137
votes
Accepted
New girl gamer in our D&D group is causing weird tension - what to do?
Since I started DMing D&D a long, long time ago, I found that the dynamics of a mixed group of male ande female players is a tad different from a one-sex only group of players. This is purely ...
- 16.1k
135
votes
Accepted
Is starting a group with 5 newbies (DM included) possible?
I had a quick look around because I felt sure this would have been asked before but I can't find anything that would qualify as a duplicate.
Short answer - go for it.
I started playing in 1980 with ...
- 206k
132
votes
Accepted
Can a raging barbarian carry live rabbits to kill them, in order to keep his rage going?
No, that's not how rage works.
Murdering random rabbits does not fuel rage. A barbarian's rage works as follows:
It ends early if you are knocked unconscious or if your turn ends and you haven't ...
- 31.4k
130
votes
How do I rein in a player who talks over my descriptions?
"Excuse me. Please be quiet. I haven't finished speaking, when I have you can talk as much as you want."
This isn't a game problem, its a manners problem.
- 206k
118
votes
Can I begin roleplaying if I'm visually impaired?
Absolutely
Here's the bare minimum you need to successfully join the roleplaying hobby:
At least one other willing person
Mutual communication
That's it, full stop.
The complexity and bar to entry ...
- 15.9k
101
votes
New girl gamer in our D&D group is causing weird tension - what to do?
In game
It is not an in-game problem. It needs to be solved out of game…
Well, kinda. Her character being weaker might mean that she is over compensating and solution to this problem here.
Meta ...
88
votes
How to deal with a player who refuses to learn the description of their spells and abilities?
Guide him to a simpler class, or lay down the law
It sounds like your problem-player has a lot of faults: he is disorganized, forgetful, and not really invested in learning the rules of this game. ...
- 38k
81
votes
How does GMing a game for middle-schoolers differ from older and younger players?
Since you asked for anecdotes:
I had a pre-teen player join my table once (he was the son of one of the other players) and his character concept was just a mary-sue as you fear. He basically wanted ...
- 770
79
votes
Accepted
Need out-of-game solution for spell choice paralysis
When I had a new player start playing with us about 6 months ago, she had this exact problem. My solution was two-fold.
Reduce the number of options
She wanted to play a druid, so there were lots of ...
- 6,532
76
votes
Accepted
How can I help players learn to tell apart the standard polyhedral dice?
Short answer: really, practice is the only answer
It's like any kind of memorization task, eventually you're going to get it, and you'll have trouble until then. But there are ways to make the ...
- 7,843
76
votes
How can we kick our novice roleplayer out of the group for being a poor match, without alienating them from the hobby?
I would simply run the current campaign to a quick but satisfying conclusion, then reform the group under a new campaign without the difficult player. I've done this several times in real life with no ...
- 633
75
votes
How do I rein in a player who talks over my descriptions?
You've tried talking to them, but that didn't help. Try to improve how you describe the scene instead. You say they talk over you when you narrate how an enemy is close by? So narrate that last...
...
- 28.5k
74
votes
Accepted
Should I boost a new player's character level to match the rest of the group?
Yes, you should boost their character level
Heterogeneous parties don't work very well in DnD. The game is designed around the whole party being roughly the same level.
When you give the new player ...
- 12k
73
votes
Accepted
I saved my players from a tough battle, what now?
The Sword of Teamwork and The Hammer of Not Bickering
Your party is in the middle of a classic movie plot, where the team has an initial setback caused by a failure to work together effectively. Take ...
- 25.6k
71
votes
What's the simplest class for a child?
The Fighter is a simple, easy to play class
The Fighter is traditionally the simplest class available in D&D, which holds true in 5th edition. It is generally well suited to new players as it's ...
- 65.5k
69
votes
Accepted
How to deal with a player who refuses to learn the description of their spells and abilities?
If some of the other answers don't let you figure out the root of the problem and get him more involved in the non-roleplay segments, that's fine. Roll with it. As long as he has a sense of humour ...
- 1,782
68
votes
Accepted
How do you teach someone else how to play D&D?
Play the game
Just play. Give the person a pregen character for the first couple of sessions (something simple, Champion Fighter for example) and just let them play.
Don't worry about rules, just ask ...
- 22.9k
68
votes
Accepted
Player wants to play a Stock broker / Trader. How do I Implement a lightweight trading system?
I would not attempt to design a stock market trading system unless you and a majority of the players are personally interested in historical trading enough to put a lot of work in.
It's a complex ...
- 29.7k
62
votes
Accepted
Is 4th edition good for learning 5th edition
No
4th Edition and 5th Edition are completely different versions of D&D, and share very little in terms of rules and mechanics. If you're looking to learn 5th Edition, I suggest you start with the ...
- 5,318
62
votes
Accepted
How can you make character creation simpler?
One option I have tried with success is to leave as many choices as possible out of initial character creation, only making them when they become relevant in the game. This gets you into the action ...
61
votes
How to handle players who make unmotivated characters
Your players are telling you that they might not want to adventure.
First and foremost, ask your players if this is the case before acting on advice from random strangers on the internet.
It appears ...
- 9,789
61
votes
Accepted
Can I begin roleplaying if I'm visually impaired?
TL;DR: To accommodate for the visual parts of roleplaying, either abolish them or prepare for them in advance. The majority of roleplaying is oral. You can do that.
I've now been playing RPGs for 2 ...
- 2,781
61
votes
How to guide my players into realizing they have multiple options available for an encounter?
As these are all new players, there's nothing wrong with a bit of "out-of-game" DM guidance at these early stages.
After describing the situation you can simply say: "What you do now is your choice. ...
- 27.7k
56
votes
How can I explain how to play D&D to new players without them falling asleep from boredom?
Best way to learn is to do, in my experience. I've DMed for a number of groups that have never played before (with players from age 11 to age 56(!!)), and in my experience, they really struggle to ...
- 9,499
55
votes
Accepted
How should I introduce map drawing to my players?
I recommend not forcing your players to draw maps
From everything I have experienced with players new and old, having players make the maps doesn't work well and I would recommend not doing it at your ...
- 93.9k
54
votes
New girl gamer in our D&D group is causing weird tension - what to do?
It is super hard to make recommendations not knowing the dynamics of your group... Sometimes it just doesn't work...
Just to pick out one particular detail:
And moreover, her character is a level ...
- 1,023
53
votes
How can I convince new players to read and learn the basic rules before sitting down to play?
I think that if your players say that they learn by doing then it is a good idea to listen to them. Otherwise you will just end up banging your head against a brick wall. The dynamic of every table ...
- 9,307
51
votes
Accepted
Can two players play one character?
Two players could play one character, but probably it would be too boring.
They could agree all the character's action, and they could take turns when role playing him. But that would be less ...
- 17.3k
50
votes
Accepted
How can we kick our novice roleplayer out of the group for being a poor match, without alienating them from the hobby?
Ultimately, one cannot be held responsible for how people react. However, there are good, indifferent, and bad ways to part company that do influence how people might react.
First and foremost ...
49
votes
Accepted
Am I acting unreasonably or do I rein in my players?
The campaign is following Matt Mercer's Taldorei setting and using gestalt characters.
If you aren't an experienced DM, don't try to be Matt Mercer
Grow into your boots as a DM.
We have some other ...
- 142k
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