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!!
As for your first question, I do not give my players the name of the monster they are fighting. I show them the pic out of the Monster Manual. Then I'll do a knowledge check for PC's with the appropriate knowledge skill (I keep that info written down on my DM log), if the check is successful I'll give the players the name of the monster as well as some pertinent info.
As for mini's, yes I use them and find them invaluable. If you don't want to make that financial investment then I would suggest getting a mini for each size category and just use the appropriate sized mini for the monster.
Tokens are also an excellent and cheap alternative to using mini's.
As for the Gamemastery products I use the item cards and I think they're great. I use them for the treasure the PC's find. After they ID the item they give the card back to me and I reuse it.
I think the Dungeon tiles are a good item to have for laying out your dungeons. They work well and are durable. Although if you're son is into modelling I would suggest checking out the products at worldworksgames.com, they are an amazing way to lay out the adventure sites.
I use monster descriptions for the first time a character has encountered them. They see what it looks like, but may not know what it is. After that, they get a name and whatever information they learned from the last encounter with that creature. So, if they didn't see some creature ability, they don't know about it till it happens. There can still be some surprises.
Example:
"Looking down the hall, you hear a shuffling sound of bare feet. The warriors estimate the number at about a dozen. As the creatures draw closer, your torchlight reveals slumped, waxy-skinned things that look like people. They generally have no hair, though a few do have small patches in scattered spots like clumps of discouraged grass. Their fingers end in long talon-like nails. Their feet are splayed and not quite human. Their eyes don't focus well, but you can see their nostrils twitching as though they smell something. One, near the rear, is slightly larger with a green pallor to his skin. You catch a definite stench of rotting meat and get a feeling of disgust and dread."
Later, after they've dealt with the Ghouls and the one Ghast, they can then recognize these creatures. If anyone was paralized, the party becomes aware of this ability. Otherwise they only know the creatures did something to require a saving roll, just not what. Etc., etc., etc.
Mini's are superb. I still run AD&D 2nd Ed. and like the idea of minis...invaluable to giving everyone a visual. It helps resolve/prevent confusion about who is where and when. Instead of the expense of real mini's, though, we frequently use the Evil Pente pieces (dragon tears), those little glass blobs... you know.
As far as dungeon tiles and such...we just get a big vinyl hex map and some water soluable audio/visual markers. I give them estimated distances and sizes for their hand-drawn "dungeon map" (for their own reference later) and when we go to melee, I rough-sketch the playing field with the markers on the hex map. We get the best of both worlds, accuracy in melee regarding time and positioning, and a quick, easy, reusable, and cheap combat map.
3.5 rules have pretty much mandated the use of the battlemat.
They're trying for that, so they can sell more dolls, but I still play without (just like I did back in the day). No mats, no action figures. Just imagination (occasionally scribbles on scratch papaer, if totally necessary). I understand that Dungeon favorite author (2nd favorite?--where's Baur now?) Nick Logue also eschews the props when he plays, so you're not alone.
common monsters i just name and describe; I figure everyone knows what an orc or skeleton looks like; anything else i describe.
we use miniatures and a large map on dry erase that I draw out what peeps see and place things they notice accordingly.
I would go the route set out above - describe the monsters, have them make the appropriate knowledge check to be able to put a name to it (which knowledge pertains to which category of monsters is given in the skill description).
On miniatures: It helps the imagination if you have some representative for the characters and the monsters. For the characters, minis are good. For the monsters, paper tokens or anything else is ok. I can completely understand that you don´t want to spend a lot of money, and you don´t have to.
Having a rough sketch of the area is sufficient to show who is where etc.
If you are looking for adventures, Wizards of the Coast offer several short ones on their website, found here.
hope that helps.
Stefan
Thanks everyone for the great advice! I'm sure I'll have more questions to come.
Just fire away with your questions! As you have seen, folks here on these boards are willing to help - especially as it looks like you might introduce new players to the hobby.
Stefan
I'd definitly try playing the game with minitures before eschewing them. The current system really does make heavy use of minituure oriented play and honestly its a whole lot of fun. Maybe my favourite aspect of 3.x. It does slow things down a fair bit but it can really make combat - always the heart of D&D, really exciting. Start off using representations for monsters - if your game takes off you can always invest in monster minitures later on. I certianly use and enjoy them but the price tag is hefty. If your playing every week it can be justified but otherwise just go with representations for the monsters and pick up a few minitures for the actual players.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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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?
Regarding minis, keep in mind that the collectable mini's are not necessary to play D&D. There is an entirely different game line, the D&D Mini's game, which uses the collectable mini's. That's why the prices of some mini's are so crazy. You're better off using a mini from another company's line rather than spending a substantial chunk of cash on a particular figure.
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Regarding minis, keep in mind that the collectable mini's are not necessary to play D&D. There is an entirely different game line, the D&D Mini's game, which uses the collectable mini's. That's why the prices of some mini's are so crazy. You're better off using a mini from another company's line rather than spending a substantial chunk of cash on a particular figure.
More true if you like painting minis (as I do) than if you don't. Also, if you don't have the exact figure you need, you can proxy in something with the correct base size. This is true whether you are using plastic or lead.
You also might want to watch out for differences in scale between lines of minis. In particular, the D&D minis (plastic collectibles) are cast in a scale usually referred to as True 25mm, while many metal figure lines are in larger scales, sometimes referred to as Heroic 25mm. Halflings cast in Heroic 25mm can be notably larger than humans in True 25mm, so this can be distracting if you mix them.
If you use markers of some sort (minis are just pretty markers), I recommend that you label them for your reference (the bottom of the figure is a convenient place for a label). I find it easier to figure out which NPC gets the damage when it is listed as "Fighter #6" than when it is listed as "Fighter with battleaxe and blue cloak with red stripe".
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About minis, keep in mind that the D&D miniatures are either "rare", "uncommon" or "common".
Recent "uncommon" or "common" minis won't cost you very much (you can even find here or there on various sites a few minis' lots, like "12 common from blood war serie" or so).
Usually, you will find recent minis about 0,5 to 1,5 USD for common, and 1 to 3 USD for uncommon, or lots of 8-12 minis for 5-6 USD.
Zombies, skeletons, various fighter / wiz / rogue / cleric proxies, as well as the most common creatures (orcs, goblins, ...) are usually common or uncomon miniatures.
If you don't want to invest in the tiles and battlemats, I did a google search for Battle tiles, and found plenty of sites that have created PDF of tiles for mapping out rooms. I then printed them out on card stock paper and cut them out. They work just the same.
As far as monsters go, you can always use tokens and pictures on card stock.
Cardboard Heroes???
hehe in the old days when I was poor, I used to draw things on the computer and print them; glue them to some stiff cardboard and we used them as gaming minis; that way I had any creature of any size I wanted; sure, maybe I am a bit of a geek, but we all like them and used them long time. It is all about the game, not how much money you spend.
It is all about the game, not how much money you spend.
Here, here! Like I said above, we frequently use little glass blobs to show position. I fanybody really needs facing we can talk about it. The cash spent is immaterial. Is everyone haveing fun? If melee is running smoothly, there's a much better chance of the answer being, "Yes!".
If anything, use minis for the PCs and tokens for everything else. That makes it cheap and really lets your players enjoy their own characters more. Plus, using a can of tuna to represent a dragon can have its humorous effects.
Welcome back to the game.
I have a system for monster descriptions.
The character are occupants of a world unlike ours. They often know something about each monster that is common or indiginous to their area. I desccribe the monster and tell them what their characters would most likely know about it.
Sometimes, I think a creature may not be commonly known in the society of the game world.
I describe the monster and its position and mood, then I let the players ask questions, then I consider how uncommon or rare the creature is and set the dc for a knowledge check.
If anything, use minis for the PCs and tokens for everything else. That makes it cheap and really lets your players enjoy their own characters more. Plus, using a can of tuna to represent a dragon can have its humorous effects.
*steps up upon soapbox*
No, you may not use a can of tuna to represent a Dragon, it must be, by tradition started in Dungeon Magazine 144 p.13, it must be a can of ham or ham product like SPAM :)see the following page for the correlation (spam with BBQ sauce inside is expecially good for red dragons and after the pc's kill it and eat dragon, hehe the players and you can eat the SPAM yum; and sing the song)
*steps off soapbox*
chuckle :)