D&D 5E Intro to 5E

[Gwaihir]

Tomorrow night my group is starting 5E and Im dropping the characters in the bottom of the dungeon and letting them find their way out.

Since we're all learning the rules together, I thought the first level would have situations that specifically let us explore the non combat rules a bit. The higher levels will feature combat.

What types of challenges should I include?

Finding a secret door.
Opening a stuck door
locating and disarming a trap

are the one that come to mind.

Thanks
G

 

[Tony Vargas]

Aside from Hiding & perception, which gets a little wonky and exacting, there's very little to non-combat resolution in 5e. The player states an action, the DM decides whether it succeeds, fails, or requires a check (and sets a DC and rules which stat & proficiency apply), and describes the result.

One minor bit of advice: calling for a general roll (allowing everyone at the table to roll) when only one success is required, and no consequences exist for multiple failures, is usually pointless. Someone will succeed almost every time, and it won't even be the character best-suited to task all that often. Instead, just give the character most specialized in the task a moment to shine by describing his success. Similarly (or conversely), if you're contemplating having everyone roll, with a single failure blowing it for everyone (say, sneaking past a sleeping dragon), do yourself and your players a favor and call for a Group Check, instead.

 

[dmnqwk]

Picking a slippery fish out of a barrel so they get used to being prepared sometimes for crazy rolls (I'd use acrobatics to pick it up for a laugh)
Trying to get past a guard (either talking, sneaking or sleight of hand) so they get used to choices/decisions and unseen rolls

Ultimately as long as you can get them used to making attacks/checks/saves knowing exactly what to apply is less important than knowing how to work it out.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Don't forget the social checks. Maybe there's an enchanted intelligent stone door that they need to convince to let them pass (but have it be an optional area, in case they can't) using persuasion, deception, or intimidation. Also, it's good to encourage the PCs to talk out their approach. "I try to befriend the door by telling it some off-color jokes" is way more interesting than "I roll my persuasion check."

One thing with finding traps, is that since you're all learning the rules, you might not want to make it a "gotcha" trap - that is to say, not a trap that randomly ambushes them while they're walking down a corridor. You could provide hints, like the corpses of previous victims, but I tend to prefer obvious traps, like that lovely gem just sitting there on a pedestal in the middle of the dungeon...