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[Sensei]

Yo dawg I wasn't kidding about pre-made character sheets. But I guess you got that out of the way now.

[Araph]

Yeah, sounds right. A couple of times I watched some guys play games like that, and that's how it always went.

Don't feel bad. It took us over an hour to make characters for a friend's homebrew designed to facilitate quick character creation. And we've all been playing table top RPGs for almost two decades.

That's actually reassuring; I'm kinda worried that they'll be bored of DnD without actually having played, but I don't think that's too likely.

Heh, I got so used to reading through the rule books (mostly supplement books, because I find it more fun than the game itself) that I could literally make a character ready to go in about 10 minutes, using materials from maybe 3 or 4 different books mashed together.

Same here. Sadly, that doesn't really translate to other people osmoting that ability.

Level 1 fighter that can throw frelling firebolts? Seems legit to me.
Level 2 Monk that can set his hands on fire, and redirect spells back at the caster? I'm just getting warmed up, and you can add those firebolts to him, if you really wanted too, or make his stunning fist an area-of-effect. Or, if you're a human, do both!

O_o

...You've piqued my curiosity. Go on.

Yo dawg I wasn't kidding about pre-made character sheets. But I guess you got that out of the way now.

In retrospect, that would have been a good idea. I was hoping they'd learn enough about it that they could fumble their way through making characters in the future (given how we're splitting up the group), but it probably turned out they just did what I told them to while ignoring everything else.

[mastahcheese]

Level 1 fighter that can throw frelling firebolts? Seems legit to me.
Level 2 Monk that can set his hands on fire, and redirect spells back at the caster? I'm just getting warmed up, and you can add those firebolts to him, if you really wanted too, or make his stunning fist an area-of-effect. Or, if you're a human, do both!

O_o

...You've piqued my curiosity. Go on.

Awwwwwwwwww heck yeah.

First off, get the second player's guide (I'm assuming 3.5 Dnd), this book is awesomesauce. They have some things called "alternate class features" basically, it makes to normally static class features customizable. Take evasion, for instance. It gives you the ability to take no damage from area effect attacks on a save. OR, you could now take Redirect Spell as your class feature, losing evasion in the process. Now, when an enemy spellcaster misses you with a ranged touch attack spell, it fires it back at them, using their own attack bonuses against them.

Flaming Fists is a new feat that gives stunning fist it's own feat tree. (later on this goes in Flaming Defense, which harms attackers, and then later on Ki Blast, which is basically Hadoken) It lets you expend a use of stunning fist, and makes all of your unarmed attacks deal extra fire damage for that turn. (activated as a swift action) Monks can take this feat as their 2nd level bonus feat.

For that firebolt power, you'll need the Eborron book (pretty sure I spelled it wrong), it has a bunch of feats and even a couple prestige classes based around "dragonmarks". If you take the feat "Aberrant Dragonmark" you get a spell-like ability, this feat can be taken first level, and one of the available spells is the Druid's Create Fire spell, which lets you throw little bolts of flame as a ranged touch attack. (Other spells you can choose include Burning Hands, and a couple others that aren't as cool) (You could also take "Least Dragonmark", which has the ability to be powered up later with better dragonmark feats, and can give you stuff like Shocking Grasp. You can take this one at first level, too.)
Eborron has some other cool stuff, too. Like the Factotum base class.

Oh, and that area-of-effect stunning fist is from another book (don't remember the name of it, but it based on deserts) and the feat is called "Pharaoh's Fist", it makes it so that the stun effect of stunning fist hits everything around the person hit, if it hits. (Or you could just aim at the ground so you don't miss, and stun everyone adjacent to you.)

I know of lots more cool stuff, too.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Here I'll take the opportunity to pimp out older editions of D&D and their retro-clones. Here's the process for making up an original D&D character:

1. Roll 3d6 six times to generate ability scores, then again 3d6x10 for money.
(There is a step for swapping some points among a couple ability scores, but as ability scores aren't that important you can safely ignore the rule)
2. Pick a race (four choices)
3. Pick a class (three choices)
4. Roll HP (everyone has 1d6)
5. Buy some equipment (three armors, about a dozen weapons, maybe 20 other items to choose from. You can speed it up by writing up a quick little "standard adventurer package" that people can buy)
(Also, all the weapons do 1d6 damage, so it actually doesn't matter much)
6. M-Us get a spellbook with a couple random spells. Clerics and M-Us pick the one spell they'll memorize. Fighters choose nothing.
7. Name your PC. Heck, call it "Bob's Cleric" from Bobton.
8: FIGHT ON!

Of course, there are more complex combat rules, especially for mass combat, if you care to use them. Need to know how cannon-fire works? What's the movement penalty for going down a ditch and then up the other side? How long does it take to stow a mast so the oarsmen can get the ship up to ramming speed? Jousting minigame? There are some gaps, but it's actually a pretty cool rule set.



Moldvay's Basic/Expert is a very simple, streamlined game with a little more variety. Elf or Dwarf is actually your class, so you don't pick race separately. Weapons do variable damage, classes have variable HP dice, more monsters and stuff.

[Werdna]

Araph, since you haven't hit your adventure yet, a quick warning: with ~15 people, outside of combat you are quickly going to see all dialogue dominated by 3-4 alpha types.  You need to have a mindset to get everyone involved or you will lose the interest of many of the back-seaters who feel they can't get a word in edge-wise.  You need to prompt and directly call on these people and even brush aside the alphas.  You don't want to force people to RP though, for new people it can be intimidating, but you do want to give people opportunities to have their say and get involved.  It is all too easy to fall into a trap of talking to/taking actions from just the alphas and thinking everything is going great, but the rest of the group is just twiddling their thumbs in boredom.

The same is true for any group size, really, but it gets worse the more people you have because you are more likely to have some really outgoing conversation hogs.

A good situation is an encounter where everyone is clamoring and talking over each other and each trying to get your attention.  That is hell on you as DM, but bodes really well once you break the groups down to smaller ones.

A normal situation is when you get 3-4 people doing most of the talking, another 3-4 chiming in, and the rest sitting quietly.  That's where you need to look for opportunities to get the quiet ones involved.  Have NPC's find reasons to talk to them instead of others, or in certain skill-check situations point out that certain party members are a better choice to do something, etc.  Or make liberal use of collaborative skill checks - 'oh, you want to do this?  You'd have a better chance if you got another to assist you.  Who else has a high X skill?'

Since you already know the group, you can probably already guess who the wallflowers will be.  Take a look at their character sheets and prepare a little ahead of time to rope them in.

[Yoink]

Perhaps a DMPC could be useful- a character accompanying the party whose primary (OOC) function is to involve the "backseater" PCs in the party decision-making, asking them their opinions etcetera?

[Werdna]

Perhaps a DMPC could be useful- a character accompanying the party whose primary (OOC) function is to involve the "backseater" PCs in the party decision-making, asking them their opinions etcetera?

This works well in small groups (and mostly as an IC prompter), but I wouldn't advise it in this situation.  You run the risk of 15 people looking to the DM-PC to make their decisions and take the lead.  Having the DM keep track of yet another character is adding to an already overflowing plate.  The DM already has the OOC power to ask/prompt players, if they wish.

[Azated]

I'd suggest keeping a cool head. The first few times I played DnD, our DM complained after every session about us asking too many questions. Remember that a good tabletop group only works when both the DM and the players know eachother and how they RP.

For a group of 15, you're going to have alot of people dropping out after they realise it isn't just cool stories and peasant railguns. By the end of it, you'll have a core group of solid roleplayers with a good interest in the game.