D&D:A Rogues Beginning

[RogueTaylor]

I have been toying around with the idea of this game for a while now. I have never played it before and am really looking to get into it. I have listened to a lot of podcasts on this and have been doing a good amount of research into the subject on how to play it and the rules of the game itself. I come before you all today to see if anyone here is able to give advice on the game and for any that are interested in playing this.

First things. The rules and the player handbook. I have a very good idea now on how this game work from the d20 rolls to how combat works, I know that home brew is always a possibility so certain rules can be changed depending on the DM. I am also looking into reading the DM guide book since I am thinking of running a whole campaign myself. If there is anyone out there who has played or ran there own game I would love to hear your thoughts on it and any good general tips for playing and running the game.

I have invested a good amount of time Into learning this game and have learned a lot about it from podcasts like “Critical role”and “Dungeons and Randomness”. Over all I couldn’t tell you how many hours I have spend listening to there games while working. I found this to be a great way to pick up on rules and a good idea of how to play it. It’s also a great way to get ideas for my own game when I get to that stage.

Now to players, this game can be ran with many players but I feel a nice number to get started with is around 6-8 people, if less are interested then a game can still be awesome with only 4 people. I want to see who is interested in possibly joining me for my first campaign. I would be looking to running a game that would run on a night of a week and hopefully do it each week. Right now I can’t say what day as I would need to see who is Interested and when they are free to play. This is open to new and existing players of D&D, you can either come and learn the game with me and forge a world or help me out by helping other players in the game who are not so experienced with the game.

To play D&D I would love to be able to do at home but this isn’t really a viable solution so I have been looking at ways to play it online. The main two that I have been looking into are the services of “Roll20” and “Fantasy Grounds”. Each one of these are either a subscription or a bigger payout for a life time purchase. I am more then happy to look at buying this and don’t worry players won’t have to pay anything to be able to play if I am the DM. One of the main reasons I am writing this now is that the Fantasy ground have a funded Kickstarter to upgrade to the unity engine and i back the Kickstarter then I am able to get it cheeper. The cost of this will be something around £180 to be able to get DM access to the game and to be able to buy all the content on there to run a good D&D game in 5E. If anyone has used any of these services then I would love to hear what you think of these and if they are worth it in your opinion.

I really appreciate anyone who has read all of this and I thank you! I look forward to seeing who is Interested, has experience or just any tips on D&D.

Thanks again
Rogue.

[BrotherTobious]

Speak to Sulky as he ran one for us once if that helps.

[Gorion]

I use D&D Beyond for digital content and character creation.  Me and the missus play in a couple of campaigns locally and the character creator is a gem.  The catch is that you need to buy the digital content for the features in specific books/adventures to be available in the creator.  If you want to play around with the creator send me a pm and I can send you a link so you can experiment.  Unlocking content also means that you can see items, spells and other stuff via their search engine, and the mobile app.

Player amounts: more than 5 is hard to deal with, both RP wise since people generally want to talk with NPC's or try to solve puzzles, and during combat since the more players you add, the longer combat rounds last.  It might also be hard to balance encounters.

I recall playing a couple of online sessions way back with the community, I'm sure DrunkenZombie was one of the other players, but I don't remember all the names.  I don't recall what program we used, perhaps someone from those sessions can remember?

If you want help/advice on rules or whatever, I've been into D&D for quite a while.  If you want to give DMing a shot, I suggest to go for a ready made adventure, there are starters like Mines of Phandelver and Forge of Fury which are on the short side and will let you dip your toes safely.  There are other adventures which are larger in scale, such as Storm King's Thunder, but if you want to go there, start with a smaller adventure then continue from there.

https://www.dmsguild.com have free homebrew stuff which is decent.  There is also https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/ which have loads of information.
https://dnd5e.fandom.com/wiki/D%26D_5th_Edition_Wikia used to be good, however Fandom purchased D&D Beyond, and since they are now the official digital rights holders for D&D; they have removed most of the content from the wiki.

As for playing in your game, I'm interested and the missus will probably be as well.  However we're currently stuck without the possibility of using a microphone.

[SithAfrikaan]

I've told you many times I can't wait for it Rogue, and well done on a nice post about it bro. Can't wait to hit them critical rolls with ya'll.

[sulky_uk]

Speak to Sulky as he ran one for us once if that helps.

more than willing to chat at the lan :-)

[RogueTaylor]

@Gorion

Thanks ever so much for all that Gorion, it means a lot that you would spend time to write all that up for me. I have looked into D&D beyond and loved the way it worked and how easy the app was, my only thing being with the site is that it would be imagination based combat. This is the main reason why I looked at Roll20 and Fantasy grounds so that I can use them for map buildings and character building as well.

I get what you mean about keeping the numbers to around 5, there is always a chance where you have a 3 hour session of just simply taking to NPCs, shopping and exploring a new town/city. I know that this is a possibility and I will have to judge how people feel about these possible sessions when we get to them. I will be worried about how people feel during this campaign and If everyone isn’t having fun then I will know thing need to change. Encounters are a difficult thing I think and I am sure this will become very apparent when I get into the first set of combat that will either be super easy or really hard to do, I have a few ideas on how things like this can be tweaked but I do get where you are coming from. Some people don’t want a 3 hour session of a single fight, unless it’s the last boss.

I do own a starter module which I am thinking of running with a few other new people to get an idea. I have read over a lot of it and seen what the game expects and how to do things in it. I will still be looking at giving this ago tho since I own it. I believe it’s Mines of Phandelver that I own.

Thanks for them links I will be looking in to each of them! That’s also very nice to hear that you are interested in possibly playing with my noob campaign ! Thanks again Gorion

[RogueTaylor]

more than willing to chat at the lan :-)

Thanks sulky, if you are free some time I would love to hear your thoughts and advice

[Gorion]

@Gorion

Thanks ever so much for all that Gorion, it means a lot that you would spend time to write all that up for me. I have looked into D&D beyond and loved the way it worked and how easy the app was, my only thing being with the site is that it would be imagination based combat. This is the main reason why I looked at Roll20 and Fantasy grounds so that I can use them for map buildings and character building as well.

I get what you mean about keeping the numbers to around 5, there is always a chance where you have a 3 hour session of just simply taking to NPCs, shopping and exploring a new town/city. I know that this is a possibility and I will have to judge how people feel about these possible sessions when we get to them. I will be worried about how people feel during this campaign and If everyone isn’t having fun then I will know thing need to change. Encounters are a difficult thing I think and I am sure this will become very apparent when I get into the first set of combat that will either be super easy or really hard to do, I have a few ideas on how things like this can be tweaked but I do get where you are coming from. Some people don’t want a 3 hour session of a single fight, unless it’s the last boss.

I do own a starter module which I am thinking of running with a few other new people to get an idea. I have read over a lot of it and seen what the game expects and how to do things in it. I will still be looking at giving this ago tho since I own it. I believe it’s Mines of Phandelver that I own.

Thanks for them links I will be looking in to each of them! That’s also very nice to hear that you are interested in possibly playing with my noob campaign ! Thanks again Gorion

No worries mate.  I would use Beyond as a compendium and character/equipment/spell sheet management, and something else for the maps, movement and rolls.  
You can technically use a digital map, and uncover parts of it when the players explore.  I'm sure there's programs out there which are able to do this.

[smilodon]

I know almost nothing about D&D but am absolutely in. It's something I've always wanted to try out. If it becomes a thing I am sure we can set something up on the forums

[Gortex]

I love D&D but not played a great deal. Really up for this and have some advice which will share over a pint tomorrow night.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[RogueTaylor]

Huzzah! This is a quick update on my progress for my D&D adventure.

First thing that has happened today with help from sith, I have brought what I feel we will need to be able to play out first campaign. I now own my ultimate license for fantasy grounds, this means I have the ability to run games on this while the people who join me don’t have to pay a thing to play, all you need to do is download the free version on steam. I have the books I feel is required for this game and the rule books needed. On here I should be able to share these with you lot so that you can then see rules for yourself as well as anything you might want to learn.

As I have stayed before to start the campaign off I have got the “Mines of Phandelver” this will be the first thing we will play together so that we get can learn the rules and so I can get an idea of how each person wants to play this game and there style. When we have completed this I will be giving the group a decision to either keep going on with the characters they have made and at the same level as we finish the module or we can look at starting again we new characters but it will all be done in my own world. Either way I will be looking at moving on to my own world after the campaign.

Next is what I would like and expect from my players who would like to join me for this game. First off ...well is quiet simply respect, this is a game that I want us all to have fun in but there will be time where thing slight go a bit wrong or I would ask for a bit of quiet while I deal with another person or dish out some lore. I doubt I will have any trouble from this community but I wanted to put this as something I will expect. Second thing is timings, for a session of this game I am going to be looking to do around 3 hour sessions. This time might change depending of what’s happening in the session or if these are simply too long for people. So I have attached a survey for people to fill out for those who are interested in playing, simply put your name down and the nights that you know you will be able to make. I don’t expect you to be Able to make every single one ( for example if you put you are free Fridays then I don’t expect you to be there every Friday) but I need you to be there for most of them so we can keep the game going. If people can’t make sessions then we will have to either look at doing another type of session or myself/another player will have to play your character in a very limited way while the person is off. Please only do the survey if you would like to look at playing this campaign

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KP68BTJ

Thanks a lot guys and gals, any question please ask away. Thanks for everyone who reads this and those who take part in the survey.

Rogue

[RogueTaylor]

Ignore last survey but please do this one https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KP68BTJ

Sorry about that

[Chaosphere]

I can't get involved due to my unpredictable work schedule, but hope this goes well. Let us know if we can do anything to support you with it!

[smilodon]

Survey completed. Seriously looking forward to this.

[sulky_uk]

survey carried out