eabe
August 28th, 2017, 19:19
I do not have a long history in Dungeon and Dragon's. And to be honest I still don't. I am still considered a noob by most people standards. But I have learned a lot from trying to get a game going, and by trying to DM with very little experience. I am hear to share what I learned on what not to do and what to do. From when I first starting D&D. If you are new to D&D, and are thinking about DM'ing. I am writing this for you.
First off campaign(s): With being new to D&D just learning the rules can be challenging. Let alone also trying to hash out a story-line. If your like me... Then you figure buying a campaign book to follow might be a good idea. You couldn't be more wrong.
Why? The books have great ideas, and a lot of story elements. But many of them are open world, and depend on you knowing things. When I was looking around the "Out of the Abyss" campaign guide had just come out. All the reviews talk about how great the book was structured and how cool the library was. And how noob friendly it was. For a guy who doesn't read a lot about sword coast, and is new too D&D many of these things were just not true.
The library alone can be over whelming. I had no clue who many of the NPCs in there were. Let alone how to act them out as a DM. To make matters worse the guide doesn't cover them any further then listing them really. Playing as many different NPC's is hard when you first start. Your better off picking a few or making a few NPCs to start. And doing it One-shot style as what most people refer to it as.
The book was full of tons of places and people. While these might be great for an experienced player not wanting to make there own story. It's not really great for a noob like me who has no Idea what there doing. And not familiar with the lore.
If you do buy a campaign book. I don't suggest you follow it as intended. Instead treat it as an idea library. Steal stuff from it, but don't follow it strictly. I actually suggest you think of each game session as your first and last when you first start out. Don't think about a great big long story arc. Think about the next session and it's story. And how to keep your players involved. after doing this over and over again. Then you can start thinking about a long campaign.
In short it's better to think of things of a One-shot to start out. And let things evolve from there.
The Rules: The rule books are messy. And in many places they are poorly written. FG is good for helping you with combat and things. As it is hard to know if you are using a spell correctly. But FG is its own learning curve as not everything is done for you. So you really need to know the rules even with helpful tools.
For example: Shields and Armor are coupled together in many places. Making you think they are treated the same way. And in a way they are. But shields are there own proficiency. While the rules are similar they are also different. You must be proficient with it to be able to cast a spell for example. But it doesn't replace your armor class like armor does. It just adds to it. Sense many places in the rules loosely cover them together... it is hard to understand their differences when starting out. And to make it worse WoC didn't really FAQ it tell recently.
You can find WoC FAQ(s) Here. (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/sage-advice-june2015) Just scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Status effects are also a nightmare. It doesn't help that they are very clunky and hard to use in FG too. I can't tell you how to clear them properly as I gave up, and just recorded status outside of FG. I can't tell you how many times I cleared all status effects when trying to just clear a single one in FG. And I do mean all. Like a monsters innate immunity to poison!
Also if your like me and are trying to save some money. Don't be. I bought the players hand book through FG. While this added the rules model to FG. It never really gives you a good way to read it. It does have the option to read it. But its hard to use. I can't tell you how hard, and unintuitive it is too read from cover to cover. It isn't easy. You might want to consider buying a hard copy and the FG version so you can read it easily, and have access to the rules in game. While accessing a specific rule you need at the moment is usually easy in FG. It doesn't provided a way for a beginner who is new to the game; a good way to read it through for the first time.
The thing to note is when your first starting your not going to get all the rules right. My group messed up many of the rules. Some to our benefit, and some to our disadvantage. This made certain characters feel over powered and others lack luster. Let them be just that. Mistakes! Learn and move on. They will happen. Simply correct them when you can, and most important keep playing through them tell you know better.
Items: It is hard to handle items or loot. Especially as a new DM. I suggest you tread carefully here. While magic items are cool. And you might want to start to hand them out like candy when your first starting off. I suggest you don't. Take it slow. When your first starting out. Instead focus on getting the rules right and the story. You really don't need to start out giving any magic items to start with. Gold and copper are fine. Basic weapons and armor also work. Once you master your story telling and rules understanding. Then you can start working on magic items. Keep them rare. And to the players they will feel all the more epic when you do finally start giving them out. To be honest I wish I had not given any out the first few months I started playing.
Fantasy Grounds: Fantasy grounds is a good tool. But it has another steep learning curve. It's hard to know what exactly it is your paying for at first. Your not buying something that can do everything. It is a framework. It is simply a tool focused more so on handling the battles. While it has tools to help with everything. Such as story making... It is best at the battle portion of the game. And getting things set up isn't as easy or strait foreword as you would expect.
For example: Weapons work great. You can drag and drop a weapon into a persons inventory, and it will immediately show up on the actions tab. And in most cases that's all you have to do. They patched it and made armor easier too. As it now has an equipped button. So you don't have to keep manually changing a PC's armor class when they use a shield or not. But somethings still just don't work. Such as potions. You got to custom create many of the potions actions for EACH player separately. And adding a rouges sneak attack isn't a walk in the park either. While somethings are easy and intuitive. There are many things that are not. And require manually work; mainly by you the DM.
Automation: FG does a lot of things automatically. Some of this is really good. Some of it is bad. It doesn't feel good for the player or the DM. When the system auto rolls a failed death save for the player at the start of their turn. It also sometimes auto adjusters a players max HP. Like on level up, but not when you take a feats or adjust a players constitution. Many times you just wish it always did it, or never did it. Instead you are constantly checking to see if it did it or not. And it is not helpful to auto add HP on level up when a player would rather chance it with a roll. While some of the Automation is great and helpful. A lot of it you end up wishing would just go away. Or at least configurable. Maybe on player by player level.
Spelling errors/Typo: While there is a lot of text in the many books in FG. A Typo or spelling error is way more frustrating then you might think. Many searches simply don't show you what you are looking for. Because of a Typo in the Dungeon master guide or some other book. Even your own Typo's make it hard to find your own created materiel. While it is easy to fix your own mistakes. You just got to live with the mistakes made by FG.
Conclusion: While I do see a lot of this becoming better and easier over time within Fantasy Grounds. Like the change to armor. It just isn't there yet. Fantasy grounds is great for the more experienced players and DMs. And given more time it will only get better for the noobs such as myself, but is currently in itself another learning curve for a new player.
I haven't played for a while now. Due to me rather wanting to be a player then an a DM. And not being successful in finding a group. And maybe some of my issues with FG have been fixed. I log-in every now and then, and many things have improved. And I feel like it will only get better. Which I don't feel for a lot of games/systems out there. So that's a plus.
As far as rules and starting out as a new player or DM. Stick to the basics. Use just the 3 core books when starting out. Make your own small amount NPCs. Also think of having a guide NPC if your players are also new. And focus on your next session when your first starting to DM. After you get the hang of that then work on a larger campaign.
Thanks Eabe.
First off campaign(s): With being new to D&D just learning the rules can be challenging. Let alone also trying to hash out a story-line. If your like me... Then you figure buying a campaign book to follow might be a good idea. You couldn't be more wrong.
Why? The books have great ideas, and a lot of story elements. But many of them are open world, and depend on you knowing things. When I was looking around the "Out of the Abyss" campaign guide had just come out. All the reviews talk about how great the book was structured and how cool the library was. And how noob friendly it was. For a guy who doesn't read a lot about sword coast, and is new too D&D many of these things were just not true.
The library alone can be over whelming. I had no clue who many of the NPCs in there were. Let alone how to act them out as a DM. To make matters worse the guide doesn't cover them any further then listing them really. Playing as many different NPC's is hard when you first start. Your better off picking a few or making a few NPCs to start. And doing it One-shot style as what most people refer to it as.
The book was full of tons of places and people. While these might be great for an experienced player not wanting to make there own story. It's not really great for a noob like me who has no Idea what there doing. And not familiar with the lore.
If you do buy a campaign book. I don't suggest you follow it as intended. Instead treat it as an idea library. Steal stuff from it, but don't follow it strictly. I actually suggest you think of each game session as your first and last when you first start out. Don't think about a great big long story arc. Think about the next session and it's story. And how to keep your players involved. after doing this over and over again. Then you can start thinking about a long campaign.
In short it's better to think of things of a One-shot to start out. And let things evolve from there.
The Rules: The rule books are messy. And in many places they are poorly written. FG is good for helping you with combat and things. As it is hard to know if you are using a spell correctly. But FG is its own learning curve as not everything is done for you. So you really need to know the rules even with helpful tools.
For example: Shields and Armor are coupled together in many places. Making you think they are treated the same way. And in a way they are. But shields are there own proficiency. While the rules are similar they are also different. You must be proficient with it to be able to cast a spell for example. But it doesn't replace your armor class like armor does. It just adds to it. Sense many places in the rules loosely cover them together... it is hard to understand their differences when starting out. And to make it worse WoC didn't really FAQ it tell recently.
You can find WoC FAQ(s) Here. (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/sage-advice-june2015) Just scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Status effects are also a nightmare. It doesn't help that they are very clunky and hard to use in FG too. I can't tell you how to clear them properly as I gave up, and just recorded status outside of FG. I can't tell you how many times I cleared all status effects when trying to just clear a single one in FG. And I do mean all. Like a monsters innate immunity to poison!
Also if your like me and are trying to save some money. Don't be. I bought the players hand book through FG. While this added the rules model to FG. It never really gives you a good way to read it. It does have the option to read it. But its hard to use. I can't tell you how hard, and unintuitive it is too read from cover to cover. It isn't easy. You might want to consider buying a hard copy and the FG version so you can read it easily, and have access to the rules in game. While accessing a specific rule you need at the moment is usually easy in FG. It doesn't provided a way for a beginner who is new to the game; a good way to read it through for the first time.
The thing to note is when your first starting your not going to get all the rules right. My group messed up many of the rules. Some to our benefit, and some to our disadvantage. This made certain characters feel over powered and others lack luster. Let them be just that. Mistakes! Learn and move on. They will happen. Simply correct them when you can, and most important keep playing through them tell you know better.
Items: It is hard to handle items or loot. Especially as a new DM. I suggest you tread carefully here. While magic items are cool. And you might want to start to hand them out like candy when your first starting off. I suggest you don't. Take it slow. When your first starting out. Instead focus on getting the rules right and the story. You really don't need to start out giving any magic items to start with. Gold and copper are fine. Basic weapons and armor also work. Once you master your story telling and rules understanding. Then you can start working on magic items. Keep them rare. And to the players they will feel all the more epic when you do finally start giving them out. To be honest I wish I had not given any out the first few months I started playing.
Fantasy Grounds: Fantasy grounds is a good tool. But it has another steep learning curve. It's hard to know what exactly it is your paying for at first. Your not buying something that can do everything. It is a framework. It is simply a tool focused more so on handling the battles. While it has tools to help with everything. Such as story making... It is best at the battle portion of the game. And getting things set up isn't as easy or strait foreword as you would expect.
For example: Weapons work great. You can drag and drop a weapon into a persons inventory, and it will immediately show up on the actions tab. And in most cases that's all you have to do. They patched it and made armor easier too. As it now has an equipped button. So you don't have to keep manually changing a PC's armor class when they use a shield or not. But somethings still just don't work. Such as potions. You got to custom create many of the potions actions for EACH player separately. And adding a rouges sneak attack isn't a walk in the park either. While somethings are easy and intuitive. There are many things that are not. And require manually work; mainly by you the DM.
Automation: FG does a lot of things automatically. Some of this is really good. Some of it is bad. It doesn't feel good for the player or the DM. When the system auto rolls a failed death save for the player at the start of their turn. It also sometimes auto adjusters a players max HP. Like on level up, but not when you take a feats or adjust a players constitution. Many times you just wish it always did it, or never did it. Instead you are constantly checking to see if it did it or not. And it is not helpful to auto add HP on level up when a player would rather chance it with a roll. While some of the Automation is great and helpful. A lot of it you end up wishing would just go away. Or at least configurable. Maybe on player by player level.
Spelling errors/Typo: While there is a lot of text in the many books in FG. A Typo or spelling error is way more frustrating then you might think. Many searches simply don't show you what you are looking for. Because of a Typo in the Dungeon master guide or some other book. Even your own Typo's make it hard to find your own created materiel. While it is easy to fix your own mistakes. You just got to live with the mistakes made by FG.
Conclusion: While I do see a lot of this becoming better and easier over time within Fantasy Grounds. Like the change to armor. It just isn't there yet. Fantasy grounds is great for the more experienced players and DMs. And given more time it will only get better for the noobs such as myself, but is currently in itself another learning curve for a new player.
I haven't played for a while now. Due to me rather wanting to be a player then an a DM. And not being successful in finding a group. And maybe some of my issues with FG have been fixed. I log-in every now and then, and many things have improved. And I feel like it will only get better. Which I don't feel for a lot of games/systems out there. So that's a plus.
As far as rules and starting out as a new player or DM. Stick to the basics. Use just the 3 core books when starting out. Make your own small amount NPCs. Also think of having a guide NPC if your players are also new. And focus on your next session when your first starting to DM. After you get the hang of that then work on a larger campaign.
Thanks Eabe.