Dungeons & Dragons 5e

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Dungeons and Dragons had been something I had been interested for a while, but recently wanted to get into, watching the web show Critical Roll has been fun. My brother got playing with some friends but the group was of such a size that I could not really join in, so after getting the books I have kind of started to be the dungeon master myself, and going to play with my siblings (3 of them). I have kind of really gotten into it with learning all (most) of the rules of 5e, where it has kind of used a lot of my time trying to understand the intricacy.

I started with some monsters that look good for a story, mapped out an area where environments and story could take place, wrote up some characters, and then set up each of my siblings' characters. That itself took quite a bit of time, where I then had to start filling the holes with more characters written up, and quest scenarios. The first session, which kind of got pushed into two, was pretty fun as the players could kind of take me by surprise as I juggled an NPC and saw how the reacted to the scenario I wrote up, also dropping clues of foreshadowing. Being a dungeon master is fun, even if I kind of wish I could just play.

I have kind of spent the last week or so once getting a new book called "Volo's Guide to Monsters" where I have kind of thought of 3 major quests leading up to a larger one, like magic item rewards that would be interesting and monsters that would provide a challenge. Kind of really gotten into it and now trying to largely figure out the balancing so that player levels will be around the place I want at plot points so I can actually write up the encounters. Right now kind of stuck with an NPC I wrote up with character stats that alternatively could be an enemy or ally, and trying to find out the challenge level or experience from them. I have like 8 NPCs written up as if they were players, maybe I have gotten too into it.

Just wondering if anyone else has an interest in Dungeons & Dragons?

Ha, yeah. Used to get to play it but don't have much time now. 4E was all kinds of disappointment, heard 5 was better. Played AD&D and 3.5E.

YES!! ! I have been wanting to play for a while but I have never really had the chance. Since watching Critical Role, I MUST play. That show is awesome!
I have manage to get one of my friends excited to play as well. We are hoping to get a group together but we have never played before and neither have our friends. Only a few people we know have played and they are in the middle of a campaign.

I purchased a 5e Players Handbook and a couple of sets of dice a few months ago and my friend has some dice as well. We just need to find a DM and a couple of other players. Once we go to a few one off games at a games store to get some experience.

I'm old enough to have started on Basic D&D in the red box before upgrading to AD&D 1e (which didn't get called 1e until 2e came out, of course.) I was quite disappointed in 4e and play 3e or Pathfinder on the rare occasions I get to play these days, but I've heard enough good things about 5e that I might try it if I get a chance that doesn't require me to invest a lot of $ in books yet again.

I had just finished some study, so afterwards I turned my attention from textbooks on law to learning how the game goes, it took me a couple weeks to kind of look through the various rules to how I can kind of work people through an adventure. Matt Mercer makes it look very intimidating with how awesome he is as a DM in planning ahead, creating great stories, and reacting to the players. Although I have only really played two games so far, not even really getting to a town yet to talk to a bunch of NPCs, I don't think it was as impossible as I thought before.

Thinking of environments, getting a spreadsheet to automatically calculate monster type and number to difficulty ratings. And putting together how you think it will work. Really the hardest part was when I had to help people through creating characters, but the steps in the players handbook are somewhat easier than they might appear at first. Although the example in the book is only of a Dwarf Fighter, which can seem hard to use when you are making other classes.

Just download the character sheets, choose a race, putting in the traits for that race into the fillable character sheet (a PDF), choose a class, putting the class features for that class and follow up to what is shown as 1st level, maybe choose ability scores before you decide equipment which the handbook gives you a couple ways to choose. Then start to think of a personality and choose one of the backgrounds, filling in the different personality traits into the character sheet, and a little appearance or backstory into the fillable Character Details. Choosing a god or deity to follow can be a bit important, but there is a good list in appendix B, Clerics for their traits require gods of certain domains, and choosing your alignment kind of sets the character. Then some classes choose spells to add to the spellcasting sheet, and just finish off with adding up proficiencies, armour class, and effects of weapons, cantrips, or other abilities, I have seen some, like rogues, can get multiple proficiencies in proficiencies like stealth so you have to multiply the proficiency bonus (which starts at +2 up till 5th level) a couple times. Copy the dex modifier to initiative, the perception bonus +10 to passive perception, the items your character has added to equipment or treasure, and you have a complete character sheet.

That sounds like a lot of steps and really confusing, especially when you don't know what you are doing. Took me a couple tries to get a rhythm going, but each class tends to really work its own way. I am the kind of person who likes to make different characters in Skyrim, so I think that it has kind of worked well for me in writing characters up. Yesterday I was kind of having fun taking the encounter plans I wrote up, and into maps I was making in a grid book I got for a couple dollars. I am kind of in the middle of detailing the (likely) passage through a Kobold lair, I will kind of be controlling two characters, a barbarian I am adding to the team on a more permanent basis that the players can kind of direct what to do, and a cleric as a safety measure and really as a guest.

Oh, and if you are watching Critical Role, are you up to date, like with the amazing moment with Scanlan and the fiend?

I already played D&D5E.
I'm also a huge fan of Baldurs Gate, a video game based on AD&D 2E

If you like D&D you should check out Critical Role on Twitch/Geek and Sundry. Do you even Spice bro?!

I've been into D&D since late AD&D 2nd Edition. It all started with the Paladin's Handbook and now I have quite the collection of tabletop gaming materials.