Counting the Cost

How many of us parents / teachers / guardians have had a talk with our kiddos about needs and wants?

Well, this post is all about needs and wants. What do you need to run D&D? What makes it cool for the kids from a best-bang-for-the-buck perspective? What is completely unnecessary overkill? I'm going to cover everything from money-saving ideas to flagrant consumerism, and hopefully you will find something you can use somewhere in between. 

So, what do I need to buy?

So, you may be wondering, what the forward investment is to successfully run a D&D game for kids or in general. This is a two tier answer and largely depends upon your level of creativity as a Dungeon Master (DM), and how much DIY work you're willing to put in.

The Free Route

Wizards of the Coast (WotC from here on out) wants you to play D&D. They have done everything they can to bring down barriers to entry. Yes, the Players Handbook still retails for $49.95, but the basic core rules are absolutely free. You can download a pdf for print or to use in your favorite books app on the WotC website here:

• D&D Core Rulebook Free PDF

You can also get the Core Rules for free on the new D&D Beyond website and app in an easy to search, digital-friendly format.

• Basic Rules on D&D Beyond

Finally, there are several free apps for most platforms that have a free set of digital dice for you. Also, the most robust accurately random (if that makes sense) digital dice in the world are available with the free version of Roll20. You don't even need to use the other tools. 

Adventures are a bit of a sticking point. You either need to home brew (write your own adventure) or try to find some freebies out there that will play well with the basic rules. 

The Low Cost Route

There are two entry level products put out by WotC that are fantastic. I definitely prefer one over the other, but they both have their place. 

The D&D Starter set is much loved by a lot of folks that I respect highly in the tabletop gaming community. Mike Shea, whom I have mentioned in previous posts, gives it out as presents on any gift-giving occasion that he can. That says a lot. Here are my positives and negatives for this product.

Positives:

• Cost - You can pick this sucker up for 12.48 on Amazon (I try to buy everything from my FLGS, but if cost is a big factor, this may be the way to go).
• Simplicity - The included adventure, "The Lost Mine of Phandelver" is designed to help new player AND new DM's learn the ropes of playing D&D.
• Rules - it comes with a copy of the Basic Core Rules beautifully presented in a fairly well-organized soft cover book.
• Pre-generated characters - The Starter Set comes with pre-generated characters, which is a big factor if you're bringing up a brand new batch of players and want to skip the whole character creation process.  
• Your first set of polyhedral dice.

Negatives:

• Value - if you're going to crank out retail ($19.99) for this thing instead of $12.48, it doesn't hold up as well as the Essentials Kit (the next option I'm going to talk about). 
• The Lost Mine of Phandelver, while great for beginners, is pretty linear and short lived. 

The D&D Essentials Kit is a more recent product, and I feel like WotC really did some research when they put this one together. To me, it's one of the best products WotC has ever put out period, and it's totally what the old TSR black box aspired to be. Here are my positives and negatives for this product. 

Positives

• Cost / Value - Okay, this thing goes for $15.59 on Amazon, which is more than the Starter Set but you get a lot for your money, all of which I will comment one below.
• "The Dragon of Icespire Peak" is a brilliantly crafted Adventure that includes a number of random one-shots and hooks for further adventure.
• You get a basic rulebook that's designed to get new players making their first character in just a few easy steps and the blank character sheets you need to do so.
• There's a full set of rules for Running one-on-one adventures, including an assortment of sidekicks to help your player character.
  
  
  
• There's a full Dice set that includes two D20's for rolling with Advantage (a major part of the 5th Edition Rules set).
• It also comes with a 
• Color Map of the Sword Coast 
• A deck of condition, initiative, and magic item cards. 
• and more importantly, a Dungeon Master's Screen, which is something you will need.  

Negatives: 

• The adventure, "The Dragon of Icespire Peak", has been criticized for not being as user-friendly for new DM's. It isn't as linear and balanced as Phandelver, but any DM willing to put in some prep time on YouTube can use great guides like this one from Bob World Builder to get the most out of this adventure. 
• There are no pre-generated characters, so you'll have to grab our own from the web. 

Again, I love both of these, and they are where I would begin if you're new or have been out of the hobby for awhile. My most recent set of hardcover core rulebooks are 3.0, and I've done just fine with the Essentials Kit.

 

That's it. If you're interested in getting started. That's all you need. You can stop here. If you want more to keep your game going beyond these items, want to add some pizazz to your tabletop, or you're using this as an excuse to affix your RPG book buying habit, feel free to read on.

Stuff you may want to buy

Core Books 

The core set of rule books are handy to have, particularly if you are home brewing a campaign. If you're not home brewing, the Player's Handbook will give you more rules than you might even need to run one of the hardbound Modules. 

If you really want to go all in on the core books, there is a gift set bundle at most bookstores and hobby shops that will save you at least $40, and probably closer to $60, so it's a good value. 

On the other hand, if you are big into the digital tools, like D&D Beyond, I would skip the physical books and buy them on there, as they will unlock more character options etc.

Hard Back Adventure Books

If you're an old Grognard, like me, you might pine for the days of the Second Edition modules that retailed for around $6.95. Sadly, a lot of those old modules were pretty lacking and were often as much work for a DM as a home brew adventure. 

The new hardbound adventure books retail for about $49.95, which seems like an incredibly large investment, but consider the following:

• A team of writers and designers were hired to create it.
• It has been extensively play tested.
• It is designed to save you, the DM and incredible amount of time and effort. 

Basically, these are a great value, in my opinion. I'm running the aforementioned Icespire Peak, from the Essentials Kit, with one group of kiddos. My other group is running "Waterdeep Dragon Heist", a hardbound adventure with a ton of additional hooks, four possible villains, and some amazing encounters with some of the most famous faces in the realms. My Wednesday night group has had a blast playing this adventure, and it was worth every penny. Plus, in purchasing it, I was able to support my friendly local game shop, Comic Store West.

Maps and Minis and Pawns, oh my!

Okay, so if the kiddos that you're playing with decided they wanted to try D&D because they saw it on Stranger Things, then they are probably not missing anything if you're running 100% theater of the mind. In fact, there's a lot to be said for the joy and simplicity of running Theater of The Mind Combat. That feel is what makes products like Necrotic Gnome's Old School Essentials so popular with lovers of original D&D. On the other hand, if they've watched Critical Role or Chaos Agents or something similar, they may be expecting a full Dwarven Forge set up with custom Miniatures. While I don't think that going all out on that stuff is necessary, it might help to get some flip mats, and some pawns to add some pizazz to your table. 

This is the area in which WotC and official Dungeons and Dragons is very lacking. Luckily, there are some other companies stepping in to fill the void. 

Mats

For my dollar, the best mats, by far, are from a company called Melee Mats. I have this set, and I use it nearly every session. Paizo also has the Pathfinder Flip Mats that are very nice, but much less versatile than the Melee Mats. Honestly, I have some of each.   

It's super nice if you have a color printer and some card stock around to print some terrain and accessories, but Dry Erase markers work just fine and keep things moving. I've been know to use both.

My young players love the set ups I do on the mat with terrain cutouts. I've downloaded all of mine for free on this site. I just grab the top down stuff I want and size it appropriately and print on card stock to cut out.

Pawns / Tokens / Minis   

Okay, people are crazy about their miniatures. Whenever people outside of this hobby picture folks who play D&D, they often think of us squirreled away in our mom's basement with our collection of miniatures. Heck, this idea is even poked fun at in mortgage commercials. The thing is, they're expensive. You never have all the ones you need. When you do, you likely can't find them.  

Paizo makes a whole Bestiary of Cardboard Pawns for around $50, with almost every monster in the Monster Manual. It just lacks the proprietary ones, like Illithid and Beholder. Paizo also makes other Pawn Packs, like NPCs and ones for their specific campaigns. What they no longer have available are PC Pawns. All of those sets are out of print. I've already pre-ordered the next set, slated to come in December, through my FLGS. The few I have currently came from the Pathfinder Beginner Box Set, which also included a Flipmat. If you can find it, buy it, even if you aren't going to use the rule system. I still play it with my two boys. They love it.  

Apparently, WotC used to have a set of tokens you could get, but no longer. The nice thing is, if you have a decent printer and can get a 1" hole punch (or some scissors), you're well on your way to DIY tokens. In a post from 2008, Enrique Bertran, The Newbie DM, shared his process. This process has been greatly simplified now, in 2020, thanks to online tools like Token Stamp 2, which negate the need for Photoshop. You can also DIY cardboard pawns, for that matter. One of the kids at my table did original artwork for her character and both of her sisters' characters. I turned that art into their pawns using this process and they love it! 

 

Finally, you could always use generic pawns, or the more popular choice of candy (see my previous post). 

Full DIY or ToM

Finally, I want to talk about what skills / values / behaviours you may or may not want to foster through this. Maybe you're just happy, like myself, to have kids entering this hobby, and you have no further agenda.

Maybe, though, you want to get the kiddos out of their screens and doing something more tactile and social. If that's the case, consider going full DIY. Maybe you want to get your arts and crafts on. The example I gave above about DIY cardboard pawns could just as easily be done with all drawn pawns. Maybe you want to foster imagination through describing a monster to your kids and having them draw what they think it looks like. Maybe the best way to foster imagination from your perspective is to forget the grid and go full Theater of The Mind Combat. Maybe you really enjoy crafting with your family and want to go down the route of Vee, the Crafting Muse, building amazing terrain with a glue gun and paper products. Maybe you are a bit more tech oriented, with a STEAM club and want to get your kiddos 3d modeling using the Open Forge standard to design 3d print some layouts. There are some great tutorials to get your started, and nearly endless configurations. There are a lot of possibilities, and most of them are more satisfying and less costly than going all in with Dwarven Forge and Hero Forge.

As I wrap this post up, I'm digesting news that my Wednesday night group is being moved online because of the start of the school year. Many students are going back full time. Others have options. Most of my Wednesday night kids are opting to stay home and do cyber school, but I am a teacher. My kids go to a school that didn't offer a stay at home option. The result is, in these perilous times, my household has a whole mess of exposure that my other players don't want to be exposed to. 

That said, look forward to my next post on Virtual Tabletops with kids!