So I just created my first campaign and me and my friends are ready to start I just have one problem I don't know how to start encounters and let them role any tips?
With this response, I am assuming that you are playing online. My group uses a virtual tabletop called roll20. Members of our group who use chrome as their browser have an extension called beyond 20 installed and it allows rolls to automatically go through. Another alternative is rolling exclusively in roll20 and manually adding their bonuses. I hope I managed to help because I too am a new DM; my group actually just had our first session today, and I can understand it is hard to get into.
Enemy encounters are the hardest things. As a new DM (who soon has the 15th session (each being about 2 hours long)) I completely understand. I personally have a Word file and ask my Player Characters to roll initiative. From there I add them to a list of names by copy/pasting their names and their health. However, since using Roll20 I can just decrease their health for every attack there. So I only have to add them to the list of order.
Another tip I would like to give is: roll initiative for the enemies before the session starts, so you can start building the initiave order beforehand and just place your player characters in the list. That works way better than AND letting your characters roll and placing them somewhere AND rolling the enemies etc.
Just a quick tip, you can do initiative in roll20. once you have an initiative order up through the feature you can right-click tokens to add them to the order, edit their initiative number, and sort the order through a few different methods.
Does anybody know a good alternative to Roll20? I am having a hard time creating a visually engaging game using the free version, and am looking for something else that's free. I've heard about Astral VTT, does anybody have any experience with it?
About the original topic, I would be wary of overpreparing. In my first game, I way overprepared and it did not work out well for me. I was drowning in my sea of notes. I would also be wary of expecting players to do things. In my experience, D&D Players are very unpredictable, and you can never be quite sure what they are going to do. I would be ready to just roll with whatever happens.
Not sure what you mean by start. So here are a few interpretations
Narrative -Know the enemy's motivation. It can be as easy as "they are a beast who is hungry" "they are goblins who are to defend the dungeon" etc. Once the enemy sees them just say "Roll initiative". This automatically means you are in combat. If your players have the highest initiative just describe the scene. Eg: "You see 5 goblins charging at you with their weapons drawn, x... you go first, what do you do?" If your NPC has higher initiative, then describe it attacking someone, then go to the next highest initiative, etc. When you get to a PC describe the scene and ask them what they do.
If your players want to attack anyone unexpectedly, have them roll initiative. Just because they say "I attack", it doesn't mean they get to go first. Whoever rolls a higher initiative sees what they are trying to do and can react to act before them. (Unless you determined they were surprised, like if the PC is hidden or the NPC is sleeping or something)
Prep- Make a list 1-30 in descending order. Roll initiative for all your NPCs ahead of time. Once everyone rolls then add them to your list. If you use Roll20 you can have them click on their token before they roll initiative and it will automatically add it to the initiative order thing. Be very familiar with all possible actions so you can make quick judgement calls when the players want to do something creative. Have all the NPCs stats available in a way that is easy for you to track. I prefer to have sat blocks printed out and I roll real dice. Otherwise its too many tabs. But if I made a more powerful NPC with spells, i will build a character in dndbeyond and roll from there. Be familiar with any special abilities that your NPCs have to make battle more interesting. Trust your players to track their own health.
Just a quick tip, you can do initiative in roll20. once you have an initiative order up through the feature you can right-click tokens to add them to the order, edit their initiative number, and sort the order through a few different methods.
Thanks for the tip! I'll take a look into that!
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So I just created my first campaign and me and my friends are ready to start I just have one problem I don't know how to start encounters and let them role any tips?
With this response, I am assuming that you are playing online. My group uses a virtual tabletop called roll20. Members of our group who use chrome as their browser have an extension called beyond 20 installed and it allows rolls to automatically go through. Another alternative is rolling exclusively in roll20 and manually adding their bonuses. I hope I managed to help because I too am a new DM; my group actually just had our first session today, and I can understand it is hard to get into.
thanks this helped a lot
Enemy encounters are the hardest things. As a new DM (who soon has the 15th session (each being about 2 hours long)) I completely understand.
I personally have a Word file and ask my Player Characters to roll initiative. From there I add them to a list of names by copy/pasting their names and their health. However, since using Roll20 I can just decrease their health for every attack there. So I only have to add them to the list of order.
Another tip I would like to give is: roll initiative for the enemies before the session starts, so you can start building the initiave order beforehand and just place your player characters in the list. That works way better than AND letting your characters roll and placing them somewhere AND rolling the enemies etc.
Hey,
Just a quick tip, you can do initiative in roll20. once you have an initiative order up through the feature you can right-click tokens to add them to the order, edit their initiative number, and sort the order through a few different methods.
Does anybody know a good alternative to Roll20? I am having a hard time creating a visually engaging game using the free version, and am looking for something else that's free. I've heard about Astral VTT, does anybody have any experience with it?
About the original topic, I would be wary of overpreparing. In my first game, I way overprepared and it did not work out well for me. I was drowning in my sea of notes. I would also be wary of expecting players to do things. In my experience, D&D Players are very unpredictable, and you can never be quite sure what they are going to do. I would be ready to just roll with whatever happens.
Hope this helps!
Elfish Gentouch
Ligon Dungeons and Dragons Club
Not sure what you mean by start. So here are a few interpretations
Narrative -Know the enemy's motivation. It can be as easy as "they are a beast who is hungry" "they are goblins who are to defend the dungeon" etc. Once the enemy sees them just say "Roll initiative". This automatically means you are in combat. If your players have the highest initiative just describe the scene. Eg: "You see 5 goblins charging at you with their weapons drawn, x... you go first, what do you do?" If your NPC has higher initiative, then describe it attacking someone, then go to the next highest initiative, etc. When you get to a PC describe the scene and ask them what they do.
If your players want to attack anyone unexpectedly, have them roll initiative. Just because they say "I attack", it doesn't mean they get to go first. Whoever rolls a higher initiative sees what they are trying to do and can react to act before them. (Unless you determined they were surprised, like if the PC is hidden or the NPC is sleeping or something)
Prep- Make a list 1-30 in descending order. Roll initiative for all your NPCs ahead of time. Once everyone rolls then add them to your list. If you use Roll20 you can have them click on their token before they roll initiative and it will automatically add it to the initiative order thing. Be very familiar with all possible actions so you can make quick judgement calls when the players want to do something creative. Have all the NPCs stats available in a way that is easy for you to track. I prefer to have sat blocks printed out and I roll real dice. Otherwise its too many tabs. But if I made a more powerful NPC with spells, i will build a character in dndbeyond and roll from there. Be familiar with any special abilities that your NPCs have to make battle more interesting. Trust your players to track their own health.
Hope it helps!
Thanks for the tip! I'll take a look into that!