5e for teen game: need advice

[BluSponge]

I'm strongly leaning towards using 5e for our library teen roleplaying program next year. But before I do, I have a few questions I really need answered.

1) Combat I've heard is faster than 3e and 4e, but not as fast as O/AD&D. Is this just because of hit point inflation? Where does combat bottleneck and is there any way to make it more efficient?

2) Does anyone have any tricks for speeding up character creation? I'm currently thinking having pre-filled character sheets based on classes, so the players just have to note race and background info. I intend to have pregens for late-comers and new players, but I really like giving the kids the freedom to make their own characters. Character advancement shouldn't be too bad, but the initial process is a bit time consuming, especially with limited numbers of rulebooks. So anything that can help speed things up would be EXTREMELY helpful.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Herobizkit]

1) Combat can be as simple or complicated as you like. Your basic options are still Swing, Shoot, Spell. Everyone gets a Basic Action and a Move Action; in some cases, they can also get a Bonus Action if certain conditions are met. Spells either require attack rolls from the caster or saving throws from the enemies.

You can download and peruse the free rules for players ad DM's here. They cover the four basic classes and four races.

If you want the game as simple as possible, use nothing but these PDFs.

5e introduces a concept called Bounded Accuracy which 'fixes the math' so that hitting things remains fairly easy over a character's career and opponent HP is inflated (somewhat) to compensate. You won't see much difference in low-level (say, before 4) play.

2) Each class gives a general guide of where to put your highest scores and a starting loadout of gear. If you also use the pre-set stat array (15 14 13 12 10 8), you can just plug-and-play away.

 

[GMMichael]

I'd like to humbly suggest the game I'm working on, due to these points:

- Character creation is a breeze, and 50% can be done without the book.
- The book is a free pdf, so you can put a copy on any e-reader, library computer, and maybe iPhones.
- Combat isn't objectively faster, but players don't have to wait for their turns, either.
- Dice are handy, but only one d20 is required to run the entire game.
- It's open-source, so the kids can actually have a direct effect on the evolution of the game.

Modos RPG 1.3 is right here in the ENworld downloads: http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1210

And some samples from the free, upcoming 1.4 rules module are here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?465575-Workshop-Modos-RPG-1-4-patch

 

[ZickZak]

1) I think it is because of the way damage is handled now, compared to HP. In 4e Ranger at lvl 12 (and possibly other classes/levels as well) could quite easily kill himself 3 times in one round without crits. In 5e you would have to crit both attacks to kill yourself once, maybe.

2) Depends what "teen" means really. If you have 13teen year olds, you can quite easily give them an array and ask them what kind of char they wanna play. If they describe a dude living in a city helping others, Wis/Cha Medicine/History/Religion should be the top picks and with broader description pinpointing the class isnt a problem. The problem will be picking spells.