Dungeons and Dragons. Starting up.

[LordPsychodin]

Just to toss this in - Don't worry about alignment, as I'll let you in on a secret - It does nothing. In fact, this is one of the few things I think was embarrassing for previous editions as to just how absolutely ridiculous alignment has always been and a poor measure of anything but what monsters will probably get damaged by via certain alignment related spells and weapons. Players should have their characters act within reason to the personalities they want them to have, and not worry about what two letter tag is on their character sheet since nobody can actually see it, spells that detect it doesn't allow you to act on it really, and given players dictate their character alignment via actions, is probably rapidly changing and would get changed on a bi weekly basis knowing most players.

 

[mare84]

hey, JMeganSnow, (And anyone else trying this) *how* does 4th edition exactly hinder roleplaying in any shape or form exactly?

Unfortunately I agree with JMeganSnow. When I was playing 4th ed, my role playing really wasn't that important. I mostly blame skill challenges, they feel mechanical, there is to much dice throwing in 4th ed. They put too much stuff in a short time, it can get very confusing for a beginner. From what I saw playing it, battles are most important in 4th ed. They are very tactical I'll give that. But you can't do anything outrageous in combat, like throw a rock at some pesky wizard, because he doesn't have 4-6 hp now he has more than 15, so there is no point in rock throwing...

I won't say 4th ed is bad, it's very good, tactical, and very user friendly with all those official character builders and monster generators and stuff...
I just liked previous versions more in all their unbalanced glory!

After 10 years of playing different settings I am now glued to World Of Darkness, which is just awesome. It is simple, has only one rulebook, you just need d10 dice, and role playing is the most important thing there.
Oh yeah it doesn't have those silly alignments!

Olikunmissile, if a setting is not important for you and your friends try WoD, you'll have a bit more work as a DM, but it is easier and so worth it.

 

[Tallim]

Just rememebr, roll for traps.

And roll when there aren't any. In fact roll every so often for no reason. Keeps the players on their toes.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Just chiming in to say that outside of a couple special sessions I've ran having 7-8 players would threaten to give me a logistical headache.

 

[Iron Mal]

A couple of friends have begun to show interest in starting up a game of D&D. There are atleast 7 or 8 of us. Now, none of us have ever played it and we don't know anyone in the area that does. No one has any materials but we can just buy that later. I've just got a couple of questions for anyone experienced in running the game.

We're not typical gamers and I think a number of the potential players would be a little too embarrassed to role play a character, any way of getting them out of their shells a little?

I think I'd be the one who has to be dungeon master, is it as much fun as being a character?

Is the actual game hard to get to grips with?

Any and all information would be wonderful.

Oh also what should we buy, material wise?

I'll admit my experience with DnD is actually pretty limited but the first thing I would say is with 7 or 8 people you should expect the game to drag on for a long time while everyone takes their turn (we had about 5 or 6 in our group and even that took longer than it should have), what I'm saying here is that it's important to have patience and possibly even to have something for inactive players to do on the side.

As for getting players to start roleplaying, the best idea is to have them start with just whatever idea for a character they feel comfortable with.

If that's a heavily cliche'd stereotype, fine.

If it's just themselves inserted into the world, great. Whatever works for them.

Being an actual players is pretty fun and challanging although from what I've heard being a DM can be both very demanding and very rewarding at the same time (remember the golden rule though, as the DM what you say is final, even if the rules say otherwise, it's your game so it's your rules).

The actual game isn't too hard to figure out, it will take a while (so I reccomend reading up as much as you can before the game is started, that way you can also help out any other players who have trouble getting to grips with things), things that'll help is to brush up on your maths and measurements (keeping a calculator handy is also pretty useful) and (especially if you're a DM) work on your vocabulary and story telling, you're basically the narrator and everything the players know about the world will be coming from you.

As for materials, the best thing to do would probably be to get the player's handbook, the monster manual and the DM's guide (there are some other books out there but I can't think of any off the top of my head), for new players I've heard that 4th edition is a good lace to start (I'm still used to how 3.5 worked but I'll admit some things were a tad confusing).

I hope all that helps but if you have any more specific questions feel free to contact me and I'll try to answer to the best of my knowledge (or I'll bug one of my friends who is a Dm for the answer, either way works).

Good luck and I hope you have fun with it, I sure as hell did.

 

[Deadyawn]

Me and some of my friends have been playing D&D on and off for a few years now. We've used 4th edition for the most part. The problem was that we had a lot of issues as a group. We didn't work very well together and many of us didn't have much input in the game. Our first rew campaigns were a complete and utter mess, they had no cohesive plot, nobody had any idea what their characters could do, we hadn't developed the characters' personalaties at all, we hardly roleplayed and most of us had no idea what the hell was going on. And it was really fun. It might have ruined a few friendships but apart from that...
Anyway, lately we have gotten better and are currently running a campaign that isn't a dogs breakfast and we're really enjoying that too and in addition it's a lot more meaningful which is nice.
I think one of the most important things is to work at it. You have to put a bit of effort into it to make it work. Everyone really needs to know what's going on. But if that isn't enjoyable for you then just chuck it out and have some fun. I can only tell you what happened to us and I think it's best to find what works for your group.
Good luck.