Any D&D players?

[A3M0N]

My 14 y/o son is interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons, I've never gotten into it but would like to try it out. We got a $20 starter kit from Target the other day, I'm still reading the rule book. Whew! And it's only for level 1-3 characters. 

Anyway, he was invited by friends to play but I figured it would be best for us to learn together before he starts playing with friends. I catch onto things pretty quickly, but the starter campaign says it works best with a party of at least 4. Is it possible for me to learn while serving as DM and playing a very simple character to help him out? Or do single party campaigns exist? 

Thanks! 

[Miska]

Single party campaigns do exist! I just saw something recently but you can also do it the way you desire!

 

my 11 and 3.5 yr old and me and 3 other family members are starting a campaign soon!

 

id love to hear what you have planned. 

[DaniV]

We all gotta start somewhere, be it a DM or a player, so if you wanna play a character while DMing, I don't see the harm in it since you're starting out.  Just bear in mind, when you are the DM, you don't just get to play 1 character.  The random townspeople, shopkeepers, enemies, that's all you baby!  You get to be ALL the characters!

I've never tried a single player game, but there's gotta be some you can find online.  The beautiful thing about D&D is that people can play around with the rules and come up with all kinds of crazy stuff to make fun games!  People have made campaigns and one-shots (where you do the entire adventure in 1 sitting rather than dragging it out over several games) and shared them online for people to try.

There's a bunch of Youtubers that make D&D content just focusing on understanding the rules, classes, etc.  XP to Level 3, Dungeon Dudes, DnD Shorts, Davvy Chappy, the list goes on!

[nabokovfan87]

I would like to!  I think games like gloomhaven and LOTR: Journeys in middle earth are (or have) done a great job of making that style of game pretty easy to play.

Some of my friends did a show with a DM and basically tried to learn how to play the game over a few episodes. Really fun stuff and it was incredibly enjoyable content.

http://www.ingamechat.net/2018/03/season-12-episode-09/

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

My husband is a DM and we have both been playing D&D since we were teenagers. It’s true that as a DM you play all the characters and all the monsters. My husband takes DM’ing further by writing the story, building the maps, and planning what loot is found, particularly magical loot that will do things based on how the player(s) try to use it. D&D has quite the learning curve, but it has practically no limits. Whatever someone wants to do, they do it, they just have to roll to see the outcome.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

This is the channel you want to check out. Info here for new and advanced players alike.

https://youtube.com/@HowtobeaGreatGM

[A3M0N]

Thanks y'all! Let me give you a little backstory here, not a life story, just a little info. 

I grew up in the 80's and my cousin was a huge D&D player, still is actually. But he did have some mental health challenges, like psychosis features, and D&D became his reality. My aunt advocated strongly against the game, so my mom was always very wary of it. I did play plenty of fantasy video game RPGs, but they weren't "D&D", so they were fine 🤷‍♂️

Ok, so fast forward to today. I have ADHD, so does my son and he's high functioning autistic. So, my wanting to learn to play and DM has two parts:

1) My son has this thing where if he doesn't do something new perfect the first time it must mean he's terrible at it and will never try again. I think he would love a game like D&D, so I don't want him to miss out on the opportunity, so I want to learn with him slowly, so he won't give up. 

2) I'm in graduate school for counseling/therapy and taking a group counseling class this semester. I saw a D&D based game called Critical Core, but it's therapeutic in nature meant to help neurodivergent people learn to interact with others and work together. My project for class is to propose a group, so mine is going to be an hour and a half session every other week. The first 30min will be group counseling, using like a DBT workbook or similar, then an hour of gaming together. I don't know exactly how the game system is setup, but I figure if the group meets twice a month then a six month group session would be six meetings. So a planned six session campaign would be great. 

There is a gaming store/space near our house, so when I finish with the degree I plan to take all my work from this semester and make it happen. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/23/2023 at 3:50 PM, A3M0N said:

Thanks y'all! Let me give you a little backstory here, not a life story, just a little info. 

I grew up in the 80's and my cousin was a huge D&D player, still is actually. But he did have some mental health challenges, like psychosis features, and D&D became his reality. My aunt advocated strongly against the game, so my mom was always very wary of it. I did play plenty of fantasy video game RPGs, but they weren't "D&D", so they were fine 🤷‍♂️

Ok, so fast forward to today. I have ADHD, so does my son and he's high functioning autistic. So, my wanting to learn to play and DM has two parts:

1) My son has this thing where if he doesn't do something new perfect the first time it must mean he's terrible at it and will never try again. I think he would love a game like D&D, so I don't want him to miss out on the opportunity, so I want to learn with him slowly, so he won't give up. 

2) I'm in graduate school for counseling/therapy and taking a group counseling class this semester. I saw a D&D based game called Critical Core, but it's therapeutic in nature meant to help neurodivergent people learn to interact with others and work together. My project for class is to propose a group, so mine is going to be an hour and a half session every other week. The first 30min will be group counseling, using like a DBT workbook or similar, then an hour of gaming together. I don't know exactly how the game system is setup, but I figure if the group meets twice a month then a six month group session would be six meetings. So a planned six session campaign would be great. 

There is a gaming store/space near our house, so when I finish with the degree I plan to take all my work from this semester and make it happen. 

That’s great. And there’s no substitute for face to face interaction. Even better you’re  doing this at a gaming space. It gives you the opportunity to hear what’s going on at the tables nearby and it can spark creativity in your campaign.  Plus the game gives your group an incentive to come to the counseling, rather than view it as a chore.