Long post incoming; some of this stuff is copied from other posts I've made:

Getting into D&D is going to be a lot simpler and easier to rolling your own RPG system, unless the system you design is ultra simple and rules-light. And unless your friends happen to be game design experts or prodigies, what they come up with probably isn't going to be as fun, balanced or robust as a system designed and iterated upon by professionals and the RPG geek community.

D&D isn't rocket science, but the first few sessions will almost certainly be fraught with confusion, rules referencing, and/or people getting the rules wrong... but all that's OK. The key is to keep a relaxed attitude and for the DM err on the side of what seems most fun and entertaining. After a few sessions, everyone will probably have a decent grasp on the fundamental rules and things will go a bit more smoothly.

If you do decide to play D&D, you have to decide upon an edition to play, as there are several and they aren't compatible with each other. Right now the two most popular and recent editions are 3.5 and 4th edition. A 3rd party spin-off of 3.5 called Pathfinder is also popular. A big advantage to Pathfinder if you're on a tight budget is that pretty much the entire system is available online for free. For your conservative friends, the fact that it's not called D&D may also eliminate some of the social stigma, making it an easier sell.

My preferred edition though, and the one that is most newbie-friendly, is 4th edition. A slightly dated and incomplete overview of 4e's rules is available in this free quickstart guide. This tells you about 90% of what you need to know to sit down at a table and play as a player, and includes some pregenerated characters, but lacks the rules for character creation and progression.

A free 4e adventure, Keep on the Shadowfell can also be downloaded and perused by the DM, but KotS is not the finest example of adventure design, though you can find fan suggestions online to improve and tweak it.

As far as what products you should or need to buy, the Red Box Starter is probably the simplest and most straight-forward route. Avoid paying more than $25 for it new (a lot of 4e products seem to have spotty availability, which means sometimes they are overpriced).

Like the free quickstart guide, however, the Red Box does not you access to the full rules, but rather a simplified and stripped down overview. It almost follows the model of a choose your own adventure book in some respects rather than true D&D, which can make it a good stepping stone, though some players are impatient with it. It does, however, include some items that will remain useful to your game even when you outgrow the rules and content of the box: a double-sided poster map which can be reused, punch-out cardstock tokens to represent player characters and monsters and a set of dice. At $20 shipped, it's a good value if you feel your need a really gentle introduction into D&D.

However, if the members of your group are not averse to doing a couple hours of reading before their first adventure, and would rather skip the frying pan and jump straight into the fire, you can safely skip the Red Box.

What you really need is: a book that descriptions character creation and level 1-30 character options, an encounter design guide for the DM, a monster resource, plus some physical tools/props.

As for as the player resource goes, any one of the following will fulfill the need: the Player's Handbook, Heroes of the Forgotten Lands, Heroes of the Fallen Kingdoms. I would recommend the latter two, as they are 4e "Essentials" products, which are more up to date and feature more newbie-friendly steamlined design. However, all of the books are compatible with each other, and you can use them all.

You also need a book that tells the DM how to design encounters, run skill challenges, and reward teh players. You have basically three options here: the Dungeon Master's Guide, the DM's Book from the DM's Kit or the Rules Compendium.

Each has their pros and cons. The DMG is written with the new DM in mind and gives you all the rules info you need that isn't include in the players' books, but as one of the originally published books in the edition, it's less refined and does not include the latest errata (which you can download online, though it's a bit of a pain to read through all of it). It's probably your least expensive option.

The DM's Kit seems to be out of print (or on a reduced print run) so it's selling at above retail price. IMO it'd be the best option for a new DM, as it contains useful goodies (tokens, maps, and two quality published adventures) like the Red Box, plus a more up to date version of the Dungeon Master's Guide. But if you have to pay $55+, that's kind of difficult to justify.

The Rules Compendium has all of the rules information a DM needs, and it includes most of the latest errata, and it's generally a handy reference that you'll probably want to get eventually anyway. The problem is just that: it's a reference, and is light on insight and advice on how to build entertaining adventures and run a fun game. Like the DM's kit, it may be out of print, but it's still a good value. The Rules Compendium may be the best option if you're willing to read forums and web sites for DMing advice, which can be system neutral.

The DM also needs a monster resource. Hands down, the best option here is the Monster Vault. It's basically a far superior revision of 4e's Monster Manual, and contains an adventure, a ton of tokens and a battle map to boot. It's a steal at $20.

Another recommended product would be a D&D Insider subscription, which will give you access to the Character Builder, which as the name implies, makes building/progressing characters a cinch, and the Compendium, which gives you access to every bit of crunch in the entire published history of 4e: all the classes, powers, feats, races, monsters, items, themes, etc. as well as a glossary which describes much of the rules. You also get access to Dragon and Dungeon magazine archives, which contains a lot of flavor, design advice, and many pre-made adventures (see this thread for some highlights). It also has a handy monster builder tool. A subscription is $10/month or less if you commit to a longer subscription. Getting one subscription and sharing it among the group can be worthwhile.

Finally, you also need some physical things:

• A sufficiently large playing surface and seating.
  
• Pencils, paper for character sheets.
  
• Dice. You could get by with a single set (including 1d20, 1d12, 1d10, 1d8, 1d6, 1d4) but you probably want a full set for every player plus some duplicates. A pound of dice would likely suffice.
  
• A blank/customizable gridded map. There are at least three good options for this:
  
• A basic Paizo flip mat to be used in conjunction with erasable markers
  
• Gridded easel pads which work equally well for preparing detailed, pretty maps before a session, or whipping up something quick and dirty at the table -- a single pad will last you a good long time. This is what I use.
  
• Gaming paper which is like a compromise between the previous two options.
  
• Miniatures, tokens or other markers to represent monsters. As previously mentioned, several 4e Essentials products include tokens (if you get the Monster Vault, you're set). You can also buy miniatures from gaming stores, on eBay, etc. or you can use just about anything that's roughly a square inch in diameter -- coins, polished stones used in aquarium bedding, dice (though this can get confusing), etc.
  
  Finally, as for convincing your friends, as you've said, D&D is essentially no different from Skyrim, World of Warcraft, etc. D&D is pretty much the granddaddy of those games. If you can tolerate the "occult" elements in those other games, there shouldn't be anything offensive about D&D. And ultimately, the DM and players have full control over what they want to allow in the game. Have a discussion and decide if there's any subject matter that is the party finds offensive and exclude it from the game (or re-fluff it so it it's not so offensive).

Made a board game sale list for Prime Day, figured I'd share. Bolded prices indicate all-time low on CCC:

• 7 Wonders | $28.99 | 3-7 players | ~30-45 Minutes | 7.8 on BGG - This is a fantastic game to introduce people to "tableau building" and "card drafting." If you're not familiar, a tableau is the cards in front of you that are part of your "engine" going forward, usually you will add cards to it that add synergy to your strategy. Card drafting is when players have a hand of cards, choose one, and then pass to the person next to them. This game can fit up to 7 and it doesn't really bog the game down. I'm not in love with this game, but at this price I think it's a very fair offering for a game that once taught and played once, flows really nicely and makes for a great game to drink and talk while playing rather than being buried in thought about what to do.
  
  
• 7 Wonders: Duel | $17.81 | 2 Players | 20-30 Minutes | 8.1 on BGG - This is a 2 player adaptation of 7 Wonders and it's quite a great version. Instead of card drafting by passing hands, there is a "market" that opens up further as more cards are chosen in which players take turns choosing from. It offers an intense 2 player back and forth of "chicken" in a way that flows nicely and culminates in a satisfying, even if sometimes mean, ending. Often credited as one of the best 2 player games out there, especially with expansions.
  
  
  
• Agricola | $32.89 | 1-4 Players | 30-150 Minutes | 8.0 on BGG - I have never played this but you can find lots of excellent discussion about this on BGG and /r/boardgames. Ultimately it's a beefier board game about managing your farm to take care of your family. Sounds thrilling right? Well apparently it really is. It's currently rated the 25th bestboard game of all-time, and is often mentioned among some of the great games out there. This is an excellent price for this game new, so if there's any interest, go watch a review of two.
  
  
• Carcassonne | $19.99 | 2-4 Players | ~30 Minutes | 7.4 on BGG - This is an excellent tile laying game for gamers and non-gamers alike. It's simple to teach, takes almost no time to set-up, and can easily be expanded to fit 5 players. If you end up loving this, there are many expansions for it to add depth, or silliness, whichever you prefer. This has become a staple in my circle of friends who don't really play board games because it's so approachable.
  
  
• Isle of Skye | $24.35 | 2-5 Players | 30-50 Minutes | 7.5 on BGG - I've never played this, but it's been on my list for a while as a tile laying game with more complexity than Carcassonne. I don't know much about it, but this is a great price and those with Irish heritage might love the theme. Edit: Well this is embarrassing, Isle of Skye is in Scotland, sorry for that.
  
  
• Pandemic: Fall of Rome | $27.99 | 1-5 Players | 30-60 Minutes | 7.8 on BGG - This is a variation of the much beloved game Pandemic. In this variation, you and up to 4 other players are taking control of Roman armies to defend against the oncoming tribes attempting to take over a weakened Rome. You will use your unique powers and randomly drawn cards to work together with the other players in this cooperative game. If you've played base Pandemic you will know what to expect, but this version has some cool thematic changes that have many reviewers calling it the second best iteration of the Pandemic series.
  
  
• Patchwork | $17.84 | 2 Players | ~20 Minutes | 7.7 on BGG - This is an excellent 2 player game using spacial skills to build out your quilt in a sort of "Tetris" way. You need to manage buttons (currency) and time to efficiently build your quilt with as little empty spots as possible. It's a darling of the community and designed by the great Uwe Rosenberg. People meme about it because it's often recommended, but there's a reason why it is.
  
  
• Photosynthesis | $21.11 | 2-4 Players | 30-60 Minutes | 7.2 on BGG - I've never played this, but it's quite a nice looking game on the table. It's about growing trees while using a limited amount of sunlight - or that's how it's been described to me anyway. I've heard that this game can get pretty cutthroat, especially at higher player counts, because of how limited the board space gets.
  
  
• The Castles of Burgundy | $19.20 | 2-4 Players | 45-90 Minutes | 8.1 on BGG - One of the finest board games I've ever played in spite of the ugly art and theme of it. Visually, I find nothing about this appealing, but the gameplay is so fantastic that I fell in love with it immediately. You have 25 turns in which you are using two dice each turn which are used to make decisions on how to build out your board to gain victory points. The actions are mostly easy to understand, and you're never screwed over by a bad roll because bad rolls can be mitigated via worker resources. There is a good amount of strategic depth to it, minor "meanness" in "screwing over" opponents, and I mostly feel happy with every round - it's a rare game of satisfaction each turn. My only complaint is that the yellow tiles are all unique which turns into a lot of, "What does that one do?" which is mitigated with player aides you can find on BGG. Warning, new print coming out this year that may or may not make the art look better, but the new print will have all expansions. With that said, for $19.20 this is a no-brainer if you want something more complex than something like Catan.
  
  
• The Quest for El Dorado | $19.99 | 2-4 Players | ~45 Minutes| 7.6 on BGG - This is a great deck-building racing game to get to El Dorado first. It's simple to learn and honestly my only complaint is that the game takes up a lot of space. The map is completely variable and there are some official variants in the book, as well as many others on BGG on the files section. If you enjoy the concept of building a deck to race through the treacherous lands to get to El Dorado, this is a great game. Warning, there is a new edition coming out with new artwork, so you may want to hold off.

Phew This'll be a long a post, but certainly reward to read by the end of it. Don't worry about 2E replacing anything, as that takes time to do and is at least two years aeay from being a thing, even if it's fulling released this year. Playing D&D/Pathfinder really is the Nerdiest, Nerd thing I've ever done, and it is a lot of fun! Watch +DawnforgedCast's Session 0 video and download his checklist here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0FmGxmJLiw That checklist will help you out greatly in starting out as a GameMaster/Dungeon Master or as a player to learn what you want in a game, for a new group, with or without veteran players. However, if you're one as the GM and you have a vivid imagination, or are good with thinking on the fly (believe me, it gets better with time) then you'll already have a headstart on the majority of GMs out there. A great beginning module that has a little bit of everything, adventure hook (i.e., reason why your players should be doing this), NPC interaction, wilderness adventuring, dungeon crawling, is the Hollow's Last Hope module for 1st Level Players as it works for both D&D and Pathfinder. You don't really need the print version, since you can download it for FREE at Paizo's website https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Hollow%27s_Last_Hope

I greatly recommend you get the Pathfinder RPG: Beginner Box ($25-$35) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601256302 it is a different game, but the rule set is uber-simplified and honestly, superior to the D&D Starter Set ($15), and is worth the extra money. The Beginner Box literally has the all of the beginning needs for play. Pre-generated characters, blank character sheets for the four classes (Wizard, Rogue, Cleric, and Fighter) with either of the three races (Elf, Dwarf, and Human) that are easy to introduce new players to, a flip out map that you can use dry-erase- or wet-erase markers, and permanent markers on (all of which can be erased off, I use these wet-erase makers that are $9 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006IFGW because I'll draw camp fires with brown, yellow, orange, and red colors, green helps with trees and shrubbery, blue for water, and black for everything else), a Hero's handbook, and really, really, good GM guide, plus thick, cardboard punch-out marker pawns of various Monsters, NPCs, Player characters, and other creatures, that amount to a wealth of miniatures that would take a lot of money and time to paint them all up, plus they're easier to store in the box. Unfortunately, it only comes with one set of dice, so it wouldn't hurt to get these on these 7 sets ($12) on the cheap https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MDJNE93 and pass them out to your players, or if they have their own, then you'll have plenty of extra multiples of dice, which will come in handy during combat with spellcasters and sneak attacks by Rogues. I handed them out to my players after they told me what their favorite colors were. =P

That'd would be all you'd really need to start, $30ish Beginner Box, plus $10 for markers, and $10 more if you or your players need dice. Now, what follows is what I used for my first GMing of a game, based on many different people's recommendations. In order to make combat work in a logical way that I could understand, I bought the Pathfinder Combat Pad $20 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601255470, along with those wet-erase markers from earlier. It's usefulness has been far better, and worth it's price in gold, to use than a cheap $1 store notebook, when I would have to erase or rewrite when players would defeat monsters or would hold their actions, or would tell them the wrong initiative bonus to start (lol!). Again, rather use a dollar store binder, I bought the Pathfinder GM Screen $16ish https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601252161, because it was short enough for me to look over rather than 3-ring binders or a paper folder at the actual game table. Speaking the table, I bought the Chessex Battlemats https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015IQO2O this is a link to the smaller one ($20), since I bought the Megamat ($35), only because I had a large table, and players could use it as a coaster for drinks too (even though I did have coasters, to prevent spillage). As an added bonus, I recently discovered the Condition cards $10 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601252854, to use with Pathfinder, and they are great to hand out to players (as you would already know these conditions since it's written behind the GM Screen) so they know what condition they are in at a glance. Keep in mind though, you only get 4 or each, so if you are lucky enough to have more players, it wouldn't hurt to buy an extra set (however, it would be strange if all of your players had the same condition).

Now, let's say you enjoy Pathfinder, and you bought the Core Rulebook $20 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601258879 (if it's a hardcover, always look inside for the Sixth edition printing, the paperback will already be that edition) but are getting tired of looking up Monster stats online, then grab the Paperback version of the first Bestiary $16 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601258887 which has the great majority of all of the "regular" monsters in either D&D or Pathfinder. If you're not much of an artist, then there's the recently released Pathfinder Traps and Treasures Pawns Collection $25 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601259719 but be warned that you only want to place on the board AFTER the players find out what it is or after they trip it since it does have text explaining what it is as a trap, and if you're use the treasure ones, make sure you add whatever is actually printed on the tile is IN the list of treasure you give the players, because they can and will ask about, "can't I grab that cup or sword, it's on the tile?" ;)

Lastly, if you enjoy being the GameMaster/Dungeon Master, the storyteller, the world builder, then I'd recommend getting the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide $15 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601259492, which again, can be applied to both RPG games. And if you what better weather effects to throw at your party than what is presented in the CRB and GMG, then Pathfinder Ultimate Wilderness $30 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601259867 has all that you need, and then some, plus some cool spells and tons of new animal companions and familiars for spellcasters alike, and a new shapeshifting melee-fighting class called the Shifter, which is pretty neat to use (albeit, you may want to check out Paizo's website for any official errata or clarifications, just in case). If you want to actually create a campaign and are having a hard time coming up with ideas, locations, groups/factions, kingdoms, races, then one more purchase, which is what +DawnforgedCast used for his Pathfinder games seen here is the Inner Sea World Guide $45 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601252692 It is pricey, but again, very much worth it, to create your own world or to use the pre-made world, as well. Remember, the Beginner Box, Markers, and Dice is really all you need, the rest of this is to expand out. I hope this helps you and anyone else out as well. =P

D&D Basics (Getting started)

The Absolute Basics

First you will want to grab either the Basic rules (Free), the Starter Set (Cheap), or the Players handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, and Probably Monster Manual

Then you need to have at least a few items

• Dice (Phone apps will work if absolutely necessary, or these)
  
• Paper & Pencil (for notes)
  
• Character Sheet (In the free PDF or an app)
  
  The starter set is nice because it does a bunch of the work for you, it has an easy to follow adventure, pre-made characters, Dice, and rules for the DM and players. And at half the cost of just the players handbook AND including an adventure, it is an incredible value.
  
  Once you finish that then looking at at least a players handbook for the extra races, classes, backgrounds, and other things is a good deal. That should let you run free adventures people have put online.
  
  The DM's guide will let you get deeper into rules and the right way to call them, break them, and make them.
  
  The monster manual can be a great tool to make better encounters.
  
  If you want to run a commercial adventure after the one's included in the starter set, "Tales from the Yawning Portal" includes the Sunless Citidel, considered by many to be an excellent adventure for those new to the game and just recently brought up from 3.5e into 5e
  
  

  Common Tools of the Trade
  

  
  As you start running more complex adventures you are going to want to have a few tools to keep things moving, either as a player or as a DM.
  
  

  As a Player
  

  
  The bare essentials every players should have are listed above, but most players agree having a few extras can make the game run really quick.
  
  

  Spell Cards
  

  
  These cards have all the spells available for specific classes or from specific books on really well organized cards that make it easy to set aside your prepared spells and quickly reference all the core details.
  
  Cleric, Arcane, Ranger, Druid, Bard, Paladin, Martial Powers and Races, Xanathars Guide to Everything
  
  

  Binders & Sheet Protectors
  

  
  Keeping everything neat and organized can be a huge time saver and make it much easier for you to find what you need. Binders can be a great way to keep your notes and other materials organized. In addition many sheet protectors easily erase dry erase markers making it easy to keep track of spells and other changes without ruining character sheets with constant erasing.
  
  

  As a DM
  

  
  DMs have their work cut out for them. But a few simple tools can make the game run smooth and leave everyone having that much more fun.
  
  

  Index Cards
  

  
  A set of index cards can go a long way to speeding up the game. Players can put details on spells or magic items on them. You can prepare loot for the game ahead of time and hand it out allowing players to look over the gear as the game continues. You can also use them to hide portions of a battle map or commerical map to give the effect of fog of war.
  
  

  Game Mats
  

  
  A game mat let's you make single maps by drawing on them with dry erase or wet erase markers. Many are made of vinyl and can last a long time. Normally they will have either 1" squares or hex shapes.
  
  

  Minitures
  

  
  These things can be expensive, but giving your game that 3D upgrade and helping players better manage space in a game can be well worth it. You can use actual miniatures (Like those from Reaper), Create custom ones on Hero's Forge, or even just buy some cheap stand in tokens from Game Mash.
  
  If you just need a cheap way to keep track of positions army men, bottle caps, colored game pieces, and even legos can all play the role.
  
  No matter what you use, you can pick up colored rubber bands to mark status conditions or other information.
  
  

  Where Can I Play?
  

  
  You can find tons of places to play D&D.
  
  

• Get together a gaming group.
  
• Find a Guild or club in your area. Meetup.com,
  
• Most hobby shops and especially comic book and gaming shops offer games, usually Adventure League. WotC offers a tool to find stores here.
  
• /r/lfg can be a great way to find others to play online with.
  
• Play by Mail sites like RPoL allow you to play by forum post.
  
  

  Also:
  

  
  Critical Role - Voice actors playing DnD, Matt Mercer (The DM) is an amazing Dungeon Master and shows how the game should be played.
  
  Matthew Colville - Amazing videos on being a DM, must watch material for every DM. Even when your opinions differ he gives good reasons and great advice.
  
  

  Compendiums
  

  
  These let you ciew all the free open rules (SRD & Basic Rules) for D&D 5e at no cost.
  
  Roll20 Compendium - Has all the open rules for the game, so a good source for monsters, items, spells, etc.
  
  DnDBeyond - A more official source for the content, plus you can buy all the materials released by WotC to use, and has a great character builder.
  
  

  Adventures & Maps
  

  
  DMsGuild - Tons of free and paid adventures and other materials. The quality can be varying, but many are free and that can be great.
  
  /r/dndmaps/ - What more can they say, D&D Maps.
  
  Mike Schley Makes many of the maps for the D&D Adventures.

This is extraordinarily thorough. So thorough in fact, that you should also consider board gaming. Reading this, it just makes a lot of sense for you. I think board gaming would fit you like a glove.

1. Video games have moved away from couch co-op. You've made a great list here with a lot of solid points, but I doubt you would have ever reached your conclusion, had you considered board games. Keep Talking is certainly a good entertaining game, nothing against it. It's just, that game feels plucked like a needle out of a haystack. Like you've biopsied out a very small node from inside a large mass.

You don't really have this problem with board games. Literally every single board game in existence is designed to be played with people immediately around you. I hesitate to use the phrase "played co-operatively" simply because most board games are NOT co-operative - though there are notable exceptions like Pandemic or Ghost Stories. Both great games.

Board games use human beings as the engine the game runs on. That's not to say board games pit intellects against each other in some sort of valid competition of "who's the most smartest", but to say: humans are social machines and will surprise you with their grasp of system thinking. If I have five or six people in the room with me, I'd prefer the game that we're playing to exist in the head-space between us rather than on some electronic device.

People have come over to my house in the real world. Why not play a game with them that also exists in the real world? I can play videogames over online multiplayer until I'm blue in the face. Just last night I reinstalled Bad Company 2 and played with a few old college roommates. If I had those old friends over to my house, we'd play a board game. It seems crazy to me that someone has taken the time to drive over to your place and you set them down in front of a computer.

2. Because boardgames have always been designed around a social experience taking place in the real world, they're just better at it. This is definitely subjective. You can feel free to disagree with me all you want, but there are mechanics that I just don't see in videogames. Sure, I could load up Gremlin's Inc and replicate what is probably the best roll n' move game I've ever played, but roll n' move is a Monopoly era game genre. Board games can move past this.

You can't play Two Room's and a Boom on a machine. You can't play Bid n' Bluff games like Liar's Dice, Sheriff of Nottingham, or social deduction games like Coup or Love Letter. You can't play physical dexterity games like Jenga (still great fun btw), Flick em' Up, or Catacombs.

There are just games that play better with groups of people because they exist in the real world and make use of humans as the operating system.

3. Board games are much more open to much more people. I don't know about you, but in my experience board games are just more accessible to a wider range of people. I'm maybe going to get a round of Mario Kart out of the adults in my life that love me, but I've sat down with people over 50 and had a great time with Ticket to Ride. At family reunions I've enjoyed Dominion with young children and grandparents alike. Settlers of Catan, Blockus, and Carcassonne are all genuinely fun games I played to death with my family.

How crazy is that? I would really look forward to playing one of those games with my whole family. I can't think of even one videogame that fits that criteria.

4. Perhaps most simply, there are incredible games that just don't exist in videogame form - even though they could. Is the total conversion mod for Crusader Kings II not giving you that full heady Game of Thrones experience? Why not just play Game of Thrones. This is probably my favorite game and it's just not on computers. I can imagine a version of Cosmic Encounter played over online multiplayer, but why? It already exists in perfect form. If I want to play El Grande, or Arctic Scavengers, or Lords of Vegas - well . . . those games just don't exist as videogames.

5. Just honorable mentions. Seven Wonders. Splendor. Blueprints.


TL;DR. There are a ton of great board games out there and if you actually are struggling to think of something that you and your friends can enjoy together in the same room - maybe give it a shot rather than lament the lack of couch co-op in videogames.

1. You can use pretty much anything for figures. You don't need actual minis to play. If you still want tot go that route, there's a couple options. The first option is to grab a box of Paizo's Pawns. They're meant for Pathfinder, but they're just pictures of monsters printed on card stock slotted into a plastic base. The Beastiary box is $36 on Amazon right now. The other option is to buy miniatures for creatures as you need them. There's no real "complete" set of minis and they are much more expensive than pawns or flat tokens for obvious reasons. If your players really want models of their characters, they can opt to have them made or find ones that are "close enough" for their taste. For maps/boards, you can draw your own on paper. Get a pad of 1" grid paper and draw your dungeons on that. Most pre-made D&D modules will have gridded maps that you can replicate on your own paper. A slightly more expensive option in the short term is to get a dry/wet erase battle mat. Use vis-a-vis markers to draw your map, then a damp paper towel to wipe the lines away when you want to put down a new dungeon. Battle mats are expensive on Amazon. Maybe try to find one in your local game shop?
   
2. The core rulebook has options for this. Basically there's three ways to do stats: Array, Point Buy, and Roll. In Array, you are given a specific spread of stats from the book and you decide what attributes to put those values into. In point buy, you have a set number of points (27) that can be dropped into stats, but it isn't always a 1:1 increase. As stats get higher they cost more points to buy. You can use a Point Buy Calculator to plan characters. For Rolling, you roll a number of dice and that determines your stats. What dice you roll is up to you, but the two most common ways are 3d6 per stat with no re-rolling or 4d6 keep highest 3 with no re-rolling. For beginners, I would recommend the Array option for stats.
   
3. Ok, so it sounds like you have nothing invested in the system so far, so here's the stuff you absolutely will need: The D&D 5th Edition Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide. These three books have everything you and your players need to play a full game. However, none of these have pre-made adventures for you. You will either have to make it up as you go along, or buy pre-made adventure modules. If you're worried about being able to tell a story on your own, I heartily recommend grabbing a pre-made adventure module and running that before you try anything homebrew (homebrew meaning made entirely by you) The two that are widely regarded as the best out so far are Storm King's Thunder and Curse of Strahd. Read their synopses and pick one to run.
   
4. No, but a "Session 0" where you create characters and set the tone/expectations for the campaign is a very good idea, especially when you're just starting out. If you can, make the Player's Handbook available to all of your players before you begin the game, so that they can start getting an idea of what kind of character they want to play. Then, during Session 0, make your characters together as a group and talk about what each person wants from the game. What kinds of things interest them and what stories do they want to tell, that sort of thing. Pay *close* attention to what they say. As the DM, it's your job to help them tell their stories and explore topics they're interested in. Most players, however, will not tell you exactly what they want, instead they'll tell you something related to it. For example, if a player says that their character is descended from an ancient tradition of spellcasters and takes proficiency in the history skill, then they're probably interested in the history of the world even if they never told you that's what they're interested in. This is what game masters will typically refer to as a flag.
   
5. Generally speaking, all of the classes in D&D are pretty well balanced, especially before you start adding extra supplements. The Dungeon Master's Guide has rules for awarding treasure to players. Use them. Keep in mind every player and their class when awarding magic items. For example, a +1 sword is a great, useful upgrade to a Fighter, but is nearly worthless to a Wizard. There's tables for awarding magic items in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Those are great guidelines to help you think of how to give out magical equipment, which will be the deciding factor of if a player gets overpowered or not. If you only hand out magic weapons and armor and one player in your group is a fighter, then they will naturally be overpowered. It's also really easy to fall into the trap of just handing out stuff that is really useful in combat but isn't very useful elsewhere. Keep utility items in mind and hand those out just as often if not more so than magical weapons. Give players utility items and support them using those items in weird situations.
   
6. The Player's Handbook gives you a guideline for each class's starting equipment. After that, players may spend their gold in towns to buy additional gear (but not magic items!) As for quest rewards and other loot, the Dungeon Master's Guide has rules and tables for that sort of thing.
   
   As for #7, I've got a whole list for you.
   
   

• Read the player's hadnbook and the dungeon master's guide cover to cover. Make notes in them, bookmark them. If you're making up your own scenario, read the monster manual too.
  
• Read adventures cover to cover before running them. Important advice for them may be further back than you might think. Read the adventure several times.
  
• During play, if there's a rules question, make a judgement call on it, then make a note to look it up later. Ruining the momentum and pacing for something just to make sure you're following the rules isn't fun for anyone.
  
• You are the final arbiter of the rules. If a rule in the adventure or rulebook is ruining your fun, toss it out. This is an RPG where you can just ignore encumbrance rules.
  
• Buy a Pound o' Dice. You'd be amazed how often having extra dice is useful. By buying one of these 100-die packs, you get at least one full set (1 each of 4/6/8/10/12/20) for each person in your group and extras for higher level rolls.
  
• Don't discount online tabletop services, even for in-person games. Having big maps is just not feasible in my apartment, but setting up a map to display on a TV works great.

My list would include a variation of games

Code Names - $16

Sushi Go - $10

7 Wonders - $26

Tsuro - $19

Castles of Burgundy - $27

Total: $98

Explanations:

First, I want to preface these selections: our play group varies in size from week to week with anywhere from 4-10 players averaging 5-6. So, we often get caught "splitting the party." That's fine at times, but sometimes, we all want to jump in on one game together because splitting up feels bad man^TM since we're all there to socialize in addition to playing games.

As such, I wanted to include games that ran the gamut and for the most part games that scaled well from 2-X players.

First, Code Names. Now, we've played this game so many times, we actually purchased the expansion Code Names Deep Cover which is a fun variant which adds tons of more playability. This is the go-to "party" game as, for our group, Cards Against Humanity has grown a bit stale. At least it hits the table much less frequently than in years past. Code Names is easy to teach, easy to understand and difficult enough for some of your more entrenched board gamers. In general, I find this a great starter to transition from your Milton Bradley games everyone knows (and hates) into board games that offer sustenance.

Secondly, I offer Sushi Go (cheating a bit here as you'll probably have to buy a couple copies for larger groups or just get Sushi Go Party). Sushi Go is our groups go-to game to introduce games that use a drafting mechanic and to teach that board games can be cute, fun, and delightful while also requiring strategy, maths, and a bit of hope (our group tends to dislike dice-rolling games so for the most part, we stick to games where we can mostly "control" our own fates - YMMV). This game is super quick, so you don't get bogged down at the table for hours. I feel for new board gamers, quicker games are a MUST as many people may not be able to handle the length many of our Beloveds require.

7 Wonders comes next. We tend to introduce this game right after Sushi Go as the mechanics are super similar and the newer players feel like they already know what's going on for the most part. There will be questions, there will be some confusion and oversight, but this game follows easily and feels like a natural step up from Sushi Go and gets players right into the mix of heartier board games. Oh, and I could personally play 7 Wonders every week, especially with all the options offered through the expansions Cities, Leaders, and Tower. The interchangeability of these expansions has kept this game on our table long past many others and continues to bring it back. Again though, YMMV as we all have different tastes.

Tsuro, our board game palatte cleanser. This is another quick game which offers a lot of replayabiliity with minimal rules learning. Aside from those positives, the artwork is what sent this board game over the top for me. I am mesmerized by the board, the tiles, and the pieces each time we open this. This game offers a quick break between your heavier meeple-laiden board games so even after we've surpassed "newb" status, we often come back to this.

Castles of Burgundy I included as a final game because ultimately, we need a game with a strong theme and wonderful mechanics which offer replayability from a more traditional Euro point of view. This game really surprised me. I loved it the first time we played it, and though it may not hit the table but once every other month due to time constraints, it always feels like reuniting with an old friend. It offers a setup for further Euro games and sets the scene on what's really out there in weightier board games. I know there could be other games that fit this description, but at the price, this game is amazing for what it offers.

And that's the list. I know there are many criticisms of these games and I don't devalue those. All my favorites have points in them where they fall a little flat at times, or don't elicit the enjoyment I thought they might, but many times, it's usually my perception and frame of mind. I can often come back months later with renewed enjoyment for them, so trust me, I know there are imperfections; I just choose to ignore them for the post. These games, while some may take a bit longer to learn, offer a great springboard into board games and offer the new player a slow wade into the pool without feeling too slow or drab as one might feel with something like Settlers of Catan. Will I stand by this opinion in 5 or 10 years? We'll see.

Well I suppose you said you've played before, but I'm going to give you a basic resources spiel, so forgive me if I'm saying anything obvious. The basic things you're going to want are a set of dice /for each player/ (a d4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20, to be clear). I mean, you can get away with a single set of dice, but it's a pain to pass them around. Personally I like to have enough dice so I can roll all at once for a given ability - a spell that deals 4d8 damage? I have 4d8s. Of course, people with smartphones could get an app like Dice Ex Machina, too. Then, if you want to play with a board (I understand some people can play certain systems like 5e by just having the DM describe how far apart things are but that sounds maddening to me), you're probably going to want a playmat (http://smile.amazon.com/Chessex-Role-Playing-Play-Mat/dp/B0015IQO2O/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_2053972162?ie=UTF8&%252AVersion%252A=1&%252Aentries%252A=0) and some Vis-a-Vis wet erase pens to draw on it. Lastly, you're going to need /something/ to represent people on said playmat. Miniatures are super expensive, so you can theoretically, especially starting out, scrounge up various little things that fit in the 1 inch squares - pieces from other board games, whatever. Now, if you've got more money to spend a great deal that's much more cost efficient than minis are Paizo's Pawn Boxes such as this http://paizo.com/products/btpy8x1f?Pathfinder-Pawns-NPC-Codex-Box

Now, you could also go the super cheap route and grab graph paper, and then write letters to represent characters, then draw and erase when they move. This is how I started - it sucks, but it's free. Another free way to circumvent ALL of these play resources by playing on the computer: https://app.roll20.net/home. This has obvious pros and cons but it's simultaneously free and fancy if it works out. If you use that, you'll want this too: http://www.rptools.net/tools/token-tool/

As for systems, I have two recommendations. My biggest recommendation is for the new 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. It is excellent, and most importantly it's really easy for beginners. You can get the starter set for a mere 20$, which comes with 4 pre made characters, a good adventure and a set of dice. And maybe a DM shield? Anyway, free basic rules here: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

After that, there are 3 books, the Players Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manuel. They're all great. And 50$ each. If you try the starter set, like the system and have a dedicated group of players, I definitely recommend them if you can afford them. If you can't, however, there's my other recommendation:

Based off of 3.5e Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder is a great system with tons and tons of content, and with the exclusion of published adventures and flavor books, it's all free: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/home
It also has a free module you can try out: http://paizo.com/products/btpy8j5w?Pathfinder-Module-We-Be-Goblins

Thing is, it's also quite complicated. For beginners to learn it without a veteran to teach them - to learn just by reading the rules - would be very very difficult. No way I would have been able to learn by reading. Plus, that 'tons and tons of content,' while awesome, makes it all the more overwhelming for beginners. Still, it's freeeeeee.

Hi there! I just introduced my family to D&D over the weekend as well. Let me answer your questions.

Truthfully, everything you need can be found online. The D&D starter rules (for both playing and DMing) can both be found on Wizard's website. Others will recommend the Starter Edition, which is great place to start mind you, but the adventure is definitely not a one-shot. It can take up to 3-4 sessions to complete it.

Because of this, I opted to create my own one-shot adventure and I watched Matthew Colville's wonderful intro to DMing guide on Youtube. It's actually a lot easier than you think. For a one-shot all you need are at least 5 encounters; puzzle, trap, combat, dialogue/story, final boss. Put it in a dungeon; keep it simple. Dungeonographer is a wonderful program to help you maps and interior locations.

If you keep your adventure simple, DMing is very straightforward. Set the story and the adventure hook (why is your party going on a quest/adventure), lay down some breadcrumbs that lead them onward, and manage the experience. Remember that players roll the D20 for just about everything, but feel free to throw your own flair as well. For instance, I often had my family roll "luck" to see how fortunate they were in certain circumstances. Specifically, the party was fleeing from town and my father was like, "There's gotta be boats at the dock, let's go!" And I tell him to roll a D20 to see how fortunate they were to find one (or if one was actually there). I made up the chances (based on the story) and the outcome was up to the roll.

The guides obviously will break everything down in very good detail, but what helped me feel more comfortable DMing was to prepare some additional materials.

• Printed out documentation of the adventure script (what's going on, what's happening) and things that you will say at key moments (location description, etc.). I included different kinds of checks that players can do at certain areas (e.g., Investigation, History, or Intelligence checks).
  
  
• Create a Bestiary that contains all of the monsters and npcs players will encounter. Include all information about stats, attacks, etc. This will save you time so you don't have to look into a book for this information.
  
  
• Create simple maps in dungeonographer to help your players feel a sense of presence.
  
  Check out the video link I posted earlier. It really helped.
  
  Oh, and I ordered 5 sets of dice from here. $9.99 for the lot. Great price!

A few games I like that would probably fit the bill:

Spot It. Super fun game, easy to learn and quick to play. Not the deepest game but it's lots of fun for all ages and a nice quick game to play when you want something short or as a break between longer games. Good for any number of players.

Dixit. A storytelling game. Each turn one of you is the "storyteller" and tells a short story (one word to a sentence) about it. Everyone else picks a card from their hand that they think fits the story. The cards are mixed up and everyone guesses which one the Storyteller had. The interesting scoring mechanic is the storyteller only gets points if some people don't guess right. If everyone or no one guesses right, the storyteller gets no points and everyone else gets points. Plus, if it's not your turn but someone votes for your card, you get points. The cards can be somewhat crazy and surreal but are definitely safe for a 9 year old. The game is a fun casual game.

Ticket to Ride. Fun game where you lay out train routes. You can block people's routes and you will be angry at whoever does that to you. Only takes 5 people though.

Tsuro. Another somewhat shorter game. You take turns laying tiles and moving your Dragon along the path they create trying to stay on the board. Near the end of the game it gets hectic and you might end up knocking each other off.

TransAmerica. A train game like Ticket to Ride but faster and a little less complex. Rounds go quickly and it has an interesting scoring mechanic. Each round you lose points if you don't connect to your cities and the game ends when someone is at zero. The winner is whoever lost the least points.

7 Wonders. A fun game that involves playing cards that you draw from a hand you pass around. Takes up to 7 people but might be slightly too complex for the 9 year old.

Shadow Hunters. A hidden roles game where you will be on teams but you won't know who's on your team. Throughout the game you try to figure that out and it can get very competitive. Again might be slightly too complex for the 9 year old but maybe not.

Castle Panic. This game is slightly different because it is a cooperative game. All of you play against the game itself to try and defend your castle and defeat all the monsters. It's a pretty fun game.

There are a ton of other good games but I'll stop for now since I've probably listed too many as it is. Two things I'd recommend to try to find new games that your family might like beyond these. First, see if there's a board game store near you. A lot of them will have board game libraries where you can go in and try out the games at no charge. Most (in my experience) are pretty friendly to newer players. Second, check out TableTop. It's a show hosted by Wil Wheaton where he explains games and then plays through them. My wife and I used it as a good way to see new games that we might be interested in without having to buy them sight unseen, since boardgames can be expensive. The demo part of the show has sold us on a bunch of games (several of which are listed above). Hope this helps and enjoy the family game nights.

1. I would love to have this yoga mat! Not only am I trying to get the motivation to go back to the gym for regular exercise, but my physical therapist has recommended yoga as a way to help strengthen my core muscles which should help with the pain I've had since my car accident almost a year ago. I've tried one class already and used the gym mat, but having this pretty one would give me warm fuzzies and help motivate me to go to class!
   
   
2. I'm sure you've already heard about/played Cards Against Humanity, but it is one of my favorite games, along with Killer Bunnies.
   
   (For your reference: How The Game Works
   
   The basic strategy of the game is to keep as many bunnies alive as possible while eliminating your opponents’ bunnies. Of course all the other players are trying to do the same thing, which can get dreadfully vengeful, horribly nasty, hilariously messy, and just plain fun! While folks are trying to eliminate each other’s bunnies, each player is also trying to collect as many Carrots as possible. At the end of the game, one of the Carrots is revealed to be the Magic (or winning) Carrot and each game, the Magic Carrot will be different. Logically, the more Carrots that a player collects, the better his chances will be of winning the game. Collecting as many Carrots as possible is another basic strategy of the game.)
   
   
3. A WOMAN'S MY WEEK AT THE GYM
   
   Dear Diary,
   
   For my birthday this year, my hubby (the dear) purchased a week of personal training at the local health club for me. Although I am still in great shape since being a high school football cheerleader 19 years ago, I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and give it a try.
   
   I called the club and made my reservations with a personal trainer named Belinda, who identified herself as a 26-year-old aerobics instructor and model for athletic clothing and swim wear. My hubby seemed pleased with my enthusiasm to get started! The club encouraged me to keep a diary to chart my progress.
   
   MONDAY: Started my day at 6:00 a.m. Tough to get out of bed, but found it was well worth it when I arrived at the health club to find Belinda waiting for me. She is something of a Greek goddess - a thinly built female, dancing eyes and a dazzling white smile. Woo Hoo!!
   
   Belinda gave me a tour and showed me the machines. I enjoyed watching the skillful way in which she conducted her aerobics class after my workout today. Very inspiring! Belinda was encouraging as I did my sit-ups, although my gut was already aching from holding it in the whole time she was around. This is going to be a FANTASTIC week!!
   
   TUESDAY: I drank a whole pot of coffee, but I finally made it out the door. Belinda made me lie on my back and push a heavy iron bar into the air then she put weights on it! My legs were a little wobbly on the treadmill, but I made the full mile. Belinda's rewarding smile made it all worthwhile. I feel GREAT!! It's a whole new life for me.
   
   WEDNESDAY: The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the toothbrush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I believe I have a hernia in both pectorals. Driving was OK as long as I didn't try to steer or stop. I parked on top of a GEO in the club parking lot.
   
   Belinda was impatient with me, insisting that my screams bothered other club members. Her voice is a little too perky for early in the morning and when she scolds, she gets this nasally whine that is VERY annoying. My chest hurt when I got on the treadmill, so Belinda put me on the stair monster. Why the f would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by elevators? Belinda told me it would help me get in shape and enjoy life. She said some other s too.
   
   THURSDAY: Belinda was waiting for me with her vampire-like teeth exposed as her thin, cruel lips were pulled back in a full snarl. I couldn't help being a half an hour late; it took me that long to tie my shoes. Belinda took me to work out with dumbbells. When she was not looking, I ran and hid in the restroom. She sent another skinny cow to find me. Then, as punishment, she put me on the rowing machine -- which I sank.
   
   FRIDAY: I hate that cow Belinda more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. Stupid, skinny, anemic, anorexic little cheerleader. If there was a part of my body I could move without unbearable pain, I would beat her with it. Belinda wanted me to work on my triceps. I don't have any triceps! And if you don't want dents in the floor, don't hand me those stupid barbells or anything that weighs more than a sandwich. The treadmill flung me off and I landed on a health and nutrition teacher. Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like the drama coach or the choir director?
   
   SATURDAY: Belinda left a message on my answering machine in her grating, shrilly voice wondering why I did not show up today. Just hearing her made me want to smash the machine with my planner. However, I lacked the strength to even use the TV remote and ended up catching eleven straight hours of the Weather Channel.
   
   SUNDAY: I'm having the Church van pick me up for services today so I can go and thank GOD that this week is over. I will also pray that next year my hubby (the f**ing ss) will choose a gift for me that is fun, like a root canal or a hysterectomy. I still say if God had wanted me to bend over, he would have sprinkled the floor with diamonds!!!
   
   Thank you for the contest!

Thanks for such a fun contest! I have always loved August. One reason being...my little brother is named August! Here is an adorable picture of us from a few years ago. So I love August and always will! Everyone always asks if he was born in August but he was not...but still, it's a great name. I definitely think that name will continue to make its way through our family.

I also just love the month because I'm such a summer girl. From 9 until 16, I spent at least one week every August at my favorite place...summer camp! And then 17-22 I spent the entire summer there. It's just the best time of the camp season! The summer has settled in, you've got your tan, you're comfortable with the job because you've been doing it for a little while, you've made great friends, the kids love being there. It's just great! I miss working there so bad but I always make sure to go back in and visit. OOooooh camp in august, you are the best.

And my brother worked there with me. SO AUGUST IN AUGUST at camp...even better!!

31 days for Augustus (growing up, my brother was known as Gus. he always used to get asked if he was Augustus or Gustav. Just August!)

I'd love this game!! Everyone loves CAH It's on my $20-$30 WL.

I can understand why you would come here, but to Monopoly is to board game nerds what Call of Duty is to video game nerds. Many a time have we here on /r/boardgames told people "I like to play board games" only to get the painful, cringe worthy response, "Oh, like Monopoly?"

I in no way mean to criticize you for enjoying Monopoly. Board games are awesome, and anyone can like any game they so choose, however, you may find that many people here very much dislike Monopoly and don't want much to do with it.

I would suggest instead, you get your hands on a "designer" board game (they can be quite cheap!) and join us in the wonderful hobby that is board games. Generally regarded as "the" starter game, [Catan] (http://www.amazon.com/Mayfair-Games-MFG-3071-Edition/dp/B00U26V4VQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1462063793&sr=1-2&keywords=settlers+of+catan) is loads of fun, provided you have 2-3 friends to play it with and a little under 40$ to spare.

As a personal recommendation, my first board game that got me into the hobby was [Betrayal at House on the Hill] (http://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-At-House-Hill-2nd/dp/B003HC9734/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462063949&sr=8-1&keywords=betrayal+at+house+on+the+hill). Again, all it takes is a few friends and a little under 40 bones. I personally like this game due the board game being totally unique every time you play it and with 50 different stories to play, I'd gladly play a game right now, and I've easily had 30+ playthroughs.

Of course, you could go with an even easier "start-up" cost and go with another favorite of mine, [Love Letters] (http://www.amazon.com/Alderac-Entertainment-Group-5104AEG-Letter/dp/B00AGJ4HC2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462064185&sr=8-1&keywords=love+letters). This one is exceedingly simple to learn and very quick to play and only requires one friend (though I find it a lot more fun with three or four friends (preferably drunk ones ;))). To top it all off, it isn't even ten dollars, I'd bloody send you a copy if it got you into board games, lol.

Anyway, I kind of started to ramble a bit, but it's a mega fun hobby and you should definitely get into it.

First of all this looks very good, excellent work.

​

I'd like to give you some advice though. I've been a DM for a long time, alternating campaigns with another member for ~7 years now. We have been making minis and set pieces for a long time and have a massive collection now which is awesome for us, but what I have learned is versatility is better than specificity. We use a wet erase mat for the maps and flesh things out using our collection, and the props we use the most are things like trees, treasure chests, some furniture, altars, braziers etc.

​

I absolutely commend your fancy bridge, don't get me wrong I think it's awesome, but how long will the PCs be there and how often will they be crossing rickety bridges over canyons?

​

This is the mat I purchased all those years ago when we started this grand adventure:

https://www.amazon.ca/Chessex-Role-Playing-Play-Mat/dp/B0015IUAAG?th=1 (specifically the MEGAMAT)

This mat has been the cornerstone of our fantastical adventures, and is by far and away the best purchase I've made D&D wise. The tales we have woven and ideas conveyed have largely been with the trusty mat, a set of crayola washable markers and a little imagination.

​

My intention is not to discourage you, quite the opposite really. I can already tell you are going to make a great DM just based on the effort you have put into the bridge, keep up the excellent work! This is just some friendly advice that props you can use semi-frequently are the best ones.

​

I wish you luck in your adventures, and if you ever need any DM advice feel free to inbox me anytime.

What price range are you talking about? Here's some gifts divided into categories and price:

Lord of the Rings (Does she like LotR?):

• LotR Lego - You said she was smart and likes things to be clean, so I'm going to assume she likes decorating. And what's better than decorating your house with things you have built yourself? These sets range from $29.99 to $199.99. Check out the rest out!
  
• The One Ring - Ranges from $59.95 to $99.99. If she likes it, she will wear it multiple times a week.
  
• Arwen's Evenstar Pendent - Ranges from $72.99 to $149.00 (I like the higher end products myself). Subtle, fancy, and looks nice when going out.
  
• Sting - For the sword and the scabbard it's going to almost always cost around 174.98. Hang it on the wall, use it for home protection, it's shiny, ect.
  
  Games:
  
  
• Zombie Dice - BLARRGH BRAINZ FOR $13.13 ARRRUUGGH SUPER CASUAL FUNNY
  
• Munchkin - Very casual party game with lots of expansions. Listed at $24.95 on their website, but it usually will sell for ~$20 at your local Barnes & Nobel or Target.
  
• DOMINION - I bolded this suggestion because it is a card game and this is the Hearthstone sub-reddit. A brilliant German Board Game which invented the genre of deck-building games. Players draw 5 cards from their deck every turn, using the cards they draw to buy more cards for their deck. When they have no new cards to draw, they shuffle their discard pile back into the deck and keep on playing. If you enjoy the deck building element of any card game, this game is immensely fun. The base set is $30.30 on Amazon right now.
  
• Settlers of Catan - Want to get into more hardcore board gaming? This is the gateway game to start. Being another German Board Game, it focuses on non-combat economic decision making. That doesn't mean you cant screw eachother over, as in any good board game. The site asks for $42.00. Again, this game has a lot of expansions. I like the Star Trek Version which goes for $49.99.
  
  Other:
  
  
• Espresso Machine - Does she like Coffee? For ~$79.00 you could cut out Starbucks entirely from your life. If you go to Starbucks every other day, this will pay for itself in just over a month.
  
• Record Player - Nothing beats some nice Analog sound, it's so much more real to me. These vary all over in price depending on what you want out of it. Here's a really nice one for $150.98. Just go to BestBuy/Walmart to find one more precisely for what you're looking for. Here's one of my favorite records of all time. Here's a really sexy big band one.
  
• Wacom Tablet - Is she artistic at all? One of these for ~$229.99 and she'll be able to draw beautiful things on her computer.
  
• A good memory - Take her on a nice date. Inform her she will need to dress well and rent a tux. Go out to an expensive local restaurant and split a meal. Both walk in overdressed and own it. Watch the sun set. Go home, pour her some wine and give her a massage. Bathe each other. Watch her favorite show all night. Go out for breakfast and watch the sun rise. Something different; something exciting! Live life in a routine? CHANGE THE ROUTINE. She will not forget it and this is the best gift you can give her.
  
  These are my main suggestions, for everything else there's Think Geek. But really, browse this site.
  
  ^^Moved ^^from ^^your ^^original ^^comment ^^to ^^the ^^thread, ^^as ^^was ^^original ^^intended ^^location.

I think I might have some great ideas, I could also help you make some of the things. You come make a set of these coupons, except the boyfriend versions. You know, cook, clean, date night, movie night ect. If she likes little cute things made, you can make her an Alphabet book which each letter having to do with something about why you love her and a little explanation. For example, A - Amazing "you are always so amazing" or something like that. You could give her the gift of a culinary class, which is always fun. You get to learn to cook, cook, and eat the food you make. Another really cool gift is learning to fly My girlfriend and I did this yesterday for our 2 year anniversary and it was amazing! You can also take her on a camping trip! There are some really cool trails if you live in California. I can personally recommend Skyline to the sea trail it is a beautiful trail and leads directly to the ocean on the beach. It's really amazing. Near the end of the trail, there are bus stations you can take to nearby towns like Santa Cruz. If your girlfriend likes nail polish, i know many girls like a way to display them. I just made my girlfriend a Hello Kitty nail polish rack I'm sure she would appreciate it. Its pretty easy to make and I have no woodwork experience. Another great idea might be to start a window herb garden. It makes great decoration and you can use it for cooking! If you have some old mason jars around you can use those. You can also make custom coasters for you drinks. You can take pictures of you two together and glow them on to some cork board and cut them into little squares, you then apply some clear waterproof seal spray or paint. You can also make a little note about her and your love using candy keywords. If she likes to wear jewelry, you make this simple display/holder which looks good and is easy to make. If you guys want some board games for the place for when friends come over Settlers of Catan is an AMAZING game, if you get the game you HAVE to get Cities and Knights easily the best expansion. The game is a must buy for anyone really. You can also make her a mixtape of your favorite songs, its old fashioned but it will be appreciated, i promise. As a general gift idea, for out of the blue, you can make your girlfriend a period care package, put the mixtape, maybe a heating pack, chocolate, her favorite movie on a dvd, some of her favorite snacks in a box. She'll love it.


I have tons of ideas, if you need anymore more specific or need help making some of the stuff (guidance or advice) just send me a PM. Thanks for doing this spidey :P

• To echo everyone else, I would also say start with the starter set because it has everything you need to start, including a pretty nice set of dice. You could get away with this for your first session, but you will probably want some
  
• dice This may be your most cost effective way of having a set for everyone, and enough spares for people to grab from for crits and spells like fireball. Everyone will eventually get nicer sets they like more, but this is a good way to start with matched sets. Depending on how happy people are with the player options in the starter set, your next investment will either be the
  
• PHB for more player options, spells, items, and guide lines for how things should work. This is far and away the most import of the three books. As most people have said, you will probably get to the point where everyone wants access to this book. During play, you will probably want 2-3 of these at the table.
  
• Battle Mat D&D can be played in Theater of the mind, but grid combat makes a lot of rules easier to implement and officiate with a grid. The one I linked is pretty big without being overly huge (there are larger ones), and it is vinyl which makes it durable, and it erases pretty well with good wet erase markers.
  
• Miniatures is something else entirely. Most of the groups I play with have more than enough for me to ever have to buy any. Some players will make or buy a mini for his/her character. There are the round cardboard tokens that you could use for cheap. I run a D&D game on Fridays at the school I teach at and have the students use one of their dice as their mini. Monsters are usually balls of playdoh.
  
• After finishing of the LMOP (the adventure in the starter's set) you will either want to pick up one of the other adventures like Out of the Abyss or Princes of the Apocalypse. You might need a Monster Manual to go with it. PotA has a digital supplement with the extra monsters, while OotA does not.
  
• The DMG is optional really. It is great for magic items, alternative rules you could use, and world building strategies. You'll want a copy eventually, but like the MM, you wont need more than 1.
  
• Other things. Look around for things like the Elemental Evil Player's Guide and Unearthed Arcana articles. They have a bunch of free content you could use in your games. They are usually rough drafts so they might be imbalanced, but you might find something you really like in there. There are also tons of homebrew monsters, classes, races, and items if you wanted to expand your game that way.
  
  angel14995 has a great summary of all the books. This list is more useful as a logical purchasing progression guide.

Well, as far as silly card games go, I'm partial to We Didn't Playtest This At All and Fluxx which support 2-15 and 2-6 players respectively. Both games can be really quick or take a while, but I've always found them to be great fun, and they both have a bunch of expansions, if you find that you like them.

Of course, if you want to delve into the world of board games, I'm a big fan of co-op games like Castle Panic and Pandemic. In Castle Panic, you work together to defend a castle from oncoming hordes of monsters and in Pandemic you need to cooperate to keep viral epidemics under control while finding a cure. Castle Panic is great fun, a simple game, and easy to get into, but I've never found it an easy game to win which keeps it fresh. Pandemic is a bit more complicated, requiring a lot of strategy and cooperation, and it can be brutally difficult at times, but that just makes winning all the more satisfying.

If you and your friends like a little friendly competition, I'd suggest something like 7 Wonders or Bang!, which was the game that got me started down this path. In 7 Wonders, you draft cards to build a civilization and compete for victory points. It may seem a little complicated at first, but once you play a game or two, it really starts to shine. In Bang!, you enter the wild west where one of you is the sheriff, and the rest of the players are deputies, outlaws, or renegades, each with their own win condition. The thing with this one is that everyone's role except the sheriff's is hidden. You can play Bang! with as little as 3 players, but it really only gets good if you have 5 or more.

If you want to do some research on your own, check out /r/boardgames or http://boardgamegeek.com/ which has a pretty comprehensive database of all the board games out there with ratings and reviews.

Sorry for the unoriginal suggestions but they are unoriginal for a reason.

Tiny Epic Kingdoms. The game might have been over hyped just a bit but it's still an excellent portable game that has a lot to offer.

It's light enough for new boardgamers and is an excellent introduction to the 4X genre which most newcomers haven't played or even knew existed!

Citadels. The box it usually comes in is way too big for the game. It's a deck of cards, a bag of coins, and a starting player token. I love this game. It's simple to learn and yet really deep and strategic. Plays well from 2 to 5 players. Don't even try 6 or 7 even though it's possible. It drags the game down to a halt.

Hanabi. Excellent excellent strategic game. Very simple to learn, cheap, tiny package. A deck of cards and a handfull of tokens. Plays excellent with 2 to 5 players.

Jungle Speed. Really fun dexterity game. Bunch of cards and a wooden "totem". Most editions come with this small bag.

Hive Pocket. Such a great game you can play nearly anywhere. One of my very favorite games. Only 2 players though.

Most would tell you that Love Letter is a good choice. Personally I never liked it. Neither did my GF or my friends to be honest. But it's so widely recommended it's probably worth the risk.

But don't buy the Kanai Factory Limited Edition (the black and white box)! Most reviews will tell you the gameplay doesn't differ (a lot) but that one card that is different makes all the difference in the world. If you plan to buy Love Letter buy the Tempest edition. It's also a lot more compact.

First trick is deciding which edition you want to play, for new players I highly recommend sticking to 4th edition, the rules are simpler and combat is generally more interesting. If you guys are brand and are new starting with nothing, I highly recommend picking up the 4th edition DM Manual 1, Monster Manual 1, and the Player's Handbook 1.

If your DM wants to take his hand at designing his own adventures I also highly recommend picking up a wet erase play mat as well as wet erase markers. I recommend wet erase over dry erase as dry erase can easily be wiped off during combat and such.

You'll also want to buy some dice for everyone to use, there are a few ways to go about that, you can mismatch dice from local hobby shops, you could buy dice sets or you could purchase the Chessex "Pound of Dice" for the whole group's use and ease. I, as a highly superstitious gamer, own 2 dice sets of my own and an additional lucky D20 that I don't let anyone touch (as they'll likely suck the luck out of it), so figure out what kind of gamers you are and what dice will best suit you.

As you guys grow and expand you may want to look into getting the other Player's Handbooks, to increase your options as players, as well as the other monster manuals for easier adventure creation for your DM.

I also highly recommend your DM (for his ease in adventure creation) look into reading materials on the internet (easily found for free) to help create the most interesting and fun adventures possible. One I can recommend off-hand is Chris Perkin's (a writer for the D&D books and "professional DM") "blog" called "The DM Experience."

Also if you have any other questions feel free to ask me in a comment or message me, I love to see new player getting into the game and would like to help in any way possible.

Just be sure to have fun, happy gaming :D

I just ran my first session as a new DM with LMoP last week! I'll jot down my experience running a group of 4 beginners. (so take my advice with a grain of salt as a beginner that has not finished the campaign)

---
First, read through the books in the Starter Set! (If you can afford the Player's Handbook, that is a good idea as well.) I highly recommend going through the rulebook (or Basic Rules) then at least skimming through the entire LMoP module. You don't have to memorize everything but as a DM it is important to have the idea of the setting in your head.

For combat, you have to decide if you are going to run "Theater of the Mind" or battlemat+miniatures for combat. Theater of the Mind is more flexible and requires less preparation but battlemats give great visuals at a cost of preparation and supply.

Then you have to decide if you think your players would want to make their own characters or not. For my beginner group, I decided that they would be a lot more invested/excited if they could identify with their own creation so I chose to not use the pre-generated character sheets. Once you are comfortable with the rules of D&D enough, set a date to meet with your group.

Since we had to make characters, I held a Session 0 to introduce the basic concept of what to expect in committing to D&D as well as character creation. I highly suggest making characters together a separate day before Session 1 because it usually takes a decent amount of time for the first time (3ish hours for me).

My Session 0 looked like this:

• Introduction to D&D
  
  
• Explaining all races, classes, backgrounds and letting them pick
  
  
• Giving character sheets, rolling stats
  
  
• Guiding them through the char sheet by referencing DNDBeyond for background/race/class bonuses
  
  After everyone was done, I let them take home the character sheet and work on character appearance, personality, and background story.
  
  The week after, we had Session 1. Make sure you actually read through the LMoP module in depth, at least up to Part 1-2 beforehand. I also decided to take some elements of this supplement Part 0 for LMoP to use as a tutorial for my players. Then, begin your adventure! My party took a lot longer than I expected and only got to the entrance of the Cragmaw Hideout after 3 hours.
  
  Good luck to your campaign, I'm looking forward to my second session!
  
  ---
  
  Some recommended guides I used:
  
  
• Matt Mercer tips (all DM's love this man)
  
  
• Don't Stop Thinking guides (great graphic visuals and in-depth coverage)
  
  
• Matt Colville tips (gives a good idea of how D&D should look like at an advanced level)
  
  
• DungeonDudes (channel that covers good topics)
  
  
• DNDBeyond (amazing website for the Basic Rules, classes, and races)
  
  
• OneCritWonder LMoP tips (helpful overview of the module)
  
  
• LMoP enemies (generator that adapts to how many players you have)
  
  ---
  Supplies I personally prepared (BUT ARE OPTIONAL):
  
  
• Beginner dice (shared with my beginners, they are planning to get their own sets soon)
  
  
• Custom character sheets (a bit overwhelming at first but I find helpful for each class)
  
  
• Spell cards (I don't think many people use these but I find it an amazing resource to give your players if they are spellcasters)
  
  
• Battlemat (use with Wet-Erase markers)
  
  
• Paper minis (dedication and time required, can use coins, legos, or anything instead or even real miniatures if you can afford it)
  
  
• DM Screen (the official and most standard and affordable screen)

For miniatures, be warned that the Heroclix and Mage Knight minis, while useable, are mostly larger than the 1" standard width (for a medium character or creature) - this is generally not that big of a problem but if you're going with modular terrain it means they may not fit well, especially along with other miniatures beside them.

Ebay is a good choice for miniatures, especially if you have particular needs for certain things - you want that male elf archer in leather armor, or are you looking for a beholder? You can find and get them there. Here's my favorite seller for these things, shipping is definitely reasonable and the choices are expansive:
http://www.ebay.com/usr/auggest?_trksid=p2053788.m1543.l2754

Another option to miniatures are tokens, and they are much, much cheaper. These are small cardboard circles that fit a 1" block as standard size (larger creatures will fill more, of course). The best starter set for this for a DM is the Monster Vault, but there are a ton of others as well. I suggest ebay for these for the most part, there are some that sell them by the sheet and others that sell the full boxed sets. You can get these for characters as well as monsters. Here's a link to the Monster Vault so you can see what you get with it:
http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Vault-Essential-Dungeons-Dragons/dp/0786956313/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420725056&sr=8-2&keywords=dungeons+and+dragons+Tokens

Cheapest and most versatile "professional looking" option for the map / terrain is a chessex battlemat - make sure you have WET ERASE markers, not dry erase and keep it clean between adventures. Below are links to one of their mats (there are other sizes, just search on amazon) and to some excellent markers:
http://www.amazon.com/Chessex-Role-Playing-Play-Mat/dp/B0015IQO2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420724703&sr=8-1&keywords=chessex+mat

http://www.amazon.com/Expo-Vis-A-Vis-Markers-Colored-16078/dp/B00006IFGW/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1420724703&sr=8-9&keywords=chessex+mat

Cheapest option for modular-type terrain would be tiles. These are cardboard "grids" that most often have designs on them and come in different sizes. The best starter set out there is the Dungeon Tiles Master Set - The Dungeon. It has a lot of tiles and is pretty versatile, at least for base grid options like dungeons and general floors. There are a ton of other options for them - again I suggest you look on ebay for these because you can often find used ones that are in perfect shape sold as a set, or even individual tiles if there's something in particular you need. This is the link to the aforementioned base set on amazon so you can see what it has:
http://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Tiles-Master-Set-Essential/dp/0786955554/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420724907&sr=8-1&keywords=dungeon+tiles+master+set

If you want to spend more money and go with something much more dynamic, there are 3-d modular sets ranging from paper to near-stone like quality but they can cost a ton. I have a large set of Dungeonstone (www.dungeonstone.com) that I bring out and always get oo's and ahh's. But they're heavy to carry around a lot, especially if I need the whole set. Another option, that's generally slightly more expensive than dungeonstone is Dwarven Forge. You can look them up - but I only mention this in case you decide to spend more money than you want to at this point. :)

Good luck! I hope this helps.

/u/MeishkaD said that my entry disappeared, so here it is again. I've deleted my previous entry now (after you said it disappeared), just to make sure it doesn't show up twice.

---

1.) Something that is grey. [Not on wishlist]


2.) Something reminiscent of rain. [Not on wishlist]


3.) Something food related that is unusual.


4.) Something on your list that is for someone other than yourself. Tell me who it's for and why. (Yes, pets count!)

This is for my classroom mostly. One of the projects the student's like to do is making board games. They like using various types of die, but when we made cardboard ones, they fall apart.

5.) A book I should read! I am an avid reader, so take your best shot and tell me why I need to read it!

I can't give too great a reference. This book is on my wishlist, as I've not read it, after all. It's supposed to be really funny though, with an interesting story. The downside is that getting the whole series is too expensive.


6.) An item that is less than a dollar, including shipping... that is not jewelry, nail polish, and or hair related! [Not on wishlist]


7.) Something related to cats. I love cats! (keep this SFW, you know who you are...)

These are pretty awesome.


8.) Something that is not useful, but so beautiful you must have it. [Not on wishlist]

I've wanted one of these for ages, but they're not useful enough to justify.


9.) A movie everyone should watch at least once in their life. Why? [Not on wishlist - I own it]

It's incredibly funny and almost everyone has seen the film it's based on. A lot of people have never even seen a parody movie, so it's a new genre to a lot of people and thus a new experience.


10.) Something that would be useful when the zombies attack. Explain.

A bit of a different item than normal. When the zombies attack, we're going to need to be well rested. Baseball bats and the like are common enough, but a good pillow is hard to find.


11.) Something that would have a profound impact on your life and help you to achieve your current goals. [Not on wishlist, as Amazon.co.uk item]

A book about learning to become a Primary School teacher. After my current teaching job, I want to go back and train as one in my home country.


12.) One of those pesky Add-On items. [Not on wishlist - the base game is on wishlist].


13.) The most expensive thing on your list. Your dream item. Why?

Playstation 4. It's not on my wishlist as I think anyone would ever buy it, but more to remind myself that it's region-free and only $400 in the US if I can get enough giftcards someday. In my home country it's about $550. The why is mostly Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy XV - both series which I've gained a lot of enjoyment from. There's also that some of my favorite series such as Disgaea are Playstation-exclusive.


14.) Something bigger than a bread box.


15.) Something smaller than a golf ball.


16.) Something that smells wonderful.


17.) A (SFW) toy.


18.) Something that would be helpful for going back to school.

(For reading digital textbooks on)


19.) Something related to your current obsession, whatever that may be.

Disgaea D2. My current obsession has been trying to convert my old Disgaea 3 save, which has 120 hours and my Disgaea 4 save which has 95 hours, so that I can use it on another PS3.


20.) Something that is just so amazing and awe-inspiring that I simply must see it. Explain why it is so grand. [Not on wishlist.. but it should be]

The toilet throne. It's amazing that someone has thought of it, if nothing else. Now you can feel like a Queen or King, while going to the restroom.


---

Bonus: Made in Oregon

Raffle: fear cuts deeper than swords

Here's something I typed out for someone else who asked the same question a while back.

Basically a quick guide to what you should get to get started:

------

Here's what I'd buy, in order (5e):

• 1. Starter Set. This contains an excellent adventure for new players - I highly suggest running it if you're a 1st time DM - you can easily transition into a homebrew campaign or other adventures after it's over, using it as a "jumping off point". Also contains core rules and classes (which you can also download online so everyone in your group can have their own copy). The character options are limited, but you can always add more later.
     
     
• 2. Player's Handbook. Ideally, everyone has their own copy of this, but at least 1 copy vastly expands your party's customization options, and gives you the option to level up past 5. If you continue on past the first adventure, you will need this eventually.
     
     
• 3. The Monster Manual. You have enough monsters to work with from the starter set, but this gives you a lot more. Good to have in the long-term... not necessary while you're playing the starter set adventure, since all the monsters used there are included.
     
     
• 4. Dungeon Master's Guide. Honestly, I have little use for this, and I only open it rarely. However, if you run a more "random" or "sandbox" campaign where the players are more free to explore wherever they want in your world, this can be very handy for you. The one thing I do use it for is the magic items, which it has a huge collection of. This one can wait.
     
     As for non-book stuff, I'd highly suggest the following:
     
     
• EXTRA DICE. I suggest having 1 d20 for each player since it's by far the most common roll. On top of that, have, for the table, a set of at least: 2d12, 2d10, 6d8, 6d6, and 2d4. Having that set greatly speeds up the game as you level up, so you don't want to have to roll your one d6 8 times to get the damage of your attack.
  
  
• An erasable grid. (Something like this one) and some dry erase markers. Some people say "Theater of the Mind" play works fine for them - personally, I think having a grid speeds things up, takes a lot of pressure off the DM, and makes the combat side of the game more "fair". You don't have to be a fantastic artist, just sketch in some borders for the room, and you're good to go.
  
  
• To go with the above, find something to use as tokens. You can buy a big bag of army men, use the player pieces and houses/hotels from the monopoly game you have buried in your closet, or just get some pennies and tape scraps of paper on top of them. Anything you can use to mark where someone is.
  
  
• A DM screen. It may seem like "cheating", but it's actually a good thing to be able to fudge results sometimes (e.g., if you find out you balanced an encounter too hard), or to roll things in secret from players (e.g., a monster's perception roll to see if they know the party is coming). If you don't want to buy one, you can cut one out of a cardboard box, or just prop up a large book in front of you that you can roll dice behind.
  
  
• Food and drinks. The mark of a good D&D game is good friends, good RP, and smooth progression. The mark of a great one is all that plus pizza and beer.
  
  
  Good luck!

1.) Something that is grey.

Silver is grey, right? ;)

2.) Something reminiscent of rain.

When I think of rain I think of cuddling up with a good cup of coffee.

3.) Something food related that is unusual.

Coffee chocolate Not that weird... but pretty amazing.

4.) Something on your list that is for someone other than yourself. Tell me who it's for and why. (Yes, pets count!)
Bones for my dog because he hates being alone!

5.) A book I should read! I am an avid reader, so take your best shot and tell me why I need to read it!

I haven't read this yet, but it's supposed to be amazing!

6.) An item that is less than a dollar, including shipping... that is not jewelry, nail polish, and or hair related!

This book

7.) Something related to cats. I love cats! (keep this SFW, you know who you are...)

meow.

8.) Something that is not useful, but so beautiful you must have it.

I don't think any nail polish is useful, but I love this color

9.) A movie everyone should watch at least once in their life. Why?

Shawshank Redemption Come on, it's amazing. And sad. And Stephen King.

10.) Something that would be useful when the zombies attack. Explain.

These would be particularly useful because I could keep my hair out of my face so I can see zombies better to kill them!

11.) Something that would have a profound impact on your life and help you to achieve your current goals.

skip for now

12.) One of those pesky Add-On items.
Apparently you can straighten your nose with this interesting little item Ohhhh, China.

13.) The most expensive thing on your list. Your dream item. Why?

This book is the most expensive item on my list. Dream item? Nah. A kindle would be my dream item, but not feasible to have on list right now.


14.) Something bigger than a bread box.

This big enough?

15.) Something smaller than a golf ball.

This ring is itty bitty!


16.) Something that smells wonderful.

This air freshener. Mmmm



17.) A (SFW) toy.

Amazon lists this as a toy, so I'm going to have to go with that!

18.) Something that would be helpful for going back to school.

These would be great to hang papers and reminders up on the fridge.

19.) Something related to your current obsession, whatever that may be.

I'm obsessed with books, so uh... most of my wish list. Or this bookmark that symbolizes all that is books.


20.) Something that is just so amazing and awe-inspiring that I simply must see it. Explain why it is so grand.

I'm sure you've seen this but come on! It's John Snuhhhh!

Bonus! Oregon Fruit

Fear cuts deeper thank swords! Thanks for the contest. =)

$15 - Codenames is a great party game where you have to use one-word clues to communicate to your teammates which words you must guess in order to win. It's a race against time because both teams are trying to find all of their words first, but one word is an assassin, and by choosing it, your team loses immediately. It's creative and stressful. Really fun, for $15.

$33 - Ticket to Ride is a classic that lots of people love. It's relatively simple, and has up to five friends placing trains on tracks, trying to complete their routes around the US. It teaches quickly, has some opportunities to mess over other players, and is pretty and plays fast.

$30 - Splendor is a fast, strategic, card-buying game. Players take turns grabbing gems to eventually purchase cards, that act both as points and gems. It's great and hilarious in hindsight, because you realize everyone sat in utter silence for a half hour, because for some reason, Splendor makes people quietly brood and think and be silent. Occasionally, you might take the last gem someone else needed, and they burn inside, sometimes letting out a long, long sigh. It's a wonderful, pretty, well-produced game.

$22 - Sheriff of Nottingham is a 3-5 player, bluffing, negotiation game. Players try to get chickens and apples into town, while smuggling extra goods and contraband. Player rotate as the sheriff, and must be bribed with goods or coins, because if the sheriff decides to check their bag, and they lied about the contents, that player loses what they lied about. It's sweat-inducing, and makes for lots of riotous laughter and shouting. Also beautiful and easy to learn. Great game.

Join us over on /r/boardgames because that's where I learned a lot about modern board gaming. It's an amazing hobby that's growing quickly.

Welcome!

>I have a 3.5e players handbook and complete warrior that my brother bought a long time ago, but never played it. We know no-one who do know how to play and we all start from scratch. I've read online that its easier for new players to start with 5e but if i have these books, maybe we could just use them. 1) what do you recomend to do?

Contrary to the 5e zeitgeist, I'm a proponent of starting with whatever edition you have handy (and of 3.5 in general), and you're in luck! D&D 3.5 came out under an ambitious open license that made public all the core information. It's contained in what is called the System Reference Document, the most friendly online version of which is probably the hypertext d20 SRD. With that, your Player's Handbook, and the optional Complete Warrior book, you have what you need for both players and the Dungeon Master to play.

However, for your first time, I would recommend a pre-made adventure. The Dungeon Master can create any adventure he wants out of the monsters and traps and such in the SRD, but it's a lot of work and takes some practice to get right. So it's best to start with something pre-made, so the new DM can focus on the basics of DM'ing. Here is an archive of free adventures you can download and run as-is. I've heard Wreck Ashore is a pretty decent 1st level adventure.

>2) what dices do we need to get either way?

You don't need to buy dice. There are online and app-based die rollers that do just fine.

That being said, it really does make for a more delightful experience if you can roll real dice, at least for me. A set like this goes for about $20, and should be enough for everyone to share.

>3) do we need to get board/minutures?

People will tell you you don't need them, but the game is written assuming you have them (regardless of edition), and many of the effects include exact details that require them. So you need some kind of way to keep track of it.

That being said, you can use a piece of grid paper and coins, or a white board and a dry-erase marker, or any of a number of online virtual table tops to do this for free or very, very little. Roll20 is a good option here, as has been mentioned.

I play 5th edition and all advice is for that edition. 5E is pretty wallet friendly if you don't get it all at once. Here's a bunch of stuff you can look at to help your decision, though not all of it is mandatory.

• Number one, the cheapest, is to simply review the (somewhat limited, I'll admit) materials available on Wizards of the coast and start from there.
  
  
• Second is available in the form of the 5th edition starter set. I own one of these and it comes with everything you need for a game with a group of friends. A criticism I have of it though, is that experienced players will probably destroy the module included with it. I'd just forego this option entirely if you plan to buy any other materials, but it's a very low risk purchase.
  
  
• Third is just a player's handbook, which you really should own regardless of anything . The 5th Edition PHB has enough material to easily homebrew your own campaign with, but it will definitely leave you wishing you had more to work off of.
  
  
• Fourth is any of the several available modules for the game out right now. Having only played Hoard of the Dragon queen (And it's direct follow up, Rise of Tiamat), I can say that with the exception of a long, slightly boring segment in the middle, it's a solid adventure all the way through for the players.
  
  
• Fifth is the supplemental Dungeon master's Guide and Monster Manual, additional resources to help you craft better campaigns, but unnecessary until later. The monster manual should definitely be the first of the two purchases, in my opinion. I wouldn't even recommend the sword coast adventurer's guide unless you plan to specifically adventure in Faerun.
  
  So now that books are out of the way, let's talk figurines. You really don't need them, because ANYTHING can represent things on a board. But they're a fun thing to collect and use. BUT they are a great and fun thing to have. What we do at my table is have everyone acquire their own. I like to buy from Reaper Miniatures, but local comic book and hobby shops might have them as well. Make sure you have bases that are less than an inch wide (A square inch works best), because if you're using miniatures, then you're using a battle grid.
  
  Speaking of battle grids, they're also not entirely necessary, but they definitely help. This is a very reliable one if you take care of it and don't crease it too much. But the fun thing is, if you have a printer, you can print your own Battle Maps! Just set it to print a grid set to 1-inch increments and have as big or as small as a battle mat as you need. 5E technically uses a hex grid for outdoor maps, but we've always ignored that at our games.
  
  As for dice, I think it's the players responsibility to acquire their own dice, but on the off chance you just want to buy the things for everyone, I find a lot of enjoyment in picking through a Chessex Pound-o-Dice, or a Wiz Dice 100+ pack just so everyone has some. Plus, you never know when you'll suddenly need 20d6 for maximum fall damage!
  
  Other than that, just have pencils, paper, and a good way to keep notes handy and you're set.
  
  This is far from a comprehensive guide, and probably the worst thing you could do is buy everything or nothing right at the start. Consider asking friends or checking libraries for these books (And secondhand bookshops near you!) to save a penny or two.
  
  So, in summary, if I were starting out DMing and buying anything, it would be a player's handbook, a set of dice, and if I weren't confident in my ability to homebrew, I'd buy a module or a dungeon master's guide. But you can go further or less far if you like.

Board Game Sale

7 Wonders | 3-7 Players | 30-60 Minutes | BGG Score: 7.8, 48th highest ranked game | Rules Complexity: 2/5, Strategic Depth: 2/5 | $27

I like 7 Wonders because it's a game that can get a lot of people to the table, without any added length per player. It's a card drafting/tableau building game where players take simultaneous turns playing cards in order to make their "empire" stronger. It's a great entry point for new board gamers as it will likely be one of the first tableau building games you play, which is a common game mechanic in the board gaming world.

• Card Drafting - By card drafting I mean this, players will start with a hand of cards, take one to play, and then pass to your left or right depending on the round. This offers a tough decision of what to take to make your standing better, while also offering the tough decision of trying to keep key cards away from your opponent that you're passing to.
  
  
• Tableau Building - A tableau is the area in front of you where you've played cards that give you permanent bonuses. In this game a card played into your tableau may give you permanent resources, ability to build buildings for free, or other valuable benefits. These are openly shown which will add to strategic decisions when you're drafting.
  
  ____
  
  Other Sales or Notable Buys
  
  Ticket to Ride
  
  Love Letter - ZMan Edition | 2-6 Players | ~20 Minutes | BGG Score: 7.7 | Rules Complexity: 0.5/5, Strategic Depth: 1/5 | $12
  
  This is a new implementation of the classic card game Love Letter. The game can be taught in 5 minutes or less, and is played until someone scores 4 points. This version adds new roles and allows for 6 players, up from 4 with the original. Every player starts with 1 card, at the start of their turn they will draw a card and play a card face up. The cards all have unique abilities that will help, or hurt your chances to trying to secure your delivery of the love letter to the princess. If you're the last person standing, you gain the favor. Each round plays in about 2-3 minutes. There's some luck involved, and it's a fun "bar game." Tons of fun in a cheap package that comes in a nice looking bag.

Actually, the "H" does represent heroic, but it's not level. That is meant to reflect modules that can be linked as a series of adventures. It's from a system of organization in earlier editions that Wizards re-introduced with 4E. So, in other words, H1 is Keep on the Shadowfell and H2 is Thunderspire Labyrinth. You can run these after each other in a campaign! You can find a nice list here.

Also, this is a great battlemat from Chessex. It's durable and it's also not too gigantic. It's actually quite a capable size!

Personally, I will recommend using grid paper, too. I favored a battlemat for awhile, but I've become a big fan of the grid paper approach in 4E. You can draw and prepare what you like for smaller encounters, especially, easily beforehand and then slide standard sheet protectors on your finished product for your tokens/minis. Of course, you can arrange them on your table and keep them together with something as simple Scotch tape (though you shouldn't need to do that too often). You can also re-use locations and save shops or churches or elemental planes or whatever you'd like, that you can quickly recall to the table. The enterprising DM always likes creativity and efficiency together.

I make my grid paper from this generator with settings of 0.25 inch border, 1 point weight, and 1 line per inch and black grid color. Nothing complicated about this, it's a regular print job. By no means is this the authoritative way to do it, I just have found that works well for me and my players. There are plenty of other resources out there for grid paper, office stores, etc. Whatever works best for you!

I started off playing the tabletop Dungeons and Dragons board games like The Legend of Drizzt, Castle Ravenloft, and Wrath of Ashardalon. These games are great because you can play with anywhere between 2-5 people and you don't need a dungeon master. They come with around 40 plastic miniatures, board pieces, premade adventures, and everything else you need to get started, and they're great because you can mix the pieces between the games if you buy more than one.



These games are great because they can get you into D&D without all the set up and keeping track that you have to do with a regular game.

Once you've played one of those a few times you should move on to real D&D. I suggest doing this by trying to finding a starter set for the edition you want to play, or, even better, by finding a friend who plays.

Now this is only really if you want to play D&D and that's just what I'm suggesting because that's what I have experience with and I know it's a lot of fun. If you, or anyone, chooses to start playing D&D or any game I would suggest buying your materials from a local game shop instead of online. If you can afford it (prices will probably be a little higher) and you can find one near you it's a great investment. Not only can you ask the employees for advice, but often there will be a ton of great people willing to play with you, as long as you sort through the neckbeards of course. Also you'll be supporting those local shops, and you'll help keep them in business, which helps paper and pen RPG's survive, and helps everyone have just a little more fun.

Good luck and happy dragon slaying!

Yeah, as others have said, for beginners do try out the D&D 5e Starter Set.

It has enough rules for the small premade adventure they give you to start up, the small adventure itself (which is no small thing for a beginner Dungeon Master), a few pregenerated characters and a set of dice.

You could add to that a few miniatures (or just use paper tokens) and an extra set of dice.


The Starter Set goes to level 5 only (out of 20 max). If you like it, then go ahead and buy the Holy Trinity of D&D Books:

• the Player's Manual, which is a complete* set of all official possibilities about character creation and playing. You don't all need one for playing, but it's easier that way. Sharing is also good, that said.
  
• The Dungeon Master's Guide, which is a book made to help the Dungeon Master create his adventures and make the game enjoyable. Only one is required, really.
  
• The Monster Manual, which containes a lot of premade monsters which are very helpful for DMs.
  
  
  The other books, such as Curse of Strahd, Out of the Abyss or Tales from the Yawning Portal, are simply adventures that you can buy if you don't want to make your own. They are fun to play and way less of a hassle to DMs... but after a while most will like to make their own stories.
  
  On another note... While obviously I can't recommend that both because supporting creators is important and because of subreddit rules, you can find pdfs of all those books online, if you don't want to spend the money. Or simply because Ctrl-F is better than manually searching.
  
  
  *They have added a few more options is some adventures or the Sword Coast Adventure Guide, and there are some unofficial elements that are being tested in the Unearthed Arcana, but trust me with the core books you have enough to play with for a while.

I own all of these (plus quite a few more), and enjoy playing them regularly. Prices are approximately accurate at places like Target, walmart, Amazon, etc. Most games below can be played by up to 4-6 players (some more), but all support a minimum of two. (An important distinction, as many games require 3 or more players.)

$5-10:

• Scrabble/Monopoly are fun if you're both into the classics. For some reason, these are both almost $20 on Amazon, but I've seen them for under/around $10 each at Target/Walmart.
  
• Scrabble Slam (card game) - sets Scrabble on it's ear and adds some adrenaline.
  
• A copy of Hoyle's Rules of Games and a deck of cards.
  
• Uno - One of my favorites - An absolute staple, and works with as many people as you want, though you might want to add a second deck for more than 4-5.
  
• Phase 10 - kind of like a cross between Uno and Rummy.
  
  $10-20:
  
  Here, we start getting into some really interesting ones...
  
  
• Munchkin - One of my favorites - Like pen & paper RPGs? This makes fun of them ALL in a way only a true gamer would get. Plenty of expansions if you get bored.
  
• Guillotine - You're each executioners during the French Revolution, trying to collect the most prestigious heads.
  
• Gloom - You're each one of up to four tragedy-ridden families. Play misery-inducing cards on your family to make them as unhappy as possible before you shove them off into the hereafter, and play happy puppies and fluffy bunnies on your opponent to do the opposite.
  
• Fluxx - The rules are the cards you play. Start with 3 cards, then draw 1 and play 1 each turn. Oh, but now it's draw 3 and play 1, so you'll need to draw 2 more to catch up. Now it's draw 3 and play 5, so play 4 to catch up, except that someone played inflation, so it's draw 4 and play 6... etc.
  
• Citadels Out of the hundreds of games I've played over the years, this is the only one I've seen that claims to have "intrigue"... and really does. Play the role of various nobles, each with different abilities, to gain gold, build cities, and steal from/assassinate your opponents to prevent them from doing the same. The catch? You each play different roles each turn, and the roles are chosen part randomly, and part secretly, so that no one knows who is who until it's too late.
  
  $20-30
  
  
• Carcassone - One of my favorites - Lay down tiles to build cities, roads and farmland, and place your followers to claim them for points. Just because you lay something down doesn't mean someone else won't claim it instead, and claiming it doesn't ensure that you keep it. Lots of strategy involved, and plenty of expansions if you want to change gameplay. Good for up to 5 players, or more with expansions. Has some similarities with Settlers of Catan, to be mentioned shortly.
  
• Chez Geek, House Party Edition - You're all college kids in a dorm, trying to get the most slack points with fun/cool things to do, while reducing slack points in your opponents with annoying cards like car alarms (no sleep), the drunk friend (drinks all your slack-gaining booze), etc. The basic game is under $20, but it's worth it to buy the House Party Edition for $25, as it includes some expansions and extras.
  
• Illuminati - I haven't played this yet, but from what I've read, it's a blast. By Steve Jackson Games, the makers of Munchkin.
  
• Kill Dr. Lucky - Here's a quote from the rules: "You have hated Dr. Lucky for as long as you can remember, and you've been secretly awaiting this perfect chance to do the old man in. Maybe he destroyed your dry cleaning business; maybe you think he's the leader of the vampires. Perhaps he's the only person standing between you and the family fortune. Or maybe his cat just keeps peeing in your shrubs. Whatever your reason, its good enough to push you over the edge, and now you absolutely can't wait to take the lying old bastard down!"
  
  
  $30-50
  A bit pricier here, but some very interesting gameplay is to be found.
  
  
• Settlers of Catan - One of my favorites - no game shelf is complete without it - Build roads and settlements using the tradable resources provided by the areas around your settlements, and the roll of the dice. Note: This is not a two player game. I made an exception here because it rocks, but unfortunately you'll need a third wheel to play.
  
• Dominion - One of my favorites - I grew up with Magic: The Gathering, but disliked always having to buy new cards to be competitive. Gameplay is somewhat similar to Magic, though instead of plinking away at your opponent's health, you are gaining victory points. Also, Dominion includes all of the cards you will need for up to 4 players, and you "build" your deck (similar to Magic), by buying new cards every turn.
  
• Ticket to Ride - Build your train routes across the US (or Europe, if you get that edition) without revealing your destination, because your opponents might cut you off!
  
• Small World - Kind of like a cross between Risk and... something else. Control territory to gain gold, using various races with special abilities. Send your races into decline (continuing to own the territory until it is taken), while expanding out with your new race. Knowing when to send a race into decline makes all the difference.
  
• Red November - You're a bunch of drunken gnomes on a doomed submarine. Put out the fire by shunting the flooded compartment to the burning one, but now there are two flooded compartments and you have to pump them out while the engine has a problem and oh my god it's the kraken. INSANE gameplay, but can be stressful. This has skyrocketed in price (from $30 to $50), probably because they're about to release a revised edition, so the old one is out of print. You might want to wait a month for the new version to come out before you buy this.

1. You NEED to get a board game collection when people come over to your house! My husband and I have an awesome collection of old-school video games and over the past year we've really gotten into board games. It wasn't until we got some really good board games that we had friends coming to visit more constantly! The Resistance is a great 5-10 player game and 7 Wonders is a beautiful 3-7 player game full of strategy. With the right group, Cards Against Humanity is hilarious.
   
   
2. DOES PIXAR COUNT?! I have so many Monsters Inc plushies! :) I also love Aladdin! Great movie, loved growing up with the tv show, and a prince with some personality! WOO!
   
   
3. A pug napping with a teacup pig <3
   
   
4. Happy early birthday! PIXELCHARKATTACK
   
   I also just caught up on all of the Adventure Time episodes recently. OMG SO GOOD! I like how it went from silly, incoherent adventures to a legit, interesting story line!

1. A mug! How is this cake related? Because you can make microwavable cake in a mug!
   
2. So, I didn't even know who Simon Pegg was. Apparently he starred in Shaun of the Dead, which I haven't seen, but it's apparently a romantic zombie movie!
   
3. J.K. Rowling's new book. DYING TO READ IT
   
4. You could totally use the sticks from these lollipops as chopsticks!
   
5. Animal print animal costume!
   
6. Purple!
   
7. My favorite game!
   
8. Nerdy fantasy books are my guilty pleasure
   
9. Lots of tools!
   
10. The Lion King!
    
11. Cascading hangers! My closet would be so compact and organized!
    
12. Dorky as it may be, coloring is my hobby!
    
13. SO MANY OPTIONS. I'm an art history nerd, a Disney nerd, a cat lady, an X-Files nerd, and a history dork--there are so many options for nerdy hahaha.
    
14. Organic extra virgin coconut oil!
    
15. Water bottle!
    
16. You wear a necklace!
    
17. Murder by Death is hilarious!
    
18. "Pearl" beads!
    
19. Willow. Because what do you find in a garden? Plants! Trees are plants. And what is a willow? A tree! This is totally, 100% gardening related. Promise.
    
20. This isn't the thing I want the most, but it's seriously one of the coolest, dorkiest, most amazing items on my wishlist. It's something I could never justify buying for myself, but I REALLY love it--one day it will be mine!
    
    You're going to buy yourself this super interesting book!
    
    Happy happy cake day :D
    
    If I win, anything I linked OR anything from my wishlist would be an amazingggg prize :) I love everything on my wishlists!

• Wish List: Cell Phone because my phone is like 4 years old-ish it does all these odd things and it's annoying and I'd like a new one.
  
• ACCESSORIES!!: Bow I love bows and America.
  
• Arts and Crafts: Rub 'n Buff I need this for an art project I am doing. They are camos and it would make them look nice.
  
• Books!: Venus in Fur: A Play This play looks amazing! When I saw a clip of it on the Tony Awards I wish I could have seen it. I am DYING to read it!
  
• Clothes: Petticoat For my Dalek dress.
  
• Cool nail polish: Hunger Games collection 2012 I just love all the earth tones, I don't have like any of them at home and I love the Hunger Games.
  
• Everything is Awesome!: Prism I want to use it to hopefully get a job that I really want.
  
• Makeup: Black lipstick I don't know where mine is and I really love black lipstick.
  
• Movies: Anchorman 2 I LOVE ANCHORMAN! Have you heard my ringtones?
  
• Table Top Games: Betrayal At House On The Hill THIS GAME LOOK AMAZING AND I KNOWWWWWWWWWW MY FRIENDS WILL LOVE IT! I NEED TO PLAY!!!!!!!!!

Ever since the first time I saw my first Cards Against Humanity card that read "Mecha Hitler" and said outloud "Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot?", I've been hooked. What I really love is the spirit of the guys behind it. They made it open-source and gave it to the masses for free in the form of do-it-yourself cards. The drawback is, your cutting skills almost certainly suck.

In the same spirit of wanting to make this game available to everyone, including those who are so astoundingly lazy that they won't take the time to properly cut their cards, I give you Business Cards Against Humanity. It's pretty much the same as the do-it-yourself cards, but it's set up to work with common business card cutters you'll find at most print shops. The result is nice, very uniform cards. Here's how it works:

1. Download the pdf files you want to use
   
2. Take them to your local print shop. I used Staples, and they should have the correct business card cutter too.
   
3. Print them out on thick cardstock, ask for matte BCIM if they have it.
   
4. Have them print one test page and run it through the cutter.
   
5. If all is well, run the rest through.
   
   Here's some tips.
   
   

• Get a quote on the entire job before they print. You don't want any hidden fees after the fact. Call it in if you are feeling lazy.
  
• Like the do-it-yourself cards, ask if they will print them on their color printer at the black and white prices since, you know, it's all in black and white anyways, the color printer just does a much better job.
  
• Ask if they will run it through the cutter for free or not. Apparently Staples doesn't have a fee set up for just that, they said some other stores may charge one or two dollars, or worst case charge the same price as it costs to print custom business cards from their kiosk.
  
• I suggest you use the black backs file to print solid black on the back of the black cards, they will have to run it through a second time for that.
  
• If you want you can skip the card extras file, it has the rules, fill-in-yourself black and white cards, and display cards for the nice little cardboard box the finished cards came in.
  
  Any feedback on this is much appreciated. I've got more that I want to do with the sets, but I'm pretty busy at the moment. Eventually I'll have the expansions when I find out if they too are Creative Commons licensed like the original game, I've heard conflicting points of view on that. I'll also have a way for you to make your own cards, this was actually made using just Publisher and Excel, I'll get the files up once I can make it easier to do.
  
  Lastly, I have no affiliations with CAH. The original game, and all glory go to the hypnotoad the fine folks at Cards Against Humanity. I made this just as a fan of the original. Speaking of which, go buy a copy. It's much nicer than this version, this is mostly so you can have nice cards when they are sold out/you have $10 to print but not $25 to buy the real thing.
  

1. Like other people have said: have supplies on hand. Paper, pencils, dice. I went a bit overboard a bought a erasable grid mat and some wet-erase markers, but that's just me.

More importantly: read the rules that come with the starter set. Then read through the first section ( Goblin Arrows I think it's called ) of the Lost Mines of Phandelver (LMOP) book. Then read the rules again. Then read the first section. Then do a few mock battles between the pregens and the first goblin encounter ( dead horses on the road ). Then read the books again. Then do some more fake battles.

The point of all this is to make sure you understand how the basics work, so that you're not getting caught up on what to do next.

2. The 5 pregens are ready to go, straight out of the box. If you don't have the Players Handbook (PHB), stick with the pregens. The starter kit doesn't come with the rules to generate your own characters. It also lets you get straight to playing -- which I think is the most important part. Figure out if you and the players like the game before diving into the player creation / leveling rules.

3. I'd suggest just running through the LMOP campaign. Keep things loose. Occasionally make stuff up when monsters fail to hit with a natural 1 ( critical miss ). As long as you aren't getting bogged down with the rules ( see 1 ) you should be fine. Also: before starting, tell the players that if there are questions about a rule ( they don't understand, or think it works differently ) tell them that during the game your word is law -- BUT! You'll write down their concern to look up later ( during a break or after the session ) to see what the rules say. The important thing is to keep things flowing, not to get everyone bogged down looking stuff up in the books/online.

4. Graph paper works well if you want the players to map stuff themselves. You can always do it for them ( either on graph paper or on something like this ). The first encounter ( goblins on the road ) doesn't need a map, but it can help, although you'll have to make it up on the spot, there isn't a provided map for that in the module book. The main encounter ( goblin cave ) I would definitely recommend using a map.

This is also a personal thing, but as a new DM I found having a grid mat super useful. I've already got tons of other things to keep track of, trying to remember where everybody is isn't a skill I've got yet.

5. For all the encounters in the LMOP campaign, the book tells you exactly what loot each encounter generates. So not something you have to worry about until you get the DM guide and start building your own campaigns.

6. It's pretty much turn-based, turn order is based on Initiative. Again, see point 1: read the books a few times, play a few mock battles by yourself, you'll get the hang of it. Combat in 5e is pretty easy to get into, it flows well and is quick enough ( at least at 1st level ) that nobody gets bored waiting for their turn.

7. Not sure how this works outside of LMOP, but I think if you play through LMOP and see how your players react to the various encounters and whatnot, you should get a feel for it.

8. The LMOP book gives you guidelines on how NPCs should act ( are they friendly? gruff? trying to be fancy? etc ), but what they actually say is up to you. As DM, whether or not you actually "roleplay" or just do a dry "the NPC says x" is completely up to you. It really comes down to what you're comfortable with.

9. So far, what I've learned is that as DM I'm there to make sure the players are playing within the rules of the system ( ie, no jumping over mountains, etc ), controlling the NPCs, and helping the players tell the story by reacting to what they do.

I'm still pretty new, but one thing I've found useful for my players is pointing out 1st-order repercussions their actions might have. 1st-order repercussions are what happens directly due to an action: player hits gong, gong makes loud noise. 2nd-order repercussions are the things that happen that they player might not forsee: gong noise alerts orcs in next area that players are coming.

For example, in the first section of the goblin cave, there's a natural chimney that leads up to where the bugbear is hiding. The players didn't want to risk climbing and falling -- but one of them had a hammer and crampons ( things you hammer into the rock so you can climb with a rope and not worry about falling ). I told them that doing so would be loud -- I didn't tell them that there was a bugbear up there. They decided they didn't want every goblin in the cave ( which they didn't know how big it was yet ) to know where they were, so they went a different way.

If you want to read up on how me DM-ing the Goblin Arrows part of LMOP went: I DM'd last Sunday, was super fun

Ticket to Ride

I am surprised nobody's done this one yet! It's a ton of fun: an award-winning, train-building strategy game... which, yeah, sounds sorta /yawn, but you use routes all over the US, and you can play with just two (my husband and I play it often). It's already such a pitched battle with only two, I'm not entirely sure how more could play. But they do have various expansion packs for all over the globe, which is kinda cool.

Why it's the greatest:

1. Learn geography and routes! Perfect for the zombie apocalypse, when you need to know how to get from coast to coast if avoiding highways!
   
   
2. It's a lot of fun. It's a race to see who can lock down terminals and complete their routes first (if you want to play competitively), or if you play cooperatively, it stretches your creativity in how to build routes. You can even both win for differing things, like longest unbroken route can win in a game, as can whomever finished all their card tasks first.
   
   Give it a look, you might enjoy it!

< Am a teacher:

First go to your principal and see what the school needs. Normally there is a process to get a new club started but since this was already a club it shouldn't be as hard. A lot of schools need a supervising teacher etc, etc, etc. If you ask the principal to send out an email there's a chance that one of the teachers in your building is already into dnd and can help you out.

​

to answer your specific questions:

​

1. it really depends on how well you advertise/the specific kids at your school. If you can get 1-3 5 player campaigns to start that would be awesome. On that note, try and introduce them to some of your favorite dnd stuff. Critical roll highlights can hook a lot of people for example. And make sure to advertise for your club really well the first week; posters, announcements, fb(or w/e social media you're using), the whole schebang.
   
   ​
   
   

2. a lot of dnd can be run without the books. There are free downloadable and legal pdfs available online that cover phb basic rules. its enough to get newbies started at the very least. In addition to this, monster and item stats are pretty reliably found by typing "5e dnd [monster]" into google. I would have 1 actual phb,mhm,and dmg available for reference. The school or possibly the supervising teacher might be able to help you front some of the $. The big one that would be helpful to have would be a couple preplanned adventures if your dm's don't want to homebrew. again the internet can be a great resource, or buy a couple of them if you have a way to get some start up $.
   
   ​
   
   
3. The most important thing (imo) is to be realistic about what you can do each session. i imagine after school clubs run like 1.5 hours? If that is the case then you need to have a specific goal for each of your first few meetings. In addition to this, make sure you give people something to do, even if only for a couple minutes, in your beginning sessions. let them roll up a character (or start to). If you are teaching rules, have a mock battle set up and let people control a pre-made basic charecters, etc.
   
   ​
   
   sorry for the long post, but i really hope you can set this up and have some luck doing it.
   
   i linked cheap dice(10$ for 5 sets) and the downloadable phb
   
   https://www.amazon.com/d/Role-Playing-Dice/Smartdealspro-Colors-Dungeons-Dragons-Pouches/B01ABST9S4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541318360&sr=8-1&keywords=dnd+dive
   
   ​
   
   https://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/PlayerDnDBasicRules_v0.2_PrintFriendly.pdf

It was just one we picked up and all absolutely loved.

In maybe 2014 one of my buddies sort of randomly got this game of thrones game as a gift, and we all started playing it and had a lot of fun with it (big GoT fans). That was really the first time we ever played an actual board game together. None of us were ever really huge tabletop gamers, but played a bunch of video games together, played deck building strategy games like MTG and Hearthstone, and are big fantasy readers. Two of the guys in this group actually did briefly get into Warhammer (I think that's what it was/is called) for a year or so when we were in college. I guess that would be considered Tabletop gaming as well.

Then a couple years ago, my sister introduced me to Catan when she was visiting. I bought my own copy the next day, and we decided that it was substantially better than the GoT game, and switched to Catan. We played it as often as we could until we all dispersed. We hadn't even really started playing any of the expansions yet, so I'm ecstatic to even start playing those.

Certainly the biggest draw in doing TTS is just the wide number of other games that we could also end up finding and playing in the same environment. One of my other buddies and I had always wanted to experience a game of D&D and were pretty stoked to see that even that exists here.

I would love to hear your favorites or recommendations based on this "synopsis" of our group, haha.

1. This encounter builder that someone on here built is all sorts of lovely. I'm doing something somewhat similar to you; my group is 6 players and we're playing a campaign built for 4. On top of that, we're playing a 3.5e campaign in 5e. Converting encounters manually is a bit of a pain, but with this app I can just see that the encounter calls for (this is a specific example that I did yesterday) 2 bugbears, check how that compares, see what happens by adding another bugbear, and call that a day. Super quick, super simple, super easy.
   
   
2. Mood can be set by the players, and mood can be set by the DM. Generally mood is set by both. Talk with your players individually and out of character. Ask them what they want. Once you get a general idea of what they want, talk to them as a group or individually and say what you've found. Something along the lines of "Some of us want a more serious game, and a couple want a lot of humor. We can have both, but when it's time to be serious, please be serious for the rest of us." People will generally at least try to be accommodating.
   
   
3. First, you are the DM. Your players are not. You are the final say on rules. Your players are not. If you have an idea of how something should work, make a quick decision about it. Look it up when you have more time. Don't let your players bog you down with minutia or rules lawyering. You are the rules. That said, if a player can actually manage to pay attention and look up rules at the same time, feel free to allow them to do that when it is not their turn, and when it is their turn they can bring up what they found. Deal with it as you like; retroactively or not, whatever. Also, you have 8 players. 8 players is a LOT. You and your players don't have time for people to look up their spells every time it's their turn. Have your spellcasters and ability users write up skill sheets for themselves... spell cards and the like. It's a bit of work but it saves a ton of time in game, when it matters.
   
   
4. You don't necessarily have to have everyone. My general philosophy is if 1 person is gone, they're off doing something else and we continue playing with the rest of the party. If two people are gone, I just cancel the session. I'm not sure where I'd draw that line with 8 players, though. Alternately, just schedule for when everyone is available if possible.
   
   
5. Personally, I adore my this thing. It makes drawing encounters for people so easy. I also love tactical gameplay and play with other people who, like me, grew up as video gamers, so there's that. For miniatures, I use chess pieces. I have a game of chess 4 which has 4 complete sets of pieces. Players pick their pieces and enemies are generally pawns. Once I have a bit more spare cash and am no longer spending all of my spare cash on D&D books and related paraphernalia, I'll start investing in actual miniatures. Paizo is just one source of those, mind; there are many more, including randoms on eBay. For a cheaper alternative, there are character tokens. That picture came from here. I don't know where to buy just tokens, but it's a thing people sell.
   
   
6. I don't use fog of war, really; once a character has seen something, all the players can always see it... but then you get into distinguishing character knowledge from player knowledge and vice versa. Encourage your players to act as though their characters only know what their characters could know. Frodo's finger just got bitten off by Gollum? Aragorn doesn't know that, because Aragorn isn't in bloody Mordor.
   
   
7. Eh, no opinion here; I don't bother with a screen. I like when people see how screwed or not that they are.

Edit: for the record, I posted this before the lasybugs thing took off

You're not going to make any great progress on a PC build for that price. Besides, PC tech is changing so quickly, you shouldn't buy any one piece of it until you can buy all of it.

If you're looking for X1 games, I'm a huge fan of Destiny, but it's not for everyone. If you're looking for more of a sure hit, check out Shadows of Mordor or Dragon Age: Inquisition.

If you want to change things up a little, here are some of my favorite purchases (I'm a minor Amazon addict):

• The best thermos you've ever seen
  
  
• A super high quality door-hung b-ball hoop (you'll want to buy a nerf ball with it, the one it comes with is dangerous to valuables in the room)
  
  
• One of the best board games ever made
  
  
• A classy and useful EDC knife (there are lots of options on this front, /r/knifeclub has great recommendations)
  
  Check out my sub /r/everymanshouldhave for more recommendations like this. It's not super active of late, but it has some great suggestions if you look at the history

I'm still a kid at heart!

I had first played WoW and then moved on to Aion when all of my friends moved on.. In my school I was probably one of the only people who played this (grindy-as-hell) game as most of my friends went back to WoW. So, whenever I would talk about it they wouldn't really listen to me.

But I also had ASL class (they offered sign language as a foreign language at my school), and one guy in there was super sweet and also enjoyed playing games. He would always listen to my silly ramblings about the dungeon I did the night before or whatever it was that I had to talk about.

He not only listened to my silly nonsense about my games, but also shared his own personal experiences about the games he was playing.

The summer after he graduated he asked to come over to my house to bum off of my high-speed internet. I told him that I was going to be busy playing Aion but sure. So he comes over and plays WoW next to me and watches me do my boss battles and listens to me talk to my internet-friends on ventrilo and even talks back at them.

Before I knew it, he was coming over every day to play WoW and watch me play Aion and now we've moved in together and been together for almost 4 years.

Sorry my story wasn't exactly game-related but it does have the happiest ending I've played yet! (Also, he doesn't have to steal my internet anymore)

Cards Against Humanity

Wow, she sounds like my kind of girl. My GF really likes model planes. Something like this is a good starter model if she has never tried model planes before. It's not a very good way to introduce someone to the hobby, but down the road if she's interested and more experienced, she can get FPV systems, which put a camera in the cockpit of your model plane and fly it from a first person perspective. Another good idea in the realm of flying might be a basic simulator set-up for a computer like this (this one is just an example, I'm not well versed enough in these to give a specific model recommendation, so you should do some research on your own to find the best one).

When it comes to board games, there's so, so many great ones. Its hard to really recommend one because there are so many vastly different games that are ideal for different people. One that everyone seems to like is Ticket to Ride. My GF happens to like Pandemic. One of my favorites is Dominion. Head over to /r/boardgames (maybe with a little more info about what she likes?) and you'll get a ton of great recommendations if you are interested in going the board game route.

Hmm, let's see. Kind of a long topic and I'm only going to go over the newest version of the game. D&D Fifth Edition just came out, and you might sometimes hear it called "D&D Next" or "D&D 5E".

BOOKS

• Currently, only 1 book is available for purchase- the Player's Handbook which contains rules for every race, class, equipment and magical spells (and more!).
  
• Later this month you can expect the Monster Manual which contains detailed information about things you can expect to fight.
  
• Later this year there will be the Dungeon Master's Guide that contains more in-depth and complex rules for the DM to create interesting campaign adventures for his or her party.
  
• This Starter Set contains an adventure book, pre-generated characters (VERY handy if none of you know what you're doing!!), character sheets for when you feel like making your own character, and a set of dice.
  
• There is a free, watered-down "Basic Rules" PDF of this information available here which contains only some of the races and classes.
  
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  OTHER THINGS TO GET [Applicable to all versions]
  
  
• Lots of dice. If you search around the internet for a set of polyhedral dice you'll find results very similar to this set of 7 dice. It contains one four-sided die, one six-sided, one eight-sided, two ten-sided, one twelve-sided and one twenty-sided die. You'll often seen this abbreviated as a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 or d20 for the sake of shortness. People will use that shorthand aloud as well, you'll find. If you guys really don't want to spend money, you can make due with just 1 set of dice and add the totals in your head as needed but this will make things take longer. For example, if you're using a Maul as a weapon you'd roll two d6 (written as "2d6") every time you attack.
  
• Erasers and pencils; no ink! You'll frequently be making adjustments to your characters' sheets as you take damage, earn EXP, gain items and grow.
  
• A dry erase board isn't a terrible idea, so you can write down temporary things about your character without dirtying up your character sheet
  
• Gridded mat for playing on such as this, though I'd advise you find a dry erase friendly one. It really helps to visualize a fight, so you know where you and your friends are and where the enemies are. Basically, in D&D, everything is measured in feet or squares on a grid; general rule of thumb is that 1 square = 5 feet. Most things move up to 25-30 feet, so 5 or 6 squares. So this helps let you see if something's in range of your throwing axe without having to ask the DM, or whatever. Just an extra visual element, really.
  
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Honestly, D&D is one of those games that's only as complex as you make it. If your whole party rolled up Barbarians and Fighters you'd probably be ready to play very quickly. Once you get into spell casting, generating a character and really knowing how to play is a little bit more complex but it's not that bad. I'd recommend you hit Facebook or Meetup.com to try and find a group of experienced players who can teach one of you, then propagate that information to the rest of your friends. In my experience, the player base is very diverse but everyone I've met has been super friendly and loves finding new players to help. Just remember to speak up and ask questions if you're not sure of something (or if it comes up during a session, write it down to ask later and work with your friends in the mean time to find a common answer to a question so you don't have to pause the fun).

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.

Well, how serious are you? Cause if you're serious... here ya go

Otherwise, without knowing what you're into, it's a bit tough. Sushi Go! is an absolutely awesome card game - super easy to teach, pretty quick to play, but really fun for anyone. It's... "THE BOMB" at parties.

I would also extremely recommend Dominion, it's probably my favorite table-top game. However, I can't say it's for everyone.

I would absolutely love KTANE... wish I could buy it, but I've already spent way too much on games, and college is eating into my pockets. Thanks much! Sir Soaring Spud

This year I made an amazon wishlist, and the nice thing about it is you can add items from any website to it (there's a google chrome extension but you can do it from your amazon wishlist, as well.) Some things that I added:

• Gift cards to Etsy and places I like to buy clothes from
  
• A new pair of cheapo earbuds for my purse
  
• These nice headphones
  
• A new ambidexterious gaming mouse (I game right handed but prefer to do everything else on the computer left handed and I don't want multiple mice)
  
• Crafty things (wool, painting supplies, watercolour paper)
  
• Food/candy items for stocking stuffer ideas
  
• A 64gb usb 3.0 drive
  
• A new ipod charging cable
  
• Some stuff from Sephora
  
• A few cool adult colouring books like this
  
• Some art related books (painting, hand lettering) that look interesting but I would never think to buy for myself (my family is big into books)
  
• Sheets, a mattress topper, and a mattress pad
  
• Cards Against Humanity
  
• A link to my steam wishlist
  
  
  
  I basically just took a few hours one evening and surfed the web and added things that looked cool, then revised it the next day and removed anything I didn't actually want. A lot of it is stuff I probably wouldn't buy for myself but I'd enjoy having. I tried to add a variety of stuff in the price range department and I thought listing out gift cards to specific places for clothes/etsy stuff was a better idea than them picking it out because that's usually hard.
  
  
  For etsy itself, I have a few different lists - things I'm going to buy, things I'll probably buy, and things that are maybes. If certain people (my mom, my sister) wanted to see it and pick something out from it I'd let them and that's part of the reason I've organized it that way (and so I know what I like from which stores without having to search through the whole store)

The beginner's box is cheap but, if you want to play FOR FREE, it is entirely possible to do so using the free ruleset that has already been mentioned and linked and a dice rolling app on your phone, tablet or computer. The free ruleset has less races and classes, but it's still enough to keep you and your friends hooked for months.

If you feel like this is your thing, then you and your friends can save up and get the core books and maybe even Wiz Dice's Bag of Dice and you will be set for pretty much as long as you'll ever want. After that, getting pre-made adventures, new settings or even new editions will be entirely up to whether you feel like spending more money or not.

I'm a fairly budget DM (but I had an edge as you'll see). Here is what my solution for minis was:

Via BGG I was able to for a few of the Dungeon and Dragon Board Games ex: Wrath of Ashardalon. This gave me a decent enough set of minis but most importantly: multiples of many of them as many of them come in groups of 2-4. This is kind of a cheat as I have a large collection of board games and was looking to swap some out anyway.

Then I purchased Pathfinder Beginner Box. Its a good price and you get a playmat, mini adventure, dice and a bunch of Pathfinder Pawns. These pawns are great and come with bases which lead me to my next purchases.

I was very happy with the way the Pathfinder Pawns worked out for me to "fill in the blanks" where I didn't have any minis. Pathfinder offers a lot of sets for their different adventure paths for between $15-20 via amazon. They don't come with bases but the beginner box solved that for me. Best part of these sets, in my opinion, is they come with plenty of multiples.

My players use a mix of minis from the board games and their own painted ones they bring. I pick a mix of minis and pawns with a preference towards all of one if I can help it. The pawns are fantastic and if I didn't have the option of the board game I would be totally happy just using those. The only thing I might do in that situation would be to pick up individual minis for "bosses". While the art on the Pathfinder Pawns are generally good to excellent quality scale is really lost on the larger creatures imo.

As for actually running combat, I'm style finding my DM style but I've settled on a mix of 4 similar yet different methods depending on what I want the encounter to emphasize.

For quick, "uncomplicated" encounters or ones that I may want to not emphasize combat I use theater of the mind. In my experience the second a grid comes out players think combat. The speed of theater of the mind is appealing to me. As for technique: with theater of the mind I tend to narrate everything except killing blows and run turn order by starting with the characters name and a description of the state of the battle every turn.

If TotM seems a bit too imprecise I break out the minis/pawns and run what I call Table of the Mind. We put the minis/pawns on the table and use them without a grid. Keeps things quick and snappy but gives the players something to reference. For this method and all others below I assign initiative to one of my PCs.

If environmental effects are more of a factor I use "zones". I stole this from Sly Flourish. I tend to use it less often than any other method but I like having it in my bag of tricks so I'll mention it here. Essentially I place the pawns/minis on index cards with each card representing a vague location in the battle and features within that location.

For complicated encounters or for those I get DM Crafty with nothing beats a good ol grid map. The flipmat from the beginner box is always in my bag but I have a larger Chessex map for bigger battles. I like to supplement it with either interesting mechanics or bling. I'm working on a one shot right now for my friend's birthday where two of the battles will take place on gridded maps one of which involves me placing cardboard "trees" on it and the other a complex series of teleportation doors. PCs love bling and I love blinging out. It's amazing what you can do with cardboard and paper; it's equally amazing how a description of a battle changes my awful craft skills into an epic fight!. I do not think I could run my teleporting door encounter without a map to ground my players. It would be too confusing and demand too much memory from all involved.

Sorry this got so long O.o

Heres a copy and paste of a previous comment I made

> I'm about to show you something amazing. You want to hang out with your friends and family and just have a great time playing games?

> Try board games! I know what you're thinking, "Monopoly is for kids!" That's ok we hate monopoly too!

> The world of board games has come so far since then.

> Give some of these games a try

> Ticket to Ride: A classic gateway game where you are trying to lay down tracks between cities.

> Pandemic: A co-op game where you and are friends are working together to fight diseases as they break out world wide!

> Resistance: If you like lying to your friends this game is for you! The resistance movement aims to overthrow the government, but there are spies among you aiming to sabotage your movement.

> Codenames: This game won the biggest board game award this year. It's a hilariously fun word relation game.

>These are all "gateway games" they are easy to play and understand. But most importantly they are fun! You can even get Ticket to Ride and Pandemic at some Walmarts!

I would add Cosmic Encounter as an amazing game too. Not too complicated but it is incredibly fun

Check this out. Super fun game right? You know when a good time to play a super fun game is? College, that's when. You know what's special about college? I'm starting college in about a week. You know what's awesome about super fun games? they make me friends. So when you buy me this super fun game, you're really buying me college friends too.

I had to look up the word conviviality and now I can say that when my new college friends and I play this super fun game, we will be doing so convivially.

1. Cake or birthday related - For keeping my birthday suit clean
   
2. Simon Pegg - You've got red on you
   
3. A book you are eager to read - Anxiously awaiting its release
   
4. Eating Utensils - Emergency rations need no utensils!
   
5. Animal - Jacque Moosteau fits this!
   
6. Purple - Flameless Lavendar candle!
   
7. A game - I have a whole Tabletop list, but Catan will suffice
   
8. A guilty pleasure - Thai tea, yum
   
9. A Tool - Weights are a tool for a healthier me!
   
10. Something from your childhood - Darth vader sheet set... that I want... even though I'm 36.
    
11. An organizational item - Stackable pyrex dishes organize my food mess
    
12. Hobby - Yarn, for my crochet habit
    
13. Nerdy/ Geeky - I have a whole list, but this TARDIS Nyan cat shirt should suffice
    
14. Something Natural - Mmmm Good Earth tea
    
15. Green - Green lame for stripes for my Columbia shorts
    
16. Something you wear - Tap shoes! Again, for Columbia
    
17. Funny - This is funny if you've seen LOST
    
18. Beads, Bees or Beans - It's no longer available, but still on my list - this fabric reminds me of Bees!
    
19. Gardening - Mooquet came from the garden
    
20. Your absolute favorite item on your wish list no matter the price. - This is one small piece to a big Columbia puzzle for me, I can't wait until our October show!!
    
    Happy happy cake day!!!!
    
    I hope that this is what you'll be getting for yourself because mason jars are SUPER useful in tons of ways! :D

We played a couple of one-shot scenarios at PAX Prime. To be honest, I felt like it was a dumbed-down version of Descent or Super Dungeon Explore. If you're looking for a DnD style game, I really don't think this is it. You would be better served by any of the Dungeons and Dragons boardgames. Castle Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt or Wrath of Ashardalon

Since your deck is also your hitpoints, the better player you are, the less variety you will see. For example, we had one payer who was doing amazingly well, rolling high and never taking damage. For the entire game she only drew two cards, so her playable hand NEVER changed (or least not in any real significant manner).

The roleplaying opportunities are almost non-existent, and it really isn't breaking any new ground for mechanics-based combat. I honestly think the only reason a lot of people are enjoying it is because of the name tie-in with "Pathfinder". Without that logo on the box, it's really not that compelling of a game.

It does have an ongoing campaign, and that is pretty compelling. Character development and seeing your characters grow in skill and gain new abilities is always fun. (That's the "gateway drug" for MMOs, after all!) But there really isn't enough game here to make it worthwhile.

Based on what you've written, I would recommend Dominion, for 28 dollars here on Amazon.

Dominion is a great standalone game, but it also has a wealth of (mostly) excellent expansions, so it's a game she can play for a very long time. It's easy to learn and teach, and it scales decently well from 2-4 players.

If she doesn't have any deckbuilders, Dominion invented and, in my opinion, perfected the genre. It's an absolutely superb game, and I've logged at least 200 plays with my different sets and expansions. And if she does, Dominion is still the best one around.

you just fucking decided to get into dnd. and who are these fuckers to tell you when and how to dnd? fck em. this is how you start: buy these. Then go pick up these: Phb it's at the lowest price ever right now, so be quick. and then this (also cheaper right now, you're really lucky) and this (also on sale. man, you are a lucky 3 striker) would be good too. that will give you enough gaming material for everything you need for atleast the next 5 years of dnd. i know its alot of money if you count it up and when you only have highschool-kid-budget especially, but its worth it. you basically keep them forever. if that all is too much, get some dice and the basic rules for the Players and the rules for the Dungeon Master for free.

Now go watch these:

WebDm > more on their channel aswell.

Matt Colville

Matthew Mercer

You should be a party of 4 players and 1 Dm, in the best case. perfect size group. there are bigger and smaller groups but thats a good start for group size in the beginning. since you asked how to play, you will probably be the Dm. thats a good thing.

No group or friends to play with? try online play with roll20.net, fantasy grounds or use the r/lfg subreddit to find people interested to play in your area. just be aware of the typical stranger danger of the internet .

If you need anything else, ask away.

I'm still a kid at heart!

My most recent favorite memory was playing Cards Against Humanity at my friend Sarah's most recent Birthday party. We took so long in between rounds because we were all socializing so much, which was a good thing! We so rarely connect to that depth with real human beings because we're so technology-centric, and a "like" on a photo is supposed to tell soneone, "Hey! How are you doing? I'm great. You look nice today. I hope you have a good week..."

My other favorite is when I brought my 3 Gameboys to my college graduation and passed along my games and systems to my fellow teaching graduates. We played Tetris, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Mickey Mouse, Pokemon, etc. together during the 3-hour ceremony and goofed around in the back row like hooligans!

---

$25.00 (Prime) Cards Against Humanity!

Thanks for the contest! ♥

This may sound odd, but one thing I love about myself is the fact that I find humor essential in life. I love to laugh and make people laugh. I appreciate sarcasm and I'm not afraid to get down and dirty in the interest of a non-stop giggle fit.

This Game pretty much sums it up.

Thanks for the contest!

After a tough day I always feel better when I come home, throw on my yoga pants and a big comfy hoodie, order some take out (preferably Bob Evans - because comfort food), and get snuggled under my Brookstone N.A.P. blanket with my hubby and our beags.

On a related note, if I've had a rough day at school I always make a "good news" phone call before I leave the building. Meaning, I'll call a student's parents and share progress the child has made or something great they recently did in class. Sharing positive messages about my students and hearing the pride in their parents' voices always lifts my spirits and reminds me of how much I truly love my job.

Playing [CAH] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004S8F7QM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1JO70KSHHD8UU&coliid=IAA8MREJ5UORW) tends to make me feel pretty friggin' wonderful too! ;)

Thanks for the uplifting contest!

Sorry I'm late, but I also run a small club, so I wanted to give my 2 cents.

I've tried a few things, but my current set up seems to be working fairly well. At the end of each meeting, the players get to role a number of 'prize dice' according to how well they did. Then from what they roll, they pick the 1 they want. This way everyone gets something, and there is still an incentive to win, but even the worst player has a chance at the best prize.

The prizes I currently have are :

• 2 Rares (These are just bulk rares. I put 2 of a color in a sleeve of that color. This allows the winner to have some say in the cards they want. This is the most common roll at any odd number.)
  
  
• Boosters (If you roll a 20!)
  
  
• Deck boxes (If you roll an 18!)
  
  
• Various gaming dice. I picked up one of these and split it up into individual d20s or other combos.
  
  
• d20 Spindowns I got on sale over the holidays
  
  
• Some foreign language cards in packs of 3
  
  
• 'Pick-a-Mythic' (This is the most popular usually. Its just a small binder filled with junk Mythics and I flip to a page and they have to pick 1 card.)

Buy cork for counters like one of the other posters suggested, or even use things like othello counters or poker chips. Really anything you can mark on ("G is for Goblin guys, H for hobgoblin").

Buy a dry erase board and some markers/eraser for it, it is a bigger investment, but it can at least be used for other things later if you don't end up playing in the long run. Mine serves double duty for homeschool and D&D and I leave it unmounted so we can lay it down on the table we play on.

Buy reaper minis for just the player characters and any really big baddie you are going to face. This gives the players a little more incentive to play and a touch of personal flair. They should pick out their minis that best represent their character concept. If your campaign has a big dragon as the end boss, you could splurge and buy that model to bring out in the last of the campaign as an exciting bit.

Paper models are all over the net. You could even have a whole small village in paper models if you wanted, but make sure if you spend the time investment it can be reused later for other adventures. Generic houses and such are easy, but the "Bridge of Durkon Bronzeweaver" might be a little too specific.

Go on Amazon and look at bulk bags of dice, we bought the Wizdice 100 random dice bag for $20 and had enough for 17 players to have full sets if we wanted.

http://www.amazon.com/Random-Polyhedral-Dice-Multiple-Wiz/dp/B009R6J8RY

Really worth it since you could have the players pitch in a little bit and have a huge return in selection. Really nice as a dm too to be able to have different color dice represent different monsters.

Two things I think are essential for player 5e are PHB and MM. All other things are nice to haves. Please get those 2 books at a minimum.

Everything else is nice to have. Personally I like having an erasable grid. I like to draw things on the fly and having a grid is invaluable to me. Not everyone likes to draw so if you don't like to draw, this goes down to just above minis. I got this mat for cheap. https://www.amazon.com/Chessex-Role-Playing-Play-Mat/dp/B0015IQO2O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1498074621&sr=8-2&keywords=dnd+mat

After the mat, the DMG is great. Esp if you want magical items. If you don't care for magical items in your game(trust me you do cause players love magical items) you can skip it entirely.

After the DMG, Volo's is fun. It isn't needed but fun is always fun! Also in this range is the EE players book and the sword coast adventure guide along with w/e other published players handbook additions that give more playable races/class options/backgrounds and what not. These are nice to have and fun!

Now we're at minis. This is where it gets expensive. If you don't have the budget, use coins, small dice, pieces of paper or anything else you can find. Old action figures, stuffed animals, lego men, toy soldiers literally anything is good. Once you have the budget, a nice set of minis is a great asset.

The last thing is a screen. Literally anything can be used as a screen. I personally got the official screen because I liked the artwork and the on the fly NPC naming.

The Angry GM did a very good article recently on metagaming. (If you're unfamiliar with Angry, he has a very different style than most gaming writers. If you're able to get past his "f&%$s" and "s@#&s," you'll find some very well researched and reasoned advice, and some good humor as well.)

I've been actively DMing for about four or five months now, and one of my players is the group's original DM and a DM for a Roll20 group. She uses the more prevalent definition of "metagaming," while I use Angry's, and it's been an interesting transition in the group.

Essentially, if the players are able to come to the correct conclusion about a major part of the storyline, while circumventing all of the deflections and delays I had put in their path (as happened recently), I don't see any reason to punish that. I rewarded that player with additional XP for clever thinking, even if I had to jump well passed what I had planned. If the bard knows a monster's weakness, they probably heard about it in some ballad. If one player acts on information on another player that they haven't formally discussed in character at the table, well, they've been traveling together for the better part of a year in game; the characters must have talked about it in the would-be-boring travel scenes that I gloss over.

As far as the monster inventory situation is concerned, I recommend getting some Pathfinder Pawns (I've linked to the two boxes I have on Amazon). They let you surprise your players with a huge variety of them. If you go on Paizo's website, you can buy printable versions for cheaper. The art is pretty good, and it's hard to beat the variety you get for your dollar.

In the end, everyone has a different playing style. I prefer to resolve differences when I can. Encourage some frank, open discussion at the table and away from it. If you can't resolve your different styles with your roommate, it might be best if they don't continue with the group. The overall group's fun level is really the deciding factor.

Amazon uk seems to have good prices on the D&D board games. Here's castle ravenloft: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dungeons-Dragons-Castle-Ravenloft-Board/dp/0786955570/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1481603994&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Castle+racenloft

You are aiming for a little over 40 pounds with those, which seems to be the current prices. Ravenloft is where I would start, after that, temple of elemental evil, then wrath of ashlardon and legend of drizzt. There are 4 such board games in total.

Eh, kind of surprising board games are the most cost effective way to get miniatures, but that seems to be the case. You will get something like 42 minis per game, a mix of heroes, monsters, and a couple large guys.

Checking on amazon uk, Descent seems way overpriced compared to in the US. May be a christmas thing, but I would aim to pay about 40 pounds for the base game, (they currently have it for 60 pounds, far too much), and about 25 pounds for hero and monster packs, to count as a good deal. Maybe watch amazon uk and see if they get some reasonable prices after christmas.

I know the UK has some great ebay sellers offering the Caesar's miniatures and the dark alliance sets, so you shouldn't have a problem finding them on ebay by searching for the names. My personal favorites are the Caesar's undead set, the Caesar's adventurers set, and the Dark Alliance orcs set.

Anyway, that's where I would start building the collection in the UK. Let me know if I can help further. :)

Today I was out at dinner with some friends having a great time and laughing when some drunk guy got randomly offended and thought my friends were laughing at him. He tried to get into a verbal dispute with us but his friends calmed him down. He wound up buying us a round of tequila shots (our choice of brand) and then actually paid for our entire meal. We all wound up getting along and drinking for a bit haha. It was ridiculously generous! On a side note: As a student, its finals week....but I was informed today as an employee that I won't have to work at all this week so I can get my work done and study!!! So I'm super relived about that.

Also, I've never played this but I've been told that I must. I figured this would be a great game to play with my roommates.
You don't have to click this link and do anything for me, this is a really really nice gesture you're offering. But since you're offering...haha

> 1) what do you recomend to do?

I'd personally start with 5e, because it is a much more simplified system that allows for more aspects of role-playing, which is great for everyone - especially new players.

A nice start for new groups to DnD is a starter set. Here is a link to buy a starter set which comes with a 64-page adventure pre-made module book, a 32-page rule-book for playing characters level 1–5, 5 pregenerated characters, each with a character sheet and supporting reference material, and 6 dice. If you are playing 5e, you need the 5e books - the 3.5 books won't work for 5e, they are completely different games due to additional information added over each new edition.

I'd also recommend that you all sit down together in the same room, hook up a computer to a TV in the room, and watch some good DnD games to figure out what role-playing means, how DM's look in action, and how the game runs overall. Shows such as Critical-Role, or Acquisitions Incorporated are amazing.

Here is the playlsit for Critical Role on Youtube:

• Critical Role
  
  Here are the Acquisitions Incorporated games on Youtube:
  
  
• PAX East 2015
  
  
• PAX East 2014
  
  
• PAX Prime 2015
  
  
• PAX Prime 2014
  
  
• PAX Prime 2013
  
  
• PAX Penny Arcade Celebrity Game 2012
  
  
• PAX Penny Arcade Celebrity Game 2011
  
  
• PAX Penny Arcade Celebrity Game 2010
  
  > 2) what dices do we need to get either way?
  
  You each need a 7 set of DnD dice, and DM's do well to have some extra dice for faster group monster rolls. Plenty of bulk dice sellers on Amazon:
  
  
• Wiz Dice
  
  
• Dave's Dice
  
  
• Easy Roller Dice
  
  > 3) do we need to get board/minutures?
  
  You can if you want, it's a nice visual aid. I'd recommend to use a large table to play around, and then buy some battle mats which can be written on with wet erase markers. Mineratures are all over the place for sale, so just google them. Or if you don't want to spend a ton of money on physical maps, you could use a virutal set-up in an IRL game, like my party does. You can use Roll20 which hosts privtae game rooms with virtual tabletops on which you draw maps into and insert images. Plug a laptop into a huge TV, and boom, you have a giant virtual battle-mat to use during the game!
  
  Tons of other info on the sidebar of this subreddit, or just search the subreddit for other "starting DnD" posts, because there are a ton of them with good info.
  
  

I have found that the [Pathfinder Bestiary Box] (https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Publishng-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns/dp/1601255616) offers great value for monster miniatures.

It might be worthwhile to spend a little more on player miniatures, as they are used more frequently. Reaper and some other sites offer a pretty good selection. (Players often buy these for themselves)

A battle mat is a great investment, although you can also use paper.

Sound like you already have the core rule books.

The rest of the game comes from the mental creativity of the players and the DM. Don't worry too much about the physical supplies. You could spend $10,000 and still run a terrible game. You could have nothing but pencil and paper and run an amazing game. I recommend that you just dive in and start playing. Not everything will be perfect, but you will figure things out as they come up.

I fully expect to hear about the flourishing Jeddah D&D scene in the coming months. Good luck and happy gaming.

Some folks will recommend, eBay and similar but I really don't want to get into that. If you do, good luck. I'll point you to some new products instead of used items.

Though not the best deal per figure, the easiest way to get pre-painted figures are from the official D&D and Pathfinder blind boxes. Each ranges from $15 to $17 and each has one "Large" (or "Huge" in the case of the D&D Giants boxes) figure and three "medium" or smaller figs. Overall the painting quality is satisfactory, but not as good as if you painted them by hand with basic wash techniques.

If you want specific single figures, the Reaper Bones figures are competitively priced. Paizo and Wizards both liscence official painted and unpainted figures through Wizkids. Though they are slightly more expensive than Reaper Bones, they also have ones that match the exact appearance of official creatures.

If you want the cheapest price per figure, check out the MtG Arena of the Planewalkers board games (there are currently two plus one expansion released). The figures in here are mostly unpainted but they are lower quality molds than the other things I'm linking here and the bases are larger than 1" diameter. I think they're 1.25".

The Dungeons and Dragons board games are $40-70 depending on the seller and they have official sized unpainted figures. Each has a variety of 40 to 45 figures that are probably 75% medium sized creatures and the rest large, plus some have a single huge sized boss creature. There are currently four of the ones with co-op dungeon delves which also include nice dungeon tiles, plus the latest Assault of the Giants which has "Large" sized giant figures, but is not a dungeon delve and so it has a regular game board that's a map of the sword coast rather than dungeon tiles. The ones I recommend you check out are Wrath of Ashardalon, Temple of Elemental Evil, Castle Ravenloft, and The Legend of Drizzt.

The Descent series of board games has really nice detailed figures that look more ferocious than most of the monsters included above. The fit on a 1" grid and the games include 1" grid dungeon tiles too, but they are more expensive than the above D&D board games for a similar concept game with fewer total figures.

D&D Attack Wing figures were very expensive at MSRP because each pack had lots of extra cards, tiles, and tokens for the attack wing game. However, they are as nicely painted as the D&D blind boxes (the chromatic dragons are particularly nice) and the price is falling because they are going out of production and some places are clearing out their inventory -- so keep an eye out. The sets with ground units have standard 1" bases but flying units like dragons have clear bases that do not fit a 1" grid nicely.

The Dungeons and Dragons "Dungeon Command" series of games have somewhat recently gone out of production, but the pre-painted figures were of standard quality for D&D figures and they had large dungeon tiles in each box. They are at the point where they have been out of production long enough that the price has started to rise on amazon and the like, but you might be able to fine them for cheap at smaller retailers and second hand.

Do your guests already like board games? I love them but in my experience getting people to learn new rules is like pulling teeth, especially when it's out of a rule book. Unless your guests are well-seeded with experienced/enthusiastic gamers who are willing to teach the rules, I'd stick with games that people probably know or have rules for kids. Scrabble, Monopoly, checkers/chess/go, Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, Candyland and decks of cards (perhaps with chips). I would also consider party games like Balderdash, Taboo, Cranium, Charades, Fishbowl, Telephone Pictionary which are really fun in groups. Maybe you could designate a charismatic friend as a "Master of Games" or something to form groups and get the ball rolling on the pen-and-paper games.

If you have a geekier group that likes more modern/European board games, there are a few games I think are totally worth a try. I'd look into: Red Dragon Inn (my FH says it might be too complicated but I think it's approachable), Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Dixit (I haven't played this but my FH says it's like Apples to Apples with pictures), Castle Panic and Fluxx in all its many varieties. Settlers of Catan is a bit more complicated but people are more likely to be familiar with it. It might not be great for newbies but I can't pass up the opportunity to plug Pandemic which is a fantastic cooperative game.

Oooh, I looooove board games. From what you're describing I feel like Ticket to Ride could work really well; there are a good amount of instructions but they're pretty easy to follow along with (it's mostly for scoring purposes).

For something way more light/fun, there's also Sushi Go! or Love Letter -- they're both card-based games that look deceptively simple but are never played the same way twice. My wildcard choice would be Carcassonne, which is definitely more of a hard sell -- you build a Medieval French town with picture tiles -- but I promise is really, really fun. Again, the scoring is where it gets slightly more complicated, and it can be intimidating-looking, but the game is really fantastic. Lots of strategy and luck needed, and it's a really unique experience.

Whatever this is for sounds like it'll be a lot of fun!

I think it's nice of you to volunteer what skills you have, and great that you want to contribute.

The sad truth is that I doubt people will want to accept what you're trying to offer.

So I hope this doesn't sound mean, but I'm going to be direct:

No hobby game programmer I know is in need of an ideas guy. I have a trello board full of ideas that I just wish I could get to, plus I need to practice art, rewrite my base code so I can open source it, learn to make music, experiment with foley sound effects, do a lot of experimental marketing, try voxel magic to see if I can make a 3D game feel right, make a networked game, produce a series of youtube video tutorials, the list goes on for quite a ways. And that's just the gamedev hobby list. Life is short, and I'll never get to all the things I want to study, learn, and do. Ideas are not the bottleneck here.

Sorry if that sounds hard. But the truth is if you want to be the idea provider, you just need to learn to make games for yourself.

If you cannot program and don't believe you can learn it, perhaps you should buy a hex/square double-sided game mat like this one and gather a pile of tokens. Now you can create a tabletop tactics version of whatever roguelike ideas you have.

If your ideas are algorithmic and well-justified, then you should be a good board game designer.

You also talk about complex universes. If you prefer something more narrative than mechanical, you could focus on writing and learn to use the twine interactive story engine which everybody says is easy to learn.

Of you could look to rogueliker, who is launching a kickstarter for his tabletop RPG game, he managed to make a game without any programming! Wormhole on Kickstarter

If you can almost learn to program but not quite, there are several nice options for you, such as the Playmaker system for Unity and RPG maker. These tools are specifically designed to allow someone with algorithmic thinking but no ability to code to make their own games without a programmer.

My point is that nobody is going to make your games for you, you have to make them yourself. There are many ways to get that done, and the lack of a technical skill cannot prevent you!

So get to work today, and good luck on your journey! :)

Awesome! I love how the organs look wet and sticky to the touch!

To readers who want this mini: I can't find it on Amazon, but it is Gravestorm the Dracolich from the Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game. If it comes guaranteed in a booster or on it's own, I can't find it... but it's also past 4 in the morning here, so that may be a factor!

SO, let's take a quick look at the Castle Ravenloft Boardgame. Looking for Dracolich minis, I'm seeing most sitting at around $18 (and I couldn't find this particular one). The game box I listed is around $52. Almost three times the price!

However.

The box comes with 5 hero figures, 7 villain figures (Gravestorm is one of those, and that base he sits on is slightly larger than the bottom of a Rockstar can, so massive), and 30 monster figures, for a total of 42. So that's about $1.50 a model. These are high quality models, on par with Reaper or Nolzur's. They do not come prepainted, but with the paintjobs I've seen on some prepainted minis, I'd say that could be a pro, a con, or just a neutral to you, depending.

Honestly, if you're going to paint it, I'd get some paint tips from /u/GreedoLandooo, because as you may have noticed, his looks pretty wizard.

But wait, there's more! It also comes with 41 dungeon tiles! What are those, you didn't ask? Those are a bunch of interlocking tiles, compatible with any tiles from any of the D&D boardgame sets (Ravenloft , Wrath of Ashardalon , Legend of Drizzt , Temple of Elemental Evil, and Tomb of Annihilation , the last one being the only one I don't own, and that only due to money issues at the moment.)

Here are 11 together , Here are, uh...more than 11, I'm tired, fight me about it..

Everything you see in that second pic comes in the box, except for that upside-down box that says "One Night". I have no idea what that is, but I'm assuming the people who took the photo use it as a dice rolling area.
EDIT: Those minis you see on there have regulation-size bases, about the size of a quarter, to give you a sense of scale.

You may have noticed cards and tokens galore. As it turns out, this board game is also a board game! The heroes have abilities they can use, monsters have different attacks and tactics depending on player positioning, there are magic items, traps, etc. Some people really enjoy the board games. I found them neat, but I really just wanted the minis because of the quality and the tiles because...c'mon, really easy dungeon setup. Most D&D boardgame tiles are not doublesided, so you can either preconstruct a dungeon for buds but leave undiscovered ones flipped over for "fog of war", or handle it like the board game does, drawing new tiles from a stack when a player enters discovery range. Surprises for the party and you!

Also, I'm going to list all the minis that come in the set. Gravestorm is the largest in the box by far, but each board game comes with some big guys. Ashardalon has Ashardalon, the Red Dragon, I believe Drizzt comes with a massive Balor, etc.

So, mini contents of Ravenloft:

Allisa, Human Ranger

Arjhan, Dragonborn Fighter

Blazing Skeleton x3

Count Strahd, Vampire and general villainous jackass.

Flesh Golem. This guy is a bit on the large side, but not as big as the Dracolich.

Gargoyle x3

Ghoul x3

Gravestorm, Dracolich.

Howling Hag

Immeril, Eladrin Wizard

Kat, Human Rogue

Klak, Kobold Sorcerer. I'm very fond of this guy.

Kobold Skirmisher x3

Rat Swarm x3

Skeleton x3

Spider x3

Thorgrim, Dwarf Cleric

Werewolf with bladder issues, I assume.

Wolf x3

Wraith x3

Zombie x3

Zombie Dragon. Not Gravestorm. This is a smaller dude.

Now a picture of the whole happy family

And finally, if you would like to buy from the D&D official site, you can find it here for $65.

If you want to play with minis without breaking the bank, I would highly recommend Pathfinder Pawns, specifically Bestiary Box 1 since it has a lot of general mythological creatures that'll fit the monsters in the free PDFs.

In regards to combat, I'm going to copy and paste an earlier comment of mine, and hopefully it helps you steer your decision-making:

I regularly DM for a group of 7, and another group of 4. I love theater of mind, but thoroughly enjoy the boardgame aspect of the grid. Here's my experience and advice.

• Group of 7: started with theater of mind combat. At early levels and with simple fights, it was great. It got out of hand once at Level 5. Area of effect spells, changing terrain, etc. You also have more enemies and want to introduce traps and environment hazards. It's not impossible to track everything, but constantly repeating locations every turn made the game drag for such a large group. I like to be descriptive with combat narrative, play music, and be ready to answer any questions. Basically, If I have to constantly talk about spatial location, then I can't engage the players properly - the way they like.
  
  
• Group of 4: they enjoyed both, but noted that they liked theater of mind for more unique encounters like chases, or a showdown with one or two targets. They prefer the grid because they enjoy the boardgame aspect of it. Basically, I cater to what they want, and tailor the battle approach to their needs.
  
  My tips for theater of mind:
  
  
• Have a sketch for yourself or the group.
  
  
• Keep your battlefield descriptions brief - less than 4 sentences.
  
  
• Breakdown spatial distances qualitatively, not quantitatively. ex. "Adjacent, Nearby, Close, Far, Earshot"
  
  
• Be flexible!
  
  My tips for doing battlemaps on the cheap:
  
  
• I occassionally have maps drawn up on large easel paper. You can find this cheap ($10 USD/$15 CDN) at most business or art supply stores.
  
  
• A pack of coloured dry erase markers.
  
  
• I use this Paizo battlemat to quickly whip up a sketch of the area, but Chessex and other manufacturers make nice ones too.
  
  
• My players place down their pawns, which I make with Pathfinder Pawn bases. You can purchase just the bases ($10 USD/$20 CDN), but I recommend the Bestiary Box ($45 USD/$60 CDN) because of its large assortment of D&D creatures and bases.

This coffee press. Not for me, but for my husband. While he refuses to admit it, he got a little jealous of the past few gifts I received, so I wanted to get him something just for him, that I know he wants. :)

Or, Cards Against Humanity, because I've never played it before, and Reddit talks about how great it is all the time and I want to be in the loop. It looks hilarious and I know my husband and his friends will enjoy it.

Elephant Barber.

I'm kind of fairly new here too, so let's be friends. :) I don't really know how much there is to say about myself. I love board games and video games, and old cheesy movies! How about you?

I agree with /u/raisedbynarcoleptic - you need a structured non-threatening activity with the kid. Start with all four of you, don't suddenly take the scared kid out alone.

Honestly, I'd wait six months before bringing up the potential for marriage. Wait until you and he have had a conversation, he's smiled at you, and he's volunteered something positive about you to his mother. Also, STOP TEACHING HIM, if you haven't already. Move him to another teacher or studio. Stop muddying those waters.

I'm a board game person, so here's what I would do:

• Buy 2-3 board games for him for Christmas for his mother to give to him.
  
  
• He and his mother play the games for a few weeks until she knows what his favorite is.
  
  
• You and your son learn that game. (or all the games!)
  
  
• You and she get all four of you together for a tournament over a few weeks with silly prizes. Out of six times, the overall winner gets five bucks and a silly hat. That sort of thing. (NOTE: Some teenagers would flat-out refuse to play cheesy board games with their parents, but it sounds like he is close to his mother and not a particularly brash kid, so you might get some buy-in.)
  
  
• Start having weekly game nights.
  
  
• After a few successful game nights, suggest playing a game that's 2p only and then have the winners play each other.
  
  
• Let the kids play against each other.
  
  
• Once that has been shown as non-threatening, suggest kids against adults - parent v. kid.
  
  
• Finally, suggest mixing it up and have you play against him. Direct interaction, but in the same room as the others.
  
  
• If that goes well, have his mother schedule a multi-hour thing on the same day that your son is busy with another friend. Ask his mother to fret and wring her hands about leaving him alone so much. Volunteer to go to a cafe with the kid and play whatever his favorite game is.
  
  
• First time alone with him! Keep it low-key. No talks about the future. No talks about family or feelings. Just stay in public and play a game together and go home. Maybe buy him some sort of mountain-of-sugar drink.
  
  And so on.
  
  The hobby doesn't have to be board games, of course, but that is the general outline of how I'd recommend handling it with a kid who literally shakes at the sight of you. Excruciating baby steps.
  
  Games I'd recommend for this:
  
  
• King of Tokyo ($33)
  
  
• Betrayal At House On The Hill ($34)
  
  
• Uno ($5ish anywhere)
  
  
• Sorry! ($12ish anywhere)
  
  
• Carcassonne (out of stock at Amazon but usually $25ish)
  
  
• Ticket To Ride (out of stock at Amazon but usually $35ish)
  
  
• Bohnanza ($14)
  
  
• Castle Panic ($22) (Has Star Trek and Zombie versions!)

In terms of a grid for your table, I'd recommend working with a reusable grid mat or grid paper. You can also buy mats with terrain prints, but that is an investment. As a new DM who also doesn't want to spend a lot of money (right away), my first priority is to get a mat for good maps/combat spaces. I've played with grid paper and nice maps, with reusable maps, and nothing. I feel like it takes away from the story if you don't have a visual aid there (also makes combat difficult).

You can generally find these things for a decent price on Amazon. I try to buy from local stores, but they usually jack up the price. Also, you probably already know this, but all of the information you'll ever need for Pathfinder is on d20pfsrd. Good luck and have fun! :)

Edit: Also, as someone who's played D&D (3.5, 4.0 and pathfinder) for 2 years (meaning I don't have a ton of experience) and is just starting to DM, I'd say trying to play a DMPC (thanks, r/Yawhg for that term) would be A LOT, even if you are running an adventure path. You're already going to be running 1+ characters during combat and role playing every other character in the game. But, if you've got the time and mental power to invest, definitely try it out.

Ever play Apples to Apples? Same concept. If not...

There are two kinds of cards: white cards, and black cards. These are separated into stacks. Every player has a number of white cards in their hand: this amount varies depending on whether you're playing by the book rules or house rules.

Every turn, one player draws a black card ((this position is rotated around the group.)) Black cards have a short phrase or question on them, like

>What do old people smell like?


>What will I bring back in time to convince people that I am a powerful wizard?


>In Michael Jackson's final moments, he thought about ____.

The remaining players in the game will then put down a white card from their hand that they think the person who played the black card will pick as the best answer. White cards, like black cards, have many different things printed on them, like

>The hardworking Mexican.

>Silence.

>Natalie Portman.

>Michelle Obama's arms.

The white cards are shuffled up, and the person who played the black card lays them all out and then selects a winner. The winner tacks the black card and creates a pile of black cards that they've won. The person to reach X cards (again, depending on rules) wins.

There are a couple nuance rules, like betting black cards to play more white cards, the haiku, etc. But that's the jist of it.

Personally, our group loves playing this game. It says it's a card game for horrible people for a reason. You will come up with racist, sexist, disgusting, and downright awful combinations of cards. You can play it straight, of course, but often the humor turns "dark." It's fun, but it's definitely not a game to play with, say, your conservative Christian parents.

We have the actual game and a couple expansions because we play with a larger group. However, I know you can print your own game off the internet. You can buy it off Amazon as well.

please let G0ATLY be safe this year

Halloween is my favorite holiday... But it hasn't always been my luckiest. One year I went all-out at a Boo & Brew party and spent hours with a friend wrapping myself up in gauze that I had specially stained the week before so I could be a mummy. It looked great! The only thing was that I couldn't do a trial-run with it, so about an hour or so into the party I started to unravel. I wasn't wearing much underneath, no one was in a position to drive, so I hopped the first bus back to my place to borrow a roommate's naughty baseball outfit. I didn't care what I looked like, I just wanted to get back and party.

So I get back to the party... and notice that I can't bend over. The dang thing is so short that if I bend over my booty will immediately show and I did not have on bloomer-style underwear. I guess when I first it on I was too rushed/tipsy to notice. Spent the party sitting at a bar table. Still had an awesome time.

What I wouldn't change about myself- I am constantly reflecting on myself to make sure that I am constantly improving as a person to be the ultimate person I want to become, and I am always looking to experience new things to broaden my horizons. I don't really know anybody else that spends so much time worrying about the person they're becoming, but each year my hard work causes me to love myself more and more :) (this coming from someone who spent a good decade being suicidal... I'm gonna toot my own horn and say I'm damn proud of my progress).

I'm dying to play this game everyone on Reddit talks about.

I would suggest OP purchase:

1. The Players Handbook
   
   
2. The Monster Manual
   
   
3. A Chessex battlemap
   
   
4. Pathfinder Assorted Bases
   
   I feel like the inclusion of the PHB and MM are self-explanatory.
   
   The battemat is something I own and I have used to great effect - It's supremely durable, survived multiple moves, and still looks great. I'm moving more towards tiles now that I have a little bit more money to spend on D&D, but the mat was one of my biggest tools when I was first starting out as a DM.
   
   The token bases are from pathfinder, a related tabletop RPG, but can easily be used in DnD 5E. Simply print out pictures of the monsters that you've found online, cut them out, and place them in the bases, and viola - instant miniatures! They can help tide your players over while you build your own miniature collection.
   
   N.B. I agree with many of the other posters here that the use of a map and miniatures is not at all necessary for doing D&D, however, I have found that using them greatly enhances the experience, and it is my opinion that I like them. If you feel so inclined, OP, instead of the battlemap and bases, purchase the DM's Guide, which contains great advice in building and running your own adventures and campaigns, which might interest you down the road if it doesn't already.
   
   Total cost: $95.86 on amazon.

I commented on here earlier, but the thing I recommended was already listed. xD Sooooo Imma suggest some board games!

If you like deck-building games, Dominion is a classic. I didn't think I would like it, but the premise is pretty simple, so it's easy to pick up.

I like the Chinese version of Bang which is called SanGuoSha. It's not always in-stock on Amazon in English; I think right now all the ones offered are in Chinese. I think the characters and items are a little more complex than Bang's, which is why I prefer this version, but Bang is good as well. :)

I also like Betrayal at House on the Hill. It usually makes for a unique experience each time. You explore a haunted house with the other plays, picking up different omens along the way until you trigger "the haunt." The thing is, the haunt varies depending on the character who triggered it, the omen that it was triggered with, and the room it happened in! So there's tons of different haunts making for awesome replayability!

Also, I gotta throw in a recommendation for Lifeboat. Lifeboat is pretty entertaining. The premise is that you're on a lifeboat with the other players. You're trying to get to shore. The person with the most points wins. Each person "loves" and "hates" another player. If the person you love survives, you get bonus points. So you want the person you love to survive and the person you hate to die, but you also don't wanted your loved one to get more points than you otherwise they would win...

Each character has different skills/strength/HP. You get to pick an item card (point items. weapons, health) every round in order. First person gets first pick, but the last person controls the boat. You can choose to switch places with someone, trade with someone or mug someone, or row the boat (you draw 2 navigation cards and pick 1 to add to the stack). If you fight someone (e.g. you want an item but they won't give it to you), all players can join on either side, and the total side with the most strength wins while the other side loses health.

At the end of a round of turns, the navigator picks from the navigation cards drawn from rowers. Those cards dictate who goes overboard and loses health. If a navigation card has a seagull on it, you get closer to shore. 4 seagulls = game over.

It's a super fun game, but be careful who you play with... Some people get REALLY angry or upset when shit goes down. Some people really hate that there's no enforcability... Like if you say you'll trade someone an item but don't go through with your end like a douche, you can do that. Buuuuut I guess if you make too many enemies, people won't take your sides on fights and could work together to kill you first.

Hope this helps!

Not technically on a big sale (but usually ~$20 on Amazon than retail), but the Dungeons & Dragons board game series (example: Wrath of Ashardalon) have a great D&D feel to them but are far easier to play (an adventure is typically 1 - 2 hours).

You can play through most adventures with just 2 people, and you can also write up your own stories if you wanna get nerdy about it. Even better, the various sets are cross-compatible, so if you get into it and get several sets going, you can mix/match tilesets, heroes, monsters, etc for a pretty much endless combination of scenarios.

I love camping/outdoor stuff too and I've gotten a lot of fun gifts over the years. Here's a few that I think any outdoor lover would enjoy.

Flint fire starter
Compact camping hammock
Camping Tomahawk (Seriously, me and my friends had so much fun learning to throw this)

If you're really stuck you can always just take a trip to REI, that store is like candyland for the outdoor lover, although they can be expensive. Camelbacks, lanterns, oudoor cookware, and all other cool stuff can be found there.

If you're leaning towards a gaming gift that can be harder unless you know what he needs, and most parts for a gaming computer are probably going to clear your budget. But you mentioned he likes GoT so I could reccomend the Game of Thrones - Board Game. I've played this and it's a lot of fun.

These are both just a bit over your budget, but I guarantee both would be great. If he's competitive and likes zombies and has a dark sense of humor, I would definitely say to go for either Zombie Monopoly (which he can play with the family, could be fun!) or the little bit more cliche but tried and true Cards Against Humanity. It's super NSFW, but as a young adult, I guarantee it will get hours upon hours of use from him.

Munchkin. its technically a card game, but not a complicated one like magic the gathering or anything. it has pretty simple rules like a board game. the cards are hilarious, and they come in a bunch of different themes and expansion sets if you like it.. this game is totally a hit a parties, especially for stoners. i cant stress enough how goofy the cards are. the premise is you are like an adventurer going into a dungeon. the cards are various peices of treasure, loot, equipment or abilities. (no complicated rules like dungeons and dragons either) just epic fun.

Lunch Money is another card game along the same lines, sort of. you play as little catholic schoolgirls beating each other up on a playground, and the cards are various moves and combo breakers. great game to get some rediculous shit talking going.

Play around with the tiles a bit to see if you like them! You can go as deep down the rabbit hole as you want, to be honest. The common consensus is that simple eraserboard tiles/maps work great as the workhorse for drawing out combat areas. These kinds of tiles are really useful because you can simulate line of sight/closed doors/etc by not placing down your tiles until your players advance further in. And you can draw features on the tiles to represent things in the area that are important.

I like to incorporate these blank tiles with other terrain that I've made or purchased as a way to make "filler" tiles. Say you have some city tiles that work for an encounter, but you need a walkway between two buildings or you need an alley between two buildings or something. You can place the blank tiles down, then place your city tiles on top and tell your players "the white space is an alley between these two buildings." Or in a recent game I had a small shrine in the wilderness where the party was attacked by a predator that was stalking them. I set up my blank tiles and put the terrain that represented the shrine on the table. Now the blank tiles represented the forest around the shrine.

I think it's better to start with stuff like this than it is to spend a bunch of money/time on Dwarven Forge or Hirst Arts specially made terrain. Over time, if you have the money and interest, you can eventually build up a collection of whatever kind of terrain you want. But for now, start with things that will be useful almost all of the time and are relatively cheap.

If you're looking to go three dimensional with your terrain/accessories, I can't recommend papercraft terrain like Fat Dragon Games makes enough.

As far as minis go, you have a LOT of options. WotC sells blind-box miniatures boxes that have decent quality, prepainted minis. And there are sites like Miniature Market and Troll & Toad where you can buy the specific miniatures you want. You also have a massive variety of unpainted miniatures you can use. The D&D officially branded Nolzur's miniatures are high quality and well-regarded. I also highly recommend the Reaper Bones line of minis. The quality is slightly worse than the Nolzur line, but the variety and price are difficult to argue with.

One option I don't see mentioned enough are "flat" miniatures. Pathfinder has a box set of popular monsters printed on cardstock that you put on stands to represent what the players are fighting. I've also seen plastic versions of these which I have never purchased, but Sly Flourish speaks highly of. If you do some googling I'm sure you can find tons more resources for printable "paper miniatures."

Hope this helps!

Settlers of Catan is great fun, I also highly recommend adding the expansions like Cities and Knights.

Dominion is another great card/board game you should check out. It's simple to learn but offers a fair amount of depth, pretty elegant design.

If you want to go all out I recommend checking out the The Game of Thrones Board Game it's pretty hardcore but amazing.

Here's another one:

Betrayal at the House on the Hill
http://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Coast-266330000WOC-Betrayal-House/dp/B003HC9734/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324230230&sr=8-1

It's fucking terrific. Not exactly the same as Epic duels, but it's party and family friendly.

The setup is you select a character, then start exploring the mansion. As you build the mansion (you are all on the same team), the mansion begins to try to seduce each player. The weapons and artifacts you carry to defend yourself all happen to be haunted/cursed.

After several turns the mansion gets larger and larger much like carcassonne. Eventually, someone gets seduced by the mansion... and here's where the game turns amazing.

The betrayer grabs the betrayal rulebook and goes into another room. The rest of the group open the survival rulebook. Both have independent objective based on what happened to the betrayer.

there are dozen and dozens of scenarios... a little girl may become the pawn of dracula, who arises out of the graveyard and begins stalking the survivors. A shitload of spiders may erupt from the basement and the betrayer be telepathically controlling them. All manner of stuff.

This game is solid up until the shit hits the fan and then it becomes AWESOME. The betrayer usually becomes crazy powerful and has a weakness unknown to them. The survivors generally have an alternative way to win that is complicated and requires teamwork. GREAT party game.

YTA because it's no fun for everyone else if you only stay in a game if you're winning.

But, I'd recommend expanding your games to cooperative games like Pandemic (my absolute favorite!) or Betrayal at House on the Hill. This is a great list of cooperative games and you can read reviews on Amazon.

If you're playing a cooperative game, then you and the people you play with are on one team working together against the game itself. I'm pretty competitive (not one of my more charming traits), and cooperative games have been a great addition to my game nights. They're also built in a way that is much more exciting - things can change for better or worse at any time, and losing doesn't drag out. I have fun even losing with cooperative games.

I have the following set, it should suit your needs:

• https://i.imgur.com/sOSE4Zj.jpg
  
  Here is price information from Amazon, for what is included:
  
  Item | Amazon Price
  --- | ---
  The Bigger Blacker Box | $15
  Cards Against Humanity | $25
  Cards Against Humanity: First Expansion | $10
  Cards Against Humanity: Second Expansion | $10
  Cards Against Humanity: Third Expansion | $10
  Cards Against Humanity: Fourth Expansion | $10
  
  You can "complete" the set by ordering expansions Five and Six on Amazon.
  
  The Bigger Blacker Box case has enough room to fit both additional expansions, if you take out the foam spacers. It also comes with black dividers, for helping organize.
  
  I have not done this, btw, but apparently if you cut open a specific place inside the lid of the Bigger Blacker Box, there is a special card inside. Something about big black cocks, naturally.
  
  Purchase price on Amazon for all of these items is $80 total. I will offer my set at $70. It is in excellent condition. We've only used it on two occasions.
  
  Also, I know people are probably wondering why I don't offer a larger discount. $70 for a used CAH set might seem "not generous enough". Here's my perspective though. a) This is a pretty comprehensive collection in excellent condition (most of the cards have never been used) and well organized, b) I don't care if I sell it or not, c) I suspect you might be interested in completing the collection anyway, and this collection gets you 80% of the way there, and d) you have a tight timetable.
  
  I live downtown. I work from home. PM me if you're interested, my schedule is flexible.

I make battle maps because I find that stuff fun - but you can make very simple ones!

I use this paper - it comes out to <50c per map.

Though you could just use butcher paper and a wooden dowel with one inch marks on it for for every 5 feet - that's what I'm doing after I run out of the grid Paper.

For city maps, I use this method.

Again, I spend more time with it because I like to, but less so when I too am pressed for time. You could likely make them very simple, and they would still look good and make sense.

I can post a few pictures of some of my town and battle maps when I get back if you're interested.

I tried to use premade maps to print initially, but it was both very expensive and hard to see. Again, I can post pics later if you want.

I'm trying to get my best friend into DMing, and I've encouraged him to look into these, which are available in many sizes. Wet erase marker for 30 seconds, bam a battle mat.

If you want something in the same vein that's a little more hardcore, there's these, which I may get if I run a less serious campaign in the future.

There's also Matt Coville's video onterrain that is very helpful. All of the stuff he puts out is, really.

Hope that helps!

Uhhhh. Pandemic is a good game if you want to lose horribly. I'd recommend Forbidden Desert instead. Many similar mechanics. A lot faster. Fewer "Welp, we lose in 5 turns and there is nothing we can do to stop it" issues. And it doesn't suffer as badly from the "Table Captain" problems. It still HAS them but not as badly.

My personal recommendation for a fun competitive game that's relatively easy to learn and doesn't suffer "You fucked me over!" annoyances? 7 Wonders. Another good choice in this theme would be Ticket to Ride. This also has the benefit of actually being available at Target or Walmart, so you don't have to try and find a hobbyist store or order it online. King of Tokyo and Tsuro are both fun, easy-to-learn games as well. I've seen all of these at Barnes and Noble, so depending on what you have locally, they can be easily found.

Interesting idea. There are some good six-player games that might constitute an adventure.

Betrayal at House On The Hill is a game that follows the tropes of horror B-movies, exploring a haunted house until eventually someone at random becomes the bad guy and has to try to kill everyone else. Maybe a little mature for the younger kids, but it's one of my favourite games. Review here, although he's kinda critical of it in a way I think is unfair. It's a lot of fun, it's just more that you're watching the story unfold than actually using great skill to win it. Which is great for new players.

Escape the curse of the temple is a chaotic co-operative game in which all the players are exploring a temple, Indiana Jones style, trying to roll dice to beat challenges. The twist is that everyone's playing at once, rolling dice as fast as they can and getting curses like being unable to talk or keeping one hand on their head. Here's an entertaining review.

Flick 'Em Up is a cross between a western and Subbuteo. You flick your characters and little wooden bullets about in a Spaghetti Western town made of wooden blocks. It's actually probably a fantastic gift because it comes in a lovely wooden box and the whole thing's so tactile. Review here.

Paizo's Bestiary box for Pathfinder has 250+ unique creatures in, and I think a little over 300 total. Almost all of the creatures are found directly in the DnD 5e Monster Manual. It is a little bit of an expenditure but 35~ bucks for a solid base of creatures to build off of is worth it in my opinion.

Printable Heroes is an awesome option as well.

Reaper Bones are gonna be just about the cheapest plastic minis you can buy that are still good quality. Their bases are not based on 1" diameters however so be aware.

Hero Forge is an awesome mini designing website for when you need a truly amazing, customized mini to add oomph to your campaign.

7 wonders plays to 7 players with a few expansions making it play to 8. It is a quick game to play and the time to play actually does not increase with more players. I'd say 45 minutes for 8 players is about right.

It is pretty easy to explain, with a lot of different strategies available, some of which aren't even obvious your first 5 times playing. You'll see one strategy dominate, then you'll all try that same strategy next game only to find the reason it dominated was because no one else was going for it.

It's a drafting game. You have a hand of, say, 10 cards. From that, you pick one of them that you can play, and pass the remaining 9 to your left (or right depending). Everyone reveals what card they picked and show they can actually play it, then you pick one from the 9 remaining...etc. You do this for 3 'ages'.

Setup consists of shuffling 3 decks of cards and dealing X to each player (depending on # of players). The longest part is taking out the cards that are for a certain number of players, but this usually only happens for the first game as the # players probably doesn't change between games. It really only takes about 5 minutes to start a new game.

Oh, bonus...you're looking at $31 with prime available.

There are a lot of expansions already that will make the game more interesting if it starts to get stale.

-----------------------------

Saboteur plays up to 10 and has basically no setup time. There are a majority of good guys and a minority of bad guys in each of 3 rounds. Good guys are trying to find gold. Bad guys are trying to stop this...and also trying to not get caught.

I don't think it's nearly as deep as 7 wonders...but it does have a traitor mechanic similar to resistance (except no one knows who is good/bad). I thought the game was OK...nothing great. I only played once, but I felt like there was just not enough strategy, mostly luck. If you want, you can try it out at BoardGameArena for free!

----------------------------------

Avalon as you said seems like a logical choice. It really is, based on what you like. I think it's a strict upgrade to base Resistance. I don't think you'll be upset picking that one up.

Adults are just outdated children. I know I am.

Well the item on my wishlists that would make me the happiest is really expensive and not for me, I really want the Zelda themed 3DS XL off of my Gifts for friends & family list for my best friend who lost his, but that's just silly to request that. So instead I will just go for the next thing that will make me happy: A set of Cards against humanity so I have something fun to do while I spend time with him and other friends :)

Thanks for the contest!

You need a good, basic knife set! (You could get by with a chef's knife, paring knife, and bread knife, but this is a great deal.) My husband's a chef, and these are some of his favorites because they're sharp, durable, and lightweight (and pretty!)--which is of the utmost importance if you're doing a lot of cutting. He uses them at home and at work. Pretty much everyone in our family has some!

You also will need a slow cooker! My mom was an RN for over twenty years, and she used one all the time when working long shifts.

And last but not least, you'll need this fabulous game to entertain your guests--because having a party on your own terms is awesome!

you're a big girl now!

I really recommend using paper minis if you're on a tight budget. If you have access to photoshop then they are incredibly easy to make from any image you can find for free on google. If not then Printable Heroes is a great resource for cool looking minis. You can contribute a small amount and get access to a ton of them but there are also a bunch of free ones here.

They don’t take long to put together, either. This video shows you the best way to assemble them. I would also ad that I use 3/4 inch binder clips for the base as they fit perfectly on the grid and are a bit cheaper than buying bases.

I also really recommend a Chessex Battle Mat in whatever size you think works for your game. Make sure you also buy wet erase markers as dry erase will seep into these maps and become permanent markings.

As far as landscapes go, I just draw any features of the map that can be seen on the ground on my map. I've never tried it but there are printable folding paper environments that you can make and use. I don't because I don't like having an obstructed view for me or the players.

I hope that helped!

First of all,
>are those the only items?

These are the only pre-made items, obviously. But are they the be all and end all of the magical items available to you? Not at all. As DM and the master of your world you are free to create magical items to your hearts' content, making them as weak or as powerful as you feel like.
The short of it is yes, yes you can make any kind of items you'd like for your friends to find or enchant.
>are there 'rules' to creation?

No, not really. If you want your player(s) to have a +5 Sword of Awesomeness, you go ahead and give it to them (read: let them get it).
>how would my players go out getting a +5 Sword of Awesomeness?

Once again, as the DM, this is really up to you. If you want there to be an NPC that sells magical items in the city/village/wherever your players are, then you do that. Or you can work it into an adventure. Perhaps your players overhear an NPC talking about the nearby tomb of Melvin Awesomesword. They decide to go investigate, and once they overcome the challenges you present them with, lo and behold, there lies Melvin in his tomb. And with him? Why, it's a +5 Sword of Awesomeness! That's just an example, obviously. You've got to make it your own. There really are no rules as to how you give items to your players. If you want it to fall out of the sky in a meteorite, fine. Do it! My advice would be to not make it too easy for them however. It should be a challenge. You (in my opinion) don't want to offer them stuff on a silver platter. There's no better feeling than completing a challenge or winning a fight and being rewarded accordingly!

>tools for making a decent playing mat?

Not really my area of things, but I use this and it works great. You can draw whatever you like on it, and simply erase it afterwards.

Sorry this was a bit wordy! Hope it's helpful...

Here's what I'd do if I had to rebuild a collection from scratch for $1k trying to have a wide variety of play styles:

7 Wonders $32.99
Agricola $45.79
Battlestar Galactica $39.97
Carcassonne $30.02
Carcassonne Inns & Cathedrals$15.71
Dixit $22.65
Dominion Big Box $69.18 Prosperity is one of the best expansions; Alchemy is not, but you're pretty much getting it for free in this set.
Eclipse $61.49 It wouldn't be a board game library without a 4X game, and I think Eclipse is the best currently.
Eldritch Horror $40.47 - I love Arkham Horror, but Eldritch streamlines a lot of the fiddly rules of the original.
Formula D [$41.96] (http://www.amazon.com/Asmodee-FDUSASM-Formula-D/dp/2914849648/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1395757676&sr=1-1&keywords=formula+d)
Gloom $17.98
Guillotine $13.52
King of Tokyo $30.19
Love Letter $9.34
Memoir 44 $47.43
No Thanks! $9.98
Pandemic $31.65
Power Grid $32.27
Puerto Rico [$31.20] (http://www.amazon.com/Rio-Grande-Games-195RGG-Puerto/dp/B00008URUT/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395756360&sr=8-1&keywords=puerto+rico)
Race for the Galaxy $24.11
Resistance, The $17.99
Roborally $37.49
Settlers of Catan $37.99
Telestrations $19.99 Awesome and funny party game. My friends and I eventually tire of Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, but seldom do so with this.
Ticket to Ride $37.24
Ticket to Ride 1910 Expansion $18.21
Tsuro $24.22
Twilight Struggle $49.98
Village $35.47
Wits & Wagers $19.99

That comes up to $946.47; room for a couple more expansions or another game.

Love Letter 1-4 Players tons of different versions available.

Exploding Kittens :1-5(base game) Very easy/amusing game.

FLUXX : (1-5)A game where each turn the basic rules change. lots of different versions.

Cards Against Humanity Great Raunchy Party Game, Any number of players..

Bohnanza Fun plant/crop production card game.

Citadels Fun Role based Card game. Each round you play as a different role. Kill people, build items, etc..

Dixit Great Party Game. Artistic

Most of the games above are quick and short.

As others have said Munchkin/7 Wonders are ton a fun, and take a decent amount of time to play.

My list of games to learn/play in the future:

Dominion

Sushi Go

Forbidden Island

The Resistance



If you like the games above and want actual board games.
You should check out these that are popular with me and my friends:

Ticket To Ride 1-5 player building strategy board game.

Pandemic 4 player co-op save the world game

King of Tokyo Yahtzee with monsters. Roll to get money, attack other players, for victory points etc..

1. I personally prefer to use a Paizo Flip Map and draw on it using Retractable Dry Erase Markers. These are relatively cheap and there are options that have terrain/buildings on them instead of the basic one linked. In one of my groups, we have a couple of us who meet in person and two people who moved to the other coast. What we do is setup a roll20 session and display that on a computer monitor locally.
   
2. Dice, pencils, character sheets, and rulebooks. As a GM, I have a pound of dice (I personally went with Chessex but others on here have loved WizDice) and a bunch of mechanical pencils I bring to every session. In my experience, someone will forget something (or doesn't have enough d8s for their full attack) so having those on hand works well.
   
3. I do not recommend actually reading the core rulebook. I would recommend they only look through the rules required for the character they are building. For GMing I recommend this list. This list can be shortened for players (removing creating adversaries and whatnot). Players should be familiar with their class abilities, moving, basic combat, skills, etc. Since it sounds like you've GM'd before, I expect you're familiar enough with the rules that if something comes up the players don't know then you can help them figure it out.
   
4. In person: pencil and paper. I've used HeroLab in the past but even then I copied the character to a hand written sheet.
   
5. I bought mine a long while back and went with the D&D 4e Characters (Example Set). Looking at the prices on Amazon, I definitely don't recommend that now. If you have a decently sized hobby/gaming shop in town, I would walk through it and see what you find. That's how I found the 4e figures.

Dead of Winter is a great game, takes quite a while to set up though, and maybe not really a game that you can play casually.
Dominion is more of a card game, but there are many expansions.
Following the card game theme, you also have Legendary. Both Legendary and Dominion are deck building games, Legendary is Marvel themed and I believe have other versions/expansions.
Superfight is a debating game, I really enjoy playing this with a lot of people, I got into an hour debate with my dad over who would win in a fight, a samurai, or a 7 member boy band.

I have some more recommendations that just aren't coming to mind right now. If you want to know more about a particular game, feel free to PM me. I really love Board games.

if this if what you bought you should know it's an amazing board game (one of the best ever IMO) and I'd love to teach you guys how to play. But to be fair it take a bit to understand, takes long to play (3-5 hours) and really becomes fun when you have 4+ people playing.

So while it's amazing it has a few requirements to be able to fully enjoy.

I was raised (almost literally) playing with minis and a battlemat. I helped my dad build a magnetic dungeon board set when I was about 7 years old. I played recently with a relatively new group of my college age friends who were doing theatre of mind, and I was miserable.

A lot of actions specifically denote spacing, which is very difficult to do in theatre of mind. Attacks of opportunity, spell/attack range, etc all get kinda weird when it's just spoken and imagined. I am certain that other people are better at keeping track of it all, and more experienced DMs could make it more interesting.

I know I am personally extremely biased, but about half way through the session we were supposed to storm a castle, and there was no way I was going to try to keep the different passageways straight in my head without a visual representation. I went out to my car and brought in my tackleboxes of minis, battlemat, and vis-a-vis markers. The DM was a little apprehensive at first, but most everyone seemed to agree that the minis and mat were far superior after playing for about 10 minutes with them.

One of the player's made this analogy: [Theatre of Mind] is like a text based RPG, while minis and the battlemat is like playing Skyrim.




ninja edit

I didn't address prices. Minis can be very expensive. If you get the pre painted figures, they are unbelieveably costly. Here is a site that has all sorts of figures. Their search bar is amazing.

Here is a link to a battlemat on amazon. It may look pricey (I don't know your budget) but this mat is worth more than you can imagine.

Here is a link to a pack of markers that should do the trick for drawing any kind of terrain/buildings/caves you like. Just dip a spare rag or paper towel in some water, and the lines come right off.

I used 1"x1" paper squares I cut out myself with numbers on them at first. Then when I had some money, I bought the Pathfinder Pawns for minis. I use them for 5e so they don't match up perfectly, but it's enough to just tell my players "This is X monster" or whatever. Someone else is probably going to mention this too, but if you want miniatures for characters or whatever, boardgames like Talisman or the DnD ones are your best bet for cheap-ish minis. You get a bunch (For example, Talisman comes with ~14 minis your players can use) for relatively less than you'd pay to get them individually.

Maps wise, if you have access to Photoshop (never used GIMP) you can make grid lines overlay on whatever you draw. You can also find these online or in stores. 1" square graph paper is good if you don't want to buy a Chessex Battlemat, though I'd highly recommend it and some wet-erase markers. Those things last for years and they're super useful if you don't mind wiping off the map a few times a session.

It is awesome!!!

It also gives you some nice hero mini's that look great painted up. Its also fun to play with your gaming group if people can not make it for a full session of DnD.

Other games that have a pretty nice selection of mini's, both hero's and monsters are Descent (Which also has mini expansions with 4 heros and 3 lots of various monsters) and also Blood Rage and Dungeon Saga. Likewise they play as fun games by themselves!

Here are some links:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616611898/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786955708/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616618396/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (This is my favorite Descent pack because the hero's are nice and the Ogres and Trolls are SO cheap for mini's their size, and they look nice. I use the trolls as hill giants)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BPQE24C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161661837X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (Another descent pack that has nice mini's. The Windgo's look terrifying painted! )

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Temple-Elemental-Evil/dp/B00TLRT3YC/ref=pd_yo_rr_psims_t_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=48RVXNXYZ3145ZAVR81A (I was not super impressed with the mini's but some, like the dragon, were good, and they have a good selection of elementals. The game its self is ok.)

I'm not an ultra-light packer by any means, but the dice might be worth their weight because of their intrinsic novelty value and entertainment for kids, who might not really enjoy the tabletop / roleplay if it's way too spartan / basic. I know even my adult friends like the RP experience with some embellishment. I use a roll-up map like this one with some markers to help draw out the situation as we go and some folding paper "figurines."

Maybe use a dice roller app on your phone with a nice animation, but some cheap clear dice or mini-dice might be worth taking.

Also, "ranger beads" or pace-counting beads can pull double duty for keeping count of things. You can use regular coins or currency to sub in for Fate Points and other things.

Board games are the best games...! I have a group of friends (about 10 people) that loveee playing board games, so I've tried quite a few..! Though having only 2 people for the board game is really limiting, I think most games are like 3 minimum TqT

I'm not sure what your budget is but I'm going to list a few that I've enjoyed (I'm a gamer that played RTS and TD games too! P.S. you should check out sanctum 2 on steam for an interactive tower defense game)

My first suggestion would be

Betrayal at the House on the Hill: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Avalon-Hill-266330000WOC-Betrayal-House/dp/B003HC9734/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452695169&sr=8-1&keywords=Betrayal+at+the+house+on+the+hill

• It's ideally for 3-6 players because the premise of the game is to explore the house as much as you can before the 'haunt' starts, and when the haunt starts one of the players will become a traitor that tries to kill the other players. To win the game, the survivors kill the traitor or vice versa.
  
  
  Jaipur is a card game recommendation, but it's for 2 players!
  
  
• http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54043/jaipur
  
• It's like a merchanting game :D I'm sure as someone who played RTS games you know how to manage resources... this is a testament to learning how to balance trade-offs with rewards
  
  
  Agricola is another good game!
  
  *http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola
  
  
• It's a bit expensive online though, you might be able to get it cheaper at a local board game store
  
• It's another strategy type game, you get 2 turns per round to act for you and your spouse. It's similar to the settler of catan except you have only 14 rounds before the game finishes.
  
• You have to choose between expanding your house, making babies, collecting food and resources, another fun way to balance your resources :D
  
  Most of these games are pretty short if you want it to be!! Check them out for sure!

I agree with counseling. Even if you don't absolutely need it, it still helps to talk to someone who is paid to help you understand yourself.

I went to the counseling center because I couldn't pick a major and they helped me figure out what I enjoyed doing etc.

I also went another time when I was having a fight with a friend and I just wanted someone to give me perspective on the situation and help me be a better communicator.

People go to counseling for things other than depression. I used to not know what counselors were, but they are sort of similar to psychiatrists.

What are your interests? What is your major? I can give you tips on how to pick student organizations based on your interests. I had a hard time picking student organizations at first. Student organizations are an AMAZING way to meet people. Heck, my alma mater just had a reddit meet up this past week. You can meet people through reddit. Have you been talking to people at your school on their subreddit and asking for their advice?

It is scary, but you have to try new things even if they make you uncomfortable. Not everything will work out, but you will eventually meet people if you try different strategies and change your ideas about how to meet people.

Edit: Don't be afraid to try new things. Say yes to hanging out with people and doing somethings that is unfamiliar. Say yes to almost everything. If I was a freshman again I would probably have Netflix parties, GOT parties, or play CAH or Settlers of Catan. I would also have used yelp.com to check out new places nearby. I got really into hiking when I was in college. I wouldn't have guessed I loved to hike as much as I do. I also started going to markets and swap meets a lot. You have to try new things and push forward.

Other people are scared too.

It might be making you depressed because your reality is not living up to your expectations and you don't know how to cope, and you are still in shock because you left your family and friends. Have you ever seen that Expectations vs. Reality scene in 500 Days of Summer? You have to learn how to make your new reality work for you. It takes some time to get used to not seeing your friends so much, but if you find new ones, then the transition will be easier. Don't be afraid to invite your friends to come visit if they are within a three hour distance. I visited my friends at their dorms and apartments a lot, we went to different colleges throughout Southern California. I've been to 8 or 9 campuses I believe.

Welcome to the hobby!

Lords of Waterdeep is a very good fantasy-themed board game to start with. It is set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe and uses a game mechanic called "worker placement". Amazon currently has it for about $34.

Dominion is a very popular "deck-building" game that plays with cards only (i.e. no board). It has a loose fantasy-ish theme, but it will be a good introduction to the world of modern gaming. Another deck builder with a more conventional fantasy theme is Ascension: Deckbuilding Game. [Amazon has Dominion for about $29.]
(http://smile.amazon.com/Rio-Grande-Games-RGG370-Dominion/dp/B001JQY6K4/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1464598805&sr=1-1&keywords=dominion)

And yes, while not fantasy, Pandemic is one of the greatest cooperative board games ever made (my opinion of course). Definitely worth getting. Amazon has this for about $24.

Happy gaming!

/u/r2d8 getinfo long

Actually to start you can download the Basic Rules for free from D&D Beyond. That should be enough to at least get you started for reading current rules and having enough information to learn basic mechanics like combat, how to cast spells, etc. http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

There are several free intro adventures here and there online by original writers, but this Death House one from Wizards (producers of D&D) is an official free product of theirs. It’s a prelude to their Curse of Strahd adventure, and is designed for taking new characters through level 3. https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/Curse%20of%20Strahd%20Introductory%20Adventure.pdf

Beyond that, I recommend a set of dice (D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20, D100 (like a D10 but it counts by tens)) for every person playing. If you need them ASAP then somewhere like a local Barnes and Noble or an Amazon order will get them to you ASAP. However if you have a couple weeks, some of the eBay sellers from China have their dice sets for as low as $2. If you’re going to have a lot of dice available for players (like I did last year when I gave all my starting players two sets each), I recommend the $19.99 Wiz Dice bag linked below. You’ll get something like 14 or 15 sets and then a few mismatched dice added in. Then each player can have their own sets or you can store all of them in a candy jar ready for each game night.

Wiz Dice Random Polyhedral Dice in Multiple Colors (100 + Pack) Bundle with Wiz Dice Pouch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009R6J8RY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ndQRCb9175K9R

Good luck to all of you!

I would really like to play a game that you can play with only two players. Right now all of the games my husband and I have are for 3 or more players, but sometimes it is hard to find a third player, and we would like to have some games to play ourselves. I played Dominion once with a few people but I would like to get it myself so I can try playing with just two people. I also would like to try Forbidden Island since you can play that with two players as well. An interesting thing is that I decided to get a PhD at 30, so I am older than most people in my grad program. Elephant Barber!

My favorite white card is from the Pax East 2013 Pack C, but that's not on Amazon anymore (I guess someone actually paid the ridiculous amount the seller was asking for, or the listing was removed), so my favorite card from an available expansion is from the First Expansion.

Insatiable bloodlust

1. Because I love the word 'insatiable' and Darren Hayes has a song called "Insatiable", which I love.
   
2. Because I have some bloodlust. I think classic vampires are sexy, I'm intrigued by weaponry and I like knives in a kinky way, I want to make my own blood jewelry, and I kinda sorta maybe wish I could just lose my shit on someone for a price. An extremely high price and in a very extreme circumstance and to a very willing volunteer.
   This card gets chosen by me almost every time someone plays it when I'm czar.
   
   I made this card as a nod to one of my favorite /r/firstworldproblems post. It's so true and everyone can relate!
   

• I should note that this is the first blank card I've filled out, because I'm not great at thinking of awesome things to write. It took me three years to write anything on any of the blank cards in my Apples to Apples games, and I just wrote things like "penis", "clitoris" and "shit" because I was drunk and just wanted something on there (plus A to A was getting tired with all it's innocence, lol).
  

  
  

  Thanks!
  

  -)

If the entire group is using the same set of dice that can really slow down the pace. One set of dice goes for like no more than $4 at any kind of comic and games shop and there are good deals online like this.

Don't be afraid to end the session mid-adventure. Try your best to avoid ending it mid-combat, but other than that feel free to end it at any time really. Good stopping points are right before/after combat or right before/after a short/long rest. Make sure to just write everything down if you end before a long rest - things like HP/Hit Die/Spell Slots and Class/Feat specific resources like Ki and Superiority Dice. Also make sure to prep the beginning of the next adventure if you end towards the end an adventure.

For miniatures, it's really hard to beat the tabletop Warhammer minis. Yes, they're a little pricy, but a Cadian Command squad comes provides a LOT of flexibility, and averages out to about $4/mini, which isn't any worse than something from Reaper (the company that makes the Pathfinder minis). I've heard that the Necromunda minis are also great options.

For a map, a Chessex Dry Erase Mat is a great option. However, it occasionally gets annoying to handle multiple maps in a single session. I picked up a huge pad of 1"x1" graph paper from my local art supply store, and I absolutely love it. I use my dry erase mat for things which I didn't anticipate, and I use the graph paper to draw out maps before the session.

I also saved a couple of links for custom tokens:

http://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/qnedr/reddit_cakeday_gift_to_myself_156_custom/

http://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/16v798/my_alternative_to_miniatures/

Base game: Jerking off into a pool of children's tears. Just because it's so cringe-inducing that it's always worth playing. I always love hearing friends do that sort of chuckle laugh where they're also a level of completely uncomfortable. Kind of like "ha-ha-ha-heh-heh-ho-hooo....trail off"

I don't have it on me but we made a white card in our friend's game that said "Because Evan was late". We have a friend who is notoriously running late for everything and he's also a really sweet & good guy, so it's great to blame horrible things on him.

It's just the best. I absolutely LOVE CAH!

Player's Handbook is nice, and so is the Monster Manual.
I like almost everything in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, so I think you should grab it after the two above books. It especially offers very good cantrips that open new character options.


If you have some experience DMing, the Dungeon Master's Guide won't be worth it in my opinion. But if you just got started, you will find some good insight in it. You'll like the guidelines to create Magic Items and new Spells. Anyway, I'd recommand you to read the How to F$&%ing GM series, by The Angry GM. Some people don't like the character, but his advice is gold.

Edit: I forgot about the battlemat. I bought one like this years ago and love it. I prefer hex to squares, but having both is great ♥

1. With a group of all newbies, definitely go with pre-gens. I'd say in a few sessions/after the one shot maybe let them make new characters once they have some experience with how everything plays.
   
   
2. I recently bought some of the official dungeon tiles but this is literally all I use for a battlemat: https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Flip-Mat-Basic/dp/1601255381 I got the larger version for my table but it's really not necessary. This one will do great. However, you can use a dry erase board, or just paper with 1 inch squares printed on it for now. Print out about 4 sheets a "battle" and that should be enough space
   
   
3. As suggested, Matt lays out the Delian Tomb that's great for a quick one shot. Or just make a basic dungeon layout, there's some random tables in the DMG and/or something like donjon to help you out. Lots of great tools there.

Try the D&D board games (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drizzt). Mechanically, they aren't D&D, but they do mirror several aspects of it in abstract tones.

Arguably closer to D&D in terms of playstyle, though not there by any means, is Fantasy Flight's 2nd Edition Descent: Journeys in the Dark. It's exciting, offers campaign play, involves dungeon crawling of a sort, and offers a chance for one player to "Overlord" against "hero" players, the latter of which controls one or more characters who gain equipment, abilities and so forth as the campaign progresses. Great fun and probably your closest shot at getting her into a D&D boardgame without making the jump to D&D itself.

welcome.
here are a few simple things that i have found a newbie like me make things easier...

1. spell cards this is an easy resource to help you keep track of what spells you have. its even easier if you do like marisha does and set it up in a spell folder. . u can pick this up at your local staples/ office depot.
   
   
2. a small notebook to write notes in, such as everyones names. important NPCs, loot you found, i always date my pages so i know when and what happened. marisha and laura are really good at doing this in stream.
   
   
3. lazer pens. + battle mat + minis. or even paper minis.
   
   
4. sit as close as you can. preferably around a table.
   
   
5. index cards. i use index cards sometimes for my special paladin abilities that i always forget i have. when you are new, it can be overwhelming keeping track of your special abilities. its easier to see than writing it on your character sheet.
   
   
6. Ale
   

My girlfriend and I play all of the following games together on a regular basis, and we enjoy all of them. I enjoy watching TableTop, and that is where I found most of these:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C

Carcassonne is a multilayer Strategic Tile Laying game that is really good for 2 people: http://amzn.com/B00005UNAX

Ticket to Ride is an awesome multilayer game that works for 2 players: http://amzn.com/0975277324

Formula D is a really fun tabletop racing simulator that also works pretty well for 2 people: http://amzn.com/2914849648

Stratego works well if you want a chess like game that's a fairly different than chess: http://amzn.com/B0045OV9IO

Citadels, Tsuro, and 7 Wonders might be good for you guys to try.

Citadels is a game that can handle 2-8 players, and the structure of the game is rather different, making for more replayability, for differing numbers of players. http://amzn.com/158994030X

Tsuro is a simple but fun game (and the guys that make it are good people). http://amzn.com/B002SQBB3O

7 Wonders is a nice balance between strategy, complexity, and ease of play. It can seem complex at first play, but it doesn't take long to figure out and is a lot of fun. http://amzn.com/B0043KJW5M

One dice set for each player is a great idea. You can actually find decent dice lot for a reasonable price. Sharing dice set is a pain and slows down the pace. Plus, the bag I linked has actually 20 sets, so you can actually lend or give your players more than one (that helps for when you need to roll more than one of a certain type of die).

​

Miniatures, as stated by others are a question of preference. Depending on system, I either use the theater of the mind (this is great, even the best with creative players) alone or, for when it is more tactical, I use tokens. For years I used chess pieces as tokens for both heroes and foes. It is only recently that I switched to paper mini (I made them stand with binder clips), and am moving slowly to real miniatures that I paint as I feel it is more immersive. Although using tokens of any kind will put you in need of some sort of playing mat. You could easily print 1 inch squares on paper, use a chess board (it's too little to my taste). If your family gets hooked, you can invest in a playing mat later on.

​

What you might or might not need is this tip: don't forget it is your (as in your family and you) game, and fun is the purpose. If you are ever in a position you are not certain about a rule, don't pause the game to search it. Improvise. If it is at players' advantage all the better. They don't feel cheated this way and you can always add a lurking goblins if you feel the need to tip the scale a bit. They will never know you added them because you will never tell them (game masters have to keep those illusions!).

I'm super happy I stumbled on this contest!!

I feel as though /u/poweredbyanxiety is very deserving of a gift. I've had a lot of people bring me a wonderful feeling of acceptance here, however she's really opened her arms to me and has given me someone to talk to. c:

Although it's just a tad over $20, I feel as though this would be a really awesome gift for anybody really. I mean come on, who wouldn't want to give the gift of... well... crude humor. :D!

I don’t even watch the show but I can confirm, it is one of the most fun board games I’ve ever played. It relies very little on rng so you’d think it would get stale, but it does have rng elements and enough unknown factors that it never seems to. They also have an expansion that adds House Arryn and Targaryen and I haven’t played it but my brother had it and I’ve heard great things. If you have a friend with it, try it out. If not, go to a board game cafe to test it out. If you are willing to spend money already because you’re that confident of the quality here’s a link.

The other guy said a lot of what needed to be. You post a lot in the normal /r/games subreddit - so this description might be akin to telling /r/games that a generic and clunky platformer (like many licensed games) is an amazing idea. Video games have deeper strategy, storytelling ability, or simply opportunity for fun than that. Board games have deeper strategy, storytelling ability, and opportunity for fun than things like Monopoly or Life.

There is, however, and entire GENRE of boardgames which involve the board being made. It's called Tile Laying. I suggest you check out Carcassone (Here's Wil Wheaton playing it). There's also Escape: The Curse of the Temple which involves a soundtrack, rolling dice merely as fast as you can, and working together, as well as your "build the board as you go" idea. Super-popular and most-viable-for-title-of-modern-classic game The Settlers of Catan which you have likely heard of also involves a modular board that is not the same every game. Here's an entire list on the Board Game Geek.

In fact, you'll probably find that most of the "modern" games being played by people will not have your traditional idea of a game board. Dominion is played entirely with cards and is like a self-contained game of Magic every single time. Cosmic Encounter simply gives you some cardboard planets to defend and then you're off in an interspecies race to take control of the galaxy. And so on.

As the other guy said, there's a lot of good ideas in your suggestion. The "build the board as you go" idea is so good it's one of the most dominant mechanics in modern gaming :) Action cards are also a pretty common mechanic. But, some of the least popular ideas in modern gaming: losing turns and player elimination (getting knocked out, last man standing), roll and move (roll a die, move to space, do what it says). Losing turns means you don't get to play and... well you are playing the game to play. Player elimination is the exact same. Roll and move is too screwy and random for most people - eliminating way too much skill.

"Victory Points" are the most common way to get around the player elimination. Your idea has an extremely solid base idea and could make a great, short game with adjustment to this mechanic IMO. If being near the end of the plank is undesirable, how about you get one Victory Point for every piece of the board you are away from the edge at the end of your turn? The person that "falls off" the edge gets 0 points but is not eliminated from future proceedings. The person that's doing the best will get a whopping 7 points for their turn, or something like that. Play until no more board pieces are left and then tally them up!

As for the roll and move, perhaps you have a certain amount of movement that you automatically do each turn. For example, you automatically move 3 spaces down the board each turn. However, various ways of placing the board (perhaps placing some bits together combos), or certain action cards, can reduce this. You still don't move, but you don't move by the effect of gameplay, instead of "losing a turn".

I heard that Love Letter is a pretty decent game. I've never gotten the chance to play but would love to add it to my game collection! My BF and I are just starting to get into board games and we've been building a collection so we can start hosting game nights :) I can't wait to host our first one! :)

My favorite game is probably Pandemic, though the expansions are a little over your price limit :)

Depends, are you looking for actual miniatures, or are you just looking for representations of monsters? Because Pathfinder makes a decent box set of bulk monsters for $50. They're called Pathfinder Pawns, and they're basically cardboard standees. This box is less than $50 for 300 paper miniatures, and is as cheap as you're likely to find, especially if you value your time.

As for bulk miniatures, the D&D board games like Wrath of Ashardladon, Castle Ravenloft, and Legend of Drizzt are all fairly good sources of actual 3d miniatures, but they are unpainted. Aside from that, Reaperminiatures.com does have some cheap packs of unpainted miniatures, but overall, no miniature company truly sells in "bulk" that I've noticed.

For throwaway undead, I use these while I wait for actual undead miniatures to paint. They're a bit smaller, but you can't beat that value.

Aside from that, if you're looking for actual painted miniatures, good luck! The only pre-painted ones I really see are either on E-bay as second hand, or the random "loot box" style of package such as here.

I love painting miniatures, and do some quality work depending on how detailed you want to commission. I am actually in the process of updating my Etsy shop with prepainted "sets" of miniatures. Any questions, ask away!

200$? Challenge accepted.

Buy the books for 100,76$

players handbook

dungeon master's guide

monster manual

To be fair, you're already set now. I would advise the players to also buy a player's handbook or at the very least download the free basic rules


If you need figurines you can google what you want, print them off and use them or you can use this from u/printableheroes and pay him 10$

You don't need an erasable battle map to play, you can just draw everything yourself but I would highly recommend it and it's not that expensive. just 21,66$

For the dice, just buy a bag of everything for 19,99$

you're now all set to go on epic adventures for a combined total off 152,41$

If you have any money left that you would want to spend, I would recommend buying the starter set, so you can learn how it is to DM before making everything up on your own. And at 29,99$ it's really a steal

This would bring your money spend on 182,4$

Allright we're 17,6$ under budget. You can use that to buy some drawing paper, pens and what not.

Then if you want to start DM-ing go and watch these videos, You will learn a lot from them. Also, if you want to start playing on wednesday, you're either going to have to read as a maniac or use the first adventure that u/mattcolville talks about in his first videos. If you make up a town with a few NPC's and have them travel there with an encounter (let's say wolves in a forest), you've already got a few hours playtime. However, you will all need to roll up characters which will also take some time. Especially if you are all new at this. Maybe use the templates from the starter set to get the feel.

Also, because they are fun, awesome and it will help you understand what d&d is and to grow as a DM, watch some critical role.

In the spare time you have left, contemplate on how much time you had before you started this awesome hobby and how you wished somebody else would DM so you could just sit down on a lazy chair and kill things.

Congratulations, you're one of us now.

These things are the best Warm chocolate melting cakes

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Hope you have a happy birthday

~$10 thingy

I rarely care for the monster menagerie minis, they thend to have awful quality and paint jobs. Which for mass produced painted minis, I guess its to be expected.

If you want some minis that aren't bad at all, while not painted the Reaper Bones minis and the Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures are two really nice lines for their prices, and for the most part are quite durable. Overall though they can be more expensive than the random box minis, but they tend to me quite worth it.

One thing that you might be interested in is Hero Forge while they are not cheap, you can custom make your own humanoid minis, which is always a nice surprise for PCs. I don't recommend their $15 plastic though, like I said it can be kinda pricey for minis.

EDIT: I almost forgot! Pathfinder Beastiary Box is great for bulk cheap figures. There not minis, but it can sure beat paying $30 bucks for that one monster.

I hope you feel better!
Hopefully this cute gif of puppies might cheer you up!
Cards against humanity would definitely cheer me up because it's so fun to play!
Cheer up, buttercup

HAPPY HAPPY CAKE DAY!

1. ---
   
2. ---
   
3. No book is currently higher on my want list.
   
4. ---
   
5. Not just an animal.
   
6. Purple and poignant.
   
7. A game for misanthropes.
   
8. A guilty pleasure, albeit one I don't get to partake in too often.
   
9. This tool allows near instant face to face communication.
   
10. This may be from my childhood but its still a part of my life to this day.
    
11. Now hear me out on this one: in order to use this item your organizational skill have to be off the charts.
    
12. I got to live music events and write reviews on them, and writing is one of my three biggest hobbies.
    
13. Not sure it gets nerdier...
    
14. Few things are more natural than hair.
    
15. The Great Old One.
    
16. Something I'd wear all the time.
    
17. A lot of people of people tell me this is funny. I've only played once, and only online.
    
18. ---
    
19. ---
    
20. As a writer, gamer and aspiring video/sound editor, this is the ultimate dream item on my wishlist.
    
    BONUS. Off your High Priority wishlist, the thing that sticks out the most to me, because I'm a war buff, was THIS. Though peronsally, I'd probably grab THIS above the rest.

TL;DR If you want large, vinyl, hexes, and wet erase: look to Chessex. If you want large-ish, laminated, no hexes, and dry erase: look to Pathfinder. I'd say measure your game space first.

The mat you're most likely talking about is the Chessex MEGAMAT.($30) This is by and large the most popular battlemat on the market. It's vinyl, rectangular (3' x 4'), hex reversible, quality make, but it's wet erase. (You'll probs need to buy wet erase markers) This is also the mat I have. Here's my brief critique: it is larger than I have ever needed, though I will admit I have sometimes been encouraged by the mat's size to make a larger battlefield. It's so large that it barely fits on the table, giving my players little room for their papers, making it difficult for me as a DM to quickly access all parts of the map, and making transporting it a minor annoyance. The wet erase is only slightly annoying, but if you're going to be doing a lot of erasing, you'll quickly tire of the rags and water. However, it is very high quality, plenty big, and terrific if you have the right space and table to use it.

A very similar mat is the regular Chessex Battlemat($22) It's smaller (2' x 2'), vinyl, square, high quality, hex reversible, and still wet erase. Really again a great mat that's very similar to the MEGAMAT, just a little less. . . MEGA.

Another large vinyl one more similar to the MEGAMAT is the Wiz Dice Battle Mat.($32) It shares all the same qualities of the MEGAMAT, but owners have claimed that is does not erase quite as nicely. However, it is a clean white mat, rather than the sort of textured beige of the Chessex mats.

Finally, the most viable dry erase mats are the Evolve Skins battlemats($28) which come in white or beige, are not hex reversible, are laminated, are 3' x 2', and seem to not be entirely dry erase. A better choice would probably be the laminated, 2' x 2.5', dry erase, not hex reversible, Pathfinder battlemats.($13)

I'd recommend measuring your game space, prioritizing what you think are the most important qualities, and then comparing these options that I have presented.

Your two links will work. You're correct, it does seem very confusing. There's so many printings of Catan at this point, but the only major differences between 4th and 5th editions of the game is the artwork. Everything else is the same.

If you want a game that can include pretty much everybody at a lower price point, I would recommend Codenames. It plays from 4 up to pretty much unlimited and is a great casual game where people can chill and play as they see fit.

I've been looking around since I'm in the same boat as you, and have been looking at buying a larger quantity of sets which you might also want to look at if you want to kickstart a collection. The bigger names I've found are Chessex, Wizdice and Q-Workshop.

Wizdice has a pack of 100+ random dice (with 1 guaranteed set) for 20$ (which I'll probably buy sooner or later). Most of the reports I read say they're random sets instead of pure random dice (people getting up to 16 sets of 7 dice), but you only get solid color, see-through and pearly (no fancy frosted or speckled). They are factory seconds but not too bad (think of small imperfections like an air bubble in a see-through or not enough paint on the letters)

Chessex has a pound-o-dice for 20$, a bag of 100+ random dice. Besides the standard colors, see-through and pearl you have special stuff like 2 tone pearl, frosted, blood-spatter effect and speckles. Most reports say they're very random. You might get a large quantity of d20 and 2 d10's, they might contain mini dice and bigger dice. They could have custom dice for a certain game with the highest number switched for some graphic indicating a crit or something. You probably won't get a full same colored set (besides the guaranteed one.) They are factory seconds which means they were rejected from being put in an individual set. This might range from pretty near prefect halfsies (after making blue dice they want to make red dice, the first set still has blue plastic in them), to usable ones with a little air bubble or small dent to useless misshapen ones or dice with missing numbers.

Q-Workshop dice look really pretty (example). Very fancy. A lot more pricey. Be careful because some of them have really pretty intricate designs but are harder to read. There's a "jar of dice" with 150 dice but they cost a whopping +200$ so I haven't even looked at those.

Then there's all those artisan dice (example company). Dice made from marble or metal, probably have a lot of weight to them but I wouldn't want to roll those on a wooden or glass table. Dice made of wood, looks really fancy but I would guess that their "trueness" can be a lot worse than an air bubble in a plastic die. As you can guess those are very expensive.

Finally with the rise of 3d printers we get 3d printed dice. Amazing looking, amazing price.

I celebrated Christmas with my family!!! I would love the [Cards Against Humanity: First Expansion Pack] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005JFNE8G/ref=aw_wl_ov_dp_1_9?colid=26SWLD702LW5B&coliid=I36SGZ40Y653GC) I love CAH!!

Thanks for the contest!!!!! It would be super useful to me because I've been sad lately and this always makes me smile.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

As a huge fan of both board games, and The Walking Dead, I feel obligated to enter! Almost impossible to pick just one game, but I'll limit myself to two:

7 Wonders is a great game, and the expansions add some pretty cool extra aspects to it

Betrayal at House on the Hill i super fun, and is infinitely replayable.

Here is my handwriting!

I'm excited to see your post, because I was going to write something similar. In particular, I wanted to link to the five geek social fallacies which is all about why nerdy gamers feel obligated to include socially awkward friends at the table, even when they're disruptive. And then, I wanted to suggest that OP transition this high-anxiety friend over to a different social event, and your suggestion of board games is perfect. Board games do not require role play in which a socially awkward person bungles the social interactions. Here are some of my favorites that seem to work well with socially difficult people:

• Dominion (a deck building game -- start with 10 cards, mostly cards to buy stuff, and spend the game buying up more cards that give you extra actions or cash -- what's extremely cool is that the cards you buy are varied, so one game might feel very different from the next game).
  
• Rummikub (you gain 14 tiles and must put them down in runs of color or number -- this is great for aspergers types, because it goes at your own pace, and someone who can envision adjusting all the numbered tiles on the board/table can sometimes on a single turn get rid of tons & tons of tiles in an epic reconfiguring of... everything).
  
• Sequence (team-based card game that involves putting down cards on a game board to form lines, sorta like Connect 4, but involving teamwork, so if someone nervous doesn't want all the pressure on himself or herself, there will be teammates to help in this game).
  
• Munchkin (a joke game based upon D&D but without the social interactions... perfect).
  
• Carcassonne (a slower game that involves making "kingdoms" by placing tiles, pretty good for someone looking for low-pressure).
  
  Good luck OP!

It looks lame, but trust me, you'll be happy you got one.

If you have an Iphone 4 or 4S

A little big, but can store a lot

For when friends come over

Because sometimes you need to take a break

For whipping up healthy drinks

The obvious accessory to most college dorms

Retractable extension cord

A little expensive, but c'mon...

Make lots of friends in the most childish way possible

And finally, the most important thing of all...

Would you like a falafel with that?