D&D 5th Edition

So, it hit me that I was paid to Gm a while back… sort of.

In the late 90s, AOL used to have a section for people to run RPGs. There was a guy who organized it all, and if you agreed to run a game your AOL sub was comped.

That’s about the closest I came. Was a fun time while it lasted.

Glad to see you on the board again, Rob, and you are far too modest when it comes to your DM storytelling and role-playing capabilities.

This website one of my players found isn’t 5e specific. It looks at older editions and Pathfinder, too. The gist is you search for a kind of adventure (level, terrain type, whether it makes use of a +1 sword, etc.) and it comes up with what’s available. As I have been adapting previous editions’ modules for my game, I think I could find some use out of this.

https://www.adventurelookup.com/adventures/

I have great memories of running games for folks here on Quartertothree. These D&D threads seem to call me back like a moth to a flame.

What do you guys think of the new digital tools like D&D Beyond and the DM’s Guild? I haven’t been playing this year, so I haven’t used them, but form afar they seem very interesting. Is D&D Beyond too expensive? Is there decent content to be had in the Guild?

Rules for dinosaur racing in the new Tomb of Annihilation campaign.

[Edit] I haven’t used D&D Beyond yet, seems expensive. I haven’t bought any of the fanmade material from the DM Gulld yet, but I have made use of an earlier version of it when it was a more obvious corner of drivethrurpg.com. That was and is a good way to get pdfs of hard to find modules, or even Print On Demand in some cases.

I’ve kind of been thinking about becoming a patreon of The Angry GM/DM once my finances allow for more discretionary funds to be disbursed. Behind his shtick is a wealth of good ideas.

D&Dbeyond seems expensive, but if I was in a weekly game it might be worth it, It would also be nice if it stored your AL log sheets.

The DMs Guild is neat where you can buy the modules for the AL seasons. House games that play by AL rules generate AL legal characters for cons and the like. It’s a pretty good system.

D&D Beyond seems expensive, especially if I have to repurchase digital versions of content I already own. And I’m not sure just how much value there is in the product at this point, since there are still features and functionality still forthcoming, that are available with other digital tools.

For someone looking for something similar to DND Beyond, orcpub2.com is excellent. It lets you build an AL legal character all from within the app.

I will enjoy using it until its sudden, yet inevitable C&D from Wizards when Beyond hits.

Looking at the pricing structure for D&D Beyond and the way I think I would use D&D Beyond, I would need to make the following purchases at a bare minimum:

PHB $30
MM $30
Year long DM subscription: $54

That’s $114 for a nifty player character sheet interface that allows the DM to know exactly what is going on with everyone’s character sheets all the time. That seems like a stupid amount of money for what your’e getting. I’m still considering it though.

I am also torn on Beyond. I think it really depends on what happens to Orc Pub when Beyond hits. I don’t really have much of a problem with the per-sourcebook price. It’s impossible to tell who really owns a physical copy of a book to give them a credit for the online version. It’s not like it’s feasible to use a QR code, or take a picture of your book or something.

I would probably get the PHB/DMG/Sword Coast: anything that has the classes I use. What I’m not thrilled at is how they handled the magic items for the adventures. If I play an AL module based off Storm Kings Thunder, I don’t want to have to pay 5 bucks to unlock the magic items for that book just to add the one magic item I got.

As an aside, I ran one of the Season 5 AL modules with my board game group and had a blast. The modules are designed for a 4 hour session and have a good balance of RP and fighting. My one complaint doing the longer, hardcover modules is most of the night could be taken up with “talky talky” setting up the adventure. Then the encounter would run long. We played on Monday nights via Roll 20 and most of us had to get up early. In a 5 hour session we got through 4 of the “one hour” mods. Next week we are going to finish it and do one of the two-hour mods.

After playing around with D&D Beyond, buying a few adventures from the DMs Guild and listening to a few Wizards podcasts, I’ve decided to give the Adventurer’s League a shot. I have a couple of friends locally who want to play, and as soon as we find a centrally located spot, I will start running a few games. I’ll report back here about how it goes.

I am also going to play in a 10 hour long Adventurer’s League game at CarnageCon in Vermont this November. I’ve played some convention D&D games before, but nothing that takes an entire day, so I’m not sure what to expect. The best case scenario is I am time-warped back to my parent’s basement circa 1983 and have a fantastic time. I don’t want to ponder about the worst case. If anyone here is local to Vermont (Merryprankster???) and wants to join me, my table is 406 and there are spots open.

The AL is very good, overall. I have had few quibbles with the modules I’ve run. I also like the DM gets some xp from running the mod.

Also, in February is TotalCon out in Marlboro. They have a great AL setup there.

I ran my first adventure league game last night. I ran “Cellar of Death” which is $3ish on the DMs Guild. It is a nice little adventure, intended to be run in 2-3 hours, and to introduce 1st level characters to the Tomb of Annihilation or the adventure league modules that shadow the book.

I did not run the game at a store. I ran it at a friend’s house with four twelve year olds and two dads. The dads have only played a few times, in similar situations. One of the dads is clearly playing to spend time with his son, but the other dad I think has a genuine interest in the game. Both dads were totally into last night’s game, which I really appreciated.

Using the Advenute League rules allowed me to reign in he 12 year olds a bit. Two of the twelve year olds have great imaginations, but one of them would still prefer a Monty Haul style game, and the other would prefer to have the game be pure storytelling, sans dice or rules. I get both of those desires, but the game I prefer to run is more of a classic style game, following the rules and slowly earning your loot and levels over time. The kids grasped what I was trying to do, and I allowed some unusual ideas (grappling arrows in combat aren’t really a thing, but ok), but for the most part we stuck to a conservative game.

The Cellar has an urgency to the mission and that was great because it forced the boys to keep moving rather than get bogged down arguing over the usefulness of blow darts vs skeletons or how to open 5 locked doors in a deadend. I think everyone had a good time, even with a near TPK in the end. I recommend that adventure and I’m looking forward to running the game again for a different group. Also, I get to shop for a new adventure on the DMs Guild. That’s a pretty nice system.

Mark, what did you mean about the DM getting xp?

Near the back of the module—or section if it is a mini-module—there will be an area labeled DM rewards. You can apply these to one of your characters. It’s a good way to get a character to tier 2.

Fun piece on D&D in The New Yorker today, although their styleguide forcing the author to repeatedly write “D. & D.” is maddening by about the 4th graf.

“Role players were seen as closet cases, the least productive kind of geek, retreating to basements to open maps, spill out bags of dice, and light candles by which to see their medieval figurines. They squared with no one. “

Thank God for the internet, which allowed us to finally square with one another.

I like the Dan Harmon quote:

Last year, Dan Harmon, the creator of “Community” and an avid D. & D. player, produced and starred in “HarmonQuest,” a role-playing television show with celebrity guests. He offered his theory of the game’s popularity: we have always been geeks, but we didn’t know how to break it to each other. Being a nerd is “not about IQ or different characteristics, it’s all about obsession and focus and taking something seriously,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “The internet really allowed everyone to realize that everyone was a nerd.”

It reminds me of how the definition of otaku is used very narrowly in the USA to mean an anime/weeb otaku, whereas I understand that in Japan they use it more generally, so for example you could be a history otaku.

$250-$350 for a 3 hour DM session. $83 an hour at the low end? No. I do not believe it.

I’m assuming split between 6 people isn’t bad. That’s bowling league money, even before dinner. I used to drop $30 a week playing pool at leagues in league fees and table times.

Yeah, I’m not sure I’m opposed to people commoditizing GMing. After all it is a skill and it does require time to both hone that skill as well as apply it to a current game.

That said, payed gaming really kinda runs contrary to what I would want from a group. I find that involving money in a game kinda spoils it for me and just changes the way people act. Just look at what happens around Magic. I’d fear that payed GMing might also warp things in a negative way for me.