So I have been curious for awhile now about dnd and wanted to play but i dont know anyone that plays and I live in a small town so no game shops within a hour or more. My kids are older now and They seem excited about it also but when we bought the dragon of ice spire peak they like myself seemed overwhelmed by the rules and just everything....it took hours to just make everyone's character. after that unfortunately I could see that the intresrt they had was fading....they still want to give it a shot so Im going to read the dm adventure book and try to run the game for them soon. I just think im only going to get one shot with them either its gonna have to be awesome and they love it and want to continue playing or they will be out. So i want to make sure im doing it right, i been watching tons of youtube but still have questions....like for example how do they know they need to search for something like a trap or treasure or whatever....am i supposed to say hey u might need to search...or be careful of traps? or do I just let the trap go off or let them pass by treasure? also similar question with combat as far as encounters....if they are traveling do i say goblins jump out and your surprised or say hey there might be danger around? how do you know who sees who first?
Sorry so many questions just Im really excited about it and want to play and eventually make my own world for them to play in theres just so many rules and get confusing as to how to carry out certain situations.....I watched videos of a short adventure a guy gave out as a example for a noob to run and it seems really good he pretty much tells how to run it and I thought about running that first instead of the ice spire peak to see how it goes over with them....this a good idea? thanks for all the help and advice in advance its much needed!
I was the same way when I started DMing a few months ago. If you aren’t sure about a specified either looks to the handbooks (not too much or else it may bog down game time) or just roll with it. Eventually you will get things right! Just roll with things and don’t get too bogged down in the rules just know the basic rules like ability checks, combat, etc.
Tip on icespire: I am DMing icespire peak currently and it’s a surprisingly hard module. I am about to have my final session. I’d recommending nerfing some enemy health sometimes. Oh yeah and the manticore is an easy high chance for a TPK so I’d recommend removing it’s multiattack saying level 1 or 2 PCs are going to be fighting it that are new to the game and could get one shot to 0 hp. You can ask me more if you need help on the module.
Edit: For clarification Icespire peak is medium difficulty mostly. Some parts of it are really hard though. I mentioned the manticore which there is a 2/3 chance of it being fought at levels 1-2 and a 1/3 for it to be fought at level 1 specifically depending on quest choices. Dragon barrow quest is not super hard and is quite late in the module but has a combat encounter that should keep players on their toes. The gold mine is hard if conflict is solved via combat although there is a high chance for conflict to be solved via role play too which balances it and encourages role playing. Axeholm has a high chance to become a TPK and is easily the deadliest thing in the module.
It's supposed to take hours to make everyone's character. Each character takes a good while, and if you make them all up together one at a time, then yes, this will take hours. That's not a problem. That's actually how it's supposed to work.
how do they know they need to search for something like a trap or treasure or whatever.
They don't know. They will learn from experience when they don't search and spring the trap and someone takes damage. Again, that's how it's supposed to be.
Fudge the rolls so the trap doesn't outright kill anyone, and let them learn the hard way. For me, at least, that was part of the fun of it. And in my day, traps were "save vs. something or die" At least now it's just stuff like, "You have the poisoned condition for 1 hour."
Since they are new players giving them some hints is appropriate, but remember Dragon of Icespire Peak is meant for starting players so, presumably, the authors did not make a killer dungeon out of it (I have not read it myself).
if they are traveling do i say goblins jump out and your surprised or say hey there might be danger around? how do you know who sees who first?
You say "Make a perception check" as appropriate. Then if they succeed maybe they see something like the ear of a goblin sticking out from behind a boulder, and hear some whispering along the side of the road behind the bushes. If they ignore it, the goblins get surprise. If they pursue it, no surprise.
For a lot of this you are going to have to just figure it out as you go. There is no "right way" to do this, and everyone has a different style.
Since you are working with kids you could try searching YouTube for "D&D with High School Students." The guy who does that is a school teacher who teaches his students how to play D&D and he explains everything and takes it nice and slowly.
And of course for more hardcore D&D advice you could try this:
It's supposed to take hours to make everyone's character. Each character takes a good while, and if you make them all up together one at a time, then yes, this will take hours. That's not a problem. That's actually how it's supposed to work.
how do they know they need to search for something like a trap or treasure or whatever.
They don't know. They will learn from experience when they don't search and spring the trap and someone takes damage. Again, that's how it's supposed to be.
Fudge the rolls so the trap doesn't outright kill anyone, and let them learn the hard way. For me, at least, that was part of the fun of it. And in my day, traps were "save vs. something or die" At least now it's just stuff like, "You have the poisoned condition for 1 hour."
Since they are new players giving them some hints is appropriate, but remember Dragon of Icespire Peak is meant for starting players so, presumably, the authors did not make a killer dungeon out of it (I have not read it myself).
if they are traveling do i say goblins jump out and your surprised or say hey there might be danger around? how do you know who sees who first?
You say "Make a perception check" as appropriate. Then if they succeed maybe they see something like the ear of a goblin sticking out from behind a boulder, and hear some whispering along the side of the road behind the bushes. If they ignore it, the goblins get surprise. If they pursue it, no surprise.
For a lot of this you are going to have to just figure it out as you go. There is no "right way" to do this, and everyone has a different style.
Since you are working with kids you could try searching YouTube for "D&D with High School Students." The guy who does that is a school teacher who teaches his students how to play D&D and he explains everything and takes it nice and slowly.
Thanks guys for all the great info that helps....like u said a lot I'll have to learn as I go just was trying to iron some of it out if possible. So like you said if they don't ask about traps it will just go off then....so say they are traveling long distance through a forest are they supposed to ask every turn for perception check or if not they might get in trouble?
Also traveling is another thing I didn't understand fully....like speed is the amount of squares they can move on a grid with each square being 5 ft...but on the back side of the map it's huge area how does that work if they r going long distances how many sqaures can they go on their turn or do they all travel as a group and how far can they go? Thanks again
I don't know how your adventure is done map-wise, but outdoors, you usually use a hexagonal map, and each hex is a large area, say 6 miles. The party can travel about 24 miles per day, or about 4 hexes. Traditionally if you are having them travel through hexes in the wilderness there would be only a small chance per hex that anything dangerous happens. Usually no more than once per travel day.
However, that sort of travel is "out of fashion" these days (called the "hex crawl") and many DMs prefer to just do a "travel montage." You describe the process of getting where they are going, and maybe there is one encounter on the way to spice things up.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I don't know how your adventure is done map-wise, but outdoors, you usually use a hexagonal map, and each hex is a large area, say 6 miles. The party can travel about 24 miles per day, or about 4 hexes. Traditionally if you are having them travel through hexes in the wilderness there would be only a small chance per hex that anything dangerous happens. Usually no more than once per travel day.
However, that sort of travel is "out of fashion" these days (called the "hex crawl") and many DMs prefer to just do a "travel montage." You describe the process of getting where they are going, and maybe there is one encounter on the way to spice things up.
So basically they just leave and show up to the next location in one day maybe with one encounter even if it's like a 3 or 4 day travel the reg way?
And they move the 4 hexes all together in one shot or one at a time if I was to do it that way? Then after the 4 what they sleep like a long rest and wait for morning ? Then all over again
I don't know how your adventure is done map-wise, but outdoors, you usually use a hexagonal map, and each hex is a large area, say 6 miles. The party can travel about 24 miles per day, or about 4 hexes. Traditionally if you are having them travel through hexes in the wilderness there would be only a small chance per hex that anything dangerous happens. Usually no more than once per travel day.
However, that sort of travel is "out of fashion" these days (called the "hex crawl") and many DMs prefer to just do a "travel montage." You describe the process of getting where they are going, and maybe there is one encounter on the way to spice things up.
1. So basically they just leave and show up to the next location in one day maybe with one encounter even if it's like a 3 or 4 day travel the reg way?
2. And they move the 4 hexes all together in one shot or one at a time if I was to do it that way? Then after the 4 what they sleep like a long rest and wait for morning ? Then all over again
More like you describe a day or two of travel, have a random encounter, describe the last day of travel and they arrive 3 days after they left, but it only takes about 20 minutes description and 1 encounter’s length of time. That encounter doesn’t have to be combat by they way, it could easily be a social encounter like helping a stranger or buying stuff from a carter (traveling salesperson). It’s to help with story pacing like in the movies when there’s a montage, then a quick scene, then the tail and of the montage, and then back to the story.
Generally we used to move them a hex, narrate a couple hours journey in a sentence or two, roll for random encounter. If there was one we would do it, narrate what happens, and then move them another hex, narrate, roll, rinse and repeat. Long rest camping that night, possibly another random encounter to interrupt their rest (to keep them depleted of HP or spell slots), and then the next day rinse and repeat some more. Old school players thought this was fun because it was for us. Younger players get tuned out with too much of that. It slows down the narrative pacing. Back then it was more about “the game” than it is today. Now it’s more about “the story” which is perfectly fine, just different is all.
Thanks thats good info....man I hope I can just keep everything on the right track and not mess it up....I mean it's just my kids but still lol
So when we roll for random encounter am I rolling for it or they are? Is it a certain die to use?
You roll, there are tables in the DMG. But you don’t actually have to roll if you don’t want to. You can pick something interesting and just roll a die behind the screen to make it look random.
Thanks thats good info....man I hope I can just keep everything on the right track and not mess it up....I mean it's just my kids but still lol
So when we roll for random encounter am I rolling for it or they are? Is it a certain die to use?
Random encounter will typically be listed in the adventure. It'll tell you what to roll, which is often percentile dice. Basically percentile dice are two d10s (one usually counts by 10s) that you roll together to come up with a number 1-100. You consult the table to see what encounter is called for and then resolve it. If you don't have the d10 that counts by 10s, simply roll the normal one twice with the first number counting as the 10s spot. If you get a double 10, call it 100. Any other 10 on the first can be 1-9.
Don't stress the rules right now. You'll make mistakes and that's fine. As long as everyone is having fun, you can progress fine and tool you'll get better with time. If you have a question about how something works during a session, notate the question, make a ruling, find out about it out of session, and let everyone know that's not how it was supposed to work. Then decide if you want to keep playing the way that you ruled it or the way the rules tell you to do it.
As long as you are having fun, you aren't doing it so wrong that you'll wreck anything.
Thanks thats good info....man I hope I can just keep everything on the right track and not mess it up....I mean it's just my kids but still lol
So when we roll for random encounter am I rolling for it or they are? Is it a certain die to use?
Random encounter will typically be listed in the adventure. It'll tell you what to roll, which is often percentile dice. Basically percentile dice are two d10s (one usually counts by 10s) that you roll together to come up with a number 1-100. You consult the table to see what encounter is called for and then resolve it. If you don't have the d10 that counts by 10s, simply roll the normal one twice with the first number counting as the 10s spot. If you get a double 10, call it 100. Any other 10 on the first can be 1-9.
Don't stress the rules right now. You'll make mistakes and that's fine. As long as everyone is having fun, you can progress fine and tool you'll get better with time. If you have a question about how something works during a session, notate the question, make a ruling, find out about it out of session, and let everyone know that's not how it was supposed to work. Then decide if you want to keep playing the way that you ruled it or the way the rules tell you to do it.
As long as you are having fun, you aren't doing it so wrong that you'll wreck anything.
Thanks thats good advice I'll try to just set something up this weekend if we all have time to set down for awhile. Thanks to all u guys for the help I appreciate it.
This was the video I found on YouTube as a adventure he sets up as a beginner dm he said should be done in around 3 hours. I wanted to try this first b4 the campaign of ice spire peak to see how they like it and all.
Thanks thats good info....man I hope I can just keep everything on the right track and not mess it up....I mean it's just my kids but still lol
So when we roll for random encounter am I rolling for it or they are? Is it a certain die to use?
Random encounter will typically be listed in the adventure. It'll tell you what to roll, which is often percentile dice. Basically percentile dice are two d10s (one usually counts by 10s) that you roll together to come up with a number 1-100. You consult the table to see what encounter is called for and then resolve it. If you don't have the d10 that counts by 10s, simply roll the normal one twice with the first number counting as the 10s spot. If you get a double 10, call it 100. Any other 10 on the first can be 1-9.
Don't stress the rules right now. You'll make mistakes and that's fine. As long as everyone is having fun, you can progress fine and tool you'll get better with time. If you have a question about how something works during a session, notate the question, make a ruling, find out about it out of session, and let everyone know that's not how it was supposed to work. Then decide if you want to keep playing the way that you ruled it or the way the rules tell you to do it.
As long as you are having fun, you aren't doing it so wrong that you'll wreck anything.
Thanks thats good advice I'll try to just set something up this weekend if we all have time to set down for awhile. Thanks to all u guys for the help I appreciate it.
This was the video I found on YouTube as a adventure he sets up as a beginner dm he said should be done in around 3 hours. I wanted to try this first b4 the campaign of ice spire peak to see how they like it and all.
You have stumbled upon a video series I usually recommend to new DMs. The link is in my sigline as the best advice I can give a new DM. If you watch that series, you will be better prepared than I was when I first started DMing.
The thing is you can do it however you want. There is no right or wrong way.
I believe in the old days every hex was a 1 day journey, so you rolled for 1 day of travel. On a roll of something like a 1 on 1d8, there was a random encounter. You then rolled on the wilderness encounter table for the type of terrain they were in (grassland, desert, mountain, etc.). But you don't have to do it that way and not many people do anymore.
I used to love it. Still would, as a player.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
So I ran the example adventure that Matt gave in his videos, for the most part it went as planned...my son is on 6 and for what he got of it he loves it and my daughter can't wait to play again...the other 2 enjoyed also but one didn't like her character (had bad stats she said lol).
But few things came up that I wanted to see if could get cleared up for sure.
1. Healing....I looked up in the phb and it says anyone can make a medicine check and if they beat a dc of 10 then they heal the person...but that person has HP of 0.
2. The person with 0 hp can they walk or they just laying their....I know they can't attack right? Can they be carried to safety?
3.resting....hp regained....u just roll ur hit dice and u gain that much back? They wanted to rest a lot tho haha but only one rest is aloud correct?
4. Initiative....so we already had the order down...but one goblin retreated to the tomb and went inside with other goblins to warn them....once the PC's went inside once they seen goblins again so we reroll initiative since they had lost sight?
All in all we learned and had fun as it was my first time dm so was Shakey but fun none the less and I believe they like it enough to continue on with the ice spire peak campaign. Thanks for answering questions in advance guys.
#1 is not healing. It is stabilizing. You stop the character from having to keep making death saving throw checks. They are now simply "unconscious" and can heal as normal (via spells, potions, or long rests). They stay at 0 hp until healed in some way, quote: "A stable creature doesn't make death saving throws, even though it has 0 hit points, but it does remain unconscious."
#2. 0 hp = unconscious. They can't do anything at 0 hp. The condition clearly states they can't move, speak, or interact with their surroundings.
#3 The hit dice are expended until you get them back so they can't do this indefinitely. If they were level 1, they had exactly 1 hit die. They could use it on a short rest but won't get it back until completing a long rest. They can do long rests (8 hours) no more than once/24 hour period. Short rests... I am not sure there is a rule, but I only allow 2 short rests per 1 long.
#4. That's a DM call. If you kept the combat going, no. If the combat basically ended and then started up again, yes. Depends on how you ran it. I would probably end the combat and start it up again and do a re-roll since it is essentially a new "encounter."
First time as DM is always shaky. So is 5th time. And 10th. It takes a while for this to be second nature.
Nice I wasn't far off on all that then lol....yes on the initiative I had them all re roll as I took it as a new encounter. So I also seen when unconscious they gain one hp with 1 d4 hours later. But how could they gain hp faster without doing that? Someone has to have spells? Also if they did it the hard way and waited the d4 hour(s)....once they had 1 HP do they then have to take a short rest to gain one hit die of hp back?
So I have been curious for awhile now about dnd and wanted to play but i dont know anyone that plays and I live in a small town so no game shops within a hour or more. My kids are older now and They seem excited about it also but when we bought the dragon of ice spire peak they like myself seemed overwhelmed by the rules and just everything....it took hours to just make everyone's character. after that unfortunately I could see that the intresrt they had was fading....they still want to give it a shot so Im going to read the dm adventure book and try to run the game for them soon. I just think im only going to get one shot with them either its gonna have to be awesome and they love it and want to continue playing or they will be out. So i want to make sure im doing it right, i been watching tons of youtube but still have questions....like for example how do they know they need to search for something like a trap or treasure or whatever....am i supposed to say hey u might need to search...or be careful of traps? or do I just let the trap go off or let them pass by treasure? also similar question with combat as far as encounters....if they are traveling do i say goblins jump out and your surprised or say hey there might be danger around? how do you know who sees who first?
Sorry so many questions just Im really excited about it and want to play and eventually make my own world for them to play in theres just so many rules and get confusing as to how to carry out certain situations.....I watched videos of a short adventure a guy gave out as a example for a noob to run and it seems really good he pretty much tells how to run it and I thought about running that first instead of the ice spire peak to see how it goes over with them....this a good idea? thanks for all the help and advice in advance its much needed!
I was the same way when I started DMing a few months ago. If you aren’t sure about a specified either looks to the handbooks (not too much or else it may bog down game time) or just roll with it. Eventually you will get things right! Just roll with things and don’t get too bogged down in the rules just know the basic rules like ability checks, combat, etc.
Tip on icespire: I am DMing icespire peak currently and it’s a surprisingly hard module. I am about to have my final session. I’d recommending nerfing some enemy health sometimes. Oh yeah and the manticore is an easy high chance for a TPK so I’d recommend removing it’s multiattack saying level 1 or 2 PCs are going to be fighting it that are new to the game and could get one shot to 0 hp. You can ask me more if you need help on the module.
Edit: For clarification Icespire peak is medium difficulty mostly. Some parts of it are really hard though. I mentioned the manticore which there is a 2/3 chance of it being fought at levels 1-2 and a 1/3 for it to be fought at level 1 specifically depending on quest choices. Dragon barrow quest is not super hard and is quite late in the module but has a combat encounter that should keep players on their toes. The gold mine is hard if conflict is solved via combat although there is a high chance for conflict to be solved via role play too which balances it and encourages role playing. Axeholm has a high chance to become a TPK and is easily the deadliest thing in the module.
It's supposed to take hours to make everyone's character. Each character takes a good while, and if you make them all up together one at a time, then yes, this will take hours. That's not a problem. That's actually how it's supposed to work.
They don't know. They will learn from experience when they don't search and spring the trap and someone takes damage. Again, that's how it's supposed to be.
Fudge the rolls so the trap doesn't outright kill anyone, and let them learn the hard way. For me, at least, that was part of the fun of it. And in my day, traps were "save vs. something or die" At least now it's just stuff like, "You have the poisoned condition for 1 hour."
Since they are new players giving them some hints is appropriate, but remember Dragon of Icespire Peak is meant for starting players so, presumably, the authors did not make a killer dungeon out of it (I have not read it myself).
You say "Make a perception check" as appropriate. Then if they succeed maybe they see something like the ear of a goblin sticking out from behind a boulder, and hear some whispering along the side of the road behind the bushes. If they ignore it, the goblins get surprise. If they pursue it, no surprise.
For a lot of this you are going to have to just figure it out as you go. There is no "right way" to do this, and everyone has a different style.
Since you are working with kids you could try searching YouTube for "D&D with High School Students." The guy who does that is a school teacher who teaches his students how to play D&D and he explains everything and takes it nice and slowly.
And of course for more hardcore D&D advice you could try this:
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Yeah that’s good info for him to know too! :D
Thanks guys for all the great info that helps....like u said a lot I'll have to learn as I go just was trying to iron some of it out if possible. So like you said if they don't ask about traps it will just go off then....so say they are traveling long distance through a forest are they supposed to ask every turn for perception check or if not they might get in trouble?
Also traveling is another thing I didn't understand fully....like speed is the amount of squares they can move on a grid with each square being 5 ft...but on the back side of the map it's huge area how does that work if they r going long distances how many sqaures can they go on their turn or do they all travel as a group and how far can they go? Thanks again
I don't know how your adventure is done map-wise, but outdoors, you usually use a hexagonal map, and each hex is a large area, say 6 miles. The party can travel about 24 miles per day, or about 4 hexes. Traditionally if you are having them travel through hexes in the wilderness there would be only a small chance per hex that anything dangerous happens. Usually no more than once per travel day.
However, that sort of travel is "out of fashion" these days (called the "hex crawl") and many DMs prefer to just do a "travel montage." You describe the process of getting where they are going, and maybe there is one encounter on the way to spice things up.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
So basically they just leave and show up to the next location in one day maybe with one encounter even if it's like a 3 or 4 day travel the reg way?
And they move the 4 hexes all together in one shot or one at a time if I was to do it that way? Then after the 4 what they sleep like a long rest and wait for morning ? Then all over again
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Thanks thats good info....man I hope I can just keep everything on the right track and not mess it up....I mean it's just my kids but still lol
So when we roll for random encounter am I rolling for it or they are? Is it a certain die to use?
You roll, there are tables in the DMG. But you don’t actually have to roll if you don’t want to. You can pick something interesting and just roll a die behind the screen to make it look random.
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Random encounter will typically be listed in the adventure. It'll tell you what to roll, which is often percentile dice. Basically percentile dice are two d10s (one usually counts by 10s) that you roll together to come up with a number 1-100. You consult the table to see what encounter is called for and then resolve it. If you don't have the d10 that counts by 10s, simply roll the normal one twice with the first number counting as the 10s spot. If you get a double 10, call it 100. Any other 10 on the first can be 1-9.
Don't stress the rules right now. You'll make mistakes and that's fine. As long as everyone is having fun, you can progress fine and tool you'll get better with time. If you have a question about how something works during a session, notate the question, make a ruling, find out about it out of session, and let everyone know that's not how it was supposed to work. Then decide if you want to keep playing the way that you ruled it or the way the rules tell you to do it.
As long as you are having fun, you aren't doing it so wrong that you'll wreck anything.
Thanks thats good advice I'll try to just set something up this weekend if we all have time to set down for awhile. Thanks to all u guys for the help I appreciate it.
This was the video I found on YouTube as a adventure he sets up as a beginner dm he said should be done in around 3 hours. I wanted to try this first b4 the campaign of ice spire peak to see how they like it and all.
https://youtu.be/zTD2RZz6mlo
You have stumbled upon a video series I usually recommend to new DMs. The link is in my sigline as the best advice I can give a new DM. If you watch that series, you will be better prepared than I was when I first started DMing.
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The thing is you can do it however you want. There is no right or wrong way.
I believe in the old days every hex was a 1 day journey, so you rolled for 1 day of travel. On a roll of something like a 1 on 1d8, there was a random encounter. You then rolled on the wilderness encounter table for the type of terrain they were in (grassland, desert, mountain, etc.). But you don't have to do it that way and not many people do anymore.
I used to love it. Still would, as a player.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Neither of us get this point, they found it themselves.
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That's not true. Post #3 in this thread I linked to Running the Game.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
So I ran the example adventure that Matt gave in his videos, for the most part it went as planned...my son is on 6 and for what he got of it he loves it and my daughter can't wait to play again...the other 2 enjoyed also but one didn't like her character (had bad stats she said lol).
But few things came up that I wanted to see if could get cleared up for sure.
1. Healing....I looked up in the phb and it says anyone can make a medicine check and if they beat a dc of 10 then they heal the person...but that person has HP of 0.
2. The person with 0 hp can they walk or they just laying their....I know they can't attack right? Can they be carried to safety?
3.resting....hp regained....u just roll ur hit dice and u gain that much back? They wanted to rest a lot tho haha but only one rest is aloud correct?
4. Initiative....so we already had the order down...but one goblin retreated to the tomb and went inside with other goblins to warn them....once the PC's went inside once they seen goblins again so we reroll initiative since they had lost sight?
All in all we learned and had fun as it was my first time dm so was Shakey but fun none the less and I believe they like it enough to continue on with the ice spire peak campaign. Thanks for answering questions in advance guys.
#1 is not healing. It is stabilizing. You stop the character from having to keep making death saving throw checks. They are now simply "unconscious" and can heal as normal (via spells, potions, or long rests). They stay at 0 hp until healed in some way, quote: "A stable creature doesn't make death saving throws, even though it has 0 hit points, but it does remain unconscious."
#2. 0 hp = unconscious. They can't do anything at 0 hp. The condition clearly states they can't move, speak, or interact with their surroundings.
#3 The hit dice are expended until you get them back so they can't do this indefinitely. If they were level 1, they had exactly 1 hit die. They could use it on a short rest but won't get it back until completing a long rest. They can do long rests (8 hours) no more than once/24 hour period. Short rests... I am not sure there is a rule, but I only allow 2 short rests per 1 long.
#4. That's a DM call. If you kept the combat going, no. If the combat basically ended and then started up again, yes. Depends on how you ran it. I would probably end the combat and start it up again and do a re-roll since it is essentially a new "encounter."
First time as DM is always shaky. So is 5th time. And 10th. It takes a while for this to be second nature.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Nice I wasn't far off on all that then lol....yes on the initiative I had them all re roll as I took it as a new encounter. So I also seen when unconscious they gain one hp with 1 d4 hours later. But how could they gain hp faster without doing that? Someone has to have spells? Also if they did it the hard way and waited the d4 hour(s)....once they had 1 HP do they then have to take a short rest to gain one hit die of hp back?
Other than spells or healing potions you just have to wait and rest. After you have 1 hp, all normal resting rules apply.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.