Why D&D Works Fine

We’ve been playing D&D5e since release, slowly adopting the rule books as they have appeared. While we’re still waiting for the DMG to arrive, we’ve pretty much played across three different settings over the past four or so months.

As both a DM and a player, I thought I’d share why D&D works just fine for us.

Player’s-Eye View

This Friday, as we began to play in the Forgotten Realms in our DM’s personalised hack of the Tyranny of Dragons campaign, I got to find out what it feels like to play D&D as a player character.

My character, Mindartis Siannodel, is a Wizard. He’s almost a typical High Elf Wizard at that, although I’m giving him a fire-magic theme and he’s got a past as a criminal. I was able to create him inside of 20 minutes. When we levelled-up on Friday, I was able to make the choices in about 5 minutes. So far, no hassle.

The most useful thing I own as a player with a magic-using class (aside from the Player’s Handbook) is the Galeforce9 D&D Arcane Spell Cards. Although I’ve heard from other online players that they find D&D requires a lot of page flipping, I’ve not experienced anyone at our table needing to do so – and a big reason is that we’ve invested in these cards. With a copy of every spell you can cast right in front of you, with full stats clearly referenced, the need to pick up the PHB is restricted mainly to level-up time.

Overall, I find D&D plays very quickly and smoothly. We are loving the Advantage/Disadvantage rule, the fact that fights take mere minutes to resolve, and the flexibility of every class. So far, the two groups I am in have played every character class except the Sorcerer and the Warlock. All in all, we’re really having a fun time with minimal pain.

DM’s Opinion

I’m also a DM. I’ve run the end of a failing campaign using D&D, and started a new one with total newbies. In both cases, the new edition has breathed life into our gaming.

First of all, D&D is flexible. It’s got something of the Old School flavour in that, should you want, it’s easy to adapt the game to your vision of fantasy. I made it fit the magic-rare world of Tikhon, and the magic-rich world of Mykovnia with equal ease. In fact, as I play the new campaign, I am already starting to think seriously about the “house rules” that I want to write-up for 5e… instead of completing the “hack” of OD&D that I’d begun.

My only beef with the game is that the monster stats aren’t available on cards like the spells. Whilst the Monster Manual is awesome, I want to be able to pull the stats from the book and place them in front of me at the table – without page turning the book. As there is no electronic edition to cut and paste from, I am having to resort to typing the monsters up myself. That aside, however, everything else works really well for the DM.

The best thing is that it’s so easy to pick up the basics of the game. New players can grab a character sheet and get going quickly – in just an hour of play, I have newbies feeling confident with the game. They are focused on “good play” rather than “how to play”.

Finally, I have to mention that the free Basic D&D set as downloads is a very big selling-point: newbies can access the game for free. Once playing, they soon want to try a new class… and so they ask for the Player’s Handbook for Christmas (or birthday). Sold.

Moving Forward

I’ve been looking at  the Ice-Rivan Realm map again. Where I was seriously hacking together “Webster’s Grimoire” for long-term play with the adult Old-Schoolers in my life, I find myself able to consider some house rules for D&D5e instead. That speaks volumes.

It’s not a perfect game, but it’s a damn good one. Slick, flexible, and with the Old School flavour we crave.

Moving forward, I’ll be hacking some classic modules into 5e shape.

Game on!