I’m going to be fully honest and preface this before I get down to business: These articles are as much for myself as they are for you, the reader.
It’s my excuse to research — as well as an attempt to teach you about — the intricacies of the game, thus learning more about it myself… on top of being a kick in the ass to create more content for this site.
Thanks for being here, by the way.
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D&D is a game with an intricate set of physics and mechanics that rule the world, and much like ours has death, taxes, gravity and (usually) a very round, spherical Earth.
Buuuuut, naturally, there are things that can seem to contradict these “laws” as it were.
In the game world, it’s all up to the DM to decide what is ultimately the most exciting for all at the table for the purpose of the campaign or that single session or small story arc. My humble opinion is that the rules are written simply to be guidelines; something to be adapted and built on.
Which is exactly what I hope to do with this series.
What to expect
What is this series? Happy I asked.
Safe to say the second chapter of the Player’s Handbook, “Playing The Game,” takes up the smallest chunk of that dense tome. My goal is to expand on that.
Most of the sections in that chapter have some very chunky fundamentals that are only given a few thin lines of text. I find that insufficient. If you’re a new player or DM asking yourself, “How do I play DnD 5e,” or “how do I run a fifth edition game of Dungeons and Dragons,” this subsection of the site will eventually have the archive of information you’re looking for.
I’ve already dabbled in this before with Concentration, and The Dispatcher has as well with Silvered Weapons, spell slots, and other topics, so presume something along those formulae for following posts: an introduction to the topic, how it works, its potential uses, and likely an example or two.
My goal is to give you all enough information (either new or presented in a fresh perspective) so that you can run the game confidently. You won’t have to look up these rules online or in a book; it’ll be all up in your brains!
Ultimately, I want to speed up play while making it a bit more interactive. I was going to say “interesting” but my Creative Writing professors would haunt me everlong.
Topics to cover
A few things I plan to cover (though I’m sure there will be more) are…
- Status effects
- Using your reaction
- Exploration: large and small scale
- Stealth and hiding
- Dropping to 0 HP
- Poisons and such
- Resistances and vulnerabilities
- Prepared vs known spells
- Using your skills and skill breakdowns
- Altered gravity
- Mental/cognitive impairments that an adventurer is like to experience (concussions, shock from dealing with high stress situations [murdering and seeing things murdered] along others)
So be sure to come back to the Dispatch at the start of your week for articles featuring each of these points, and many more to come.
