Me and a few of my friends are looking to form a D&D group and start playing. Most of us don't really have any experience with the game besides the fact we'd all like to give it a shot.
Could anyone recommend any good resources for learning how to play the game? Or which edition we should play, my friend has a few 1st edition books and I have a few 4th edition books. Supplies? What would we need and where could we get it? Also, anything else to keep in mind when we meet up this weekend for the first time?
Thank you in advance, and feel free to share stories/have a general discussion.
We all played using the 1st edition 4rd version Set, Basic(red box) Expert Set(light blue box) and Companion Set (teal box). Id get on ebay and grab a cheap Basic red box set and a set of dice each (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20).....and picking the best guy for the dungeon master is the most important part.
All you really need to get started are dice and the 3 core rule books:
Player's Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide
Monstrous Compendium
(you can get these in the red box 1st edition set cheap on ebay, or looking online you can get sets with the 3 core books for later 2nd+ edition, iv never played the 2nd+ edition, so cant really help you there....but it looks like its 2 of the 3 core book Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and the 3rd core book 'Monster Manual having been Replaced by 'Monstrous Compendium'??? just more monsters and new cover artwork???)
played DnD 3.5 and 4th edition loved 3.5 hated 4th edition my words of wisdom are if you like getting your hands held go with 4th if you want to dive in and get real nitty gritty go with 3.5. the names of the basic books dont change but the extra books and pre made adventure books are a treasure in 3.5. i will admit 4th edition is easy for starting pen and paper games or role playing games. 3.5 is a bit harder its more indepth has more sources to pull from and is extremly customizable. so depending on how much expirence you have and how hard you want the initial expirence to be make your pick.
OK, so D&D is kind of weak right now. For tabletop gaming, I can't recommend Pathfinder enough. It's a lot like D&D3.5, but with a lot of the problems fixed. The classes in Pathfinder have more useful skills and feats, and you gain feats more frequently. All the information about Pathfinder is available online for free (Just google "Pathfinder reference document"). If you're dead set on playing D&D, I'd recommend 3.5 or "D&D Next", which is what they're calling the new version of D&D, currently in beta. D&D Next is much better than 4th edition, and adds a lot of cool stuff to the game. Avoid 4th edition at all costs, it's much less like an RPG and more like a really complicated board game. The older editions of D&D are fine, but they're not perfect, and are balls hard.
Also, Spoony (at spoonyexperiment.com) has a wonderful series about tabletop RPGs called Counter Monkey, which ranges from silly stories about playing to help getting started with being a player and a DM.
I haven't played DnD for ages! Since 3rd came out, I played for like a year, then moved away so I dropped the hobby altogether. I still have my 80's LOTR set, and some old DnD basic books/ modules. Behind me is a shelf of Pathfinder stuff, which looks to be a very cool game, but I have no one to play with :/ Specifically, I need a good GM, I hate GM-ing. If you want good dice (and you do!) you can't go wrong with Game Science.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR2fxoNHIuU) they can be had on eBay for reletively cheap. I bought a 10-die set for tabletop RPG's and a d6 set for warmachine.
I'm with Nacho, Pathfinder cannot be recommended enough. It is absolutely fantastic, and totally great, especially for people who have previous seed in DnD.
i'm am currently a dm for my local library. and i once was in your position, i had a dm guide, player handbook, and monster manual and had to teach my self how to run a game and have been doing it 1-3 times a week for about a year now. 1rst thing you need to do is pick a version. i would suggest 4 because it's the current version and it would be easier to get the books (try googling D&D ebooks in pdf format) and because it's probably the easiest version. 4 is very structured (which some of my freinds dont like) and you can get quest books that have everthing you need for a entire quest in it. however many people still use 3.5 because of the flexibility it gives you to do whatever you want (which makes it harder to learn). also 5th edition is coming out soon. i have a freind/fellow dm who playtested 5th edition months ago at a con and while i dont know much about it, i do know that wizards of the coast has been trying to make D&D groups like yours easier for new people to start up and learn which will likely make 5th edition easier to play and understand, but give you less options as a dm/player. if you have a large enough budget and are playing 4th edition then i suggest getting the 2nd&3rd players handbook, 2nd&3rd monster manual, 2nd dm guide, heroes of shadow (so you can play as a vampire or shade ect..), several maps, and the adventures vault in adition to the starter set and the basic 3 books which are required as Peps 1 said. if you have otherany questions i would be happy to help.
I'll +1 this for Pathfinder, it's really nice, 3.5 compatible and fixed a lot of bugs. Also, the guys at Penny Arcade used to be ferverent DnD4e supporters, now they're playing Pathfinder and made a few comics explaining the difference.