D&D 5E My D&D 5E Starter Set Quest and Campaign

Mark CMG · Jul 9, 2014

My current RPGing group has been playing a 1E AD&D campaign for a few months. This year members of our group have played tons of RPGs and other games, with one another and out on our own. We're a collection of hardcore gamers who mostly manage to get some gaming in several times a week and all get out to local and regional conventions and gamedays. This year alone, I've played in games of The One Ring RPG, Myths & Magic (2E retroclone), OD&D, 1E AD&D, 3.5E, TSR's Conan (1985), and others.

Our group discussed the coming of 5E D&D and opted to take a break from our ongoing campaign to snag the Starter Set when Games Plus got it in last week and run it through Gen Con (or just after) to get a good idea of how it will play and feel. I've got more of the details on my blog here but I'm happy to discuss things in this thread and I'll update as we go along.

We have also grabbed the 5E Basic Rules from online and will use those to clarify and add to our experience. If something in the Basic Rules is meant to replace something in the Starter Set, we're opting to stick with the Starter Set rules.

Plaguescarred · Jul 10, 2014

Cool thanks for sharing. Also niice picture frame!!

Mark CMG · Jul 10, 2014

Plaguescarred said:
Cool thanks for sharing. Also niice picture frame!!

Thanks. Linking directly to the pic would have been too large for this thread so I took a smaller screencap from the blog post and added it to the pics folder, but left the frame around it.

This week, the group goes after the Goblins in hopes of finding their "mentor."

Tush Hog · Jul 10, 2014

Excellent! Good idea printing the spells separately. I'm going to do that as well.

Mark CMG · Jul 11, 2014

The group has successfully gone through a second session of the Starter Set Adventure and arrived at Phandalin with no deaths in the party. Some interest twists on how things played out are discussed in the blog post below the "spoiler" point, so I won't ruin anything here. We're also looking at some between-gaming-gaming, which means another update next week. Thanks for checking things out!

http://www.creativemountaingames.com/2014/07/the-friday-grab-bag-my-5e-d-starter-set.html

Mark CMG · Jul 12, 2014

I plan to discuss this more in a wrap up blog, once we see how all the sessions go, but I am wondering if others are book-searching during games at similar junctures to our group.

We went though the entire Starter Set Rulebook as a group. We also went over the character sheets to make sure each player knew their personal stuff best. Then we had some clarification from the Basic Rules PDF as well as a bit more discussion regarding the particular circumstances of reactions / readies / concentration / bonus spells. All of this took under two hours of the first session. There's a bit to absorb but so much is familiar.

As I have seen elsewhere, our main concern was not to assume something worked like it did in one previous edition or another but to make sure it either did or did not, and how else it did work if it did not (if you take mine meaning, Mister Frodo).

The rule discussion we saw in our second session, presumably the ones that didn't stick from session one, include the following:

Double checking what skills exist and what falls under something else in this edition.

One arrow per round is standard.

Giving Advantage or Disadvantage rather than a bonus or penalty and how even multiples of one are canceled by a single one of the other.

How you add or subtract five from Passive Perception for Advantage / Disadvantage.

Surprise hasn't been an issue since session one but I suspect it will cause me pause at some point again.

We had to double check how to handle getting up from being prone.

As simple as Disengage is, I had to take a quick look to be sure there wasn't some caveat about doing other things beside move while disengaging.

(As a corollary, we haven't had a single Opportunity Attack yet.)

We re-read most of the Damage and Healing section to make sure we weren't carrying over some legacy rule info but in particular to handle Knocking a Creature Out and much of the Dropping to 0 and Death Saving Throws.

Now, most of these were quick checks that took less than a minute. I'm sure there are a few others that are not springing to mind. All of the players have the Basic Rules printed at this point. And a couple of times we stopped cold to make sure we were doing it right. I know. I know. They are just guidelines and as long as you're having fun . . . Well, we have fun whether we do it right or not.

We just intend to try these particular rules, as they are actually written, with no fudging intended, for our fun this time around.

Anyway, are any of these the same rules that have folks double-checking the booklets? Are there others that keep making you shift to an old edition's version?

Nemio · Jul 12, 2014

They are similar to Dungeon Tiles or Flip-Mats or other such aids. I simply take sections of the scrubbed map (it's a time saver not to have to scrub them personally) and use them along the way as the players explore the location.

Forgive my newbie question but I'm not understanding completely how you get to the end result of having the different pieces of the map. Could you explain a bit more?

Mark CMG · Jul 12, 2014

Nemio said:
Forgive my newbie question but I'm not understanding completely how you get to the end result of having the different pieces of the map. Could you explain a bit more?

I just scale up sections from a map in some graphics software, chop away the bits I don't want, then print them out. Then I cut away the extraneous bits and use a tape loop to secure them in place on the mat as we go. Given the size of a page, I tend to snag a section of 7 1/2 by ten inches, or slightly smaller in one direction of the other. Takes a bit of experimenting to get it right with your own equipment, I'd imagine. Note from the pics that I don't have to have every last bit on the map. There are gaps between the chambers and I just place them in their relative positions explaining what is in between.

*edit* Also, if you print them out in B&W, you can spruce them up with some markers.

Mark CMG · Jul 14, 2014

Here's a question that has come up from our game play, so no point starting it's own thread because maybe there is a simple answer. Why have the Cleric with a Soldier Background and the Wizard with an Acolyte Background? Sure, it might be a nice way of showing obscure pairings, but is the Starter Set the place for that? Seems to me in the Starter Set you'd go with Acolyte for the Cleric and Sage for the Wizard, no?

mach1.9pants · Jul 14, 2014

I see what you are saying but I disagree. This is a product for noobs to D&D and they have gone with some iconic choices in race/class. But I think to help people see that the system does not have to be cookie cutter PCs, and show some interesting twists, will make the RP and character investment easier and (hopefully) pay off for those players when they make their PCs. Perhaps they won't be so constrained and will see they can make that odd back storied PC (One Unique Thing, anyone?) which will increase enjoyment. Thankfully a non standard PC is not a nerf as bad as some other editions can be.