First time D&D - what to get?

[underclerk]

Well, I have finally put together a nice group to play D&D games with :D

We are just wondering what materials to get, to have an optimal D&D experience.
As we barely have any experience with role playing games, we would like to keep things a bit 'casual' for now.

What I have put together thus far is:
- books
- dice
- models
- paper with squares (to draw a dungeon map on)

I am just wondering about several things;
Which version is the nicest? Should we try 3.5, 4, or 5e? (I may have preference for 3.5, as it is the system OOTS and Dungeons and Dragons Online is based on :p)

Where can we get nice and cheap models suitable for D&D?

Are there some nice stories/dungeon settings we can play through? I believe they do not exist in the core books, so what would be the nicest setting to get (for beginners in role playing games).

Are there also sets with cardbord dungeon maps and models etc. to acommodate playing certain storylines?

[Beta Centauri]

I recommend 4th. You come out of the gate with classes and races that work and are balanced and do cool stuff. There's depth to it, but you can also have a lot of fun just riding the surface.

For models, just use coins or candies or whatever for now, until you've decided you enjoy it and really want to invest.

There are free quick-start rules for the game, including an adventure: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...Start-Rules-4e

Remember that there are other games out there too. If D&D doesn't work for you, explore others.

Good luck!

[jaydubs]

If you want it to be casual, 5e is easier for new players and new DMs. It's harder to maker awful characters, and it's harder to break as well. And the rules are just less complicated.

If your group doesn't have a lot of materials but you want the 3.5 experience, try Pathfinder. There's some debate on which is better between 3.5 and PF, but PF has basically all the materials available online, legally, for free. Which makes starting up a lot easier without spending much money.

[Yora]

Without having played it myself, from everything I've heard 5th edition is by far the most beginner friendly edition. 4th and especially 3rd edition really are quite difficult to learn and 3rd is one of the most complex RPGs out there. 5th has gotten a lot of praise for being significantly easier.
Unless I am mistaken, 5th edition has also gone back to work without miniatures. You can use them, but they are not nearly as necessary as in the other games. I would recommend against them as they are a serious additional investment that just isn't necessary.

When it comes to dice it's optimal that every player has his own set, as it's always a bit annoying to search for a dice for several minutes that might be anywhere on the table. But at the very least, I would have two sets. One for only the gamemaster and another one to be shared around the players.

[Rad Mage]

For your starting edition it would depend on what you are looking for. 4e is definitely the "crunchiest" of the options, and some groups like having a rule for everything you can conceivably do. If you're looking for a bit more wiggle room and a bit of "make it up as you go" i would recommend 5e. I wouldn't recommend 3e to people who are just starting out as the system demands a certain level of mastery to get any mileage out of it.

[Zyzzyva]

My advice would be the 5e starter set: 5e is well-supported at the moment, and the starter set comes with an adventure, rules, pregen'd characters, and some dice. The upgrade path is pretty small-steps, too: buy more dice and download the (free) basic rules pdfs, buy some minis, buy the core 5e books.

For minis the best route IMHO is to make friends with a Kickstarter supporter and get them to bring a sheet of Monster for all Seasons to the game. (Alternate plans: have already backed the Kickstarter; use a time machine; turn out to be the Giant's long-lost sibling and get him to give you permission to use the sheet.) They're pretty awesome and labour-un-intensive, but obviously not really for sale in the present day.

[Thrudd]

5e I think will be best for new folks. It has the simplest system and quickest to play of the three and is well put together. It has the best balance and overall role playing experience imo.

4e is what you should do if you want very detailed tactical combat battles. If your group would prefer to spend most of their play time in battles thinking about tactics and strategy, this is probably the edition to go with. It gives classes lists of powers in a format that will be more familiar to mmorpg players.

3.5 is probably supplanted by 5e in all regards, the only reason to recommend it at this point is that it has a lot of material published for it, lots of adventures premade for you. 5e so far has only two published adventures in the same setting (forgotten realms).

However, I think 5e is so much better than 3.5, it is worth the extra work to make up your own adventures. This is ideally what you will be doing soon, anyway, regardless of edition. You can start with the published campaign for 5e, and then spin off into your own thing.

You will want graph paper and hex graph paper, for yourself, to draw maps of locales and interiors important to the adventures.

[daemonaetea]

I'll throw my hat into the 5E camp. I think you'll have an easier time picking things up with that. Pathfinder, since it's all freely and legally available online, is another good choice.

While you don't need miniatures, if you do want some you might look into the Reaper Minis Bones figures. They're plastic and you need to paint them yourselves, but you can pick most of them up for $3 or less.

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones

[NomGarret]

I too would recommend 5e over 3.x for first-timers. You lose out on some of the wackier subsystems, (psionics, incarnum, Tome if Battle, etcetera) but if you haven't grown bored with the standard races and classes, you won't miss it.

Whether you pick 4th or 5th is more style preference and presentation preference. 4th has more tactical combat focus. It also has a design focus on rules for combat as the part of the game that needs rules. It will have less structured mechanics for crafting or inn keeping, for instance.

Either way, ear plugs to shut out the edition warriors for whatever you didn't pick are a good idea. ;)

True minis aren't that necessary. Tokens work fine, and I've had a lot of fun using LEGO figures for pcs (they fit right on standard map grids.)

[REVISIONIST]

You could also go to your local office superstore and pick up a large graphed poster board with memo like sticky sheets. It makes for a great place to draw out areas and provides a good surface for play.
I also recommend 5e, start up time for character creation won't eat up your whole play session.
I love the mini's though. You don't have to spend a boat load on them. Lots of web sites offer the basics
at quite reasonable prices. For my first game I had a hoard of goblins and kobalds for less than ten dollars. The players loved moving them around the game area like chess pieces even though the 5e rules
were made so they weren't needed.
I also recommend stocking up on cardbaord. It is invaluable as a modeling medium and is readily
available as "garbage" just about everywhere. Scissors or a carefully handled razor knife will save you a bunch on downloadable models. Paint, crayons, sharpie markers and you're hammering out models left and right.

[underclerk]

Thank you guys.

Based on these comments, I think we will skip 3e, and look into 4 or 5.
It is a nice idea to make terrain and models out of paper or cardboard!


Though it would also be nice if there is something like this to buy :D

[endur]

Since you are just starting out, I would use one of the starter sets. I don't think it really matters which edition's starter set, but one of them.

Regarding the various editions, while I think D&D 3.5 is the best version; I'd agree that for a new group, it makes sense to go with the latest edition, i.e. 5e.

For figures, if you can buy a case of the pre-painted plastic minis on ebay, that would give you a large group of minis.

[nyjastul69]

You might find Dungeon Tiles useful.

[Mr.Moron]

Thank you guys.

Based on these comments, I think we will skip 3e, and look into 4 or 5.
It is a nice idea to make terrain and models out of paper or cardboard!


Though it would also be nice if there is something like this to buy :D

I personally like 5e, but if you're wanting to get nitty-gritty with maps you'll get the most bang for your terrain buck with 4e. 4e cares a lot more about spatial relationships and has more interesting rules for interacting with concrete positions than 5e does.

With 5e your cool map layouts will be somewhere between window dressing and minor hindrance. With 4e there is some real opportunity for the maps to be a really engaging part of the mechanics.

[Rad Mage]

Thank you guys.

Based on these comments, I think we will skip 3e, and look into 4 or 5.
It is a nice idea to make terrain and models out of paper or cardboard!


Though it would also be nice if there is something like this to buy :D

The flat tiles can be bought or ordered. The 3D structures, on the other hand, will probably have to be built. I think the ones in the picture are Dragon Tiles (not sure if I got the name right). You can get the pdfs and instructions off of Drive Thru RPGs.

[Flickerdart]

Do you have Lego lying around somewhere? There are enough warrior and wizard minifigs & castle sets to build some very nice encounters.

[M Placeholder]

5th edition is the one to go for. Its user friendly, balanced and you can pick the rules up really quickly and get into adventure. Personally, Im never going back to 3.5.

[Flickerdart]

5th edition is the one to go for. Its user friendly, balanced and you can pick the rules up really quickly and get into adventure. Personally, Im never going back to 3.5.

Given how much "DM decides" stuff is in 5e, I would absolutely not call it user-friendly. It's character-friendly, but requires a DM who knows the system well enough to understand the consequences of his actions. 4e is much more "by the numbers" in that respect, since you can just grab a bunch of level 1 dudes, plug them into an adventure, and then just do what the system says to do. The heightened HP at level 1 and broad array of things to do means that it's hard to mismanage encounters and accidentally kill off PCs when they're just getting into the swing of things.

[Knaight]

There are rolled plastic mats with grids on them that can be written on with dry or wet erase marker and then later erased. If you're planning on using a grid, those things are really nice. I also reccomend a clip-board sized bit of white-board plus a whiteboard marker, for use in tracking transient things.

As for system - are you interested in D&D specifically, or RPGs of which D&D is best known? There are a number of games quite similar to D&D which may be worth looking into if it's the second. If it's the first, I recommend 5e.

[Rad Mage]

There are rolled plastic mats with grids on them that can be written on with dry or wet erase marker and then later erased.

If you're going to use a vinyl mat, it is really important to know whether it's safe for dry erase or wet erase markers. Because if you use dry erase marker on a wet erase mat nothing will get it off.

[Knaight]

If you're going to use a vinyl mat, it is really important to know whether it's safe for dry erase or wet erase markers. Because if you use dry erase marker on a wet erase mat nothing will get it off.

There are ways, but it's good to know ahead of time which you have.

[Rad Mage]

There are ways, but it's good to know ahead of time which you have.

Do tell! Because I used the wrong marker on my mat and I ended up having to resort to nail polish remover.

[Knaight]

Do tell! Because I used the wrong marker on my mat and I ended up having to resort to nail polish remover.

That was one of the options I was thinking of, acetone gets stuff done. Isopropyl alcohol can also work, if you get it reasonably quickly. Then there are the borderline industrial cleaners.

[Verte]

I'm throwing in another vote for 5th edition. I went into it after being kind of unimpressed, though not actively disappointed, with 4th edition, and I was expecting the same with 5th edition. I've been running the Starter Set - the adventure is sizable, allows some leeway on my part, and runs quickly. Character creation was fast and intuitive. It's also easier for me to DM from the seat of my pants, which I tend to do more often than not. I also think that the Basic rules are still available on PDF, so that's nice.

I still like 3.5, but the learning curve is steeper for both players and the DM, I think. There's also a lot more prep time involved - creating PCs can become a game in of itself, and since monsters for the most part had the same type of stats as PCs, preparing combat encounters took a long time. However, that ability to customize characters may be a bonus for you. And the tactical elements of it were fun, as were the peripheral elements, like using crafting skills. It also has a few settings published for it, lots of material that is easy to get used or on PDF, and quite a few published campaigns. If you were leaning towards something 3.5 based, I'd recommend Pathfinder, since the pfsrd has basically all of the main books free, and the Paizo adventure paths are pretty fun.

I don't really have a lot to say about 4th edition - it's not a bad game, but I don't have enough experience with it to give pros and cons.

[Kid Jake]

Unless you've really got your heart set on D&D itself, rather than just high fantasy, I actually think I'd recommend Mutants and Masterminds. It's certainly no harder to learn than most editions of D&D, 3e even has a handy SRD, and it's easy to accommodate a wide range of character concepts that are completely viable from start to finish.

As an added bonus M&M can be used for damn near ANYTHING, so once you get sick of being an elf wizard you can move onto being a Pokemon trainer or Klingon without having to learn a whole new system.

[Kalmageddon]

Given how much "DM decides" stuff is in 5e, I would absolutely not call it user-friendly. It's character-friendly, but requires a DM who knows the system well enough to understand the consequences of his actions. 4e is much more "by the numbers" in that respect, since you can just grab a bunch of level 1 dudes, plug them into an adventure, and then just do what the system says to do. The heightened HP at level 1 and broad array of things to do means that it's hard to mismanage encounters and accidentally kill off PCs when they're just getting into the swing of things.

Typcal fallacy with rules-light systems, nobody thinks how heavy it is on the GM, who has to decide everything with only loose references.
I agree.

[1337 b4k4]

There are rolled plastic mats with grids on them that can be written on with dry or wet erase marker and then later erased. If you're planning on using a grid, those things are really nice. I also reccomend a clip-board sized bit of white-board plus a whiteboard marker, for use in tracking transient things.

As for system - are you interested in D&D specifically, or RPGs of which D&D is best known? There are a number of games quite similar to D&D which may be worth looking into if it's the second. If it's the first, I recommend 5e.

I echo this post, especially with regards to the game mat. You don't need it (books, dice and paper are all you need to have a good time) but if you want a nice, flexible and mini friendly surface for gaming on, the mats are fantastic. Chessex make's a nice one with hexes on one side and squares on the other, for not terribly much money.

[Knaight]

Typcal fallacy with rules-light systems, nobody thinks how heavy it is on the GM, who has to decide everything with only loose references.
I agree.

Near permanent-GM here. I consider it way, way easier to handle than memorizing giant chunks of content or breaking flow by referencing things all the time. I would say that rules light systems are a bit tricky for very new GMs in general, and that some types of GMs will always have issues with it; a blanket statement that it is heavy on the GM is questionable at best.

[Demonic Spoon]

Comparing 3.5e to 5e, I'd strongly recommend 5e. 3.5e is very difficult to learn due to the multitude of rules for every possible mechanical interaction, and it's very easy to do 'wrong' - you can very easily start up a game, play for awhile, and end up with major intra-party balance issues that make some players notably more able to affect things than others.

4e and 5e is harder, because they're very different styles of game. If you aren't sure based on the descriptions people have given, buy the 5e starter set and some equivalent for 4e and give them both a shot.

[Tvtyrant]

I would suggest 5e to start with and then see if you need more complexity or more balance. 4E is the most balanced, 3.x is the least. I like water powered spaceships though, and 5E curbs the character capacities.