D&D 5th Edition General Discussion

>tfw no Xanathar today

>How did you start GMing?

Every other GM was garbage. I stepped up to the task. No one else followed my example. ForeverDM for 15 years now.

What's the appeal of gming? From the stance of someone who's always been a player it seems like playing but doing 10x the work to make sure you always lose, not to say that it's always win lose in dnd but at the least 10x the work to get rp getting shit on by the party

I wish my players had initiative and confidence to be DM. I love doing it honestly but man does it strike me fierce that I can't get to play in my current group. They really think DMing is pic-related. (they're not wrong at times though)

I started GMing because i wanted to play more than once every 2 weeks or sometimes just once a month since my first froup was pretty inconsistent. Plus it let my forever GM that taught me the game a chance to play.

Captcha confirms it was for the right reason

I was 12, a guy invited me to play.

The guy explained us the rules, the game was horrible, played 2 sessions and then his mum grounded him and took the books from him. It left me wanting to play more because I saw a lot of potential in the game(even though he was a shit DM) and I thought: well none of my friends know how to DM so I guess I'll have do it, so I decided, hey I am gonna be a DM myself.

16 years later I'm still DMing. I really don't like how my D&D career started because many of the things that DM explained me as rules were flat out wrong, and being 12 and not knowing much English reading the books was hard so I ran with bad things he told me were rules for a long time. Most of them I "homebrewed" them out of the game (in reality they didn't exist), but some of them stayed for years.

For me it's the world building. Coming from playing video games, when I play RPGs, there are moments where I go "Man I wish I could re-tool Taris in KOTOR" or some shit like that and I'd think over my concept of worlds and shit. To have that in DnD allows me to create a world, its characters and such and see how my players interact. I really enjoy DMing because I feel like a river to my players. And giving them challenges and storylines that keep the players engaged every week is always satisfying.

When you have that GM moment where you get your players to feel raw emotion like a player tearing up cause of a sad story of an NPC or killing a traitor they trusted, or the players loving an NPC you created and them going high hell to protect him/her, or that shit. Or the "WOAH" they do when you drop twists in combat or in social interactions. That shit I live for in DMing when the players tinker the world we create together and see things bloom before their eyes.

As a DM you're never really passively hanging back or waiting for your turn, since every action that isn't strictly between PCs involves you. Also, preparing cool encounters, twists, etc. is fun when it works out.

The extra work triggers my autism in all the right ways. Plus with so little control in real life, having a situation where I am in total control really gets my rocks off. It gives me all the same feelings that playing stax in mtg gives me without being a cancerous dickbag. Sure I dont make my encounters so hard as to prevent my players from playing like stax often does in mtg, but being able to constantly obstruct my players goals and them enjoy it because they have to actually overcome a challenge and not just say "I fireball the horde" and "I smack the survivors of the fireball with my sword until they die" makes me feel great

I tried to GM once and it was awful. The players had fun but GMing was hard as fuck. I guess I need to do it more to develop my shit. Does GMing experience translate to something useful in real world?

I'd gently do it by getting players to volunteer to play certain parts of a scene. If they're comfortable with playing random NPCs, I might hand them some notes and ask them to DM the scene. Some players take to it more readily than others, though.

The extra work isn't really as bad as you make it out to be, and there's tons of tools and pre-written adventures out there that make it even easier.

>Does GMing experience translate to something useful in real world?

If you have to even ask this question, you're far too immature to benefit from GMing.

>How did you start GMing?
Well, it went like this
>come to a game, the DM was either very new or first time
>completely unprepared
>turns into a huge mess 30 minutes in
>I ask "how about you make a character and I DM instead?"
>he gladly agrees, while he fills out his character sheet I quickly think up a dungeon
>run it with premise of "cultists captured you as sacrifice, you must break out" everyone enjoys it
>continue that campaign for the next 3 years

Anyone got a link to where I can download the players handbook so my players don't have to share the same one?

I'm describing a small "norse" town with vikings and shit. What do I have to mention? I've already got the ruler and the temple covered.

As someone who is taking up theatre acting, DMing actually helps in the creative process. Playing NPCs throughout the years, taking up acting lessons had an ease transition. I'm not saying I'm Oscar-winning but the theories behind acting and getting into character processing is very similar to how NPCs and background making is in PCs. It's actually fascinating to see.

Does anyone actually play sorcerers? I've never personally seen one played or even heard someone mention that they have played one in the past.

>How did you start GMing?
Wanted to get friends interested, could find literally no other way to get them in one place because of scheduling, so now I am new GM for new players.

We're one session done, running Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and they had fun so I must be doing something right.

Ran a game with a wild mage in it, she had a blast because I used different rules to activate her wild surge since she wanted to roll on the table more.

What were some of the things you were taught early on that were made up?

Anyone tried and Oath of the Crown paladin yet? I'm about to play one next week.

There was a guy I used to play w/ who ALWAYS played a Sorc. This was in 3.5, I don't think he really got it though, he just played it as an easy-mode Wizard.

>How did you start GMing?
"You're the one who owns the books," they said, "so you have the most time to read them. You should be dungeon master!"

I was the designated "owns the book" guy. Now, I've been a player in exactly ten sessions over the course of thirteen years.

Yeah, I see them frequetly and I DM for plenty of different groups. Dragon, Wild Mage, Favored Souls, one homebrew archetype. The Druids and Bards seem to be the rarest picks in my case actually.

How long did it take your players to get level 4 in Curse of Strahd using milestone

Even when new editions came out?

It's really good. On level 9 or so, when you get spirit guardians and start melting faces. Before that?

Really, really fast. Like four sessions or so.

Hey /5eg/, I have this character concept that I really like, but I'm having trouble figuring out what background to take.
>19 year old human man
>son of an honest, hardworking construction worker
>helps dad with work when he has the time
>born as a shadow sorcerer, but his magic hasn't surfaced yet (dm wants us to start at "level 0," still not entirely sure what that means)
>this is reflected by his lack of a pulse and inability to bleed
>his main source of income is selling merchandise his company steals from corrupt nobles, merchants who exploit the needy, etc
>he spent some time studying wizardry so he could learn the mage hand, minor illusion, and detect magic (magic initiate) to help with casing his jobs
>very charismatic, but won't exploit people who can't spare some extra coins or don't deserve getting swindled
You get it, kind of a robin hood type except instead of being completely charitable, he maintains his own lifestyle while also helping the working class whenever he can. Would I use charlatan, criminal or merchant for this? Maybe a custom background?

A lot of crap, some of the highlights:

>He "explained" us what the role of the DM was: The DM decides what happens and players are just characters in the DM story, the DM also plays a especial character in the party, the role is called "The Legend", this means it is a character that is 3 levels higher than the party and has higher stats. This character is there to lead the party so the story the DM has planned happens.

>You have to roll to cook your rations, if you roll a 1 you lose 1 hp permanently, if you roll a 20 you gain 1 hp permanently, "The legend" can roll 3 times and pick the better number

>There is something called "greasy plate", it is full plate which has -5 AC instead of 1 AC (plate armour covered in oil, basically you can put oil in any full plate and make it a greasy plate), except against bludgeoning which has 1 AC too.

>Characters cannot start together, the first session (or at least the first hours of it) have to be about how they met and how they met "The legend", so you play from left to right of the table in turns (basically a 1 on 1 until they are all together), he even had a name for the first part of the game but I cannot recall it

And a lot of shit like this, you have to role play every thing that you do, you cannot have starting equipment, you have to roleplay how you buy it, you have to roll a d100 to determine how good looking or ugly you are. I could go on and on.

Looking back all of it sounds ridiculous but if you are 12, you see a series of big books in a language that you don't know, it is a game that you have never heard of and the DM acts like he is totally playing by the rules you just go with it.

No readable PDF for ToA yet?

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How is the Three Pillars XP UA put in practice?

I first became a GM in high school when I found out my local library had D&D 4E books. I ran a really shitty game that lasted one session, and then later I ran a shitty d20 homebrew where I let everyone do anything as long as they rolled well with high stats, and then I moved to GURPS before moving to 5E. I've probably been DMing for 7 years.

Luckily, most of my friends like DMing so I've had plenty of opportunity to make my own PCs.

Folk Hero?

Every time you ask it won't be out for another day.

>"The Legend"

Holy shit

Here, it's low quality but at least you can make out most of it. Magic item pages are sorta fucked but it's those "you can tell" kind of shit from the stats.

This is horrible.

Does anyone here play text over voice chat?

How's that working out?

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What campaign should I run for a group of "monstrous" adventurers? We've got:

Dragonborn Ranger
Tiefling Wizard
Orc Artificer
Khenra Monk

I'm open to non-official adventures; too.

Why not just google pictures of actual Norse towns and describe what you see?

The only other big thing I can think of would be a port/boats.

Thinking about running a campaign for a bunch of friends, last time I tried running SKT once but we didn't go farther than the first session.
I want to play a homebrew setting now, how should I go creating a new world (I intend on recycling stuff from other settings to help me out)

slow and comfy

>How did you start GMing?
>sitting in a steam chat with some buds
>an Only War campaign 3 of us were in just died
>Dark Heresy DM keeps finding excuses
>say that it'd be fun if we had just a normal d&d thing
>people agree
>later ask d&d when
>"when you DM it"
>so I DM'd it
well that's how it was

I have a hard copy of ToA I would scan if you cheap motherfuckers would chip in a few bucks so I can buy a replacement book

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>Doesn't link previous thread
>Doesn't post link in previous thread
What a colossal fuckup.

>How did you start GMing?
Working a shit uneventful shift, decided to give D&D a try and managed to wrangle up a few players.
Only lasted two sessions of Lost Mines.

We'll need more info than that m80, what are the characters like, what do they want out of an adventure, why are they adventuring? Details

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How can I make a Pickle Rick homebrew race? What would it's stats be? I don't want to just play somebody that's been true polymorphed into a pickle either, it's important to start as a pickle

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"The legend" in his game was the most Mary Sue character ever, it was a Elf ranger, dual wielder, 18 00' strenght but that didn't look strong, son of the king of the elven kingdom, who was also an orphan now because orcs killed the king but he was training to become strong to be king himself (his story was absolutely incoherent), also he had a huge dick.

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NONONONONONONONONO

There's a favoured soul in my current party.

More specifically, being a Cha caster with natural AC boosts and the ability to turn into a dragon has appeal.

Also, metamagic is actually really powerful. The ability to guarantee all your allies pass the save for Web is good, but the ability to (potentially) throw out 2 twinned spells in one round gives you obscene burst.

Also I've heard of multiclass builds that use quickened spell + multiattack in concert. You can do things like a faerie fire followed by a two-hit combo with advantage, or just double down on the sorcery and hit 4 targets with faerie fire at once.

>DM of two years was complaining about forever DM status last year
>Ask in group chat if people think a superhero campaign or a fantasy dieselpunk game would be more fun
>DM figures out I'm offering and asks the system
>I say M&M and somebody suggests Fate
>Say I'd run DF if it was Fate and DM is all about that
>Session 0 was last wednesday with 3 no shows
>Session 1/session 0 part two is tonight

But Pickle Rick was literally just transformed into a pickle. Polymorph should be fine for that.

>hunting rifle
>range: 80/240ft

Out of the Abyss is underdark-focused so your players might face less of the prejudice? Or at least just as much as the normie human/elf/dwarf would in that scenario?

>2 twinned spells
You can't use multiple metamagics on a given spell, except for Empowered

You get to play as dragons and shit.

But I want a race

Oh, right, so in greater detail,

- A Dragonborn and his dog looking for thrills in their short lives
- A Tiefling that lived with and apprenticed under Elves, reading up on magic in her free time and finally escaping that lifestyle
- An Orc tinkerer who didn't fit in with his tribe and wants to build things despite a naturally low intelligence
- And a Khenra whose twin is trapped on another plane of existence and has lost most of their will to live

>Orc tinkerer
How can they tinker if they can barely bathe?

Thelegend27!?

>"I tied rock to hammer. Now hammer is heavier and better."

Good point actually

No point, blunt.

Mouthbreather

I love the idea of orc engineers who just tie rocks to everything as improvement. ROCK ARMOR, MAYBE HEAVY BUT STURDY AND BETTER! ROCK WAGON. NOW NEED 10 HORSES BUT VERY RESISTANT AND BETTER. SPEAKING HORSES, WE HAVE ROCK BARDING. HORSES TIRE VERY QUICK BUT IT'S STRONG AND BETTER.

I laughed but fuck you

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>They've finally reached the stone age (':

Well could try running them through CoS, of course ToA is out, another one that could easily work is Tales From the Yawning Portal.

So stone age 40k orks?

Charlatan.

Swapped to it for my more noob group as they seemed dissatisfied with milestone system giving them levels out the blue.

Fortunatly the first time it popped up was when the barbarian pulled a great speech out his ass to convince the local militia that the quest they were undertaking wasn't total nonsense
(they got stranded in the woods, wounded and without supplies. The totem barb used his rituals to convince a buzzard to retrieve the one character in town to get the militia to find them. Once they were found, instead of going straight fucking home they wanted the militia to bumrush an established goblin colony with them).

When he did this, I stated out loud that everyone got 10xp (there were 20ish guys their including the village cleric and druid who are the big cheeses in town so it kinda works out maths wise) the entire group went nuts with excitement at the tangible steps towards leveling and the idea that one person doing neat shit on their own could benefit the entire party in a meaningful way.

After that it was a joy to watch previously unengaged players leap and bounce into roleplaying and strategic thinking that was beyond them even a session previously, as they now had a more game like focus to encourage them to do so.

However I would probably steer clear of using it on real grognard group as its a bit basic and can be easy to game the system (bards can basically XP milll going from town to town and finding the big players in town and making friends with them).

Myself and one of the players recently finished CoS and we're probably going to take a break from Barovia for a bit. But with Yawning, did you have an adventure in mind?

fuck you

>Most of the session is dedicated to my Ranger meeting and befriending their animal companion while the party fucks around with magic
I don't know how to feel about this

Not really, look through them and find one that you think your players would enjoy.

>bards can basically XP milll going from town to town and finding the big players in town and making friends with them
Simply lower the XP given to negligible amounts since there is no challenge to it.

Started by wanting others to learn and want to DM so I started up AL.

Now I've got the store owner giving store credit to players who dm and they are starting to realize how fun it is.

did you have fun
that's all that matters

Question about the Stone Sorcerer's Stone Edge ability, does this affect the Smite spells or not?

I would if you had proof you would pay out. Or proof that im not the only one donating. Set up a way for all that and ill throw 10 bucks at you, getting up to another 50 something usd shouldnt take too many people. My lgs didn't even order the book until I called and asked on monday x.x