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Post by uptrainfan89 on Oct 7, 2012 6:13:36 GMT -9
Ok, well one of my friends gave me a cd recently with a large collection of D&D 3.5 books on it and I was wandering, I've never really played D&D before so I'm not really sure where to start or which books to use, or what to use to learn to play. Also what all is required to play the game?
I recently gained some interest in it while reading one of my favorite books, Forgotten Realms: Spellfire, lol. ;D
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Post by oldschooldm on Oct 7, 2012 6:34:05 GMT -9
If you're going to run the game, you need the Dungeon Masters Guide. Your players will need the Player's Handbook. If you have any $$$ at all, might I suggest one of the beginner's editions? The Pathfinder Beginner's box is pretty awesome as it contains everything you need for an all-beginner group and is mostly 3.5 compatible. paizo.com/beginnerbox including pre-generated characters, paper-token minis, and an adventure. The rules are slimmed down for easy startup. The D&D 4th edition Red Box is a great introduction to that game, and the DM's Kit contains a full adventure. These have pog-style tokens and are ready to run out of the box as well - though I think you'd want at least one D&D 4 Essentials player book to share - and with all that, it's getting pricey. www.wizards.com/dnd/redbox.aspx www.wizards.com/dnd/product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/244640000 www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/247520000
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Post by uptrainfan89 on Oct 7, 2012 9:46:16 GMT -9
Sounds good, I have those two books for sure on the disc, along with like 20 others, lol. Does D&D work well with 2d tiles and paper minis well? Also who makes a good variety of dungeon, town, and forest tiles? I looked at fat dragon games a bit.
Also after learning the game, how hard would it be to try and do the forgotten realms universe?
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Post by oldschooldm on Oct 7, 2012 11:53:36 GMT -9
Paper minis and terrain? You've come to the right place. I've uploaded photos of both for use various adventures right here...
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Post by Reivaj on Oct 7, 2012 11:55:22 GMT -9
You can find excelent tiles of forest and dungeons by $1 in rpgnow seach "one dollar dungeons" and Crooker Staff Publishing. Great tiles will you find
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Post by stevelortz on Oct 7, 2012 15:38:17 GMT -9
You can play a good fantasy role-playing game with nothing more than a single six-sided die, and good imaginations (players' as well as the game-master's).
Sometimes a sheet of graph paper and a few pencils come in handy. If you really want to go whole hog, you might want to buy some three-by-five cards.
That's all it really takes.
Have fun! Steve
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Post by Sirrob01 on Oct 7, 2012 17:24:58 GMT -9
You can play a good fantasy role-playing game with nothing more than a single six-sided die, and good imaginations (players' as well as the game-master's). Sometimes a sheet of graph paper and a few pencils come in handy. If you really want to go whole hog, you might want to buy some three-by-five cards. That's all it really takes. +1 on what Steve said, Last few years I've been right off any of the big commercial RPG's and have been perfectly happy using what would be considered super light to virtually no rulesets. Gaming fun has remained at the same level (or higher, I'll be dragged away by D&D demons for saying that) as players and GM don't have to spend time flicking through books....
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Post by cowboyleland on Oct 8, 2012 18:23:29 GMT -9
If you've got a cd full of 3.5 stuff, play 3.5 and leave Pathfinder and 4th Ed alone. There was nothing wrong with 3.5 that some house rules wouldn't fix, and the "problems" and the "fixes" would be different for every group anyway.
If you have a large collection of tiles that you like to use, great, otherwise 1" grid paper to draw on or a grided white board and erasable markers will work for years.
If you are just starting out, start with Dungeon Masters Guide, Players Handbook and Monster Manual. You can add stuff from the other books as you get bored of those and more familiar with the game.
I started playing D&D more than 30 years ago. I envy you. "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then."
As Mr Lortz says: "Have Fun!"
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Post by Parduz on Oct 8, 2012 22:39:45 GMT -9
Playing 3.5ed with the sons and some of his friends from....7 years? They REFUSED to use miniatures and tiles after a short experiment, as they want to visualize and imagine what i'm narrating. Said this, i bend the rules to my needs when things becomes "too much power-playing" (which is a D&D flaw, not a 3.5e one ). Have fun
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Post by old squirmydad on Oct 9, 2012 6:51:45 GMT -9
I was invited to join a Pathfinder RPG group this spring, I hadn't played AD+D since sometime in the glut of all the 2nd ed. releases, and I find it really pretty easy to pick up and play. Fun too. I don't know about all of the 3.5ed. and 4thed. stuff but yeah, as long as your having fun with your friends it doesn't really matter what you're playing. Minis and terrain aren't actually needed in any of those games, they can help at times though.
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Post by uptrainfan89 on Oct 9, 2012 11:11:41 GMT -9
Lol I think I'll go through what I have and make a list and post it then I can figure out what it all is lol. I know I have other books that are for different forms of magic, planes, and some that say Complete such and such, Lol. Also I have the core books and what I'm guessing is expansions to the core books like Monster Manual 1-5, Players Handbook 1-2, and Dungeon Masters Guide 1-2.
Also this may be an odd question but I have a really small gaming group, is it possable for the DM to play a hero to, so long as they do it right or let other players make decisions but travel along with them?
Edit: Also I'm really interested in the Forgotten Realms Universe, what book or books would I need to be able to play that?
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Post by Vermin King on Oct 9, 2012 15:35:32 GMT -9
I have been in games (also about 30 years ago) where the DM played the NPCs, sometimes joining the party, other times being at odds to the party, and sometimes pretending to be with the party. It can help the DM subtly nudge the group in the direction he wants them to go. Actually in my experience this was a she, and she was very good at getting us to go where she wanted to show off what she had designed for us, without really appearing to do so.
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Post by paladin on Oct 9, 2012 16:22:35 GMT -9
;D Oh, I like D&D questions ... uptrainfan89, if you wanna dig the 'history' and 'flavor' of different D&D-systems through the mists of time, you could read the D&D 5th Ed. Thread in this 'Gaming' category. You will find some (opinionated) hints and nuggets. As I guess, that you just want to start with D&D by spending NO money on rule books, pick the most basic books from your cd, like others have mentioned above: Player's Handbook 1, Dungeon Master's Guide 1 and Monster Manual 1. That's enough material for years to come, I think. Let me warn you, that 20+ books of D&D 3.5 Ed. could overwhelm you and your fellow gamers by complexity, if drawn into ... 3.5 Ed. is not the most easy rule system out there. Forgotten Realms is a very traditional, well-established D&D setting, you will find TONS of material for several versions of the game, e.g. for 3.5 Ed.: forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_3.X_edition_Forgotten_Realms_productsJust google. I personally like the old stuff like Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Faerun. But you can always let yourself be inspired by your FR novels - and learn to make your own Faerun Adventures with the help of the Dungeon Master Guide and TONS of Web Tips for Adventure Building. And you can send your own Character as a Henchmen/Sidekick of your Players' Characters into the adventure to power-up the group, but you will experience world knowledge conflicts, as your Character should not know more about the next dungeon room than his comrades in the group. For a beginner it could be confusing to play a Dungeon Master Character fair as a Player Character. Also you have to steer some Non-Player-Characters and Monsters in every adventure, so, don't try too hard, and overwhelm you. I recommend to use less NPCs/monsters in an adventure to balance with the group power (of e.g. 2 Players). You could even write and play a 1:1 adventure, means: 1 Player, 1 Dungeon Master. Possible. If you are feeling lost in the 3.5 material, you should try to find a (cheap/digital) copy of this one and only D&D gem: www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Rules-Cyclopedia-Allston/dp/1560760850That's all you need - if you like to build your own castle, army or universe as a (half-)god ... . EDIT: Wait. Why make it more complicated, if there are cheap and free solutions? ---> www.gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/darkdungeons.html'Dark Dungeons' by Blacky the Blackball is a perfect and free clone of the Mentzer/Rule Cyclopedia Classic D&D of 1982-1991. It's quite the same rules as of yesterday, but with useful errata and corrections made silently. Huge effort by Mr. Blackball. You can also find 'Darker Dungeons' in the Extra Section. This is a more house-ruled and streamlined version of essentially the same system (different d20 technique, which makes life more tableless and fast ...). Also, if you like it more 'modern' in the 3.5/d20 flair, then you could play a 1-book-has-it-all thing with this: www.crafty-games.com/node/348This 'FantasyCraft' piece is a streamlined and very flexible, modular version of modern/actual D&D. No Faerun stuff out of the box, though ... . Hope that helps.
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Post by uptrainfan89 on Oct 11, 2012 6:26:23 GMT -9
I started reading a bit from a couple of the core books and got to thinking when not playing rpg quest, can the D&D rules be used for dungeon crawling or would a few house rules be needed?
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Post by paladin on Oct 11, 2012 7:17:30 GMT -9
;D I am lurking in the background ... . uptrainfan89, what do you mean by 'dungeon crawl' ? Do you ask, if you can play D&D SOLO as a dungeon crawl game? Short answer: yup, you could - literally by the same rules - if you are making proper preparations - e.g. LOTS of RANDOM EVENT TABLES, which suit your gaming world, e.g. Forgotten Realms. If you are interested in Solo Play, I can recommend this splendid Tutorial by shiftkitty aka Lora Allen: shiftkitty.angelfire.com/Recently I have found this Blog about abusing RPG/Tabletop systems for Solo Play: solonexus.blogspot.de/search/label/Dungeons%20and%20DragonsThe tips are for D&D 4th Ed. (which is very well suited for Solo Play on Battlemats with Miniatures by the way - as it has some helpful Monster/NPC behavior included, some working AI out of the box and is very well organized stat-wise ...), but ring true also for 3.5 Ed. If the Solo part is not your question, then I could only say, that D&D was and is at its core a Dungeon Crawl Game. RPG Quest = Full Adventure Module is just a technical term for 1 or more game sessions, which can play at different world locations (in the woods, on sea, in a cavern, an old temple, etc.). Even a wilderlands travel could be essentially a 'crawl' through crossing pathways - it's all a matter of content organization and free-roaming versus more linear gameplay, I mean: Player Freedom in Choice versus More Restricted (Passage/Door) Choice. Have you any Forgotten Realms books on your cd, uptrainfan89?
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Post by uptrainfan89 on Oct 11, 2012 12:51:29 GMT -9
;D I am lurking in the background ... . uptrainfan89, what do you mean by 'dungeon crawl' ? Do you ask, if you can play D&D SOLO as a dungeon crawl game? Short answer: yup, you could - literally by the same rules - if you are making proper preparations - e.g. LOTS of RANDOM EVENT TABLES, which suit your gaming world, e.g. Forgotten Realms. If you are interested in Solo Play, I can recommend this splendid Tutorial by shiftkitty aka Lora Allen: shiftkitty.angelfire.com/Yea this is what I was thinking, solo play. Lol Guess I should have described that one better, Lol. Have you any Forgotten Realms books on your cd, uptrainfan89? Here is a list of the Books I have (Others were for Eberron and Dragon Lance and Complete such and such so I decided not to use them.): D&D 3.5 - Dungeon Masters Guide 1 & 2 D&D 3.5 - Monster Manual 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 D&D 3.5 - Player's Handbook 1 & 2 D&D 3.5 - Spell Compendium D&D 3.5 - Weapons of Legacy D&D 3.5 - Magic Item Compendium I don't have any of the D&D forgotten realms books but our local game store has a few, Lol. Also I know I really want to use paper minis and tiles so I'm currently exploring what is avaliable for a wide variety of tiles, Lol. Edit: Also I think I need to find D&D 3.5 Character Sheets, Lol.
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Post by paladin on Oct 11, 2012 13:54:52 GMT -9
Fine, uptrainfan89. Hm. I am really not experienced in D&D Soloplay, but I am quite interested in this ... . Could be a somewhat shizophrenic experience, I guess . Anyway, this 3.5 Ed. list of your cd seems to be solid and very useful - no overbloat here, every book will have a use for you. Good selection of 3.5 Ed. core books, I think. Go for it. (The 'Complete ...' books sound like Advanced D&D to me ... different, older system.) Well, you have to decide on your own, if 1 or 2 Forgotten Realms Sourcebooks should be bought (and only just for the fun of reading ...), otherwise you will find ALL the detailed FR lore in countless Web Wikis. If you buy some stuff, then watch out for the name of Ed Greenwood. He is the Master of Forgotten Realms. It's his creation, sold to TSR in the 80ties, but still writing alot for his world. On the webpage about Soloplay I linked to above (Solonexus) you will find on the right a brief gaming system for general RPG Soloplay. It's a kind of systematic self-questioning, which generates a Solo Adventure on the fly while gaming. Or such. Haven't used it yet, but will sometime . I know, that some Old School Freaks are entertaining themselves with endless Random Table Stuff (Random Tables are very Old School, you know ... ;D) - like Area Southeast of Gnollheath: Galenwood. On 1d12: 1 Hungry Wolves (3-6) 2 Giant Eagle (1) 3 Kobold Gang (5-10) 4 Spider Swarm (1) 5 Giant Bats (4-8) 6 Giant Rats (4-6) 7-12 Nothing Or whatever. You can use Random Tables for every kind of Encounter/Event. You can generate whole Adventures this way - within the limits of world logics, of course. Some are also using Tarot Cards with great success to generate Plots/Stories/Characters by interpretation of Tarot Layouts suited for game purposes. Or just draw 1 or some more Tarot Cards, if you need inspiration while gaming ... . Endless possibilities here. I think, RPG Soloplay is a very underrated and intense experience. If you can get it done, uptrainfan89, please, post some feedback here on CBW. Would be interesting for some people here, I guess.
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Post by uptrainfan89 on Oct 12, 2012 7:42:27 GMT -9
Well now that I got some basics figured out like minis and rule books, I'm looking for some good tile sets that have a great variety but won't break the bank so to speak. I've also been trying to explore to see if anything has been made like a program to customize your own 2D tiles then print them? Anyone have some good suggestions, lol?
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Post by cowboyleland on Oct 12, 2012 17:07:47 GMT -9
I like the look of Inked Adventures. There are a few free tile sets online as well. Trick/Tip: With a little work in gimp you can customise any "large room" tile if you need a weird shape that isn't in the set you are using.
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