Wally DM

Intro:

I’m continuing on my beginner series, by going more in depth with one of the most well known TTRPGs, Dungeons and Dragons. I will be covering 5th Edition, before all the drama hit with Wizards of the Coast. 5E is the version that I am most familiar with.

You’ve chosen 5E, now what?

5E is fairly easy to get into. There are 3 core books that you need to begin the journey of 5E, The Dungeonmaster Guide, The Players Handbook, and The Monster Manuel. These 3 books are the bare minimum you will need to start running a game.

The DMG will tell you how to run a game, and give tips to handle the outcomes. Read as much of this book you can, at least the first half, as the second half is reference guides.

You read (or didn’t) the DMG, now time to choose where to play:

You’re ready to get into building a world and go right? Nope, it’s time to take a moment to decide if you’re going to make a world or play a couple one-shots or modules. If you have never run a game, I recommend starting with The Wild Beyond the Witchlight as it has everything you need to run a full campaign.

Next, decide when and how the game will be played. Will it be online or in person? If you are playing in person, it is highly recommended to have the physical books. If you are playing online, there’s several options to choose from. The bigger ones are D&D Beyond or Roll 20, but be warned, these require even more outlay to get started. If you’re not sure if you are playing long term, avoid these options.

If you want no cost online sessions, you can use Discord and a website called Owlbear Rodeo. Both of these will give you everything you need to host a game.

But I don’t want to use a pre-made world and want to create my own:

You made a big choice but realize this may not be the best course to start with, until you know how the game flows. If you’re set on this, it’s time to take lots of notes. I will go into world building in more depth in a later article, but since this is your first world, keep it small. Also, choose a theme or genre. This will affect everything you build as you stay on theme.

I would recommend choosing a small scope. Start with a single large city or even an island. At this point you’re not creating a universe or all the story. You will be planning for maybe the first 3 to 6 sessions at most. Things can and will change, so be prepared to put away things you created into a box for later. Your players will direct the flow of the story.

If you create the story yourself, set it up like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Have 3 or more possible outcomes ready for any situation, as your players will surprise you. Always take notes of important actions or things your players say as this will shape your story, so this is why I say not to have too much set in stone until you get to know your players.

Players character creation:

If there’s interest, I will go more in depth of character creation later but for now I’ll give just a quick rundown. Once you have your world ready and your players know what the theme is you will start the journey of character creation.

Since this may be your first time, I would limit the races a player can choose to what’s in the player’s handbook, if the races are appropriate to the theme. This is the base of every character and will slightly affect player stats in a later step.

Next, the player will choose a background and then class. At this point the player may already have a backstory and these steps are easier. Some players may create a backstory after this step. Either way they choose, everyone should have a backstory submitted before session zero. I recommend limiting these stories to just a couple of pages.

Great, the easy part is over. Now for the stats and the most straightforward way involves using 4d6 (4 six sided dice.) There are a total of 6 stats, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. I won’t expand on what these stats entail at this time and require another article. Each class favors different stats and the player will distribute them as they see fit.

Remember those dice? Now the players will roll all 4 dice and you may choose to allow them to reroll 1s. Drop the lowest and add the remaining, which will give a range between 3 and 18. This is the acceptable range for player stats, giving an average of 9 per stat. The player will write down the number and do this 5 more times.

From there, each stat is recorded on a character sheet and there’s a lot of numbers to place in appropriate boxes. The books will walk you through all of this.

At this point, the player will get starting equipment based on background and class. If the player’s class knows spells, those are chosen by them as well. This is for a level 1 character, if you start off on a different level, you will have to follow level up rules. Once again, there’s a few other things that will go into this setup and the player’s hand book should explain all of the in-between and cover most questions.

Session zero:

This is where it comes together. You will look over the backstories and see how each player fits into your world. If something doesn’t quite work, this is when you talk to the player and explain why it doesn’t work and you two work together to make changes that do.

Here is where you will explain a bit of the World to the player, including the theme or style of the game. You may choose to have a practice encounter for players to test their builds. If your players are level 1, I recommend choosing a creature that has a CR (challenge rating) of ¼, and at minimum 1 creature per player. It’s OK to add one or two creatures to give it a good test. This is the time to make combat mistakes as they don’t count.

Now is the time for players to ask questions and establish which kind of role play is acceptable. We must keep this a safe environment for everyone. Some players may not be comfortable with certain situations and this is when these ground rules should be put in place. Once everyone is happy you can officially start the campaign.

Summary:

Keep things simple and small starting off. Choose a module or theme everyone agrees on and stick to that theme as much as possible. Let the players choose what they want to play but starting off it’s ok to stick to core books only. Make sure to handle any concerns during sessions zero before you guys fully start.

D&D has so much depth, I can’t cover everything in one article. I hope to continue writing articles and I plan to go into more depth with different situations as I write more articles.