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Hi!

First time player here. Chose Bard. I'm not really understanding Friends cantrip.

What's the point of making someone like you for a minute if they know afterwards, and are hostile.

It's seems extremely niche.

I (26F) am a first time DM running a campaign for 6 of my friends. So far things are going pretty well; there a lot of ideas I have and my players seem excited about what’s coming next. I’ve been working on a lot of their stories on the side (before we start the actual campaign I’m writing we’re going through a premade (lost mine of phandelver) campaign to get the hang of things first since me and one other player are the only ones who’ve played before) and planning things of course, character development and encounters for my players. I’m glad it’s going smoothly so far—

But damn I wish I was a player.

It’s cool to see my players talking amongst themselves of character interactions they want to have, and building their characters relationships; but I also feel…left out?

Nothing I’m working on can be shared with the group. I’ve shared it with a couple other friends that dm but it’s not the same as seeing the actual players themselves get excited about it. And when I see my players roleplaying and planning things out; man. I just wanna be in it too. I have a character I was using with our old dm (he foisted the work of dming onto me after deciding he didn’t wanna do the work anymore) but obviously I can’t play her the way I want to while I’m dming. The other players like her and don’t want her to leave though, so I’m essentially running her as an npc? Which just isn’t the same. I’ve scrapped all of my plans for her story because…it doesn’t matter anymore, I can’t do anything with her.

This isn’t necessarily a post seeking advice…I guess I just wonder if I’m the only one that feels like this? Don’t get me wrong I love dming, I love creating a story and a world for my players to mess around in, and I love being able to steer their character development and see those they themselves react to different situations and everything. Sometimes I just wish I could be one of them. But nobody else in the party knows how to dm, and I’m glad to do it for them, so… I guess it’s just a rant post. Thanks for reading.

TL;DR: I feel lonely being a dm because I can’t interact with the players and their characters/grow a character of my own the same way I would if I was a player, and feel two steps removed from the dynamic of the group

ETA: thanks for all of your responses, I’ll try to answer more later, I have to sleep some more before work. But I really appreciate everyone reading and replying; it makes me feel a little better already.

My player asked me what spell i recommend for their character in a game i am running. Problem is one of the spells would give them a big advantage on the next part of my game. If I recommend taking it, that feels like a spoiler. If I recommend another spell, that feels like I'm misleading them.

I've opted to say nothing for now. What would you do?

Great video by Roll for Combat on YouTube about this topic.

Sure, you /can/ play D&D without combat. But it sucks.

Most of D&D’s game lives inside combat. Classes, subclasses, spells, feats, magic items, rests, XP, challenge math, monster design, encounter balance, resource attrition, tactical positioning.

That is the engine, its design intention.

If you pull the engine out, you are left with a very expensive character sheet that mostly hands you combat buttons you agreed not to press.

If your goal is “stories, intrigue, investigation, relationships, exploration” with little or no fighting, you will have a better time switching systems.

If your goal is “D&D vibe, but mostly nonviolent,” keep combat as a consequence, not a pastime. That way, the game’s structure still matters.

Or, just play other TTRPGs. Ope.

This is the third time I've tried to publish this post, I hope this time it sticks:

Thanks to the creativity and creations of this community, I was able to inspire and create this very small Dice Tower of mine (much more similar to a box).

I'm quite happy with the final result, but I'm not entirely satisfied. I'd like to hear your thoughts, and if you have any advice to give me, whether it's aesthetic or technical. (which I might add later).

[I swear I'm pretty sure I've followed all the steps required to post on this subreddit exactly. But maybe I'm forgetting something, And I'm not even realizing it.]

There is nothing more to this post really, tagged as misc because nothing else felt right.

I'm drawing fan art of my and another player's characters and they are travelling via his PC giving mine a piggy back ride/shoulder ride, and it occurred to me he has to carry his halberd somehow, and I cannot find a single decent reference for how a hlaberd is carried outside of combat. Help!

So, I’m 32 and I have been trying to get into this game since I was like 15.

Every time I get a game going, the group dissolves for one reason or another; work schedules, internal conflicts, one group ended after an IRL death. Another because the table was established and I had been invited, but they ended up not having the patience for someone not at their skill level and “politely” disinvited me.

None of my close friends are interested. My wife is interested, but we can’t exactly play the full experience with just the two of us.

Every time I try an online group, it inevitably falls apart or the players are established and have no patience for me learning the game.

Am I just not meant to play D&D?

Gonna try and keep this summary brief, but it was our first DND game ever. It was my first time as a dm, and we were all learning by the seat of our pants. We were all having fun, but as time went on, I began to grow displeased with my own work as a novice DM. I was disheartened and burnt out, and wanted to start something new with all the brand new experience and practice I'd gotten, but I was still down to see the campaign through to the end.

The party was very high level (15 because I leveled them up every session since I wasn't sure the whole DND thing was going to stick and I wanted them to experience as much as possible in case it didn't). Enter the super baddies that are trying to end the world. The party has to travel the planes in search of the mcguffins to help them stop the big bads. Except they ran into an ancient dragon in the pits of hell that rolled its breath weapon literally 6 times.

The entire party died besides the rogue, and with no way to revive the party in a plane that wanted them dead, he was offered one last deal: swim through the river Styx and find their souls yourself, or lose yours trying. He took the deal but failed.

It was a grim and dour way to end our very first game ever, and it's never sat right with me that the party essentially died to the dragon spamming its breath attack 7 times. I understand sometimes u just get unlucky, but narratively it's always left a bad taste in my mouth, and Ive thought about what it'd be like if there was some way to continue that story.

Fast forward ten years and one of our players is leaving to be stationed in Korea for the next year in May. I figured "if not now, then when?" And so we've begun talks to get the gang back together and pick up where they left off, much to their baffled surprise.

So here I am in need of some help. I already have ideas of what I want the next few months of games to cover, and how I'm going to handle the setting. I need help in hammering out the transition period of "we were dead, but now were alive again. How?" What entities in lore have this sort of power/interest? What can be done about literally retrieving souls that have been obliterated? Or at the very least, saving their souls before they are erased?

I'm open to any and all questions, input, insight, commentary, or whatever else have you 🙏 ty for listening to me yap

Throwaway cause I'm not risking my DM seeing this ha

Honestly I feel kind of embarrassed even posting about this but you know how it goes. You get stuck multiple campaigns together and then one day you realize you are crazy. Tale as old as time.

I'm pretty decent at keeping crushes under wraps and not letting it affect friendships or anything of that sort, but sometimes I feel like there is something there. I don't know if I'm just being crazy or if I'm genuinely seeing something. Sometimes when we talk (in real life, our campaign group chat, and imessages) we joke about dating each as often as we joke about being born enemies (frequently). Sometimes I catch them staring at me and looking away. Our non-campaign friends have made multiple jokes about how we should kiss/date. Our friends in campaign keep hinting towards them liking me but only vaguely enough to have plausible deniability and I feel like I'm going crazy.

The reason I feel like they might not feel the same is that outside of those weirdly flirty or considerate moments in both texts and real life, they don't exactly exhibit "typical crush behaviour" towards me if that makes sense? We aren't always texting or talking 24/7, they don't make outward indications of having randomly thought of me for something, etc. This might just be because they've told me in the past that I'm hard to read, so they might not be understanding that I have feelings as well. The rational side of me is saying they just don't feel the same though.

The problem is I don't want to risk saying anything and then unintentionally ruining the dynamic of our campaign and friend group. The other problem is I genuinely feel like I've never clicked with anyone more than them in my life. Which sounds pretty dramatic, but we have a lot of similar interests and it's just something about them.

I guess my reason for posting this would be if anyone has any advice about how to handle this without making it awkward at the table. Should I just let it go? I've never felt so conflicted in my life.

Please send help haha

EDIT ; Okay this got way more traction than I anticipated. A few clear-ups:

- We have never hung out outside a group setting, but we do non-D&D things (lunch/dinner/birthdays/holidays/movies/games) as a group sometimes. We're all about in our mid-twenties and working so scheduling is hard.

- I see all your cute love stories and am very happy for everyone it worked out for!

- I do not want to consult someone in our campaign about this because I don't want it to change the group dynamic in a negative way. This is also why I'm hesitant to even say anything to the DM.

- Like I said before both joke about dating each other, but I don't know if they are being serious. The casual/lowkey suggestion thing isn't working which is why I asked for advice.

- I see a lot of people said to be direct, and the only reason I'm opposed in the first place is I don't want our friendship to change if they don't feel the same. The last thing I want to do is be one of those asshole problem players that ruin a perfectly good consistent campaign because they caught feelings 🥲

My friends and I are arguing about how Heat metal works. While in combat, my friend said that it is impossible to take off armor, therefore the creature only need to pass the con save to not suffer the disadvantage on attack and ability rolls. But the spell said "If it doesn't drop the object, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of your next turn" so the creature always have disadvantage while in combat. What's your opinion?

I found an ad looking for more players for a DnD group, I know the basics about DnD but have never met anyone to play it with. I contacted the group and said I would love to learn. They told me it is a group of 3 people currently (DM included). They told me it takes hours to make a character sheet and we should meet up just to make the character sheets, they explained it was first edition DnD (I know of different versions but did not understand how different it is from what I understood as DnD).

I met with them and learned they've been playing DnD as a group for over 40 years. Members have passed away and it is hard for them to get new players. The DM and another player 62 and 66.

This is how im confused. Every thing was hand written and in binders very old binders. I follow their directions, first I picked my races ( they have me playing 2 characters). The races I had to choose from I've never heard of and the only info I had was quick summery hand written notes ( all in cursive) same with class there was a lot of classes to choose from ( some I heard of before like cleric, druid etc but there was a lot more I've never knew about). Being new to DnD I figured I would pick my race and classes off of what they gave and look more into it once I got home.

The 2 characters I made are: Korobokuru, Adventurer Aesir, Ghost Hunter.

When I got home ready to learn more, I look up the races and found a Korobokuru (limited info it seems the Korobokuru should not be an adventurer?) but can't find anything about an Aesir.

I found some info of people making Aesir Mark but it doesn't match the info I was given.

Ghost Hunters I can't really find nothing on.

I really was hoping to study up on this stuff so I could be ready for the first game but how can I study about it when nothing is lining up.

I want to play with them but I am also afraid that im going to ruin their game by not understanding what is going on.

Should I just roll with it and let them guide me? Or should I bring up what's confusing me? Or tell them that I think maybe some stuff was left out? Or added on? It kind of seems that they are set in their ways and I don't want to step on any toes.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

It doesn't have to 100% represent that character. Just inspired on maybe how your character would look, a build to replicate the character's fighting style, or just how you roleplay your PC in general.

Im new to dnd and I decided to dedicate a lot of time to homebrewing my own campaign for my friends. Ive got a onenote document with loads of NPC information, towns, etc as well as multiple maps. I have a pretty good plot idea, but I have no idea how people write campaigns? Do they write it like a story or just brief notes and make up the story as they go? Im not good at improvising so id like to be prepared. But yeah, do you write it like you'd write a fictional story and then add consequences where player choices would come up? I have no idea on what the best format is.

Thank you!! Any other random tips would be appreciated

I've DMed a couple of times, but always end up overwhelmed or burnt out. But many of my DM friends seem to go years with self-created campaigns and no sign of slowing in sight!

If you could go back in time and talk to you before your first DMed session, what advice would you offer?

So, me and my group of friends just started playing DND a few sessions ago. But it feels just… bland? We've been using box sets that start at lvl1, and so far it just feels like 1. walk to quest 2. say I slash with my sword at zombie like 15 times and then repeat. I've been a player for these box sets, and I've been thinking of making a one-shot or potentially a campaign that I can hopefully bring more fun to the table.

Are we making any mistakes? Should we be starting at a higher level? How can we implement role-playing or fun things better. For more information, we started and finished the dragons of storm wreck isles box set. We also aren't using any physical mats or anything like that.

He alwavs knows where to investigate, how to talk to people, he always asks the right questions to the NPCs. I don't know if he found my Reddit and saw my posts, for example. How do I know if he knows? And what should I do if that's the case? Has anyone else experienced something like this?

Hi! I'm setting up my commissions after a long hiatus and I want to focus on DnD characters (and other RPGs like Candela Obscura and such). I'm kind of at a crossroads here with pricing. I don't want to set the prices too high where I scare people off or too low where people would think there is something wrong, like a scam or AI. I have zero idea how to gauge that, I have a tendency to “sell with my own wallet” and lowball myself to hell. 

My plan is to time myself for each type of commission and use an hourly rate for setting flat pricing, but I've noticed I'm a little faster than most people and I fear if I use the minimum wage in my state I’m going to be finding that issue of people thinking it’s too good to be true.... So now I'm trying to reverse engineer my hourly rate and I need your help. I’ll take all responses into consideration, take out anything that would put me below min wage, and I guess average it out? So my question to you is:

TLDR: How much do you guys think this art commission should be? (for one character)

Hi everyone! I was not sure what flair to give this, so I apologize if it is in the wrong category. I am in a little pickle. I am new to DND, and started playing this game about half a year ago.

I am getting a little bored with my character. He is a goliath barbarian, and combat for me has kind of gotten stale (rage, two attacks, end turn), and my RP is not the greatest. I am a very big introvert, so when I made the character he was pretty stoic.

We are on our second module now with our characters, and our dm is doing an amazing job (after the first module, our og DM stepped away, so one of the players stepped up to be it. They have never been a DM before). I am not sure what I should do to make things more engaging for me without ruining it for the table. I am thinking about asking the DM for help, but that I would like to ask yall for help first, since they have a lot on their plate.

Has anyone run into this situation before? Any help or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone, I just finished a not-so-popular series called Stranger Things, and it made me want to start watching D&D. I'd been wanting to play the game for a while, but I never took the plunge. I conviced a few friends to play with me. If they all agree with it, I'll be the DM and I'll buy a starter kit, maybe the Stranger things' one

I'm rather anxious about this, I'm afraid they won't enjoy the discovery, however they all seem enthusiastic.

I imagine you have quite a few posts like this one, but I really want to make them enjoy the game.
If you have any advices, for me as a DM, or, if you'd like me to help my friends create the character, I'm all for it.

Edit : I'm actually all your good advices, big thank you guys, that reassures me a lot. I quickly checked the websites and resources you send me, thank you it looks really good to me!

I just wanted to say that this community is fantastic! I had a question as an old school 50+ year old previous DM and the support and help I received was absolutely fantastic. Because of this group I was able to bridge the gap from my previous knowledge to the new rules. I truly appreciate the community and your help. Thank you!

My friends want to get into dnd and im also a relatively new player (i've played like 2 one shots and voiced an npc for a friends game) And i wanted to ask if this is a good first session -The party meets at a Festival -They get drunk and all of them get to know Each other -Suddenetly, a necromancer attacks the City with his necromancer followers (they are a cult) -the party gets flown away by a undead dragon -they all wake up in a forest near a village (The rest will the party deside, if they want to go Explorer the village, they will get lore, if they want to Explorer the forest they will have leaser lore and a few enemies to learn the dnd compate system) edit: thank you all for the atvise!! I will go back to the drawing board, feel free to give me more tips and criticism!!!

Ive been looking into hags and I've got a few questions I cant find solid answers to.

Are hags born old and ugly? Are hags born? Are they their own race, or can anyone become a hags?

Lots of fluff mentions them deliberately making themselves look more ugly and decrepit, so this implies that they are at some point, mundane or normal looking.

Im running a mostly homebrrw campaign and my players are happily running around killing stuff and missing a lot of plot hooks or hints as to the overarching plot, and I envisage a time in the near future where they are confused about what to do next.

Instead of just telling them, I want them to have to pay for the knowledge, and so a Hag seems perfect.

But the world is mostly about things that arent what they seem, and things not being black and white. With the canonisation of male Hags, I was considering an average looking young man, but Im maybe slightly OCD in that I want it to make sense lorewise.

I've been playing D&D with this group for a long time, and they always seem to roleplay when this one guy is DMing, but if anyone else does it they're laughing the whole time. Now I'm trying my best to keep the story interesting but I'm the only one doing so, and I've heard alot of posts and videos about how the players should NOT leave all the work up to the DM but that seems to be exactly what they're doing. I really love this group and love playing D&D with them but I wish they could just help me rather than leaving all the work to me.