5th Edition player tries AD&D

[captainjapan]

youtu.be/Wtpm4gwBAA8

This video hit close to home for me. I am the same rusty dm as this girl's father. With Christmas coming up, I had considered buying my kid the 5th Edition Starter Set. I think, like this Youtuber, that she would enjoy starting the game with some motivation other than just looting and surviving, for a change. Ignoring 5e has been easy so far, but I bet she'd enjoy customizing a single character to the nth degree. Maybe I have the wrong impression of fifth edition.

[hamurai]

First of all, depending on her experience with RPGs, I'd take a look at the D&D Essentials box, too. It's really well done, with great handouts like item cards and maps, dice and more. I haven't read the adventure because our group is still playing it, but our DM said he liked it even more than the Starter Set campaign.

As for the Starter Set, it's a good choice with nice material and an interesting campaign.

As for your customization options, you're quite limited by the basic rules. The full customization experience will at least need the Player's Handbook.

[asaki]

Dec 9, 2019 22:26:48 GMT -6 captainjapan said:

Ignoring 5e has been easy so far, but I bet she'd enjoy customizing a single character to the nth degree. Maybe I have the wrong impression of fifth edition.

5E got rid of a lot of that kind of stuff, actually. There's still a little bit left, but nowhere near as much as 3.X had. It makes leveling and character creation a lot faster.

[Punkrabbitt]

I remember customizing characters to the nth degree back in 1980. Whole family trees, schoolmates, color of clothing, map of home village, neighbors, it went on and on.

[Malcadon]

Dec 19, 2019 21:35:33 GMT -6 Punkrabbitt said:

I remember customizing characters to the nth degree back in 1980. Whole family trees, schoolmates, color of clothing, map of home village, neighbors, it went on and on.

Yeah, my sister was like that too. She would put a lot of time and effort into creating a large and detailed family history, along with a sorted backstory of love and friendship — including doodles of people, outfits, and the like — that she had to make a character in advanced, a week or two before the champagne begins, or else her character wouldn't feel complete. And if we're lucky, she would actually remember to fill out that inconsequential character sheet.

[Dohojar]

It sounds, to me anyways, like her dad was rusty. And it also seems like her 5e group is more into keeping characters alive and the story they are creating. To me that is pointless. Where is the fun when all you are ever worried is why would my character do this? I wounder if she has ever even had a character die. I play 5e and I have killed my fair share of my players characters. Like a lot of them lol. I make them start at level 0 with 4 characters each and I think only 2 originals have survived after a year and a half of play. One of my players, who has a habit of making bad decisions. comes to the game with at least 4 pre-made characters in tow in case he dies yet again.

Most of my players have developed their characters personality through game play. They don't spend a lot of time on them as they develop over the course of time. As it stands right now, the party consists of a high elf assassin who acts like a spoiled rich girl from the good side of the tracks, a high elf sorcerer who acts like a goth chick and thinks she is a vampire, a high elf wizard who is completely unpredictable and prefers to use cold based spells (also called the Ice King), a halfling monk who likes to hit enemy's in the nuts with his staff (nicknamed the nutcracker), a human barbarian who goes by the nickname Simple James (because he is a simple man with simple needs), a dwarf war cleric who gets pregnant doged at when he doesn't have a ton a healing spells to which he responds "I ain't that type of cleric" and a gnome bard who is always trying to run some sort of scheme (like turning the haunted house from saltmarsh into a brothel. so to me, spending a ton of time creating character backgrounds and history is pointless when the chances are pretty good they won't live past 1st level.

I think this newer generation is too used to having things go their way and receiving those participation medals and that attitude has found its way into D&D. I personally really don't care if you spent 4 hours creating your character complete with background, personality, family history or whatever. If you make a dumb decision in one of my dungeons you will probably die and have just wasted 4 hours of your time.