D&D For Dummies: New Player Dungeon Sign Up Thread

Tigger

I’m gonna do a clinic for people so want to beilild charachters

It will be on dnd forum
Work it what ye want and I’ll help anyone with the process

Tigger

It’s here butvif you can’t find it for help you when you fave Banjos puzzles


https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057861809

jasonb

Quick question, if you pick the Cleric class, do you get to choose your god?

OldGoat

Yep, you can choose from the established pantheons or create your own dogma.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_deities

Necro

Thanks OG.

Yeah essentially as above. You can pick an established D&D deity or make up an entirely new religion. The choice as they say is yours

jasonb

Now, how can I resist choosing my religion?

Banjo

jasonb wrote: »

Quick question, if you pick the Cleric class, do you get to choose your god?

I played a cleric and I made up my own god. And while that's a lot of fun, it's a lot of work which you might not do adequately and then end up paying for later.

Specifically, in 1E there is no good, no evil, there's Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic. And within those you can be an absolute rotten to the core supervillain but lawful, or the nicest guy in the world and completely chaotic. And regardless of your characters alignment, technically you can follow a god that isn't completely aligned with you.

If you come up with a god you need to think about what they stand for, how they're worshiped, what their feast days are, who opposes them, what is considered a sin etc. etc. (Or do what I did and make up a really low-maintenance god that stands for **** all )

Then it helps to make sure there isn't already a god that covers that domain, because what is the point of doubling up?

And then, in a proper game you need to pass all this info on to the GM because really if your guy worships this god then other people should to. What do their churches look like? How are they worshiped? How widespread is this worship? What are their symbols? Where's the spiritual home of the religion?

The big advantage to making up a god is this :
If your god opposes Chaotic acts, you miss out on some of the really cool **** in the Cleric tool box. Spells can be reversed so Cure Light Wounds becomes Inflict Light Wounds, Cure becomes Curse, the awful "purify food" spell turns into Putrify - you become a walking biblical nightmare. Also, you can animate the dead and get skeletons and zombies that you command - given time you can build an army, and if you read what sKeith was doing with his 16 or so in the last D&D game you'll see how handy that can be (as long as you stay on land). Lawful gods don't let you have any fun.

Oh, and crucially, how do you blaspheme / swear in relation to this religion? This is my favourite bit of it. They all end up a bit samey but it's fun. "Bamestan's Bearded Bollocks!" etc etc.

So really just make it easy on yourself, look at OG's list and pick one that's a good fit - then it's your GM's problem to make sure you're worshiping them correctly

By the way, your god can be called Bladeface McStabby, the sentient sword that bleeds the world, doesn't matter - if you're a 1E cleric you still can't use any edged or piercing weapons. Unless your GM takes pity and gives you a very sharp pencil.

Mollyb60

The more I read this thread the more you're sucking me in Necro. Mostly coz I wanna see what you come up with. I don't think having a huge team is a good idea though if people are just starting off. A smaller group would be better.

Saying that.............stick me down.

Necro

Mollyb60 wrote: »

The more I read this thread the more you're sucking me in Necro. Mostly coz I wanna see what you come up with. I don't think having a huge team is a good idea though if people are just starting off. A smaller group would be better.

Saying that.............stick me down.

Don't worry about that Molly, as I've said before, we are working on a unique pacing method to allow folks to play and not get left behind when the action all kicks off. Not revealing any more than that, but as it's designed for new players, we also want to try to find the right fit for if someone wants to play a campaign after this.

Are they a 2 posts per day player, a fast player, a day/night player, can they go 24/7... basically so if they want a longer game in the future we can guide them towards the slow/fast paced games.

Kolido

Necrominus wrote: »

Great stuff, conor.

I'll hold the sign ups open till Monday evening I think.

If those interested can work on a character and ask any questions they need between now and then, once sign ups are closed we can arrange a date to start.

No question is silly, trust me on that.

When you're happy with your character sheet, you can post it in the following thread:

Beginner Game Char Sheets

Can I just confirm, I created a character from http://truculent.org/llchar/

Do you want me to link the pdf in the above thread? Is everyone allowed to view it?

Necro

Kolido wrote: »

Can I just confirm, I created a character from http://truculent.org/llchar/

Do you want me to link the pdf in the above thread? Is everyone allowed to view it?

Yeah everyone is allowed to see the character sheets. Fire it into the thread and let's see what you've got.

Kolido

Done

Necro

Just an updated cast list:

1. duffman13
2. Kolido
3. OldGoat
4. Guffy
5. conor222
6. jasonb
7. Mollyb60
8. A very special guest

Interested:
Squall Leonhart.

OldGoat

Thats a big party Necro. Feel free to kill me off in some spectacular fashion if it proves to be unwieldy.

Necro

OldGoat wrote: »

Thats a big party Necro. Feel free to kill me off in some spectacular fashion if it proves to be unwieldy.

Not at all. It's great that there is so much interest to be honest. There's a few of us running it (I appear to be the gorgeous face of the operation) so a large party is more manageable.

jasonb

Wow, thanks for all that info Banjo! I was thinking more along the lines of Terry Pratchett's 'Small Gods', in terms of choosing my religion, but now I'm wondering if being a Cleric is biting off more than I can chew. I might just go for a good old-fashioned fighter...

Banjo wrote: »

I played a cleric and I made up my own god. And while that's a lot of fun, it's a lot of work which you might not do adequately and then end up paying for later.

Specifically, in 1E there is no good, no evil, there's Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic. And within those you can be an absolute rotten to the core supervillain but lawful, or the nicest guy in the world and completely chaotic. And regardless of your characters alignment, technically you can follow a god that isn't completely aligned with you.

If you come up with a god you need to think about what they stand for, how they're worshiped, what their feast days are, who opposes them, what is considered a sin etc. etc. (Or do what I did and make up a really low-maintenance god that stands for **** all )

Then it helps to make sure there isn't already a god that covers that domain, because what is the point of doubling up?

And then, in a proper game you need to pass all this info on to the GM because really if your guy worships this god then other people should to. What do their churches look like? How are they worshiped? How widespread is this worship? What are their symbols? Where's the spiritual home of the religion?

The big advantage to making up a god is this :
If your god opposes Chaotic acts, you miss out on some of the really cool **** in the Cleric tool box. Spells can be reversed so Cure Light Wounds becomes Inflict Light Wounds, Cure becomes Curse, the awful "purify food" spell turns into Putrify - you become a walking biblical nightmare. Also, you can animate the dead and get skeletons and zombies that you command - given time you can build an army, and if you read what sKeith was doing with his 16 or so in the last D&D game you'll see how handy that can be (as long as you stay on land). Lawful gods don't let you have any fun.

Oh, and crucially, how do you blaspheme / swear in relation to this religion? This is my favourite bit of it. They all end up a bit samey but it's fun. "Bamestan's Bearded Bollocks!" etc etc.

So really just make it easy on yourself, look at OG's list and pick one that's a good fit - then it's your GM's problem to make sure you're worshiping them correctly

By the way, your god can be called Bladeface McStabby, the sentient sword that bleeds the world, doesn't matter - if you're a 1E cleric you still can't use any edged or piercing weapons. Unless your GM takes pity and gives you a very sharp pencil.

OldGoat

jasonb wrote: »

Wow, thanks for all that info Banjo! I was thinking more along the lines of Terry Pratchett's 'Small Gods', in terms of choosing my religion, but now I'm wondering if being a Cleric is biting off more than I can chew. I might just go for a good old-fashioned fighter...

Don't sweat it. Mostly the religion is just flavour, something to give your character some, errr, character. Clerics can have the prowess of a fighter and the ability to call on a god when thing get risky. 'tis a great combination.

Necro

Okay, now the character sheets are starting to roll in, just want to draw your attention to stats again. Below, Fourier talks about how your stat affects or 'modifies' certain things.

Fourier wrote: »

Modifier table:
Below I'll be talking about how your Stats (e.g. Strength, Constitution) affect roles. This is based on the following table:

3 => -3
4-5 => -2
6-8 => -1
9-12 => 0
13-15 => +1
16-17 => +2
18 => +3

So a value of 17 in a stat adds 2 to rolls related to that stat.

I'll call this the modifier table.

Health:
At the start of the game your total health depends on your class, e.g. Fighter starts with 4, Thief with 2. Every level we add this number again, e.g. Level 2 Fighter has health 8, Level 2 Thief has health 4.
Your Constitution affects this based on the modifier table

So a Level 1 Fighter of Constitution 16 has health 6 (basic 4 + 2 from Constitution).

This happens every level, so a level 2 Fighter with Constitution 16 has health 12, because he gets a 4 again from the level up and he gets the Constitution bonus again.

For monsters, they have a stat called Hit Die, which is the number of d8 (eight sided dice) I roll to determine their health, e.g. a Medusa (p.87) has 4 hit die. So she could have any health from 4 to 32 when you encounter her, depending on what I roll.

As this is a beginner game, players will be starting with the max HP from their dice pool coupled with their Constitution Mod.
So, to take Molly's Fighter as an example, Malik Trutharrow.

Malik will begin with 9 HP - 8 from his d8 and a +1 from his Constitution modifier.

Kolido's Stu Pendous will begin with 4 HP - 4 from his d4. No modification for Constitution.


Armour Class:

The base rate of Armour Class (AC on your sheets) is 9 to begin with before armour. (Dex modifiers can reduce this)

The game will begin with all characters having no equipment. This means, that everyone's base AC will be 9.

We will be giving players an opportunity to 'gear up' before tackling the dungeon, but basically we won't be using the equipment on the pre-made character sheets.

Does that make sense to everyone?

Kolido

Am I allowed to change my stats as Banjo was kind enough to offer me some guidance?

Necro

jasonb wrote: »

Wow, thanks for all that info Banjo! I was thinking more along the lines of Terry Pratchett's 'Small Gods', in terms of choosing my religion, but now I'm wondering if being a Cleric is biting off more than I can chew. I might just go for a good old-fashioned fighter...

Yeah don't sweat it too much. The God part is primarily a flavour thing, the only requisite from it is that to access your spells you worship them each morning. How you worship them, that's entirely your call.

Necro

Kolido wrote: »

Am I allowed to change my stats as Banjo was kind enough to offer me some guidance?

Of course. Beginner game, so it's learning on the fly. Change as much as you like until game starts.

Banjo

jasonb wrote: »

Wow, thanks for all that info Banjo! I was thinking more along the lines of Terry Pratchett's 'Small Gods', in terms of choosing my religion, but now I'm wondering if being a Cleric is biting off more than I can chew. I might just go for a good old-fashioned fighter...

I wasn't trying to put you off! I loved being a cleric. I just wish I hadn't made up such a stupid god.

Clerics suck at level 1, because you can't fight quite like a fighter and your magic is crap. And if you don't put Cure Light Wounds in as your spell everyone will blame you when the fighter dies, instead of blaming the fighter for not winning the fight. Oh you can talk to animals? How cute! says the magic user as the animal you were talking to is consumed by fire and ice and lightning from his fingers.
Then you get access to hold person and dispel magic, and you become an alpha strike. That's when I started loving it.

Necro

Necrominus wrote: »

Armour Class:

The base rate of Armour Class (AC on your sheets) is 9 to begin with before armour. (Dex modifiers can reduce this)

The game will begin with all characters having no equipment. This means, that everyone's base AC will be 9.

We will be giving players an opportunity to 'gear up' before tackling the dungeon, but basically we won't be using the equipment on the pre-made character sheets.

Does that make sense to everyone?

Just as an addendum to Armour Class,

9 is the base rate with normal clothes/nude.

The armour you choose then becomes your base rate: eg: Leather armour will see you have an AC of 8.
You then apply any Dexterity mod, and if you have a shield to further reduce your AC.

So a character with leather armour, carrying a shield (reduces AC by 1) and with a +1 mod for Dexterity now has an AC of 6.

The lower your AC score, the harder you are to hit by enemies.

Kolido

Ok I've changed my stats, I have a total of 63pts as I believe that was the number we could use.

Digital Solitude

jasonb wrote: »

Wow, thanks for all that info Banjo! I was thinking more along the lines of Terry Pratchett's 'Small Gods', in terms of choosing my religion, but now I'm wondering if being a Cleric is biting off more than I can chew. I might just go for a good old-fashioned fighter...

You can make 90% of it up on the fly and no offense Banjo but a lot of it is overplayed. I also played a Cleric, had my God, his general ethos and how/where we worshipped.

Gods in D&D become that because they're worshipped, so an evil God who's worshipped can have evil followers, you can do whatever you like with it really, don't be swayed because of effort, just put in as much or little as you'd like

Banjo

Digital Solitude wrote: »

.....but a lot of it is overplayed.

Don't you still owe us a dex roll? :P

Necro

So Kolido, Molly and jasonb have submitted character sheets thus far. I know it's the weekend but if folks can try and get theirs submitted by Monday evening/Tuesday we can work out a day/evening to kick things off.

As I said try not to be too concerned about it being time consuming. The starting phase will be designed to work out what category a player fits into so we can cater for all types of adventurers and make sure they have (we hope) an enjoyable experience, be it their first, second or even twentieth time playing D&D.

Regarding players backstories, given the lethality of 1E (it is highly likely you might die in the dungeon) it's not a necessary requirement, but if any of the players want part of it included, feel free to PM myself or Banjo.

Also those struggling with character creation, check out Tigger's thread in the D&D forum.

Note also that just because you see a fighter, a magic user and a cleric rolled it doesn't mean you can't play one of those characters either. Go with your preferences and if you need any help you can ask via PM, Tigger's thread or even here.

Necro

Ok, so once we have character sheets from duffman and conor we can think about getting this rolling.

Is there a day/evening that would suit most people to begin?

conor222

Just to confirm, should I be rolling my stats or doing manual addition to a specific max number?
And within that, what version of rolling if so (3d6, 4d6 remove lowest etc)

Necro

conor222 wrote: »

Just to confirm, should I be rolling my stats or doing manual addition to a specific max number?
And within that, what version of rolling if so (3d6, 4d6 remove lowest etc)

For this game, to keep people at an even keel for the beginning at least we are giving players 63 points to put into your stats as you see fit.

So when creating your character sheet don't worry about the 3d6/4d6, just use the 'User Specified' option and input them manually.

Toss in your character name, alignment if you wish and most importantly after the stats, the level which will be 1.

Hope that helps.