My wife finally agreed to try DnD and I want to start her easy, I was thinking running a game just her and I would be good that way there's no pressure on her. I've done a tiny bit of Dming before, but not a ton. Is there any material out there for purchase that would be good for this type of thing? I'm not the most creative person and would struggle to build something of my own for us to play through.
There are a load of material for purchase the starter set LMoP (Lost Mine of Phandelver) campaign seems to be the official 5e larger intro campaign. Though I think it well worth your time having a look at D&D Beyonds encounter of the week archive - https://www.dndbeyond.com/tag/encounter-of-the-week
edit - I just noticed there is also a Essentials kit if you google "d&d starter set vs essentials kit" you'll find a load of info as to which might be more appropriate for you
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
I talked her into it by describing why i like it, build/encourages imagination, involves problem solving, team building, etc... and how I thought, when she was old enough, it would be a great tool for raising our daughter. She agreed and I suggested it would be a great thing for all 3 of us to do together. Thank you for the suggestions, I'm in the middle of Mines for the first time, and I didn't realize the Esssentials kit was a 1 on 1 thing, this could be great!
I got my fiancee to start playing about a year and a half ago. I am not sure I would recommend starting your wife in a solo game. I had two guys I had been gameing with for several decades, and who she knew come over and game with us.
They helped her out far more then I think I could solo by demonstrating role playing, and explaing to her the rules as we went on the side rather then me having to stop the adventure to keep explaining to her what to do.
As far as quick adventures go I would agree that dragon of icepeak, or lost mines are your best bet.
The reason i was thinking solo game was because then there's no social awkwardness it's just me and her for her to learn in, then can hop in. No pressure. Unfortunately, we live in an area where physical games are next to impossible to get together. As far as demonstrating role playing, she's been watching some Critical Role with me, so she has plenty of exposure to that. Does that make my choice make more sense? If you guys still think putting her in a group would be better, she kinda knows a few of the guys in my roll20 game, I could talk to them. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to help her get started and love it.
Mmm... Just talk to your wife which would she prefer, one on one with you or join a roll20 with the guys? personally I think a one on one with ones life partner sounds like fun I'd certainly be tempted to run a DM PC just for the incharacter banter... in the end both of you are going to be the best judges of whats best for you both
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“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Makes perfect sense. You know your wife and can talk to her. The trouble with solo games and new players in general are they needed to be guided a lot. Think of a video game the first parts tend to be small and very linear, as the player gets a idea of what to do, it become more and more open. Some new players have no idea what to do, or even what they can do, so other players can help lead them along and ask them what they want to do and help them do it.
In your situation if you go solo I recommend doing a session zero between games, nothing formal, but talk about what she likes and where she sees her character going. The best solo game I ever played in my dm was one of my best friends, so between games we talked about my characters goals and motives, and each game session was set up to continue down the path I set. The caution is as a experienced player I was more then ready to drive the story from character development to the first game session to ten years latter when we did our last game session. A new player, i feel, will need to be guided a lot more.
I just did the same - although both me and my wife was completely new to DND - we just saw it in a store and thought hey, let's try it out.
We picked up the Essentials kit with the Dragon of Icespire Peak.
I read through all the rules and part of the adventure (enough to get started). We made her character together (she doesn't like to read a lot of rules so i did that for her). We made her Elf Wizard together and used the "Quick Builds" to help speed it along, but she had plenty of say in the decisions about what she wanted.
She then got a sidekick (a fighter to supplement her) and off we went. We decided to play 1-on-1 as to avoid any social awkwardness and also because we don't know anyone else lol).
We are now about 3 sessions in and she is absolutely LOVING it - we just took things slow, and i kinda explained everything to her as it went up - i didn't cover all the rules at first. Just bring up what options she have and kinda explain what she might do at first, but after that let her do as much as she can on her own.
BTW - do make sure the encounters are dumbed down A LOT - the combat encounters is far too crazy for a single person so i reduced the HP and dmg of all monsters to make sure she could handle it (was still dangerous though and once she dropped down to like 2 hp left).
As time went on she became much more creative. I remember one time she was facing a locked door that she wasn't supposed to be able to open yet (she was supposed to back away and go get something for the guy on the other side, who would then let her in). But she insisted on getting in. She tried breaking the door down (failed the roll), but then she did something extremely creative - she made a Mage Hand that i had described as being a little more "flexible" than a normal hand (kinda like a thick fog). She used the mage hand, to put a finger in the keyhole to drop the key down on the floor (she knew the key was in the keyhole because she tried to look through the keyhole and i just said she couldn't see anything because of the key). Anyways, the popped the key out, and she used a letter she had in her inventory from a background choice and held it under the door so the key dropped onto it, and then lided the key to her side of the door.
I don't know if you were supposed to be able to do this, but it was just so creative that i was just like.... "yeah i mean… yeah that works lol" - so make sure to reward these moments of creative problemsolving instead of just being strict to the adventure story.
All in all - make it fun for her :)
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My wife finally agreed to try DnD and I want to start her easy, I was thinking running a game just her and I would be good that way there's no pressure on her. I've done a tiny bit of Dming before, but not a ton. Is there any material out there for purchase that would be good for this type of thing? I'm not the most creative person and would struggle to build something of my own for us to play through.
There are a load of material for purchase the starter set LMoP (Lost Mine of Phandelver) campaign seems to be the official 5e larger intro campaign. Though I think it well worth your time having a look at D&D Beyonds encounter of the week archive - https://www.dndbeyond.com/tag/encounter-of-the-week
edit - I just noticed there is also a Essentials kit if you google "d&d starter set vs essentials kit" you'll find a load of info as to which might be more appropriate for you
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Dragons of Icespire Peak (Essentials Kit). And yeah, as BigLizard says, is this something she actually wants to do?
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I talked her into it by describing why i like it, build/encourages imagination, involves problem solving, team building, etc... and how I thought, when she was old enough, it would be a great tool for raising our daughter. She agreed and I suggested it would be a great thing for all 3 of us to do together. Thank you for the suggestions, I'm in the middle of Mines for the first time, and I didn't realize the Esssentials kit was a 1 on 1 thing, this could be great!
I got my fiancee to start playing about a year and a half ago. I am not sure I would recommend starting your wife in a solo game. I had two guys I had been gameing with for several decades, and who she knew come over and game with us.
They helped her out far more then I think I could solo by demonstrating role playing, and explaing to her the rules as we went on the side rather then me having to stop the adventure to keep explaining to her what to do.
As far as quick adventures go I would agree that dragon of icepeak, or lost mines are your best bet.
The reason i was thinking solo game was because then there's no social awkwardness it's just me and her for her to learn in, then can hop in. No pressure. Unfortunately, we live in an area where physical games are next to impossible to get together. As far as demonstrating role playing, she's been watching some Critical Role with me, so she has plenty of exposure to that. Does that make my choice make more sense? If you guys still think putting her in a group would be better, she kinda knows a few of the guys in my roll20 game, I could talk to them. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to help her get started and love it.
Mmm... Just talk to your wife which would she prefer, one on one with you or join a roll20 with the guys? personally I think a one on one with ones life partner sounds like fun I'd certainly be tempted to run a DM PC just for the incharacter banter... in the end both of you are going to be the best judges of whats best for you both
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Makes perfect sense. You know your wife and can talk to her. The trouble with solo games and new players in general are they needed to be guided a lot. Think of a video game the first parts tend to be small and very linear, as the player gets a idea of what to do, it become more and more open. Some new players have no idea what to do, or even what they can do, so other players can help lead them along and ask them what they want to do and help them do it.
In your situation if you go solo I recommend doing a session zero between games, nothing formal, but talk about what she likes and where she sees her character going. The best solo game I ever played in my dm was one of my best friends, so between games we talked about my characters goals and motives, and each game session was set up to continue down the path I set. The caution is as a experienced player I was more then ready to drive the story from character development to the first game session to ten years latter when we did our last game session. A new player, i feel, will need to be guided a lot more.
I just did the same - although both me and my wife was completely new to DND - we just saw it in a store and thought hey, let's try it out.
We picked up the Essentials kit with the Dragon of Icespire Peak.
I read through all the rules and part of the adventure (enough to get started). We made her character together (she doesn't like to read a lot of rules so i did that for her). We made her Elf Wizard together and used the "Quick Builds" to help speed it along, but she had plenty of say in the decisions about what she wanted.
She then got a sidekick (a fighter to supplement her) and off we went. We decided to play 1-on-1 as to avoid any social awkwardness and also because we don't know anyone else lol).
We are now about 3 sessions in and she is absolutely LOVING it - we just took things slow, and i kinda explained everything to her as it went up - i didn't cover all the rules at first. Just bring up what options she have and kinda explain what she might do at first, but after that let her do as much as she can on her own.
BTW - do make sure the encounters are dumbed down A LOT - the combat encounters is far too crazy for a single person so i reduced the HP and dmg of all monsters to make sure she could handle it (was still dangerous though and once she dropped down to like 2 hp left).
As time went on she became much more creative. I remember one time she was facing a locked door that she wasn't supposed to be able to open yet (she was supposed to back away and go get something for the guy on the other side, who would then let her in). But she insisted on getting in. She tried breaking the door down (failed the roll), but then she did something extremely creative - she made a Mage Hand that i had described as being a little more "flexible" than a normal hand (kinda like a thick fog). She used the mage hand, to put a finger in the keyhole to drop the key down on the floor (she knew the key was in the keyhole because she tried to look through the keyhole and i just said she couldn't see anything because of the key). Anyways, the popped the key out, and she used a letter she had in her inventory from a background choice and held it under the door so the key dropped onto it, and then lided the key to her side of the door.
I don't know if you were supposed to be able to do this, but it was just so creative that i was just like.... "yeah i mean… yeah that works lol" - so make sure to reward these moments of creative problemsolving instead of just being strict to the adventure story.
All in all - make it fun for her :)