free?

[kidnicky]

Am I reading correctly? Can a person who already owns dice and a printer actually fully play 5E for free? Even the DM? Because if so,I'll probably upgrade. If not I'm sticking with 4e.

[akaddk]

Am I reading correctly? Can a person who already owns dice and a printer actually fully play 5E for free? Even the DM? Because if so,I'll probably upgrade. If not I'm sticking with 4e.

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules?x=dnd/basicrules

/thread


Well, ok, not quite. The PDF will be continuously updated as new content comes out. The intention being that it's meant to be the very basic amount of material needed to play the system. If you want more than that, you purchase the books. It's hopefully going to be updated with monsters and magical items next week.

[Envyus]

We also have the Horde of the Dragon Queen Supplement which contains 60 monsters some more spells and some Magic items as well. http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/HoardDragonQueen_Supplement1.pdf

[Inevitability]

Having to pay 50$ dollar just to get the most basic of rules is something that drove a lot of people away from trying D&D, I think. Making the basic rules free is a big help for attracting new players.

[brocadecity]

Anybody know if the basic pdf was updated on phb release day?

[akaddk]

Anybody know if the basic pdf was updated on phb release day?

https://twitter.com/Wizards_DnD/status/498208895920533504

It was rumoured to be updated on the 8th but it didn't happen. Now they're "hoping" to update it sometime this week.

[Falka]

You have a free trial version with the four basic classes and the basic rules. You can run a game with that. I'm doing that at the moment.

Now, if you want all the cake, you need to pay for it. It's only fair.

[Person_Man]

The free Basic rules don't tell you how to run a 5E D&D game. They tell you how you can participate in someone else's 5E D&D game using the most Basic options.

The Basic rules contain almost no advice or rules on how to DM, roleplaying, exploration, how to set up a campaign, monsters, magic items, multi-classing, etc. They're almost entirely character creation and spells for the four most basic options of the four most widely used classes (Fighter, Wizard, Rogue, Cleric), plus the brief base mechanics of the game (roll 1d20 + Proficiency bonus + relevant ability score bonus + spell/class ability modifiers, Advantage/Disadvantage, cover, etc). And that's all.

It's a free sample designed to entice you to want to buy the rules, and are not sufficient by themselves to actually run a 5E game.

[ImperiousLeader]

True, but that will change. There's a planned update for DMing and Monsters. WotC wanted to have that out on Friday, current word is "soon".

[Madfellow]

The free Basic Rules PDF plus the Hoard of the Dragon Queen supplement are enough to run at least a few adventures at the moment. Player options and monster selection are limited, but it works.

[akaddk]

It's a free sample designed to entice you to want to buy the rules, and are not sufficient by themselves to actually run a 5E game.

They were all I needed.

[Totema]

"Fully" isn't quite right. Only four of the classes, with only one class discipline each, are available for free. But all of the basic rules are right there.

[Dimers]

Am I reading correctly? Can a person who already owns dice and a printer actually fully play 5E for free? Even the DM? Because if so,I'll probably upgrade. If not I'm sticking with 4e.

Interesting. I'd stick with 4e if I mostly wanted to run team-oriented tactical combat, regardless of 5e being free. And I'd consider switching systems if I wanted a game focused on exploration or intrigue, things 4e doesn't do as well as, say, GURPS or D&D 3.X (which is also free at this point). So far my impression of 5e is that it's pretty good for quickly getting the players involved in their characters and ready to interact with the gameworld, but that any focus other than the PCs talking will depend entirely on the DM's skill and predilections. It's just too general and too basic for any special focus yet.

If you're looking for a free system with a different focus than 4e, there have been a few relevant threads in the main RPG forum in the past several months -- for example, this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?366246-Looking-for-a-new-system).

[TheOOB]

Interesting. I'd stick with 4e if I mostly wanted to run team-oriented tactical combat, regardless of 5e being free. And I'd consider switching systems if I wanted a game focused on exploration or intrigue, things 4e doesn't do as well as, say, GURPS or D&D 3.X (which is also free at this point). So far my impression of 5e is that it's pretty good for quickly getting the players involved in their characters and ready to interact with the gameworld, but that any focus other than the PCs talking will depend entirely on the DM's skill and predilections. It's just too general and too basic for any special focus yet.

If you're looking for a free system with a different focus than 4e, there have been a few relevant threads in the main RPG forum in the past several months -- for example, this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?366246-Looking-for-a-new-system).

By the looks of it, 5e will to team-oriented tactical combat fine, the DMG will have rules for grid based movement, flanking, and the whole schebang if that's your wish, and most characters will have more options in 5e than 4e characters(some characters will have less).

Being a d20 system, 5e will still naturally favor combat and dungeon oriented encounters to social and skill based ones(the base d20 system is bad at representing people doing tasks that they are skilled out and should almost always succeed at.) It will be better at modeling those encounters than 4e because not all characters gain every skill at the same rate.

Anyways, from my understanding, the basic rules will be updated for the DMG, MM, and possibly the PHB. The will have the basic rules to run a simple D&D game. There won't be a ton of options, both character and rules wise, and there won't be much fluff, but it will be a functionally complete game, if simple. A character built using the basic rules should be playable(and even decent) in a full game, but they won't have the options of other players, and options are a form of power.