Starting D&D. Any advice?

[Flamezdudes]

Basically the title. I'm going round my friends house on Saturday with another friend of ours (another will join later) and we're going to play one of the most legendary geek games ever. Now, none of us have ever played the game and so i'm just wondering what sort of things should I know? What advice can you D&D players give me?

Thanks.

 

[Count Igor]

You the DM?
If not, make sure the DM includes a lot of plot and towns, etc. Much more fun.

 

[Amnestic]

Have you read the Check for Traps [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/checkfortraps] column on here? Got a fair bit of advice in there.

Are you using a pre-packaged or original adventure? Pre-packaged *might* be best since all of you are new at it, but ones you've come up with are fine too.

I would advise people to stick to their basic classes/races first. An unfortunate habit of some players is to go a little crazy once they realise they can use the Monster Manual to pick a race, and seeing a multiclassed Samurai/Paladin/Ranger/Planeswalker isn't all that interesting. I generally don't like having a dozen extra books for one character, but I also don't like imposing arbitrary limits on which books they can source for feats and skills and whatnot, so it's up to the DM really. Sticking with the core 3 is more than enough for your first adventure though.

Don't cheat, and accept bad stat rolls if you get them. Flawed characters can often be a lot more fun to play than well rounded 11+ in all stats characters.

 

[drizztmainsword]

Getting a group of people together that have never played before is very hard. My advice is to stick with it, and be patient as you learn the rules. Once you know what you're doing and you're not getting frustrated every round, the game gets to be a lot of fun.

Also, make sure that your DM, whether it be you or somebody else, knows that their job isn't to kill the players, it's to give the players a good experience. This does mean challenging them, but the DM has to be sure that he or she doesn't stack the odds unfavorably so that the players can't win. Also, avoid the use of deus ex machina, as that totally ruins any role-playing experience.

But most of all, have fun. That's really why you're all there and 70% of what goes on while playing. Enjoy it.

 

[Naheal]

Pick an edition and stick with it. It doesn't really matter what edition that you pick initially, but you need to make sure that you enjoy it fully and can learn that system. I highly recommend 4th, as it's both accessible for new players and the books are relatively easy to get a hold of.

This may sound like a bit of a no-brainer, but make some characters. When I first started in 4th, I made about ten to fifteen separate characters just to get a feel for how that worked. I'm an over-achiever, though, so take that with a bit of salt.

Your DM needs to run a pre-packaged adventure or three to get a feel for how the game works. As you all get experience under your belt, you can begin to branch out and create adventures, classes, and abilities for yourselves.

Read through the combat section in the Player's Handbook. A basic grasp on how combat works is crucial to how D&D works. Likewise, check up on how skills work.

Don't try to get complicated yet. Learn the game first, then go beyond that through experimentation. You'll figure out what works and doesn't work.

 

[deth2munkies]

Play with friends a lot (I mean A LOT) before you try playing with just anybody. It's one of those games where you have to separate OOC and IC feelings and if you know eachother well OOC you can have some fun IC without offending them or confusing them.

When I played with friends, we did a whole bunch of IC in-jokes from our time in high school and much fun was had.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Basically the title. I'm going round my friends house on Saturday with another friend of ours (another will join later) and we're going to play one of the most legendary geek games ever. Now, none of us have ever played the game and so i'm just wondering what sort of things should I know? What advice can you D&D players give me?

Thanks.

1) You will spend much longer generating characters than you expect.
2) A new GM will have a hard time figuring out how everything should work, I strongly suggest they run you through a short prebought quest first.
3) SOMEONE needs to know the majority of the rules. It should generally be the GM.

 

[ZombieGenesis]

Does your friend live anywhere in Winchester, England~? Because I'm telling you.. it's freaking IMPOSSIBLE to find a player base here.

I can't give you much advice but I will say this, if you're into RPGs and storytelling, you will become an addict.

 

[Uzbekistan]

Firstly, Have fun. Its just a game.

Secondly, if you can, try to play 4.0. Much more streamlined than 3.5.

Thirdly, carry a D20 with you at all times. You never know when you might find yourself wanting to play a game.

Fourthly, don't look at the time (Though try not to play until 2 in the morning.) This is the kind of game that will last ages.

Fiftly, Don't try to hog all of the attention at the game.

I think that's it.

 

[Virgil]

Basically the title. I'm going round my friends house on Saturday with another friend of ours (another will join later) and we're going to play one of the most legendary geek games ever. Now, none of us have ever played the game and so i'm just wondering what sort of things should I know? What advice can you D&D players give me?

If it's possible, and you can find one, I suggest you guys try the Castle Ravenloft [http://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570] board game. Relatively easy to set up, doesn't require a DM, and gives a good introduction to the basic mechanics of D&D 4e. Plus it comes with a pile of nice miniatures and map tiles you could use in a real D&D game - which is probably where most of the price comes from. I got to play a few games with it last weekend, and it's really a nice package.

 

[kokirisoldier]

I loved making a fun character with many flaws. Like the paladin who actually hates most poor people and hates actually helping people because he thinks its "below" him to do so. Even though the stereotype is for paladins and their lawful good guy stuff would say otherwise. Or making a mage who since he has a very high INT score but low wisdom comes up with the most retarded plans "purposely me saying them". Or the Rogue who love to trip people in combat and pretty much tried to do no matter what the conflict. Or just make a bard with a squirrel pet in his pocket who he feeds when walking with the group.

 

[Jake the Snake]

The only advice I can give is to make sure the DM (whether it be you or someone else) knows. their. shit. Seriously, the entire experience of DnD lies in the DM. A good DM can make it wondrously entertaining and a bad one can make it a painfully boring experience. The DM should:

Have an in depth, complex world, full of NPCs, Towns and areas that he knows inside and out and knows how to play each character. Trust me, I cannot stress enough how important this is. To be a good DM, you really have to put a lot of time into creating the world. It's like making a second earth, but in your head. Get out some paper or a word document, and start writing down info about races, society, government, religion, plot, everything.

Be sure to be flexible in your story planning. Know how to react with player decisions. Don't get things planned out for one particular situation, and then have the player render you unable to DM because he derailed your entire established plot.

Be hard on the players, without just killing them with difficulty. Give them a challenge that is hard, but entirely possible. Trust me, they will feel more accomplished.

 

[Sneaklemming]

Bring food and snacks =D

 

[Mr.Napier]

be careful you don't accidentally give your half Orc barbarian a charisma of -4. Best advice I can give.

 

[moose_man]

Yeah, make sure the DM is prepared. Make sure the players at least have an IDEA of what they want to play. Take an hour or two at the beginning(make sure that you have enough time to play, I go with 5-8 hours) to make the characters. If you're using 4e(and you should, IMO), then get D&D insider. It's $70 bucks for a year, have everyone pitch in. It includes exclusive classes and races(like the assassin) as well as a character maker and monster maker to speed up the processes. It's got great articles for both players and DM's. There's a demo for the Char. Builder on the site.

Plug.

 

[cerebus23]

A dungeon masters job is to weave an epic tale where the players are the heroes.

A dungeon masters job is NOT to smash the heroes into giblets. Bad luck, bad rolls and traps will occasionally cause failures and deaths, but if you measure your success in trashed character sheets you will soon not have a campaign because you won't have any players.

A DM has to be several things. An actor, a director, a writer, an architect and a bit of an artist as well. In detail you need to act out NPCs, coordinate the action, create a plot, design a world and bring it all to life. If that seems daunting to you on the first go, there's no shame in buying a packaged adventure or two to help you get a feel for the experience.

Be cautious how you hand out loot. It's better to be conservative with the loot than overly liberal. Of course, you don't want to be too tight-fisted. You should allow players to gain loot at a pace that's proper with the difficulty of your campaign. Don't fret if you screw up. But watch out that they don't get too strong to quickly. A party that commands a personal legion of paladins, has jewel encrusted armor of invincibility for each, possess 5 or 6 staves of blow up the moon and rides into battle on the back of an ancient silver dragon is probably too strong and is never going to feel challenged, especially if it's a party of level 8s and they're target is a hobgoblin raiding camp.

When running villains, especially intelligent ones, remember not to think like an AI. Even wounded wolves know better than to fight to the death, though rabid wolves and other crazed or mindless creatures will certainly not yield because of fear. A scheming dark wizard will probably be very prepared, will have a plan B, and will have plenty of options for a quick withdrawl. Although his Ogre henchmen will probably just "Hulk Smash". In a sense, the villains are your characters, you make them play to their strengths.

Most important is to have fun. If no one's having fun, then what's the point. Also D&D does have rules, but sometimes the rules can be slightly bent for the sake of pacing or something else, but try not to be an ass about it. If you fudge a die roll by 1 to make a miss into a hit because it advances the story better, that's fine. But if your villain rolls a 1 and you decided to announce he crits the healer and runs her through, then you're being a dick.

Good luck and Rally-Ho.

epic truth i want you to be my next gm.

also might suggest you pick up one of those premade adventures if your are all just starting out will give you an easier time of it period, and get you a bit used to the world your playing in the characters and not have to do all the tasks a totally freeform group has to do.

also if you can get some real honest to god character sheets, make a bunch of copies, or scan and print them makes rolling characters a tad quicker when all your stuff is laid out on one page and organized nicely.

also suggest you think about your characters, their background, their parents and upbringing, etc all the things that give your own character depth and character, your not playing you you are playing another person far removed from you, and most importantly have fun with it.

also bad gms are bad and not everyone is cut out to be a decent let alone great gm, if you got a bad one try and think of a nice way to rotate a new person in as the gm and give them a go. and sometimes even the great gms like to mix up and just play rather than manage everything. we let our gm play a character while we played but we had a small group.