You can look up game shops in the area and see if they are running Adventures League or general campaigns, reach out on the LFG forum or Reddit to find ppl in your area, maybe check social media for local groups.
I second this. Where I don't think AL is the best it's a good way to get a feel for the game and to learn the basics before jumping into a home campaign.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I found a place here in NYC called The Compleat Strategist o Im going to check that out and pick up a Players Handbook. Im going to watch some of the streams you recommended too. Thats definitely something that will be helpful.Thanks very much!
Don't watch streamers and web shows like CR to learn the rules or anything. Where they largely do stick to the rules, for the most part, they are much more for entertainment - something which they often excel at. If you don't like reading to learn the rules, I would suggest watching YouTubers who discuss the rules, rather than a web show.
Still watch the web shows for fun though, because they quite often are just that.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I play with my kids. Had so much fun I joined an adult campaign. I previously played in the late 90's. then stopped. I've played in 5 campaigns since August. I've had to drop my pay to play (Adventure League), because it was too much for me. And my wife was not happy about the cost ($15 each session for my 14year old and me). 2 of my sons run a campaign as well. My 14 year old had the idea over the summer. We went for it. Great times.
If you're looking to see the game streams are a great way to do so. Critical Role is the gold standard in Campaign viewing. A lot to like here. But most games can't hold this standard. More importantly their handbooker helper series are great videos for beginners (or returners). Dimension 20 is fairly popular. Fun stream from College Humor. Arcane Arcade is worth your time. Jacob is fun to watch. He has strong opinions on the rules and you can see these opinions play out in his streams. But the real meat, in my opinion, is with Matt Colville. His Chain videos are strong and show strong 5e play. He's been playing D&D since the 80's.
I have a less than cerebrally intense job and listen to podcasts while I work. I agree with most of those except Colville. I'd heard good things about him and his games for a while, including from a guy I personally game with who's a big fan. He has great charisma and enthusiasm but I personally find his attitudes towards rules inconsistent, inattentive, and hypocritical. I listened to about ten episodes of The Chain in which he repeatedly espouses the idea of rules being secondary to story in importance and demonstrates blissful ignorance of rules while frequently plugging his book full of rules that he publishes for sale. Things like not bothering to review the subclass a player switches to beforehand when the player explains "I can't remember, I got it from Google somewhere, maybe it's a UA or something" (It was the Zeal domain from a Planeshift article but still, he had no clue what was entering his game). Or, the deal breaker for me, ten sessions into a game that started at level five he had to have people in Twitch chat tell him that a PC with multiple attacks per turn can move between those attacks. That's not a nitpicky, obscure edge case ruling that's a core combat mechanic in a game with a lot of combat. "But buy my book of rules for the system I clearly haven't bothered to learn from a practical standpoint, let alone game design mechanics!"
The Chain made me think of high school weekend games with a bunch of teenagers staying up all night long and being goofy while consuming medically inadvisable quantities of caffeine and junk food, making up a bunch of ridiculous scenarios and going with something that resembles a Saturday morning cartoon on an acid trip as much as an epic high fantasy. And if that's what a group is into then go for it. But I personally don't want to take DMing advice from a guy that gives a player a barely thought out homebrew class that's OP in numerous obvious ways then decides to have a foe spontaneously cast a spell from a different edition of the game, using mechanics that there are no balances to in the current game, because that player did something cool with the shiny toy he gave her that messed with the cool scene/sequence/etc that he had planned. Then "Hey, remember to buy my book full of poorly balanced rules that you can ignore just like I do!"
If you want some other podcast specific recommendations, I can endorse a few more:
Not Another D&D Podcast (aka NADDPOD): If you're familiar with Dimension 20 you'll recognize Murph and Emily on their own podcast with two other friends (and occasional guest appearances by their D20 colleagues amongst others). They have three full campaigns of episodes up for free download and have literally just started a new one. NADDPOD is aimed at being funny and silly but they still manage to keep it a serious plot with great roleplaying.
The Homebrew D&D Podcast: A sci-fi game using a homebrew setting (as you might expect from the title). Epic scale story making me think of everything from Star Wars, Firefly, and Mad Max in space to the Ren and Stimpy space madness episode at times. It's a bit weird at times but the setting is clearly very well thought out and epic and the gameplay is both funny and serious at times without applying mood whiplash in between. As far as I'm aware none of the cast had any previous casting/streaming experience before doing this but I love it.
Three Black Halflings: A mix of weekly talk show type casts and live play games ranging from one shots to short-mid length (15-20 session) campaigns in various settings. As one might guess from the name the main cast are all black and frequently address various themes and social issues related to the TTRPG hobby from the perspective of a non-white audience. Full disclosure, I'm a stereotypical middle aged white nerd and while I have lived my entire life being aggressively open minded they do frequently point out things that simply didn't occur to me and make me think about some stuff. Also, just like the others I mention here, they are just very entertaining to listen to.
I actually found out about Three Black Halflings from NADDPOD. They advertised with them a while back and since have done a few collaborations, notably one of the TBH guys DMing a two part one shot on NADDPOD and the NADDPOD crew all guesting with TBH either on the talk show casts and/or in live plays.
I just realized you can express Three Black Halflings as "TBH" and that's sorta awesome in and of itself.
I'd still focus on getting into a game. A lot of the non play podcasts streams are "talking about" gaming, which I honestly think are better digested if you've actually played a bit. As far as actual play streams and casts as sort of tutorial, I would also lean away from the "AAA" brands (Critical Role, Dimension20 stuff, Coleville ,,. Dusk is 4e anyway so may confuse ya) but there are plenty of casual streamers you can encounter on Twitch of just ordinary folks who are playing D&D and are streaming it (for reasons I don't entirely follow). You can find a lot of them hawked in the videos subforum here. See an ad that seems to speak to your personality, check that one out.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I stopped in to The Compleat Strategist in NYC. Bought a Players Handbook and some extra d6 since all I had was the basics set. One guy there recommended these awesome die that were clear yellow with fireballs inside them. The two people that I spoke to that worked there were helpful, encouraging, good guys as you might imagine. Awesome store. And I am into podcasts too-just subscribed to TBH and Not Another. Thanks, Flushmaster and MidnightPlat. You guys have been giving me (and any other noob who might see this thread) awesome suggestions.
I second this. Where I don't think AL is the best it's a good way to get a feel for the game and to learn the basics before jumping into a home campaign.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Don't watch streamers and web shows like CR to learn the rules or anything. Where they largely do stick to the rules, for the most part, they are much more for entertainment - something which they often excel at. If you don't like reading to learn the rules, I would suggest watching YouTubers who discuss the rules, rather than a web show.
Still watch the web shows for fun though, because they quite often are just that.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I have a less than cerebrally intense job and listen to podcasts while I work. I agree with most of those except Colville. I'd heard good things about him and his games for a while, including from a guy I personally game with who's a big fan. He has great charisma and enthusiasm but I personally find his attitudes towards rules inconsistent, inattentive, and hypocritical. I listened to about ten episodes of The Chain in which he repeatedly espouses the idea of rules being secondary to story in importance and demonstrates blissful ignorance of rules while frequently plugging his book full of rules that he publishes for sale. Things like not bothering to review the subclass a player switches to beforehand when the player explains "I can't remember, I got it from Google somewhere, maybe it's a UA or something" (It was the Zeal domain from a Planeshift article but still, he had no clue what was entering his game). Or, the deal breaker for me, ten sessions into a game that started at level five he had to have people in Twitch chat tell him that a PC with multiple attacks per turn can move between those attacks. That's not a nitpicky, obscure edge case ruling that's a core combat mechanic in a game with a lot of combat. "But buy my book of rules for the system I clearly haven't bothered to learn from a practical standpoint, let alone game design mechanics!"
The Chain made me think of high school weekend games with a bunch of teenagers staying up all night long and being goofy while consuming medically inadvisable quantities of caffeine and junk food, making up a bunch of ridiculous scenarios and going with something that resembles a Saturday morning cartoon on an acid trip as much as an epic high fantasy. And if that's what a group is into then go for it. But I personally don't want to take DMing advice from a guy that gives a player a barely thought out homebrew class that's OP in numerous obvious ways then decides to have a foe spontaneously cast a spell from a different edition of the game, using mechanics that there are no balances to in the current game, because that player did something cool with the shiny toy he gave her that messed with the cool scene/sequence/etc that he had planned. Then "Hey, remember to buy my book full of poorly balanced rules that you can ignore just like I do!"
If you want some other podcast specific recommendations, I can endorse a few more:
Not Another D&D Podcast (aka NADDPOD): If you're familiar with Dimension 20 you'll recognize Murph and Emily on their own podcast with two other friends (and occasional guest appearances by their D20 colleagues amongst others). They have three full campaigns of episodes up for free download and have literally just started a new one. NADDPOD is aimed at being funny and silly but they still manage to keep it a serious plot with great roleplaying.
The Homebrew D&D Podcast: A sci-fi game using a homebrew setting (as you might expect from the title). Epic scale story making me think of everything from Star Wars, Firefly, and Mad Max in space to the Ren and Stimpy space madness episode at times. It's a bit weird at times but the setting is clearly very well thought out and epic and the gameplay is both funny and serious at times without applying mood whiplash in between. As far as I'm aware none of the cast had any previous casting/streaming experience before doing this but I love it.
Three Black Halflings: A mix of weekly talk show type casts and live play games ranging from one shots to short-mid length (15-20 session) campaigns in various settings. As one might guess from the name the main cast are all black and frequently address various themes and social issues related to the TTRPG hobby from the perspective of a non-white audience. Full disclosure, I'm a stereotypical middle aged white nerd and while I have lived my entire life being aggressively open minded they do frequently point out things that simply didn't occur to me and make me think about some stuff. Also, just like the others I mention here, they are just very entertaining to listen to.
I will have to agree to disagree on MC.
However, 3 black halflings sounds fantastic and not something I'd heard of before and that is exciting.
I actually found out about Three Black Halflings from NADDPOD. They advertised with them a while back and since have done a few collaborations, notably one of the TBH guys DMing a two part one shot on NADDPOD and the NADDPOD crew all guesting with TBH either on the talk show casts and/or in live plays.
I just realized you can express Three Black Halflings as "TBH" and that's sorta awesome in and of itself.
I'd still focus on getting into a game. A lot of the non play podcasts streams are "talking about" gaming, which I honestly think are better digested if you've actually played a bit. As far as actual play streams and casts as sort of tutorial, I would also lean away from the "AAA" brands (Critical Role, Dimension20 stuff, Coleville ,,. Dusk is 4e anyway so may confuse ya) but there are plenty of casual streamers you can encounter on Twitch of just ordinary folks who are playing D&D and are streaming it (for reasons I don't entirely follow). You can find a lot of them hawked in the videos subforum here. See an ad that seems to speak to your personality, check that one out.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I stopped in to The Compleat Strategist in NYC. Bought a Players Handbook and some extra d6 since all I had was the basics set. One guy there recommended these awesome die that were clear yellow with fireballs inside them. The two people that I spoke to that worked there were helpful, encouraging, good guys as you might imagine. Awesome store. And I am into podcasts too-just subscribed to TBH and Not Another. Thanks, Flushmaster and MidnightPlat. You guys have been giving me (and any other noob who might see this thread) awesome suggestions.