Dungeons and Dragons

[SinisterDeath]

For those unfamiliar with D&D, there's a ton of groups that record/stream their games on YouTube and Twitch.
One of the most popular ones is Critical Role

For those that are familiar with D&D, what do you love about it? 
Favorite Edition? Have any stories you'd like to share?

Edited February 27, 2020 by SinisterDeath

[Millon]

I've been watching CR for years now. It's damn entertaining. Not had much chance to check out other streams though. It's a time commitment lol. 

 

Anyone currently playing D&D? I'm currently building a homebrew world for a D&D 5th edition game. Been working on it for the better part of a year now. Well, I've not worked on any of it in a few months sadly. I need to get back to it. I have time though as I am starting my players with the Starter Kit adventure. That should take a bit of time to get through so I can still work on things.

 

I've always been a DM but really want to play as a character. 

[SinisterDeath]

3 minutes ago, Millon said:

I've been watching CR for years now. It's damn entertaining. Not had much chance to check out other streams though. It's a time commitment lol

Time commitment is an understatement! 
I chugged through all of season 1 this summer... That wasn't easy.

 

 

5 minutes ago, Millon said:

Anyone currently playing D&D? I'm currently building a homebrew world for a D&D 5th edition game. Been working on it for the better part of a year now. Well, I've not worked on any of it in a few months sadly. I need to get back to it. I have time though as I am starting my players with the Starter Kit adventure. That should take a bit of time to get through so I can still work on things.

 

I've always been a DM but really want to play as a character. 

I'm in the predicament that I live in such a rural location, that I quite literally have no one around that plays D&D... The closest is a 3+ drive. (Some people even equate D&D as witchcraft here!)

At this point in time, I'm DMing what can effectively be called a Solo Campaign with my Fiancee. (She plays one character, I play 3 PCs as NPCs)

 

Running 5e, we ran through Lost Mines of Phandelver, and are now currently working on Descent into Avernus.

I've gone a little nuts and bought Fantasy Grounds, several modules, etc to help run through some of the more tedious combat processes when running those campaigns.

I haven't gotten to deep into Homebrewing yet. I do have a world-building project I've been on for years and have thought about bringing that into 5e. 

But I've also thought about porting the WoT Module from D&D 3.5 into 5e. Just not sure on the interest in that, and the legality.

[Millon]

That would be amazing. A WoT game. Have you ever thought about using Roll20 or some other online gaming sites?

[SinisterDeath]

3 minutes ago, Millon said:

That would be amazing. A WoT game. Have you ever thought about using Roll20 or some other online gaming sites?

I've tried Roll20 before, but wasn't too impressed. Honestly, I think Discord might offer a better VOIP service. 

I primarily use Fantasy Grounds for the actual campaign, combat tracking, etc. That system is advanced enough, that you can basically see every attack/ability a monster/npc can make, target a PC, and click an attack and it'll roll, check for AC/Saves, etc and dish out the damage, updating the PC/NPC hp as it goes. Can really take the majority of the slog out of combat! You can even set it up to input manual rolls for the PCs/NPCs instead of using the dice roller in the application!


That said, I'm loving D&D Beyond!
I use it in conjunction with Fantasy Grounds, because unlike most of the other sites out there, Building characters in D&D beyond takes mere minutes! It's quite idiot proof to be blunt. Just buy the modules you want, the options all become available.
Stats/Skills get auto-calculated.

Lets you pick the feats & features that are all available to you. No need to dig through 10 books to build 1 character.

Top it off, the character sheet they have is the best out there! I'd highly recommend it if you're playing D&D on paper at a table!
 

Below is a picture of how great it works on their site. It's all just right there. Don't have to dig through several character/sheets/books to figure out which ability does what and when.

[SinisterDeath]

Another thing.
D&D Beyond released their Encounter system a few months ago, and just this week they launched their own Combat Tracker that works with that Encounter System.

Effectively, it works like listing the combat order on pen & paper, except it links with the characters you built in D&D Beyond, and the encounters. In the near future when a player updates their characters HP on D&D beyond, it'll update on the tracker, and vice-versa. Running a pen & paper version of D&D, with D&D beyond as your paper, just got a whole lot easier. Having your PC's run with Tablets instead of paper is entirely possible. ?

[Millon]

See, that's the part I don't like about a lot of the online systems. Half the excitement is in the dice roll. I just like the tangible-ness of it all. I can see the trackers being useful and the automatic maths for new players because of the slog but after a bit I'd want to go back to sheets and dice. 

[SinisterDeath]

Just now, Millon said:

See, that's the part I don't like about a lot of the online systems. Half the excitement is in the dice roll. I just like the tangible-ness of it all. I can see the trackers being useful and the automatic maths for new players because of the slog but after a bit I'd want to go back to sheets and dice. 

The D&D Beyond tracker doesn't do much in the way of automatic math/dice rolls for you. (You can opt to do auto-initiative rolls for npcs, but that's it) More or less, it's effectively the digital version of running it on paper, only automating turn-order by showing you which character's turn it is.

This is how their interface looks.

 

Now Fantasy Grounds, that's about as automated as you can get. You can do it all manually to, it's just obviously not as fast.

[Millon]

I see

[SinisterDeath]

I'm wondering if/how everyone's TTRPG routine has been interrupted due to COVID?

[Lavandula]

Hello I just took over a group that has d&d as one of it's main interests..so I figured well then I need to at least check it out and know something about it, who knows maybe I'll even like it.

Being new and all, and not yet in position of any books (though I wished for a starter kit for christmas) I may not have much strategizing to share, however any that wanna speak about the game and tell the newbie... ? 

Honnestly I'm quite exhausted for the time being so I have a little trouble wrapping my head around it reading about it online. I do however grasp that it is some sort of RP board game, and that it has many different themes I already found some quite interesting although where does the d&d video games fit into this?

Edited November 6, 2020 by Lavandula

[StarRisk]

So, if i understand correctly (caveat, i usually dont haha) you'd like to get a rundown on what dnd is and get tips on running/playing a session? Dungeons and Dragons (D&D, dnd, etc.) is a pencil and paper, fantasy roleplaying game, using dice to determine successes/failures of player characters (the players) in a world set forth by the Dungeon Master (DM). The game has been around forever (ok, my dad started playing it when it came out, but thats forever in my mind ;)) and ive been playing since 1990. Adaptations consist of other roleplay worlds (yes, there is a Wheel of Time roleplay series out, i have two of the books), video games that use the rules of DnD (Baldurs Gate 3), and tons of other mediums. I have a great choose yer own adventure series from DnD, so good!

 

The starter kit is perfect. Lost Mines of Phandelver is a fun intro for noobs and a refreshing game for us old hats to remember what it was like to play dnd for the first time!

 

Biggest tip, for the DM, is to take the time to read the adventure intro and hooks, be ready to lead your players, but follow if they go down unexpected paths, and have fun. Like really, have a blast, be open about being new, and just roll with it...get it ? haha I LOVE DND!

 

 

[Lavandula]

3 hours ago, StarRisk said:

caveat, i usually dont haha)

You are not allone..lol

But yes that is correct! This was a perfect introduction. I heard someone say they tried it but (if I understood it correctly) they didn't care for it being like roleplaying but inside the limits of the game, and their char being killed of was not in their choosing lol, we are all different, I'm a strict rules, and spreadsheats person I cannot seem to let loose and get out of my own headspace enough to RP so I think RP with rules is a perfect way to make me relax into it. 

 

Also I want to try play the game at first, so the plan is to help out to get activity up enough that maybe we can get it started up trough entertainment first since they want to run longer and more frequent games and Sin already seem to be well into it. I would as said like to run one or two shorter versions in wt for events in the far future, wich is also a good reason why I wanna support Sin cause he don't hog things and claim them for his very own, but I want it wieved as "belonging" to the entertainment club, so no one else can come claim it either. That way I will only have to ask sinisters if we wanna run it in the tower and see to it not crashing with a entertainment event ofcourse.? 

That being said I am very good at delegating work so it may not be me hosting it.. *looking like cat ate the canary* pretty pretty little star birdie?

 

[Lavandula]

So I got to play d&d first time today, and it was really fun! I mean I was a little afraid it would be to fight oriented, but it was just perfect amount lol, though we ended up just killing everything except the snake anyway. I also was positively suprised we traveled as a group it wasn't just every man for themselves and we could play at each chars quirks.

I think in future I wanna make a char from the get go though so I really get to know them and get the feels for their personality..

[Lavandula]

I love it!!!!? this is so much fun and I actually made a whole char now (not premade) and that was so fun too cant wait to use it?

[Quibby]

Just started working out a campaign to DM.  Thinking that as it develops I'll probably use a combination of original content and tie in some of the official modules as they fit in.

[Liitha]

having played twice i cant wait for the next game, was meant to play yesterday but it didnt work out...yes i am sold lolz

 

its also fun playing around with the character building and got 4 chars made so far on dnd beyond ? 

[Lavandula]

Hehe me too. It will take some time before I get the hang of the RP part, and actually play more strategically, also need some read up on weapons and what different traits means and such. What I love most is you can actually just jump into the game even though you don't fully understand it and just have fun with it, and the rest can come with time and experience. You don't need to understand every single little tidbit before you start playing, really like that!! ?

[Lavandula]

@SinisterDeath do you have a d&d gallery somewhere, where we can post char pics we made? And if not, would you want one? And if so, under wich board would you like it? ?

[SinisterDeath]

56 minutes ago, Lavandula said:

@SinisterDeath do you have a d&d gallery somewhere, where we can post char pics we made? And if not, would you want one? And if so, under wich board would you like it? ?

I would probably say just make a thread in this subboard, show off your D&D characters.

[Lavandula]

Cool thanks!