Dungeons and Dragons

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by Pretty In Pink, Jan 29, 2017.

  1. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Bought a starter kit and tbh I'm still struggling with getting to grips with it. The guy at the shop wasn't incredibly helpful and I want to get invested in it. Does anyone have a good source for beginners? Also, any advice for a potential player?
     
  2. Southpaw535

    Southpaw535 Well-Known Member Moderator Supporter

    The only advice I can think of (not much) is to watch the Acquisitions Inc guys videos from PAX on youtube. Their DM works for the company that makes D&D and is incredibly good.

    Player wise the advice would just be let loose and flow with it. if you can think of a thing to do then you can do it, try not to think of it as a game as such and emphasise the roleplaying part.

    There's a quite a few scenarios on the internet to give you ideas for games and whatnot.
     
  3. aaradia

    aaradia Choy Li Fut and Yang Tai Chi Chuan Student Moderator Supporter

    You have a group to play with? Find a good group that meets what you want. Some groups focus on getting stuff and levels.

    But my focus was on character development. D&D is a creative process IMO- at its heart. Otherwise, just play video games.

    Find a group that is more about character development and interaction than anything else to truly get what D&D is about.

    Develop background stories for your characters. What is their history? WHY do they adventure? What are THEIR goals? Come up with their details. What is their favorite color? Do they like pets? If so, which ones? What do they like to eat? What do they hate? Do they like music? Are they well spoken or not? Do they have a phobia? How strong is it? Stuff like that!

    Think about their voice. Talk gruffly for your gruff characters. Loudly for your loud characters. I even checked out a "Acting with an accent" audio book to try to get down a better Rastafarian type accent for one character. (It was still awful- but I had fun.) Props help too. I had a big plastic axe I held when playing a particular Dwarf character. I didn't have props for every character, but when I did- it was fun.

    Then, play the character accordingly. :)


    p.s. - watch out for playing when you are cutting weight for a fight. D&D sessions are known for junk food being part of the experience.



    Can I just take this opportunity to share one of my favorite video clips?

    As a long time D&D'er this clip is funny because it is all too true about how a game can go. And the joys and tribulations of being a DM and dealing with players. This is what you are in for Chadderz!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYO1j2Vhztc
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2017
  4. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Hahaha, that's an amazing video :p
     
  5. Unreal Combat

    Unreal Combat Valued Member

    I actually love D&D. It's hard to find like minded people to play it with nowadays though.
     
  6. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Watching The acquisitions guys now! Amazing! Thank you :D
     
  7. Thomas

    Thomas Combat Hapkido/Taekwondo

    I'm a big fan of D&D... played and Dm'ed 1st edition in the 80s and recently took it back up. I loved the old system... lots of options and resources, but I feel that the current edition (5th) is very good.

    If I were starting out today, I'd recommend getting a few people together and jump in. Choose a DM and have him/her set up an adventure (or borrow one from some of the forums online). Roll up some characters and give it a whirl without worrying to much about staying strictly by the rules. Encourage good roleplaying and fun.

    As a DM, I encourage an occasional 'fudged' dice roll to further a story, but I also encourage the real sense that players can (and will) die (hopefully without it being a slaughter every time). House rules are good... if they make the experience better for everyone - I always saw the core rules as being 'flexible'.

    You can take a look at some of the forums out there for ideas and I think Wizards of the Coast has broadcast some adventures.

    Have fun
     
  8. Fish Of Doom

    Fish Of Doom Will : Mind : Motion Supporter

    Gonna look up some stuff to link your way in a bit. Welcome to the club, mate :D

    Game mechanics-wise, always remember the base mechanic of the d20 systems is the same, only the details change: There is a number that expresses the difficulty of what you're trying to do, that can be modified up or down by various factors, and you roll your d20, apply modifiers to that number if there are any, and compare it to see if you succeed or not. Everything or almost everything that requires a check works this way (sometimes it's another die, like a d100 roll, sometimes someone else rolls a die to determine the difficulty, and so on), and the modifiers can come from a lot of places, but in the end it's die roll + modifiers vs difficulty + modifiers.

    Re: finding players: rope friends and family in via your clever powers of persuasion (that would be a diplomacy, bluff or intimidate check in third edition D&D, by the way :p), find former players who might feel nostalgic about it and want to return, or (always a gamble) try to get some strangers to play with (ask/look around at the gaming store, at conventions, or at geographically-local online communities, or example).

    Oh, and Rule Zero: have fun. Different people enjoy going about their tabletop role-playing in different ways, and maybe won't enjoy other different ways, so the key to a cohesive, enjoyable group in the long term is to manage to get a combination of group and game that leaves as many boxes ticked for everyone.
     
  9. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Well you basically just condensed my rulebook down.That makes it way easier.

    Enjoying the links xD
     
  10. Tom bayley

    Tom bayley Valued Member

    As for how the rules work.

    first edition advanced d and d works a bit like the British legal system. It was not all through through at once. it evolved over time. Instead of an organised set of rules there are rules and examples that set precedents However some of the rules and some of the precedents are contradictory or conflicting. You play the game buy getting a feel for whats fair and whats not as you go along. a bit like a judge making a ruling on two conflicting points of law.

    You know when the dm is being unfair: Player "I enter the room, " DM "there are two dead bodies in this room, one of them is you".

    2nd ed is much the same as first edition. but the rules are biased towards more heroic less "realistic" type action. e.g. I aim a shot at the giants wrist to slice of his sword hand.

    3.5 ed is a change it approach. in 3.5 ed they looked at how the game had been played for 20 years and came up with a simplified, structured, set of consistent rules that do not conflict. based on the d 20 (as described by fish) Before 3.5 ed you had to play more by feel than by the rules. After 3.5 you could actually rely on the rules to generally make sense. The 3.5 ed rules were made open source - so there is a lot of 3.5 ed stuff out there.

    4th ed was an unmitigated disaster and everybody just pretends it didn't happen.

    People say good things about 5 ed. Never played it, but I here its an even more striped down version of d 20.
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2017
  11. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    My older brother was into role-playing, so I used to join in sometimes when I was a kid. Mostly I looked through the books at the artwork though.

    My two favourite quotes about role-playing are from Gary Gygax (co-creator of D&D):

    "A DM only rolls the dice because of the noise they make."

    "The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules."

    Free your minds, sheeple :p
     
  12. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Yeah a friend of mine asked me am I using the d6 or the d20 and I was like "uuummm both?" He hasn't played in like 20 something years.
     

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