Updated D&D 5E Player's Reference Sheets

I know it's been a while, but I finally got around to updating my Player's Reference Sheets.  It's only a few small changes.  I fixed a couple of typos and I updated the information on unarmed combat that includes the most recent Player's Handbook errata 1.11

The new links for my Player's Reference Sheets are below"

Player's Reference Sheet - Player's Handbook Page Numbers

Player's Reference Sheet - Player's Handbook & Basic Rules Page Numbers

D&D 5E Player Reference Sheets Update

I’ve been running D&D 5E almost twice a week since its release last year.  It’s just the nature of writing that when I write my material will come from whatever I’m most interested in at the time.  In this case, it’s D&D 5E. 

With that being said, my Player Reference Sheets have been very popular for players and DMs. That post remains one of the most popular on my blog.  I’ve used those sheets constantly and many of my players refer to them whenever we play. 

I recently had a chance to read back through those sheets, and I found several areas where they could be improved.  I’ve revised them to make the wording clearer and the information stand out more on the page.  I hope you like these improvements.

Also, I would like to thank Mark Merida for taking the time to add page numbers for the D&D 5E Basic Rules to my Player Reference Sheets.  Thanks to his work, I can now offer two versions.  One has the page numbers for the Player’s Handbook and another includes the page numbers for the Player’s Handbook and free Basic Rules (found here). 

If you have any suggestion for improving my Player Reference Sheets, please leave a comment below or contact me via email.  I would love to read your feedback and criticism. 

PlayerReference Sheet (w/ Player’s Handbook page numbers only)

PlayerReference Sheet (w/ Player’s Handbook and Basic Rules page numbers)

Report from GenCon 2015

Cardhalla, where attendees have built impressive structures from donated cards

             I have been to a lot of conventions and even worked for one, but I have never had a better time than I had this past weekend at GenCon.  GenCon’s motto “The Best Four Days in Gaming” is not hype; it is truth!  I hadn’t attended a convention in several years, and although I had attended Gen Con previously, I really didn’t do everything that I could have to make it the best experience. 

            I would like to start by thanking the entire GenCon staff for running such a great convention.  I know from experience that behind the scenes of any convention is chaos, but the mark of a great convention is that the con-goers never see that chaos.  I can’t say what the GenCon staff did or didn’t do.  All I can say is that I never felt their presence, and everything ran smoothly.  That in itself is an impressive feat for a convention of 60,000 plus attendees. 

A wonderful balloon artist built this over 4 days of the convention

            Next, I would like to personally thank the medical staff in the first aid room in the Indianapolis Convention Center.  My girlfriend had an asthma attack on Saturday afternoon, and they were not only quick to help, but very friendly and experienced.  They treated her quickly and professionally.  I don’t remember your names, but thank you very much for everything you did!

            The city of Indianapolis was amazing, too!  Everyone was friendly and you could really tell how excited the city was to have GenCon.  The hotel staff at the Cambria where I stayed were so nice and outgoing.  They asked about the convention, and although they are further out from the convention than some might prefer, I cannot recommend them more highly!  Everyone restaurant in the city was re-themed for the convention as well.  We ate dinner at the Colts Grille and they had hung banners for various games and given new names to their menu items paying homage to a variety of games, comic book characters, etc.   Not to mention they gave us free, Indiana Colts themed dice. 

            GenCon was not all fun though.  As many of you know, I am a freelance writer, and I spent many hours wandering the Exhibitor’s Hall meeting game developers and handing out as many business cards as I could.  I met other writers as well, including The Gentleman Gamer, with whom I had lunch alongside Neal Price, the developer of Scion.  I attended many panels on freelancing and learned a lot, made some new contacts, and really got a better sense of the path to being a better writer. 

I bought a ton of d8's.  I always need them when I play wizards.

            Of course, I attended the Onyx PathPublishing events!  And in a case of burying the lede, they announced Vampire:  The Masquerade 4^th Edition!  Rather than being an homage to earlier editions of VtM like V20, this new version will update the mechanics and world much like Mage 20 updated that game.  Not much else is known about this edition, yet, but I will be keeping up with new information as it is announced.

            On the subject of Onyx Path Publishing, I would like to say that I have never met a nice group of people.  My girlfriend raved about how friendly and open you were.  She’s even talking about running a Werewolf:  The Apocalypse game in the future.  Your excitement for your game lines and the friendliness of your staff is both infectious and inspiring.  I always felt welcome at your booth, and I stopped by every day to meet someone new or just say hi to Eddy Webb or Neal Price.  (Btw, Neal, I’m really sorry I missed you Scion panel!)

Fantasy Age is a new RPG by Green Ronin and Baby Bestiary is an art book. 

            Other than the Onyx Path seminars, I attended several freelance writing seminars including Paizo’s and two lead by third party publishes like John Ling, Jr. from Frog God Games and Wolfgang Baur from Kobold Press among others.  I learned a lot about what it takes to be a freelance writer and especially how important it was to always have a business card on hand. 

            But GenCon wasn’t all work.  I played in the new D&D Adventurer’sLeague season adventure Harried in Hillsfar.  Our DM was great!  He kept the action rolling as we moved through the corridors of a strange temple.  

            I also played a new board game, Compounded, by Dice Hate Me Games.  It was so good that my girlfriend immediately bought the base game and I bought the expansion.  In Compounded, the players randomly draw elements and try to complete a variety of chemicals.  It’s a great game for anyone who enjoys science.  I think it’d be a great game for high school chemistry classes.  I highly recommend this one!

What is a convention without buying some old AD&D 2E books?

             Shopping took up a great deal of our time at GenCon.  My girlfriend bought a lot of art prints.  All of them are gorgeous.  I bought a ton of RPG books and new dice.  I wanted to get a copy of FFG’s new Star Wars RPG Force & Destiny, but the line was just too long.  I did get the new Green Ronin RPG Fantasy Age, and I can’t wait to read through that. 

            Of course, I bought plenty of older stuff, too, including a copy of Blue Rose.  I also found an old VtM module by Atlas Games called Blood Nativity and a copy of New Orleans by Night.  I had to control myself in the Exhibitor’s Hall.  The temptation to buy just everything was too great.  I limited myself to those items I knew that I would use in upcoming campaigns. 

            I also got a chance to meet my favorite podcasters, Kevin, Brady, and Dustin from UnderDiscussion.  They put on a great seminar for people interested in starting a podcast.  My girlfriend and I were able to chat with Brady and Kevin for a while after the panel too.  That was definitely a highlight of the convention for me. 

And of course, my White Wolf swag!

            The biggest surprise of the convention was sharing a bus ride with Richard Lee Byers, author of the Year of the Rogue Dragons Forgotten Realms book series (amongst many, many other fantasy books).  We had a great conversation on the bus ride back to our hotels.  I guess not staying in a downtown hotel closer to the convention really paid off!  I’m sad to say that I haven’t read any of Richard Lee Byer’s books, but I will. 

            That shuttle ride is also how my girlfriend and I made two new friends from California.  You know who you are!  I had a great time playing Compounded with you guys.  I look forward to seeing you at GenCon next year!

Update to the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Player Reference Sheets

Update:  A new version of my D&D 5E Player Reference Sheet is now available.  More information about the update can be found in this blog post.  

My first version of these reference sheets has been very popular.  Actually, it was the most popular post that I’ve had on my blog.  So, I guess a lot of you are happy and sharing this information with others.  I’m so happy that I am able to help out other players and Dungeon Masters by providing these reference sheets.

Nevertheless, they were not perfect and probably never will be.  A list of updates has been provided below.  If you notice any typos, errors, or have any suggestions for improving these reference sheets, please leave a comment below. 

Link to Player Reference Sheet Version 2

In other news, Wizards of the Coast has released the Player's Companion to upcoming adventure Princes of the Apocalypse.  This companion includes new options for player races including Gensai and Deep Gnomes along with a very large list of spells.

It can be downloaded for free from DriveThruRPG or from WotC's D&D website.


The D&D Adventurers League has also released new material for their next season including a character building guide and new character sheets.  Go to the Adventurers League website for more information. 

Updates include:

Reformatted the entire document to make it fit better on the page

Fixed several typos!  Thanks for finding them!

Added the Attack Action and Cast a Spell Action to the Combat actions

Added Moving around Other Creatures details

Replaced Exhaustion Levels Information with a Table

Formatted Tables for easier reading

Changed the Margins to .5” all around

Changed the spacing to single space

D&D 5E Player Reference Sheets

UPDATE:  I have added a new version of the D&D Player Reference Sheets.  Information on the changes can be found here. 

UPDATE 2:  Once more I have updated my D&D Player Reference Sheets and the new version can be found here.  Information about the changes can be found in this blog post.

            Ever since D&D 3.0 I have been a huge fan of player reference sheets, a couple of sheets of paper that summarize the rules for players and game masters.   Those few sheets of paper at the table save so much time wasted on looking up the basic rules of the system.  How many times has a combat stopped because the player or DM needed to look up the grappling rules or whether disarming an opponent provokes an attack of opportunity?  These sheets were never meant to replace a rulebook, but instead, they offer a quick reference of the rules as well as the page numbers for those rules if further clarification is necessary. 

            I’m currently running a D&D 5E game and I love the system.  It was only a matter of time before I got around to writing and posting a player reference sheet for the system.  Of course, these rules are owned by Wizards of the Coast.  No copyright infringement is intended, blah, blah blah.   These rules are not a substitute for the book or the basic rules PDF that is available to download for free here and a web viewable version here.  

            These Player Reference Sheets (Download here or click the Resources Player & Storyteller Tab above)   include rules on Advantage, Disadvantage, Actions in Combat, Combat rules, rules on Death & Dying, and a list of Conditions.  Basically, I’ve included any information that is regularly referenced during play.

I’ve already posted several player reference sheets on this blog, including one for Vampire:  The Masquerade 20thAnniversary Edition and WotC’s Star Wars Revised System.  However, I’ve never discussed how I intended for players to use them.  I don’t think that my intent is all that important, but it’s a chance to show off a bit.  Below are images of my girlfriend’s D&D 5E character sheet in a binder that I made for her which includes an image of her character, character sheet, and reference sheets.  I would show off one of my own characters, but I haven’t played a character yet.  

Character Image

 

Turn the page and you have her character sheet & spell list

Turn the page and she has a reference sheet for combat rules

Turn the next page, and she has reference sheets for other rules and Conditions

   Next, I’ll be adding some pre-generated PCs for Vampire:  The Masquerade 20^th Anniversary Edition, finally putting together the second VtM player reference sheet, and a player reference sheet for Werewolf:  The Apocalypse 20^th Anniversary Edition.  These aren’t high priority items, but I hope to have them all finished within the next few months. 

  If you find any errors, omissions, typos, or poor wording, please let me know via email or a comment below so that I can update these sheets.   I’d also love to hear from you if you’ve used these in your games!  As always you can follow me on Google+ or Twitter by clicking the links on the right.  

On Running a Module for the First Time

            One of the weird quirks of my roleplaying career is that until recently I had never run a pre-published adventure module.  I have made use of plenty of Campaign Setting Boxed Sets, such as the Revised Dark Sun Campaign Setting for AD&D 2^nd Edition or Legend of the Five Rings’ Otosan Uchi Boxed Set which did include the Scorpion Clan Coup plot line that involved one clan’s attempt to usurp the throne.  Yet, I’d never run a straight forward module or adventure path.  Dungeons & Dragons 5^th Edition has given me the opportunity to finally run a pre-published adventure series, and it’s been a blast. 

            Because my primary RPG has been Vampire:  The Masquerade for so long, I didn’t have many options for selecting a module to run.  VtM primarily offered settings books such as my favorite, LA by Night, and fan favorite, Chicago by Night, but few adventure modules; although Midnight Circus is a notable exception.  Running a Classic World of Darkness RPG meant that the Storyteller was responsible for preparing an adventure, creating NPCs, and so forth.  Conversely, games like Dungeons & Dragons are renowned for their many outstanding modules like The Temple of Elemental Evil, The Tomb of Horrors, Dead Gods, and so on. 

            Due to the staggered release schedule for D&D 5E, the Player’s Handbook and the adventure Hoard of the Dragon Queen were released simultaneously in August, but the Dungeon Master’s Guide was not released until December.  I was left with no option but to run Hoard of the Dragon Queen as I lacked much of the information I’d need to create NPCs, build encounters, and seed treasure appropriately.  I didn’t want to end up in a situation where I was making assumptions based on my experiences in D&D 3.0 or 4.0.   The cynical side of me believes that Wizards of the Coast used the staggered release schedule to help sell more copies of Hoard of the Dragon Queen due to the lack of necessary information that Dungeon Masters require.  

            Conspiracy theory aside, Hoard of the Dragon Queen has been a joy to run and a learning experience for me.  As this article isn’t intended as a review of the module itself (that will come later after I’ve run the entire thing), I want to discuss the lessons that I learned from the module and my overall impression of running a Dungeons & Dragons module.

            Reading through Hoard of the Dragon Queen, which is intended to take players from level 1 to 7 or 8, I was happy to find that it included a variety of adventure types.  Other modules, such as the Sunless Citadel (the first adventure for D&D 3.0) are just a long dungeon crawl.  Hoard of the Dragon Queen has the players defend a town from the Cult of the Dragon, track the attackers to their lair, infiltrate the enemy’s encampment and rescue prisoners before they set off to track the Cult, and joining and protecting a caravan that travels from Baldur’s Gate to Waterdeep.  The various episodes offer enough variation that neither the DM nor the players get bored, but the encounters remain exciting having players face off against all manner of creatures from kobolds to perytons and bullywugs and even a few Half-Dragons. 

            The greatest benefit to using any module is that the writers have provided nearly everything for you:  level appropriate encounters, NPCs with both stats and background information provided, and an interesting plot.  Someone else has already done all the heavy lifting, but no module, regardless of how well-written, can take into account everything that the players could do or give every NPC a name.  Even with the adventure already prepared for me, I was frequently required to improvise, create NPCs or adjudicate a player action that the writers of the module had not anticipated.  That’s simply the nature of RPGs, no one can anticipate what players are going to do. 

            So far, the adventure has been a railroad with very little chance for characters to change the course of the adventure once they have started.  Player actions, other than success or failure in an encounter, really don’t have much effect on the outcome of the module.  Players can make some choices, such as the order in which they tackle the encounters while defending the town of Greenest or which merchant they chose to work for.  Again, these problems are unavoidable with most pre-published modules.  That’s the social contract of an adventure module:  everyone agrees to stick with the general flow of the adventure, follow the clues, and work towards the goal of the adventure.  Attempting to derail or sidetrack the adventure disrupts the fun for everyone because the DM has very few options for resolving disruptive play, especially in Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and maintaining the adventure. 

            Having the NPCs and scenes pre-written is a benefit and saved me a lot of prep time, but that meant that I didn’t have the benefit of creating those same NPCs  and that I wasn’t as familiar with the goals and motivations of those characters.  Sadly, Hoard of the Dragon Queen doesn’t have any NPCs that really stand out.  Players are moving too fast from point to point for any NPC, villain or background character, to really make an impact.   Since the module is goal oriented (locate the destination of the Cult of the Dragon’s treasure caravan), players rarely get more than a day at any one stop.   I prefer to have a recurring cast of NPCs who constantly interact with the players and also change and grow along with the player characters.  That’s a small nitpick of just one module and is certainly not representative of all modules. 

            As a DM who is looking to improve my skills, Hoard of the Dragon Queen offers a tremendous example of how to vary adventure types to keep players from getting bored with an unending string of dungeons, escort missions, and treasure hunts.  The structure of Episode 3 which has the players working as escorts for a caravan that the Cult of the Dragon is using as cover to transport their stolen goods north offers a number of novel encounters.  Some are focused on combat while others simply require good roleplaying to resolve. 

            As noted above, the release schedule of D&D 5E meant that I didn’t have access to the information I needed to generate my own adventures.  This limitation meant that both of the groups for which I DM were stuck with the Hoard of the Dragon Queen module, and that I was able to observe how two wildly different groups dealt the same scenarios.  Each group progressed at their own pace, and currently one group is nearly an entire Episode ahead of the other.  The slower group has had the benefit of me seeing what problems occurred with the first group, and I could adjust some of the encounters or provide more accurate descriptions.  The most egregious problem with the adventure has been a poorly designed encounter against a group of powerful NPCs that occurs in Episode 3.  The fight is nearly unavoidable (because the adventure states that NPCs in the caravan most likely will start the fight if the players don’t) and the four antagonists who are each CR 8 in the encounter are much higher level than the party who have only just reached level 4.  More importantly, the NPCs’ weapons do enough damage to kill a player character with a single attack.  I don’t want to go too in depth in my description of the encounter as I don’t want to spoil the adventure for those who haven’t progressed this far, but those who have played or run this section of the module know exactly how bad this is encounter is.    

            Because so many people have been similarly limited, Hoard of the Dragon Queen has become a touchstone module that nearly everyone who has adopted D&D 5E is playing or has played.  Similar to Keep on the Borderlands or Against the Giants, Hoard of the Dragon Queen has become a shared experience in which players and DMs are swapping stories about how they overcame various encounters or offer criticism and suggestions for improving how the module can be run.  Every message board has at least one thread on Hoard of the Dragon Queen and I have found several videos on YouTube (such as The Escapist Magazine's game) and Twitch.tv of people running Hoard (although sadly I haven’t had a chance to watch them yet).  All of these are invaluable resources for DMs who want to run this module and provide different examples of how to run this module.

            I haven’t finished the Hoard of the Dragon Queen module for either group yet.  The holidays caused a long break in both campaigns, but I intend to finish the module for both groups.  One group will continue with The Rise of Tiamat, the sequel to Hoard of the Dragon Queen, while the other group will transition to adventures that I will write.  So far, running this module has been a success, and I’ve learned a lot from the experience.  My next goal will be to adapt modules from AD&D Planescape to D&D 5E for one of my groups.  Without a doubt, running a pre-published module has been a success, and I plan to run others if the opportunity arises.  A new module for D&D 5E, Princes of the Apocalypse, is scheduled for release in March and I will most likely run that one as well! 

            If you’d like to share your experiences on running a module for the first time or any memorable modules, please leave your comments below.