D&D 5E Advice for a newish 5E gamemaster

[BoldItalic]

This is less in game advice and more I am a broke seventeen year old who got paid fourty dollars advice. What should I grab for my game next? I am eying the sword coast adventurers guide, but the amount of fluff to crunch ratio is a turn off, since I use a custom universe inspired by golarion. Is there anything I should aim for, like battlemaps or screens? I don't use a screen as is, since I don't actually have one, perhaps minis? I should get a few of them, only issue is my guinea pig bella likes to bite minis.

Hi,

If, as you say, you are making up your own campaign then you don't really need the Sword Coast guide. It's mostly aimed at people playing the published adventures (which have all be set in the Forgotten Realms so far) and was launched to coincide with the Sword Coast Legends video game.

A DM screen is handy and the official one has some useful tables on the DM's side.

Battlemats and minis, well, you will get a spectrum of opinions about that. Some people regard them a pretty much essential, some people never use them and some people use them some of the time, especially if they like combat to be a bit tactical. (Personally, I have some left over from old games but haven't used them at all since I gave up playing 4e and moved to DDNext and then 5e; but don't take that as a universal recommendation). It depends very much on what your players enjoy (giant space guinea pigs aside ).

Beyond the good, but inevitably rather generalized advice in the DMG, there are some good sources of DM advice out there on the web. Personally, I find The Angry DM has some thought-provoking things to say, if you don't mind his unique style of writing, but again, don't take that as a universal recommendation. But a lot depends on what your players are like, what excites them, what interests them and so on, and that's not something we, or anyone else on the web, can know. We can only say: do whatever works for you and them and if you are all having fun, you are doing it right.

 

[tuxedoraptor]

Well, the thing is, we live in the age of computer screens, video games and eletronic noisemakers, brand new D&D players are rather uncomfortable playing theater of the mind style as they do not have visual aids, I use a tactical battlemap and minis to help remind them that they can move and what actually is going on. Guinea pig has actually been used as a mini once unintentionally

 

[Sword of Spirit]

humans getting +2 to two stats or +2 to one stat and proficiency in one set of tools

I would strongly recommend reconsidering this. A tool proficiency isn't even on the same level as a +2 to an ability score. Think of it this way. A +2 ability score boost is equal to a feat, and a feat will get you 3 skills, and a skill is worth more than a tool proficiency. Skills are part of character class/race balance abilities. Tools and languages are something you are allowed to pick up with 250 days of downtime. You could theoretically stock up on tools and feats with no XP. You only gain new skills and other class features through gaining levels.

So in exchange for that +2 ability score increase, you should probably give them something like 3 skills, or if you really want the feature to include tool proficiencies, 2 skills and 2 tool proficiencies.

 

[BoldItalic]

Well, the thing is, we live in the age of computer screens, video games and eletronic noisemakers, brand new D&D players are rather uncomfortable playing theater of the mind style as they do not have visual aids, I use a tactical battlemap and minis to help remind them that they can move and what actually is going on. Guinea pig has actually been used as a mini once unintentionally

Understood. That's the way to go, then. A nice mini for each PC and some generic monsters made out of raw vegetables. Our guineas loved cucumber chunks but they're a bit wet for using on battlemats. Carrots, perhaps?

After all, in video games, dead monsters disappear after a while ...

 

[Tony Vargas]

1.being too nice to players

It's an understandable instinct to treat genuinely-new players with kid gloves. D&D can be a frustrating, unforgiving game, and easing them into it can seem like a good idea. Whether it's better to try to make the game seem more appealing to players who might, ultimately, not really be into it, or to weed them out quickly is another question.

Yeah, sorry, no easy answer, there.

2.taking lots of shortcuts[/B]

Might get you tarred & feathered with experienced 3.5 players, but with new players and/or 5e and/or classic versions of the game is justfinethankyou.

3.Houserules and favoritism.

House rules are fine. They're a little weightier than just off the cuff rulings in the same direction, though, because the implication is you're going to share them with your players and stick to them. Favoritism can be toxic, but what you're describing I'd just call 'tailoring' the game to your players' individual 'styles.'

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[tuxedoraptor]

I would strongly recommend reconsidering this. A tool proficiency isn't even on the same level as a +2 to an ability score. Think of it this way. A +2 ability score boost is equal to a feat, and a feat will get you 3 skills, and a skill is worth more than a tool proficiency. Skills are part of character class/race balance abilities. Tools and languages are something you are allowed to pick up with 250 days of downtime. You could theoretically stock up on tools and feats with no XP. You only gain new skills and other class features through gaining levels.

So in exchange for that +2 ability score increase, you should probably give them something like 3 skills, or if you really want the feature to include tool proficiencies, 2 skills and 2 tool proficiencies.

Well, we don't ALLOW feats and not every class is MAD, however, everyone likes thieves tools and its either a skill OR a set of tools, just tools seem to be the more universal option, as traps and locks are annoying to deal with. If anything it works fine, and to bold italic, she wasn't meant to be a mini at the time, one of my friends decided to plop her on the table when I got up to use the bathroom.

 

[thorgrit]

I myself have problems with pure theater-of-the-mind stuff, as I can't concentrate and remember what all is going on, so some sort of visual reference for me is preferred. If you do use a battlemat, then a wet-erase rollable one or a dry-erase laminated foldable one is a good investment. Just be sure to use the appropriate marker and wash up when done; dry-erase markers can ruin a wet-erase mat. If you like to draw things out ahead of time and don't mind non-reuse, then Gaming Paper or gridded presentation paper is an option.

For minis, anything small enough will work. A mini chess set from a dollar store is on the extreme end of budget; use one color for PCs, the other for foes. There's also a ton of simple papercraft minis out there - print a single sheet, cut, fold a triangle, glue it to a penny, and you've got a variety of minis. Dice are classic stand-ins for minis. Need 5 goblins? Put down d6s with different faces showing. (If you go 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, paranoid metagamers will be extra cautious, waiting for goblin #4 to ambush them.) LEGO minifigs are also used by some.

 

[tuxedoraptor]

well, I only have three D6 and well, I USED to play pathfinder, I own a few of the books but it just became too expensive to get all of the main line books. I like D&D 5e cause im already on top of it. I had fun with pathfinder, but it got too clunky for me. Im gonna just walk in the gaming store and eyeball some stuff

 

[thorgrit]

Well, if you don't have more dice than you can ever use (yet), there's a good investment. Amazon has a few sellers of "pound of dice" (with at least 1 matching 7-piece set for around $20. Then of course with lots of dice you'll want a cool dice bag or three. Iirc you were under 21? So obtaining an iconic Crown Royal bag the traditional way may be out.

Most gamers tend to collect a lot of dice, and the bag they're carried in is sometimes a point of pride. These gaming accessories have the added advantage of being useful for most RPG systems. (FATE and FFG Star Wars have their own dice, and you can either make do by substituting traditional ones with a table, or feed your inner collector and get a set of those too, even if you never play.)