Tips on how to play DnD?

[Cloverfieldo]

Going to start my first campaign of DnD as a player, and I need to know if there's any necessary information that's not in the player's handbook

 

[Aluminium_Spaghetti]

Going to start my first campaign of DnD as a player, and I need to know if there's any necessary information that's not in the player's handbook

Make sure the DM is committed, and show them your appreciation. Besides that, just remember that the DM is supposed to arbitrate the rules, your job is role-playing. Make a niche and stick to it.

 

[Angry_Panda]

LIE ABOUT YOUR BAD ROLLS (but not too much). 'Oh, yeah, I rolled... [sees a 4 on the D20] 11.' Once in a while you have to let a bad one through, but pick your spots.

(This may be bad advice - roll to sense motive.)

 

[Aluminium_Spaghetti]

LIE ABOUT YOUR BAD ROLLS (but not too much). 'Oh, yeah, I rolled... [sees a 4 on the D20] 11.' Once in a while you have to let a bad one through, but pick your spots.

(This may be bad advice - roll to sense motive.)

I recommend the opposite of this. The only person allowed to fudge rolls is the DM, and only then to keep their players innocent.

 

[Cloverfieldo]

LIE ABOUT YOUR BAD ROLLS (but not too much). 'Oh, yeah, I rolled... [sees a 4 on the D20] 11.' Once in a while you have to let a bad one through, but pick your spots.

(This may be bad advice - roll to sense motive.)

I rolled a 1, you seem trustworthy

 

[Angry_Panda]

I rolled a 1, you seem trustworthy

You simultaneously understand and do not understand.

 

[Cloverfieldo]

@Angry_Panda @Aluminium_Spaghetti do you guys know a good dnd character creator tool?

 

[Angry_Panda]

@Angry_Panda @Aluminium_Spaghetti do you guys know a good dnd character creator tool?

I'm old school - I use a notebook and work through the process in the rulebook (sometimes I build a spreadsheet for casters). But depending on exactly what system you're using there are probably class-specific fillable PDFs that will help streamline the math.

 

[Aluminium_Spaghetti]

@Angry_Panda @Aluminium_Spaghetti do you guys know a good dnd character creator tool?

I used to remember one that made a character sheet entirely by random, but all the characters I put together with the intention of using I did the old fashioned way. Too bad I didn't get the chance to use many of them. Turns out the only thing necessary for a game of DND is a reliable DM. Also turns out that teenagers are unreliable.

 

[TheDragonMaster]

Damn, I can't believe I'm late for my favorite type of thread.
Here's a quick excerpt from the end of my TTRPG system's book.

(The crucial detail refers to if you use voice or text-based as your preferred method of playing.)

 

[TheDragonMaster]

@Angry_Panda @Aluminium_Spaghetti do you guys know a good dnd character creator tool?

Are you playing 5e or 5.5.? Either way you can find some on google that are easy to use. I used to use this one (https://www.dungeonmastersvault.com/pages/dnd/5e/character-builder) back in 2018.

 

[Angry_Panda]

All good campaigns start in a tavern/bar. Either with a bar fight, or a request from the owner to 'go into the cellar and take care of a rat problem.'

 

[Cloverfieldo]

Are you playing 5e or 5.5.? Either way you can find some on google that are easy to use. I used to use this one (https://www.dungeonmastersvault.com/pages/dnd/5e/character-builder) back in 2018.

I'm playing 5e, is there a lot of difference?

 

[TheDragonMaster]

I'm playing 5e, is there a lot of difference?

They basically homogenized every class progression which in my opinion makes it rather boring. There were also a lot of class updates to the main 12 classes, some better than the others. You can either keep playing 5e or move to 5.5, up to you, unlike 3.5 which is a straight up upgrade to 3e.

At the end of the day, the disaster with the greedy executives killing the Open License for DnD in 2023/2024 has made everyone flock to new systems or straight up making their own (me and Matt Colville are the latter) but don't let that discourage you from trying to play the more mainstream option, Odin knows I'm tired of /tg/ people screaming in my ears to try other systems.

 

[Angry_Panda]

At the end of the day, the disaster with the greedy executives killing the Open License for DnD in 2023/2024 has made everyone flock to new systems or straight up making their own (me and Matt Colville are the latter) but don't let that discourage you from trying to play the more mainstream option, Odin knows I'm tired of /tg/ people screaming in my ears to try other systems.

I lost most of my respect for Wizards when they switched to 4e and tried very hard to kick a bunch of the open licensing to the curb at that point - my whole group decided to go to Pathfinder and never looked back. (Though one of those guys would dig up other systems for us to try from time to time - he had most of the Palladium books stashed away and would bring them out from time to time, and we worked through some other systems over the years as well, but kept coming back to PF.)

 

[Cloverfieldo]

@Angry_Panda as you have played pathfinder, is it that much harder than dnd? I really liked the more strict rules, but my group thinks it's too hard

 

[Angry_Panda]

@Angry_Panda as you have played pathfinder, is it that much harder than dnd? I really liked the more strict rules, but my group thinks it's too hard

It's very much like the D&D I'm used to, but that would be 3E/3.5, not 4E or 5E. I'm not sure how WOTC changed the mechanics in 5E. I know they tried to streamline some things in 4E, but (IMHO) they went about it entirely the wrong way.

But as TTRPGs go, it's not really that 'hard.' (It's certainly not as bad as AD&D 1 or 2, or any number of other, generally older, systems.)

Also, I think there's a Pathfinder 2 now, which I haven't looked at.

 

[Manko-sensei]

How to play D&D in a nutshell: learn to do quick math to roll as many d6 or d8 for damage as you can, use The Gamers films as source material and bribe all the table (not only the DM) with food & drinks. Jokes aside, there are essentially three kind of groups for any roleplaying game: those who gather because they enjoy building up stories together, those who want to play a complex tabletop system inspired by videogames and those who do that as a friends group activity. Know which of them you'll be joining to and you'll learn the answer, not that it'll save you from meeting a significant amount of toxic players that only know how to have fun by giving others a hard time (it also applies to DMs of course).
As for editions, first edition (BECMI, AD&D, Old School Essentials, Dungeon Crawling Classics) is the simplest mechanical way to play (and the most rewarding), second edition is both for Beamdog nostalgics and rarely for old modules players (it's half old school and half third edition), third edition had the first mess of Wizard of the Coast because they only wanted more rulebooks to sell and players ended up switching to Pathfinder progressively (it was preferred playing 3rd/3.5E adventures with Pathfinder), fourth edition was an entirely combat focused system poorly executed and fifth edition was a great recycling scheme that used fourth edition as a base and brought back some things from the past to make it look presentable (though it's poorly written, both system and official adventures). 5.5 (or D&D5 Next) is nothing else than D&D5 fan service.​

My tip? Read classical literature and start playing something other than D&D (at least as the first roleplaying game).

 

[Cloverfieldo]

How to play D&D in a nutshell: learn to do quick math to roll as many d6 or d8 for damage as you can, use The Gamers films as source material and bribe all the table (not only the DM) with food & drinks. Jokes aside, there are essentially three kind of groups for any roleplaying game: those who gather because they enjoy building up stories together, those who want to play a complex tabletop system inspired by videogames and those who do that as a friends group activity. Know which of them you'll be joining to and you'll learn the answer, not that it'll save you from meeting a significant amount of toxic players that only know how to have fun by giving others a hard time (it also applies to DMs of course).
As for editions, first edition (BECMI, AD&D, Old School Essentials, Dungeon Crawling Classics) is the simplest mechanical way to play (and the most rewarding), second edition is both for Beamdog nostalgics and rarely for old modules players (it's half old school and half third edition), third edition had the first mess of Wizard of the Coast because they only wanted more rulebooks to sell and players ended up switching to Pathfinder progressively (it was preferred playing 3rd/3.5E adventures with Pathfinder), fourth edition was an entirely combat focused system poorly executed and fifth edition was a great recycling scheme that used fourth edition as a base and brought back some things from the past to make it look presentable (though it's poorly written, both system and official adventures). 5.5 (or D&D5 Next) is nothing else than D&D5 fan service.​

My tip? Read classical literature and start playing something other than D&D (at least as the first roleplaying game).

what's a good first rpg?

 

[Grogzilla]

do you guys know a good dnd character creator tool?

Depends on what you define as "good," but https://www.dndbeyond.com/ exists as an official builder for DnD. Some of the contents are free but you have to pay for the books if you want more content