So I want to give D&D a try. Famous Last Words...

[Cheese4Everyone]

Alright Vault F4 what can you tell me about getting started with D&D? I'm going on vacation with some friends, all gamers, and we decided that we wanted to give D&D a try. Being the organizer of the group and the one with the most available funds I decided I would make the investment and be our first DM. But I have some questions...

What do I need to get started? Other than the starter set "Red Box" should I get any supplemental materials? If so,what? Got any helpful hints for first time players?

Thanks guys!

 

[CorruptDictator]

I have not touched a TT RPG in many years, however unless things have changed a lot, starter sets suck and are a waste of money. I would just get whatever the core rulebook is and (what are they on, 4th edition?) at the most a dungeon master guide. Be best if you and your friends were chipping in on them.

 

[VintagePC]

I have not touched a TT RPG in many years, however unless things have changed a lot, starter sets suck and are a waste of money. I would just get whatever the core rulebook is and (what are they on, 4th edition?) at the most a dungeon master guide. Be best if you and your friends were chipping in on them.

This. I remember playing D&D with friends a while back and all we had was a class/monster reference guide, character sheets and dice. The rest came from the DM taking some time to plan maps/quests, etc.

 

[CorruptDictator]

Make sure whomever wants to DM is a damn creative person or the game will suck.

 

[VintagePC]

Make sure whomever wants to DM is a damn creative person or the game will suck.

A slight dash of "cynical evil bastard" also makes it that much more fun. Not too much though, otherwise it just becomes an exercise in frustration.

 

[CorruptDictator]

A slight dash of "cynical evil bastard" also makes it that much more fun. Not too much though, otherwise it just becomes an exercise in frustration.

That works too. When I was probably... 12 or 133 along with stuff like magic my friends and I did some TT RPG. I got stuck being the DM/GM. They paid for that mistake.

Honestly I never completely lost interest in playing, I just do not have anyone to play with.

 

[Insanity]

Currently I am playing a game with some buddies of mine (running a 3.5 game with modified/house rules) tbh imagination and planning ahead are very important for this. How indepth are you making your characters? the DM i have tries to incorperate everyone's lore into the adventure. As vintage said, try to add a touch of "cynical evil bastard" once in a while to make em think.

 

[Cheese4Everyone]

None of us have ever played before actually

 

[Cheese4Everyone]

Ok so the core books and what else?

 

[CorruptDictator]

Ok so the core books and what else?

An imagination and some dice.

 

[CorruptDictator]

I also highly suggest picking everything up well ahead of time so you can plan out a session.

 

[Insanity]

I also highly suggest picking everything up well ahead of time so you can plan out a session.

Yea name of the game for D&D DM is planning far ahead of time, you never know how long they will stay in one town or quicky kill an entire army. try to plan quests, events and locations as far ahead as possible

 

[John]

My best advice is give it a try first. If you live near any decently sized town there is likely a place where you can go and play a one off game and get a little experience on how it works.

If you are playing 4th edition and want to make things a little easier for character creation and management check out the D&D insider subscription. I play weekly with a group of friends and we just split a yearly account. It comes out to about 10$ per person per year for us. It gets you access to all the rulebooks with search, the character creator, and some nice DM tools.