My son inherited a sack of dice from his Uncle, and is now bugging me to teach him D&D.
He’s 11, and smart as a whip.
I haven’t really played D&D in quite some time, but I know there has been a lot of different versions since I stopped playing.
What would you good folks recommend for getting a young lad into D&D for the first time?
3.5 or 4th Ed.
4th Ed.
Pros.It’s the current system, therefore support, expansions and new material are readily available.
Mechanics are unified across the board
Play is quite smooth.ConsThere’s no real difference between what you do at low level and what you can do at high level. It’s more of the same, with bigger numbers.
The Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies laid out in the first set of rulebooks were skeletal and uninspiring. Extra Core Books may expand them, but that requires continuing investment.
3.5
ProsLots of different things to do. Spellcasting feels different from melee combat.
A wide variety of sourcebooks, options and adventures are still available, as 3rd and 3.5 were in production for many years.
The core rules are available under the Open Gaming Licence, which is free. People with this licence can still write stuff for this game if they wish.ConsWide disparity in power level between primary spellcasters and noncasters.
Known exploitable loopholes.
My group tried 4th Ed last year, and went back to 3.5 with HARP for variety. But we’re hardly target market for 4th Ed.
Support and expansions are actually more readily available for 3.5 than for 4th, owing to the way that Wizards handled the third-party licensing.
But to the OP, I think the best course of action is just to go with whatever you’re most familiar with yourself. Things will go much smoother if one of you is already at least somewhat familiar with what you’re doing.
Ditto what Chronos said. Teach the one you know best. If you want to learn a system together, consider something other than D&D - there are a lot of cool games out there with systems that are simpler and easier than D&D. GURPS is a decent system, with a lot of settings - chances are if your son reads SF or fantasy, he’ll be familiar with one of the settings.
I think it partially depends what type of character he wants to play and the type of adventure he’d be in to. If he wants to be a caster on a combat adventure 4th ed all the way. I love 3.5, but as a (mostly) dedicated caster, the low levels amount to casting two spells and hiding behind a rock until you get back to the inn. Otherwise I’d go with 3.5, with the caveat of maybe looking up some house rules to make it a little better (I personally like changing up diplomacy a bit, otherwise a 5th level bard can make anyone do whatever he wants them to).
Not for the middle levels in my experience, and the disparities at the extremes are different - early on meleers kick ass and spellcasters are pretty much just targets. (2 spells before going to the rock? You clearly have different priorities in choosing spells learnt than me. My current character got a Web, then pulled out her crossbow, since our GM was cruel and through a lot of mindless creatures at a party with a character with a focus on mind control.)
Late game, casters get godlike, and meleers can barely do a thing.
It’s possible to add house rules, or distribute gear that mitigates the differences, though.
Anyway, I say get the kid 3.5, though 4 would be fine, too…either one will be strongly house ruled, most likely.
You played a Mind-Bender too? Yeah, stupid DMs, and I thought he was going to be so useful…
Yep… Well, not a Mind Bender per se, since we changed systems (to Mutants and Masterminds) just after she qualified, but just before she could take the class. Still that’s the general character concept.
The GM’s eased up on the golems and undead (sort of…the current enemy sort of are both, but not quite, so her powers work), and she’s gotten a lot more useful since. Worst we’ve dealt with in that respect were plants, and they were mind-controllers, too, so I got to fight for control of the mind of a party member.
I think the fact that I turned my powers on the rest of the party at the least excuse might have tipped him off that I was getting frustrated (I don’t do well with straight casters in this group…my last got frustrated, too…not going to play one again, although this one’s getting really fun)… Not going to stop me from doing so in future, though…in fact, I want to clear an ongoing bit with him and another player soon.
To be fair, my DM kind of hinted at a warning that I was not going to like where the campaign was going for the middle potion (the last part was actually perfect for the class though). During those parts my character sort of ended up doing something weird, in that he would use his powers to get extra attacks out of party members. Technically it wouldn’t work because of how the round system is supposed to be envisioned but my DM decided to be nice because otherwise I was relegated to screwing with refugees every 3 sessions (and I was good so that wasn’t really happening).
The thing is, everyone (or at least, almost everyone) sucks at level one. That’s a feature, not a bug. Sure, the caster only gets a couple of spells, but the meat-shield can only take a couple of hits before going down, too. And the consequence for running out of HP is worse than that for running out of spells.
Really, in the core rules, the only 3.5 character that doesn’t suck at first level is the druid, and that’s a problem. Sure, he doesn’t get any more spells than any other caster, but he’s got an animal companion which is nearly as good a fighter as the fighter himself, and if the animal does take too many hits and goes down, you can just replace him the next day. Druids, unfortunately, have no real weakness.
Here’s a link for a 4ed Quick Start Adventure Wizards of the Coast
At-Will powers seem to remove part of the single fire wizard problem of earlier editions.
How many of his friends are interested in playing? 4e definitely encourages group play. And you can avoid the one-shot issues of spellcasters at low levels if you encourage creation of scrolls and potions.
And a monk if you’re allowed to buy your ability scores. The monk at 1st level is the real tank. AC 18 with great saving throws.
3.5 is my favorite, but I haven’t played AD&D or 2e. Personally, if he’s smart, Id go with 3.5. 4th is too simple and all the classes are the same.
And lower HP, and no more reason for the enemy to bother with him than with a tree or rock that happens to be on the battlefield. And really, a fighter can get nearly as much AC as the monk.
There’s also the Pathfinder RPG, which is available semi-free as well as for purchase. It’s basically D&D 3.5 with some fixing done. (I’m a 3.5 proponent. I think 4th ed feels dumbed down.)
I agree with Brainiac4 that you’d be better off teaching a system you know, or starting with a non-D&D system if you don’t know any (Though I reject his recommendation of GURPS, which I think is a terrible system. :P). So if you -have- old D&D Rulebooks lying around, start there. If you don’t, well, there’s lots of really cool RPGs out there (Let me take a moment to endorse Mouse Guard, which has won tons of awards this year and is also designed to some extent to be easy for RPG beginners) should you shouldn’t necessary decide you simply must play D&D. Talk to the kid, explain you don’t really remember how to play D&D, so see if there’s a system you’d both like to learn together. Which might end up being D&D, and might not.
I absolutely agree.
I’ve been running a school roleplaying club for 20 years now, using 1st Edition.
Each new pupil gets a simple introduction (and chats to existing players) before deciding on a character.
I help them with the character sheet, show them how to do a combat and then they join in.
The focus is on teamwork, imagination and roleplaying. They can ask me technical questions anytime and also have all their options explained.
Some of my memorable moments:
*“cheese sandwiches” was my instant reply - later a puzzled pupil said he couldn’t find that in the Monster Manual!
Well, sure, but only if it’s Gorgonzola cheese. Obviously.
It’s easy, though. Small number of base stats, simple mechanics, and the point-buying approach helps kids feel like things are fair and they are making choices.
You could also start with the old Melee and Wizard microgames, which are the basis of GURPS (through The Fantasy Trip).
It’s not my favorite system by any means, though. I’m running a 4E game now, and for conventions I run Call of Cthulu or Champions mostly, although I have done games in GURPS and Nobilis. The best system ever, in my opinion, is the 2nd edition of Runequest, although that’s at least partly because of the setting.
You might want to consider the Microlite d20 rules. It has the simplicity of Basic combined with the streamlining that came in with 3rd edition (higher is always better, saving throws reduced to three, ect.).