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.

Episode Transcript

Cold Open

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.

A Little About Me

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!

NewsVideo games: 

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.

Comics

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.

Books

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

Merch

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.

Movies:

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. 

What Is D&D?

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.

D&D Basics

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.

3 Aspects of Play

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.

Exploration…

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.

Role playing…

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.

Combat…

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.

Getting StartedHow Can I Start Playing?

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.

Don't I need to know a lot of lore/maths to play?

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