I haven't played D & D since 1980 or so when I was 13. Now my son who will soon be that age when I played wants to play. I have the new 3.5 core books and some other of the newer books yet we haven't roped the other family members into playing yet. Why? Because I have some questions about how people play this today.
For one thing, do DMs tell players outright what monsters they are facing? In other words, in my youth the DM would say excitedly, "You see 5 ghouls and 2 wights!" I think its more "realistic" to just give a description but I wonder if that would be frustrating to my kids who don't study the MMs.
Also, does everyone use miniatures and/or some sort of dungeon tile system? I have the beginner set and my son loves the minis in that but that's all I have. I'd rather not spend a fortune on ebay to get OOP miniatures. I suppose the paper ones you can print out would at least be something. And the tiles from the boxed set are the only tiles I have. Do people use the Gamemaster accessories? Are they helpful?
Any advice is much appreciated!!