Hello all, and thank you for reading my first post!
Basically, I need help with everything. My only experience with D&D was a video game for Dark Sun I got for free in the 1990s, and a single adventure I played with friends in the very late 1990s. I’m at a point in my life now where I’m just barely getting something called free time again, and I want to give D&D another go. Because I’m coming back as a total noob, I have a few questions.
First, could anybody point me to decent YouTube videos or playlists with explanations? Both short “in a nutshell” videos as well as longer, in-depth series would be helpful. When I commit to a fandom, I really commit, and I like to know the lore and myths behind a franchise. That’s honestly a big part of the fun.
Second, could multiple people comment on what they think are the easiest, most “traditional,” and most popular campaign settings are?
Third, could a character be used across campaign settings in a logically consistent fashion? This is a question more for fanfic writing and social role playing than adventuring and dungeon delves. I’m assuming (which means I could be very wrong) that certain campaign settings are more or less compatible than others.
Thank you to anyone who made it though the whole post. Happy gaming :)
I can't really point to any lore explanation series, however I like the videos by Zee Bashew. He tends to talk about interesting applications of spells, rules, and roleplaying.
The most common, popular, and easiest to get into campaign is Forgotten Realms, by a large margin. Most Adventure Modules take place on the Sword Coast in that setting. The most, true to the meaning, traditional setting is Greyhawk. However, it hasn't been supported for around 10 years and it has no 5th edition Modules as far as I know. Eberron is also a popular setting. Ravnica is a new setting, it is a popular Magic the Gathering setting, but I'm no yet sure how popular it is as a D&D setting. Here is a list some campaign settings. You can make a setting out of almost anything if you know what your doing. I personally use custom made settings or Forgotten Realms.
Characters are usually pretty universal across settings. Naturally somethings will have to change across certain settings. If your character worships the god/goddess of luck, your going to need to change the listed name across settings. In Ravnica, Technology is common and pretty high-grade. In Greyhawk, you probably couldn't find a musket to save your life. Certain important events don't have an equivalent in other settings. Finally, tone - the primary difference between most settings is the tone of the setting. Ravenloft is about gothic horror, Spelljammer is silly space fantasy, Planescape is multiverse adventuring, ect.
For podcasts that introduce newbies to current world of 5th edition and the rules associated, I would look up "Join the Party" and the "Dungeoncast."
If you want detailed descriptions of class and sub-class abilities and tips for role-playing them, I recommend "Nerdarchy," "Titan Bear Gaming", and, once you're know the core concepts of classes and sub-classes, Monarchs Factory. These are all on Youtube, though Nerdarchy also has a wordpress blog, I think.
Lastly, most characters will work across all of the currently published settings if they are official material from the Player's Handbook or Xanathar's Guide to Everything. A few races are questionably too powerful at low level at some DM tables, but those are found in other books and supplements (including the aforementioned Ravnica).
Thank you for your responses! I have video channels as well as podcasts to check out, so hopefully those will bring me up to speed. From what I’ve understood, Forgotten Realms and the location known as the Sword Coast are terms I’ll need to look up. There seems to be an entire wiki for Forgotten Realms - is that any good?
I actually ordered a hard copy of Xanathar’s Guide a few days ago before realizing that I could have gotten a soft copy here on this site (I’m one of the few people who prefers e-books to physical books). Oh well, at least I’ll have it.
I heartily recommend checking out Matthew Colville's "Running the Game" video series on YouTube if you're interested in not just playing D&D but becoming a Dungeon Master.
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Hello all, and thank you for reading my first post!
Basically, I need help with everything. My only experience with D&D was a video game for Dark Sun I got for free in the 1990s, and a single adventure I played with friends in the very late 1990s. I’m at a point in my life now where I’m just barely getting something called free time again, and I want to give D&D another go. Because I’m coming back as a total noob, I have a few questions.
First, could anybody point me to decent YouTube videos or playlists with explanations? Both short “in a nutshell” videos as well as longer, in-depth series would be helpful. When I commit to a fandom, I really commit, and I like to know the lore and myths behind a franchise. That’s honestly a big part of the fun.
Second, could multiple people comment on what they think are the easiest, most “traditional,” and most popular campaign settings are?
Third, could a character be used across campaign settings in a logically consistent fashion? This is a question more for fanfic writing and social role playing than adventuring and dungeon delves. I’m assuming (which means I could be very wrong) that certain campaign settings are more or less compatible than others.
Thank you to anyone who made it though the whole post. Happy gaming :)
Darbakh - Duergar troublemaker [Pic 1] [Pic 2] [Story 1] [Story 2]
Quorian - half-elf watcher
PM me the word ‘tomato’
The most, true to the meaning, traditional setting is Greyhawk. However, it hasn't been supported for around 10 years and it has no 5th edition Modules as far as I know. Eberron is also a popular setting. Ravnica is a new setting, it is a popular Magic the Gathering setting, but I'm no yet sure how popular it is as a D&D setting. Here is a list some campaign settings. You can make a setting out of almost anything if you know what your doing. I personally use custom made settings or Forgotten Realms.
If your character worships the god/goddess of luck, your going to need to change the listed name across settings.
In Ravnica, Technology is common and pretty high-grade. In Greyhawk, you probably couldn't find a musket to save your life.
Certain important events don't have an equivalent in other settings.
Finally, tone - the primary difference between most settings is the tone of the setting. Ravenloft is about gothic horror, Spelljammer is silly space fantasy, Planescape is multiverse adventuring, ect.
For podcasts that introduce newbies to current world of 5th edition and the rules associated, I would look up "Join the Party" and the "Dungeoncast."
If you want detailed descriptions of class and sub-class abilities and tips for role-playing them, I recommend "Nerdarchy," "Titan Bear Gaming", and, once you're know the core concepts of classes and sub-classes, Monarchs Factory. These are all on Youtube, though Nerdarchy also has a wordpress blog, I think.
Lastly, most characters will work across all of the currently published settings if they are official material from the Player's Handbook or Xanathar's Guide to Everything. A few races are questionably too powerful at low level at some DM tables, but those are found in other books and supplements (including the aforementioned Ravnica).
Thank you for your responses! I have video channels as well as podcasts to check out, so hopefully those will bring me up to speed. From what I’ve understood, Forgotten Realms and the location known as the Sword Coast are terms I’ll need to look up. There seems to be an entire wiki for Forgotten Realms - is that any good?
I actually ordered a hard copy of Xanathar’s Guide a few days ago before realizing that I could have gotten a soft copy here on this site (I’m one of the few people who prefers e-books to physical books). Oh well, at least I’ll have it.
Darbakh - Duergar troublemaker [Pic 1] [Pic 2] [Story 1] [Story 2]
Quorian - half-elf watcher
PM me the word ‘tomato’
I heartily recommend checking out Matthew Colville's "Running the Game" video series on YouTube if you're interested in not just playing D&D but becoming a Dungeon Master.