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Regarding DMG, Starter Set and Essentials kit: Are they good for the starting DMs?
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<blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 8801106" data-attributes="member: 6988941"><p>I started DMing with the original 5e Starter Set and the PHB, having only ever played actual tabletop briefly once decades earlier (though I had played Neverwinter Nights 2, so there was a fair amount of general D&D game concept and lore familiarity). It was all I needed.</p><p></p><p>Since I had the PHB and a set of dice the only material in the original Starter Set relevant to me was the adventure, but it was still worth it (I think I paid $16 on Amazon, which per dollar made it easily my best D&D purchase outside the PHB). Basically what makes the original Starter Set, Essentials Kit, and presumably the new Starter Set (which I haven't seen yet) work is that they have manageable easy to run adventures written with a little handholding for new DMs, and all the things you would need to cross-reference the DMG or Monster Manual for in short appendices in the back. They are also simple modules with lots of loosly connected things going on, such that you can expand, change, or improvise with minimal consequences, rather than having every change break a dozen other things in a typical overly intricate and sprawling WotC adventure (which I think also suffer from being too vast for the authors to keep the details straight, much less the DMs). I wish all the 5e adventures were written like these.</p><p></p><p>Note that while I ran a game having never properly played 5e, and only sort of played 3.X, doing so did require sitting down and reading most of the PHB, as well as a lot of stress and mistakes that wouldn't of been as pronounced if I had played a bit of 5e first, ideally with someone helping me learn the rules. But if you don't have 5e gaming opportunities in your life, or find the prospect of reading a book and running a game less intimidating than going to find a game to join, it is a perfectly viable option.</p><p></p><p>I bought the DMG early as well but bounced off of it, and never used it in that first campaign except to add some extra magical items. That's not exactly an indictment of it's quality so much as a the fact that I had just read the PHB mostly cover to cover, and had an adventure to prep, and something had to give. The DMG is not particularly well suited to a brand new DM (or at least poorly organized for them). It lost 2016 me when it began with worldbuilding, a very interesting and compelling subject of very little relevance to someone trying to prep a <em>Lost Mines of Phandelver</em> campaign to run in a few days and still struggling to keep all the base game rules straight. </p><p></p><p>Generally I feel like the DMG suffers from organizational problems. It covers worldbuilding and adventure design before running adventures. Now this makes all the broad conceptual sense in the world, but even I, the guy who chose to DM before playing, came to the book for help running a prewritten adventure. How many people are ever going to open the DMG <em>for the first time</em> with the plan to create a campaign setting and adventure from scratch and follow through on that?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Benjamin Olson, post: 8801106, member: 6988941"] I started DMing with the original 5e Starter Set and the PHB, having only ever played actual tabletop briefly once decades earlier (though I had played Neverwinter Nights 2, so there was a fair amount of general D&D game concept and lore familiarity). It was all I needed. Since I had the PHB and a set of dice the only material in the original Starter Set relevant to me was the adventure, but it was still worth it (I think I paid $16 on Amazon, which per dollar made it easily my best D&D purchase outside the PHB). Basically what makes the original Starter Set, Essentials Kit, and presumably the new Starter Set (which I haven't seen yet) work is that they have manageable easy to run adventures written with a little handholding for new DMs, and all the things you would need to cross-reference the DMG or Monster Manual for in short appendices in the back. They are also simple modules with lots of loosly connected things going on, such that you can expand, change, or improvise with minimal consequences, rather than having every change break a dozen other things in a typical overly intricate and sprawling WotC adventure (which I think also suffer from being too vast for the authors to keep the details straight, much less the DMs). I wish all the 5e adventures were written like these. Note that while I ran a game having never properly played 5e, and only sort of played 3.X, doing so did require sitting down and reading most of the PHB, as well as a lot of stress and mistakes that wouldn't of been as pronounced if I had played a bit of 5e first, ideally with someone helping me learn the rules. But if you don't have 5e gaming opportunities in your life, or find the prospect of reading a book and running a game less intimidating than going to find a game to join, it is a perfectly viable option. I bought the DMG early as well but bounced off of it, and never used it in that first campaign except to add some extra magical items. That's not exactly an indictment of it's quality so much as a the fact that I had just read the PHB mostly cover to cover, and had an adventure to prep, and something had to give. The DMG is not particularly well suited to a brand new DM (or at least poorly organized for them). It lost 2016 me when it began with worldbuilding, a very interesting and compelling subject of very little relevance to someone trying to prep a [I]Lost Mines of Phandelver[/I] campaign to run in a few days and still struggling to keep all the base game rules straight. Generally I feel like the DMG suffers from organizational problems. It covers worldbuilding and adventure design before running adventures. Now this makes all the broad conceptual sense in the world, but even I, the guy who chose to DM before playing, came to the book for help running a prewritten adventure. How many people are ever going to open the DMG [I]for the first time[/I] with the plan to create a campaign setting and adventure from scratch and follow through on that? [/QUOTE]
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Regarding DMG, Starter Set and Essentials kit: Are they good for the starting DMs?
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