Hello all, I found this site after coming back to D&D with the new 5th edition version. I'm enjoying DMing for my kids and really enjoying converting old Greyhawk adventures to the new edition for my kids to run through.
I'm a stay-at-home dad and homeschooling parent, so having something that has my kids figuring out math and using their imaginations is paramount and D&D fits right in.
I wasn't the DM when I played as a kid in the late 80s, so I'm still trying to figure out what to use and some of the lore, any advice is appreciated!
I mostly DMed in 3rd when I was in the USMC in the very late 90s, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a ton of 3rd edition Greyhawk.
Welcome to Canonfire!, Barantor! We're glad you found us.
I don't know much about 5th ed. D&D, but it shouldn't be too difficult to convert old modules to the new edition.
If you are looking for suggestions for starting adventures, you can't go wrong with The Keep on the Borderlands. You may find some interesting ideas from my own latest attempt at DMing a party through it here:
Alternatively, I can personally recommend the following beginning adventure modules as extremely fun:
The Lost City The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh Horror on the Hill
and
The Reaping Stone by Total Party Kill Games.
You really should give 5th edition a try, it feels very much like an updated D&D should and when I say that I mean like an updated 2nd AD&D.
I've looked at Keep on the Borderlands as well as White Plume Mountain and even the oldschool non-Greyhawk Palace of the Silver Princess. All are pretty good but I chose one that I still had the actual book for instead of a .pdf and that was the 3rd edition Sunless Citadel, which I placed in Southern Furyondy.
Last edited by Barantor on Thu Jan 15, 2015 7:11 am; edited 1 time in total
You really should give 5th edition [a try;] it feels very much like an updated D&D should and when I say that I mean like an updated 2nd AD&D.
Hm, that strikes me personally as a "possibly ok, but not super promising" recommendation. But that's because I'm an old-school first-edition user and 2nd edition, while made to be compatible with 1st, is shaky/suspect (the whole drama where EGG got kicked out of TSR, plus I love the raw, less polished look and feel of first edition materials).
That said, I have been planning to give some attention to 5th edition. I've heard good things about it. It's just that, after >20 years, I'm reacquainting myself with the rulebooks I used back in the 80s and early 90s. Like you I'm just now introducing this awesome game to my kids. Welcome to Canonfire, btw!
Firstly, welcome to CF! Baranator. You will most assuredly find a wealth of information by joining this site. I have never regretted that decision for myself, although some of the readers may tire of my endless queries.
peyre wrote:
Hm, that strikes me personally as a "possibly ok, but not super promising" recommendation. But that's because I'm an old-school first-edition user and 2nd edition, while made to be compatible with 1st, is shaky/suspect (the whole drama where EGG got kicked out of TSR, plus I love the raw, less polished look and feel of first edition materials).
Peyre, COMPLETELY agree! I'm a bit of an anachronist since I am the 'resident' 2e fanatic (?) here, with a few others who chime in from time to time. You are not alone... Join us in the 1e and 2e forums.
Thanks Lanthorn! I have been, a little. I should mention btw that I don't mean to cast judgement on 2e, which would hardly be fair since I've never played it. That was just my personal take on the editions for my own uses.
FWIW, I recently wrote an article for & Mag on infravision, and while the focus is on first edition, I did go to second edition sources for confirmation, ideas & inspiration, and sometimes as a source of its own for interpreting and applying the rules. When first edition gives insufficient guidance, I've looked to second.
Last edited by peyre on Sun Jan 25, 2015 5:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
You really should give 5th edition [a try;] it feels very much like an updated D&D should and when I say that I mean like an updated 2nd AD&D.
Hm, that strikes me personally as a "possibly ok, but not super promising" recommendation. But that's because I'm an old-school first-edition user and 2nd edition, while made to be compatible with 1st, is shaky/suspect (the whole drama where EGG got kicked out of TSR, plus I love the raw, less polished look and feel of first edition materials).
That said, I have been planning to give some attention to 5th edition. I've heard good things about it. It's just that, after >20 years, I'm reacquainting myself with the rulebooks I used back in the 80s and early 90s. Like you I'm just now introducing this awesome game to my kids. Welcome to Canonfire, btw!
Thanks peyre!
The reason I'm not using an older edition is because I would have to reacquire all the old books and gear I had and honestly it would make me a bit sad in a way to do that.
My mother was one of the ones who deemed D&D as an avenue to satanism, so the books I did have had to be hidden most times, or kept at my grandmothers house. When I joined the USMC after High School she ended up throwing them all out. I also had several books at my grandmother's as well as two near mint boxes of the game Heroquest that I used for miniatures.... they are all long gone.
Anyway (enough of the sob story...), my kids are old enough to get into D&D so I figured I would start fresh, but with an older setting. I still have a couple of 3rd edition books I had when I was in the Marines, so I've converted the Sunless Citadel and we begin that this weekend.
I also am planning on converting some of those older adventures like Tomb of Horrors though, just because I find them better than the more modern adventures.
5E I think might do well for folks more used to older editions, but it will take some time for this edition to have the depth of text that the earlier ones have as far as content.
Oh man, your mom was one of those! My condolences. I hope she came to her senses eventually. (I sure am glad that nonsense moral panic is over with, though I'm still a little shell-shocked from it.)
My reason for sticking with 1e is partly the same as yours in keeping 2e--I still have the old 1e books (actually my brother held onto them all these years, but turned them over to me since I'm playing again and he isn't).
My mother was one of the ones who deemed D&D as an avenue to satanism, so the books I did have had to be hidden most times, or kept at my grandmothers house.
Seems like that is a cross many of us have borne. My grandparents gave me a hard time, and thus, indirectly, so, too, did my own parents. I cannot recall all the times I had to defend myself, and the game...a few whackos out there who cannot discern reality vs. fantasy made it rough on the rest of us.
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When I joined the USMC after High School she ended up throwing them all out.
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I think I'd turn green, grow triple in size, and level the house.
...a few whackos out there who cannot discern reality vs. fantasy made it rough on the rest of us.
And as re. D&D, it wasn't even that much! The whole "lost in his character" thing was just one of the possibilities considered by the P.I. who was looking for the kid who disappeared into the steam tunnels. He emphasized that idea to draw attention away from his other ideas, which would've been damaging or embarrassing to the kid or his family. Trouble is, the press ate that sh*t up and convinced people the game was somehow fundamentally dangerous. So the whole thing was a manufactroversy from the start.
Lanthorn wrote:
I think I'd turn green, grow triple in size, and level the house.
...I mostly DMed in 3rd when I was in the USMC in the very late 90s, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a ton of 3rd edition Greyhawk.
-There was a plethora of Greyhawk stuff in Dungeon Magazine 2000-2008. I guess you've already picked D&D 5.0, but you might look there for more material.
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When I joined the USMC after High School she ended up throwing them all out.
-Ah. Mothers. The people who make some collectors very wealthy...
Lanthorn wrote:
...a few whackos out there who cannot discern reality vs. fantasy made it rough on the rest of us...
I mostly DMed in 3rd when I was in the USMC in the very late 90s, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a ton of 3rd edition Greyhawk.
I don't know, I've seen a lot of books etc. for it. And my local D&D meetup plays 3rd edition as well as 4th and (now) 5th. I have to admit though that when I showed up to check out the group, there weren't enough folks wanting to play 3e, so we had to join the 4e group. And IMO it wasn't an awful lot of fun. Not impressed by 4e--it was like playing Lord of the Rings Online, v e r y . . . s l o w l y.
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