Its been a long time since I pick up a D and D book .and now I what to play with my kids. I have pick up all most the the entire set now .would like some tips. On how to really setup a game . We started with Tales of yawning portal .any thoughts on maps/or lay outs or game play
Well, most of the adventures have maps. You can either photocopy them, find digital versions online to print, draw them out on graph paper, or just rely on describing areas to your kids. It all depends on how involved you want to be and how much your players care about maps.
As for game play, just follow along with the adventures. Some are pretty straightforward while others offer several options. Just go with what is fun. If your kids like to turn to combat to solve most issues, let them. If they want to try talking out problems with some enemies, maybe let them try to make friends or cut a deal.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Just pick up the basic set, then run the first adventure in it, "The Lost Mine of Phandelver", it's a really nice introduction that will help both you as a DM and your group get into the game.
For maps, you have a lot of options, you can get dungeon tiles or just get an erasable grid map and draw things that way -- or you could draw big things on paper and run combats via "theatre of the mind" -- depending on if your group prefers narrative combat or miniature/tactical combat.
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Prepare for any possible variations in choices that can be made. You may have to drill down in the details in your preparation on the most likely options and do top level preparation in several others, but even top level preparation is better than the group changing their melons at the beginning of a session and choosing the option you didn't prepare.
Thanks for all your advice. Going to get large erasable map to help them follow. Going g to build a model with sound/fx for them. Can you use pathfinder with D and D too
You can use Pathfinder maps and minis as they are correctly sized, but the Pathfinder system is not compatible with 5E D&D. It is more a mutation of the older 3rd Edition rules.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Thanks for all your advice. Going to get large erasable map to help them follow. Going g to build a model with sound/fx for them. Can you use pathfinder with D and D too
I wouldn't try it at first, but you could probably translate the mechanics of one system to the other easy enough if you are planning on using adventures from one for the other. I'd get comfortable with how each of the mechanics works by itself before trying to do anything from one to the other.
Its been a long time since I pick up a D and D book .and now I what to play with my kids. I have pick up all most the the entire set now .would like some tips. On how to really setup a game . We started with Tales of yawning portal .any thoughts on maps/or lay outs or game play
Thanks Tom
Well, most of the adventures have maps. You can either photocopy them, find digital versions online to print, draw them out on graph paper, or just rely on describing areas to your kids. It all depends on how involved you want to be and how much your players care about maps.
As for game play, just follow along with the adventures. Some are pretty straightforward while others offer several options. Just go with what is fun. If your kids like to turn to combat to solve most issues, let them. If they want to try talking out problems with some enemies, maybe let them try to make friends or cut a deal.
Just pick up the basic set, then run the first adventure in it, "The Lost Mine of Phandelver", it's a really nice introduction that will help both you as a DM and your group get into the game.
For maps, you have a lot of options, you can get dungeon tiles or just get an erasable grid map and draw things that way -- or you could draw big things on paper and run combats via "theatre of the mind" -- depending on if your group prefers narrative combat or miniature/tactical combat.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Prepare for any possible variations in choices that can be made. You may have to drill down in the details in your preparation on the most likely options and do top level preparation in several others, but even top level preparation is better than the group changing their melons at the beginning of a session and choosing the option you didn't prepare.
Thanks for all your advice. Going to get large erasable map to help them follow. Going g to build a model with sound/fx for them. Can you use pathfinder with D and D too
You can use Pathfinder maps and minis as they are correctly sized, but the Pathfinder system is not compatible with 5E D&D. It is more a mutation of the older 3rd Edition rules.
I wouldn't try it at first, but you could probably translate the mechanics of one system to the other easy enough if you are planning on using adventures from one for the other. I'd get comfortable with how each of the mechanics works by itself before trying to do anything from one to the other.