DnD for Dummies

>not liking D&D and using better alternatives means youre a system war troll!

The only system war trolls are D&Dfags themselves who endlessly argue about the editions of their own game and rabidly attack everyone who doesnt play D&D

Stating my opinion is not being contrarian. I started with DnD like most people and played it for years. Then I played other systems and realized they were better. The only one upset here is you; probably because you have some sort of stockholm syndrome for DnD because its the only game you've ever played.

Also "Structure and Support" in dnd generally boils down to having a million fiddly rules for every possible instance rather than a ruleset that can handle everything. I have a copy of the old Dungeon Delver's Guide here that has pages and pages of exact rules for everything, with dozens of rules and tables for climbing. And all that leads to is a GM flipping through the book constantly, looking for the right rule for the specific thing going on rather. Its why set up takes 4 fucking hours and a single combat can take an entire session.

And there are tons of OSR games that have adventure modules. Flame Princess has dozens of adventure modules and almost any OSR game can use the original DnD modules.

>better

Thinking your opinion is such an undisputed fact that you butt into threads to provide lukewarm answers to questions no one asked, all because you can't stand the idea of people playing a game you don't like, is why you are such a poor system war troll.

You pretending to be just a well-meaning person offering advice doesn't really hold up when your very first insistence is "DON'T PLAY THAT! STOP! PLEASE! ANYTHING BUT THE MOST POPULAR GAME! LET ME LIE TO YOU SO YOU WON'T WANT TO PLAY IT!"

Diiferent. Hardly better, and in many ways worse.

But, you've succeeded in getting a thread derailed from offering OP easy advice on the specific question he asked, so congratulations, I guess. Way to be trolls, throwing out misinformation all while arguing from a stance of "We're trying to help!"

Disgusting.

Every game has a simple core mechanic. Its always just "Roll this die or dice combination to try and beat this number." Its the Minutae around it that makes it complex or not. And DnD has a fuck ton of Minutae.

The OP asked for advice on playing a game. The advice I have is that the game isn't really worth playing and there are better alternatives.

He can go play it if he wants. But there's a reason why the most common bit of advice to people dissatisfied with RPG rules and systems is "Have you tried playing something other than DnD?"

DnD works but has problems and often times there are options more focused on the specific game you want to play and how you want to play it.

The best thing the OP can do is look at all the options listed and decide for themselves.

Its not an opinion. It is an undisputed fact. Your unwarranted hostility shows this.

That scales up depending on how much you care to use it. 5e lets you keep things rather simple if that's how you want to play the game, and the core system has been dramatically simplified and made extremely easy to get into.

It's one of the main reasons why it's not just the most popular but the fastest growing games, because it's really easy for a new player to read the basic rules, but a premade or head into the Dungeon Master's Guild and download a free adventure, and get a game running that will introduce a game that isn't just easy to get into, but has depth and longevity.

If OP wanted a fast Rule-Lite system, he could pick up Fate Accelerated and learn the entire thing in less than twenty minutes. Or, he could even just play a one-page system. But, the big flaw in that is that what new players need is more rules, not less, because the first major hurdle for new players is understanding what they can and can't do in a game, and asking them to predict things like the GM's arbitration in a lighter game is asking them to start off on a steep learning curve.

Yes, it's not a great idea to lead them into the extremes of rules-dense systems, like telling someone to start with Pathfinder, but 5e is a great choice for beginners because it eases players into a deep system and roleplaying in general little by little.

Let's not argue! There are many different games, most of them very good. I am confident that every one of you have good points, but please discuss civilly!

> But there's a reason why the

You mean that shitty forced meme by butthurt system war trolls?

Really? Going this far with your misleading propaganda that you want to try and bring in your other misleading propaganda?

For fucking shame.

How about next time someone asks about getting into OSR or BoL, people say "nah, those games are shit, play D&D instead", and see whether that warrants any hostility.

The problem with the "have you tried not playing D&D" is that people use it more often than not when playing a different system wouldn't solve anything.

Few problems discussed on this board can be solved just by switching systems, largely because at the end of the day, the system is actually only a small component to the game that's being run, and that switching systems just leads to a new veneer on the same old problems.

"Try X system" is not always bad advice, but it's not particularly helpful in a thread about problem players, or about story issues, or even alignment arguments, because even in the last case it's just a name (or a different name) for things you'll find in find in almost every other game. Even games "without" alignments still have degrees of morality to them or factions with codes of conduct, and most alignment arguments typically revolve around these two features of alignment.

Does D&D have flaws? Certainly, but most of these are remedied in far less time than it takes to learn a new system, and the idea that you should abandon a system just because something didn't work out is why we find a lot of people hopping through multiple systems hoping that a change of game will solve their problems.

Most of the whole problem with system discussion is that it's actually political in nature. Play X game or play Y game is a tactic to try to garner support for one game or dissuade people from playing another, and is largely dishonest in its lack of transparency. D&D becomes a target not because it's a bad game by any measure, but because it's popularity means people are less inclined to play other games.

As a person who has played his share of everything under the sun and now plays homebrews almost exclusively, I've really gotten tired of people claiming system superiority or inferiority when they're all just talking about the same inferior games just under different disguises.

If only they knew how amazing Duck in the Circle was.

How is giving the OP a selection of choices to choose between a system war? The OP can use any system they want, but they should look at a variety of them so they make an informed decision.

>Duck in the Circle

Explain

Because, rather than saying "D&D is fine (though not to my taste), but you might like X system," you instead stared with STOP, DON'T PLAY D&D IT'S TERRIBLE," and somehow are STILL acting like you can just lie to new people like that and not be seen as a system war troll.

Why the fuck are you not banned yet?

...

DnD is playble, but whether or not its fine depends a lot on what the OP wants to do and the depth he wants to get into.

GURPS is playable but dense and complex as hell, especially for new players. The OP said he wants something relatively light with lots of player freedom and I think that OSR stuff better fits that.

As someone who thinks D&D is garbage, D&D is perfectly fine for new players and GMs. It provides a lot of structure which is useful to allow people to ease into the concept of roleplaying between the gaps while the format of a combat board game gives them a relatable foundation of a "game". Most importantly it's iconic and supported by pop culture; newbies and normies will be much more enticed by "hey guys do you wanna try d&d" than "hey guys do you wanna try this neoclassical Greek OSR roleplaying game I found"

Play 5e, generate some basic nameless characters yourself beforehand by following the rules in the book, let people choose a sheet and add name/personality/background etc so you can all get right into the game on the night. Listen to some popular podcasts like critical role or whatever tg hates at any given time. Put on silly voices and have fun, your players will follow your example and there's plenty of time for serious character investment when people are more into the game.

Most importantly ignore any advice given by tg, including this post.

OP's exact words, and I'm quoting, were

"Hi! I have never played D&D before but would really like to try it. I have once attempted to set up a game but it took 4 hours to set up. What are some resources and tips for me and people like me who want to start playing?"

That's not him asking for a different system, and recommending a rules-lite system to an inexperienced player is NOT a good recommendation, especially when they didn't ask for it. The point of rules to begin with is to let players understand how a world functions, and rules-lite mean more time spent by the GM answering questions and making judgement calls (which often lead to discussions and even arguments), rather than just playing the game.

If he were asking for what game he could teach a group in ten minutes to play an impromptu game, than that's a great time to whip out a rules-lite. But, what OP was looking for was resources to help him, since he had some trouble setting up the game when he really didn't need to spend four hours. Even just simple advice like "look up premade adventures" is infinitely more useful than "Don't play that award-winning, fan-favorite game, well-known and well-respected as great for beginner players! It would upset my contrarian sensibilities!"

>The point of rules to begin with is to let players understand how a world functions
I'm pretty sure that throwing a rules-as-physics game at a new player is the most retarded thing you can do.

>5e
>rules as physics

Not same user, but if you're really struggling with 5e's fucking moronically simple rules you might want to try an easier game like checkers

>That's not him asking for a different system
Because he doesn't know the difference between "D&D" and "RPG"

We're talking about 5e, not a "rules-as-physics" game. Keep up with the conversation, or just give up already. You were outed as a contrarian troll from the get-go, so I'd recommend the latter.

OP here: both advice is good and welcome! If the tip is to use a different, simpler system and then move on to DnD when more experienced then that's fine!

that's basically true ^-^

>new guy asks about D&D
>rabid trolls emerge to scream that the new guy isn't allowed to play D&D because they don't like it
Every time.

Simpler systems have the advantage of roleplaying freedom and unique experiences, but for players not used to high levels of roleplaying the lack of structure and interactive "game" elements can harm rather than help.

Controversial or not I'd start with 5e (it's straightforward when you've read it and it's designed for people new to rpgs) and move on to "simpler" (less restrictive) systems later.

Starting with "simpler" systems and "progressing" to D&D is really like saying "I'll teach you to ride a bike with two wheels to start then when you've got the hang of it we'll add the training wheels to upgrade you to four".

I don't really like D&D but you will have a lot of fun with it and it's by far your best shot at running a game your friends will want to come back and keep playing.

No one said he isn't allowed to play it ya dingus. He can play anything he wants.

>Recommending a rules lite system to a new player is a bad idea.

I, personally, got into RPGs via RTD, a system entirely based on a single roll of a d6. Games with it were anything between rules light and almost totally freeform. What is a good system to start with will vary entirely on the player. If they need everything explained and spelled out and supported to feel secure and able to play then DnD is fine. If they're able to handle some improvisation and less exacting support then rules lite is fine.

Again, the OP came in asking about DnD but I figured it was simply because thats what everyone knows about when it comes RPGs.

>Anyone says anything bad about DnD
>Must be a troll

Why are DnD fags so fucking delusional?

>DON'T PLAY D&D IT SUCKS
>Why are people calling me a troll?

Might be because more than half of this board plays 5e? You need to be more subtle with your trolling if you don't want to be called out on it.

>More than half the board plays 5e

Pulled that straight out of your ass.

so starting with 5e, what are good resources n tips for it?

Actually, the most recent Veeky Forums census. While a rather small sample size, it's close to what you can expect from the market share, and it's more evidence than none at all, which is all you have to debate it.

This might be what you are looking for.
pastebin.com/X1TFNxck

>No one said he isn't allowed to play it ya dingus.
Nah, they just (while being completely unprompted) implied that they know his tastes and his experiences better than he does, and that their opinions are objective truth.

Except no one has discussed any objective wrongdoings of D&D, because they don't care about anything other than their own opinions. It's just a bunch of trolls shouting that blue and red can do everything green can do but better, as it always is. You aren't here to help, you're here to justify your hatred of a way that people choose to spend their time. Feel free to start throwing out your own experiences and anecdotes as "objective truth," as your kind always does.

The honest truth is that getting started with D&D 5e is going to be the easiest for you as a new player. You'll have more resources to draw from and it'll be easier to find a group, since it's the most popular game on the market right now. Once you get started, there's nothing stopping you from learning different systems and branching out, which is a good idea. If you try to find the best system for yourself right from the start, you'll end up reading thousands of pages of material that you may never actually even play. Just pick the easy start and go from there. You can get the Player's Handbook pdf from the link in the OP of the 5e general here ( ), so you can read up a bit before you actually buy anything. Good luck!

>Objective wrongdoings

The fuck are objective wrongdoings of a system outside of balancing problems?

It's an indictment of the board that this far down you have to repeat your original question, my sympathies for you.

Honestly the player's handbook and dungeon master's guide are well detailed and equipped to help you get into the feel of the game. echoing a previous post, listening to some of the popular podcasts like critical role might help you too. If you're unsure with writing there are a lot of pre-written adventures you can run or read to get an impression for one way to structure a game.

A good resource I feel for easing people into a more roleplaying sort of game (perhaps after the more rulesy style of dnd or before if your group likes detective shows or horror stuff) is Trail of Cthulhu. The book goes a long way to teach you about narrative structure, pacing, group dynamic and character development. It could be worth a read at some point even if you don't plan on playing it.

But either way, my recommendation is pretty simply to read the core 5e books (as much as you're comfortable with - it's not homework) and like any hobby "watch other people doing it on YouTube". I only play d&d run by others as I run other games myself, so I'm sorry I can't be more help.

Run Lost Mines of Phandelver for your first adventure, it's widely regarded as the best module for new players. You can get a pdf of it and the core books (Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual) from the /5eg/ trove if you want to look it over before you buy anything.

Thank you!

Thank you! If I can gather that many people, I certainly will try

Thank you! I will heed your words

As is usual for D&D, the system is based on a number of assumptions the books either don't tell you about or outright lie about, not to mention the parts of the system that ignore the assumptions of the rest of the system. So the best way to approach the system is to familiarize yourself with all the rules and then research the appropriate houserules that make the system actually functional for the type of game you're looking for. However, since you're new to the hobby and the vocabulary used to describe concepts above the rules text level tends to be ambiguous, you will need to do quite a bit of research to even find out what that is.

This means that if you insist on using 5e, you should collect multiple sets of houserules and try them out one after another and expect your first ten or so sessions to suck until you achieve some basic system mastery.

>this level of lies and misinformation

I thought you had given up trolling, but instead you upped the ante. Just fuck off.

>The moment the thread is up, muh "DnD is bad" memesters appear to feed their lies to a newbie
Have you no shame, you contrarian shits?

Would you please stop samefagging up the thread? You're been spamming this thread, calling anyone who suggest a different system a troll and generally acting like a shit.

>trolls tries damage control
>again

Who do you think you're fooling?
By all means, let's drop the subject, but do not hold in your mind even the briefest glimmer of the thought that anyone is mislead by your "I was just innocently recommending a system" backpedaling.

This is wholly untrue. The rules are very clear if you can read, No house rules are necessary and unless you're an autistic grognard there's no reason at all for any of your sessions to suck.

The problem with D&D, more specifically 3.5 and 5e, is that the systems are poorly thought out collections of disjointed rules that require disproportionate amounts of work to make them work. This means that when D&D players are talking about the game, they're often talking about their own houseruled version of the game with certain qualities and without certain flaws (in relation to a specific playstyle, which again often goes unmentioned) that the original system lacks/has. This also means that the same players tend to get disproportionately aggressive at the notion that their time and work was ultimately wasted and could have been better spent learning and playing approximately five different systems, as the anons here so readily demostrate.

Dungeon fantasy rpg is good. Everything you need in one box. Not rules light though.

If you want a game with no rules where you largely just make stuff up, fate is the game for you.

"have you triednot playing d&d" is reallymore of a 3e/4e thing.

Grab Labyrinth Lord (it's free) with MAYBE it's Advanced Edition Companion if you want all that extra shit. Those will be the rules you use.

Get a copy (look in the OSR thread for a PDF) of the original PHB & DMG for 1e. These will give tips and flavor.

Choose one of the old modules. A good starting point would be B2: Keep On The Borderlands.

There, you have a game that's easy to play, won't give you weird assumptions (AKA it's worlds are internally consistent unlike later editions), and most importatly, is easy to have FUN with. Follow Gary's advice: whenever you don't know, make it up.

5e has too much shit on it, and at the same time not nearly enough. It's better than 3.5 but that's not saying much, since that one was a broken mess. It's too restrictive as of now, and has too many gears turning to be easily tunable to whatever you want to do with it.

OP

New guy to the party here.

Start with d&d 5e with a published adventure.

Thry out some osr games, savage worlds, dungeon fantasy rpg / gurps, unisystem, shadowrun, fate, and find what you and your group like.

But d&d 5e is a pretty easy start. and if nobody has played before, just stick to the 3 main books plus a short adventure, and go from there.

>they're all just talking about the same inferior games just under different disguises
You've never played a TTRPG.

Thanks a bunch !