Personal Journey to 5E (Part 2)

This continues my journey to learn and adopt 5E into my work and life. My first impressions are here. It is my hope that my friends from the OSR will be able to take in my account of what happens when an old 1E fart takes on 5E. Here lay my challenges and enjoyment of it, what I like and what I don’t.

~continued
After reading a bit more into the free PDF from WOTC, where they reference the Player’s Handbook (PHB) pages in the text more frequently, it occurred to me that what I was missing the point that the PHB and Dungeons Master’s guide (DMG) aren’t really intended to be read from front to back so much as danced around when a new term comes into play. This technique of flipping to the Table of Contents to find the explanation of the terms really expedited the learning curve and saved me from getting lost in not understanding the terms or the mechanics behind them at first mention.

So, now I was getting through mechanics and moving along, really getting warmed up to see it in action. I found a short video online with a fella who walks you through the basic character creation process. It really helps to watch this video after you have done some of the reading in the PHB to hear the terms and see a little bit of the mechanics. This has now made about 75% of the game suddenly come into focus. I am confident that I could sit in at a table right now and game with ease, and perhaps even run a game as a GM.

Many of connections are made when you see someone create a character. I.E. Ah, that section after this one, oh THAT’s how I use that skills column etc.

Today some more delving will happen into the PHB and I will be moving on to the DMG before long. My Monster Manual is in the mail from Amazon as I type this, and things will be in full speed to getting to a 5E mod, and possibly even a Kickstarter with Minis!

Things I have come to enjoy:

• Character backgrounds
• Positive number AC (I thought I was going to hate it)
• The whole DC (Difficulty Challenge) thing. The system almost runs on this, and it works.
• Resting – I expected to hate this. Putting too much healing power into the hands of all players – I have come to accept that it actually make CLerics fun again. You don’t just walk around handing out hundreds of ‘Cure Light Wounds’ spells anymore. You become more useful actually.
• Number streamlining. One chart for Experience points! One chart / method for stats +/-. Saving throws, Attacks, Ability checks – all work about the same way

I still have reservations about death, and the prolonged process of rolls that happens when ending the life of a character. I haven’t delved too deeply into the section yet, so perhaps I am not fully understanding it. I have a sneaking suspicion that I may house rule it out, and keep to the short negative number rule.

Also – Still don’t like halflings with little tiny feet.

Stay tuned for my journey to learn 5E part 3.

~Lloyd M