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Umhm
2009-09-20, 04:22 PM
I'm 14 and I'm really interested in starting role playing games. I played a dungeons and dragons game with my friend and really enjoyed, but he lives far away and I rarley get to see him/play with him. So what should I buy and where should I go to start.:smallsmile:

Nohwl
2009-09-20, 04:26 PM
3.5 is the cheapest one to play. you can find most of the information here. (http://www.d20srd.org/) if you live near a hobby shop, you could look there for a group. ask the people who work there if anyone meets there. there are also play by post games on this forum, so you could try joining one of them.

edit-- there was a guide to free dungeons and dragons on brilliantgameologists, but it is not coming up for me right now. i think this is the correct link though.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1109.0

The Dark Fiddler
2009-09-20, 04:27 PM
I'm 14 and I'm really interested in starting role playing games. I played a dungeons and dragons game with my friend and really enjoyed, but he lives far away and I rarley get to see him/play with him. So what should I buy and where should I go to start.:smallsmile:

What should you buy, to play?

It'd be easier to find 4th ed stuff, and you'd need the Player's Handbook. The Monster Manual is a plus, and if you're DMing, the Dungeon Master's Guide is also a HUGE plus.

Although 3.5 ed will be cheaper, as long as you can get it off the internet somehow (as your parents, that's what I did). You'd need the same books. HOWEVER, 3.5 has the SRD at d20srd.org, which is basically 94% of those three books, plus a bit more from other books in online form.

To play, you could always join a Play by Post game on a forum.

10 gp says I'm ninja'd.

Zovc
2009-09-20, 04:30 PM
To be honest, you shouldn't have to buy anything. You can get Dungeons and Dragons 3.5's rules for free from either Wizards of the Coast (the company responsible for it) or from various "System Reference Document" sites.

Check out d20srd.org. There's that, or Wizards' downloadable SRD (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35), or Crystal Keep has their own version (http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/index.php), too.

If you have any "Hobby Shops" or "Card Shops," those would be good places to look for gaming materials. Feel free to ask the person running the shop if they know anything about Dungeons and Dragons. At the very least, provided you're in the "right" place, they should be able to point you to reference books. They may be able to point you to other players, or even be willing to tell other people that you want to play the game.

I'm sure plenty of groups have their own ways of doing things, and you'll eventually find what works for you. Graph paper is a common recommendation, no doubt, as Dungeons and Dragons' combat is based on (usually) 1-inch squares representing 5-foot squares inside the game.

Starscream
2009-09-20, 04:36 PM
Yeah, 4E is what you'll mostly find in stores nowadays. It's expensive but easy to learn, and new books are coming out every month.

3.5 is a little more complicated, but allows more customization. The SRD linked to above contains pretty much all the information from seven 3.5 books (Player's Hanbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, Unearthed Arcana, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Epic Level Handbook, and Deities and Demigods), and is free. You'll also find that 3.5 books are now very cheap on eBay and Amazon.

If you are interested in other systems, GURPS is a great "generic" system, that can be adapted to almost any setting and style of play. The basic rules for that are also free and can be found online.

Mutants and Masterminds is another system I really like. It's a superhero system, but contains so many different powers and abilities that it can be adapted to pretty much any sort of "Action/Adventure Movie" game as well. It's also based on the same D20 system as D&D, so the rules will be familiar.

Mando Knight
2009-09-20, 04:53 PM
There's also the 4e Test Drive (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4dnd/dndtestdrive)...

Bang
2009-09-20, 05:20 PM
So what should I buy and where should I go to start.:smallsmile:
I recommend grabbing an AD&D Player's Handbook and Monster Manual, a couple of friends, a pizza and a handful of dice. That should be all you need.

Should set you back about $20. (Give or take $5, depending on your tastes in pizza.)

@V wasn't that how we all started?

Mando Knight
2009-09-20, 05:23 PM
I recommend grabbing an AD&D Player's Handbook and Monster Manual, a couple of friends, a pizza and a handful of dice. That should be all you need.

'e's new. The best thing for a new player to do is to either join a group that knows what it's doing or run a published adventure. A sensible first impression of a game system is the best first impression.

Glimbur
2009-09-20, 10:35 PM
There are roughly a bajillion games out there, some of which are simpler to learn than D&D 3.5.

RISUS, for example, is free and requires only six sided dice. Available here. (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm)

There's also a game based on making stories somewhat similar to Wuthering Heights and company available here. (http://www.unseelie.org/rpg/wh/index.html)

What sort of game are you looking for? D&D can do Swords and Sorcery unless you start poking at some of the rules, GURPS has more rules to learn but could also do it, Hackmaster Basic might also work.

D&D is one of the more popular systems; everyone has heard of it and it's easy to find books for it. It's not the only option.

ericgrau
2009-09-20, 10:37 PM
Find a used 3.5 edition player's handbook or a new 4th edition player's handbook. Read most of the sections. It'll be easiest if you find a group of people that already play. The dungeon master also needs the dungeon master's guide and monster manual for the matching edition (3.5 or 4th).

www.d20srd.org is an awesome free reference but it's not so hot for getting started. And that's the whole point of the SRD (the 3.5 rules freely available to everyone).

oxybe
2009-09-20, 10:44 PM
Check out my neat sig
It contains free stuff for you
Haiku for the win

Thajocoth
2009-09-20, 10:54 PM
I recommend looking at 4th ed's Test Drive (free intro adventure) and poking around one of the 3.5e SRD sites and trying one of them out with some friends. 4e is a lot easier to learn, quicker to start and less work for the DM. 3.5 is cheaper. If you play some 4th ed and decide you like it, I recommend your group get an insider subscription. The character builder makes making characters very quick, everything's there at a glance, and the compendium is searchable for anything else you might want. Having a DMG, PHB & PHB2 as well might be helpful as the first is a great guide for DMs and the latter two have all the rules. The group as a whole though shouldn't need more than one copy of each or more than one DDI subscription. Now that I have the char builder and the compendium I barely open the other books anymore (I have most of them in pdf). But the monster manuals do have some helpful info on the monsters which doesn't seem to appear in the compendium (It's major drawback. It needs to include the bits of lore for the things it displays.)

I can't give any huge insights as to what you'll need long term to play/run a 3.5 game as the system is pretty new to me and, personally, I prefer 4th ed.

EDIT: Oxybe's sig does, indeed, have all the links you need, just as he said, for either system. Nice reference there, Oxybe.

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-09-20, 11:03 PM
I'm 14 and I'm really interested in starting role playing games. I played a dungeons and dragons game with my friend and really enjoyed, but he lives far away and I rarley get to see him/play with him. So what should I buy and where should I go to start.:smallsmile:

Behold what campaigns may be like! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116095)

only1doug
2009-09-21, 03:36 AM
First and most important:

Don't buy anything yet!

you need to find a group to play with, an existing group might be best but (due to your age) you might have to form your own group (of other complete newbies).

once you have a group you need to determine who is GMing (running the game), that person will decide what game they are running and therefore what rules you are useing.

once you have determined a rules set you need one complete set of rules books between you, more than that is OK if you can afford it but not essential.

If you club together to buy the books then decide in advance who owns them and how they will be divided should the group split up (put this in writing and get parents to approve). Sometimes friendships break and arguing over ownership of common property is a real pain.

Lioness
2009-09-21, 06:09 AM
I wouldn't buy anything yet...I'm a year into our campaign and still using my DM's books (It does help that he's my boyfriend, and a rules lawyer). The only time I need them is when I buy equipment or level up.

oxybe
2009-09-21, 06:19 AM
EDIT: Oxybe's sig does, indeed, have all the links you need, just as he said, for either system. Nice reference there, Oxybe.

the sig is still a work in progress. i'm trying to find a free virtual tabletop that's pretty user friendly, has nice features and possibly people willing to test it out.

Katana_Geldar
2009-09-21, 06:31 AM
At a minimum you will need the Player's Handbook, but that's nothing without a group to play with. If you can't afford this at the moment, there's the character creator on the Wizards site that gives you a start.

Thajocoth
2009-09-21, 12:45 PM
the sig is still a work in progress. i'm trying to find a free virtual tabletop that's pretty user friendly, has nice features and possibly people willing to test it out.

OpenRPG's newest update (1.8.0) seems a lot more stable than it used to be. I use this and the drawn lines no longer disappear, the minis all seem to load, they're easier to drag around, and I don't randomly disconnect very often. Since these things are all user-made and not professional apps, I think that's about as good as you can do.

-----

I definitely agree on not buying anything yet. Perhaps you should try both the 4e test drive AND a 3.5 module then decide with your group which to continue with. The test drive can pretty much be jumped right into and you can gather what you need for a 3.5 module in the meantime.

Also, the 4e character builder (which Katana_Geldar just mentioned) is free from levels 1-3 in demo form. This further helps you try out the system without paying anything yet to decide what you like. (The test drive is designed to bring characters from level 1 to level 3.)

Bang
2009-09-21, 06:03 PM
I definitely agree on not buying anything yet. Perhaps you should try both the 4e test drive AND a 3.5 module then decide with your group which to continue with.
I feel obligated to plug OSRIC (http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric/).

It's a free reference to AD&D rules, which I find much friendlier to new and casual gaming than the WotC editions.

Katana_Geldar
2009-09-21, 09:14 PM
There is a cheap starter set with a short version of the rules and a mini DMs book along with a set of dice, some tiles and tokens and I think a module. But this is really if you want to DM, it's far better to find a group first.

ericgrau
2009-09-21, 11:14 PM
As said it's best to find a group. Then they can run you through everything and you won't need us. Then you can buy what you buy, and they'll even tell you what you need.

taltamir
2009-09-21, 11:17 PM
find a group, see what they are playing, use that.

Honestly there are a bunch of good and not so good but still fun systems to play. Don't hamstring yourself by committing to one yet.
#1 priority is to find a group.