Newbie-Friendly D&D 2024 [Interest Check]

[AndyZ]

I tried to do this earlier but things fell apart.

When someone attempts to run D&D, what I often see is a whole bunch of very experienced players zoom up, and then others who may have interest don’t feel comfortable with trying to jump in when so many others know the game so well.

A new edition book has just come out, and while not everything is out in detail, there’s more than enough to play.  The monster stats may have changed a bit between now and what will come out in February, but I’d still be able to help people through the process.

The big question: how many people would be interested?

Note that this would not be a standard campaign, so experienced players wouldn’t have much interest.  I intend to take my time and go slow on a lot of things that other games just rush past because experienced players already know it all.

I can help with making characters, but for those who want to handle things themselves:

The free and legal rules can be found here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/free-rules

You can also purchase the Player’s Handbook, but make sure you get the right one.  You can Google “2024 player’s handbook” and it will pop right up.

The hard part will be the lack of a dice roller on Elliquiy.  A lot of people have been using Discord lately, and I’d be up for that, but others may just want me to roll for them or to use RL dice, which are also options.

I don’t expect this to go very long, but it should be enough to give people a sense of the game mechanics, get in a few fights, and probably end when you level up.

If I did have a more experienced player, I’d ask it to be someone willing to fill in role gaps when the others have selected their classes, answer questions but also make sure I can see everything they’re telling the others.

So who’s interested?

[RattledSnake]

I’m pretty experienced (in 5e, not the 2024 rules of course) so I’d be happy to round out the party if there’s a role unfilled!

[AndyZ]

Yeah, as you realize, people can be plenty familiar with 2014 but nobody knows 2024 all that well yet.

One of the monk class features now implies that foraging food and drink gives you levels of exhaustion, which will presumably be in the Dungeon Master’s Guide come November.

I can still explain skills, saving throws, attack rolls, and all the other things that new people won’t know, though.

[Laughing Hyena]

This should be a lot of fun.

[Kaya]

I'd try out the new College of Dance Bard, if possible. I don't have the new PHB though.

[AndyZ]

Looks like we have quite a bit of interest.  So let me ask people:

1.) What are your thoughts on Discord?

2.) Any ideas of what you’d like to play?

RattledSnake, I realize you won’t answer #2 right away.

If there’s more people interested, keep chiming in.

[Laughing Hyena]

Looks like we have quite a bit of interest.  So let me ask people:

1.) What are your thoughts on Discord?

2.) Any ideas of what you’d like to play?

RattledSnake, I realize you won’t answer #2 right away.

If there’s more people interested, keep chiming in.

Still tech banned from Discord since I have a very outdated phone. But I am trying to get a new phone.

[AndyZ]

I'd try out the new College of Dance Bard, if possible. I don't have the new PHB though.

One thing to note is that I’ll likely just go with level 1, so don’t worry about subclasses yet.

Still tech banned from Discord since I have a very outdated phone. But I am trying to get a new phone.

Sorrow but understandable.  We’ll hold off on using Discord then.

[RattledSnake]

Looks like we have quite a bit of interest.  So let me ask people:

1.) What are your thoughts on Discord?

2.) Any ideas of what you’d like to play?

RattledSnake, I realize you won’t answer #2 right away.

If there’s more people interested, keep chiming in.

I saw we won’t be using discord but it remained me to ask, will this be a play by post game? I don’t really have the available meet up for regularly weekly sessions or anything like that 

[Kaya]

Still tech banned from Discord since I have a very outdated phone. But I am trying to get a new phone.

Discord works in every browser as far as I know. I can do Discord, but I'm fine without.

One thing to note is that I’ll likely just go with level 1, so don’t worry about subclasses yet.

Understood.

[AndyZ]

Just a play by post game.  I figure Light Human unless anyone has any requests.

I’ll list off the classes so that people can decide what they want to try, as well  as if they’re a spellcaster or not.  Spellcasters tend to be harder with more complex rules.

Barbarian - Not a spellcaster - A strong melee fighter who calls upon their rage to make them very powerful in a fight.

Bard - Claimed by Kaya

Cleric - Spellcaster - A priest/ess of one of the gods who calls upon holy power

Druid - Spellcaster - A primal caster who calls upon nature for magic.

Fighter - Not a spellcaster - An armored warrior who’s good at kicking butt without magic

Monk - Not a spellcaster - A martial artist

Paladin - Spellcaster - A holy warrior

Ranger - Spellcaster - A mix of warrior and primal shaman

Rogue - Not a spellcaster - A professional thief and criminal who is talented at disarming traps and stabbing enemies in the back.

Sorcerer - Spellcaster - Born or imbued with magical power, such as by having a draconic ancestor.

Warlock - Spellcaster - Granted magical abilities by some sort of patron, perhaps an angel, perhaps a devil.

Wizard - Spellcaster - A book-learning magician who understands the rules of the universe and can force reality to follow their will.


The big question is what everyone would like to play.  It’s okay if we don’t have a very balanced party, although Rattled will help balance things a little if everyone goes off in one direction.

[RattledSnake]

I’m up for and enjoy some of the more extreme categories but I’m also happy to keep it light so no worries from me there.

Class wise I guess I should mention, I’ve never played a cleric before so there might be some growing pains if that’s what I end up with but it should be fine

[Raku]

Well I do have a good amount of experience with 5E, but I haven’t tried out the new book yet. So if you’re ok with it, I’d like to see how it is with you guys. I’m picking between a monk of a fighter. Leaning heavily to monk. I’m also comfortable with playing on discord. 

[AndyZ]

I should clarify: nobody really has much experience with 2024 yet.  I'm hoping to help out the people who don't even have experience with 5e aka 2014 yet.

If you already know the game, I don't expect things to be all that interesting.  The plans I have for the story are pretty basic, with things like showing people how to make a skill check, have some simple fights, and most likely just take people from level 1 to level 2.

Most games hit the ground running where characters start out level 3 or higher, everyone already knows the rules, and I've had people talk about how they want to learn the system but feel bad for slowing things down when so many others already know what they're doing.

Basically, if I ask the group to make a History check with Advantage, I expect to have to explain to all the players just what that means and how to do that.  As such, I expect things to be really slow for experienced players, but it'll help the new players who never got to learn 5e.

[Raku]

Oh. I understand now.

[Faeli]

I haven't played D&D since 4E, but I -am- experienced with the old system.   Soooo, I'm available BUT I am more a stopgap than a player Andy-frien <3

[HockeyGod]

I have jumped into my first ever campaign and have been doing it for a year. I'm with a DM and 2 players that are so experienced and 2 of us that this is our first campaign ever. I'm getting things, but sometimes it's just going through the motion and I don't really understand the why. For example, I understand a History check as you noted above, and I get the idea of advantage - it means because of some reason I get bonus. However, I don't know exactly what I do. Do I roll 2 die and then pick the highest? Or do I add something like a d4 or is that Bless? Or is it like Lucky. So...yeah...lots of questions.

I think I also have some difficulty with my current campaign in that I picked an elf wizard. It is fun to play, but not even knowing what initiative was, I wish I had been counseled to perhaps choose a less complicated pairing.

I would really be up for this. I'd like to try out a paladin. I have a character in mind as it is actually a back up character I have in case my wizard dies. We're doing Baldur's Gate and are currently traveling around hell hoping not to die, lol.

I don't mind discord, but I frankly am not part of the E discord. I'm not even sure how to join it. I think play by post could be done, but I also see the immense value of using discord where questions could be answered much more quickly. Also, play by post seems like I could take a significant period of time to go through turns because there is so much interaction. 

Again, I'm interested, but have many questions about how this would work. I would be in favor of at least occasional use of discord - perhaps for combat - so that things move forward.

[AndyZ]

Having experience with earlier editions before 5e/2014 is fine.

Some of the biggest changes to note:

Short Rests take an hour instead of five minutes.  You can spend Hit Dice to heal up even more.  (Healing Surges are gone.)

Advantage means rolls two d20s and take the better.  Disadvantage is two d20s and taking the worse.

Succeed three times on a death saving throw and you stabilize.

The action economy changed.  There’s Actions and Bonus Actions, there’s moving, and it doesn’t cost an action or anything to open a door or draw a weapon.  Actions are very close to what you’d think of as standard actions and bonus actions are close to what you’d think of as swift or minor actions.  A decent number of classes don’t use Bonus Actions every round.

Skills just give a flat proficiency bonus like 4e but don’t continue to increase every level.  However, proficiency bonus increases at certain levels.

They got rid of squares and went back to measured distances.

Basically, they kept a few good ideas from 4e but things are a lot more like 3.5


Hockey, I appreciate your honesty.  Welcome aboard.  I can definitely understand how you feel uncomfortable asking and slowing down the game.

We’re not going to use Discord because not everyone can do it.  Mostly I’m just going to do Theater of the Mind, which means that I describe the space but we’ll avoid using any maps or anything.

With initiative, the common method is to just let all the players go at the same time, in whatever order they want.  Trying to do conventional initiative just takes way too long on a forum.

Regarding Advantage, you roll two d20s and take the higher.  Disadvantage is the lower.

As this game goes, I plan on going through and just telling everyone what everything means as the game goes along.

[HockeyGod]

Are you planning to help with character building before the campaign launches?

[Faeli]

Having experience with earlier editions before 5e/2014 is fine.

Some of the biggest changes to note:

Short Rests take an hour instead of five minutes.  You can spend Hit Dice to heal up even more.  (Healing Surges are gone.)

Advantage means rolls two d20s and take the better.  Disadvantage is two d20s and taking the worse.

Succeed three times on a death saving throw and you stabilize.

The action economy changed.  There’s Actions and Bonus Actions, there’s moving, and it doesn’t cost an action or anything to open a door or draw a weapon.  Actions are very close to what you’d think of as standard actions and bonus actions are close to what you’d think of as swift or minor actions.  A decent number of classes don’t use Bonus Actions every round.

Skills just give a flat proficiency bonus like 4e but don’t continue to increase every level.  However, proficiency bonus increases at certain levels.

They got rid of squares and went back to measured distances.

Basically, they kept a few good ideas from 4e but things are a lot more like 3.5

*nod nod*  Just tell me if you need me, I'm going to hang back and let people that this was more intended for take the spots unless you yank my leash

[AndyZ]

Yes, Hockey.  We can just all work on characters on here.  I figure that we’ll start with having everyone pick classes.

People can also start thinking about races, but the Free Rules only have four options: Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human.

I won’t make people buy the book and everyone is welcome to either use the free rules or buy the book as they choose.  If you buy the book, make sure you get the 2024 version for this.

Faeli, sounds good, and thanks.

[HockeyGod]

Yes, Hockey.  We can just all work on characters on here.  I figure that we’ll start with having everyone pick classes.

People can also start thinking about races, but the Free Rules only have four options: Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human.

I won’t make people buy the book and everyone is welcome to either use the free rules or buy the book as they choose.  If you buy the book, make sure you get the 2024 version for this.

Faeli, sounds good, and thanks.

Ok - well color me interested. I'd like to reserve Paladin, named Tristan. Originally I had him as a half elf. Would you prefer I choose either elf or human?

[AndyZ]

For whatever reason, D&D decided to get rid of half-elves in 2024.  I’m definitely not happy about it, and maybe they’ll bring them back in later books.

Ability Score Increases are now based on Backgrounds instead of Species, so you can pick whatever without having to worry there.

[Faeli]

For whatever reason, D&D decided to get rid of half-elves in 2024.  I’m definitely not happy about it, and maybe they’ll bring them back in later books.

Ability Score Increases are now based on Backgrounds instead of Species, so you can pick whatever without having to worry there.

I heard about that.  Weren't they doing something similar to Pathfinder where "Half-elf" became like a template that could be applied to other races, so that Dwarven Half-Elves or Halfling Half-Elves became possible?

[HockeyGod]

For whatever reason, D&D decided to get rid of half-elves in 2024.  I’m definitely not happy about it, and maybe they’ll bring them back in later books.

Ability Score Increases are now based on Backgrounds instead of Species, so you can pick whatever without having to worry there.

Oh sorry, I completely misread and then missed your 2024 messages. Let me think on that. I actually just got all the 2014 and am currently playing within that context. I'd like to learn more about that, but I can see value in also learning 2024.