I Cast Pod!

Here’s a rundown of the episode:

• 01:30 - Heard Any Good Rumours Lately? News from the Planes.
• 01:57 - Off To The Races: This episode we discuss Dwarves.
• 08:00 - You So Classy: Looking at the Bard class.
• 13:33 - Background Check: Join the army! We check out the Soldier background.
• 16.54 - Monster Menagerie: The nightmarish Beholder is this episode’s focus. Geddit? Focus!
• 24:36 - Lore Academy: Ever wanted to tear a planet apart? We talk about The Sundering(s)
• 27:00- The Infamous: The Drowse ranger Drizzt Do’Urden

Total runtime: 32:37

Dwarves: PHB: 18-20, SCAG:103-105, XGTE: 176 (Names only)

Bard: PHB: 51-55 SCAG:122-124 XGTE: 12-16

Soldier: PHB: 104-141

Beholder: MM: 26

Drizzt Do’Urden: PHB: 21 (illustration) 

R. A. Salvatore’s novels (affiliate link) I recommend starting with Homeland, which is The legend of Drizzt, book 1: https://amzn.to/3a6xtSr

https://discord.gg/g7HbME- the I cast pod Discord server. Come and chat with me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WJHNxqXVWAA J Pickett on Dwarves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m73NN7_ETU - the Dungeon Dudes on Bards

https://geekandsundry.com/explore-the-unusual-history-of-the-beholders/Geek and Sundry on Beholders, including video by Mr. Rhexx.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CRIFPSIZbI&feature=emb_rel_pauseMr Rhexx, on Beholders

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Beholder- Forgotten Realms Wiki on Beholders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beholder_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)- Wikipedia on Beholders

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Large_LuigiForgotten Realms Wiki on Large Luigi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bstyqFw3H8- Jorphdan on The Sundering

https://geekandsundry.com/who-the-heck-is-drizzt-dourden-one-of-dds-iconic-characters-explained/- Geek and Sundry’s Guide to Drizzt Do’Urden.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Drizzt_Do%27Urden- The Forgotten Realms Wiki on Drizzt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drizzt_Do%27UrdenWikipedia’s page on Drizzt.

Welcome to I Cast Pod, a D&D podcast about creating characters, taking chances, rolling dice and having fun. I’m Mike, your DM and guide to all things dungeonesque and dragon-y. 

I hope you’re all well and not too stir crazy for those of you that are self isolating and social distancing! Hopefully you’ve had some extra time to play D&D or catch up on reading, prepping maps etc. As for me I’m currently off work and at home. My last session came just before the lockdown, and we’re looking into doing our next session online. How have things affected you and your games? Drop me a line at [email protected] to let me know. 

Alternatively you can chat to me on our new Discord server! Search for I cast pod or use the link in the show notes. I’ll try to be there as much as possible, especially during the lockdown.

In this episode, we’re talking about Dwarves, Bards, Soldiers, Beholders and the Legendary character Drizzt Do’Urden. So let’s strap on our scimitars, pocket the statue of Guenhwyvar, and get stuck in!

We’re a little light on news this episode, although it’s worth mentioning that the explorer’s Guide to Wildemount is now available, for those of you wanting to follow in the footsteps of the Mighty Nein or just have some fun in that setting.

Funko are releasing D&D themed pops. Starting with Asmodeus, which is available now, we’ve also seen Minsc and Boo, a mindflayer and a gelatinous cube, complete with unfortunate adventurer skeleton inside.

Beer, beards and braids - mountain dwelling, stocky humanoids with a love of mining and smithing, and always with a Scots accent for some reason, they are a staple of fantasy literature the world over and our second featured D&D race.

Dwarves are famous for many things: Shortness of stature and temper, a stoutness of build and heart and hardiness of constitution. Dwarves are hearty, with famously strong stomachs, and can create their own vitamin C so they can survive for long periods without fruits and vegetables. They are also resistant to many food borne toxins, including alcohol, which they have a huge tolerance for. They have long memories that often serve to keep track of the grudges they are currently holding. With an average lifespan of 400 years, they have plenty of time to make both friends and enemies, amass riches from the bowels of the earth and create their masterwork. 

In D&D lore, the God Moradin created the first Dwarves in his soul forge from iron, mitral, earth and stone, and placed them on many worlds. Moradin taught them to read stone and extract metal, taking their efforts as worship, and teaching them to enchant their creations with magic.

When a clan of dwarves tried to recreate life in their forges, Moradin became angry at their arrogance, and cast the Dero race out, becoming the Duergar, the dark dwarves that reside in the underdark and are enemies of all goodly dwarves.

Dwarves weather everything with their own brand of stoicism, changing little over centuries. They respect the traditions of their clans, including devotion to their gods. They extend this loyalty to their friends, and it would take a great slight to turn a dwarf from friend to enemy; for although they may take offence at lesser slights, they rarely let those get in the way of a good friendship. Their stubbornness works in both directions in this way - they could remain loyal to someone long after everyone else has given up hope. Dwarves are also true to their word and see little profit in things like lying or even sarcasm.

Here’s what Dwarves think of Elves:

“It’s not wise to depend on the Elves. No telling what an Elf will do next; when the hammer meets the Orc’s head, they’re as apt to start singing as to pull out a sword. They’re flighty and frivolous. Two things to be said for them though: they don’t have many smiths, but the ones they do have do very fine work. And when Orcs or Goblins come streaming down out of the mountains, an Elf’s good to have at your back. Not as good as a Dwarf maybe, but no doubt they hate the Orcs as much as we do.”

Their ideals include industrious labour, skill in battle, and devotion to the forge.

They love skill and artistry, particularly as it pertains to the creation of fantastic items, including weapons, armour and jewellery. Some dwarves have been known to let this love corrupt into avarice.

They hate all orcs and the orc god Grummsch, as well as Asmodeus, the king of hell.

Dwarven kingdoms span entire mountain ranges, delving deep into the earth to reap the riches buried within. Whatever they can’t make themselves, they trade - often with humans and halflings, who use waterways to trade Dwarven goods, as the Dwarves themselves dislike boats and travel over water.

Dwarves will often allow trustworthy members of other races into their halls, although that trust can be slow to build and even then there will be areas considered off limits.

Like the Dragonborn discussed last episode, Dwarves arrange themselves by clan and being clanless is the worst fate that can befall a dwarf. Even dwarves that live far away from their clan cherish that affiliation, and will be ready to regale anyone who will listen with stories about their clan and its accomplishments.

Dwarves may take up adventuring for many reasons. They may wish to amass a personal wealth of treasure, for a specific personal reason, or simply out of a desire to help others.

Dwarves age at the same rate as humans, but are considered young until 50. Most are lawful, believing in the benefits of a well ordered society and tend towards the good end of the spectrum.

Dwarves skin tones range from deep brown to pale tinged with red. They wear their hair and beards long in simple styles. Their hair colours are usually black, grey, brown or red.

Height: 4-5ft

Weight: 150lbs

Size: Medium

Speed: 25ft, which is unaffected by wearing heavy armour.

Darkvision: 60ft

Advantage on saving throws against and resistance to poison damage.

Proficiency with battle-axe and handaxe, light hammer and war hammers.

Tools: smiths, brewers or masons.

Stonecunning: You can add double your proficiency bonus to history checks against masonry.

Languages: ‘dwarfish and Common

Subraces: Hill Dwarves and Mountain Dwarves:

Hill dwarf gets a +1 to wisdom and your HP max gets a +1, increasing by +1 per level

Mountain dwarf gets a +2 to strength and gets proficiency in light and medium armour.

Just as an aside - the word Dwarf is only one of three words in the English language to begin with the letters ‘DW’ can you name the other two? Email me at [email protected] with your answers - first correct answer gets a shoutout on the next episode.

Bringers of tidings, levity and wisdom, Bards are bearers of news, traders in song, story and gossip, and living repositories of history and folklore in the Forgotten Realms. They chronicle events both large and small, from feats of valour to town here-say.

A bard can expect to exchange a few stories and/or songs for a hot supper and lodgings, and in some places, could be treated like a visiting dignitary - a Noble might host a bard in extravagant style, while ensuring the bard sees nothing that the Noble doesn’t want told and retold across the realm. Not all wandering performers are Bards, as Bards actually have a magical component to them, earning additional respect and accolades from the powers that feed their performances.

Typically flamboyant and glib of wit, the bard calls attention to themselves in order to gain a wider audience. The most famous bards are akin to pop stars, possibly crossed by well known newscasters. You could make your bard take inspiration from one of your favourite rock stars and anchorpeople. 

Successful bards are known for at least one piece of performance art, usually a song or poem that is popular or catchy, that has enraptured the populace - although if your character is just starting out, it may be that your magnum opus lays ahead of you.

Every bard is proficient in at least 3 musical instruments, sometimes more. Bards are also generally adept, often mastering skills they have a mind to learn. 

Far from being passive, many bards are able to acquit themselves admirably in the melee, using their magic to bolster their already undeniable talent.

Proficient with light armour and simple weapons as well as long and short swords, rapiers and hand crossbows, a Bard is a formidable addition to any team, with spells like Thunderwave for offence, as well as Vicious Mockery to take the sting out of your enemies’ blows. They can spec well as a healer, with healing word coming immediately as a first level spell. Bards use Charisma as their spell casting ability, which makes sense for a performer and the PHB recommends Dex as your secondary stat.

One of your main mechanics is Bardic Inspiration, where you can inspire others through song or stirring oratory. This is done as a bonus action, so can be performed without penalty to your main action per turn. You choose one creature within 60ft of you that can hear you and they gain a Bardic Inspiration Die - a D6 that they can use once within the next 10 minutes, and add that roll to an ability check, attack roll or saving throw, but not to add to damage dice rolls. The inspired creature can wait until after the roll to declare if it is going to use the bardic inspiration die, but, must declare it before the DM says whether the roll passes or fails. This makes it even more useful, as you won’t go wasting it on an already good or great throw. A creature can only have one Bardic Inspiration die at a time. The Bard can use this feature the number of times equal to their charisma modifier per long rest, but that should give you four or even five Inspires between sleeps. At 5th level you get all your uses back per long or short rest with the Font of Inspiration feature.

From 2nd level you can add half your proficiency modifier (rounded down) to any ability check that you are not proficient in, proving again their adeptness at most things. You also gain the ability to use soothing music or oration to help heal during a short rest - anyone in your party who can hear you and uses a hit die to recover hit points, gets an additional 1D6 hp back. This ability scales as you level, becoming 1d8 at level 9, 1D10 at 13, and 1D12 at level 17.

At 3rd level you choose a bardic ‘College’ - a loose association of Bards with similar interests that gather to trade information and melodies, and to preserve their traditions.

The PHB has Colleges of Lore and Valour, which give variants of Persuader and battle musician, the SCAG has Fochlucan, which is allied with The Harpers, New Olamn which cultivate expressive musicians and of The Herald, which concerns its adepts with history, folklore and heraldry, naturally; as well as several more instruments of choice, and XGTE has colleges of Glamour, who’s disciples studied in the fey wild, or under someone who did and can charm even the savage beasts of the land; the college of Swords, who’s students are called Blades and who entertain through feats of knife juggling, sword swallowing and mock combat; and the college of Whispers who appear as ordinary entertainers, but are really spies, using their invites to perform subterfuge, infiltration and extraction of secrets by charm, extortion and threats.

HP: 1st level - 8+ Con mod, then 1D8 + Con mod

Hit dice: 1D8/level

Saving throws: Char, Dex

Skills: Choose any 3

2 Cantrips & 4 spells known at first level with 2 spell slots.

As a Soldier, war is life. You may have enlisted young, been drafted, or joined up when other options seemed bleak. You knew the military would feed, clothe and possibly, educate you. And so it did, in it’s own way, but it taught you what it needed, not what you wanted.

Luckily, most of what your years in the military taught you is useful for a life of adventuring. You’ve been taught not only armour and weapon skills, but basic survival techniques too. Years of training and fighting have honed your athletics abilities. Your mind instantly shifts into strategic mode when faced with enemies. You carefully take note of every nuance of body language that might belie a weakness - a slight limp, a roll of a shoulder, the twitch of an eye. 

As a player you get to decide: were you part of a standing army? A member of a mercenary militia? Part of a Noble’s private guard? How far did you progress? Were you a grunt or did you command your own platoon? Were you known for battlefield savagery or a brilliant tactical mind?

Soldiers have proficiencies in athletics and intimidation, both of which can be very handy during the adventuring life. You also have proficiencies in one type of gaming set and land vehicles.

You start with an insignia of your rank, a trophy taken from a fallen enemy, (a dagger, a broken blade or a piece of a banner,) a set of bone dice or cards, common clothes, and a pouch containing 10gp, which oddly is the same amount as the Urchin that we covered last episode.

You can roll a d8 sfx: die roll to determine your role in your unit or army. Roles, (in order from 1-8,) are:

1. Officer
2. Scout
3. Infantry
4. Cavalry
5. Healer
6. Quartermaster
7. Standard bearer
8. Support staff (cooks, blacksmith, etc.)

Your attained rank is recognised by other soldiers, current or former, from your organisation. It may be worth researching your rank so you know who would be either side of you. You can use your rank to exert influence over them if they are/were of lower rank, requisition simple equipment or horses for temporary use - or you could laugh it off and claim, “that was a long time ago. We’re all just folk now.” Your rank allows you access to friendly encampments and fortresses.

My personal experience of military people is that they tend to be polite to everyone but forthright, and don’t suffer fools for long. They have a strict moral code and an upright bearing. They are used to situations where lives are on the line, so rarely sweat the small stuff, but they pay attention to small details. 

They may stick to a strict routine: Perhaps your soldier tends to rise before everyone else, taking time to clean and oil their sword, check the straps of their armour for tears and nicks, generally maintain their equipment, or maybe do a round of practice drills? Soldiers know that skills and abilities need to be kept sharp as well as their weapons as a sword is only as good as its bearer.

Originally a discussion about a nightmare foe by Thierry Kunz that was overheard by Gary Gygax, The Beholder has been around since 1975 in the Greyhawk supplement. 

They come from the far realm, which is like HP Lovecraft’s playground, where thoughts can become living entities, corrupted by nightmares. 

Classed as a large aberration, Beholders are basically a floating head, with a cycloptic eye set above a large fanged mouth. If that wasn’t enough, several prehensile stalks, usually 10, extend from the upper part of their heads, each with an eye at the end that can grow back in a week if cut off. There’s no altitude limit on floating either - they could float into space if they wanted. In fights, they tend to hover out of melee range and use their vast arsenal of magic rays and anti magic, along with telekinesis. 

Almost every Beholder is different though. Some are fleshy, or metallic, or even furry. Other variations include plates, tough hide, crustacean-like eye stalks, or snake-like; segmented eyes, horns, and so on.

Beholders are obsessed with themselves - showing narcissistic and...

Here’s a rundown of the episode:

• 01:02 - Heard Any Good Rumours Lately? News from the Planes.
• 04:23 - Off To The Races. This episode features the Dragonborn as its playable race to discuss.
• 11:02 - You So Classy! This episode, we’re focussing on the Barbarian.
• 17:36 - Background Check. Talking about the Urchin background and ways it can inform your roleplay of your character.
• 19:28 - Monster Menagerie. Starting with the Aaron A. Aaronson of D&D Monsters - The Aarakocra.
• 25:40 - Lore Academy. The Spellplague and its effects.
• 29:41 - The Infamous. Legendary characters from Dungeons and Dragons. This episode, we learn about Tymora.

Total runtime - 33:17.

PHB: 32-34; SCAG: 112-114; XGTE: 74, (Racial feats,) 175-176 (Dragonborn names.) 

PHB: 141

XGTE: 8

SCAG: 121

poster-barbarian-know-nothing-passion-rage-can-sunder-mountains-may-speak-passion-diydespaircom- Barbarian Quote

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c4/2c/40/c42c40f371f67ce113250a26f87d58fb.jpg - Barbarian quote 2

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Aarakocra- Aarakocra

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Syranita- Syranita, Patron God of Aarakocra.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Akadi- Akadi, Queen of air.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Aerdrie_Faenya - Aerdrie Faenya, Elven goddess of the Seldarine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk7Xcd4OyBI- AJ Pickett on Aarakocra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa9OyLmkSq8&t=134s- WebDM on Aarakocra (& Kenku)

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Spellplague- The Spellplague

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDyqSsJPIs4- Jorphdan on the Spellplague

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmYD-vyZv3U - Poohead189 (what a username!) on the Spellplague

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMSOYUaZcBo - Jorphdan on Tymora (First half of video is on Torm.)

Welcome to I Cast Pod, a D&D podcast about creating characters, taking chances, rolling dice and having fun. I’m Mike, your DM and guide to all things dungeonesque and dragon-y. I’m excited about this episode as this marks the transition to how I think the show will be going forward. I wanted to do episode 1 & 2 as beginner episodes and the focus going forward will still be learning and have the beginner in mind - but I wanted to create all new sections to discuss things like playable races and classes, as well as famous NPC’s and characters from D&D, and loads of other good info. So let’s get started.

On the 2nd June, Wizards of the Coast are releasing Mythic Odysseys of Theros, a new campaign sourcebook based in the Magic: The Gathering world of Theros, which adapts Greek Mythology for its setting. Players will choose a supernatural gift and then go on an epic quest across the realms of mortals, gods and the five realms of the underworld, pitting players against mighty heroes, imprisoned titans and prophecies, to leave their mark as a legend.

The supernatural gifts work similar to character races mechanically and give your character a variety of traits. 

There will be new races available, drawn from myths such as Satyrs, Minotaurs or Leonin.

There will be new subclasses available including ones for Bard and Paladin.

New monsters will include mythic monsters, whose power outstrips even legendary creatures.

God weapons - receive as a blessing from the god you represent or brazenly steal them to gain previously unheard of power.

From the little information released, and the artwork, it looks like the campaign will be a little like playing Clash of the Titans, which providing we’re talking about the original Harryhausen version, is no bad thing.

The book will release with an alternate, soft-touch cover for $49.95

Hopefully by now you should have seen the Baldurs Gate 3 gameplay livestream.

Larian revealed playable races of Humans, Githyanki, Tieflings, Halflings, Elves and Half-Elves, Drow and Half-Drow, Dwarves, and more. Some of the races, showed sub races too such as Hill Dwarf, High Elf, Lightfoot Halfling or Asmodeus Tiefling. All the races shown could be played as either Male or Female, and I’m assuming with no advantages or penalties for either. There were also backgrounds like Noble, charlatan, Criminal or Entertainer shown.

Classes shown were Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger Rogue or Warlock, with more coming after Early Access.

Larian also showed off some of the NPC’s and the opening cinematic which showed Dragon Riders fighting with the Illithid Nautillus ship and all I can say about that is - I hope the writers of the movie watched it and took notes. It also shows an Illithid ship ‘collecting’ people as it caused destruction in the city of Yartar, which sits just east of Triboar and the Sword Coast. The Illithid interacts with a Githyanki female - inserting a tadpole into her eye - which allows mind melding in the game proper, but will also eventually consume characters from the inside and turn them into Mindflayers.

Baldur’s Gate 3 looks amazing and has been announced for PC and Google’s Stadia so far . I am very excited for this and will probably order whatever deluxe version they release, but will have to buy a PC to play it as it’s unlikely it will appear on current generation consoles.

Considered one of the most exotic races in the PHB, Dragonborn have Draconic ancestry, although their origins are shrouded in mystery. One story says Io, the dragon god, fused astral spirits with the fury of the elements. The greater spirits became Dragons and the lesser, the Dragonborn.

Another version has Dragons already existing when Io was split in two by a primordial called Erek-Hus, the King of Terror, during the Dawn War. The Two halves became the Dragon Gods Bahamut and Tiamat, and the blood that spattered the ground became the Dragonborn.

A third tale has Io creating the Dragonborn before all other humanoid races, shaping their perfection and firing them with his breath, and only creating Dragons later, at the start of the Dawn War to use as weapons in the war.

The fact that they were created by Io and not Bahamut or Tiamat means that every Dragonborn has a choice to make in their own personal morality of which path to follow.

Although the latter myth sees Dragonborn as being created before the Dragons, on their homeworld of Abeir they serve as a slave race to the Dragons. During the Spellplague, the two worlds intersected and the Dragonborn nation of Tymanchebar displaced the nation of Unther, becoming Tymanther and seeking to integrate with Faerûn and for a time established itself as a nation of honour, until the events of The Sundering reverted Unther back to Faerûn, leaving many Dragonborn without a nation and scrabbling to survive.

Dragonborn average around 6’2-6’8 in height, and average 300lb in weight. They have larger & stronger bones than humans, but with a less dense core to the bone.

They have breath weapons, determined by their draconic ancestry from a list of; fire, cold, acid, lightning and poison. They are also granted a damage immunity to the same type. They have taloned digits, with 3 fingers and a thumb, but lack wings or a tail. Their teeth seem to replenish if one is knocked out, but this is just the other rows moving up to full the space. Dragonborn can be quite tetchy towards those who point out that they have lost a tooth.

Their colours are usually of brass or bronze heritage, and tend towards a rusty, reddish brown, but can range to scarlet, gold, white, black, blue, silver, brass, bronze, or copper-green.

They birth eggs, and find other reproductive systems gross. Their young are nursed for a short period, but grow quickly - walking only hours after hatching and reaching the size of a ten year old human child by the time they are three. They are considered adults at 15 and live to around 80 years.

Dragonborn families are direct relations and a clan is formed of families through intermarriage, shared history or alliance.

Dragonborn revere their clan above all else. Their actions reflect on their clan and dishonourable behaviour could result in expulsion. Every Dragonborn knows their duties within the clan and their honour demands they perform to their best. If a situation arose where a Dragonborn were forced to choose between family and clan, the clan’s welfare would take precedence. They are given personal names at birth, but put their clan names first, as a mark of honour. 

They are a very proud race, valuing skill and excellence, which pushes them to strive for self-improvement and self-sufficiency. They hate to fail, so recognise the need for help in difficult situations, turning to their clan when needed. Any honour due to acts of daring, bravery or heroism is considered bestowed upon the clan first, and the acting individual second.

They view their code of honour and loyalty as a type of faith, and are often skeptical about religion, having been forced to worship their draconic masters in ages past, but some do worship gods. Bahamut and Tiamat can count Dragonborn among their followers, and other Dragonborn favoured gods include Torm and Tyr for their codes of honour and order, as well as Tempus, Kelemvor and others.

They can be viewed as monsters by lay-folk, although they are likely to be treated with caution rather than fear and panic. 

They speak, read and write Common and Draconic.

Some famous Dragonborn include Arkhan the Cruel - Joe Manganellio’s red scaled Oathbreaker Paladin character, and Tiberius Stormwind, also red scaled, and a Sorcerer played by Orion Acaba in the first Critical Role series.

Size: Medium

Speed: 30ft

Alignment: Tend towards extremes. Most are good but followers of Tiamat will be evil.

Breath weapon: 2D6 damage, 1D6 on a save with a DC of 8+ Constitution Modifier + Proficiency Bonus. Dexterity save against Black, Blue, Brass, Bronze, Copper, Gold, and Red ancestries, which comprise Acid, lightning and fire. Constitution save against Silver, Green and White ancestries, which are cold or poison.

Damage increases to 3D6 at level 6, 4D6 at 11, and 5D6 at level 16.

Applies in a 5ft by 30ft line for Black, Blue, Brass, Bronze and Copper ancestries, or a 15ft cone for Gold, Green, Red, Silver and White ancestries.

Ability score increases: Strength +2, Charisma +1 

Advantageous classes that can make use of the ability score increases:

Barbarian (Strength), Bard (Charisma), Fighter (Strength), Paladin (Strength & Charisma,), Sorcerer, (Charisma), Warlock (Charisma). Paladin being the standout for Min-Maxers.

For more information on Dragonborn, see the show notes for sourcebook page numbers.

“You know nothing of passion. When your rage can sunder mountains, you may speak to me of passion.

Barbarians are fury made flesh. They live for battle, laugh in the face of danger or overwhelming odds, and their rage is akin to a force of nature, like a tempest. They invariably fight to the death, their incessant rage fuelling their conquests, whether one on one or vs. an army.

They can draw their rage from various sources, such as fierce animal spirits they commune with, or else simply a burning anger at a world that has been nothing but pain to them. It is this rage that not only gives focus to their fire, but also bestows upon them enhanced reflexes, amazing resilience and strength beyond measure.

Barbarians see civilisation as a diluting of their primal spirit. Rather than settling, they embrace their feral natures, seeking strength and freedom unfettered by walls; preferring to roam the tundra or grasslands of their homelands under an open sky, heeding the call of the wilds.

They are never more alive than when in the midst of battle, delighting in the chaos of the melee, relying on instinct to guide their hefty blows rather than field tactics.

Their tendency to rush headlong into the fray can make them both an asset and a liability to an adventuring party. While it’s true they can act as a tank for the less robust members of the party, dealing out huge damage to foes and soaking up hits, they care little for plans and strategies. Played to type, they could be quite annoying for other party members who perhaps want to avoid a particular skirmish or try stealth as a tactic. If you’re playing as a barbarian, try to exercise a little impulse control - your character can act annoyed at having to temper their instincts and still be true to character, but your group will thank you for not pulling the entire camp of orcs before they’ve had a chance to whittle down their numbers by other means. Remember, just because you can rage and ignore a sword thrust like it was a mosquito bite, doesn’t mean the rest of your party can. If you rush in every time and end up with a TPK, expect a few sour glances from your teammates. Barbarians aren’t necessarily stupid, although can often be played that way due to intelligence being a dump stat for them, so approach encounters with some thought. Even if you decide that your best course is to create a distraction by rushing the enemies’ main gate solo, still wait for whatever signal your party has worked out before doing so.

“I know not of fear or sorrow … only bloodlust and rage.”

One of the main mechanics for the Barbarian is Rage. On your turn, you can enter a rage as a bonus action. If you’re not wearing heavy armour, its effects are:

• Advantage on strength checks and strength saving throws
• When attacking with a melee weapon that uses strength, you get bonus damage that scales as you level up - check the rage damage column of the barbarian table.
• Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage.

Rage lasts 1 minute, which is equal to ten rounds of combat. It can end early if you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven’t attacked a hostile creature or taken damage since your last turn, so always be pummelling!

You can also choose to end your rage as a bonus action. You get a limited number of rages between long rests, consult the Barbarian table’s rages column to find out how many per level.

You also get an unarmored defence, so if not wearing armour, your AC is 10 plus your Dex mod AND your Con mod - so be sure to put a decent roll into Dex. This can also be used with a shield, which can bump your AC quite nicely.

Other Barbarian advantages at later levels include extra attacks, a reckless attack from lvl 2, which involves nominating it on the first attack of your turn, giving you advantage on melee attack rolls using Strength during the turn, but also gives opponents advantage against you until your next turn.

From level 2 you also get Danger sense, giving you advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects you can see, including spells and traps, provide you aren’t blinded, deafened or incapacitated.

From third level, you choose a path from Bezerker, Totem Warrior (PHB), Or the path of the ancestral guardian, Storm herald or zealot (XGTE) or the path of the Battlerager, with additional Totem Warrior option in the (SCAG).

Later advantages include fast movement; Feral instincts which give you advantage on initiative rolls and makes you unable to be surprised, provided you enter rage on your turn before doing anything else; Brutal critical, which add additional dice to your critical damage rolls; Relentless rage which can bring you back from 0 HP, and more.

Famous Barbarians include Grogg, from Critical Role and Conan.

Main stats: Strength, Constitution (also saving throws)

HP : @ lvl1: 12 + Constitution Mod

1d12 + Con Mod/lvl

Hit Dice: 1d12/level

Armour: Light, Medium, Shields

Weapons: Simple & Martial

Tools: None

Skills: 2 from Animal handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, Survival

Equipment: Greataxe or any martial melee weapon

2 handaxes or any simple weapon

Explorer’s pack & four javelins.

If you like flying into rages and slicing your way through hordes of enemies in a fervent bloodlust, laughing maniacally as you go - barbarian is the class for you.

The Urchin background means your character grew up as a homeless orphan, learning to survive and provide for yourself on the heartless city streets. You needed to keep constant watch over your meagre belongings, save some other poor wretch steal it from you. You slept on rooftops and in alleyways, exposed to the chill of the night air, rains and snows. Often you took ill due to this exposure, and with no money for medicine, you relied solely on your constitution to pull you through. You’ve survived by a combination of your wits, strength, and speed.

As an Urchin, you start your adventuring career with enough money to last a ten-day living modestly, with a pouch containing 10Gp, and have expert knowledge of the city you grew up in, using shortcuts unknown to most to travel across it in twice the speed. 

The Urchin background gives you proficiencies in Sleight of hand and stealth, presumably as a result of having to steal food to survive and you get tool proficiencies for Thieves tools, and disguise kits.

You start with a small knife, a pet mouse, a token to remember your parents by, and a set of common clothes.

The Urchin background could be useful for Rogues, with SoH and Thieves tools. Personally I think it should come with a +1 to constitution, but there we are.

Roleplaying an Urchin would mean remembering your humble beginnings, perhaps hoarding food even when it is plentiful, or taking particular care of your footwear, to ensure it lasts. You may be reluctant to share things like food and loot, or simply take extra pride in you possessions.

For our first monster menagerie segment, we’re going to look at the Aaron A. Aaaronson of D&D monsters, the:

The Aarakocra have been a playable race since 1987, 1st...

Welcome to the second episode of i cast pod, a podcast about Dungeons and Dragons! Every two weeks I’m going to be talking about various aspects of D&D, with plenty of tips and tricks to add flavour to your own roleplay sessions.

Here’s a rundown of the episode:

• 00:49 - What’s Involved? (In being a DM,.)
• 1:38 - What Makes A Good DM?
• 03:30 - What Makes A Bad DM?
• 4:58 - Responsibilities
• 6:14 - Session 0
• 8:40 - Rules You Should Know
• 10:47 - House Rules
• 11:42 - Homebrew Vs Pre-Built Campaign
• 12:43 - Preparation Time
• 13:14 - Maps & Minis Vs Theatre Of The Mind
• 15:16 - Describing The Scene
• 17:27 - Tools
• 21:02 - Music & Ambient Sounds
• 21:38 - NPC Tips
• 22:41 - Designing Encounters & Scenarios
• 23:23 - Monsters
• 24:10 - Handling Awkward Players
• 27:15 - It’s OK To Have To Look Things Up
• 28:10 - The DM Screen & DM Magic
• 29:53 - Reward Your Players
• 30:39 - DM Guidelines
• 31:41 : Wrap up
• Total runtime: 32:42

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkVdb9Yr8fc05_VbAVfskCA- Matt Colville’s Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/wilwheaton - Will Wheaton’s Youtube channel

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/facilitatorCollins Dictionary definition of ‘Facilitator’.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/ D&D Beyond - online DM tools.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#RulesReferences - The Sage Advice Compendium - loads of good DM rules stuff.

http://roll20.net/ - Roll20 online TTRPG playing site

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/home/home.php- Fantasy Grounds

https://dm-helper.itch.io/dm-helper- DM Helper

https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounter-builder - D&D Beyond Encounter Builder

Mapping:

https://inkarnate.com/Inkarnate - Browser based map maker

https://www.wonderdraft.netWonderdraft - Desktop based map maker

https://www.profantasy.com/products/cc3.aspCampaign Cartographer - Windows based map maker 

https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/ Azgaar - another browser based map maker. Links with:

https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator Medieval Fantasy City Generator

Music/Sounds

https://syrinscape.com- Syrinscape

https://tabletopaudio.com - Tabletop Audio

http://www.bluefacegames.com/dmdj/- DMDJ

https://www.worldanvil.com- World Anvil, Worldbuilding software

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cherry-Halma-Plastic-Playing-Pieces/dp/B01DCXSH5Q/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Big+Cherry+40x+Halma+Pawns&qid=1582240707&sr=8-1 - Amazon.co.uk link to multicolour player token Pawns.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpghorrorstories/ - RPG Horror stories on Reddit. Worth a browse to see what NOT to do.

Stat Block Generator

https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-statblock.html 5e Stat Block Generator - I used this to create a Statblock for my Picklezilla monster that I posted on Instagram. (@icastpod)

Welcome to I Cast Pod, a podcast about D&D. I’m Mike, your host, DM, and guide to all things dungeonesque and dragon-y. In this episode, I’m going to be talking about being a Dungeon Master - What’s involved; what rules you need to know; what makes a good or bad DM; managing player expectations; prebuilt campaigns vs homebrew; NPC tips, and lots more. So let's get started. 

So you’ve decided to be the DM for your group - Welcome to your second job! Just kidding, but being a DM does involve more work than being a player. Players just turn up with dice, character sheets and notebooks and they're good to go. As a DM, there's a lot of prep you have to do before you get to the session. You may have to draw out maps, write plot points, prepare dialogue and exposition, and work out things like traps and monsters that are a good challenge for your group, as well as XP and treasure. Your main job though, is actually managing your player’s expectations. The better you can do this, the smoother your game will run and the better time will be had by all. More on this later

Matt Colville, a longtime player and DM puts it best I think when he says: “You only have fun if your players have fun.”

Taking on the mantle of DM means an unspoken contract between you and your players, which boils down to this: You have agreed to provide them with entertainment. If you deliver a campaign that only involves searching a single room for rat droppings,sfx: rats which turn out not to be there, chances are you're doing your players a disservice.sfx: exasperated A good DM aims to provide their players with an interesting adventure that’s fun to play, because that's what we’re all doing: We're playing a game, for fun. If it's not fun, then your players have every right to stay home and do their taxes, wash the dishes, or find something else more fun to do. So when designing your campaign, or prepping a pre-made one, put your players first. Think about what would make them happy.

The lamest way I can think to put it, is that as the DM, you’re the Facilitator of Fun. Just for kicks, here’s the definition of “Facilitator”:

A facilitator is a person or organization that helps another to do or to achieve a particular thing.(SN: link to definition.)

Which I think is actually a good definition of a DM. You’re there to help and guide the players on their journey. In game, it might be to find and kill the BBEG, discover a long lost treasure, or save the world, but in the meta game it is always to have fun, first and foremost.

You should be hoping for your players to do well, and occasionally even enabling that to be the case, (more on that later,) but at the very minimum you should be celebrating their victories and commiserating their losses as if you were one of them, because really, you are. 

By contrast, a bad DM puts their own good time before that of their players. They might throw monsters whose challenge rating far outstrips their party’s level, just to watch them squirm, or worse, to watch their characters die. sfx: die No one wants their character to die, for the most part, so killing them kills the fun for that player. 

Contrary to what you may have heard, the DM is not supposed to be an antagonistic force - just because you control monsters and evil-aligned NPC’s, doesn't mean you should play that alignment yourself. If anything, a DM should fall somewhere between True Neutral and Neutral Good on the alignment chart. You're technically supposed to be True Neutral, but if you're not rooting for the party even a little bit, I’d say you’re doing it wrong personally. 

Will Wheaton also has a credo, which is “Don’t be a dick”, meaning don’t cause trouble for the sake of it. Really, Will’s credo is almost a distillation of Matt’s, just put another way. Don’t make things unnecessarily hard for your players just because you get a power trip from doing it. If your goal as a DM is a TPK, (or Total Party Kill,) sfx: slaughter don’t be surprised when your group doesn’t come back.

Ok, so we’ve touched on the responsibilities you have to your players, but what else do you need to manage as a DM?

If you’re running a pre-made campaign, you need to have read ahead to know the major plot points. You don’t necessarily have to read the whole thing cover to cover, although that wouldn’t hurt, but far enough ahead that you should know what should happen at each session.

If you’re home brewing a campaign, and I would suggest you don’t if it’s your first time, just to make things easier on yourself, but if you are, then you need to world build like crazy. More on this later

You’ll also need to know what NPC’s will crop up, a little about each one, and if you’re going to do voices, I suggest working out what each NPC will sound like ahead of time and noting down accents, as well as anything else pertinent to their speech. 

You’ll need to know the basic rules - things like speed over different types of terrain, the order of combat, when to ask for ability checks, how to set a difficulty class, or DC, and more. It also helps if you know how to roll a character, as your players will look to you for help when creating theirs.

Don’t worry though, lots of the rules are actually pretty easy.

I recommend you have a session 0, as this can help get your campaign off to a great start. In a session 0, you have a Q&A session with your players, manage expectations, roll characters and if you have time, I’d also recommend doing a short, fairly easy combat encounter. 

The Q&A should involve you as the DM explaining what sort of campaign you’re going to run, including setting - is the campaign taking place in Faerun, Ebberon, Avernus, Ravnica, or across several of the planes of existence? 

It’s a great time to ask what your players expect from the campaign - do they want combat, RP or exploration heavy, or a balance? - and also what to expect from you as the DM.

The combat encounter can be as simple as a few monsters in a single room. sfx: Monster growlsYou can tie it into the main campaign, or have it as a standalone one shot. It allows the party to get used to things like the order of initiative, particularly if there are players in the party new to the game, and also lets them try out their skills, spells and abilities, as well as develop the beginnings of inter-party cooperation. 

Why make it an easy encounter though? Why not make it super challenging? Because the encounter is like dipping your toe in a pool. It sets the expectation for what’s coming. If you teach your party early on that they should expect their combat encounters to be gruelling slogs where victory is not assured, it sets the tone for the campaign as a whole. Not everyone, and especially not many new players, will be up for every encounter running the knife edge between life and death. If your entire party is comprised of Dark Souls fans, then fine - you know they’re gluttons for punishment. 

Remember though, that these are level 1 players. They have few abilities yet and probably not a lot of hit points. Most video game RPG’s, start you off in an area where your challenges are less, because building up your players with a few wins makes them want to play more. The psychology of this will have been studied by the companies that create the games, so it’s worth paying attention to. It’s better to start easy and then build up the challenge as you go.

I mentioned certain rules you should have down, such as movement, combat and ability checks etc, so let’s go over them:

• Walking over difficult terrain halves movement speed, so a movement speed of 30ft becomes 15 ft.
• Combat order is: Roll for initiative, establish places of players and NPC’s, then start in initiative turn. Players can move up to their speed and perform an action - have a listen to the previous episode “What Is D&D?” for more info on actions.
• Ability checks - You should ask for an ability check whenever a player asks to try something that has a reasonable risk of failure with consequences. So if a player hands an NPC a coin, no ability check is needed, because a)It’s an easy task that most people should be able to accomplish, and b)There are no real consequences of failure - the player would just have to pick up the coin again. 
• If a player tries to scale a wall, an ability check should be asked for, (usually acrobatics or athletics,) because falling off the wall is a realistic risk, with failure having consequences such as loss of HP, up to character death, depending on the height of the wall and what’s around it or at the bottom.
• Difficulty class is pretty easy too: Generally it will go from 0-20 at earlier levels, and up to 30 or higher at higher levels, due to bonuses etc. On the 0-20 scale, an easy task would have a DC of 5; medium - 10; hard- 15; and extremely hard - 20. Obviously you can tailor this to your own style of play. I’ve used DC’s of 12, 17 and so on. Generally though, you think about how hard something would be to achieve - take into account as many relevant factors as you can, such as:
• Is the wall they’re climbing wet, making it slippery?
• Is the door they’re trying to open sealed by magic as well as a mechanical lock?
• And so on. Then assign a DC, ask them to roll and describe the result.

Do you have any particular house rules? For my group, we decided on a flanking rule, as honestly, I was surprised that 5e didn’t have one in place. We decided as a group that if an enemy is engaged with a player, (or NPC,) and the player attacks from directly behind, that player rolls with advantage. The monster may then decide to face the attacking player as part of their move, negating the Advantage, but transferring it to the original player or NPC unless it turned so it could see both, or moved away, risking two attacks of opportunity.

If you have any in-house rules, session 0 is the best place to bring them up, so that players are reminded when the situation comes up in-game, rather than having a new rule sprung upon them in the heat of the moment, which can often feel unfair if it changes their expectations of what happens in that moment.

If you’re DM’ing for the first time, I highly recommend going with a pre-built campaign. There will still be a ton of reading and encounter building for you to do, as well as lots of improvisation as your players do things you never expected, but it takes the heavy lifting of world building off you. This lessens your burden and also allows you to learn from some of the best campaign writers out there.

Of course you can always homebrew a story into an established setting such as Faerun or Ebberon, using the relevant source books to ground your story in and provide a framework to hang it on.

Otherwise, you need to establish a setting, decide whether magic is prevalent or rare, write out a government, pantheon of gods, establish societies, factions and many other things, many of which may never see the kind of coverage in-game that you feel the amount of work you put in calls for. That’s just the way it is.

Prep time for sessions varies depending on various factors - have you read ahead to figure out the story arc for next session? Do you need to create/draw out maps? More on this in a moment Have you got all your encounters built, either on paper or D&D Beyond? Have you prepped a couple of other encounters, just in case your party speeds through your content way faster than you thought they would? Make sure to give yourself enough time between sessions to prep.

Theatre of the mind is essentially the DM describing every scene like the narrator of a fantasy novel. While this might sound like less work than drawing out maps either on paper or using tools like Roll20, Inkarnate etc, TotM requires a skill set involving writing, narration, performance, and improvisation.

Maps and minis can be useful for the players to get a general lay of the land both on the macro and micro scale - I use the map that comes with the Essentials Kit of the sword coast on one side to give players a sense of where they are in the world, and the other side, which shows a map of the town of Phandelin, to navigate their immediate surroundings.

I also use a dry erase battle map to either copy out the map of where they will visit this session and cover areas with black card until they are explored, or if they are visiting a large area with many rooms, I then copy out the maps from the campaign guide room by room onto graph paper, and put down each room as they encounter it.

During combat encounters, I find maps and minis are much easier for establishing distances and things like line of sight, as you can just refer to the map. Doing combat encounters as purely theatre of the mind is more difficult for players to get a grasp on which enemies they can see, or are in range of.

You don’t even have to spend a lot on monster minis - I use simple multicoloured board game “person” tokens to mark enemies and they players used those as well, until they bought their own minis. I’ll put a link in the show notes to them.

Ultimately the choice is up to you, but I find a combination of the two works best for me and our group. You can also buy maps, or multi-use tiles or entire scenery, but even with those I feel theatre of the mind still definitely has a place in your game and those descriptions can bolster scenery and set scenes and moods.

“Suddenly from somewhere in the dense brush to your right side, a rustle catches your attention, immediately followed by a volley of arrows that whistles past your head, thudding solidly into the side of the wagon you’ve been walking beside. The horses pulling the wagons rear and whinny, stopping in their tracks. A quick glance confirms that the rest of your party is in similar straights… what do you do?”

This is a good example of a...

Welcome to the first episode of I cast pod, a podcast about Dungeons and Dragons! Every two weeks I’m going to be talking about various aspects of D&D, with plenty of tips and tricks to add flavour to your own roleplay sessions.

Here’s a rundown of the first episode:

• 1.01: Intro to your host - I DM, but I’m no expert!
• 2.09: News - D&D Video games, Comics, Books, Merch & movie news from around the web.
• 4.43: What is D&D? 
• 6.41: D&D Basics
• 8.54: Three Aspects of Play:
• 9.37: Exploration
• 10.32: Roleplaying
• 13.19: Combat
• 17.51: Getting Started
• 19.20: Don’t I Need to Know a Lot to Play, Like Lore, and Maths?
• 20.10: Rolling Characters
• 21.37: Choose a Race
• 22.26: Choose a Class
• 24.24: Choose Your Alignment
• 25.57: Background
• 26.26: Ability Scores
• 29.38: Playing the Game
• 30.43: Ability Checks
• 33.20: Crits and Failures
• 34:28: Advantage and Disadvantage
• 34.59: Close

Links from the show:

Free basic rules PDF - It even has a blank character sheet template near the end.

https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/DnD_BasicRules_2018.pdf

Free, prebuilt character sheets from the starter set

https://media.wizards.com/downloads/dnd/StarterSet_Characters.pdf_

Character sheet for people with Dyslexia

https://www.geeknative.com/70088/dd-character-sheets-for-players-with-dyslexia/

More character sheet variants for people with Dyslexia

https://www.dyslexic-charactersheets.com

A handy table to work out modifier scores from ability rolls:

[https://dnd5e.info/using-ability-scores/ability-scores-and-modifiers/ - Click on ‘Customisation options on the left, then “Ability Scores and Modifiers”]

SyrinScape Fantasy & Sci-Fi Sounds player: (Used for some awesome sound effects during the show,)

[https://store.syrinscape.com/what-is-syrinscape/?att_icastpod]

I also used Freesounds.org for a few effects:

https://freesound.org

All content is copyrighted respective their original creators unless otherwise stated.

Welcome to I Cast Pod, a podcast about D&D. I’m Mike, your host, DM, and guide to all things dungeonesque and dragon-y. In our first episode, I’m going to be talking about what D&D is, and how to get started playing. We’ll cover D&D basics, game etiquette, the three aspects of play: Exploration, Role Playing, and Combat, Character Creation, Hits, Crits and more. 

So if you have just dipped your toe into the deep, deep waters of D&D - perhaps by watching or listening to Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, Acquisitions Incorporated, or any of a number of live play streams or podcasts or seen it on TV shows such as Community, Stranger Things, or Rick and Morty - the latter two of which actually have official D&D modules available now to play - and thought D&D looks like fun; or maybe you played a little in your youth and want to get back into it; or maybe you’ve just always been D&D curious, but have never had the chance to get involved - then this episode is for you.

So before we go any further, I figured I’d tell you a little bit about myself - in relation to D&D, so don’t worry, this won’t be my entire backstory!

I currently act as DM for a local group in my city that runs out of a cafe after hours. I have both played and DM’d in the past - but I’m no D&D expert. I have no degrees in Lore, my main playtime has been with 5th edition, which is the most recent version. I have a vague recollection of playing, I think, 4th edition a long time ago, but my passion for the game has developed much more recently. In fact, part of the reason for starting this podcast, was to help me learn more about the game and become a better DM for my group, and also a better player in general. So with that said, let’s learn together!

Baldur's Gate 3 being developed by Larian Studios, the people behind Divinity Original Sin 2. Considering that game is considered one of the most D&D-like experiences in a video game, this could be a great addition to the already popular series.

Dark Alliance - a reboot of the PS2/Xbox/GameCube game will be a 4 player co-op action RPG game featuring characters from R.A. Salvatore’s Icewind Dale trilogy. I for one, am excited at the prospect.

In fact up to 8 D&D video games are rumoured to be in production currently, all of which will feature single player campaigns of some sort, as well as co-op play.

For Critical Role fans, 2020 is going to be a good year. The Chronicles of Exandria is released on March 31st and Vox Machina Origins vol.2 is released May 28th.

In addition to those, Matt Mercer’s official collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, The Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount releases on March 17th!

The latest dice and miscellany set is looking very cool, and is based around Larael Silverhand, archmage of Waterdeep. It features blue dice, a double-sided map of the Sword Coast and the city of Waterdeep and 20 illustrated cards featuring Larael’s insights on key characters, locations and lore from across the Forgotten Realms. Larael Silverhand’s Explorer’s Kit releases on March 17th too. Might want to start saving for March.

There is also a D&D movie in the works! Considering the last major release was widely considered to be a pretty terrible movie, expectations should be low, hopefully paving the way for the team to knock it out of the park. Jonathan Goldstein and John Frances Daley were listed as writers in a recent tweet from Goldstein’s twitter account. Goldstein and Daley have Spider-Man: Homecoming; Horrible Bosses and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 among their writing credits, and described it as a “Guardians of the Galaxy-tone movie in a Tolkien-like universe. Fingers are crossed. 

D&D is currently hugely popular - mostly due to the internet, particularly YouTubers, podcasters and live streamers putting content online in ways never before possible and enabling more people to get involved with the game. What was once the preserve of just a handful of people around a table, or the occasional small convention, D&D is now a legitimate entertainment phenomenon.

But what is it?

Well, let me ask you a couple of questions:

First: What do you think the definition of a game is?

This was a question I was asked at college - I studied computer science, but the course was geared towards video game development, hence the question. The answer, it turned out, could be boiled down to the phrase “A series of interesting choices.”

Second: What do you think of when I say the word “Storytelling”?

Maybe you think of books, films, or graphic novels. Or perhaps you think of daring adventurers, returning from expeditions with tales of derring-do; Or greek plays, brought to life by actors playing the roles of valiant heroes, fickle gods and terrifying monsters. 

D&D is, in some ways, the summation of all of these things. It is, at its essence, a collaborative improvised storytelling adventure, set in a fantasy realm filled with the aforementioned heroes, gods and monsters daring adventurers, misfortunes, mayhem, magic, and more. What’s great about it, is you either get to be one of the heroes, or maybe, if you’re up for more of a challenge, you get to be something like a god… the DM.

In D&D, the players each take on the role of an adventurer and the DM acts as both guide to the world at large, as well as a kind of referee. 

The players tell the DM what they want to do in any given situation, and the DM, alongside certain dice rolls, decide whether the character succeeds or fails. The dice are there to add an element of chance, otherwise there would be no stakes at all, and everyone would automatically succeed at everything. While that sounds great, it would make for a very boring adventure, because drama… comes from… conflict. sfx: swordplay

Conflict doesn’t necessarily mean combat btw, - it just means there are forces that oppose what you want to achieve, be it gravity; sfx: drop or an ageless Lich, hellbent on revenge for that time your party mooned him from the side of a flying carpet, or it could just be the risk of the consequences of failure.

I always say to my players, “Never ask me if you can do something, tell me what you want to do and we’ll figure out if it’s possible. Bear in mind that even though game worlds generally run on something like real world physics, magic is generally part of most, if not all settings, and can often circumvent or even negate physics in lots of interesting ways. And even if you don’t have a particular spell that can make you, say, levitate, sfx: up we go! in order to grasp some elusive… high up… treasure… gah! maybe someone else in your party does have one and can cast it on you, or even on the chest to dislodge it. sfx: dropping coins

D&D is the ultimate sandbox adventure game, where you really are only limited by your imaginations. Well, that and the dice. sfx: dice rolls

In an ideal game the party all works together towards some common goal and the DM facilitates the adventure.

D&D Adventures have 3 main components: Exploration, Role Playing and Combat. Some games can involve more of one than the other parts. For your first campaign, try to get your DM to run a balanced adventure, so that everyone can figure out what they enjoy most, but get to play all aspects.

Note Generally games start with the party in a relatively safe spot, such as a village, or a tavern in a town or city, but could start with the party in prison, or in the midst of a surprise attack. It depends on your DM and the type of game they want to run.

involves not only finding out where you are, either through theatre of the mind style descriptions from the DM, or from uncovering portions of a map, or both - but it might also involve things like checking for traps, sfx:trap searching for clues to your goal, checking for hidden monsters and other unknown dangers. In D&D, your party are rarely out of peril for long. Most often, your DM will ask you for a Perception check if you say you are specifically searching, to see what you find. We’ll cover ability checks later, but for now, just know that you will need to roll a D20, sfx: die roll and tell your DM what score you got, including any relevant modifiers. Your DM will then tell you what you perceive or discover, if anything.

takes a few forms. In most cases players describe what their characters are doing to the DM and Party in the 1st person:

“I walk slowly down the corridor, checking the walls, floor and ceiling carefully as I go for traps or signs of anything unusual…”sfx die roll “A 1?” sfx: willhelm scream

Speaking in first person helps with immersion and getting into character, although some people prefer to speak in the third person: “Darla vaults the crumbling wall and dashes to the aid of her friends.” Generally in my experience 1st person is better, but the DM should at the very least make sure everyone in the party is going to be doing either 1st or 3rd person, otherwise it can feel a bit odd if only one of the party speaks in 3rd person, but check with your DM if you’re unsure.

Role playing doesn’t mean you have to put on a voice or act out scenes, but if you feel capable of doing either, go for it!

Another time role playing often happens, is when talking to NPC’s, or Non player characters. These are any characters that show up in the story who are embodied by the DM. It could be a friendly tavern owner, or a bored shop keeper. It could be an evil villain or a possible opponent. Make use of your notebooks to write down the names of NPC’s as you come across them and any relevant information either about them, or that the party learns while talking to them - you never know when it might come in handy later. It’s also useful to keep notes about the campaign in general. Some groups nominate a scribe, other groups just have everyone taking their own notes. Also I said ‘possible opponent’ because part of the beauty of D&D is that sometimes you don’t have to fight certain creatures or beings - sometimes you can talk your way out of a situation, maybe changing your opponents mind altogether and getting them to fight for your cause, or you could try bartering, bribing, blackmailing or even seducing your way out! The possibilities are literally only limited by the imaginations of the party, which is a major part of the attraction of the game.

The main part of role playing though, is playing the game as you imagine your character would, based on your character’s stats, alignment and background - more on these later, and using only the knowledge your character would have within the setting.

In D&D is turn based and one turn simulates six seconds at a time. There is often a joke made that in D&D, a twelve hour march can take seconds in real time, whereas a five minute skirmish can take three hours. Combat most often happens when the players encounter monsters - a general, collective term for all antagonistic creatures and beings in the game. You’ll know when combat is beginning because the DM will ask everyone to “Roll for initiative”. Everyone will roll a D20 sfx: die roll and add any relevant bonuses, and tell the DM. Initiative is simply the order that players and monsters will take turns in each round of combat, with higher rolls going first, through to those who rolled lower. The DM will roll for the monsters initiative and then will have some way of keeping track, whether just on a notepad, or by handing out numbered cards, etc. Initiative is rolled anew for each combat encounter, but plays no role in out of combat play.

Next the DM will establish where all the players and monsters are. Distance is important in combat for both melee and ranged attacks. sfx: weapon clash/bow firing

During combat you can do two main things during your turn. You can move and perform an action. You can move up to your character’s speed, which will be on your character sheet - usually around 25-30 feet per turn. You can move all at once, or move, then do an action, such as attacking, then move again. 

Be aware though that if you fail to kill a monster with your attack and then move away, this can provoke something called an attack of opportunity by the monster, where it basically gets to take a swipe at you as you try to move away, sfx: growl & swipe but splitting your movement can lead to more tactical battles when it is possible.

You action can be to attack; cast a spell; ready an action - usually you describe an event that will trigger the action, like “if the goblin stands on the trapdoor, I’m going to pull the lever,”; help another character; dash - this uses your action to double your movement speed for the round, but may mean you can’t do anything else; disengage, which involves moving away from an enemy without provoking an opportunity attack; dodge; search; hide; or use an object, such as a magical or non magical item.

There are small actions that you can do during combat that don’t use your action to perform, such as kicking a small pebble, drawing the weapon you’re about to attack with, pick up a dropped weapon, or pull a lever, for example. sfx: Goblin surprise yell

To attack, you have to pick a creature in range. To determine if you’re in range of the creature, check the spell or weapon description. Melee usually requires you to be within five feet of the enemy, and ranged varies. Ask your DM for guidance. Then the DM will tell you if there are any special circumstances, for example if the creature is in cover or obscured in some way. Then roll a D20 to see if you hit. Add any modifiers - weapons and spell descriptions usually tell you if they have a bonus ‘to hit’ and tell your DM. If you equal or exceed the number of the armour class of the creature, you hit and can roll damage dice directed by the weapon or spell. The DM probably won’t tell you the actual armour class, or AC of the enemies you encounter, just if you hit them or not. Some DM’s prefer it if players don’t try to work it out going by previous dice rolls, as that’s classed as meta gaming - using knowledge about the game that your character wouldn’t have for an advantage. In practice though, as a player it’s kind of difficult not to notice if another players misses with a 14 and you hit with a 15 though. 

Combat ends when all the enemies are dead, when the party is all unconscious or dead, which is fairly rare, or under other conditions - if a single enemy is left they may bargain for their lives, enemies may be taken prisoner or debriefed for information, or the enemies may rout and flee the battle.

There are lots of ways to play these days. The traditional way is to gather a group of people into a room, with character sheets, dice, notepads and pencils. 

The absolute minimum you’ll need to play are 2 people, one set of dice, the basic rules, which are available online for free - check the show notes for the link, a notepad or paper and a pencil. That’s it.

A usual group will be about 5-7 people, including the DM. 

There are lots of ways to find a group to play with. You could ask friends and family; check at your college or place of work to see if there’s already a group you can join; check out local cafes, coffee shops, hobby or comic shops. You could google the phrase “Dungeons and Dragons games near me.” You could check the Meetup app or other local list apps like Gumtree or Craigslist. Obviously as always, take precautions when meeting people from online list groups - have a fully charged cellphone with you, meet somewhere public and if you can go with a friend, even better. 

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can also play online without leaving your house with tools like D&D Beyond, Fantasy Grounds, Roll 20 and others. You could also just set up a Skype conference call, use Discord with Sidekick and any number of other options.

No! To both things. Basic maths skills are all that’s required - usually adding modifier scores to dice rolls. Occasionally there might be some light multiplication or division but nothing more than that. You can use the calculator on your phone, or even download an app to roll your dice for you. Some even allow you to plug in your stats so the app even calculates modifiers too!

As to lore, you really don’t need to know any to begin with. If you have even a passing acquaintance with the fantasy genre - even if you’ve only seen the Lord of The Rings movies, you’ve got enough understanding to start, and you’ll learn as much as

A trailer for the upcoming podcast, "i Cast Pod!" A Dungeons and Dragons discussion show.