Beginner D&D...

[Jaxom 1974]

There's probably a better thread to stuck this is...but...

 

 

 

Little Jax (aged 13 now) is expressing interest in D&D. I want to foster this. But I haven't played in nearly 30 years...

We have the Essentials Starter Kit...and it's easy enough that I'm sure I can handle getting home going...but it seems to lack the info on making ones own character. Rolling and such. 

What else do I need to have to get going? I know this Essentials is 5E, but I have a whole lot of old 2E stuff I hope to be able to incorporate later on if this goes well.

Thoughts? What am I missing?

[Arakasi]

Don’t buy 5e since WotC and Hasbro are shitty companies? But in seriousness you just need the players handbook for how to make characters. Either buy that or use any number of resources online that present that info. Rolling btw is an alternate rule. Stat arrays plus racial mods is the main stats for dnd these days.

Also 2e and 5e don’t really mix. Quite different systems. You can home brew but that’s a lot of work. There might be people out in the players marketplace that have already done it that you can support. Then you’re supporting regular people which is a good thing. 

[DaveSumm]

Specifically D&D or RPGs in general? I’ve not delved too deeply myself, but I thoroughly enjoyed this video on starting out:

 

[Werthead]

I'd strongly consider getting Pathfinder 2nd Edition instead. It's effectively D&D, but it has a better rules system than 5E, is providing meaningful support and content for the game and is from a less shitty company. There's a single Beginner Box you can start with as well as the Core Rulebook (in both standard and digest sizes), though supplies might be low. They've sold a lot of product in the last few weeks. The core rules are also available for free online via Archive of Nethys.

For older sourcebooks, rules-wise converting 2E to 5E or PF2 is a tall order. Lore-wise, of course, there's nothing stopping you using older material, and there's some outstanding fan-conversions of classic adventures from earlier editions to current rules systems.

[Arakasi]

Yeah 2e is a good mix of really the last 3 D&D editions. It’s got some each of 3 e(feats and character customization) 4e (character bounding) and 5e (rules simplification from earlier more complex systems). I’ve GM’d it so can answer questions on it. However it is more rules heavy than 5e (but nowhere near 3e or PF1).
 

It really depends what your son likes about role playing games. If he just wants to RP I’d just do 5e but if character building and development is important to him that’s where I’d suggest PF2 really shines in comparison to the options 5e have.

[Jace, Extat]

I like 3.5 if you have a strong willed DM (like Theoden King). Sometimes with those later editions I feel like there's a lot of great stuff. Especially with extra races and stuff. Playing a Fairy familiar for the party's Wizard???

Fuck YES

 

But you gotta have a good DM to keep it in line. Good DM makes everything good with whatever system, really, though so whatever. 

Meanwhile. Fuck all that and just do Palladium 

[Iskaral Pust]

We bought a copy of DnD a few years back when our son was ~11 and enjoying some adjacent fantasy board games, e.g. HeroQuest.  But we never got started on DnD so it languishes yet in the game cupboard.

Neither my wife nor I had played before ourselves.  I think we should have looked for a DM online to start our first few quests.

[Kalbear]

My family is about to get into this too, doing d&d 5e with forgotten realms. One thing I was looking into was this sub service for easier starts for younger folks. Haven't checked it out too much but does seem like an easy way to get games going for a busy dm.

https://dndadventureclub.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiA2fmdBhBpEiwA4CcHzR4bIc7ETVMge43TJv1MgsYDvkg4JcQNuk2vxOWRJEQvqW3g2wlzyRoCGXIQAvD_BwE

[Werthead]

For teenagers, Tales from the Loop is a good rec because it's designed around playing teenagers in a alternate-timeline 1980s Sweden/Colorado/Norfolk (or anywhere you like, but they're the three canonical locations), and I believe there are online fan-hacks to move the setting up to the modern day (and how to handle things like mobile phones and tablets, which on the surface would make the adventures about 5 minutes long). The rules system is also refreshingly simple compared to D&D (I haven't looked but I assume someone has tried to 5E convert it somewhere).

I actually picked up the Transformers roleplaying game a while back and it's surprisingly good fun from what I've read of it. The idea of creating your own character but they're a robot who can turn into a tank/dump truck/techno-gazelle is quite amusing.

[Werthead]

3 hours ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

My family is about to get into this too, doing d&d 5e with forgotten realms. One thing I was looking into was this sub service for easier starts for younger folks. Haven't checked it out too much but does seem like an easy way to get games going for a busy dm.

https://dndadventureclub.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiA2fmdBhBpEiwA4CcHzR4bIc7ETVMge43TJv1MgsYDvkg4JcQNuk2vxOWRJEQvqW3g2wlzyRoCGXIQAvD_BwE

I need to update it to 5E, but my recent FR map collection might be of some use.