Giant Bomb Unplugged: Tips for Rorie DMing 5ed

Hey Rorie

I have never posted on the forums before but now that you are playing D&D 5th Edition, I thought that I had to pop my cherry.

I wanted to let you know that you are doing a great job so far with the game and I am so glad you guys decided to bring back the Giant Bomb Unplugged series. The old version was the reason I became a GB subscriber a year ago. So I wanted to let you know that if you had any quick questions about rules that I would be happy to help out and I wanted to offer a few tips after watching the video.

You may want to go over the race and class features for each PC and make sure they are getting all of these goodies. You don't want anyone missing out on special abilities like darkvision, proficiency or bonus cantrips. Remember that Drew is an Elf (so he gets all of the basic elf traits like Keen Senses and +2 DEX) and then his sub race is Wood Elf (so he also gets Wood Elf traits like increased movement speed, proficiency with longswords and +1 WIS.) For classes, the table in each class section should be an easy way to show the guys the proficiency bonus and the first class features they possess.

Proficiency Bonus - This number which is a +2 for all the starting PCs is very important and replaced BAB in 3.5. It is added to:

• • Weapon attacks when they attack with a weapon they are proficient with.
  • Any skills they are proficient with.
  • Saving throws that they are proficient with.
  • Any tools they are proficient with.

Background - The Backgrounds listed in the PHB may be more important than you think. They provide specific features that can help flesh out a character but more importantly, they are the only place where they get proficiency in skills other than their class.

• FYI: a quick way to come up with starting equipment is add the starting equipment of your chosen class and chosen background. That way no one has to go through each piece of equipment in the PHB and do math.

Inspiration - This is a bonus you award to players for good roleplaying. If a player does something that is true to his character's nature or ideals and it doesn't really help him in the game, the DM can award him Inspiration which he may spend at any later time to get Advantage on a roll.

Advantage - A new feature in 5th Edition that comes up often. You should read the section on this thoroughly.

Hit Dice - Make sure to let the guys know they can roll their Hit Dice and add CON bonus during a short rest to recover HP.

Feats - This wont come up till 4th level and I would love it if the series makes it that far. At that time they will get to increase their Ability Scores OR a Feat.

If any Giant Bomb fans would like to get into D&D 5th Edition for free, there are PDFs that you can download from Wizards of the Coast.

This is all correct.

Paging @rorie

I forgot the most important rule that anyone playing D&D should remember!

1. Have fun and play the game you want to play no matter what any of the rules say.

awesome post! Thanks. Helped me anyways. :)

Sure, but not using this stuff will make it much harder for the players as all of this makes player characters more powerful.

The new Advantage is the most bananas thing about 5E.

What is it?

If you have Advantage (which can be gained in a myriad of ways) you roll 2 dice instead of one and take the better one. Same with disadvantage but you have to take the worse one.

My tip for Rorie, keep them coming. I'm really looking forward to their adventures and seeing how Ryckert tries to fuck things up. How does Detroit not end up stabbing him in the back at some point and the other party members join in.

One thing I'd like to add is to maybe not tell the players what numbers they need to roll to hit a guy, make a saving throw, etc., or at least ask them beforehand, how they want to do it.

I used to watch a lot of RollPlay on Twitch and one of the things I appreciated as a viewer was their DM just going "roll a d20" and then adding some flavor like "your weapon clanks off the iron shoulder pad" if they barely miss on a hit roll, or "the sun blinds you momentarily and he manages to jump out of the way" if they completely miss the roll.

This is a really well laid out, clear list! Definitely very useful, I'm looking forward to seeing where they take the series. And yeah, D&D's core strength (as a tabletop RPG) is that they provide a basic rule structure but you can do whatever you want to do to have fun even if it means manipulating those rules in unusual ways!

I recently got the books and was gonna peruse through them. I mostly played v3, gave v4 a try but didn't spend much time with it.

Very nicely put. I think you covered everything I and others saw that was incorrect during the live stream.

You kind of said this in your original post when talking about backgrounds but it's worth repeating I think: All of the items from the example sheets that Rorie said they wouldn't really bother with (Rope, clothes, etc) come from a character's class and background. There isn't any extra work that comes form choosing starting equipment as it's basically all explicitly laid out for you, and although it may not seem like you'll ever use those things you never know when a situation will call for an iron pot you've been lugging around for a few weeks.

And alternative to that if a player isn't happy with their starting choices is you can start with an amount of gold based on your class (page 143 in players handbook) and buy stuff with that, but in this case you're probably fine with what the book tells you to take.

I'm not a huge DND duder but I have had the fortune of having only good DMs the games I've played. This is sound advice from what I understand. I also appreciate that Rorie is guiding the guys' decisions by giving them information but leading them to any particular conclusion, I think that's the mark of a good DM.

Also, welcome to the forums!

At some point in time, a boulder needs to fall out of the sky and kill Dan's character, at which point Dan will learn that his character Sir Ric can immediately be replaced by his identical twin brother, Sir Rik. No player is truly inducted into tabletop RPGs until that happens.

That is one crazy story. Where's the last part?

This is fascinating. Forgive my ignorance but do all the external happenings originate from the dm's imagination or is there some story built into the game?

I would love some advice from more experienced forum posters.

After the next episode comes out and more questions come to surface, should I make a new topic or keep posting on this one? I guess it might be convenient for anyone to reference it as one topic, but I don't know if resurrecting old forum posts is frowned upon.

All DM. There are some prebuilt adventures but that's not what that is.

Might be good to bump up Dans STR 2 points and maybe some CON to make it more balanced. Since he's tanking. D&D 5E is quite hard in the beginning with PC dying at almost 1-2 hits. And since I get a feeling Dans going to throw himself into danger it might be good that his charachter is prepared.

My other suggestion would be that you don't really need "test fights" before you start. Just start an adventure and everyone will learn whilst you play. This is the funnest and easiest way to learn. Play the starter set adventure!

@blueskatten: Consequence free test fights might be a good idea since everyone including the DM is new to 5th edition, two players have never played D&D, and the other two have only played a couple of times over a period of several years. Plus it would be a decent way to see how underpowered Dan's character actually is and then give him a boost of necessary.

This should help you any dm's/players with remembering the various differnt rules for stats and combat.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwCtO5aw9n2LNXVjRGpsTFFMWGM&usp=sharing&tid=0BwCtO5aw9n2LRl9CekVsZjJUd1k

Got it from this reddit thread.

http://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2j5qlg/final_version_of_my_5e_dm_screenplayer_cheat_sheet/

I always wondered why when I searched Dungeons and Dragons on Bing it had Vin Diesel as related people.

I agree, Rorie is a good DM! More episodes!

Wow! This is a really great and well presented post, thanks @maxxx1mus.

I've spent a whole lot of time DMing 4th edition, especially several seasons of encounters in FLGS', and it's amazing how much information a GM needs to prepare, memorise, vocalise and refer to the source material. Rorie did a bang up job of making it a fun and enjoyable experience for the table so hats off to him. Hopefully he gets eyes on this post to help him out, it's a tough job and he's stepped up to the plate ready to hit a home-run (does that analogy work?) .

On a side note, my now apathy towards 4th seems to be poking me in all of the right places to get into a 5th game group now. It looks really good fun.

@benderunit22: While I've never played or DM'ed a game of D&D, I've always read the rules for both D&D and Pathfinder and thought to myself that such flavor text would be how things were described. I've always thought things like, "Drewecifer's staff hits the dragon in right below the eye, there's a loud crack, the sound of bone breaking, and as the dragon rears its head back, its eye can be seen dangling from its eyesocket." sounds more exciting than, "You crit the dragon for 5 points of damage."

But, I've never played or DM'ed! I imagine it's a lot harder to come up with stuff when you're actually playing, and depending on the group, they may not want that sort of feedback. But I always thought that descriptions like that might also give the DM more room to fudge rolls behind the scenes to guide the story where he wants it to go.

Man Vin Diesel is so fucking cool.

Bouncer by night, D&D even later at night.

Sweet voice 24/7.

We need a snippet of the video of Rorie saying "Roll the Die!"

If I could make some suggestions for everyone's background:

Dan - Gladiator (The variant of Entertainer), Folk Hero or Noble

Brad - Charlatan or Spy (Criminal variant)

Drew - Folk Hero, Acolyte or Entertainer

Danny - Urchin or Outlander

*Edited for fun.

@dudeglove: There are types of clothes outlined in Pathfinder.

The art in most DnD books is generally generic fantasy stereotypes but that doesn't mean your character has to look like that. If you want to play a wizard that just wears normal dude clothes you can do that. If you want to be a rogue that hides in plain sight instead of being the shadiest motherfucker ever you can do that too.

I'd recommend people take the starting gear offered from their class and background, maybe do a few swaps for weapons that they want.

Also a note on the mace and morningstar. A mace is a club that has a metal head on it. A morningstar is a mace that has spikes attached to the metal head of a mace. A flail is the weapon that has a ball of metal (spiked or otherwise) attached to a shaft by a chain.

@maxxx1mus: Totally spot on with the backgrounds. The Entertainer background (Gladiator variant) is 100% made for Richard the Horseman.

Rorie should try and coax Danny to proc his Wild Magic surge as often as possible. The effects alway create entertaining moments in sessions.

@rorie

I wanted to make a quick FAQ-like section for some of the new 5ed rules that will probably come up.

Advantage / Disadvantage

This mechanic will come up very often and is probably my favorite part of 5th edition. A player can receive advantage on a roll from things like stealth, attacking a prone character, class features, spells or simply at the DM's discretion. Whenever a player gets advantage, they will roll 2 d20s instead of one for their attack, ability check or saving throw and take the higher result. Disadvantage works the same way except the person rolling must take the lower result. If, for some reason, the character has both advantage and disadvantage, they always cancel each out. Even if they get 10 different reasons for one and only 1 for the other.

Bonus Actions and Reactions

A player may get a Bonus Action granted to him by a feature or spell but they are only allowed to use 1 Bonus Action per turn. This includes Two Weapon Fighting. So if a character wants to attack with both weapons they cannot use another bonus action to use something like Second Wind in the same turn. Reactions are special actions that characters can use when it's not their turn but like Bonus Actions, they only get to use 1 Reaction per turn. This includes Attacks of Opportunity.

Attacks of Opportunity, Ranged Attacks in Melee and Concentration

Unlike 3.5, the only reason for an Opportunity Attack in 5ed is moving out of an enemy's melee attack range. The character is still allowed to move around inside the attack range without provoking or just use the Disengage action. Ranged attacks, including ranged spell attacks, while in melee range of an enemy must be made at disadvantage. A character who casts a spell that only requires a melee spell attack, or a Saving Throw has no penalty, but if they take damage while concentrating on a spell that requires Concentration, they must make a Constitution check, DC 10 or half the damage taken (whichever is higher). A character can only concentrate on 1 spell at a time but can cast other spells that do not require Concentration.

Movement

There is no longer a Move Action in the game. Players now have just 1 action and a certain amount of movement they are allowed to use throughout their turn. They can use some of their movement, use an action, and then use the rest of their movement before their turn ends. They can even move in between attacks if they have multiple attacks (I think).

That's all I can think of for now. I will update this thread after the next video. Hope it comes soon.

@maxxx1mus: Thanks for the tips (and to everyone else in this thread). I'm out of town this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some time to read up on combat before we get back to things next week. The best laid plans, etc., etc.

Cool stuff. I have a couple general DMing tips. They're not worthy of a full thread, so I hope you don't mind me posting them here.

As a DM you should never tell a character how they feel in a situation. It's often tempting with checks to embellish by stating emotion, and this can quickly become very limiting. If there's an item surging with magic and a character picks it up, I would say that the item feels very powerful, rather than that the character feels very powerful while holding it. Allow them to imagine as often as possible, by giving them nothing but the data.

I also think it should rarely be stated that a character lacks something for a given check or challenge. It's not that Dan is too weak or slow to grapple the goblin; the goblin is just too strong or fast to be grappled.

Ya, this all seems correct as far as I understand it. Also, Proficiency bonus for everyone starts at (level 1) +2. You know what a character is proficient with because their character race in the players handbook says the word proficient or it's under proficiencies in the class section. It just means what OP said- anything the player is proficient with adds +2 to any roll with that. If they aren't proficient they just don't add +2 to the roll.

Something important I think Rorie should remember is 5E is different from 4E or Pathfinder (which I think Pathfinder is an evolution of 3.5E? I cant remember now). They added some stuff I even find confusing- although I'm not a P&P expert by any means.

As a Wood Elf Drew does not have proficiency with Warhammers so he cannot start with one. You'll notice the Cleric class page says (if proficient) next to Warhammer. This pertains to his racial trait which determines that before class traits. So if you want to go by the rules on that he cant start with a Warhammer, technically. It doesn't matter if you want to ignore that- even if it's strange =P (because elves aren't usually that strong to start out). Just mentioning it, though. Technically he'd start with a mace. He will also not be proficient with his starting weapon (anyway) so he won't get a bonus on attack rolls. But again it's up to you if you want to go by the book on that.

Also when creating characters it's super helpful to look at the actual character class and race pages in the players handbook. They have all the starting traits and abilities you need to know. Magic (spells) is more complicated (it confuses me the most at least), so I am going to go ahead and assume the Giant Bomb party may get held up on it. Just know to look in the Class individual sections and Spells Section and it tells you in that section which class can choose which spells (for example for a Cleric the spells they start with are on the second page of the Cleric Class section, and it's also based on what Domain they want, and the cantrips he can pick are listed under the Spells section of the player handbook on page 207 which are also explained more thoroughly later in the Spellcasting section).

So any spells you have or how they work (even skills really, like lock picking) are explained. The components mainly just tell you whether it's spoken, gestured (somatic), or uses an actual material and they are marked as V, S, and M. The importance to V (vocal) is if you're silenced you can't cast that spell. If it doesn't require you to speak it doesn't matter if you're silenced. If your hands are bound in a specific way or something (say both of your hands are tied behind your back) S (somatic- gesturing) requirement can't be met. With somatic the handbook says they only need one hand free in order to complete this requirement. M (material) is the most important as it requires an actual thing to cast that spell. What materials are needed for a spell (if any) is listed under the spell in the spell section.

Another confusing thing for me was they expanded the concept of advantage and disadvantages so they will come up much more frequently in the game and will even be mentioned in all the handbooks often. Advantage just means they can roll two dice and pick the highest number. Disadvantage they roll 2 dice and pick the lowest. That's all it means.

Lastly (wow I've said a lot) you may go in to this thinking all these stats and abilities seem really high compared to the creatures ability to withstand them. Don't worry about that. That is intentional as the game now intends that you try and not get hit so even the monsters hit really hard and the Players can die really easy. The idea is to get you to think about other ways to tackle a situation and not focus entirely on combat. 5E (more than 4E) tries to inspire roleplay as often as you can. 4E focused a lot on combat so the rules were more combat centric (which bothered a lot of people). This also kind of evens out as you get higher level and start dealing with resistances and stuff.

Most importantly just have fun. When you actually play the game if you get stuck on an outlier thing that a player wants to do and you're not sure of the rules on it sometimes it's ok to just make up your own rule on it. The only real catch to that is your players will expect you to be consistent. So if you say they have to do it a certain way, and you have players who care about it I guess, they may expect you to be as lenient or complicated as you were before. If your party doesn't care about that, though, this may not even be an issue (probably won't with this group, if I had to guess =P ). The DMs guide actually has good tips on making up roll difficulty (how high you could expect the player to roll to do something) and stuff that I like to use in those cases (which do come up from time to time so it's cool to know).

Clerics get proficiency with all simple weapons, so they are proficient with maces. If they pic War or Tempest domain at L1, they also get proficiency with all martial weapons, which will allow them to pick the warhammer.

Also, regarding some of the weapon-related confusion, warhammers are one-handed (the two-handed equivalent would be mauls) and morningstars don't have a chain, flails do.

It should be noted that a spell component pouch or a spell focus can be substituted for any materials that don't specifically list a cost, removing the micromanagement of having to acquire and track tons of different materials.

Episode 2 is today! Hyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyype!

@flstyle:

Hell yeah, I am so stoked for this next episode!

What G-Pink said!

Posted this on GAF, but I guess this is a better place. Just a few suggestions, I certainly don't want this to come across as critiques, because I think DMing in front of thousands of people is hard enough, without people like me freaking out about it. Just a few things that might help make the campaign flow a little more.

• You've GOT to read the Player's Handbook, and know it inside and out. It's the minimum a DM can do, to be completely encyclopedic about the rules, especially when it comes to things as basic as death rolls, spell slots, and the specific traits and abilities of the PCs in the campaign.
• Quash infighting immediately, it leads nowhere in the long run, and contributes very little to character/quest progression. Some of it is ok, but it slows the game down sooo much.
• Create some specific house rules, and stick to them. A few that would help this campaign specifically include; pool the party gold (it's clear that would solve a lot of issues); no stealing from other players (might have been fun this time, but it can quickly cause animosity with people who aren't used to roleplaying); and stabilization with any healing at all will cause a character to immediately wake up, instead of having to wait 1d4+2 hours to gain HP and wake up.
• Just keep the game moving. A fast moving campaign will flesh out characters at the exact same rate as a slow moving campaign, without the risk of anyone getting bored. Find a really quick way for you to get through numbers and enemy turns in a battle, and when you run through a couple mock battles that way and get really good at flying through turns, you can add embellishment to it, and at that point, you're not saying things like "The goblin advances, swinging his hammer *rolls, waits* and hitting you forrrrrr *rolls, waits* 5 + 1 is 6 damage.", you're saying things like "The goblin, looking enraged as he approaches, raises his rusty hammer above his head, bringing it down on your breastplate, denting it into your torso for 6 damage.
• Cheat sheets are your friend. Keeping info like PC: AC, HP, Passive Perception, and Passive Insight in front of you, as well as super quick enemy cheat sheets, like Attack and Damage Bonuses, allow you to get into the groove mentioned earlier.

Get Dan under control!

@madlaughter:

While these are all great suggestions it doesn't seem like Rorie has read this thread. He seems to have finished their character sheets, but hasn't even read much of the rules yet.

This. Being an insufferable jerkbag might be fun for him but it isn't for anyone else.

Get Dan and Brad under control, the infighting can be funny for a little bit, but after many minutes of people arguing over each other it just gets annoying.