Is the Original D&D White Box reprint good for new players?

[painted_klown]

5e has brought me back to the WotC fold in a major way.

Thank you for your input. The line I quoted from you seems to be a "general consensus" (of sorts) that I am noticing among players online.

Since the earlier editions do not seem to be beginner friendly (and with nearly everything out of print), I am looking toward 5th edition as my probable gateway to becoming a DM.

I still plan to play Pathfinder when I can, but from reading about how RPGs are played, it seems the DM/GM is the one who actually "gets to play" the game any time they want. What I mean is that you can spend your non-session time planning adventures, pouring over books for ideas, ect.

I am the kind of guy that is attracted to that idea. Really dive in, learn the system up, down, sideways, front, and back. Then use that knowledge to run fun games for the players.

I am sure it's a LOT of fun being a player, but you are only really getting to play during the actual game session. The DM/GM gets to play all week while planning & building their adventure world.

Although I have NO idea of how to actually go about this, my brain is already swirling with different ideas I think I would like to try.

Someone please correct me here, but couldn't you simply take a preplanned (store bought) module, and use the adventure to make your own out of it? What I mean is, use the same amount of combat and the same creature stats, but simply change the name of the monsters to whatever you want to use. Same thing with location. Instead of telling your players you are in a castle (or whatever) you can change the setting to exploring any other building/structure, and so on. I hope that makes sense as it does inside my head. LOL!

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

Absolutely. What are you describing is sometimes called "reskinning" - for example, using a goblin's stats to represent a human bandit or a green dragon's stats to represent spellcasting hag. Published adventures can be run as-is or used as outlines and inspiration for your own creativity.

 

[Mark CMG]

Since the earlier editions do not seem to be beginner friendly (and with nearly everything out of print), I am looking toward 5th edition as my probable gateway to becoming a DM.

Go for it! I'm a guy who runs a regular D&D game from an earlier edition, who has also run games since the original game, with a current group of various experience levels and we took a break this last summer to try out the 5E Starter Set (using some of the free downloadable Basic Rules as well). If you're new to GMing, you can definitely get your feet wet using the 5E Starter Set with the least amount of trouble among the things I have seen published for getting started with D&D in my forty years of gaming.

Although we switched back our regular group to the 1E AD&D game we were playing before, and several of the players also play Pathfinder regularly on another night, one of our number GMs weekly 5E games elsewhere while another plays 5E. This week, as I have other things keeping me from the table, I've asked that other GM to step up and run a 5E game for everyone and they are all looking forward to it. It's a fine game and you'll have a good time with it, I am sure.

Here's a link to some blogging about the 5E Starter Set experience we had beginning in the summer -

http://www.creativemountaingames.com/2014/07/the-friday-grab-bag-my-d-5e-starter-set.html

 

[diaglo]

i would be more than willing to teach you how to play or referee OD&D(1974). but as others have said there is a big learning curve if you approach it without some help.

most of us came in playing something else. for me that would be wargames.

edit: i have interested dozens of players to the game over the last 3.5 decades.

 

[painted_klown]

Thanks guys.

Diaglo, I appreciate your offer to teach me, and if I lived close, I would take you up on it.

I think learning Pathfinder and 5E are probably going to be my "best bets". Mostly because they are the current games being played, and will be easier to find players, and materials for these in print RPGs.