D&D 5E Quick Start Viability

First, Hi. I've been a lurker. Glad to be here.

A bit of background pertaining to my question:

I was introduced to D&D with 3.5 along with most of the people I game with. Only a couple played old school editions. The group is very semi-gaming. Everyone loves it, but we almost have no time to play (kids! we have many). We gave 4e a whirl and most enjoyed it. But it's been a few years now since any of us have gamed together, and probably years since any of us have played D&D at all. But we're getting together next month to play again with 5e through the Starter Set!

That said, I'll be DMing for the first time ever. One or two might roll a new character, but I think the rest will be okay using the pregens. There will be one PHB (I don't even own one yet...I'll be using Starter Set rules) but I plan on printing out the combat/action section from the Basic Rules to have on hand for reference. Other than that, I'm pretty much just going to stick with the Lost Mines adventure as written and hope we can all fumble through the rules together.

I remember when we switched from 3.5 to 4e, the first night was spent heavily on re-learning rules and character creation, even though most of us came prepared. Due to our few and far between games, I remember how much of a wasted night it felt. Just reading over 5e and having the Starter Set as an option to begin, I'm really hoping we can cut through that and get straight to playing. I'm thinking of giving just a brief word on some obvious changes (like adv/dis), hand out the combat section/pregens, and just go.

For a group that has played sparingly the last two iterations, and a new DM at the helm, does this sound viable?

Does anything really jump out to you as a 'must need' explanation, or suggestions, as we jump to 5e that would aid in a rules as we go/quick start?

I did a session with a bunch of novice players right after the Starter Set came out. I explained Inspiration and pretty much nothing else. I let them pick their characters based on simple descriptions, let them read their character sheets, and off we went. We spent 30 minutes tops in setup.

Introduce rules as they come up and as they are appropriate. As the DM, you, should know the rules and when to call for a certain kind of check. They don't really need to until the moment of. And, really, if you just make something up, make a note, and look the rules up later, it'll be just fine.

EDIT: Here is my write up of my experience with novices and the Starter Set, if you want a more in-depth look.

Enjoy!

Thaumaturge.

Totally viable. One of the good things about level 1 5e and the starter set is that is that it's not very complicated. Keep it breezy and if there are rule questions go with common sense and make a note of it to look up later.

Only area you might run into trouble with is spellcasters, might want to ask those players who are playing them to print out or otherwise make note of the spells they will be using so a lot of time is not spent looking them up. Our cleric got kind of lost especially after leveling up to 2 which happens pretty fast.

This website from the front page helped me with that. http://5espellbook.azurewebsites.net/SpellIndexFilter

drjones said:

Totally viable. One of the good things about level 1 5e and the starter set is that is that it's not very complicated. Keep it breezy and if there are rule questions go with common sense and make a note of it to look up later.

Only area you might run into trouble with is spellcasters, might want to ask those players who are playing them to print out or otherwise make note of the spells they will be using so a lot of time is not spent looking them up. Our cleric got kind of lost especially after leveling up to 2 which happens pretty fast.

Click to expand...

Good to know. One of the players has the PHB and is planning on being a wizard. I'm pretty sure if anyone else plays a spellcaster that they will be using a pregen.