D&D General Who is this made for (Not Beginners) - the New D&D Starter Set

[kermit4karate]

I don't use props, other than maps and minis occasionally (we mostly play TotM). I used a real road map recently for my Level Up game based on a future version of Earth, but that's about as far as I go. I was trained to believe all that stuff is unnecessary for play, and expensive to boot. We just use books, character sheets or plain paper, dice, and the electronic equivalents of same. All that stuff is pricey enough for me.

I never use props either. I have before, years ago, mainly battle maps, but they aren't my thing. I'd prefer to have my players focussed on me or each other, not the surface of the table.

Yea, that's snark, but it's true for me. I also don't like having to remember to bring more expensive crap with me wherever we play.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Do you have a printer at home? If so, print a few copies of a sheet that says "START HERE" in a big font near the top, then "NEXT READ HERE" in a slightly smaller font, etc.

Wouldn’t post it notes be better?

 

[Morrus]

I was trained to believe all that stuff is unnecessary for play, and expensive to boot.

You were trained to play D&D?

 

[kermit4karate]

Wouldn’t post it notes be better?

Free country and all...at least for one more day.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You were trained to play D&D?

Pretty much, by an older kid back in the BECMI days who introduced me to the hobby, and later by my first two long-term groups, who both independently played homebrewed 1e (I was poached by the second group from the first) in the early '90s. Stayed with that group in various configurations until the main GM (and my best friend) passed away in 2017. Been trying to run my own show ever since.

 

[kermit4karate]

Thank you for the kind words. I really should just not engage in WotC product threads, but it's hard because so much of the action on this forum is there, and I have a really difficult time not responding when my opinion is challenged. I am at least dropping the starter set thing.

Please do engage! The last thing I come here for is intensely aggressive groupthink.

(Because I come here for the intensely aggressive semantic debates.)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I never use props either. I have before, years ago, mainly battle maps, but they aren't my thing. I'd prefer to have my players focussed on me or each other, not the surface of the table.

I secretly prefer TotM, but seeing as I sell minis, terrain, and paint, as part of my living owning a Comic and Game Store, I have to forcibly keep myself enthusiastic about them.

I've always described it, "When I think back on a TotM Session, I remember myself standing toe-to-toe with the dragon as fire rages around me. I can smell it. When I play with Minis, I remember myself at a table, pushing around minis."

That said, my after-hours group recently switched to using minis (because I am running something where I drew the whole dungeon on a dozen full-sized battlemaps for an in-store game) and it got that group of drunks (my best friends, mind) to actually engage with the game again, when we had started to get very bad for long political rants and TV discussions.

So, overall, I think it's good to switch things up. Honestly, the best approach is probably a case-by-case consideration (by encounter). But of course, "means" also gets in the way of perfection.

 

[kermit4karate]

I secretly prefer TotM, but seeing as I sell minis, terrain, and paint, as part of my living owning a Comic and Game Store, I have to forcibly keep myself enthusiastic about them.

I've always described it, "When I think back on a TotM Session, I remember myself standing toe-to-toe with the dragon as fire rages around me. I can smell it. When I play with Minis, I remember myself at a table, pushing around minis."

That said, my after-hours group recently switched to using minis (because I am running something where I drew the whole dungeon on a dozen full-sized battlemaps for an in-store game) and it got that group of drunks (my best friends, mind) to actually engage with the game again, when we had started to get very bad for long political rants and TV discussions.

So, overall, I think it's good to switch things up. Honestly, the best approach is probably a case-by-case consideration (by encounter). But of course, "means" also gets on the way of perfection.

Great comment! I should have made it clearer from mine that I'm not vehemently opposed to minis or props. I stop and marvel at ones created and sold by other people all the time. I would honestly paint and buy minis all the time if I had a cool place to showcase them at home, but I don't. I don't have my dream D&D cave. That's a far bigger barrier to entry for me than any kind of actual dislike for them.