How does One "D&D"?

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Patrick MacFarlane

Commander-in-Chief of Russian Armed Forces TKR RP
So, I have resisted for years but have now taken the bait. 

Is there anyone here who can give me a crash course explaination of how the game is broken up. I have a pretty good idea of how the turns go over and all but I need more specifics

 
Basically one person (the DM or GM) creates the environment for the rest of the players (Adventurers) to interact with. The DM/GM will react to the actions of the players and usually try to introduce plot hooks to get them invested in a cause or plotline of some sort or the Adventurers can derail that and delve into murderhobry by just killing stuff for fun or loot. Most games usually only last a few 'sessions' and most people run these sort of things once or twice a week with a group typically with at least one GM and three to four other players but I've done it with just two players and a GM and had fun. Most people new to it find it most daunting to learn the rules and make a character since it's a lot of information to process but after that it's rather simple and you just need to keep in mind the different rules or things you can do in or outside of combat. Depending on the group you'll either be just rolling dice and murdering stuff or be expected to 'roleplay' your character which is basically like amateur acting how you think your character given your chosen personality for it (or if you choose it to basically be you but that's less fun) in a situation. Do you know what edition you're using or what rule set of setting?

In my last game Deadlands where the Civil War became a tie and weird magical shit happened in the west. My character was a piece of shit mercenary and deserter from of the Confederacy and his answer to threats wasn't 'talking it out' like some of the other members of the party. We ran into an NPC, lets call him Bob (non player character controlled by GM)  traveling with us because he about getting us a shipment of guns from his posse at their hideout. We ran into two guys on way fixing a wagon and turns out they were from a rival gang and wanted to convince us to turn Bob over to him (at this point Bob was asleep in our carriage or whatever) in exchange for a cache of guns they allegedly owned. We decide to stick with Bob and waste these guys who gave the same offer, but we wanted that Bob offered us. After we rescued him from the rival gang Bob's posse was thankful and another guy let's call him Joe offered to bring us to the guns. After a while we find we're near the rival gang's hideout and Joe explains, "Oh, we're gonna steal dem guns from them!" And that's when my guy fucking snapped and wanted to cap his ass. The Mormon in our party was a guy who stuck to his word and gave his word he'd help Bob's posse so we found ourselves in a Mexican standoff. The Mormon shot fire, wounding me and causing me to miss Joe who began to flee. The Mormon had a gun fight with the other three members of the party while I was bleeding. My dog companion leaped into the wagon and tore out that Mormon fuck's throat (really nice roll lol) and when we looked for Joe turns out he was getting his ass beat by some farmers under the rival gang's protection (they recognized him). We took the guy over to the rival gang and they gave us the guns... and we definitely didn't fess up to the fact we killed two of their guys earlier when they tried to apprehend Bob. That definitely was a pretty fun game.

Although, you do not have to use the D&D rules or format to run a similarly styled game as there's many different types of rules and settings you can use. D&D imo is really just a set of rules you can use and you do not have to use their settings while implementing it. I largely prefer Savage Worlds myself since I think it makes combat less of a snail's crawl than D&D at least in regards to 5th edition and I think it allows both the players and GM to customize the world, creatures, and players the most and it handles 'leveling' differently as well as spells. Typically the game with a set of characters ends after some sort of large goal is met or whenever everyone gets bored.

 
*slow clap* Everything that Fanag said is spot on.

My friends and I made our own forum to continue our in-person games online. We all work together but very quickly learned that getting everyone in one spot can be difficult with many having families and kids. What we did was set up a game out of one of the books (Princes of the Apocalypse) and created our characters using 5e rules which are simplified compared to others. Some of my buddies who are first time players even used pre made characters and changed them up a little, made a new background, stuff like that and then we slowly coached them on how to make their own. Now that we've been playing for about 3 or 4 months we've slowly switched from strictly 5e to a custom 3.5e/pathfinder rule set. 5e is VERY simplified (hence the hate in veteran circles) and 3.5e and pathfinder are really in depth as far as character leveling, feats, abilities and things like that. 

Basically, the difficulty is finding a steady group to play with. If you can get that, it's super easy from there. Get a rule book, a DM book, and maybe a monster manual and it outlines everything that you need for any adventure you can think of. We started with an adventure book since many of us were newbs and it's made life easier when we've had to switch DM's for any reason (vacations, time constraints etc) and it gives you a storyline to follow and various scenarios to play through. 

I would totally advise getting into D&D though, it's fun, exciting and you can definitely get lost in your game.

 
IMO D&D is the worst, especially pathfinder. You spend most of the game character building and it gets a bit unfair on the novices who don't want to put a lot of time into finding out the optimal builds. There's a lot of dump stats so if you play to roleplay, you're disadvantaged.

I think D&D itself went the wrong path with 5e, but so many other systems have appeared as basically a "simpler D&D". Dungeon World for example.

 
Alex Taylor said:
IMO D&D is the worst, especially pathfinder. You spend most of the game character building and it gets a bit unfair on the novices who don't want to put a lot of time into finding out the optimal builds. There's a lot of dump stats so if you play to roleplay, you're disadvantaged.

I think D&D itself went the wrong path with 5e, but so many other systems have appeared as basically a "simpler D&D". Dungeon World for example.
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See that depends on your DM as well. I mean, we all know a fighter will not be as strong as a Necromancer. But with a DM that agrees to custom rule sets (like our 3.5e/5e) and is forgiving and wants to have fun, he can always find ways to make sure no one is left behind. We emphasize fun, and our DM is really good in that he will throw a challenge our way but we have to each play to our strengths in order for us to stay alive.

I run a Level 6 Champion/Greatweapon Fighter. The rest of our group consists of a cleric, Necromancer, ranger, paladin, wizard and thief. I'm kinda the tank, I do moderate damage but have high HP. Well, the enemies have to match our overall group strength. I began to struggle a little bit. So the DM allowed me an extra feat so that I could keep up. I took Magic Initiate and can use two cantrips and one spell. This made me stronger and kept me on par with the group. 

If your DM is willing to play this way, it makes it easy for anyone to create whatever they want and have fun. There is less emphasis on an optimal build, and more use of imagination imo 

 
Wow, I don't even remember making this post. I was completely hammered at the time, surprisingly okay except it seems I swear more often than I usually do. I definitely am not surprised to see you go from 5th edition to 3.5 Manatee it's a natural step since it's far more intricate and allows for more options, customization, and such. Pathfinder also adds some cool classes and things that even 3.5 D&D doesn't have. Having as much customization as possible is a lot of fun since you can build basically every aspect of your character around a myriad of archetypes.

 
Hmm @Fanag, you probably have more time playing than I do. Would you mind being a DM? Or know someone who can DM?  I tried being a DM and I had to hand it over to a buddy of mine that is waaaaaay better than me as I got overwhelmed (He's actually part of TKR but is never on the forums lol He runs our personal game though) 

I'm down though, I really enjoy forum based D&D. 

 
I played a game of DnD with a friend during time in HS when we'd finish our work and had some free time. I ended up summoning Kathulu and conjuring a meteor to nuke some elvish tree during my war to conquer the world.

I  got a lot of natural 20s...

 
How do you create a character? Are there certain categories? Skills? Classes? Races? Is it whatever you want?

I have never played D&D before.

 
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