I'm soon-to-be a new DM for this edition of D&D and I've never done this before. I have played games like Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale but I must admit I never really understood the rules or the numbers; Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 were more my thing. I have played in a few in-person RPG groups with a weekly Pathfinder group lasting almost 2 years taking my sorcerer from level 1 to level 8 before the group dissolved. I have also played in a handful of Star Wars RPG (FFG) games. So far, my experience has been as a player.
My eldest son is quite interested in D&D but I'm not sure if it's really him interested or because of his friends being interested and they initially had a school group starting a weekly game night as a school club but somehow that didn't go through. He said they didn't have the books and the person who did kind of didn't participate after the 2nd or 3rd week. Apparently, he and his friends just fudged everything after that sans books or rules. Since he's showing this level of interest, I decided to go ahead and buy the 3 books (player's handbood, DM guide, monster manual) and they're due to arrive today from Amazon. This is where I'm going to start needing help.
I wonder if the rulebooks have an adventure included in them? A beginner story perhaps? If not, I'm looking for a simple adventure that can bring my players up from level 1 to maybe level 3 or level 5. I'm not really sure what I want here but just want them to be able to level up their characters and feel their new powers in one storyline. Is there a free or paid adventure module you guys can recommend?
I will be playing with my two sons ages 14 and 8 and possibly the wife if she's so inclined so what would be the best types of characters for a 2-player or 3-player party? I'm thinking I could have a 3-player party with my eldest or myself controlling the 3rd character if the wife doesn't want to play; 2-player party seems too weak and won't cover all the bases. As these are young boys, I expect little conversation or intrigue and more of screaming and sword-fighting, but I'd like some traps and puzzles too so they can start branching out from just gaining XP for kills. What would be an ideal 3-player group characters? I wouldn't mind if it was the age-old human/fighter, elf/sorcerer, halfling/rogue combo if that were ideal; my players are new and wouldn't mind, I think. My boys play a lot of computer games (minecraft, whatever else is popular) but we also play a few board games so I know they can handle the info they need to play.
As a new DM, I fully expect to be swamped with loads of information. It was fun just looking at my character sheet and planning which spell next to cast but I'm expecting the DM experience to be much, much different. Are there any tools (aside from a trusty notebook) that I would need to be looking at straight away?
Apologies for the wall of text but thanks for reading! I hope someone can help me make my boys' D&D experience something they will remember for a long time to come, and hopefully help me not to stumble over my own feet as a DM. Thanks!
Getting the 3 core books is good, but you won't be getting the starter adventure you mentioned wanting. There is a D&D Starter Kit which includes a very good adventure, Premade PCs, and a condensed, but accurate version of the rules. It is a good buy, if you still have funds for D&D after the recent purchases, I think I found it for less than $20 after shipping on Amazon. If not, look into the DM's Guild for adventures that would fit your needs.
I guess I should've included that in my shopping list! I think I watched a unboxing video of the Starter Set on YT and they said it wasn't worth it so I didn't bother. I'm guessing you're talking about the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure? I have a local game shop where I can pick it up easily, works out the same cost as Amazon when I factor in shipping, but I realize the adventure is also available online here on D&D Beyond... what exactly does buying it from D&D Beyond do for me? I obviously would need to print out the character sheets and maybe even the adventure (I prefer physical copies I can write/stick notes on), so that puts the online version at a disadvantage from the print version.
As for the DM Guild, I think I wouldn't really know where to start or if any of them are compatible with a 2-3 player group or not.
Yeah, the LMoP adventure is the one I am referring to. As to it not being worth it, that depends on your needs. Yes, the game information contained inside the Starter kit is limited, but it is accurate for what most groups need to know. Buying it online gets you access to easily printed maps and handouts, as well as a searchable format. So, it really is up to taste. I have the Legendary Bundle, and still buy physical copies because I prefer to read them in hand. When I game I have both the iPad and Books out and juggle between them.
As to the DM Guild, just do a quick search and come up with a few choices that will fit your needs, 2-3 player groups are easily handled. In fact, I run a quite successful game One on One, that has reached mid Tier Three play.
What sort of characters do your wife and kids want to play? You can make due with a party of three as long as you have at least one person who casts spells, one who heals, and one who can be a bit more tanky and keep monsters at bay. Lots of classes fit into that dynamic, so it doesn't have to shake out to a Wizard, Cleric, Fighter party if your family isn't interested in those classes.
As for adventures, there are several back-log free D&D Adventure League games you could get, likely from your local game shop if they bothered saving them. Failing that, shoot me a pm and I can get you access to the pdf files since, as an AL DM, I sort of collect them for situations like this.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Thank you for that info, Hawksmoor! Unfortunately, I'm not quite that familiar with this so some of what you said didn't quite click. As far as I know, buying the physical starter set will only really give me the adventure and the set of dice; the rule book within can probably be a quick guide but I guess reading the player's handbook or DM guide would be better and more complete. The character sheets are available for free online so I can print those.
Can you tell me more regarding the printable maps and handouts, specifically for the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure? This may be something that I'd be really interested in. I remember my Pathfinder DM having to cover parts of his adventure module so that we can only see the map and not the rest of the story plus being able to share some of the cool artwork with the players without having to awkwardly cover the module would be great! I do have a color laser printer so printing stuff out would not be an issue.
Metamongoose, thanks for your reply! I'm not exactly sure what characters they'd want to play and I think they won't know anyway. I was actually planning to sit them down on game night and surprise them with a D&D adventure instead of our other board games! Tada!! As I said, they're even newer than I am so the usual character types won't be boring; I don't think we'd need a half-orc rogue-archer to keep things interesting!
I am quite interested in your Adventure League suggestion even though I have no idea what that is! If you have anything for starting characters or early-adventure characters, I'd be grateful for anything you can share. While I'd love to get your collection, I fear I won't know what to do with them and will just be overwhelmed! I think I may start my journey with the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure path and see where it takes us from there. Please check PM!
The good thing about 5e is that they made it very pliable in terms of party makeup. It's a bit tougher to calculate fights because the challenge rating system is based on a party of 4, but keeping groups of baddies at half the normal power for a party of two is doable. Classes are pretty formidable, too, in terms of not needing one of each. Makes it a lot easier for everyone to play what they want rather than "I guess I'll be a cleric because no one wants to play healer."
As far as starter modules, Lost Mines is good for new players. Another good starter is Sunless Citadel, which is in the Tales from the Yawning Portal book. I'd say for prewritten those are two good picks. I'd also suggest one called Wizard in a Bottle, which I think is for free in an older issue of Dragon Plus. Short, quick, lots of small incounters that make thing feel tough without being too actually deadly
That's one of my concerns, actually. How do I edit campaigns/missions that assumes 4-player parties? What happens if the story calls for a trapped chest and my party doesn't have a rogue? I'm assuming that enemies are balanced against 4 players, how do I adjust them for three or two players? I presume the answers to these questions are on the DM guide?
Yes, and most smaller published adventures will have something like a scale side-bar to let you know how to adjust things. It looks something like this:
Adjusting the Adventure Throughout this adventure, you may see sidebars to help you make adjustments to this adventure for smaller/larger groups and characters, of higher/lower levels that the optimized group size. Most of the time, this is used for combat encounters.
You may adjust the adventure beyond the guidelines given in the adventure, or for other reasons. For example, if you’re playing with a group of inexperienced players, you might want to make the adventure a little easier; for very experienced players, you might want to make it a little harder. Therefore, five categories of party strength have been created for you to use as a guide.
Use these as a guide, and feel free to use a different adjustment during the adventure if the recommended party strength feels off for the group.
This adventure is optimized for a party of five 1st- level characters. To figure out whether you need to adjust the adventure, do the following:
Add up the total levels of all the characters
Divide the total by the number of characters
Round fractions of .5 or greater up; round fractions of less than .5 down
You’ve now determined the average party level (APL) for the adventure. To figure out the party strength for the adventure, consult the following table.
Determining Party Strength
Party Composition Party Strength 3-4 characters, APL equivalent Weak 3-4 characters, APL greater than Average 5 characters, APL equivalent Average 5 characters, APL greater than Strong 6-7 characters, APL equivalent Strong 6-7 characters, APL greater than Very strong
Average party strength indicates no recommended adjustments to the adventure. Each sidebar may or may not offer suggestions for certain party strengths. If a particular recommendation is not offered for your group, you don’t have to make adjustments.
And then later in the adventure you'll see sidebars like this:
Adjusting the Encounter Here are recommendations for adjusting this combat encounter. These are not cumulative. In addition, you can add one or two of the half-orc’s racial traits to the thug statistics if you have access to a Player’s Handbook, although this is not necessary.
Weak party: remove the two bandits waiting outside with the thug
Strong party: add one bandit in the loft
Very strong party: change one of the bandits in the loft into a human thug
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
I just got the Lost Mine of Phandelver on D&D Beyond and.... I'm lost. I guess I was expecting a PDF version of the book that comes in the Starter Set box but instead, I get something that I don't think I can print out.
Just got my Amazon order. Quickly followed by some pictures taken and a brief chat with the Customer Service team and I'm having a new set of books sent out tomorrow. Lazy packaging meant the books were jostled around in transit and arrived with bent corners. Small issues, some may say, but I perfer my books in mint condition and do my own damage to them, thanks! Hopefully the ones coming tomorrow will be in better shape! This is my first time having issues with Amazon but I'm glad I don't have to pay for the return postage.
That's one of my concerns, actually. How do I edit campaigns/missions that assumes 4-player parties? What happens if the story calls for a trapped chest and my party doesn't have a rogue? I'm assuming that enemies are balanced against 4 players, how do I adjust them for three or two players? I presume the answers to these questions are on the DM guide?
It isn’t that hard to adjust. Reduce mob numbers a bit, or reduce hit points. As to the chest, plan ahead, if they don’t have a thief, maybe they can just bust it open.
On p. 82 of the DMG are the rules for XP budgeting; these are vital. build your encounter around these rules and the stat blocks in the MM, and you're golden.
Is there any other way to access the adventures aside from Compendium > Adventures > Lost Mine of Phandelver ?? I'm just hoping against hope that a different access method might yeild a better reading format.
Unfortunately, copy-pasting to Word loses all formatting; printing to PDF is slightly better. I'm going to buy the Starter Set anyway to see how the real stuff is laid out. I'm disappointed in how it's presented in the Compendium; I guess I expected a PDF version of the print copy.
A quick browse through and I'm impressed with at least the detail and resolution of the maps. At the very least, I thought I could use the digital version to print out handouts but it looks like I can print out these maps to scale and be able to use them with minis or paper standups. I'll have to see if I can work with a laptop or tablet as I DM to justify the extra cost of buying an adventure *again* in D&D Beyond.
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Greetings fellow DMs!
I'm soon-to-be a new DM for this edition of D&D and I've never done this before. I have played games like Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale but I must admit I never really understood the rules or the numbers; Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 were more my thing. I have played in a few in-person RPG groups with a weekly Pathfinder group lasting almost 2 years taking my sorcerer from level 1 to level 8 before the group dissolved. I have also played in a handful of Star Wars RPG (FFG) games. So far, my experience has been as a player.
My eldest son is quite interested in D&D but I'm not sure if it's really him interested or because of his friends being interested and they initially had a school group starting a weekly game night as a school club but somehow that didn't go through. He said they didn't have the books and the person who did kind of didn't participate after the 2nd or 3rd week. Apparently, he and his friends just fudged everything after that sans books or rules. Since he's showing this level of interest, I decided to go ahead and buy the 3 books (player's handbood, DM guide, monster manual) and they're due to arrive today from Amazon. This is where I'm going to start needing help.
I wonder if the rulebooks have an adventure included in them? A beginner story perhaps? If not, I'm looking for a simple adventure that can bring my players up from level 1 to maybe level 3 or level 5. I'm not really sure what I want here but just want them to be able to level up their characters and feel their new powers in one storyline. Is there a free or paid adventure module you guys can recommend?
I will be playing with my two sons ages 14 and 8 and possibly the wife if she's so inclined so what would be the best types of characters for a 2-player or 3-player party? I'm thinking I could have a 3-player party with my eldest or myself controlling the 3rd character if the wife doesn't want to play; 2-player party seems too weak and won't cover all the bases. As these are young boys, I expect little conversation or intrigue and more of screaming and sword-fighting, but I'd like some traps and puzzles too so they can start branching out from just gaining XP for kills. What would be an ideal 3-player group characters? I wouldn't mind if it was the age-old human/fighter, elf/sorcerer, halfling/rogue combo if that were ideal; my players are new and wouldn't mind, I think. My boys play a lot of computer games (minecraft, whatever else is popular) but we also play a few board games so I know they can handle the info they need to play.
As a new DM, I fully expect to be swamped with loads of information. It was fun just looking at my character sheet and planning which spell next to cast but I'm expecting the DM experience to be much, much different. Are there any tools (aside from a trusty notebook) that I would need to be looking at straight away?
Apologies for the wall of text but thanks for reading! I hope someone can help me make my boys' D&D experience something they will remember for a long time to come, and hopefully help me not to stumble over my own feet as a DM. Thanks!
Good day and welcome to the forums,
Getting the 3 core books is good, but you won't be getting the starter adventure you mentioned wanting. There is a D&D Starter Kit which includes a very good adventure, Premade PCs, and a condensed, but accurate version of the rules. It is a good buy, if you still have funds for D&D after the recent purchases, I think I found it for less than $20 after shipping on Amazon. If not, look into the DM's Guild for adventures that would fit your needs.
Thank you for the welcome! :)
I guess I should've included that in my shopping list! I think I watched a unboxing video of the Starter Set on YT and they said it wasn't worth it so I didn't bother. I'm guessing you're talking about the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure? I have a local game shop where I can pick it up easily, works out the same cost as Amazon when I factor in shipping, but I realize the adventure is also available online here on D&D Beyond... what exactly does buying it from D&D Beyond do for me? I obviously would need to print out the character sheets and maybe even the adventure (I prefer physical copies I can write/stick notes on), so that puts the online version at a disadvantage from the print version.
As for the DM Guild, I think I wouldn't really know where to start or if any of them are compatible with a 2-3 player group or not.
Yeah, the LMoP adventure is the one I am referring to. As to it not being worth it, that depends on your needs. Yes, the game information contained inside the Starter kit is limited, but it is accurate for what most groups need to know. Buying it online gets you access to easily printed maps and handouts, as well as a searchable format. So, it really is up to taste. I have the Legendary Bundle, and still buy physical copies because I prefer to read them in hand. When I game I have both the iPad and Books out and juggle between them.
As to the DM Guild, just do a quick search and come up with a few choices that will fit your needs, 2-3 player groups are easily handled. In fact, I run a quite successful game One on One, that has reached mid Tier Three play.
What sort of characters do your wife and kids want to play? You can make due with a party of three as long as you have at least one person who casts spells, one who heals, and one who can be a bit more tanky and keep monsters at bay. Lots of classes fit into that dynamic, so it doesn't have to shake out to a Wizard, Cleric, Fighter party if your family isn't interested in those classes.
As for adventures, there are several back-log free D&D Adventure League games you could get, likely from your local game shop if they bothered saving them. Failing that, shoot me a pm and I can get you access to the pdf files since, as an AL DM, I sort of collect them for situations like this.
Thank you for that info, Hawksmoor! Unfortunately, I'm not quite that familiar with this so some of what you said didn't quite click. As far as I know, buying the physical starter set will only really give me the adventure and the set of dice; the rule book within can probably be a quick guide but I guess reading the player's handbook or DM guide would be better and more complete. The character sheets are available for free online so I can print those.
Can you tell me more regarding the printable maps and handouts, specifically for the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure? This may be something that I'd be really interested in. I remember my Pathfinder DM having to cover parts of his adventure module so that we can only see the map and not the rest of the story plus being able to share some of the cool artwork with the players without having to awkwardly cover the module would be great! I do have a color laser printer so printing stuff out would not be an issue.
Metamongoose, thanks for your reply! I'm not exactly sure what characters they'd want to play and I think they won't know anyway. I was actually planning to sit them down on game night and surprise them with a D&D adventure instead of our other board games! Tada!! As I said, they're even newer than I am so the usual character types won't be boring; I don't think we'd need a half-orc rogue-archer to keep things interesting!
I am quite interested in your Adventure League suggestion even though I have no idea what that is! If you have anything for starting characters or early-adventure characters, I'd be grateful for anything you can share. While I'd love to get your collection, I fear I won't know what to do with them and will just be overwhelmed! I think I may start my journey with the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure path and see where it takes us from there. Please check PM!
The good thing about 5e is that they made it very pliable in terms of party makeup. It's a bit tougher to calculate fights because the challenge rating system is based on a party of 4, but keeping groups of baddies at half the normal power for a party of two is doable. Classes are pretty formidable, too, in terms of not needing one of each. Makes it a lot easier for everyone to play what they want rather than "I guess I'll be a cleric because no one wants to play healer."
As far as starter modules, Lost Mines is good for new players. Another good starter is Sunless Citadel, which is in the Tales from the Yawning Portal book. I'd say for prewritten those are two good picks. I'd also suggest one called Wizard in a Bottle, which I think is for free in an older issue of Dragon Plus. Short, quick, lots of small incounters that make thing feel tough without being too actually deadly
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
That's one of my concerns, actually. How do I edit campaigns/missions that assumes 4-player parties? What happens if the story calls for a trapped chest and my party doesn't have a rogue? I'm assuming that enemies are balanced against 4 players, how do I adjust them for three or two players? I presume the answers to these questions are on the DM guide?
Yes, and most smaller published adventures will have something like a scale side-bar to let you know how to adjust things. It looks something like this:
Adjusting the Adventure
Throughout this adventure, you may see sidebars to help you make adjustments to this adventure for smaller/larger groups and characters, of higher/lower levels that the optimized group size. Most of the time, this is used for combat encounters.
You may adjust the adventure beyond the guidelines given in the adventure, or for other reasons. For example, if you’re playing with a group of inexperienced players, you might want to make the adventure a little easier; for very experienced players, you might want to make it a little harder. Therefore, five categories of party strength have been created for you to use as a guide.
Use these as a guide, and feel free to use a different adjustment during the adventure if the recommended party strength feels off for the group.
This adventure is optimized for a party of five 1st- level characters. To figure out whether you need to adjust the adventure, do the following:
You’ve now determined the average party level (APL) for the adventure. To figure out the party strength for the adventure, consult the following table.
Determining Party Strength
Party Composition Party Strength
3-4 characters, APL equivalent Weak
3-4 characters, APL greater than Average
5 characters, APL equivalent Average
5 characters, APL greater than Strong
6-7 characters, APL equivalent Strong
6-7 characters, APL greater than Very strong
Average party strength indicates no recommended adjustments to the adventure. Each sidebar may or may not offer suggestions for certain party strengths. If a particular recommendation is not offered for your group, you don’t have to make adjustments.
And then later in the adventure you'll see sidebars like this:
Adjusting the Encounter
Here are recommendations for adjusting this combat encounter. These are not cumulative. In addition, you can add one or two of the half-orc’s racial traits to the thug statistics if you have access to a Player’s Handbook, although this is not necessary.
I just got the Lost Mine of Phandelver on D&D Beyond and.... I'm lost. I guess I was expecting a PDF version of the book that comes in the Starter Set box but instead, I get something that I don't think I can print out.
Just got my Amazon order. Quickly followed by some pictures taken and a brief chat with the Customer Service team and I'm having a new set of books sent out tomorrow. Lazy packaging meant the books were jostled around in transit and arrived with bent corners. Small issues, some may say, but I perfer my books in mint condition and do my own damage to them, thanks! Hopefully the ones coming tomorrow will be in better shape! This is my first time having issues with Amazon but I'm glad I don't have to pay for the return postage.
Will be reading/browsing these for now anyway.
-
Thanks EldritchPriest!
Does anyone know of a way to arrange the content of the Lost Mine of Phandelver so that I can print out the whole thing?
I just copy and paste everything into Word and print from there.
Is there any other way to access the adventures aside from Compendium > Adventures > Lost Mine of Phandelver ?? I'm just hoping against hope that a different access method might yeild a better reading format.
Unfortunately, not.
Unfortunately, copy-pasting to Word loses all formatting; printing to PDF is slightly better. I'm going to buy the Starter Set anyway to see how the real stuff is laid out. I'm disappointed in how it's presented in the Compendium; I guess I expected a PDF version of the print copy.
A quick browse through and I'm impressed with at least the detail and resolution of the maps. At the very least, I thought I could use the digital version to print out handouts but it looks like I can print out these maps to scale and be able to use them with minis or paper standups. I'll have to see if I can work with a laptop or tablet as I DM to justify the extra cost of buying an adventure *again* in D&D Beyond.