I am an old player and have a grandson who is interested in playing (11 YO) what is the best way to get him started that will not cost me (or his parents) a small fortune? Can I share my purchases with him or does he need his own account to get started?
Any purchases you make on D&D Beyond can be shared with other players you designate at no additional cost. The Quarantine Resources section https://www.dndbeyond.com/quarantine actually has a few free adventures as well.
Keep in mind that the physical books and DNDBeyond are made by separate companies. So if you buy the books, that doesn't give you access to anything on this site (besides the basic rules which are free), and vice versa.
I'd suggest first buying the print editions of the three core rulebooks (Player's Handbook Dungeon master's Guide, Monster Manual), but that's because I'm also an old player and prefer physical books. Another option would be to buy the Essentials Kit, which is more entry level, like the old style red box (and comes with dice). Then if you want to start using DNDBeyond, you can do it a la carte. If your grandson wants to make an elf ranger, you can buy just the elf stuff, and just the ranger stuff he actually wants, instead of the whole book. Then add on more parts as his interest grows. And any purchases you make can later be deducted if you want to buy the whole book. So if you buy the ranger class, and then later want to buy the whole players handbook, the amount you already paid for the ranger will be credited toward your PHB purchase. And as transmorpher said, you can share anything you purchase with your group.
Though, if you're an old player and willing to help him, you can print out a free version of a blank character sheet and fill it in yourself.
Add a character sheet. Fillable one is here > https://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/5E_CharacterSheet_Fillable.pdf Find a pencil, an eraser and a set of dice... You're good to go. Of course once you start playing, or your grandson does, you can expect the addiction to grow. But, on the positive side, it can make shopping for birthdays etc. much easier.
Merry Christmas my friend. You will get loads of time during the Christmas Break to work with him and the two of you can share it. Do you still have your old books?
As for getting started for low costs, yes, you can share content. In my case, our DM has shared his content with us in his campaign. But I like physical books too.
As for dice ... and you gotta have dice ... there are loads of online companies that make dice that are really awesome. Some of the more awesome sets are expensive, but there are loads of dice that are not. When we played a "few" years back, we had a d4, d6, d8, d12 and d20. We used the d20 to roll the d10 and we just dropped the "10s". But now players buy two d10, one labeled 0-9 and the other labeled 00-90. They are rolled together to give a percentage value. Also, many rolls now are completed with advantage or disadvantage where you need to roll 2-d20s and pick the better or worse value. So many players just buy 2-d20s. And then there are the damage dice, which are often multiple dice, like 2-d6 or 2-d8. As a result, many players would roll the d20 and all the damage dice in "one shake" to save time, and if they have a hit, the damage has already been rolled.
Now if you are an older player like me and are starting with a young lad, you probably don't want to fool around with online TTRPG systems, but there are many out there, and if he takes to it, he will eventually start doing this. These systems do what computers do all the time, they eliminate some of the tedium of keeping track of stuff, once you learn the system.
Enjoy the game all over again, my friend.
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I am an old player and have a grandson who is interested in playing (11 YO) what is the best way to get him started that will not cost me (or his parents) a small fortune? Can I share my purchases with him or does he need his own account to get started?
Any help is appriciated!
Any purchases you make on D&D Beyond can be shared with other players you designate at no additional cost. The Quarantine Resources section https://www.dndbeyond.com/quarantine actually has a few free adventures as well.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Keep in mind that the physical books and DNDBeyond are made by separate companies. So if you buy the books, that doesn't give you access to anything on this site (besides the basic rules which are free), and vice versa.
I'd suggest first buying the print editions of the three core rulebooks (Player's Handbook Dungeon master's Guide, Monster Manual), but that's because I'm also an old player and prefer physical books. Another option would be to buy the Essentials Kit, which is more entry level, like the old style red box (and comes with dice). Then if you want to start using DNDBeyond, you can do it a la carte. If your grandson wants to make an elf ranger, you can buy just the elf stuff, and just the ranger stuff he actually wants, instead of the whole book. Then add on more parts as his interest grows. And any purchases you make can later be deducted if you want to buy the whole book. So if you buy the ranger class, and then later want to buy the whole players handbook, the amount you already paid for the ranger will be credited toward your PHB purchase. And as transmorpher said, you can share anything you purchase with your group.
Though, if you're an old player and willing to help him, you can print out a free version of a blank character sheet and fill it in yourself.
All you need to start are the basic rules which can be downloaded for free from wizards of the coast here. https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules
Add a character sheet. Fillable one is here > https://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/5E_CharacterSheet_Fillable.pdf
Find a pencil, an eraser and a set of dice... You're good to go.
Of course once you start playing, or your grandson does, you can expect the addiction to grow. But, on the positive side, it can make shopping for birthdays etc. much easier.
Some of the stuff on DMs Guild is free, or pay what you want. So are you going to play in person or online?
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Starter Set and Essentials Kit are both under $20 currently on Amazon.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Merry Christmas my friend. You will get loads of time during the Christmas Break to work with him and the two of you can share it. Do you still have your old books?
As for getting started for low costs, yes, you can share content. In my case, our DM has shared his content with us in his campaign. But I like physical books too.
As for dice ... and you gotta have dice ... there are loads of online companies that make dice that are really awesome. Some of the more awesome sets are expensive, but there are loads of dice that are not. When we played a "few" years back, we had a d4, d6, d8, d12 and d20. We used the d20 to roll the d10 and we just dropped the "10s". But now players buy two d10, one labeled 0-9 and the other labeled 00-90. They are rolled together to give a percentage value. Also, many rolls now are completed with advantage or disadvantage where you need to roll 2-d20s and pick the better or worse value. So many players just buy 2-d20s. And then there are the damage dice, which are often multiple dice, like 2-d6 or 2-d8. As a result, many players would roll the d20 and all the damage dice in "one shake" to save time, and if they have a hit, the damage has already been rolled.
Now if you are an older player like me and are starting with a young lad, you probably don't want to fool around with online TTRPG systems, but there are many out there, and if he takes to it, he will eventually start doing this. These systems do what computers do all the time, they eliminate some of the tedium of keeping track of stuff, once you learn the system.
Enjoy the game all over again, my friend.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt