HI all! Looking for a starter set to play with family. Any suggestion?

Hi all!

We’re a family of three, my wife, my son (11M) and me. We would like to start playing “real” D&D, after trying a very simplified version we bought a couple years ago.

I’ve been playing “real” D&D with my friends many years ago, but only as a player, never as the DM. What I’m looking for is a set comprising a Player’s Handbook, a DM Handbook and Rules (?). I’m not really sure sure what else I would need to start… I’d be the DM and the player, at least at the beginning…

Can anyone point me towards a good starter pack, with the minimum needed books? Also, any additional suggestion would be welcome.

Thanks a lot in advance!

EDIT: Thanks to everybody! These have been very useful suggestions. I think we may start with the “Starter Set” (cheap, slightly more advanced than the one we’re using right now) and if the family enjoy it we may explore the “core rule set” afterwards. Hope my son may appreciate this kind of games, as a healtier alternative to phone/pc video games :-)

vox,
vox avatar

If you're not married to playing 5e, Pathfinder has an amazing beginner box that slowly introduces the ruleset. Then you have the benefit of an open source system with the full srd online in an official source.

https://paizo.com/pathfinder/beginnerbox

MacedWindow,
@MacedWindow@lemmy.world avatar

If you do decide to buy the full books the Player’s Handbook should be your priority. I’ve been playing on and off with friends for awhile now and its all we’ve ever needed. The others are great for designing adventures but not really required for playing, and I’ve been able to find any statblocks I need online easily. But when its time to create a character, level up, or lookup a spell the handbook is great to have around.

Engywuck, (edited )

Buying the books may come, but probably at a later time, if my son enjoys the game. At the moment I don’t think the books would make much sense for him.

MacedWindow,
@MacedWindow@lemmy.world avatar

Totally fair, I started with the starter myself. I just know I put off buying the books for forever because I thought I needed all of them which would have been like $150, when really the PHB is 90% of the value (imo)

Hope you guys have fun in the realms!

Engywuck,

Thanks, much appreciated :-)

Toes,

Magpie Games has a simplified table top game of avatar the last Airbender that I think would be more approachable for kids.

dumples,
dumples avatar

Dnd has the slimmed down Basic Rules for free. It should have enough to get started playing from a rules standpoint. They are also free low level characters online as well if you don't want to make them yourself.

They don't have an official free adventure but there are plenty out there. You can obviously make them and the basic rules have a DM section.

Obviously this is recommend for the cost. The starter set and essential kits are good as well. However, they do have a cost.

Engywuck,

Thank you. I don’t mind shelling out 20-25 euros for a set. Maybe this would make the game more appealing for the kid :-)

dumples,
dumples avatar

I liked the Essential Set more than the starter set but I bought the Essential Kit after I started playing for a while.

The basic rules are great since you can print off a copy for everyone as their own reference and can even get just a subset for what they need to know as a character. That is great as a replacement PHB for newbies until you want to go all in on costs. I think the basic rules are identical to the starter set but I don't remember exactly.

sam,

I’ve started DMing with 3 friends a few months ago. None of us have played before, and we’ve been playing the Essentials Kit campaign. It comes with a simplified rulebook for the pre-made characters and some really good pre generated quests and story. I’d highly recommend it as a guide where you can either follow it completely or make up some side quests as you want.

I also picked up the Starter Kit but honestly it didn’t contain enough for me in the beginning so we went with the Essentials Kit.

The rule box set with the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, and Monster Manual is also good, however the only one I’ve used each session is the Players Handbook to give more context and allow the players to expand a bit, but it’s definitely not required at least for the first few sessions.

Engywuck,

Essentials Kit

Thank you. I’ve been looking for this but seems to be out of stock everywhere (online, at least).

Kichae,

The new Starter Kit is out and about now. I grabbed one a few weeks ago for my step-son. Are you able to find that in stock? It seemed pretty good from my quick scan.

Engywuck,

Yeah, that can be found pretty easily. It just seems to be even more “basic” than the Essential stuff, from some reviews that I found online. But, hey, it should be more than enough for a start.

Merwyn, (edited )

You already had good answers but I would like to add my two cents:

The “starter set” is the cheaper option (less than 20$). It has a small prewritten adventure, a set a prewritten characters of level 1 with backstory, and the basic rules you need for this adventure.

Good point for it: cheap, the bare minimum you need to dive directly in it, already contain an adventure so it’s easier for you as a new GM.

Bad point: it only contain a small subset of the rules, and will become “useless” if you decide to go further and buy the full books. Also, if your wife or kid do not like the pregen characters, you will not have the full rules related to character creation.

Then you have the core rule set already linked.

Good point: everything you need for a very long time, you will have all the rules to run anything you want. Other books are “only” going to add more options (spell, items, characters building options, ect).

Bad point: the price (120$), more information so it may be harder to digest everything and “get into it”. It does not contain pre written adventure. You will have to find one separate or make one yourself, there are some free options available.

On top of that you don’t need anything else exept pen and paper. Dice are of course greatly recommended, but you can start with some free phone app.

LemmySoloHer,
@LemmySoloHer@lemmy.world avatar

I’m sure someone more experienced than me can give you more confident suggestions but I’ve been seeing the Starter Kit, Essentials Kit, and Core Rules Gift Set advertised more for the holidays. The descriptions make some of them sound like massive expansions on the bare basics and thereby possibly more overwhelming than you’d probably need at first. I think some include location books that may be different from the kinds of environments you want in your own campaign too so be sure to examine what’s included.

I’ve mostly only played and DM’d in homebrew groups so I’m probably too loose with it all but I will say you definitely need those two things you mentioned. Here’s what I found necessary to really get things started:

You can also pick up a campaign book that interests you, or find some of the cool free one-shot campaigns right here in this very Lemmy community to cut down on the world and quest building! And of course, before I waste any more of your time, make sure to check out the DM Academy Lemmy community that’s all about teaching and learning how to DM!

Strit,
@Strit@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show avatar

I wouldn’t call the Paper for maps and the figurines required. They are a great visual aid, but for people just starting out as a DM it’s overkill.

The main reason to play D&D, for me, is to use your imagination. So as long as you describe the environment and what happens, most should get by with just a players handbook, dungeon masters guide (for special items and such), dice, sheets and pencils. The screen is also a good tool, especially for some quick information on states. But it is not required to run a small campaign.

Engywuck,

The main reason to play D&D, for me, is to use your imagination.

I agree on this on so many levels… Especially for my son, which unfortunately is starting to be more and more attracted by phone/console games.

LemmySoloHer,
@LemmySoloHer@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah that’s fair. I figured since the kid is 11 years old that the figures and paper really help them visualize obstacles and enemy positions, etc. And my anecdotal experience with making it much easier when I was a DM to keep track of where everyone was, the graph squares making it easy to show how far they could move per turn in battle, if there was anything blocking ranged attack paths, if certain spells could reach their target, etc.

I’m no career campaigner though so I don’t know how hard and fast these things go when calculating if they can get close enough to a target to attack during their turn and all that. Would things like movement speed not matter so much in this instance and it would play more like a Choose Your Own Adventure book kind of thing? That does sound way easier. If keeping track of positions and stuff in combat is still fairly strict though I’d totally need paper and figs to remember the specifics.

calamitycastle,

There are two starter sets that are relatively cheap, the newest one is literally called ‘starter set’ and a slightly older one called the ‘essentials kit’.

These don’t contain full rules or player handbooks or anything, but are intended to provide enough to get going which is what it sounds like you need.

You can DEFINITELY play with just two player characters and a games master and I would strongly recommend jumping in to the latter role fully, without trying to also play along. It can be done but your players will be relying on you to keep the game moving and interesting, as well as playing all the other characters they will meet.

I’ve run the essentials kit and while it has its flaws it totally works as intended so I can vouch for that

CombatWombatEsq,

This seems like the starter pack you’re looking for: dnd.wizards.com/products/dd-core-rules-gift-set – there is no Rules book, as such, just the phb and dms guide.

Engywuck,

Thank you. This may be a bit overkill to start with (you know… jobs, school, house, real life, school and so on, like everybody else…), but I’ll surely get them if my family starts enjoying the game as I used to when I was (much) younger :-)

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