#system resource

☆ Discussing ☆

Before you start running away with campaigns and character sheets, make sure you get a feel for how others in the system feel about playing D&D together.

Here are some questions that might help:

⁎ Is there an interest in the system to play together? Which members of the system are interested? How many players might there be?

⁎ Does everyone know the rules of the game? Are aspects of the game confusing or intimidating?

⁎ Are there any younger members of the system who might want to play, but find the rules confusing?

⁎ Will the game/campaign potentially deal with any triggering topics?

⁎ What kind of game does the system want to play? Serious? Laidback? Something in the middle?

If you can, try to deal with any concerns and questions early on.

In our experience, we've found that making a private discord server with PluralKit was incredibly useful for discussing the gameplay, character and plot ideas, role-play limits, etc.

You may also need to look into ways of simplifying the game: looking up D&D resources for new or young players may help! (I might make another guide for simplifying D&D/resources for that; let us know if that's something you'd like to see!)

☆ Campaign ☆

Your next step will be to either choose a prewritten campaign or write your own.

Out of the two, prewritten campaigns save the most time.

You can find loads of campaigns; some for free; on websites like this!

☆ Memory ☆

Another thing to keep in consideration is how dissociative amnesia might play into all this.

For example, we forget things often and use that to its advantage (which, as a bonus, helps us deal with the otherwise unpleasant part of dissociative amnesia). We're writing our own campaign and usually forget what we wrote, which makes playing through our campaign surprising! In cases where we do remember what the campaign notes are, we just view that as following a basic script: and we let dice rolls bring in the element of surprise instead, or go off-script and improvise!

If your system forgets things easily, you might also want to keep session notes: jot down which players were present, character actions, discoveries, etc.

For systems who have low amnesia barriers, then I'd highly suggest reading the next section:

☆ Random Events ☆

Rolling for random events, NPCs and loot can spice up an otherwise predictable game.

As an example: if the campaign you're running puts players in a dungeon, you could have the next room they go to feature a random enemy, rather than anything prewritten.

(Keep challenge ratings and player levels in mind; otherwise you might be sending some poor Level 1 adventurers to fight a CR 13 Beholder.)

I highly recommend donjon for all your random generation needs. You can also look into random tables for DMs, here's a huge masterlist of all sorts.

This can make the game feel a little disjointed and incoherent at times, but that's when you can: make up lore explanations, dismiss any completely unworkable rolls, retcon, or anything else you can think of.

☆ Playing the Game ☆

We play D&D exclusively on our PC, but you could feasibly do all this on mobile or with paper.

First, you'll need character sheets: if you're playing 5e on PC/Mobile, you can find a form-fillable PDF sheet here.

You'll also need dice, maps, and all your other standard D&D equipment (we use online dice, random gens, and move tokens around maps on paint.net).

We also use our private discord server and Tupperbox to role-play as our characters and document our campaign:

(Our campaign is very serious, as you can see 💀)

We take turns playing the GM/DM: sometimes they're also acting as a player, other times they're solely being the GM/DM.

The GM/DM usually also records if rolls have been a success or fail; we used to record what the dice roll result was (we have a separate channel for rolling with the dice maiden bot) but we've stopped doing that as much because our sessions take long enough as it is.

If you decide to play how we do, my biggest advice is: save, save everything, and save often.

Our method also creates many tabs and windows, but luckily, we micromanage all that fine: if you struggle, try grouping tabs if you use Firefox, as well as closing tabs once you no longer need them.

If using discord isn't your style, then experiment with different ways of playing: in a document, in your notes app, with paper, etc.

☆ Scheduling ☆

Unless your system allows for voluntary switches/your D&D party are often co-con, you'll probably find some players will not be available to play when others are.

The way we handle this is by essentially splitting the party up, as well as playing for certain players when they're absent (with their permission).

So far, we haven't even left the starting zone (we're on Session 3), so we've yet to see how much trouble splitting the party might cause. Hopefully, we'll get back to you on that one.

In some cases, where there is only one of us fronting, we just get our character to explore an area alone whilst the rest of the party rests in-game.

Another way to play solo could be to play through a character backstory, or in a one-shot campaign.

☆ Warning + Our Experiences ☆

In our experience, we've found playing D&D together has been really fun, but the one downside is that it has caused a few crowded headspaces. We've got nine players total (not the system total, just nine of us are D&D nerds), and on one occasion six of us decided we wanted to play D&D. We had to step back because that made us incredibly dissociated and switchy.

If you're prone to that, then definitely consider that might happen.

Another problem might come from suddenly switching midway through playing solo, or you might switch out during a session: in that case, you can cut the session short/other players can either take your character with you, or your character can just go back to camp for the rest of the session.

(Or, like we do because we all find it funny: just leave the character where they were before the player switched out.)

For us, that is part of the appeal: we've played with others outside our headspace and have switched midway through playing, where we've then had to figure out what we're doing, what our character was just doing, and who we're in call with. That used to stress us out, whilst this way we can literally just step away/stop playing.

A less serious note is that, like any D&D session, they tend to drag for hours: keep that in mind and don't stay up too late like us! And always hydrate, eat, and take breaks every so often!

☆ Bonus Resources!! ☆

Simple D&D 5e Guide, including tips for DMing: https://easydnd.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/easy-dd-v0.0.pdf

The best generator and D&D websites ever: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ and https://rollforfantasy.com/

5e Wiki: https://dnd5e.wikidot.com/