Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 iroklykthat Oct 13, 2009 22:54:16	Well, myself and a group of friends (5+) are planning on playing D&D for the first time, and I was just wondering what you guys would recommend we get to make our session as enjoyable as possible, and should we bother getting the 2nd players handbook? Also, any tips you have about pretty much anything would be nice.   If this is in the wrong section, my apologies.
#2 whtetyger Oct 13, 2009 23:20:13	You might want to cordinate snacks and drinks because I find most gaming groups like to have something ready to drink (usually soda). Also make sure you have all your own gaming supplies like dice etc as well as something to use as a mini-map for combat encounters and something to represent your characters and any monsters. You dont need the PH2 though it does add a lot of good options for characters and feats.
#3 shadow_viper Oct 13, 2009 23:24:20	I would advise that each player have their own PHB, or close to it. For example, in a group of 4, having only 3 PHBs should work out fine.
#4 guest911165327 Oct 13, 2009 23:33:46	Snacks is important. While this is generally the purview of the DM, anyone can do so. Make it a potluck! If you guys are new, I would recommend buying a set of communal dice. A pound of dice can be acquired rather easily from most online stores and some local game stores. Eventually the players will gravitate to their own/buy their own dice, but I find that having a set of communal dice is always nice. As for books, one copy of each is generally fine, with two being more than adequate(one for the GM and one for the players) but do whatever is comfortable within your budget. Finally, if you're playing 4th edition, invest in a square map and either tokens or miniatures to represent your players. This will make battles all the more fun and engaging, not to mention it is pretty much a requirement.
#5 gendif Oct 14, 2009 15:20:38	Me and a group of friends played DnD for the first time a few months ago. The Basic Game set is great to start with as it has premade characters and an adventure but I found we beat it very quickly and most of us wanted to make our own characters, but for learning the basics the set is still good. I'd have to agree that everyone having a Player's Handbook is a good idea, but probably not feasible.  Probably the best advice I can give is to make sure everyone knows what DnD is about. My group had the problem where we sidelined the roleplaying aspect for the first month and after that we had a split in opinion where some wanted to add it in and some where happy with what was essentially a tactics wargame.
#6 mellored Oct 19, 2009 15:21:39	Since there's 5 of you i suggest splitting the books up.  (everyone can buy 1) 1 Dungeon Master's Guide 1 Monster Manual 2+ Players Hand Book 1 Player's Hand Book 2 (for variety and rule updates) Otherthings you'll need (i suggest you start cheap, and get fancy later) 1 Grid, anything from tablet paper, white board, dungon tiles or kitchen tiles, easily seen and about 20x20. 20 or so things to mark you're grid, could anything like pieces of paper with names written on them, to indi,vidualy painted minitures. 1 Place and time to play, a large table/floor and a few hours (food is often helps too) 4+ Ways of holding character info (Character sheets) 5 Ways to mark the character sheet (penciles) Play for a bit, give a few people a chance to DM a few times , then see what people want, more roleplaying? more combat? more classes/options/monsters? fancier tiles/minitures? pre-made adventures? Those are questions you can't really answer till you've done it.