An amateur leading noobs: Roleplaying help thread

>The bunker's hatch judders open and a timid Englishman decked in traditional finery and an iron-clad top hat sticks his head gingerly out into the open.

Oh God, I sense this is going to cause a maelstrom of shit to come crashing down on top of me judging by the boards mood lately, but I need your help.

Four close friends of mine want to try role playing games because they've been curious about it for a while now and have finally decided to give it a go.

So far, so good; but now we reach the start of the trouble.

You see, because I've literally played a single game of Dark Heresy, they want me to be the DM, since I'm the most experienced person they know.

I don't mind being the DM, I've lurked here long enough to pick up the basics of what and what not to do; so we should be fine there.

However, the problem I have is that they want to play DnD. Which version? They don't care, so long as it's DnD.

Now I know a lot of you are going to say it's shit and that we should play something else; but it is the only thing they are adamant on.

They want to try DnD first and only then, if they like it, will they try different games.

So now, dear tg, I shall drop the bomb shell that will tear this thread asunder.

What is the best version of DnD for people who have never played a roleplaying game before, being run by a man who has never DMed?

>With that, the man dives back down the hatch and waits for the sounds of battle to stop...

Other urls found in this thread:

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/judder
thealexandrian.net/gamemastery-101
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

>judders

Thanks for that word! I'm writing a paper on our post-literate society and need more examples of just that kind of illiteracy.

The premise is that people no longer read apart from internet posts and thus hear words and phrases far more often than they read them. Also, because most people have horrible pronunciation skills, people often "hear" a word or phrase mispronounced which they then mindlessly repeat in what little writing they still do.

So we get "doggy dog world", "sixty one half dozen of another", "diamond dozen" and others.

Your use of the "judders" instead of "shudders" or "stutters" is because 1) you no longer read apart from internet posts and 2) you heard some other post-literate mispronounce the word. This will be a nice example for my thesis.

Thanks again and stay stupid. It will make you easier to manage.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/judder

Oh dear.

Not OP, but maybe look up a word before getting on your high horse.

I would say go for 5th, as it has the most support out at the moment, so you can pick up things more easily from a FLGS.

Just go back on Reddit and ask your pals there.

Wizards have yet to do D&D well*, stick to TSR.
Basic or Advanced D&D.
Original takes too long to grok, on account of the booklets being shit.
*maybe 4e. But that's not really a role-playing game.

If you're only feeling so-so about your DMing, here's a cornucopia of good tips:
thealexandrian.net/gamemastery-101

I would use Reddit, but you guys are more honest and generally give better advice.

Also there's generally less memeing, so I don't need to get my little brother to translate every second paragraph for me.

Thanks for the advice, I'll browse through this during the week whilst I set things up for my game.

Ehehehe.
Ehehehehehehe.
EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE.
Well if you can bend the rules of their slightly baffling request for exactly DnD I would go for something OSR. LotFP was my own starting point, but Labyrinth Lord and The Black Hack are also good starting points.

While OSR isn't for everyone, the relative simplicity and focus on player freedom over stats makes it a good starting point. Its also broadly DnD, so if someone insists on 3.5/5e they won't be thoroughly lost.

Forgot to mention, LotFP is also totally free to pick up and pretty modular. They also do modules, although read some reviews beforehand as they range from literally the best adventure module I or anyone I know has read to shit-garglingly awful. Deep Carbon Observatory is a favorite if you want my opinion.

OP here.

Just ignore people like this mate, they're the kind of people who think being intelligent means being verbose and using the most abstruse words they know.

For example, all he needed to say was

"Gee OP, that's a fancy word you used there you dim-witted twat."

But instead we get a tirade which I'm pretty sure is just scraping the post limit.

So let's just keep to the task at hand which is making sure the first game I run doesn't become a train wreck of biblical proportions.

Thanks for the advice, I'll check it out later.

The only reason they're adamant about starting with DnD is because they saw the cast of Community playing it in one of the episodes and came to the conclusion that it would be the best one to start on.

Yeah...

This whole thing is kinda flying through the air at the moment, so I might be able to talk them into playing something similar.

Unfortunately, although they are good people, they are as stubborn as mules and it's a right bugger to get them to change their minds once they're set on something.

From your unfamiliarity with the word "judders", I would infer that you are a product of an american style education...

It really depends on the capability of your players, the amount they're willing to read, and the complexity of rules they can handle. 5e is a very easy starting point and has largely generic options (though Volo's Guide to Monsters gave a fair number of extra races.).

Adversely, if your players are looking for more combat than anything, 4e does that well but is lacking in all other departments.

3.5/Pathfinder is a lot more crunch but a lot more options due to age. Pathfinder might be out of your players okay'd material because it isn't by WotC.

The whole point of OSR is that its an old DnD version with some of the fat trimmed. Don't tell em and they won't know.

...
... my players haven't caught on yet.

>Thanks for the advice, I'll check it out later.
Don't. LotFP is for trolling players. Most of the modules start with tips on how to keep the players from realizing they're playing LotFP.

Just do something basic until you have a grip on the combat and rules. Have your players meet in a tavern. An old man gives them a quest to kill some goblins. The goblins have a chest with a +1 sword.

Afterwards ask what they liked best, and do more of that.

Well done, you sly dog you.

Hopefully none of your players read this thread and put two and two together.

Here's to your clever ruse never being uncovered.

....what? And in what way?
Yeah theres some real crap out there for it, like the walking dick adventure, but having read basically all of it from the trove most of it is pretty decent, with the third party stuff being excellent.

I would be interested to know whether you have played much of it, or just read isolated examples.

This is the kind of bullshit that makes people not enjoy Veeky Forums anymore. Meaningless bait and a lack of... Anything approaching conversation.

First post every post, some smarmy asshole shitposts for their own amusement. I'm out. Its been a cool decade and more Veeky Forums but i'm out. This place sucks and I can't pretend the positives outweigh the negatives.

it's literally reddet formatting

Probably 5e

And then there's the retarded first and last lines.

Just do 5th. Maybe try a module,

What's stopping you from taking any fantasy-compatible system and telling them that it's actually D&D?

because anything that wasn't namedropped on big bang theory is too overwhelming and intense. gotta start with what everyone knows to be the best.

Moldvay Basic.

How would they be able to tell that whatever you run for them isn't D&D?
From the sounds of it, they sure as hell won't read any rulebooks.

>I don't mind being the DM, I've lurked here long enough to pick up the basics of what and what not to do; so we should be fine there.

Lurk a while longer, your post is embarrassing.

Hi guys, OP here with a quick update.

So I've talked with them and they want a structured campaign; but with the ability to interact with the world around them, such as burning down towns, setting up shops, yadda yadda.

Would 3.5 be the right one to go for?

The reason why it might be hard to bluff it to them is because they are going to buy the players handbooks to learn the rules whilst I flesh out a campaign for them, or so they say at least.

that shit doesn't work in D&D unless the GM knows the system well.

theyre gonna buy the PHBs and find the rules/mechanics about sandbox games is minimal at best. what that means is that the GM has to fill in all those blanks if they want to do that.

good luck redditard

>So I've talked with them and they want a structured campaign; but with the ability to interact with the world around them, such as burning down towns, setting up shops, yadda yadda.
Do you know what that actually means? Do they know? Because, to be honest, I don't.
Do they want you to come up with a plot so that they can ignore it?

As for the "setting up shops" part in particular, D&D is absolutely not suited for that. It's all about adventuring.

>Would 3.5 be the right one to go for?
3.5 is never the right option, unless what you're looking for is wacky optimization hijinks.

what that means is they want a video game where they can fuck around but come back to the plot when they feel like it