Episode 56

The D&D Character Creation Process Explained Simply + Some Tools

Warmup: Justin

I want you to pick the bond, flaw, personality trait, and ideal for a Tiefling artificer named Troaxiaus.

Intro:

Main Topic: Character Creation Explained Simply + Useful Tools

In explaining the character creation we aren’t just reiterating the process as defined in the player’s handbook, though we are doing that to some degree. In doing this, we are attempting to help you think of simple ways to explain the process to novice players. You see this episode is about you dear listener-adventurer. Oh no… it’s about your players. We will work through this process to help you work through it with the noobiest of noobs to D&D. So let’s begin. We will first describe the different processes simply and then maybe give some tips or tools for helping players. As you’ll notice, the order we describe these is the same order described in DNDBeyond though we might recommend different ways of doing things.

Let me stress something as well. Making the character creation easy and fun is important because if your players never get past this part they will never play.

Race - Tanner

  • Race can be a complicated or simple factor in your campaign, and you should plan out your stance (and your NPCs stances) before you recommend anything to your players. 
  • Will you have racist NPCs, or will stereotypes be accepted from the get go (Tolkien-esque /typical fantasy)?
  • If you are making your own world and campaign, are you reframing the races, and should that affect your player’s decision? Like, if orcs in your world are typically nerds, should you discourage your player who wants to be a warrior from playing them?
  • In terms of stats, let them do whatever they find interesting. But, then encourage their racial choice to actually affect aspects of their role playing
  • But, once again, people are not just walking stereotypes—don’t make your player be a copy and paste version. Also, encourage them during character creation to branch out (if they aren’t), or to consider their race’s environment.

Class - Justin

Aside from choosing your race, your class may have the most impact on your character. It will help you define how your character interacts in combat and in non-combat situations as well as how others will interact with you. That said, choosing a class can be very confusing. As a DM, I like to ask my players questions like:

  • How do you like to fight enemies?
  • What do you want your character to be good at in and out of combat?
  • Do you want to use magic?
  • If so, how complex do you want your magic to be?
  • Are you ok with only getting one opportunity to attack during a combat round?
  • What video games do you like to play if any?
  • How does your character regard deity?


I have found that certain questions actually are a waste of time. These questions make it harder such as:

  • What do you want your character to be able to do?
  • What contributions do you see your character making?
  • What weapon do you want to use?

In general, the more specific the question, the better. I would even go so far as to ask binary questions to force one answer or another.


Obviously, this is somewhat superfluous for a player who’s had the opportunity to play D&D for a second.


Abilities - Justin

The abilities portion is determining your natural abilities as well as how your race and class choices affect those. This is part of assessing your genetics and upbringing and how they affect your character. Simply put, if everything you do were split into 6 categories how good would your character be in those 6 categories. Consequently, that’s exactly how it works in D&D. 


So there are 6 categories: Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Constitution. You’re going to help your players determine the scores for those categories. There are 3 methods: point-buy system, manual roll, or standard array. Each has its pros and cons depending on the type of game you want to play. Most people end up picking the roll method so that’s what I’ll detail here.


You get 4d6 and then roll them. Take the highest 3 numbers and add them together, write that down. Then repeat that 6 times. Lastly, you can assign those scores to the individual categories. Then you’ll adjust those scores based on advantages given to the character from their background, class, or race. You then take your score and calculate your modifier which is just a number that actually gets added to your rolls. 


Now personally, I prefer to do this before choosing a class or race. I like it because I want to be able to strategize my choices with my race and my class. It really only matters if your race allows you to choose specific bonuses to abilities. Otherwise, do it the normal way.


I find that having a lot of paper nearby is really handy for this portion. You will be writing a lot if you aren’t using DNDBeyond.


Break

I want you to describe a situation in which the ideal of the character created in the very beginning is challenged by their flaw, bond, or personality trait.


Description - Justin

More than any other step in the character creation process of D&D, choosing your description informs your narrative storytelling more than anything else. I would highly encourage your players to really flesh out this section as much as possible.


Here again, the need for specific questions arises. Don’t just ask what your face looks like.

Ask questions like:

  • What color are your eyes?
  • How much do you smile?
  • How big is your nose?
  • How thick are your eyebrows?
  • Do you have wrinkles in your face or smooth skin?
  • Do you have any piercings of scars?
  • Any facial hair?
  • How severe are your cheekbones?
  • Describe the shape of your jaw.


You could honestly go on and on. It can get fairly tedious, so pick the most prominent features. Imagine you are describing your character to a suspect sketch artist from the police. You need to be able to identify them from a crowd.


Apart from the simple physical description, you want to describe their nature and their history.

You’re going to help your player describe their character's ideals, bonds, flaws, and personality traits. This is how I would describe each to a player:

Personality Trait: If you were to hang out with your character for a week, what one thing would you say would stick out to you while just hanging out and chilling in your house with them?

Flaw: If you were your character’s roommate, what would annoy you the very most about them?

Ideal: If you had to summarize this character, what basic life guiding principle would you ascribe to them?

Bond: If this character were wanting to settle down anywhere, what force would pull them or stop them from doing that?


Those questions aren’t perfect but they help you narrow down to get in the right ballpark. Having those are incredibly important. More than anything, I would say the bond and ideal are the most important to have down in a concrete way. Why? Because I am definitely going to have their bond come knocking on the door and their ideal will definitely be challenged in a very specific way. Honestly, their bond might be the thing challenging their ideal, or it might be their flaw or their personality trait.


Here you can also help your player pick any allies they want to have. I don’t usually do that because I want that part to be in the story we write together but to each their own.


Equipment - Tanner

  • don’t let them be overpowered. Nuff said. They will want to, but then everything afterward will come off lame.
  • Now, if it is a one-shot, then you can give them more freedom.
  • You will probably need to help your players choose their equipment based on their specialties.
  • Question:

Conclusion:

Mentioned in this episode:

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Transcript
lewis]:

welcome back to how to be a better d m i am here your co

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host justin lewis with my co host tanner wayland and before we get into anything

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else let's dive what i in with the warm up for today's episode sode tanner

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i want you to today we're gonna be talking about character

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m

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creation so i want you to pick a

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m

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bond a flaw a personality

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oh

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trait an ideal for a hypothetical

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m

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tling artificer named

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m

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proaxius

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okay so trotroaxius right so am i saying

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hm

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the right perfect

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yep

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okay so troaxiusis

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m

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bond is

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oh

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it's actually

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ah

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his uncle um

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ah

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it is his uncle lysander let's go with a classic name

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yeah

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who

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yeah

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who actually helped him get into artificing specifically he uh he kind of his uncle

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was into that as well and he gave young troaxia

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m

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a little mechanical bird

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m

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that actually kind of like you could wind it and would hop

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oh

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around and that kind of got his interest into all things

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a

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kind of like tinkering like figuring how things work and building things and so that's

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his bond his uncle and he

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m

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kind of has that physical representation through that little kind steam punk

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yeah

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mechanical bird um his flaw is that he does not

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m oh

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he's

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ah

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he gets upset when people don't give him permission specifically

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m m

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like he's

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yeah

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pleasant enough when you are doing something he doesn't care about or something he wants

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but it's something that he's not a fan of he'll say it straight to

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my

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you and he's not going to be pleasant or

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oh

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like cut corners or anything he's a little bit socially stunted that way uh

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so he's kind of blunt is what you're saying

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blunt like blunt and also maybe a little unaware of how you

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m

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ought to

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m

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say those kind of things um

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gotcha

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his personality trait is i would

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yeah

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just say boundless curiosity

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ye

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he is just into finding out how everything works

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yah

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why people think

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h

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the way they do which also plays into

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ah

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his you know artificing kind of role like i picture him

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hm

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as someone who you know as everybody's talking he's over at the clock like

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yah

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the families air loom clock disassembling

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h

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it and then suddenly the family gets mad and he's like what do you have

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against me

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uh

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you know

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yeah

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and then for the ideal his goal is to build something that the whole world

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can

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oh

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just marvel at and come to see he doesn't know what it is yet

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oh

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but he wants something that um in the same way he's

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m

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fascinated by basically everything everyone will come from you know all over to look

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yeah

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at whatever it is in the town square right so kind of his ideal

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well uh that is such a cool character i imagined him you know they go

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to a family's house to get some information or whatever everyone is talking with the

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family like you described he's taking a part the clock and then they have to

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leave so he just leaves without putting it back together nd they're like what and

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he's like sorry

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yeah

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i got to go and this is like this clock i think that that was

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a very excellent character so done tanner thank you

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thank you

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listener for

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m

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thank you listener for joining us again on how to be a better d m

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i'm here with my cohort tanner wayland who has as you heard he is an

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expert dungeon master and character creationist is that is that the right term tanner

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sure we'll call it

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uh

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that

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uh well as you heard today we are talking about character creation uh more importantly

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how to explain character creation to your players but before we get into that as

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always we have a couple of house ping items we gotta you know sweep the

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floor of the tavern as as it will first of all we are planning and

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preparing for our one shot coming up in september we still have not released the

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date of that so if you are interested make sure to click the link in

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the show notes because spots are filling i think we have either two or three

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spots filled up um and tanner actually will be

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oh

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the dungeon master so m tanner do you have any any

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m

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idea on how many players you're looking to have in this one at

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um yeah i think this one i'm going to go for more than i typically

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do i am shooting

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hm

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for about five players

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gotcha

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at this point

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perfect and like i said we will reveal the dates for that as soon as

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we pick them out second kind of announcement is we've toyed around with the idea

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of doing live shows and having kind of the ability for you as a listener

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to join in and be present while we record these episodes and uh you know

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ask questions give back in the chat as it were so if you're interest in

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that reach out to us on instagram at how to be a better d m

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and let us know if that's something you're interested in if it is we can

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easily let the r l or attending these episodes be available and you can watch

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and participate and hopefully help us create better content and the ends are some questions

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that are you know just plaguing the minds of thousands but any other announcements you

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have tanner

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no

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oh

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honestly that covered everything

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sure oh and also we haven't done this in a while but is there anything

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particularly that you're kind of noting out about or you're just supersiked about

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m um well i just got a new laptop

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oh

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yes and and i'll just come out and say i think i told you this

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before i've been interested in you know game development in terms of like video games

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yeah

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and stuff because some of my siblings have s interest in that as well recently

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and so yeah that's what i'm kind of working on right now and it's very

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fascinating and yeah gives me something that i'm just interested in learning in addition to

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you know everything else so yeah it's me putting another thing on my plate

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yeah

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just like i definitely didn't need but i'm excited

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i hear that it's like you're like about three months ago i was like that

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it no more extra opportunities or extra things and then like the night after my

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friend was like hey you want to you want to join us in this star

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wars r p g and i was like

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classic

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oh crab i didn't end up joining but it just goes to show you whenever

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you're like i have enough on my plate something else comes up but let's get

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on to today's topic which is character creation explains simply plus maybe some extra tools

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that you can use in helping your players create the best characters so first thing

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to say before we kind of really get into this is just the goal of

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today's show isn't to explain to you how to create characters because obviously you're a

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dungeon master you know how to do that and plus that's obviously defined in the

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player's handbook today's goal actually is to attempt to help you simplify the process for

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your players so it's essentially to help you help the nubiest of nubes start to

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play dandy that starts with character creation and so we're going to king describe the

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different processes simply and then maybe give some tips or tools for helping you explain

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and work through that process with your players and as you notice the order we

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describe these is the same order described in dndbeond though you can do it in

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different ways and we might recommend doing it in different ways but let me also

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stress something else

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m

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making the character and helping your players make the character and doing that process as

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an easy and fun activity is important because if your player does not get past

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character creation they're never going to play anything else you want to add before we

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start tanner

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well the only thing i would add is that character creation should be for new

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players it should be just such a treat because if you leave

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m

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it for them on their own

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yeah

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unless they're kind

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oh

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of how i was when i started

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oh

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out where i was like i'm the kind of person who when i get interested

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in something i i'll just binge all of the info that's on that right i

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know other

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hm

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people who aren't like that especially if it's someone who's like kind of a little

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anxious a little nervous about joining and they're doing it because they're trying something new

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or someone you know who frankly didn't want to and you finally convinced to be

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able to play you need to make the character creation

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oh

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process

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oh

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almost as fun as the actual game itself so they

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hm

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can actually

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yeah

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get into it and so explaining each of these different aspects of character character creation

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in a way it's simple but also enjoyable

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oh

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and let their imagination run wild that's kind of what we want

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oh

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to focus on a

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agreed agreed well let's let's get right in with the first step which is choosing

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your race

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yeah let's go so with race i had a few thoughts on this obviously race

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um in real

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oh

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world things is kind of a sticking subject

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m

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through all of history ever h

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m

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and the good news is and also the interesting news with

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oh

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dan d is that you can choose how much of a role race plays right

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because if function functionally in character creation

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oh

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they typically give you some bonuses may be like

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m m

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it will determine how like the size of your character is many

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oh

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right but essentially that's like they can choose that and i think more experienced players

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some of them might think more on the line of like oh what kind of

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well kind of class in my building okay let's get me something oh i'm going

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to be a rogue let's look for something that's you know got the staffs that

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i want right um but like you know some extra dexterity things like that however

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okay

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i'm just going to say this right now you as the d m actually

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yeah

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have the biggest i guess the biggest role for how much race

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m

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plays a role in your campaign right because

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hm

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because

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yes

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players i mean i've

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oh

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found that they kind of fall into a few different camps but the most

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yeah

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prevalent are one they just kind of take the tulcanask

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oh

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lash typical

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ah

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fantasy stereotypes and they just run with it right if they're a dwarf they'll be

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like oh i'm a dwarf and i like you know hammers and and all this

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stuff and mining

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oh

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and beer you know and they're just

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hm

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kind stereo typical uh same for you know hobbits or half lings i guess all

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right hand

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yep

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and elves and everything else and orks especially orks right if anyone ever tries to

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play that they're gonna go immediately to that

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yeah

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um so it's either people

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yeah

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are just kind of embracing that comfortable stereo type or they kind of disregard it

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and they'll just play however they want you know essentially treating the race as

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m

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as just a random kind of negligible

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oh

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factor in how they play the character and they're just in a way that's great

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too

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m

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because you're not just making your entire

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oh

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character around a stereo type but there's nothing also wrong especially for a new player

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if they're like oh i want to be a dwarf dwarf

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um

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you know it's

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yeah

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there's nothing wrong especially

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oh

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if they're playing the first time who are you to say oh that lacks a

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lot of nuance but okay you know

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yeah

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it just doesn't

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yeah

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makes sense to do that however some players if they really are interested in that

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idea or if your campaign that you're making like race

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yeah

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plays a keep component uh it's kind of on you to let your players

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oh

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know that right you're like hey i'm doing dwarfs a bit differently where i'm doing

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works a bit differently here's the history in my campaign setting for them like some

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players would enjoy

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yeah

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that tion so that they could actually incorporate that

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oh

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into their character right

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if i can add kind of an example in the high rollers youtube channel they

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have a campaign called eros which is an excellent campaign dungeon master mark him in

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the world of rois the ork in that world aren't so much you know the

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bloodthirsty uh you know green skinned ors from war craft right instead there they're still

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kind of green skin they're large but they're seafaring you know and they're kind of

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these these more like pirate s orkishpeopleyou know are kind of beholding to the

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m

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sea and their travelers and their voyagers which is kind of an interesting take on

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being an or right

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yeah exactly

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oh

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and i actually that reminded me i at one point was listening to a podcast

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called friends at the table and similar thing the ores were all librarians in of

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a secret society

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yeah

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delia right and

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his

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i thought

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cool

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that was a cool idea but the main thing is that you're really going to

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want to know two things i guess if i were to boil it down one

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what role do you want

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yeah

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as a d m for the what role

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oh

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do you want race to play in your campaign because if you're going to emphasize

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it as in like oh i like conflict between the race or you know class

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struggles or you know play into the star types or break away

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oh

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from them in specific ways then let your players know uh well they do their

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character creation on the other hand if

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m

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if you don't care too much and your players don't care too much

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oh

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you know don't don't worry too much about this right it is still in the

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end fan i see

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oh

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um just don't let any real race is stuff happened because i mean none of

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my friends have ever had happened but i've listened to enough stories on youtube to

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know it can so just you know yah make sure everyone feels comfortable at the

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table

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agreed agreed

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aside from choosing your race you know number two is your class and that may

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have the second most amount of impact on your character and it's going to help

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you define your character and how they interact in combat and non combat situations as

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well as how others interact with you so you know as a new player choosing

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a class can be very confusing because especially somebody has never played dand coming to

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a class you might say well what's the difference between a fighter and a barbarian

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and you know as a d m i like to ask my players questions like

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how do you like to fight enemies what would you like your character to be

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good at in and out of combat do you want to use magic that one

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is a really really good one because

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h

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sometimes they

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m

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sometimes they don't and then the fall up question to that is how complex do

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you want your magic to be a kind of a little aside here you almost

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have to know your player a little bit like i have a friend who is

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excellent video gamer right and in our campaign he has been playing a barbarian and

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you know we recently switched out his barbarian for a new class for a new

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character you know he's a ranger now and i could tell that that was obviously

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the better choice because he naturally has a mind for complicated game play you know

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he's played lots of video games he understands and so seeing him just being a

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barbarian raging and attacking it's a somewhat simplistic so i could see that he was

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kind of stifled under not being able to do so much with magic and so

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forth

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yeah

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you know what i mean

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yeah

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yeah

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totally you know i think that when when it comes to helping your friends your

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players choose classes you kind of need to

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oh

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just be straight with them because because if they don't know it's like hey if

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you're this type

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oh

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of warrior you know without all these different feats

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yeah

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that makes it more um

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h

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like different abilities and

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m

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stuff that make it or interesting

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yeah

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then you're going to essentially

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yeah

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be going attacking a few times it's great

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oh

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if you like

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yeah

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just kind of overpowering and just kind of simple game play um

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hm

weyland]:

if you want more complicated i go for the wizard and just if you

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

present it like that i think some people can actually know enough about themselves to

weyland]:

also

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

be like oh i would like either something n the middle or something simple

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

or complicated or

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

what for right good point

lewis]:

sure and you can actually even like hone it in a little bit more and

lewis]:

you know say like are you okay with getting one attack during combat or do

lewis]:

you want more you know what video games do you like to play if any

lewis]:

and how do your charter how does your care to regard deity you can kind

lewis]:

of you know dig deeper there are questions though that i think can waste some

lewis]:

time um you know these are questions like what do you want your character to

lewis]:

be able to do because i found whenever i asked question they just say like

lewis]:

kill things you know or what what contributions do you see your character making and

lewis]:

that's just so general and vague that they're not really sure especially a new player

lewis]:

um so if they're new i would kind of move towards binary questions so like

lewis]:

would you rather be more stealthy or more defensive you know like have more armor

lewis]:

because those are natural other

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

you know natural opposites on a spectrum you either are really stealthy or you generally

lewis]:

have lots of armour obviously obviously you can be in the middle but kind of

lewis]:

you know what i mean

weyland]:

yeah yeah absolutely

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

right and i think that you'll really the good

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

news about the class is that i think you'll mostly

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

just have to explain it for the first time that a player is playing because

weyland]:

once they get into

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

campaign

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

you know they're going to earn pretty quick what the other players do what you

weyland]:

know

lewis]:

ah

weyland]:

in their classes specifically and then their own

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

and then from there if they don't like that class is the great news like

weyland]:

they can always

lewis]:

yah

weyland]:

find either story reason to

lewis]:

h

weyland]:

switch

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

you know that's totally acceptable

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

or you know you just have their character leave an start new one but i

weyland]:

think for players that have been playing for a bit that they'll honestly they won't

weyland]:

need the whole explanation about different classes right

lewis]:

m for sure for sure the next portion is the abilities portion and that's determined

lewis]:

kind of your characters natural abilities as well as how your race and class and

lewis]:

honestly i don't know if race is the right maybe species might be better but

lewis]:

how you how your race and class choices affect those abilities and you know this

lewis]:

is kind of from a narrative sense you could say it's kind of assessing your

lewis]:

genetics and upbringing those affect your character so simply put if everything you do were

lewis]:

split into six categories how good would your character be in those six categories and

lewis]:

actually that's essentially how dandy works so i would actually use to explain to someone

lewis]:

who's playing dandy for the first time saying hey everything that you're going to do

lewis]:

in this game is split into six categories strength dexterity crismaintelligence wisdom and constitution and

lewis]:

i can explain a little bi mor about how to do that um but there

lewis]:

are three methods to helping your players kind of determine those scores and each has

lewis]:

its prose cons there's point by system manual role and standard array uh most people

lewis]:

end up picking the role method so that's this one i'm gonna talk about here

lewis]:

it's where you get four sixes and then roll them take the highest three numbers

lewis]:

add those together write those down and then do that six times and then you

lewis]:

you know assign each of those scores to individual categories and you are going to

lewis]:

adjust those scores based on the advantages given in previous choices honestly what

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

i personally like to do is i act i like to roll these before doing

lewis]:

anything else because and maybe this might be a little bit more complicated for the

lewis]:

new dandy player but i like to roll these before doing anything else because then

lewis]:

at least you see what options you have available and that can help you because

lewis]:

i mean we've talked about it before no one well minmaxing has its place but

lewis]:

it shouldn't i shouldn't be placed higher in higher priority than the story but you

lewis]:

don't want a character that's just bad right so you know having those scores beforehand

lewis]:

and being able to say okay i want this type of you know bonus from

lewis]:

my race this type of class and these types of abilities or skills links to

lewis]:

my class because of these scores that i'm choosing that's kind of how how i

lewis]:

like to go about it any thoughts tan

weyland]:

yeah i think just

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

really pointing out to your players the connection between

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

the abilities and the skills will really add a lot to their

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

um to their experience

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

right because otherwise

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

i don't know about you but like it always becomes

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

a game of okay well it's the main one i want cool that's the

lewis]:

h

weyland]:

highest one

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

and then what's

lewis]:

yep

weyland]:

the second one i want cool maybe i've got a racial bonus

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

or whatever that helps bump that up so that's also high

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

and then the other ones are kind of like yeah whatever but if it is

weyland]:

it

lewis]:

right

weyland]:

becomes like hey look at this close connection between the two

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

what of these skills do you want to do better it becomes

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

a little bit less ambiguous then just the abilities so yeah

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

that's that's something that helped me and help other

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

players i know kind of get more

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

meaning out of the ability scores beyond those first

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

two categories right

lewis]:

right i also realized that like for a new dandy player the character creation portion

lewis]:

might not feel too much like dandy because you don't really roll

weyland]:

oh

lewis]:

dice except for this moment so putting at the beginning might be

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

awesome just to help them feel like they're playing even a little bit even though

lewis]:

you haven't technically started playing yet

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

but also going back to you know number two having them think about the answers

lewis]:

to those questions you ask like what does my player like to do for the

lewis]:

group in you know when they're not in combat or how does my player interact

lewis]:

in combat that can really help them understand you know maybe i need more dexterity

lewis]:

because they want to shoot bows and arrows and things like that and

weyland]:

ah

lewis]:

and you know help them kind of figure all that out i would say in

lewis]:

this step though make sure you have lots of paper because you'll probably be writing

lewis]:

lots of stuff down if you're not using d and beyond which you probably should

lewis]:

but let's take a small break and actually go back to our first warm up

lewis]:

that we were talking about early tanner we're going to come back to troaxius i

lewis]:

want you to describe a situation in which the ideal of the character that you

lewis]:

created is challenged some way you know the idea that they want to create some

lewis]:

sort of invention or or machination that benefits the world that ideal is challenged by

lewis]:

the flaw bond personality trait that you came up with

weyland]:

uh yeah so i'm going to say it's his bond i'm going to go with

weyland]:

his uncle now why you might think that his uncle would be on board his

weyland]:

uncle actually

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

ah was not someone who really wanted

lewis]:

ah

weyland]:

him to go

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

crazy into artificing he wanted him to stay home

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

with you know with his

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

with axiusis mother you know to stay

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

home and actually be there with with the whole family and actually help with just

weyland]:

the local family business right and so then when do actually just had this idea

weyland]:

of like hey i'm going a go out i'm going to learn i'm going to

weyland]:

build this thing that's just amazing uh he actually got a lot of push back

weyland]:

and kind of brow his his uncle's heart to some extent just being like hey

weyland]:

you you're meant to be here and troaxius was like no i'm

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

meant to be out there doing something great so kind of the classic

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

you know thing where he's just going against his family's wishes to pursue his ideal

weyland]:

and that kind of breaks up that connection right

lewis]:

well that is that that's a really good uh scenario and i think one of

lewis]:

the reasons why that is so good is because you can easily as a d

lewis]:

m involve that to create conflict whether it's tracks is writing letters home and getting

lewis]:

no response or they continually write letters to trace saying hey ore never going o

lewis]:

amount to anything or how everyone take it that's just a constant source for conflict

lewis]:

to help you know cause the player through the character or the character through the

lewis]:

player to make choices and in of change you know

weyland]:

yeah exactly i also like it because honestly any of those i chose bond because

weyland]:

i found that was most interesting to me at the moment but but there could

weyland]:

be any like the i could have found a way in fact i've thought

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

about it since there's a way to turn that into something that would conflict with

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

his ideal same for personality

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

trait and i

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

think that that's where you get a lot of the character

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

kind of the dynamic character moments is when you

lewis]:

eh

weyland]:

make sure

lewis]:

right

weyland]:

to kind of pit those against each other as a d m right so yeah

weyland]:

great point

lewis]:

i love that when moving on number four in the character creation process is the

lewis]:

description you know this is this is really what informs the story telling more than

lewis]:

anything else and highly encourage you to encourage your players to really flesh out this

lewis]:

section because it helps not only the players themselves imagine but also it helps their

lewis]:

players help the other players imagine the character that they are playing because you want

lewis]:

everyone to be immersed so i would encourage you to ask your character your players

lewis]:

questions like you know instead of just saying what does your face look like ask

lewis]:

questions like what color your eyes how much do you smile how big is your

lewis]:

nose how thick are your eyebrows wrinkles in your face or smooth skin piercing scars

lewis]:

facial hair severe cheek bones or kind of baby faced you can ask all sorts

lewis]:

of these questions you can go on and on and honestly it can get tedious

lewis]:

so what i would say is you know pick the most prominent features and imagine

lewis]:

you're kind of describing a character to a sub suspect sketch artist like at a

lewis]:

police station you need to be able to identify them from a crowd so you're

lewis]:

going to pick out the things that are identifiable the things that kind of stand

lewis]:

out but moving on going from just simple physical description you want to do scribe

lewis]:

their nature and their history and actually that's kind of why we were talking about

lewis]:

in the warm up and the break today we were talking about ideals bonds flaws

lewis]:

and personality traits and this is this is kind of how i would describe each

lewis]:

to a player for a personality it i would say if you were going to

lewis]:

hang out with your character for a week what one thing would you say about

lewis]:

them that kind of sticks out just while you're hanging out chillen in your house

lewis]:

with them and then about your flaw i would explain this and i would say

lewis]:

if you are your character's roommate what annoying thing do they do that just annoys

lewis]:

you the most about them and then their ideal is if you had to summarize

lewis]:

this character what basic life guiding principle what would you ascribe to them or kind

lewis]:

of what's their aspiration and their bond is naturally if this character were wanting to

lewis]:

settle down anywhere what force would pull them or stop them from doing that so

lewis]:

if they were going to go somewhere else or a specific location what would essentially

lewis]:

stop them from doing that or pull them in another direction and obviously those aren't

lewis]:

perfect but hopefully that helps you narrow it down into the right ball park um

lewis]:

but i'd say having those are incredibly important because more than anything they help you

lewis]:

create like i said conflict they help you help your players put themselves in situations

lewis]:

in which story can naturally happen because their character driven and anything

weyland]:

yeah

lewis]:

you want to add to or

weyland]:

yeah i think that's that's great like especially

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

i think both aspects are so important

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

the physical and kind of getting getnittygritty

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

with that can help them visualize

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

this person as as

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

an actual character reason why i think that's important is because i think most people

weyland]:

will go towards a couple specific places when they

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

start with character creation they'll probably think about maybe not

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

all of the aspects of the character s like the ideals bonds flaws

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

personality traits they might not think about all of them but they probably think about

weyland]:

a few things

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

right that that's probably going to be the key

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

of their character next to their class is like okay he's going to be this

weyland]:

kind of annoying or he's going to have this

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

kind of like personality trait you know especially

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

if you're somewhat if you have a player that's very

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

rismatic or creative they might think of any number of those things

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

but then it's just kind of an amorphis character that is like one personality

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

trate you know and it gets a little

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

bland

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

ah and so making them go

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

through the occasionally wrote step of

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

of like actually describing everything about how they look

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

i think that that really helps them look beyond

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

making a flat you know two d character

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

that that doesn't have too much depth or

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

past or our history right

lewis]:

for sure and actually speaking of history this is also the step in which you

lewis]:

help your player pick their background and i used to i used to of uh

lewis]:

just give a full list of backgrounds and you can honestly do that for players

lewis]:

who are more experience but for for nobs what i would recommend is just saying

lewis]:

how did your character grow up and then have them kind of start going through

lewis]:

that story and if they haven't figured it out just kind of say like well

lewis]:

um you know where are your characters parents right now and that should help they

lewis]:

help them

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

figure out well they don't know their parents or they do know their parents and

lewis]:

they lived in this town and and from there you can kind of extrapolate their

lewis]:

background and then give them a few options um so people choose backgrounds based on

lewis]:

what perk gives you but i generally encourage my players to pick their backgrounds based

lewis]:

on the narrative backgrounds just because i feel like that makes the most sense but

weyland]:

yeah

lewis]:

after that you move unless you want to add anything else tanner

weyland]:

no yeah i would just add that if people are having a hard time choosing

weyland]:

a history

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

for their for their character kind of really delve into

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

the bond section

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

and just be like hey what kind of allies or people

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

do you know throughout the world you

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

know that for good and bad and have them just kind of come up with

weyland]:

a few

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

now it could be three you could before

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

m maybe like okay do they have a personal nemesis and we're not talking like

weyland]:

oh burned your family down or anything like but just

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

like was there someone that you kind of had to grow with when you're younger

weyland]:

do you have

lewis]:

h

weyland]:

someone

lewis]:

m oh

weyland]:

that you know just like a business

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

friend that you would buy stuff from like doing all

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

this hell your player realized like okay they've been places before they can expect to

weyland]:

go

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

places going forward and meet these people and they need something to talk about so

weyland]:

i've got to

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

actually work out this this whole history thing right

lewis]:

awesome i love that i'd never really thought about like digging into the bond i

lewis]:

think that's a really excellent

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

piece of advice and the last piece of creating your character is is whipping them

lewis]:

so tenner

weyland]:

oh

lewis]:

walks through that

weyland]:

yeah so if you're like we said at the start this is kind of aimed

weyland]:

at

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

starting players and there's a couple of things

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

to keep in mind typically with care with equipping your characters

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

there's going to be one of two ways to do it one and this is

weyland]:

very popular you know you have

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

starter gear kind of just built in with your class

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

your race you know just pendent on the choices you've

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

shown chosen before this there's certain things that you have options to choose right

lewis]:

m hm

weyland]:

and you can find list

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

for those you know but they'll typically have like a weapon

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

you know some armor some some various

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

like kids and things like that and you can kind

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

of just me you choose like tool sets and stuff like that

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

just kind of rounds you out as a character is not going to give

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

you like anything crazy out of the ordinary but as your on get the job

weyland]:

and personally i would recommend

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

that for new players because the other option is

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

where you kind of just have starting gold and that's dependent by

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

class right for

lewis]:

h

weyland]:

example the artificer

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

like troaxiusuh

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

like the artificer starts with five d four times

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

ten gold pieces that's kind of like their start and so that you could

lewis]:

h

weyland]:

have more or

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

less depending on how you roll

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

and then if you choose to equip yourself with

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

with that method you kind of just go down the list you know

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

and like just

lewis]:

ah

weyland]:

buy whatever with the amount of gold you

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

have and

lewis]:

yeh

weyland]:

in there some

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

that works well for someone who's more experienced

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

maybe has some specific ideas but for a new player i don't

lewis]:

my

weyland]:

recommend that all they'll see a huge list they won't think about certain thing

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

and then they'll just kind of

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

feel a little bit lost

lewis]:

ah

weyland]:

you know i don't know what do you think justin

lewis]:

i think you're exactly right i mean it also depends on your skill as a

lewis]:

dungeon master um and how detailed you are about equipment because

weyland]:

oh

lewis]:

there are

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

i've played with dungeon masters who

weyland]:

yes

lewis]:

don't really give a rip about what's in an explorer's pack they don't really care

lewis]:

about certain sundry items too much um so if if you're able to really be

lewis]:

so detailed oriented that you can be like you didn't buy

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

that you don't have it then yeah i'd say definitely go with that um and

lewis]:

if you know your players can also be that way but doing the standard you

lewis]:

know standard equipment is just it's just playing easy and if you're level one then

lewis]:

you know if you don't have that equipment then i would say you're technically level

lewis]:

level zero

weyland]:

yeah

lewis]:

because you know what

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

what's a paladin without their shield and

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

sword or a barbarian without their great ax you know

weyland]:

yeah and a couple of things i want to just harp on here with equipment

weyland]:

one there will be some players

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

who will want to do the starting gold thing

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

and they'll want to

lewis]:

ye

weyland]:

just get a very you know maybe not ven starting gold like regardless of the

weyland]:

typical

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

equipment they'll be like hey could i have this one really cool item

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

my character just has it

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

you know and especially a level one that's you know that's not great now as

weyland]:

levels

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

continue right and as players come in mid mid campaign

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

that's or likely to happen right they're not going to have just the starting with

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

equipment and that's totally fine but at the start of the campaign if you have

weyland]:

any players being like hey

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

i want you know the vorpal played like right out of the gag

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

you know and i'm going to say right now it's you're going to

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

while it might seem like you're going to bump them out by saying no

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

yeah like think about it one of the best things about this game is beating

weyland]:

a dungeon or an enemy or

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

you know doing whatever and then getting equipment if they already have the best sword

weyland]:

they're going to get they're not going to care

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

you know they're not going to care about

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

all those about a huge portion of the game which is that

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

kind of random finding of things ah that's coming on for them so you really

weyland]:

need to think about the progression

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

and their enjoyment in the campaign and don't just roll over

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

because they really want that super cool item you know

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

like that's there's a reason why most

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

d ms and honestly the the manual suggests this

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

as well if there if a player is going to have something

lewis]:

yah

weyland]:

in addition to the starting equipment

lewis]:

h

weyland]:

typically it's going to be like one personal

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

item that doesn't have a mechanical

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

like benefit at all it's just something to do with their character so with

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

your players really let them know it's like hey at the start of the campaign

weyland]:

i'm

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

not going to let you just kind of house whatever unless

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

of course they're more experienced and they're not going crazy obviously and they do the

weyland]:

gold by

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

system

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

but

lewis]:

okay

weyland]:

just let them know and be like hey i'll

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

give you some good stuff later you just got trust me right

lewis]:

oh yeah yeah and i can't even see that now you can give your players

lewis]:

like some sort of magical item just as long as it's kind of it has

lewis]:

very specific use cases and it's not overpowered

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

like um now and in critical role campaign too you see the wand of smiles

lewis]:

or whatever that's a very specific use case you're not going to see that very

lewis]:

often used where it just makes people smile for no reason i don't know how

lewis]:

you could use that too often for some sort of advantage but i would be

lewis]:

okay giving my players like one of those each

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

just to give them a little

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

spice but just as long as it doesn't break the game

weyland]:

yeah that's that's a great point and oh yeah there was something i wanted yeah

weyland]:

so another thing and you kind of brought this up earlier there's some d ms

weyland]:

who frankly don't talk about you know okay did you pull out a torch okay

weyland]:

mark that you know

lewis]:

uh

weyland]:

thing or like oh

lewis]:

ah

weyland]:

do you

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

have fifty foot of rope to tie that person up with

lewis]:

yea

weyland]:

you know they don't

lewis]:

my favorite

weyland]:

yeah

lewis]:

is crossbow bolts

weyland]:

yeah do you have the cross bow bolts do you have a okay you guys

weyland]:

have been traveling all day to the location do you have you know some rations

weyland]:

like they don't they

lewis]:

hm

weyland]:

don't play like that and if that's the kind of game you want then you

weyland]:

know that's that's fine in that case maybe the you know you just assume they

weyland]:

started with starter equipment or not and you're like just going to kind of hand

weyland]:

wave that stuff that i don't need to check if they have a better role

weyland]:

you know um

lewis]:

right

weyland]:

now i'm going to encourage some people even if your typical

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

campaign isn't like that you know try shaking it up like maybe like not for

weyland]:

the whole campaign maybe if you do one shot or

lewis]:

h

weyland]:

a specific section or like kind of arc of your

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

campaign consider you know doing that and actually like really

lewis]:

m

weyland]:

accounting for their provisions because i think that

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

players would also get a kick out of that as well so long as it's

weyland]:

not

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

you know they might enjoy it for a

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

stretch of time if it looks like they're getting annoyed move past it

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

but i think it's

lewis]:

yeah

weyland]:

a good way to change things up if you haven't

lewis]:

oh

weyland]:

been accounted for equipment already

lewis]:

agreed um just hearing you talk about that made me think of a few different

lewis]:

scenarios that you know i want to try and kind of got me excited for

lewis]:

starting new campaigns

weyland]:

h

lewis]:

what are

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

you going to do well well there you have it listener we we went through

lewis]:

the character creation process and hopefully helped you figure out how to work through the

lewis]:

process with someone who's never done it before in such a way that they're excited

lewis]:

to play they're not bored

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

and they've really like tenner said they've opened up their creativity and imagination and thought

lewis]:

something new and that

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

excites them so thank you for joining us again here at the tavern were always

lewis]:

happy to come here and have these conversations and like i said if you're wanting

lewis]:

to have these conversations with us on actually be you know here alive no not

lewis]:

in person but beyond line live while we are talking and participate that way let

lewis]:

us know um

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

again thank you so much for all the support it

weyland]:

m

lewis]:

it's really cool to see things growing week after week and just you know being

lewis]:

able to give you guys more help and hopefully better content if you guys have

lewis]:

any pointers on what we should say or what we shouldn't say again reach out

lewis]:

to us tan or any in final parting words for a listener

weyland]:

uh honestly you guys are going to do great you're going to make so many

weyland]:

wonderful characters that's it

lewis]:

excellent and we'll be back we'll be back next week with another great episode of

lewis]:

how to be a better d m until then my friend let's go ahead and

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About the Podcast

Show artwork for How to Be a Better DM: Dungeon Master Tips for the DM Newbie, the Hobbyist and the Forever DM
How to Be a Better DM: Dungeon Master Tips for the DM Newbie, the Hobbyist and the Forever DM
Make Better Stories Playing DnD

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About your hosts

Profile picture for Tanner Weyland

Tanner Weyland

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Justin Lewis

Justin has been playing D&D for about 5 years and has been DMing for the last 2. He is a student of the game and genuinely loves the art of storytelling. In his day-job he performs SEO at an agency called NPDigital, but at night, he furthers the hobby of cooperative storytelling that is Dungeons and Dragons.