Back after about 29 years

[Shiroiken]

Welcome home!

You are in a great deal of luck, because the current edition holds a lot of concepts from the old AD&D days. There are mechanical differences of course, but for the most part those are massive improvements over the overly complicated AD&D rules.

May the dice fall in your favor

 

[S'mon]

Welcome to D&D 5e!

Here are some resources you may find useful as you prepare to DM your first game:

How to Adjudicate Actions in D&D 5e
The Case for Inspiration

I wouldn't bother with that. To start with, do what feels right and make the game your own. 5e is very much designed for that approach. If you are having specific issues then message board discission can be useful for seeing how others do it.

 

[iserith]

I wouldn't bother with that. To start with, do what feels right and make the game your own. 5e is very much designed for that approach. If you are having specific issues then message board discission can be useful for seeing how others do it.

Yes, and we'll see you back here promptly with those aforementioned "specific issues" after running the game like it's some other game. Always happy to help with that!

 

[robus]

I wouldn't bother with that. To start with, do what feels right and make the game your own. 5e is very much designed for that approach. If you are having specific issues then message board discission can be useful for seeing how others do it.

Not sure about the case for inspiration, as that seems like icing on the cake, but adjudicating actions is a key part of the baking and very poorly explained in the core books. Iserith’s guide is an enjoyable tour through the various ability and skill checks and really illuminates 5e’s approach to resolving those actions.

 

[Oofta]

Welcome back! If you have questions, please ask.

We don’t bite.

Well, most of us don’t.

PS - I’m also an older gamer that runs games for the next generation. You’re in for a great time!!

In addition, some of us aren't paladin-hating anti-gnome bigots.

Oh, and don't take anybody on this message board too seriously. We take ourselves plenty seriously from time to time thank you very much. You may note upon occasion that threads go on endlessly arguing about minutiae, or that people take obscure jabs at fellow contributors but I think at the end of the day we'd all get along fine at the game table.

I also wouldn't worry too much about guides or running the game "right", one of the best things about this edition is that there's a lot of leeway to make the game your own. So do what makes sense for you and your group and just try to be consistent. I think it's more important to have a smooth flowing game than it is to know exactly how far you can jump according to the rules, there are still times I make a ruling on the fly and just look it up later.

Anyway, feel free to ask for advice here. We're full of it.

 

[Harzel]

Hey, welcome back.

To put a finer point on what [MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] said: the fact that 5e looks, at first glance, like AD&D is a snare and a delusion. I mean, it's nice that it feels 'comfy', but it definitely, definitely, definitely does not play the same way.* My history is very similar to yours, and I immediately instituted some house rules based on my memory of how 1e played. While I wouldn't call the result a disaster, it soon became evident that what I had done was, at best, silly.

As one example of something that deserves some contemplation - look at the resting / resource recovery rules, think about how different they are from 1e, and think about how that will affect the game.

Another thing I'll mention: it's sort of a meta consideration, but unlike 1e, 5e is a game that was actually designed based on several decades of experience with RPGs, as opposed to something that emerged organically from the primordial soup of wargaming and fantasy literature. So while it would probably be an overstatement to say that 5e has design principles (as in design rules that were strictly adhered to), it does have systems that are intended to hang together in fairly specific ways. Unfortunately, any explication of these considerations/guidelines is pretty much entirely absent from the books, even the DMG. The upshot is that mods can have ripple effects that actually do degrade things that were working well, as opposed to 1e where the interaction of different systems was so idiosyncratic that all you could say about most changes was, "Well, that's different."

Anyway, even though you will see it said that 5e is very modifiable, my advice is to spend significant time playing RAW before you start tweaking. And don't worry, there are still plenty of holes and edge cases that you will have to fill in with rulings, so your creativity will not be stifled.

Finally, [MENTION=56051]Raith5[/MENTION] made a humorous reference to studying the intervening D&D editions. While it is by no means critical or a prerequisite, I have found learning a bit about 3e and 4e instructive. Elements of those games have influenced aspects of 5e.

* Though I did not play 3e or 4e, from what I have gathered, 5e does seem to be more reminiscent of 1e than 3e or 4e were, but that also seems to be a low bar.

 

[Graylion2018]

Hi

I last played Dungeons and Dragons in the late eighties, if I recall 2nd Edition AD&D. Then life happened, our group went our separate ways and that was the last of it. Last week, on a whim I bought the 5th Edition Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual. In two weeks time I DM my first game with my teenage kids, the next generation of players.

I have not been able to put the books down, its feels like I have come back home, back to the Yawning Portal Inn. So much has changed, yet everything still feels the same, which is just perfect.

Hello everyone.

I have always hovered in and out of D&D but I agree 5e for me is the best since I began with basic and 1e. 3.5 ruined it for me for a while, from AoO to Grappling. If I never see skill ranks or half-ranks again it will be too soon.

I saw some improvements in 4e but it didn't feel like D&D. Rituals were great, skills were an improvement, at-wills, you can still see the 3.5 and 4.0, influence..

The advantage and disadvantages are amazing.

Best regards

 

[Graylion2018]

Some things I do is at the start of every session I hand out a physical inspiration card for them to use. If they do something heroic or memorable I may give an extra or return a used one. Sometimes I let them redeem an inspiration for the I need a spell slot or something.

I mod'ed the Hit Die rests a short rest is 25%, of your max and a long rest is 50% of your max, healers kit with feat takes a min to regain hit points otherwise they are sometimes better than casters. I have no urge to track the number of HD resting spent used session to session.

Please any questions we are here for you.

Best regards

 

[Volund]

Welcome back. I was out of D&D for a similar length of time. You couldn't have picked a better time to jump back in! I can't begin to list all the great resources available from Wizards, third parties, online, etc. Adventures, miniatures, accessories, online and local gaming communities - you'll find them soon enough on your own if you look. Have fun!

 

[Ancalagon]

I'm going to recycle a recent post I made because it applies to you too!

"I'm about to go to bed, so a single important tip:

Backgrounds are super important in 5e, almost as much as your character race. They provide you with additional skills and perks.

You can soft multi class this way. Your paladin could be an Outlander and know his way in the wilderness, or grew up as a street urchin and know how to sneak.

I mention this because more than one player I know glossed over that chapter..."

Welcome back to D&D!