Me and my partner have been watching the latest critical role campaign like animals and now we finally wanna give it a shot ourselves. We'd be so thankful if anyone with experience of playing the game would want to invite us to a campaign where we could get to learn generally about how to play the game and just have fun with it.
I'd say we both know a bit more than the basics since we've learned from critical role how things work, so what we lack is actual experience. However we're pretty familiar with roleplay and don't have any major issues with that.
We're 19 and 20 years old and would feel the most comfortable playing with a group that's around the same age. We live in Sweden and our timezone is GMT+1.
I'm sure there'll be someone willing to take you into their party there. That's the part of the site dedicated to matching players with parties.
This board is better for answering questions that you may have about the game, discussing the game itself, etc. So if you have any queries or want some explanation, feel free to pop them here and we'll try to help out.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
You'll likely have to unlearn some of what you've gathered from critical role, that's a glamorize performance of playing D&D that's executed by professional actors.
There's an LFG sub forum, and a LFG sub Reddit that can help you find groups. If there are any hobby shops near you that sell D&D content, they often host public games too, or you may meet other players.
The basic rules are easy to grasp, a copy of the players handbook wouldn't go amiss, you could also purchase that on here and log into the account on several devices to access your content and operate a digital character sheet.
Critical Role is a lot of fun to watch and can give a good feel for how D&D can be, but watching it doesn't mean you know the actual rules of D&D well enough to jump into a game without actually learning said rules. It's like watching a NASCAR race on TV doesn't teach you how to actually drive a racecar; on the show they gloss over or don't even mention a lot of the basic "nuts and bolts" of how the game mechanics work, mainly because they all already know those things well enough to leave them unspoken and just get on with the story, the roleplay, the battle, or whatever else is going on at the time. So for the rules, sit down and read them. It may seem like a lot, but spending an hour or two to actually read the rules will save a lot of time looking things up or having someone already knowledgeable explain them in the middle of a session. Most sessions last a good deal longer than it would take to go over the important rules twice, assuming an average reading speed, so invest a little bit of time to make things smoother later. From the Players' Handbook you want to go through all of the introductory chapter plus the ones on character creation, ability scores, adventuring, combat, and magic. That's about 40 pages (and a lot of the space is taken up by illustrations). The rest is really just reference material you plug into those rules (class abilities, equipment, feats, and spells). It's okay if you need to doublecheck what sort of area of effect thunder wave has but when you do read that short little description you should not have to look up how a cube works or have the DM take a minute to explain where your character can place that cubic effect relative to themselves because spell AoEs are covered entirely in a half page of the magic rules (the other half is illustrations).
You don't have to have everything memorized, but if it's on your character sheet then you should know how it works. And if you do, most DMs will love you for it. Aside from that, I'm just going to copy/paste what I answered a very similar thread with the other day requesting new player advice.
1: Read the rules. They're published for a reason.
2: Ask questions. If you don't understand something then not asking about it is just going to keep you ignorant. Learning is the cure for ignorance, so make sure to actually listen to the answers you get.
3: Pay attention. To Everything. The DM will probably be talking a lot, and they usually are doing so because they have something important to say. Also pay attention to what others are doing and, when necessary, ask more questions about if you don't understand what's going on.
4: Take notes to help remember the things you're learning, both concerning the rules and what's going on in the game (plot twists, important NPCs and locations, etc).
always start with making charachters on dnd beyond i remember before i had it it took multiple days and even weeks to make a level 7 character now i cando it in 5 minites in fact i just made 2 simultaneosly!!!!!!!
Be careful, Crit Role has some house rules that are not RAW, like they do counterspell differently than it’s sposta because of the audience, stuff like that.
Be careful, Crit Role has some house rules that are not RAW, like they do counterspell differently than it’s sposta because of the audience, stuff like that.
I'm an idiot, frozen sick (since it was offered free) was something I purposely read before deciding if buying things on this site would be truly useful. The module even mentions Wildemounte areas (even sites the other book he wrote for WoTC) and either never realized that, glossed over it, or read it and just forgot right away.... that's good :D
That being said I do think it's wise giving the warning about looking into a few things and not just basing it off Critical Role because every table is going to run things the way they want too. I do think Critical Role gives a strong emphasis of what it could be and just finding the right group to do whatever your thing is going to be.
The one thing I wish happened far less was people critiquing how people do things (some of the hate folks get or have gotten is really surprising).
Welcome to the community! That being said, Critical Role is not a good place to start. They cast an unattainable shadow on regular tables. Unless of course, you and your friends are professional voice actors with tens of thousands of dollars of scenery, miniatures, and set pieces, and your DM has been doing this most of their life. CR is like a TV show. Entertaining, professional, but not realistic dungeons and dragons.
I would suggest listening to podcasts where you're not distracted by the shiny visuals. Just listen to how DM's run the game and how the players respond. This is the core of the game. It's a story in your mind that you all create together. You can make it as silly or as serious as you like. You'll feed off of each other as you get used to their characters.
Again, we truly appreciate your advice. I just wanna make it clear that we understand what you all mean when you say that the critical role experiance isn't how most dnd games look in reality. We're not expecting any fancy set ups, proffesional actors/voice actors or that the games run as smoothly as they do in their campaigns. We're aware there's lots to learn hence why we made this post :)
Hello there!
Me and my partner have been watching the latest critical role campaign like animals and now we finally wanna give it a shot ourselves. We'd be so thankful if anyone with experience of playing the game would want to invite us to a campaign where we could get to learn generally about how to play the game and just have fun with it.
I'd say we both know a bit more than the basics since we've learned from critical role how things work, so what we lack is actual experience. However we're pretty familiar with roleplay and don't have any major issues with that.
We're 19 and 20 years old and would feel the most comfortable playing with a group that's around the same age. We live in Sweden and our timezone is GMT+1.
Thank you!
You're best off posting here:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/looking-for-players-groups
I'm sure there'll be someone willing to take you into their party there. That's the part of the site dedicated to matching players with parties.
This board is better for answering questions that you may have about the game, discussing the game itself, etc. So if you have any queries or want some explanation, feel free to pop them here and we'll try to help out.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
If you have a game store nearby, check there. They often have people looking for groups for in person games.
You'll likely have to unlearn some of what you've gathered from critical role, that's a glamorize performance of playing D&D that's executed by professional actors.
There's an LFG sub forum, and a LFG sub Reddit that can help you find groups. If there are any hobby shops near you that sell D&D content, they often host public games too, or you may meet other players.
The basic rules are easy to grasp, a copy of the players handbook wouldn't go amiss, you could also purchase that on here and log into the account on several devices to access your content and operate a digital character sheet.
Good luck.
Critical Role is a lot of fun to watch and can give a good feel for how D&D can be, but watching it doesn't mean you know the actual rules of D&D well enough to jump into a game without actually learning said rules. It's like watching a NASCAR race on TV doesn't teach you how to actually drive a racecar; on the show they gloss over or don't even mention a lot of the basic "nuts and bolts" of how the game mechanics work, mainly because they all already know those things well enough to leave them unspoken and just get on with the story, the roleplay, the battle, or whatever else is going on at the time. So for the rules, sit down and read them. It may seem like a lot, but spending an hour or two to actually read the rules will save a lot of time looking things up or having someone already knowledgeable explain them in the middle of a session. Most sessions last a good deal longer than it would take to go over the important rules twice, assuming an average reading speed, so invest a little bit of time to make things smoother later. From the Players' Handbook you want to go through all of the introductory chapter plus the ones on character creation, ability scores, adventuring, combat, and magic. That's about 40 pages (and a lot of the space is taken up by illustrations). The rest is really just reference material you plug into those rules (class abilities, equipment, feats, and spells). It's okay if you need to doublecheck what sort of area of effect thunder wave has but when you do read that short little description you should not have to look up how a cube works or have the DM take a minute to explain where your character can place that cubic effect relative to themselves because spell AoEs are covered entirely in a half page of the magic rules (the other half is illustrations).
You don't have to have everything memorized, but if it's on your character sheet then you should know how it works. And if you do, most DMs will love you for it. Aside from that, I'm just going to copy/paste what I answered a very similar thread with the other day requesting new player advice.
1: Read the rules. They're published for a reason.
2: Ask questions. If you don't understand something then not asking about it is just going to keep you ignorant. Learning is the cure for ignorance, so make sure to actually listen to the answers you get.
3: Pay attention. To Everything. The DM will probably be talking a lot, and they usually are doing so because they have something important to say. Also pay attention to what others are doing and, when necessary, ask more questions about if you don't understand what's going on.
4: Take notes to help remember the things you're learning, both concerning the rules and what's going on in the game (plot twists, important NPCs and locations, etc).
5: Try to have fun. Otherwise, what's the point?
always start with making charachters on dnd beyond i remember before i had it it took multiple days and even weeks to make a level 7 character now i cando it in 5 minites in fact i just made 2 simultaneosly!!!!!!!
Be careful, Crit Role has some house rules that are not RAW, like they do counterspell differently than it’s sposta because of the audience, stuff like that.
Here’s all 400+ pages of the Basic Rules & SRD: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules)
Here’s your “intro to D&D on DDB resources: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/how-to-play-dnd)
Here’s a free adventure (written by Matt Mercer) for whichever one of you will end up DMing: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/wa/frozen-sick)
Here is me welcoming you to D&D!!
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Thank you all so much for the helpful replies. We’ll definitely take your advice into consideration!
I'm an idiot, frozen sick (since it was offered free) was something I purposely read before deciding if buying things on this site would be truly useful. The module even mentions Wildemounte areas (even sites the other book he wrote for WoTC) and either never realized that, glossed over it, or read it and just forgot right away.... that's good :D
That being said I do think it's wise giving the warning about looking into a few things and not just basing it off Critical Role because every table is going to run things the way they want too. I do think Critical Role gives a strong emphasis of what it could be and just finding the right group to do whatever your thing is going to be.
The one thing I wish happened far less was people critiquing how people do things (some of the hate folks get or have gotten is really surprising).
Welcome to the community! That being said, Critical Role is not a good place to start. They cast an unattainable shadow on regular tables. Unless of course, you and your friends are professional voice actors with tens of thousands of dollars of scenery, miniatures, and set pieces, and your DM has been doing this most of their life. CR is like a TV show. Entertaining, professional, but not realistic dungeons and dragons.
I would suggest listening to podcasts where you're not distracted by the shiny visuals. Just listen to how DM's run the game and how the players respond. This is the core of the game. It's a story in your mind that you all create together. You can make it as silly or as serious as you like. You'll feed off of each other as you get used to their characters.
Again, we truly appreciate your advice. I just wanna make it clear that we understand what you all mean when you say that the critical role experiance isn't how most dnd games look in reality. We're not expecting any fancy set ups, proffesional actors/voice actors or that the games run as smoothly as they do in their campaigns. We're aware there's lots to learn hence why we made this post :)
Thank you for your replies