Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 PariahKing Nov 10, 2014 21:34:45	I just began a playgroup that's been going successfully, but unfortunately we're all entirely new to the game and I'm working a bit on my own as to DM in terms of learning about the game. I feel like I have a decent grip of the mechanics and structure of the game, but there's a lot of depth and lore that isn't really fully covered due to the newness of fifth edition.     The first thing I'm trying to get a hold of is a better sense of setting - right now my adventures are occuring in a non-descript town. The most supported one seems to be the Forgotten Realms in most modules and when mentioned online, but I'm not sure which book or edition would be the most helpful in learning whatever lore or mythos that would be key to having a basic understanding of the setting. (I'm not really interested in adapting combat mechanics.)   I'm also curious if reading an old Dungeon Master's Manual would be helfpul, since the new one is yet to be released. Occasionally my party will be more creative than I am, and ask me as to the specifics of say, crafting jewelry from gems and the amount of money they could earn from it. I have no idea where to pull these kind of numbers from (other than my ass).   In general, I just want to pick up a better feel for the game and how it's played, whether that be reading books from older editions, listen to podcasts of other people playing DND, etc. Too often I find myself wondering what loot fifth level characters should be finding or confused trying to gauge how much I should "tone down" a vampire spawn with a CR of 5 mechanically for a group of 3 adventures.   Thanks for reading - any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated!
#2 THEMNGMNT Nov 10, 2014 21:44:42	Can you provide some more information on the adventures that you have run? Did you make them up yourself? Or are they published adventures? Understanding the game you've run this far, the composition of your party, and their level will help guide our response. There are PLENTY of resources to draw upon.
#3 PariahKing Nov 10, 2014 22:01:12	THEMNGMNT wrote:
#4 ankiyavon Nov 11, 2014 0:54:13	It sounds like they're looking for a sandboxy game.  Lost Mines of Phandelver (included in the 5E Starter Set) is a pretty solid sandbox adventure.   For other books that do this sort of thing well: Keep on the Borderlands (go with one of the very old versions) Isle of Dread Frandor's Keep   For books that offer advice on creating sandboxes from scratch (some are easier to find than others): World Builder's Guidebook AD&D 1E Dungeon Master's Guide Adventurer Conquerer King System (it might feel like a waste to buy the whole book just for one chapter, but it's 10 bucks for the PDF, it's cheaper than old books.  It also sounds like you might like having numbers for economics, which would let you use a second chapter.)     For campaign settings, my recommendation for 'generic fantasy' would be either the 3E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting or the Kingdoms of Kalamar Campaign Setting.  My other favorite settings are all pretty weird in one way or another.     As far as mechanical stuff, afraid the book with that sort of advice isn't out yet (as you're aware) and no prior edition would really help.  It's just practice, and with 5E, none of us are really good at it yet.
#5 PariahKing Nov 11, 2014 1:24:36	Thank you for the module recommendations - "sandboxy" is the perfect word for the kind of adventure they enjoy. I'll look into those, as well as the sandbox tutorials/settings.   (I'm regretting leaving my Dad's old DND books back at his house more and more - he has a copy of the AD&D 1E Dungeon Master's Guide as well as a bunch of random 1E/2E books around in a milk crate somewhere.)   And yeah, I thought that might be the case about the mechanics. I'll suppose to continue to eyeball and pretend I know what I'm talking about.
#6 CFK Nov 11, 2014 2:29:42	I use the 4th edition "Waterdeep campaign Guide". It has great detail of the city of splendor and can be used in 5th wih minor alteration to the hero's or monsters.   So yeh, it helps to use old books. But an old DMG is only helpfull for the non mechanic related things, like maps, adventures, magic items and such.
#7 Lashan Nov 11, 2014 5:14:41	I think it would be good to pick a game world and go back to the earliest setting that is offered.  Try to pick up any product you can find with that.  I've found that when you join a campaign world that has a lot of history, it just feels bad when there is so much back story.  It just seems like too much data.  I've found picking the begining of a game world and then running them through some of the earliest adventures helps a lot.  You can then play through the major events....or skip the ones you don't like....and let the players live thorugh the historic events.  It's much better than just trying to catch everyone up to speed on things.   If you are doing FR, then you should look for what material you can find.  The Dalelands are a great time period.  I once ran a campaign that was set right before Lashan of Scardale tried to become King of the Dalelands.  In fact, that government hired the party to retreive all these magic items from around the general areas.  These items got worse and more evil until eventually the party quit working for him.  Lashan then used these items to form a kingdom and was struck down.  The first FR boxed set has an adventure where Lashan ran into the ruins of Myth Drannor to find more loot and a team of adventurers were required to go after him.  It's a good campaign that can play through history, show the different areas of the game world a little bit at a time, and flesh things out.   Look for Volo's Guide series to help flesh out taverns and shops and such.  One thing the FR has over other game worlds is a wealth of material you can just look up to add some flavor to some area you have never  been to.  There are a ton of products out there that have a lot of info.  Google is your friend.
#8 THEMNGMNT Nov 11, 2014 8:31:06	I love that style of campaign. I think you and your players are going to have a lot of fun! Some suggestions off the top of my head.   The 3.5E DMG 2 has a GREAT chapter that details a town called Saltmarsh, which originally appeared in some 1E adventrues. Every single building has a detailed write up and an adventure hook. It's just dripping with potential. No stats are included, which probably makes it even easier for you to adapt. You can pick up the DMG 2 on Amazon for about $12.   The 4E Neverwinter Campaign Setting is one of my favorite books. Details Neverwinter in ruins. The players are helping to reclaim and rebuild it.   You might also look at Paizo's Shackled City adventure path. It's one big adventure (which is pretty crazy and cool) but it's set in and around a city called Cauldron, which is built inside the caldera of an inactive volcano. Like I said, crazy and cool.   If you want to get really crazy, go buy Monte Cook's Ptolus. It's literally hundreds of pages of detail on one single large city.
#9 jozua Nov 11, 2014 8:43:33	If the group likes city-flavored and dungeon crawl Realms sandbox, the AD&D products Waterdeep and the North, City System box set, and Undermountain box set will give you more than you need. On a smaller scale, you could grab the Under Illefarn module. It starts you as militia in Daggerford with a bunch of mini-missions to explore.   However, if the flavor suits you, the Eberron Campaign Setting is a great sandbox setting. There are tons of story hooks and a party could be born, become legends, and die without ever leaving Sharn.
#10 PariahKing Nov 11, 2014 12:23:54	@Lashan: That makes a lot of sense, especially for my group - they like lore...in snippets. A ton of events that happened they have no emotional attachment to probably doesn't have strong relevance for them. They also told me they enjoy quests with magic items (of course, who doesn't), so progressively dangerous things to find is right up their alley.   @THEMNGMNT: Yeah, it's been a blast - it's given them many opportunities to think up and do things I never could anticipate, which was more interesting than anything I "planned." Saltmarsh sounds helpful too - micro-details tying to each possible location are just what I'm looking for. I'll also probably look into Neverwinter - I'll probably keep doing a more generic FR for the moment, but later I want to give them strong culture shock and dump them somewhere *really* different.   Perhaps something like Paizo's Shackled City - that sounds up their alley. They've liked encounters or events that pushed their suspension of disbelief (but weren't blatantly "dumb/impossible").   @Jozun: Thank you for the module recommendations, and especially Eberron - I honestly didn't even know that was a thing. As Wikipedia describes it, it seems pretty cool - I like steampunk stuff and low-level magic being used to create analogs of modern technology. (They also tend toward...morally grey actions.)   @CFK: Waterdeep sounds interesting if they want to go on an aquatic adventure.   ---   Well, I have a *lot* of recommended material  to look at now. I know I sound like a broken record, but thanks everyone, I'm extremely excited to get and start pouring through some of these books! DND on Saturday will be a blast  (and probably module based, given there's no way in hell I can read all of this in one week <_<).
#11 Lashan Nov 12, 2014 5:30:52	THEMNGMNT wrote:
#12 THEMNGMNT Nov 12, 2014 19:49:46	OP, you might also look at Vor Rukoth and Hammerfast from 4E. Both are basically urban locations filled with adventure hooks. The quality is decent, not great, but you could mine them for ideas. Probably available cheap on Amazon, too.
#13 PariahKing Nov 13, 2014 9:46:53	" That's why it was hard for them to finally say no to helping Lashan.  Once they did, they had to flee Scardale and give up all they had.  The resulting war also destroyed the town and the players were heartbroken. It was good stuff as a DM!"   That sounds particularly awesome. I like the idea of the player's making a choice with consequences they don't particularly want, but weren't railroaded into it, and then the worst thing happening to their favorite location.   "OP, you might also look at Vor Rukoth and Hammerfast from 4E. Both are basically urban locations filled with adventure hooks. The quality is decent, not great, but you could mine them for ideas. Probably available cheap on Amazon, too."   Sounds good too.   At this rate, I am never going to run out of stuff to read. <_<   ---   Completely unrelated to the old topic, but do any of you know if there's a big list of diseases, unique poisons, or traps in a book/homebrew list somewhere? I wanted to make an "optional" dungeon that was more dangerous today, but didn't really find anything super interesting in the Player's Handbook.
#14 Lashan Nov 18, 2014 7:17:30	PariahKing wrote: