D&D – Indigo Games

I’ve been running D&D Games for the last 45 years, since a friend of mine at school introduced me to D&D with the iconic “Bar Room Brawl” Scenario released in the White Dwarf Magazine – Issue#11.

Back in the day D&D was Very Accessible – all that you needed was a photocopy of a friend’s Basic D&D rules – which were short, concise, factual and decorated by a handful of evocative black-and-white sketches – excellent brain-fuel for an Imaginative Adolescent.

Things have changed since then, and D&D is now thoroughly In-Accessible, in my Experience, with regard to on-boarding new players.

Book 1-of-3: The Players Handbook

The Players Handbook, for fifth edition, intended to Introduce new Players to the game is particularly inaccessible to new players; it is verbose, confusing, and requires the constant hand-holding of an experienced Dungeon Master in order to retain the attention span of the new player, as they plough their way through, hoping at some point to leave the classroom and go have fun in the playground…

The cost of this Manual is also prohibitively expensive for a child on a British Standard weekly child-labour stipend of £1 – no doubt boosted significantly by the presence of so many beautiful full colour illustrations.

A large chunk of this Manual is comprised of long lists of Spells, well presented, and sorted by Class. It’s great to have so many Spells to play with, but it’s cumbersome to refer to during an Adventure.

I would recommend that you hop online and pick yourself up one or more of the excellent “D&D Spell-book Cards”. There’s one of these for each Spell-casting Class, so you can pick-and-choose what you buy based on what Spell-casters you have in your Party.

**A cautionary note to all Parents however, as the these Cards are however marked as being only appropriate for “Age 12+”**

It is no doubt possible that an over-enthusiastic child could suffer a serious paper-cut from miss-handling these cards, and, while I haven’t tried it myself, they are very snack-able; no doubt it’s the chemical composition of the Ink on the cards that is potentially hazardous to younglings.

So, buyer-be-aware, and direct your sub-12 year-old Neanderthal towards something less hazardous and more age appropriate e.g. Magic the Gathering or Pokemon.

No doubt, with your encouragement, when they come-of-age, they will have the life skills and maturity required for D&D, apparently.

Book 2-of-3: The Dungeon Masters Guide

The Dungeon Masters Guide, is, in my opinion – putting it politely to avoid litigation – pointless.

It starts by describing how the DM should create a richly detailed “Campaign World”, complete with a diverse Pantheon of Gods – which are enumerated in laborious detail – just in case you were not paying attention in history class, and to save you from all the trouble of being Creative, by inventing your own Personal Pantheon!

Then, adding insult to injury, there are pages and pages, and pages, of Random Tables for generating Random Encounters, Treasure, NPC Characteristics and suchlike – further neutering the nascent creativity of the would-be Dungeon Master.

This book makes Excellent Kindling.

Don’t miss-understand my critique, as there is nothing inherently wrong with the D&D 5e Ruleset – I’ve been running a 5e Campaign for many years.

It’s simply a matter of Accessibility and over-complicated presentation. If you simplify the Ruleset down to the core essential ingredients, then it’s actually a very well-designed system, inherently more complex than Basic D&D, by design, but intended to appeal to a more sophisticated audience who find the broader set of character development options to be very appealing.

Historical Foot Note:

All the overtly-religious overtones introduced in the Game when it came out caused a veritable tidal-wave of concerns in the U.K. along with a Media-Fuelled frenzied backlash from concerned Parents & Parishioners.

No doubt the resulting Media fire-storm inadvertently boosted the Popularity of the Game, as it’s Intended Audience were already rebelling in their own uniquely British way – smoking cigarettes behind the Bike Sheds during lunchtime at school, playing Conkers without Adult Supervision, and Skateboarding openly in public without the appropriate Safety Equipment.

Book 3-of-3: The Monster Manual

The Monster Manual – the third & final book in this Epic Trilogy – is, by stark comparison, something quite extraordinary, and excellent value-for-money.

It continues the tradition of super-creative art that has characterised the Monster Manual over the years, and the short descriptions on each Monster give both Players & Dungeon Masters super-useful background on the behaviour of the Beast, it’s habits, and it’s Combat Effectiveness.

The Art is evocative and frequently shared with players on first encounters, in order to give them a real sense of their foes appearance and demeanour.

However, it is a Reference Book, and both it’s size and the volume of information within makes it cumbersome to refer to mid-combat.

No worries, there is a handy solution, as there are also a set of handy Reference Cards to accompany the Monster Manual, which you can purchase on Amazon, or on other popular D&D online stores – search for “D&D Monster Cards”.

How I recommend that you approach on-boarding new players to Fantasy Role-Playing with the Dungeons & Dragons Rules.

In my Experience, and that of fellow Dungeon Masters that I know who have been captivated by D&D since we could first roll a 20-sided dice, the Best Way to start playing D&D is with the “D&D Basic Rules” first published by TSR Games in 1980.

There were earlier editions of the D&D Ruleset, but we think that TSR really nailed-it with this edition, which we consider to be “a Classic“, that has stood the test-of-time, and everything since this O.G. release has just become unnecessarily complicated:

http://www.indigogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/DnD_Basic_Rules.pdf

Health & Safety Warning!

I have included the PDF here at some personal risk, and, as a result, I have re-located to a remote cabin somewhere in the foothills of West Sussex, for fear of being pursued by The Pinkertons, who have made an un-pleasant return to the scene in recent years, with the expressed single-minded intent of curtailing the creativity of those of us who consider this to be:

OUR GAME!

And we adam-ant-ly refuse to be Repressed by Corporate-Minded Snake Oil Salesman.