Hey, quick questions from a newbie trying to get into board games

Hey, quick questions from a newbie trying to get into board games.

I've got a group of up to 5 friends and we're looking for board games to play.

We really want to play Dungeons and Dragons but it's somewhat intimidating - what would be some good beginner and intermediate games to build up to that? And what are some interesting beginner games in general?

Also... board games are kinda expensive, we're all in college and don't have huge amounts of money to spend. What are some of the best games in terms of value, and what are some of the best places/times to get deals on board games?

Thanks for any replies, sorry if I asked any stupid questions.

You could look at the official D&D board games. They are solid dungeon crawlers for "Only" ~$60 each. If you want A LOT of content for your money, you could buy Gloomhaven which you can nab for $100 online. It has a big overarching campaign along with the general dungeons and looting that you would expect.

If you want to play a proper RPG you can play GURPS Lite. It is rules lite so good for beginners, and free so great for poor college students.

Thanks for the tip about GURPS Lite, never even heard of GURPS but it looks cool.

DnD 5e is pretty easy to run and easier to play. DnD 5e basic is free and a good starting point if you want to try DnD.

Savage Worlds isn't bad if you want to try a genre neutral game and play a pirate or western campaign.

D&D Basic and its many derivatives are even easier to run and play, while also being free. Just putting that out there.

RPG Games ala A storyteller and a group of players?
Or a you saying Boardgames ala Monopoly, Catan and such?

Both! I think board games might be more fun overall, since the time we have to dedicate to RPGs is limited.

DnD 5e is actually fairly easy, after a little while. We'll always be here to answer questions, and there are tons of FAQs online.
5e is simple, doesn't have the complex skill rules like 3.5 or Pathfinder, and it's fairly versatile for what it is.

What is complex about 3.5's spell rules? It is just roll, add your modifier, and see of you meet the DC.

Yeah but suprisingly enough for most people I found counting and knowing where to get modifiers seems hard.
For non-tg experience players, who rarely if ever played a boardgame, they rather work with shit like roll twice and take the higher.
Fun Boardgames are the quick ones like cuthullu cultist, magic maze abd such.
Cuthullu vultist can easily be proxied with a deck of normal cards.
A good fullboardgame are stuff like godfather or bloodrage.

For RPG's I say just try it. DnD isn't hard at all, just get a grasp on the simple things and don't be scared to wing some rules for the first session.

It's not as hard as it looks when you start going though the book

I'd argue that DnD 5e is a good beginner game
( roll a d20 +your skill. check against the other-guys, or the harness of the task)

they do, pre made campaigns/ one-shots if you're worried about being the DM

>board games are kinda expensive
I mean, I'm not telling you to steal them off the internet or anything.

I'll look into DnD 5E then. And yeah I was a little apprehensive about DMing cause I don't think I would do a good job my first time around. How do campaigns work, I just follow the story they have outlined?

>I'm not telling you to steal them off the internet or anything

What do you mean? How do you steal figures and dice off the internet?

>I'm level three, can I learn level three spells
>of course not you fucking idiot

Not OP but I've been thinking about playing some RPGs too, but I have a small group of friends and we're all completely clueless about this stuff.

What would be a good game for few new players? Probably only 2 or 3 including me desu. Is it possible to DM and participate as character? Or is it fun if there is only 1 DM and 1 player?

*skill rules

That is certainly possible. Look at Scarlet Heroes. It is a system made for one on one GMing.

D&D is fucking garbage. All editions.

Play something better. Any old system will do; it's hard to find any that are worse than D&D.

There are plenty of Print and Play games you can find that are pretty good. "Secret Hitler" is fun for a while, "The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen" is great, "Fiasco" is great fun, one-shot RPGs can be pretty fun but rely on a good GM and don't really count as board games I suppose.

Try checking out a local boardgaming café to try things out, and buy things used. Boardgamegeek and eBay can hook you up.

And don't play D&D you massive fucking pleb, 5e and 3.5e are trash, 4e is competent but kinda boring, more fit as a boardgame than RPG-feeling, and you aren't going to play 2e.

I'll check it out, would any regular game work with parties of 2 or so people? Plus DM of course.

Some can, but they generally don't work that well as they are balanced around having a four man group. Scarlet Heroes on the other hand is made for what you are looking for, while being compatible with D&D material.

Been tabletop RPGing since 1989 here. If you want to play an RPG do it! The one you you pick doesn't matter too much and getting all the rules right doesn't matter much either.

The most important thing is having fun! Do your best and give it a go! Find something that interests you thematically and get a pre published adventure module. My personal pick for you is Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games.

Stars Without Number is worth a look; it's available for free online. D&D might be simpler though; D&D5e is designed to be super newbie-friendly. As has been mentioned, the basic rules are free online, and probably better if you want to dive in without needing to spend as much time on character creation or reading rulebooks, but Veeky Forums has PDFs of the full books if you decide you want them.
Fuck off memefag
Most games work with parties of 2 or 3 so long as you're not throwing them at premades designed for 4 or 5 players, but if you're using premade stuff then I'm not sure.