Me updating my spreadsheet as all the nerds reveal themselves

tandy miller said:

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Me updating my spreadsheet as all the nerds reveal themselves

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Gawd I'm a moron. I'm starting Balders gate 3 (based on DD5e rule set) and I'm lot on even how to create a character. (Yes I can follow a guide).

Long story short, how do y'all teach yourselves this sheet?

A B C or D?

redline248 said:

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A B C or D?

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Took me a second there.

Tex117 said:

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Gawd I'm a moron. I'm starting Balders gate 3 (based on DD5e rule set) and I'm lot on even how to create a character. (Yes I can follow a guide).

Long story short, how do y'all teach yourselves this sheet?

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BG3 is hard as sheet as well. Even on the easiest setting.

permabull said:

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BBRex said:

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AliasMan02 said:

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BBRex said:

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I reached out to a friend who was a big D&D fan as a kid and who has turned that into a career (he works as a game designer). His recommendation for a gift was this, if she doesn't have it.

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Essentials-Kit-Boxed/dp/0786966831/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2OR3KCMBELIO9&keywords=d%26d+beginner+set&qid=1701980222&sprefix=D%26D+beg%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-6

His second recommendation was to look for a local game shop and see if they run weekend sessions for kids. A lot of well-meaning parents buy the books, dice and material, but getting four or more family members together regularly to play can be difficult. A shop with weekend games takes the pressure off of family.

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That boxed set is for Dungeon Masters, though.

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If they plan to play at home with family, wouldn't that help? I'm assuming someone at the house would be DM.

(I haven't played in at least 30 years. My nerdy game of choice in high school was Star Fleet Battles, and I sucked at that.)

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This is correct... Someone will have to step up and run the campaign... I.e. be the dungeon master

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That is the difficult bit. A gamestore might have a group for kids. But TBH it is very difficult to find kid friendly games anywhere and as the mom you are either going to want to be there with her as she plays with a bunch of strangers or u are going to have to know the people she is playing with. A good DnD session is a minimum 3 hours and even that is kinda short. The best ones run a minimum of 4 hours. So you either need to be willing to play with her, or just hang out at the shop for 4 hours, or know the people and adults she is playing with. That is why I started a group at the local library....and even with that the library can only accommodate us for 2.5 hours....it makes it difficult.

What the library did to make sure parents would be okay with me was run a background check on me before I started running that group to make sure I wasn't some psycho. I have looked at the local game shops where I live and there are a few, but because DnD is a relatively low earner for the shop, and a single 4 hour game ties up ALOT of shop space they could be using for big money games like Warhammer, Pokmon, and MTG what most shops do is post contact info for people looking for a DnD group (kind of like the bulletin boards in college dorms). That means alot of those games will be run out of someone's private home- which can make you nervous especially with a kid and other people you don't know.

Everyone had good ideas for the DnD gear. That's easy. Alot of good stuff out there.

Starter sets- My recommendation is to get either the Lost Mines of Philandever Starter Set, or the Ice Spire Starter Set.

The most difficult thing for new PLAYERS is learning how to make a character. Both of these sets come with pre-made character sheets so whoever you have in your group can just pick up a sheet and play.

Whoever the DM is will need to learn how to DM this is difficult especially for someone who has never played the game before because the DM's three primary jobs are to
1) set the scene and the story so the players can interact with the world
2) play the NPC's
3) adjudicate the rules.

If the DM/GM doesn't know the rules the game falls apart. And with a 10 year old playing you should probably run a streamlined version of the game. My teenager that I run a game for was 12 when he started playing with my group and even at that age he had to be slow walked through many of the rules.

It just ends being alot of little things to remember that take awhile to get straight for someone new to the game.

In DND there is combat, interaction with the environment, and interaction with NPC's (non combat) that the DM has to craft for the players.....each has similar but different rules but it's important for the DM to be able to guide new players through these kinds of interactions so that the players can learn the rules. The fun part of DnD is that it is very open ended. Any behavior or action someone can do to solve a problem in real life can theoretically be done in DnD with the use of the dice rolls.......and then there's magic on top of that....so it can become ALOT to manage and teach if EVERYONE including the DM is new.

If you don't have anyone in your group that has played before you first need to get out the players handbook and the DM's guide and learn the rules. This is gonna take a week or two.

If ur doing one of the starter sets then you can skip over character creation sections of those books in the beginning although you will need to come back to then later on as characters level up.

This is getting LOOOOONG.....I told ya it would...so

If you want my 100% honest opinion- since the people offering to play with your daughter are all new and family, I would suggest starting by hiring a professional DM to take you through a short campaign as a group of family and friends.

This is going to be a little expensive if you pay for all of it out of pocket ($120 a session) but it would teach yall how to play, the professional dm can cater the campaign to the fact that ur daughter is 10.

And the DM will teach EVERYONE how to play.

If you do a short 4-6 session campaign you will learn ALOT about the game, you can watch the DM and how the DM does certain things, and by the end of it you or someone in your group will have enough knowledge to be able to at least get started down the path of being your group's DM.

Think of this ALOT like learning how to use firearms. You don't know what you don't know and therein lies the difficulty.

If you have a friend who goes to the range regularly and ur wanting to learn about firearms its easier to break into it. But if you know jack squat and have know gun toting friends you hire a pro and go to some classes to learn the basics. From there you can learn alot more on your own and you meet people and make friends with people who can teach u more than the intro class taught you.

Additionally, you can learn alot by watching DnD streamers or episodes of things like critical roll.

Critical roll will teach you alot about how to craft story as a DM and generally how character to character and character to environment interactions work.

It's a little heavy handed regarding the story- meaning there is alot of story and less action but it does teach you alot about how to set the scene which is one thing alot of DM's struggle with early on.

Nowadays alot of DM's try to be Matt Mercer (the dm from the critical roll streams) and so some of us more seasoned DnD players kind of gag at some of the story things. But the early episodes of critical roll are pretty typical DnD style stuff.

There is just so much with DnD that can overwhelm you and bog you down when you first start as a player, a person who has never played before just isn't going to be able to DM well enough to make it fun for everyone, your daughter included and it could turn what was well intended to abit of a slog.

Additionally a professional DM will usually do an intro session where they TEACH everyone how to play the game.

The good news is that with the internet these DM's can do this online. Everyone will just need a laptop and free to play software (usually a website called roll20) and ZOOM. It's very easy to figure out.

This would be my recommendation to start, then move on to trying to run your own games.

Ags4DaWin said:

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permabull said:

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BBRex said:

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AliasMan02 said:

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BBRex said:

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I reached out to a friend who was a big D&D fan as a kid and who has turned that into a career (he works as a game designer). His recommendation for a gift was this, if she doesn't have it.

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Essentials-Kit-Boxed/dp/0786966831/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2OR3KCMBELIO9&keywords=d%26d+beginner+set&qid=1701980222&sprefix=D%26D+beg%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-6

His second recommendation was to look for a local game shop and see if they run weekend sessions for kids. A lot of well-meaning parents buy the books, dice and material, but getting four or more family members together regularly to play can be difficult. A shop with weekend games takes the pressure off of family.

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That boxed set is for Dungeon Masters, though.

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If they plan to play at home with family, wouldn't that help? I'm assuming someone at the house would be DM.

(I haven't played in at least 30 years. My nerdy game of choice in high school was Star Fleet Battles, and I sucked at that.)

---

This is correct... Someone will have to step up and run the campaign... I.e. be the dungeon master

---

That is the difficult bit. A gamestore might have a group for kids. But TBH it is very difficult to find kid friendly games anywhere and as the mom you are either going to want to be there with her as she plays with a bunch of strangers or u are going to have to know the people she is playing with. A good DnD session is a minimum 3 hours and even that is kinda short. The best ones run a minimum of 4 hours. So you either need to be willing to play with her, or just hang out at the shop for 4 hours, or know the people and adults she is playing with. That is why I started a group at the local library....and even with that the library can only accommodate us for 2.5 hours....it makes it difficult.

What the library did to make sure parents would be okay with me was run a background check on me before I started running that group to make sure I wasn't some psycho. I have looked at the local game shops where I live and there are a few, but because DnD is a relatively low earner for the shop, and a single 4 hour game ties up ALOT of shop space they could be using for big money games like Warhammer, Pokmon, and MTG what most shops do is post contact info for people looking for a DnD group (kind of like the bulletin boards in college dorms). That means alot of those games will be run out of someone's private home- which can make you nervous especially with a kid and other people you don't know.

Everyone had good ideas for the DnD gear. That's easy. Alot of good stuff out there.

Starter sets- My recommendation is to get either the Lost Mines of Philandever Starter Set, or the Ice Spire Starter Set.

The most difficult thing for new PLAYERS is learning how to make a character. Both of these sets come with pre-made character sheets so whoever you have in your group can just pick up a sheet and play.

Whoever the DM is will need to learn how to DM this is difficult especially for someone who has never played the game before because the DM's three primary jobs are to
1) set the scene and the story so the players can interact with the world
2) play the NPC's
3) adjudicate the rules.

If the DM/GM doesn't know the rules the game falls apart. And with a 10 year old playing you should probably run a streamlined version of the game. My teenager that I run a game for was 12 when he started playing with my group and even at that age he had to be slow walked through many of the rules.

It just ends being alot of little things to remember that take awhile to get straight for someone new to the game.

In DND there is combat, interaction with the environment, and interaction with NPC's (non combat) that the DM has to craft for the players.....each has similar but different rules but it's important for the DM to be able to guide new players through these kinds of interactions so that the players can learn the rules. The fun part of DnD is that it is very open ended. Any behavior or action someone can do to solve a problem in real life can theoretically be done in DnD with the use of the dice rolls.......and then there's magic on top of that....so it can become ALOT to manage and teach if EVERYONE including the DM is new.

If you don't have anyone in your group that has played before you first need to get out the players handbook and the DM's guide and learn the rules. This is gonna take a week or two.

If ur doing one of the starter sets then you can skip over character creation sections of those books in the beginning although you will need to come back to then later on as characters level up.

This is getting LOOOOONG.....I told ya it would...so

If you want my 100% honest opinion- since the people offering to play with your daughter are all new and family, I would suggest starting by hiring a professional DM to take you through a short campaign as a group of family and friends.

This is going to be a little expensive if you pay for all of it out of pocket ($120 a session) but it would teach yall how to play, the professional dm can cater the campaign to the fact that ur daughter is 10.

And the DM will teach EVERYONE how to play.

If you do a short 4-6 session campaign you will learn ALOT about the game, you can watch the DM and how the DM does certain things, and by the end of it you or someone in your group will have enough knowledge to be able to at least get started down the path of being your group's DM.

Think of this ALOT like learning how to use firearms. You don't know what you don't know and therein lies the difficulty.

If you have a friend who goes to the range regularly and ur wanting to learn about firearms its easier to break into it. But if you know jack squat and have know gun toting friends you hire a pro and go to some classes to learn the basics. From there you can learn alot more on your own and you meet people and make friends with people who can teach u more than the intro class taught you.

Additionally, you can learn alot by watching DnD streamers or episodes of things like critical roll.

Critical roll will teach you alot about how to craft story as a DM and generally how character to character and character to environment interactions work.

It's a little heavy handed regarding the story- meaning there is alot of story and less action but it does teach you alot about how to set the scene which is one thing alot of DM's struggle with early on.

Nowadays alot of DM's try to be Matt Mercer (the dm from the critical roll streams) and so some of us more seasoned DnD players kind of gag at some of the story things. But the early episodes of critical roll are pretty typical DnD style stuff.

There is just so much with DnD that can overwhelm you and bog you down when you first start as a player, a person who has never played before just isn't going to be able to DM well enough to make it fun for everyone, your daughter included and it could turn what was well intended to abit of a slog.

Additionally a professional DM will usually do an intro session where they TEACH everyone how to play the game.

The good news is that with the internet these DM's can do this online. Everyone will just need a laptop and free to play software (usually a website called roll20) and ZOOM. It's very easy to figure out.

This would be my recommendation to start, then move on to trying to run your own games.

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Good lord. Incredibly informational post.

But gawd, Im nerdier for reading all of it.

BG3 isn't that hard. get good noob.

A really good idea is a 2-year Master Tier subscription to DND Beyond. Makes all aspects of the game easier to learn and also easier to run smoothly.

I say this as a DM since about 1999, through 4 different editions. I play at least a few hours a week, and have run numerous parties. The only tool in all of DnD that I cannot operate without, at this point, is a DnDbeyond subscription.

Can't believe I read through all of that, but yeah, I was nodding my head the whole time. It can be very interesting, but MAN, it's a time sink like no other.

Ugh. I've tried each of their divinity games before…. And I suck.

Just reading that post was a time sink, and it's not even playing the game!

The PHB has a smaller word count

Maybe I am an optimist, but I think a group of light hearted people could feel their way through an entry level pre built campaign and have a good time without taking it to seriously.... But I am just a loot ninja murder hobo

permabull said:

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Maybe I am an optimist, but I think a group of light hearted people could feel their way through an entry level pre built campaign and have a good time without taking it to seriously.... But I am just a loot ninja murder hobo

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Aren't we all murder hobos at heart? Well maybe not the lawful goody two shoes paladins.....but the rest of us are.

For me necause noone in their group has DnD experience, the question is how much nonDnD table top experience anyone in their group has.

Her daughter has some, but she mentioned that the club at school was running a very streamlined or bare bones version of the game.

If you have zero table top experience, concepts like line of sight in combat, walking speed, turn actions (action, bonus action, movement, free object interaction) are difficult to grasp all at once without anyone guiding you through the process.

I came into the game from playing other table top miniature games that were based on DnD combat rules. So things like Armor Class, Hit Points, line of sight were concepts I was already familiar with and it still took me a minute to really catch on.

I try to remember how slow turns and things were when I first started playing and it was fun but man it was slow.....and so multiply that by all the players and a DM who is trying to figure it out as they go......

Difficult to say the least.

Lost Mine of Phandelver is a great campaign and easy to run, whether in the boxed set or the new update in The Shattered Obelisk. agla will be able to figure it out.

AliasMan02 said:

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Lost Mine of Phandelver is a great campaign and easy to run, whether in the boxed set or the new update in The Shattered Obelisk. agla will be able to figure it out.

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I agree that it is a good campaign especially to start with. That is why i suggested it. But the totality of the lack of experience at their table makes even that one tricky.

Everyone can figure it out eventually. Never insinuated she couldn't. But it would take a fairly hefty investment of time and alot of trial and error the first several sessions.

If their table is willing to go through that learning curve then that is awesome.....I have seen many tables fall apart like that though which is understandable when the first 3-4 sessions is EVERYONE AND THE DM muddling through game mechanics for 3 hours.

I thought the question was what would make the best experience for her daughter which is why i suggested they start out with an experienced DM.

They used to sell a starter set that was a box with a simplified players handbook and dm guide.