seemed very much like he missed the old team.

  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    I just give everyone max HP, basically all the time.

    Everyone ends up being harder to kill, but I basically view that as a feature, not a bug, so ...

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    My players are probably going to get ambushed in our next game. They thwarted Greyblade, Champion of the Wererats (Gladiator with Wererat traits), but now they face the far more devious Magus of the Wererats, Spellfang (Mage with wererat traits)!

    The party is going to be at an underground tavern called Stone Circle Alehouse. After a meal and some drinks with allies (who are all unknowingly consuming a slow-acting poison called Midnight Tears), they are lured below the guest area to the basement, where swarms of diseased rats attack. After the rat swarms come a wave of wererats, with some firing from cover and others closing in to attack. Each has some Battle Master maneuvers that they can use once; maneuvering attack for the archers, and then lunging attack, tripping attack, or riposte for the melee attackers. One melee attacker coated his blade with serpent venom (+3d6 poison damage), and the ranged attackers also have a few mushrooms they can throw which burst on contact, releasing poisonous spores. To make things worse for the party, Spellfang is also forcing some boggles to help him by using their dimensional rift power to remotely add patches of sticky oil or attempt to steal some of the party's equipment. Further, if any party member is about to die the boggles work together to pull that character through a rift to them and stabilize that character (Spellfang wants to capture the party alive). The party can find a sample of Midnight Tears hidden down here after the fight, which hopefully will clue them in that they've been poisoned.

    After this battle the party returns to the upper level, where shortly thereafter a number of the Alehouse patrons reveal themselves to be jackalweres as Spellfang himself enters. The jackalweres lay down caltrops in the main hall leading to the exit (where Spellfang is) to discourage the party from going that way (though there is a longer hall nearby). If any of the jackalweres succeed in putting a PC to sleep with their gaze they attempt to drag the character to a barbecue pit in an adjacent room and throw them on the coals. Spellfang casts spells from range but tries to flee when reduced to half his maximum hit points, using the fly spell if necessary.

    If the party pursues Spellfang they are eventually set upon by a few average perytons and one elder peryton. The elder peryton is size large, can attempt to knock those she strikes with her gore attack prone, and also tries to grab a target in her claws to fly away with them, kill them, and devour their heart at her leisure (at which point she leaves, but hopefully she won't succeed). The larger elder peryton isn't as quick as a normal peryton, though, and does provoke opportunity attacks when flying.

    The combats in my first three sessions haven't seemed very challenging to my players, so I'm going to try something more intense while also giving myself some outs if it ends up being too deadly (party member is knocked unconscious instead of dieing, party member is kidnapped, someone with a few healing spells is at the Alehouse, etc). If the wererats defeat the party, though, I'm totally having them turned into wererats under a supernatural compulsion from their leader, who they must escape from before setting out to find a cure for their lycanthropy.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
    joshgotro wrote: »
    Main group finally sat down to start Lost Mine of Phandelver. Goblin Ambush went fine. The snare and pit trap both triggered but heroics kept them moving.
    When they got to the Goblin Blind, both bards were singing and playing music, so I doubled the amount of goblins and ran them using the hide and disengage heavily. The group still made short work of them.
    Inside Cragmaw Hideout, they slay the wolves, the halfling, with the help from our half-orc fighter goes up the shaft in the kennel room. Halfling wants to attack the huge monster (bugbear) once he gets to the top of the shaft. Ultimately decided against it.
    Once back down with the party the halfling and the half-orc, who've become close on this excursion, try and scale the rubble to the living quarters. Of course the half-orc is too heavy so the floor gives way but the halfling swiftly saves on his Dex and makes it to the top of the tunnel.
    Alone in the dark with no way to see what's going on around him, the halfling stops moving to scout while the party moves forward.
    The party fails to be quiet moving up the passage along the stream, the goblin on the bridge sees them, calls for the flood water, everyone saves except the cleric. Cleric goes down from the concussive force of the water while also letting Illmater take the wheel to save him.
    Cleric gets washed out of Cragmaw, is stabilized then healed but immediately has a crisis of faith, renounces Illmater, throws away his holy accoutrements, and we end the session because of time with this dwarf broken on the banks of the stream.

    This party didn't get much done but it included two completely new people to the group so it was fun watching them figure each other at the table. The player of the cleric is deadset on keeping to his crisis of faith because he thought it would be fun to RP.

    Session one in the spoiler.

    Inside Cragmaw Hideout, the party is spilt three ways. I have a half elf Bard stuck just before the goblin quarters section by himself. The dwarf barbarian moving towards the filling pools solo. The other three adventures at the mouth of the hideout stabilizing their downed cleric.

    I'm upgraded Yeemik to Goblin Boss and I'm excited to see what happens with the adventurers when Yeemik starts calling for mercy. The dwarf barbarian is definitely going to die if he makes it to Klarg. Pumped for tonight's session.

  • ToxTox I kill threads he/himRegistered User regular
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    I just give everyone max HP, basically all the time.

    Everyone ends up being harder to kill, but I basically view that as a feature, not a bug, so ...

    Yeah if you prefer a more 4e style play where PCs are a little harder to kill, going max HP is an easy call.

    Twitter! | Dilige, et quod vis fac
  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    Tox wrote: »
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    I just give everyone max HP, basically all the time.

    Everyone ends up being harder to kill, but I basically view that as a feature, not a bug, so ...

    Yeah if you prefer a more 4e style play where PCs are a little harder to kill, going max HP is an easy call.

    Giving everyone max HP is just providing a false sense of security for when you double the number of monsters you throw at them.

  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    Tox wrote: »
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    I just give everyone max HP, basically all the time.

    Everyone ends up being harder to kill, but I basically view that as a feature, not a bug, so ...

    Yeah if you prefer a more 4e style play where PCs are a little harder to kill, going max HP is an easy call.

    How much HP you have doesn't matter if you fail against a "save or die" effect. :rotate:

  • KhildithKhildith Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    Due to a really weird scheduling thing I'm looking at running back to back Storm King's Thunder sessions! Wish me luck!

    I expect the first day to go really well and then the second day to be stressful as hell because I'll have no prep time!

    Edit: Good news! We worked it out and someone else is running today's game. I'm just running Monday!

    Khildith on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    So I'm planning a number of secret jackalwere NPCs for my next session. Here are their cover stories:

    - A wizard who won't even cast a cantrip for you, so don't ask.
    - A warrior chosen by the Raven Queen who has died and been resurrected three times.
    - A bookseller who claims the previous person is pretending to be the main character of a book stolen from his shop.
    - A server who claims to be an exiled princess on the run from the agents of an enemy nation backed by the Prince of Frost, an evil archfey who defied the Prince of Hearts' plan to bless her wedding, and has since learned she is the avatar of the goddess of war whose happy wedding would have ended all war forever and allowed her to retrieve the Final Weapon from the core of the Moon to defeat the Apocalypse Dragon and save the world for all time, but now must find a method to regain godhood in a different way so that the Apocalypse Dragon can be destroyed and the War of Endless Night, which would see the Negative Energy Plane's power flood out of the Wells of Darkness in the Abyss to inundate the multiverse in the entropic power of True Death, can be averted. If the PC she tells all this to doesn't believe her she stabs the character with a dagger coated with paralyzing poison and pushes them into a hot coal pit. She had a simpler persona planned but decided she would rather try something more outrageous just to see what she could get away with.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    I just read yesterday's PvP.... Is this simply nostalgic ball busting from PvP to PA? Or does this foreshadow Binwin coming back for a guest spot on the live Acquisitions Inc. show at PAX?

    If so, can I squee just a little bit? I think I'd like to squee.

    Alas, Twitter has informed me that there was no Binwin… Instead it was Strix in the 4th chair, which is pretty cool too. Holly is great.

  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    I just read yesterday's PvP.... Is this simply nostalgic ball busting from PvP to PA? Or does this foreshadow Binwin coming back for a guest spot on the live Acquisitions Inc. show at PAX?

    If so, can I squee just a little bit? I think I'd like to squee.

    Alas, Twitter has informed me that there was no Binwin… Instead it was Strix in the 4th chair, which is pretty cool too. Holly is great.

    He hasn't participated in a while i thought, and Strix was there for a couple of them already too.

    steam_sig.png
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    I just read yesterday's PvP.... Is this simply nostalgic ball busting from PvP to PA? Or does this foreshadow Binwin coming back for a guest spot on the live Acquisitions Inc. show at PAX?

    If so, can I squee just a little bit? I think I'd like to squee.

    Alas, Twitter has informed me that there was no Binwin… Instead it was Strix in the 4th chair, which is pretty cool too. Holly is great.

    Caught the game on Twitch, it's well worth a watch.
    Note to self: If Jarlaxle ever shows up in a game, leave his pockets alone.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    I'll get to it soon enough...

    I'm working on DCA now, before switching back to the C-Team's final arc before the Waffles Inc Crossover!

  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    I was just told our shop will be getting these for the holiday season and I found a reason to buy physical books real quick
    bsdl5zf43c10.png

  • anoffdayanoffday To be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it. Registered User regular
    Hey guys, new to this side of the forum (pretty much exclusive to G&T) and wanting to get into tabletop gaming, and more specifically right now D&D. It's something that I've always been interested in and decided to, at least for now, start the process of learning the game. I downloaded the two pdf files from the official website. I'll print them off tomorrow at work since they're pretty huge, but I'm just wondering what else I should do or look into to get started? I have a friend who is interested as well so I figure we'll learn it together, but is it something that we could play by ourselves or should we get more people? Should we look for groups in person or is online a thing you guys do? Can anyone recommend any good resources? Are the two pdf files enough to get me started or should I purchase that 20 dollar starter pack?

    Pretty lost right now so any advice you guys can give me would be appreciated. Also, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask. I looked around, but didn't see any specific threads devoted to new people, questions, etc.

    Steam: offday
  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    anoffday wrote: »
    Hey guys, new to this side of the forum (pretty much exclusive to G&T) and wanting to get into tabletop gaming, and more specifically right now D&D. It's something that I've always been interested in and decided to, at least for now, start the process of learning the game. I downloaded the two pdf files from the official website. I'll print them off tomorrow at work since they're pretty huge, but I'm just wondering what else I should do or look into to get started? I have a friend who is interested as well so I figure we'll learn it together, but is it something that we could play by ourselves or should we get more people? Should we look for groups in person or is online a thing you guys do? Can anyone recommend any good resources? Are the two pdf files enough to get me started or should I purchase that 20 dollar starter pack?

    Pretty lost right now so any advice you guys can give me would be appreciated. Also, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask. I looked around, but didn't see any specific threads devoted to new people, questions, etc.

    The way i got started if by getting the pdf, reading it, then finding a group to play with locally on meetup.com. they were at a game store and willing to work with new players

    steam_sig.png
  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    The store I work at does Adventurer's League. It's like the organized play version of D&D. They have premade story modules from wizards and a few specific rules for character creation that run in seasons but are pretty fine for drop in / drop out play and at least at my local it's very new player friendly. It feels like there's new people every week.

    My understanding is the idea was that people would come and do this till they clicked with others and went off to make their own group outside of the store, but it's kind of failed at that because those people just keep coming to adventurers' league

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Adventurers League is a decent way to get mechanical experience with the game starting out. It'll expose you to all the various parts of gameplay without you having to handle running the game right from the jump.

  • KhildithKhildith Registered User regular
    My party survived Chapter 2 of Storm King's Thunder yesterday! We played for about seven hours and the party had a very successful session, overall!

    SKT Spoilers, but only Chapter 2 - also long
    We skipped Chapter 1 because we had already played a few sessions before I decided to run SKT, but the party has been based out of Triboar for five sessions or thereabouts, so the Attack on Triboar was the natural choice for our chapter 2 location and our real start in SKT.

    The enemies for those unfamiliar:
    6x Axe Beaks CR 1/4
    6x Orcs CR 1/2
    12x Magmin CR 1/2
    6x Orogs CR 2
    2x Fire Giants CR 9

    I was worried about running this combat because its larger than anything I've run before, plus there are so many moving parts! 32 enemies, 4 non party allies, 4 party members, running mounted combat for the first time, plus needing to keep track of rounds because there is a ticking clock aspect to the fight!

    I realized quickly that running this combat on the Triboar town map was going to be impossible, the sheer number of combatants plus not having an easy way to measure distance made that seem like a recipe for disaster. Luckily I found a couple of cheap maps on dmsguild that I could easily buy and set up on Roll20 instead.

    I tried something new this time and opened the session with a series of vignettes setting up where each of the NPCs the party would be controlling were at and what they were doing. It added about two minutes to my recap and opening talk but I think it helped remind the players who each of these NPCs were so they would hesitate to sacrifice their lives. The book said to tell them beforehand that every surviving NPC would give a special quest but I didn't really like the sound of that. It almost felt like a punishment for not keeping them safe. I'd rather the players want the NPCs to live because they were fond of them.

    The Fire Giant's goals are clear so I figured they would order roughly half their forces to raze the town and engage defenders, while the other half would wait a few rounds and head for the campground to dig up the artifact. Luckily one of my players can understand giant so I had the female giant bellow orders to that effect. The party took the bait and raced to intercept the enemies before they could slaughter too many innocent people, and let the Fire Giants set up at the campground.

    The first fight went about as I expected, one of the NPCs almost died, the players took some damage and used some resources, but it was mainly normal Orcs and Axebeaks and the party was never in any real danger. I thought they were going to be mega-screwed in the second fight though! Instead the players realized what the Giants were up to and came up with a pretty good plan that involved funneling the giant's defenders into a choke point and dropping Hunger of Hadar. They used buildings as cover and the HoH orb of blackness to avoid the Orog's using their aggressive trait to close the gap and mainly did their damage through ranged attacks.

    21 rounds after the battle first began the Fire Giants managed to unearth their artifact, ordered any survivors to meet up at their rally point, and retreated. Only the two fire giants, two magmin, a single axebeak, a single orc, and a single orog survived.

    If I had to run it again I actually think I would make it more dangerous. I think I overestimated the action economy of the enemies and they generally started too far away from the party.

    I wish I had placed an Orog in the first battle who would be issuing orders so I could justify the Orcs fighting in a more tactical way. So far I've been playing normal orcs as bloodthirsty and straight forward, they don't generally take the most optimal action, unless that happens to be a screaming charge with a greataxe.

    The second combat should have been much harder, but honestly I'm not sure how I could have done that without really screwing them over if they messed up even one thing. The math says it should have been deadly on its own, but the party came up with a solid, workable, and adaptable plan on the fly and executed it well, so I guess I should just be happy that they thought tactically and rolled well!

    In the end I only kept the bones of the NPC quest hooks, I adapted them heavily based on what I think my party would find most fun, but I'm excited for the open ended free roaming portion of SKT in chapter 3! First up: the party wants to spend their money so they're headed to Waterdeep with a couple detours along the way.

  • JustTeeJustTee Registered User regular
    anoffday wrote: »
    Hey guys, new to this side of the forum (pretty much exclusive to G&T) and wanting to get into tabletop gaming, and more specifically right now D&D. It's something that I've always been interested in and decided to, at least for now, start the process of learning the game. I downloaded the two pdf files from the official website. I'll print them off tomorrow at work since they're pretty huge, but I'm just wondering what else I should do or look into to get started? I have a friend who is interested as well so I figure we'll learn it together, but is it something that we could play by ourselves or should we get more people? Should we look for groups in person or is online a thing you guys do? Can anyone recommend any good resources? Are the two pdf files enough to get me started or should I purchase that 20 dollar starter pack?

    Pretty lost right now so any advice you guys can give me would be appreciated. Also, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask. I looked around, but didn't see any specific threads devoted to new people, questions, etc.

    Learning what the game looks like (sometimes, at some tables, possibly)
    A good place to *maybe* start is to watch some of the big name streamed games. They can give you a taste of how different DM styles can lead to different games, and can show you how to balance between the story telling aspect of D&D and the mechanical. I know that I try to take elements from each game when I DM, and I try to emulate various bits of style from the players when I get the rare chance to play. The big names are:

    Dice, Camera, Action - This is a game run by Chris Perkins (a big name at the company that makes D&D), played over VOIP with 4 players. It's got a darker / messed up tone where horrible things consistently happen to the Waffle Crew (the name of the players' group). Perkins does a great job of balancing set piece description with motivating players to action. He also shows how you don't have to be a stickler about numbers / rules, and often shows incredible ability to adapt to crazy player antics. Players here are good, though I haven't watched enough episodes to really comment much more than "I like it".

    The C Team - This is a game run by Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins, and is my personal favorite streamed game to watch. Jerry has a funny way with words, but I like the players at this table the best, and the group dynamic is fun to watch. This is the game that actually convinced me to stop trying to make digital maps for my Roll20 game, and instead run it Theater of the Mind (descriptions only, no physical maps/minis/tokens). It can be a bit harder to get your head around things initially, but honestly it allows for much more adaptation and going with the flow, I find, when playing in a game online.

    Acquisitions Inc. - One of the longest running online streamed games that I know of, but this is also run by Chris Perkins. Jerry and Mike from PA play in it, as well as Patrick Rothfuss of Name of the Wind fame. They have a rotating 4th player at the moment.

    Critical Role - Probably(?) the most popular streamed game at the moment. Run by Mathew Mercer and crewed by a huge cast of voice actors. This is easily the biggest, most raucous, crazy game out there. The players are all incredible actors in their own right, and they bring a ton to the table. I think Mercer is a bit...verbose...at times, and I have a hard time watching him actually run the game, as I find he makes rulings I don't agree with all the time. However, in terms of acting, world building, NPC running, player authorship, I think this game is second to none. They're on season 2 now, but the first season is over a hundred episodes of 3 hours each, so if you like the crew, you will find essentially infinity content to watch. This is the game that convinced many of my friends to attempt to play D&D in the first place.

    Getting a game going:
    As for attempting to actually play, I'll give some things that worked for me:
    First:
    Try to find friends that are also willing to play. To this day, the group that stayed the most consistent for me is a group I got together by simply posting on Facebook "I'd like to learn to play D&D and run a game, who's in!?" The players that we were able to schedule a consistent time with are the same group I play with weekly today. You'll find that the biggest obstacle to playing a TTRPG as an adult is scheduling. If you're younger, you might have other obstacles, but at 33, I've found the hardest part about playing consistently is the Calendar.

    Second:
    Try to find a group that's playing on Roll20. There are games posted there all the time, with proposed schedules and other things. You can usually/sometimes find the game system you're interested in and a time that works for you. You can also look at Reddit Looking for Group threads, though I'd heavily vet folks there before playing with them.

    Third:
    If you have a Friendly Local Game Store near you, you can check to see if they run any adventure league nights. Again, I'd hesitate to recommend playing with strangers out of the blue if you folks are brand new to the hobby, but it's often worth going and checking out, just to see if you click with anyone there.

    Some other tips for getting a game together:
    - Figure out who is going to GM. If neither you nor your friend want to learn, it *might* be a bit tougher. If one of you is interested in running a game, it'll be easier, as you'll just need to pick up a few like minded individuals.
    - You can absolutely pick up the Lost Mines of Phandelver *if and only if* you are planning on running a game. Be forewarned, though, that LMoP does not really hold your hand as a new GM, and be prepared to just straight up wing it sometimes.
    - You don't need to buy anything more to play. I would say, watch some of the games I mentioned above, and any time anything mechanical happens (aka, whenever dice are rolled), using the PDFs you printed, see if you can figure out why they rolled the dice, and how they got the numbers they did. If you can't, google it!

    Learning to be a good player:
    Watch the games above, and watch how players allow others to interject, but to also bring ideas to the table of who the character they're playing is. Watch YouTube videos on player etiquette. But most importantly:
    Whenever you sit down at a table to play with new folks, talk to them about what's ok, what's verbotim, and what they're looking to get out of the experience. If you're not OK with the table's rules, or the table isn't ok with yours, that's *OK*. Be willing to walk away. Nobody should ever be uncomfortable just to play a game, so always be willing to say "Thanks, but no thanks". 99% of problems that arise at tables come from some kind of mismanagement of expectations. Most of the time, every "mistake" at the table can be forgiven if you're willing to talk it through, as long as everyone at the table is on the same page in terms of requirements.

    Learning to GM:
    This is a huge topic. If you or your friend want to learn, DM me, and I'll give you a bunch of resources to check out. The actual DMing portion is pretty easy. Being good at it is a skill that takes time to develop.


    Hope that helps! If you have any other questions, feel free to DM me. I've only been playing for about a year and a half or so, so a lot of the new player/DM pitfalls are still fresh in my mind, so I'm happy to help you figure out how to start your journey. Good luck! :)

    Diagnosed with AML on 6/1/12. Read about it: www.effleukemia.com
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    Critical Role also has its setting published in a hardcover.

    915ijyVFI6L.jpg

  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    it's a pretty great setting

  • DenadaDenada Registered User regular
    anoffday wrote: »
    Hey guys, new to this side of the forum (pretty much exclusive to G&T) and wanting to get into tabletop gaming, and more specifically right now D&D. It's something that I've always been interested in and decided to, at least for now, start the process of learning the game. I downloaded the two pdf files from the official website. I'll print them off tomorrow at work since they're pretty huge, but I'm just wondering what else I should do or look into to get started? I have a friend who is interested as well so I figure we'll learn it together, but is it something that we could play by ourselves or should we get more people? Should we look for groups in person or is online a thing you guys do? Can anyone recommend any good resources? Are the two pdf files enough to get me started or should I purchase that 20 dollar starter pack?

    Pretty lost right now so any advice you guys can give me would be appreciated. Also, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask. I looked around, but didn't see any specific threads devoted to new people, questions, etc.

    This is absolutely the right place to come for this kind of thing! A bunch of us complain about D&D in general and 5E specifically, but just ignore that. I rag on 5E pretty hard but I'm running it at home and I thoroughly enjoy it.

    Anyway, starting up for the first time. My advice is this: read through those starter PDFs, download the set of pre-generated character, have your buddy pick one, and then throw that character into a room with a few low-level zombies or something. Just run a few rounds of combat to get in the habit of rolling d20s, checking modifiers, comparing that to numbers; basically the core of what you'll be doing every session.

    Then when you've rolled some dice and killed some monsters, ask your friend some fun questions. How did they end up in this room with these zombies? Where did the zombies come from? Are they getting paid for this? Who's paying them? Fill in the blanks together and make up a story.

    If you get through that, you've just played D&D! If it was fun, grab the Starter Box and a few more friends if you can (4 players + one DM is what 5E expects, but you can play with more or less) and play some more.

    My cardinal rule for 5E (and indeed this is the design philosophy of this edition): just make it up. Don't worry about sticking too close to the rules as they're written. If something would be cool but it isn't exactly how it's supposed to work in the book, who cares. Just make it up. All of the successful streams do this constantly. Adventure Zone, Critical Role, Acquisitions Inc, C Team, Dice Camera Action, Drunks & Dragons, they all constantly ignore the rules in favor of just playing the game and having fun.

    And lastly, absolutely come back here and ask questions, bounce ideas off us, tell us how your session went, etc. It's fun to talk about this stuff.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    That right there is some stellar advice!

  • SchadenfreudeSchadenfreude Mean Mister Mustard Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    Adventurers League is a decent way to get mechanical experience with the game starting out. It'll expose you to all the various parts of gameplay without you having to handle running the game right from the jump.

    Those new Season 8 rules though.

    Oof >_<

    Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    What’s oofy about them?

  • evilthecatevilthecat Registered User regular
    Denada wrote: »
    My cardinal rule for 5E (and indeed this is the design philosophy of this edition): just make it up. Don't worry about sticking too close to the rules as they're written. If something would be cool but it isn't exactly how it's supposed to work in the book, who cares. Just make it up. All of the successful streams do this constantly. Adventure Zone, Critical Role, Acquisitions Inc, C Team, Dice Camera Action, Drunks & Dragons, they all constantly ignore the rules in favor of just playing the game and having fun.

    And lastly, absolutely come back here and ask questions, bounce ideas off us, tell us how your session went, etc. It's fun to talk about this stuff.

    I disagree with this for many reasons, but to keep it short and use an extreme example: just look at Pat Rothfuss.
    It's incredibly boring having him at the table.

    tip.. tip.. TALLY.. HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
    @initiatefailure which part of the world are you in?

  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    joshgotro wrote: »
    @initiatefailure which part of the world are you in?

    United States. I don't know what their distribution is like on those special editions but that's listed on their site as a "hobby store exclusive" version of the gift set of the core books that's having a general release in November. So in theory, a local game shop near you should have some. Also I saw miniature market has a webpage sett up with preorders not yet open

  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Yeah, I'm just doing Adventurer's league right now, and it's fine for me

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    evilthecat wrote: »
    Denada wrote: »
    My cardinal rule for 5E (and indeed this is the design philosophy of this edition): just make it up. Don't worry about sticking too close to the rules as they're written. If something would be cool but it isn't exactly how it's supposed to work in the book, who cares. Just make it up. All of the successful streams do this constantly. Adventure Zone, Critical Role, Acquisitions Inc, C Team, Dice Camera Action, Drunks & Dragons, they all constantly ignore the rules in favor of just playing the game and having fun.

    And lastly, absolutely come back here and ask questions, bounce ideas off us, tell us how your session went, etc. It's fun to talk about this stuff.

    I disagree with this for many reasons, but to keep it short and use an extreme example: just look at Pat Rothfuss.
    It's incredibly boring having him at the table.

    I mean, it's all personal preferences of course, but watching him try to weasel his way into being allowed a sneak attack is entertaining to me.
    Or, when he tries to pull some of his Patrick Rothfuss BS and winds up paying the price for it.

    Spoilers for the most recent PAX Acq Inc game.
    ...And 60 points of poison damage
    16 points?
    No. Six. Zero. points of poison damage
    But, that's all personal preference. Some people like straight up by the book, rules as written. Some people like more flexibility to move the story along.
    The hard part is figuring out which works at your table to insure the greatest number of people are having fun.

  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
  • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    I am real bothered by people asking for modifiers and rule bending. Too often with my specific group it becomes awkward where everyone wants to say no but feels manipulated not to be impolite.

    sig.gif
  • anoffdayanoffday To be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it. Registered User regular
    Thanks for the tips guys! I'll probably start watching some stuff and hopefully have some time this weekend to dig into the rules.

    @joshgotro I'm in the US.

    Steam: offday
  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
    edited September 2018
    anoffday wrote: »
    Thanks for the tips guys! I'll probably start watching some stuff and hopefully have some time this weekend to dig into the rules.

    @joshgotro I'm in the US.

    I'm sure if you're close to another forumer, you could sit in on their game.

    As fun as the Critical Roles and AcqIncs are they are not indicative of any table I've sat at.

    joshgotro on
  • SchadenfreudeSchadenfreude Mean Mister Mustard Registered User regular
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    What’s oofy about them?

    Mostly how treasure is now handled. (As of Aug 31st) You no longer get any gold in the course of your adventure. Any treasures you find you don't get to keep. You now earn a set (paltry) sum on level up. You can cash in your Treasure Points (Another new system) for gold, but good luck ever casting spells with expensive components or filling up your wizard's spellbook, and now that adventurers are effectively salaried there's little point in searching those potentially trapped chests or victims pockets.

    Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    edited September 2018
    joshgotro wrote: »
    anoffday wrote: »
    Thanks for the tips guys! I'll probably start watching some stuff and hopefully have some time this weekend to dig into the rules.

    @joshgotro I'm in the US.

    I'm sure if you're close to another forumer, you could sit in on their game.

    As fun as the Critical Roles and AcqIncs are they are not indicative of any table I've sat at.

    Yeah, me too. But I'd give someone else's left nut to have that caliber of player buy-in and interaction with the story. And I'm not even talking about the quality of role play. I don't care if a player is good at it or not. But the level of enthusiasm and participation Mercer and Perkins and Holkins gets is amazing!!

    Steelhawk on
  • anoffdayanoffday To be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it. Registered User regular
    Is playing online a good or bad place to start? Seems simple enough, but not as social.

    Steam: offday
  • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    its pretty different

    a lot of in person stuff is very "beer and pretzels" and a lot of online stuff is very not

    sig.gif
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