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[Techhead]

All the material is available online.  If I were preparing to DM (or be a versatile player) I'd get sheets of paper and plot out key points to remember and how things work, instead of lugging the book around just bring in what I need for that scenario.  Like, not gonna be using the book on aquatic combat for the city, probably...

Almost all the material is available in the SRD. Aside from certain monsters that comprise WotC's 'Product identinty' (which you can easily do without), there is this bit:

"No Covered Product may contain rules or instructions of any kind that:

Describe a process for Creating a Character
Describe a process for Applying the Effects of Experience to a Character"

[Girlinhat]

Yeah, but the core rulebook is just part of it.  Like a friend has been talking about setting up an online game among friends, and her character would be an artificer, which is Eberron and certainly not core.  Artificers aren't listed in SRD.

Although for everything core?  Yes, it's all fairly laid out there.  I just haven't truddled through the monster lists or anything yet, because those things are massive.

[shadenight123]

There is...
always...
yar har.

The eye-patch I mean.

Pretty extensive collections really. Who'd know there was something called 'Erotic Adventures' otherwise? Or something like 'Dungeons and Traps of Doom' or 'The most complicated dungeon ever' or things like those?
Now then, hypothetically speaking you can always hop over to my D&D game and watch how they play, since it's a level 1 going upwards, you could get the hang of it with ease (I hope) or if you have any question feel free to ask, a good Dm is a good actor, because he can improvise some things and make them appear as if they were always in the game from the beginning.

[Girlinhat]

That's one thing I've realized.  To be a DM isn't to plan an extensive campaign.  Your goal is to lie as fast as you can and as hard as you can.  The entire purpose of being a DM is to remain in a state of mild to severe panic as you shout things that seem reasonable, while smiling eerily softly.

[sluissa]

That's one thing I've realized.  To be a DM isn't to plan an extensive campaign.  Your goal is to lie as fast as you can and as hard as you can.  The entire purpose of being a DM is to remain in a state of mild to severe panic as you shout things that seem reasonable, while smiling eerily softly.

This...

DMing is simply an incredibly challenging form of improvisational acting/storytelling. Not only do you have to keep a semi-coherant story going, but you've got to do on the fly math in your head and roll with whatever the players throw at you. A good DM is 1 part Who's Line contestant, 1 part writer, and 1 part chess-pugilist.

That's one reason, among others, why I've never run an in person campaign.

[nenjin]

That's one thing I've realized.  To be a DM isn't to plan an extensive campaign.  Your goal is to lie as fast as you can and as hard as you can.  The entire purpose of being a DM is to remain in a state of mild to severe panic as you shout things that seem reasonable, while smiling eerily softly.

Eh. I'd take issue with this. I've played plenty of "off the cuff" campaigns. It takes an amazing DM to BS their way through an entire adventure, top to bottom, and not have the players sense the arbitrary BS behind it. I've also played a lot of super-planned out campaigns that are so starchy and inflexible, you could use it to lay dry wall.

To me being a GM is about finding balance. Being agile, but having a plan none the less. Panic to me is a function of how you feel the game is going. DMs who feel like they're on the back foot compared to their players panic. DMs who feel like the situation is some place they can live with, and they're ready to roll along with what the players do, find that happy zen place.

I mean, I think there's two fundamental kinds of GMs. Improv artists and world builders. They generate two very different kinds of campaign. When you can find a way to meld the two together is when you hit that place where players stand in awe of the thing you created. It's an elusive goal, to be sure. But I don't think "lie and shout" is the way every DM should handle things. Frankly, when I have to start lying to players and shouting at them, I feel like I'm sucking at my job.

[Werdna]

Frankly, when I have to start lying to players and shouting at them, I feel like I'm sucking at my job.

Frequently due to the fact that the players are sucking at theirs, wouldn't you agree?  At least in my experience, every time I've seen a flustered DM, I've seen some pretty asinine players driving them up that wall.

Roleplaying should be a collaborative game of players plus DM, not players vs DM. 

[nenjin]

Frankly, when I have to start lying to players and shouting at them, I feel like I'm sucking at my job.

Frequently due to the fact that the players are sucking at theirs, wouldn't you agree?  At least in my experience, every time I've seen a flustered DM, I've seen some pretty asinine players driving them up that wall.

Roleplaying should be a collaborative game of players plus DM, not players vs DM.

I come from a group that is very pro-player. As in, it's honestly more important to empower the players than empower yourself as the GM. I'm not 100% sold on the concept, but I've come to accept that without some chaos from your players, a game becomes stagnant. Deciding what's worth embracing and running with, and what's not, is the hard part of being a GM. Generally though, I've tried to get away from casting what players do as "asinine." I game with adults only these days, and while they can act fairly immature sometimes, I try to respect what they bring to the table, because players are ultimately what makes a game come to life. You can create as many NPCs and fantastical descriptions as you want as a GM, but without that element of player chaos, you're essentially asking people to roll dice whilst you read them your novel.

That said, yes. Often panic comes in because players, as a rule I think, like "breaking shit." Be it the rules, your carefully crafted setting, your NPCs or just your expectations. The difference is, I've come to believe that is pretty much their function in game. You create something, they break it, and when you've rebuilt it you've arrived at that synthesis between GM plan and player action. The trick for the GM, ultimately, is confidence. If you ACT like you own the situation that's been created, the players give you credit for it. Regardless of whether you're actually the reason it happened, or not.

This is why improv GMs get a little more credit than world builders I think. Good improv GMs can make it look like they planned it all along and it seems like an amazing feat to players. World builders deliberately try to make it all planned out and effectively lay their cards out at the start of the adventure. And when things invariably go differently than they planned....they look reactive instead of proactive, like they didn't really have control over the situation to begin with.

[Leatra]

You know, there is a website which practically allows you to play tabletop DnD on the internet.

It could be fun if we manage to set up a game. I have no experience with DnD though.

[Scoops Novel]

That is a fucking completely random quirk of chance, as i told the Lady over there. I have barely any experience either, but I'm more then up for a (free) pathfinder game.

[Girlinhat]

Being that I've just learned pathfinder/3.5 I've realized some of the pitfalls of explanation, like the way that defense in DnD works nothing like defense in any other RPG.  So if anyone is totally inexperienced, I can give a shakedown.

Shall we a Steam group, or just see if we can get together on roll20.net thingy?

EDIT:

Try joining with roll20.net and search for game name "Bay12".  Keep in mind that when it shows you in-game, it shows your first name and last initial, so you can setup your screenname accordingly.  From the looks, this has everything needed for a DnD campaign built in.

EDIT AGAIN:
https://app.roll20.net/join/78955/VpSkHg  Apparently this is the game's direct link.

[Scoops Novel]

Signed upses. Gimme a hoe shake run top... breakdown. That was far too hard.

[Kansa]

I signed up for it always wanted to try a D&D game

[tryrar]

For reference,it might be prudent to leave a message to go to the thread in Forum Games and Roleplaying and go ahead and lock this thread, so we can get an accurate count of all those who are actually interested

[Rilder]

Not really in a position to play any sort of table top gaming at the moment. (Sleep schedules and shit make it impossible)

However if anyone wants to see a DnD session in action. Gryphongod hosts a DnD Stream on twitch every Friday. Been watching it for a few months now and its a really interesting thing to watch.