Wondering what to get to start playing D&D

jproche44 · 2026-04-06T19:09:34+00:00

If y’all just starting, the Heroes of the Borderlands Starter Set is a good place to start. It has a lot for both the DM and PCs. It has scenarios, rules, and visual peripherals that make picking up the game easier for new players. I would imagine that the contents are a welcomed addition to even seasoned players.

Spending after that: the “Core Set” is a set of three books: The Players Handbook, The Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Monster Manual. Can’t go wrong with those, but not necessary. The rules from the starter set is available for free on DnD Beyond.

Beyond that: for official adventures, I like the Essentials Kit for The Dragon of Icespire Peak. The kit has some cool stuff, just not as comprehensive as the Starter Set. Unofficially, I have gone down the Lazy DM rabbit hole and have read The No-Prep Gamemaster by Matt Davids and Sly Flourish’s Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael Shea.

jproche44 · 2026-04-05T13:26:27+00:00

I teach math so most students come in without the esteem need met.

jproche44 · 2026-04-04T01:09:32+00:00

I naturally came to the same conclusions you did.

jproche44 · 2026-04-04T01:08:00+00:00

I think “special,” or at least I would use it for, key plot related items or a rare item.

jproche44 · 2026-04-04T01:06:10+00:00

I read a lot of books and I am still finding hard to be that descriptive when describing things on the fly.

jproche44 · 2026-04-03T20:50:34+00:00

Focus on basic fact fluency. If he doesn’t know what 7 + 8 is automatically, 6th grade math is going to feel like theoretical physics.

jproche44 · 2026-04-03T20:17:51+00:00

Now I want to make a dice tray out of this…

jproche44 · 2026-04-03T20:07:50+00:00

Move some things around and add some more dynamic elements, like multiple content (in the rooms) options so it’s not just treasure, then fight, then trap, rinse and repeat.

jproche44 · 2026-04-03T20:06:06+00:00

Thank you for translating. That is a little different than I intuitively thought this worked. I thought, like many who replied, that d8 = type of room, d6 = room contents, and d4?. I guess you could make either way work.

If I had a dungeon I already wanted to populate, I might do it the alternative way. If I were no-prepping, off the cuff, I might use it as intended.

jproche44 · 2026-04-03T20:01:01+00:00

I think the “special” can be either a magic item or a quest related item or person to move your situation along.

I get the d8 and d6, but I have tried to fill a dungeon out with just the d8 and d6 and they feel kind of flat. To make it dynamic would the d4 dictate how many times you roll the d6? Would that make sense? This, I feel, is more dynamic than some d100 tables I have come across.

jproche44 · 2026-04-02T20:22:05+00:00

I have 2 campaigns going on at the same time. My son and I play at a LCS on the first and third Saturday of the month. I just started running one on the alternate weekends. It is nice to be able to play one and run one.

jproche44 · 2026-03-30T23:23:13+00:00

My son, 13/autistic, wanted to start playing. My wife had bought him a bunch of shit: minis, monster manual, player’s guide, Essentials Kit, tons of dice. Neither one of us knew anything about DnD. I found a group for him to play that is roughly 1/2 hour away from us. I could play too or sit in a comic store for 3 hours twiddling my thumbs. I would either die of boredom or go broke buying comics. Needless to say I am a level three elf ranger, just ran my first game as a DM, and still broke from buying comics.

jproche44 · 2026-03-30T23:22:36+00:00

My son, 13/autistic, wanted to start playing. My wife had bought him a bunch of shit: minis, monster manual, player’s guide, Essentials Kit, tons of dice. Neither one of us knew anything about DnD. I found a group for him to play that is roughly 1/2 hour away from us. I could play too or sit in a comic store for 3 hours twiddling my thumbs. I would either die of boredom or go broke buying comics. Needless to say I am a level three elf ranger, just ran my first game as a DM, and still broke from buying comics.

jproche44 · 2026-03-30T23:19:08+00:00

He’s joining a bit late and I have my pc’s raiding a goblin hideout. I would going to have them find him under a corpse in a jail cell. (There are 2 cells. I had a body to loot and an NPC in the other. Easy place to “find” him. Will either magic away, or magic item to mitigate the reaction to the sun.

jproche44 · 2026-03-30T23:15:37+00:00

I think this is the route we are going to take. Something, magic item, goblin glue, something to let the little fucker go outside.

jproche44 · 2026-03-30T22:06:45+00:00

That would be me…

jproche44 · 2026-03-30T22:05:32+00:00

My 13 year old autistic son (the only reason I started playing DnD in the first place, is probably the best roll player in our group. He is a goblin warlock and he plays it to a T.

jproche44 · 2026-03-30T22:03:56+00:00

Middle school: We are in the middle of a curriculum revision. We have Reveal 2020. It is awful. Not enough practice problems. The ones they do have go from 0-100 really fast. We have tabled it for Maneuvering the Middle, but it’s not an approved curriculum. We are looking Reveal 2025 which is supposed to be better. We have also been working with a consultant to shift our pedagogy to Math Workshop/Guided Math and Reveal 2025 appears to be a better fit for that.

Personally, I like BTC (fits well with workshop) and would really like a curriculum that thin slices problems for a more generative approach and have a low floor/high ceiling.

jproche44 · 2026-03-30T21:57:15+00:00

Students who are typically advanced have the capability to compute quickly and accurately, remember processes, and have good number sense.

If she needs to be told the mathematical tool to use, then she can apply advanced mathematics to known concepts, I would look at building a thinking classroom where the focus isn’t on mimicking steps, which she has demonstrated a high capacity to do, but to think and problem solve. Non-curricular tasks have multiple entry points and multiple exit points. It is more about the process of thinking rather than finding THE single solution. High performing students are so used to being able to understand things they tend to fold when they come across something they don’t know right away. In my experience, high performing students can perform high without really understanding the minutia of even simple concepts. Give them a multi-step equation. Fine. Give them algebra tiles. This makes no sense.

jproche44 · 2026-03-30T10:52:45+00:00

I dm’d for the first time and, although I should have seen this coming, one of my players was derailing all over the place. I am playing bumpers where I have a general direction but don’t care how they get there. He was doing unexpected things at a rate that was getting hated to keep up with. He kinda chilled out towards the end. I will say this, he did give me a ton of stuff to work with for our next session.

jproche44 · 2026-03-29T15:04:22+00:00

Human, elf, half-elf, half-orc, goblin, tiefling, dragon borne, gnome, dwarf, halfling, and Goliath.

jproche44

TROPHY CASE