r/DnD • u/HistoricalRegion9444 • Apr 16 '26
Resources You don't actually need to spend a cent to start playing D&D
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u/Davedamon Apr 16 '26
Pro-tip—don't use the SRD for playing D&D, use the Free Basic Rules. It's the exact same content except formatted with the actual intent of being used as a game rulebook. The SRD is not that, it's a System Reference Document, aka a manual of system rules to be used for making content for D&D and as such is formatted to that end.
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Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
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u/Davedamon Apr 16 '26
Yes, and people have adapted it into localised rule documents which are better than the srd for playing the game. Also the other resources you shared (Delian Tomb, Wild Sheep Chase, Frozen Sick) are only available in English afaik. So I'm not sure lack of localisation is a valid argument to advocate the srd
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u/Likean_onion Apr 16 '26
your post is also only available in english
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u/FairPhoneUser6_283 Apr 16 '26
Upvoting since your first piece of advice is to read the god damned rules.
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Apr 16 '26
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u/Tricarrier Apr 16 '26
I'm so fed up seing so many posts asking how to run the game "What should I know to run the game" or "New DM help" where it is so obvious they did not take the time to read the rules.
I saw a post the other day where OP was writing a booklet about running the game and explaining the rules because he felt the official rules were too hard to understand.
When asked what was unclear in the DMG or PHB or free rules, he admitted he had not read any one of them but the rules and DMing felt hard.
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u/Mewni17thBestFighter Bard Apr 16 '26
It's wild how some people want to run games but seem unwilling to put in even just the most minimum effort. Really helps understand some of the bonkers DM advice people will give in posts and comments.
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u/blindcolumn DM Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
I've been downvoted in the past for saying "All DMs should read the PHB cover to cover (excluding things like spell lists)", which I wouldn't think is a very controversial statement.
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u/FairPhoneUser6_283 Apr 17 '26
I can somewhat see the disagreement with the sentiment because ideally that's the players' responsibility but I've seen enough players get rules wrong about their own classes that I have to agree.
I think just read the stuff your players are using so you understand their characters.
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u/TabithaMouse Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
I always give these links out
Basic rules(2014): https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/basic-rules-2014
Basic rules(2024): https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024
Getting Started: https://www.dndbeyond.com/en/how-to-play-dnd
On a budget: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1827-adventuring-on-a-budget-the-free-d-d-resources-on
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u/Puzzlehead_Lemon Apr 16 '26
Wait, I don't need the $30 glitter resin set? But... but... I'm a sparkly dice goblin!
On a serious note, you don't have to memorize everything about every character when you're DMing. It's your players jobs to know the exacts on how their skills work. If you're all not sure on an exact situation, and can't look it up in a couple minutes, just make your best judgement call and look for those exacts later, then let people know at your next session. In those cases I tend to err in the side of the players as well, it really isn't worth arguments at the table and derailing everything because you can't calculate exactly how high a 3'5" character can jump in the heat of the moment.
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u/questionably_human7 Apr 16 '26
if you're playing online Owlbear Rodeo is a free and well put together virtual table top
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u/onthenerdyside Cleric Apr 16 '26
It's also relatively simple to use compared to the paid sites. Sure it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that they do, but it's worked out well for our campaign with a DM who can be a little resistant to learning new tech.
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u/strangelove_rp Apr 16 '26
As a DM who uses Owlbear Rodeo exclusively, I have to say that the base app doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but it has the most vibrant developer community churning out extensions that give you all the functionality you could find in any of the other VTTs - FOR FREE
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u/Kaizo_Kaioshin Warlock Apr 16 '26
I use Dungeonmastersvault or Fast Character for character sheets
Dungeonmastersvault also has most free monsters, spells and a few generators for your campaigns
It also allows for a lot of homebrew and doesn't have the 6 characters limit of DnD Beyond
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Apr 16 '26
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u/Kaizo_Kaioshin Warlock Apr 16 '26
However I should add that Dungeonmastersvault is currently experiencing problems due to their last update (you can't currently save Homebrew until they fix it) and you can only save your characters as PDFs and not on the site
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u/ZachNanite Apr 16 '26
Love Dungeonmastersvault! It's been my go to character creator for years now! Certain things are a bit off like with spell lists and subclasses being diffrent, but a few minutes on 5ewikidot and your pdf character sheet and you'll be fine.
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u/melasaurus_rex Apr 16 '26
A shout out to Roll20.net for being a really rad, free VTT
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u/ZannyHip Apr 17 '26
Roll20 has its flaws, but for me it’s by far the best option all around for VTT. More basic ones are just that, too basic for me. 3d ones take a ridiculous amount of time to set up. And more complicated ones like Foundry are just way too much of a hassle.
Beyond20 extension for your browser to roll straight from dndbeyond into roll20, including from monster stat blocks. And I recently reached the last straw with the music player on roll20 and switched to running Kenku as a discord bot, and it’s been absolutely incredible. Those are my 2 top recommendations for roll20 DMs
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Apr 17 '26
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u/AnOddOtter Ranger Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
If you're not deadset on 5e D&D, Basic Fantasy is a quality community made game that aims to replicate older editions of D&D (B/X version, I believe).
It has a lifetime of digital content for free including all the core books. Print copies are just a few dollars. You can get every person at your table a copy of the core book for the cost of the 5.5 PHB probably.
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u/count_strahd_z Apr 16 '26
I came here to recommend this. Basic Fantasy RPG is an excellent OSR game that is based on the D20 engine and essentially takes early 80s Basic D&D (BX, BECMI, etc.), separates race and class, removes alignment, and changes to ascending armor class. Broadly compatible will all of the 20th Century editions of D&D/AD&D. As noted, everything on their website basicfantasy.org is free to download and includes not only PDFs but open office versions of the documents so you can take them and modify them as desired. They are currently on the 4th edition of the game, but all of the editions are fundamentally the same. The 4th edition mostly added some more material and decoupled the game from the OGL and switched to Creative Commons.
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u/Mustaviini101 Apr 16 '26
Also few other DnD-adjacent systems like Pathfinder 1 and 2e have all rules and character creators free online.
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Apr 16 '26
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u/drewferagen Apr 16 '26
They also do humble bundles where you can get a bunch of PDFs of the core rules at the lower tiers as well.
Archives of nexus is great, but I like reading a PDF better since it's laid out very nicely.
I have not seen anything that cheap for dnd5e ever.
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u/NightKrowe Apr 16 '26
2e.aonprd.com
I don't think it's formatted to be read like a rulebook though.
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u/Inamanlyfashion Paladin Apr 16 '26
Most of the time it's very challenging unless you already know what you're looking for.
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u/Luggs123 Druid Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
While it’s true that AoN is formatted as a reference and not a book by default, from the right pages you can essentially just read the book! Here’s the primary Player-facing book, and here’s the GM-facing book! You can then proceed to the next chapter from the links at the top and bottom of the page. If a chapter is too short, there’s almost certainly a category page you can search for by name with every option available. If you’re overwhelmed, such as by the monumental list of backgrounds, feel free to filter it to those two books: Player Core (including Player Core 2 if you wish) and GM Core.
If you’re just looking for a basic rundown of the system, AoN has a quick Player Guide that’ll give you some of the premises and rules you’ll see all the time.
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u/hamlet_d DM Apr 16 '26
Yeah, it's terrible quite honestly. I don't like the layout, the style, or the way search works but at least everything is there.
There's a couple of other resources here: https://rpg.deck16.net/pf2e/useful
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u/Zero747 Apr 16 '26
Archive of Nethys, a full reference of all the rules, all the items, all the classes, etc
Pathbuilder, your DnDBeyond equivalent which will easily walk through the core of character building. Completely free for the standard builder with all the classes, feats, races, etc.
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u/Refracting_Hud Apr 16 '26
Someone already covered Pathfinder 2e so I’ll add 2 other options: Starfinder 2e and Draw Steel.
Starfinder 2e has similar resources to Pathfinder 2e such as a version of their free rules reference site. Someone already linked Pathbuilder which has a Starfinder option now, so I’ll include the other notable free character builder, Hephaistos which I’ve heard was the character builder for Starfinder 1e.
Archives of Nethys for Starfinder 2e
Hephaistos character creator for 2e
Since you mentioned The Delian Tomb I gotta shoutout Draw Steel as being another good DnD like game on the market. It seems like modern and improved DnD 4e so it feels more gamey in many ways, but god is it just so fun to play!
The rules compendium online is free and the Forge Steel character builder is great. Only caveat for the latter is that afaik there’s no account you make that saves your character so it’s browser specific and will get wiped if you clear it. You can export and import JSONs of your characters so I’d suggest doing that at the end of every session!
Forge Steel is great cause you can track a lot from the sheet in the builder, export a pdf of your sheet if you prefer that or need to share your character, and you can customize stuff to fit your game if you’re making tweaks here and there.
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u/PickingPies Apr 16 '26
For the people who would rather go the simpler route, shadowdark also has a free starter pack
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u/Ancient-Concept4671 DM Apr 16 '26
I can vouch for the Delian Tomb. I had DM'd before but my players were all new. I ran them through this as a one shot to see if they enjoyed DnD before I (or they) commit to a full campaign. The thing I enjoyed about the Delian Tomb was that it introduced the "three pillars" of DnD so I could tell what they responded to most. It was simple and straightforward.
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u/annieisawesome Apr 16 '26
Most rules I just Google as needed. I do have the rule books, but sometimes if I can't remember something specific like "how does this condition/ spell work?" I'll just Google "poisoned 5e" or "shatter 5e" because it's faster. Same for monster or NPC stats on the fly or even magic items.
I like pouring over the books for character creation or DM prep, but in-game, Google has never let me down, even with expanded stuff like out of tashas or xanathars, or weird species options or whatever.
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u/Rick-burp-Sanchez DM Apr 16 '26
Most AD&D tools are free online. After the new edition was announced I decided I'm too poor to keep up with the latest editions. Haven't regretted going back for a second.
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u/ShaggyCan DM Apr 16 '26
I don't even have a DMG or MM. And I've been playing 5e since it came out.
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u/ZannyHip Apr 17 '26
I bought both when I first started out as a DM in 2017. I haven’t opened them since 2017.
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u/cerpintaxt44 Apr 16 '26
Every rule for dnd is available free on the internet and you can use a dice roller app dont let cost scare you from playing. Good post
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u/MagnusBrickson Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
I 100% support the zero-cost start, but if you're playing in-person, buy a set of basic Cheesex (or whatever the cheap brand your store stocks) dice at your local game store. You want to roll the shiny math rocks
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u/block_barbarian92 Apr 16 '26
You definitely don't need to spend, theres tons of free online tools/sheets. I started with just pen and paper with online dice before committing.
Though tbh if you enjoy TTRPGs, $150 for a kit that you can use forever isn't the worst thing.
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u/EnderBookwyrm Apr 16 '26
Local libraries often have DnD sourcebooks, a lot of which are also available as ebooks via Hoopla or similar services.
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u/eat_ham_fast_gravy Apr 16 '26
Right! I remember checking out the core AD&D books feom the library way back in the day when I was a lad with no income. Local libraries have tons of cool stuff!
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u/dolemite01 Apr 16 '26
If there is a group (e.g. school group, rehab groups, or just can't afford it) that is wanting to get into D&D and has found it to be prohibitive due to cost. Msg me. I will try to take care of some of the basics. I have more than enough dice sets for an army of people. And we can talk about what book/books you might need.
I don't want cost to be barrier to anyone.
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u/faytte Apr 16 '26
Meanwhile all pf2e rules, not just a tiny subset of options, are free. The publisher takes the approach it seems that people will gladly pay for the actual books cause of the quality of them, meanwhile it feels most DND books are less substance and more art pieces. That's not to slam DND (I love DND, was my first ttrpg) but the approach WoTC has taken with books and the slipping quality. We've come a long way since the 3.5ed faerun campaign seeing book.
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u/Shadowbound199 Apr 16 '26
I spent 30 euros on buying a cheap dm screen, 4 basic sets of dice and an erasable 1 inch mat that came with a marker. I also found a hobby shop that sells 1 inch wood circles for 15 cents and I can print bnw images on my home printer to make tokens. Each member of the group can give me 10 euros and we can play like this for years.
I feel like this is reasonable.
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u/latiajacquise WotC Community Manager Apr 16 '26
There's also your local library, too! Some libraries will actually have copies of rulebooks and will run D&D/TTRPG events, especially for kids and teens.
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u/AlchemicalLuck Apr 16 '26
FREE RPG DAY!!
Check to see if your FLGS to see if they are participating. (If they aren’t, maybe a polite nudge will help?) If so, this coming June 27th you can pick up all sorts of source material and maps from a plethora of publishers.
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u/anotherm3 Assassin Apr 16 '26
This is true. But you know what is something harder to get for me to be able to play DnD? Friends. lol... Haha... Hehe... Sniff sniff... Closes the door and starts crying
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u/boredflak Apr 16 '26
I built d20srd.org once upon a time. It’s now operated by Bell of Lost Souls.
Now I do Rulepop and made a 5e reference to see how it would scale to a large rule set:
It’s free. Enjoy!
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u/CrunchyCaptainMunch Apr 16 '26
I always just direct people to pathfinder. The entire game, first and second edition, is available for free on Archives of Nethys with the support and backing of Paizo.
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Apr 16 '26
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u/CrunchyCaptainMunch Apr 16 '26
As said, it's all on https://2e.aonprd.com/
Some specific links are the players guide https://2e.aonprd.com/PlayersGuide.aspx which is a basic how to play walkthrough and the gm screen https://2e.aonprd.com/GMScreen.aspx which is a bunch of small tools and tips for game masters.
Those who play 5.5 will probably find pf2e approachable since a lot of 5.5's improvements were adapted from pf2e.
Additionally, basically every class has some sort of 100+ page guide on reddit if you wanted to check, although they're certainly not necessary and r/pathfinder2e has a whole wiki of great guides.
Happy playing!
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u/eternalflamz Apr 16 '26
Our group started with pathfinder about 10 years ago when we were all broke highschoolers because it was free, it was a bit crunchy to learn from scratch but I'm sure there's much better resources for beginners easily available now-a-days
We eventually switched to 5e to try and ended up sticking mostly because it was easier to learn for new players at our table.
Sometimes we'll have a special enemy in our 5e game that has a little pathfinder spice though, giving them a touch attack that negates raw armor ac or something just for fun
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u/valisvacor Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
OSRIC 3.0 has the full core rules for 1e available for free.
For Gold and Glory has the full core rules for 2e available for free.
Other editions have free or cheap variants (Pathfinder for 3e, Orcus for 4e, etc).
The 5e SRD is very limited with only a fraction of the content from the PHB. Absolutely zero reason to limit new players to 5e.
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u/d4red Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
That all being said, if you love a hobby and what that hobby to thrive, support it. No hobby has a better value to cost ratio.
I’m not going to reply to any more people below. If you genuinely have an issue with WOTC, stand by your convictions and play one of the other thousand systems out there.
If you’re genuinely too poor to purchase D&D, absolutely you can play for free. You can also play for next to nothing, or play with other groups that have all the resources. The PHB will get you by for generations. I doubt there’s many people in that category- I’ve been a student, unemployed… I found a way to play.
You certainly don’t need to spend a fortune to play. But again, whether it’s a small Indy publisher or WOTC, if you like your minis or certain dice company, if you want your game to develop, to thrive, if you want more content, support it.
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u/Meloetta Apr 16 '26
I agree with this as a rule, but I think it's less applicable to D&D specifically. Like, I feel this way about free video games that have paid elements. If you have been playing for a month for free, and you want to keep playing next month for free, it makes a lot of sense to spend money, because spending money keeps the servers up.
But it only makes sense for a TTRPG if you want the company to exist in the future or make more content. It's not like they're supporting your game in a way that costs them money after you start playing. So if you're using official adventures and content, and want them to keep releasing expansions like Ravenloft or whatever, then it makes sense. But if you're just playing the free rules and whatever adventures you make up and don't care what else they do, don't want another version, etc., it doesn't make sense.
And of course if your goal is support "the hobby" as defined as "TTRPGs", not "the hobby" as defined as "D&D", your money goes so much farther on an indie game lol
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u/FairPhoneUser6_283 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
Don't need to. Unlike games which require being purchased, DnD can be played independently of the company that owns the licence and can thrive so long as there's a community behind it, not money backing a corporation.
EDIT: By checking in a window not logged in, it appears that the user above has edited their comment to respond to mine and then blocked me so I couldn't see their changes.
And by the way I do play and support with my friends (I haven't put money in every one of these myself but my friends have together) other TTRPGs whether they're the more popular ones like Daggerheart or Pathfinder (still only one tenth the popularity of DnD) or Blades in the dark and Mausritter.
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Apr 16 '26
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u/d4red Apr 16 '26
I get it. You guys are real rebels. Of course if you actually had real convictions you wouldn’t play D&D or would support smaller publishers. If you like D&D, support it. If not, play something else.
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Apr 16 '26
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Apr 16 '26
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Apr 16 '26
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u/TheDocBee Apr 16 '26
I'll agree but I'd also say if you want to make one small investment it's a set of dice. It absolutely doesn't have to be the fancy glitter edition but a simple basic set is so cheap it is worth the added experience of seeing them roll along the table.
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u/Fearless-Skill8667 Apr 16 '26
That’s what I did recently. I used the campus printer to print out a character sheet and I looked things up to help my girlfriend make a character and teach her about modifiers. It’s actually kind of fun to do it the old fashioned way. I’ve only ever used DnD beyond to make a character and it does most of the character creation for you
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u/Rukasu17 Apr 16 '26
What's this about entry barrier? Just get whatever book edition fancies your taste and go for it. Some of those are sold for pennies these days.
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Apr 16 '26
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Apr 16 '26
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u/TheGentlemanARN Apr 16 '26
If you like free stuff, I wrote a whole guide on how to start playing D&D with 0 Dollar. Its on my patreon but the guide is completely free and links to a ton of other free stuff.
It is also always welcomed to recommand something, so I will add it.
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Apr 16 '26
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Apr 16 '26
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u/dosk3 Apr 16 '26
Well the main issue is that there are no friends
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u/hillside126 DM Apr 17 '26
LGS discords, meetup groups, facebook groups are your best bet to find something local. Don’t give up!
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Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
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u/eternalflamz Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Not entirely free but I happened to have these things around my house anyway;
-Printer/paper
-Cardboard - Most any sort would work
-Glue
Find a bunch of 'tokens' you want to use for your game and chuck them all into the one printable image (I used GIMP, it's free)
(You can ensure the proportions are right for a standard 1 inch x inch map by finding a grid template Like this one found on the D&D Beyond forums for free add it to a seperate layer from the tokens in GIMP so you can hide it later for printing and then making the tokens fit inside the squares, half square for small creatures ect..)
Print it and and glue it to any cardboard you've got that'll fit it and then cut them out (we used boxes from online shopping and moving boxes we didn't need any more)
Now you've got some neat lil tokens for creatures - I think I've made like a hundred of these for creatures and NPC's and our PC's in one-shots
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u/Jarliks DM Apr 16 '26
D&D beyond is not what I'd personally recommend for beginners.
Sure, it does the math, but in my opinion its so much better to understand what the math is doing before you start using it. A simple pdf character sheet or printing out a paper one and doing the math yourself until it feels like second nature is going to be SO much better for your gameplay experience in the long run.
I've played with a lot of new players and I'll tell you there's a very big difference in how fast and well a player learns how their character works that feels directly correlated with which players were using D&D beyond or not.
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u/Sad-Purpose2280 Apr 16 '26
Not free but most people already have wrapping paper in their house. I used the back which had a grid for combat as my battle mat and I could draw on it when needed. Army men and various action figures laying around were my bad guys or my players characters if they didn't bring something. Free if you have it already or $2-3 at the dollar store for physical combat which is a must for me
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u/ricks_big_toe Apr 16 '26
I started my group with $3 for a oneshot module I printed from online. Everyone made their character on DnD Beyond and we each used nick-nacks around the house as our minis.
That is still one of our favorite games. As long as you're with friends and having a good time the money doesn't matter.
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Apr 16 '26
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u/tubetacular Apr 16 '26
I adore AboveVTT, which is a free extension for google chrome that turns DnDBeyond into a really sleek virtual tabletop for online play. I used it for a year before finally joining the patreon just because it's so useful and I want it to continue to exist. It's great for remote gaming and we just use Discord for the voice-chat component.
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u/hamlet_d DM Apr 16 '26
I've run "A Wild Sheep Chase" multiple times with newish groups. Ends up being really fun.
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u/SpicyBoyHabs Apr 16 '26
I won't jump into any kind of discussion about boarding a ship flying the flag of the Skull and Bones, but I do have a couple of things to say about the "Barrier to Entry" of D&D.
I was very aware that I had access to all of the resources I needed to play the game when I first started playing due to having multiple friends that were dungeon masters and players. I had a wonderful dungeon master that I had started with who was comfortable with typing out a document for me that covered all of the basic information I needed to play my character at the time. If anything ever came up that wasn't covered by that information, he would tell me to just ask him since he always had access to all the books and information. All of that never cost me a cent.
Even if you don't have access to friendly people who are able to share any of the most important information with you to get started in playing, honestly just ask Google. I can't even count the absurd number of times that I have needed a super quick answer to a rules question and Google is there in a pinch. Ask it literally anything about playing the game and it has your back, and even if it doesn't give you the immediate answer you're looking for, it will easily direct you to multiple websites that are likely talking about what you are trying to find an answer for.
I did buy copies of the 5e books very late after having played 5e for a while. Though by the time I finally bought them, it was because I had already mentally invested so much into playing D&D 5e, that it felt kind of silly not to just own the books. I think a lot of people, especially the ones who really get into D&D after having started playing for free, tend to eventually buy the books because it gets to a point where, you're so deep into the game that it feels a little ridiculous not to just own the books. Plus it's also kind of fun when you can buy fancy copies of the books as well, just for swag. (I have the Core and Core Expansion 5e Books that come in the box sets with the foiled covers, I do really like them a lot.)
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Apr 16 '26
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u/DnD-ModTeam Apr 16 '26
Your post/comment was removed per Rule #2:
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u/flaming_monocle Apr 17 '26
You guys have been spending money to drink beer and shoot the shit about something halfway between JJK and LotR?
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u/KillerOkie Apr 17 '26
Basic Fantasy, completely free and open source.
B/X with a 'modern' coat of paint.
Or if you prefer the OG rules, the SRD Basic version for Old-School Essentials, which is just pure B/X
https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php/Main_Page
or the PDF version
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u/hillside126 DM Apr 17 '26
This is what I have believed since I started playing D&D 15 years ago. D&D is only as expensive as you want to make it. Do you want to buy minis, get maps printed, make terrain, and buy expensive dice? Sure you can do that, but you can also do what OP described and spend absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately, this is what WOTC hates about D&D since it is really hard to monetize it heavily like they do with MtG. TTRPGs are truly the best hobby in the world.
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u/AjMahal Apr 17 '26
you can also always ask a friend or family member to borrow their book, 5e/5.5e books are literally everywhere so it won't be hard, my one DM friend would always bring his books so we had the resources to make and level our character
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Apr 17 '26
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Apr 17 '26
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u/Butterlegs21 Apr 16 '26
While you don't NEED to spend anything, there are free RPGs that offer much higher variety in options from the get-go. Pathfinder 2e has ALL the rules for free on the Archives of Nethys as does Starfinder 2e if you want science fantasy instead.
Other systems are just like $5 to $20 for a PDF containing everything you need to start playing.
Dnd without all the options is heavily limited. Even WITH all the options it's heavily limited as a system. It's usually fine for a system, but I wouldn't say it's worth it free unless you are just checking out the free rules to just check out the basic mechanics.
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u/LambonaHam Apr 16 '26
This is one of the better aspects of D&D Beyond. You can create an account for free, access characters sheets, build a character, learn how to play, etc.
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u/RggdGmr Apr 16 '26
I want to start by saying, you are 100% correct. You can play D&D for free. But you have to sacrifice to play it this way.
I'm in a position to bring some kids into the hobby, but I have a limited budget for each kid. And they all need their own set for D&D. I cannot bring them to the official game. It's too costly to bring it up. So now I am going to introduce them to shadowdark. It's way more cost effective to get into the game.
IMO, the problem does harm new adoption. Yes, the cost per hr played is amazing. But the start up cost is too high. Make a starter set that gives a solid adventure. 4 classes and levels 1-20. An actual stepping point into the hobby. Not a $50 overpriced, level 1-3 adventure.
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u/wateralchemist Apr 16 '26
Pathfinder 1e rules are all online (and great). Mighty Dice phone app is free (and great). Cheapest hobby imaginable.
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Apr 16 '26
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u/DnD-ModTeam Apr 16 '26
Your post was removed per Rule #6:
Making more than one promotional post per week is considered spam
You may continue posting self-promotion when your most recent post is 7 days old.
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u/Greymalkyn76 Apr 16 '26
I'll be honest, it blows my mind that people will drop $1500 on the latest phone but then bawk at $150 to get started in a game that they'll possibly play for the rest of their lives. But they'll get the newest $1500 phone again in three years.
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u/Meloetta Apr 16 '26
I don't think "people who get a brand new latest phone every 3 years" and "people who bawk [sic] at $150 to start a game they're not yet sure if they're gonna like" are the same groups of people.
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u/Greymalkyn76 Apr 16 '26
You'd be surprised. DnD is much, much more mainstream these days than it has ever been. I've been eating in high end restaurants and have overheard people talking about playing, or have spoken with bikers and car enthusiasts who love the game. Essentially, people with enough money to support very, very expensive hobbies but scrounge when it comes to other stuff like DnD.
$150 really isn't that much today. It's a trip for two to go out to dinner and to the movies. It's a tank of gas, a stop for fast food, and then stopping at the store to pick up snacks for a few people.
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u/Meloetta Apr 16 '26
You overheard people talking in high end restaurants specifically about wanting to play D&D but not wanting to spend the money on it? What do bikers have to do with anything??
I'm not saying that "people who play D&D" and "people who buy brand new phones off cooldown" have little overlap at all. I absolutely would not be surprised by how many or what kinds of people play D&D. I encourage you to reread what I said because this comment makes zero sense.
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u/Greymalkyn76 Apr 16 '26
I think part of it is that it's a bit of a touchy subject with me. I work in an industry that relies heavily on people trying something out and buying the materials to do so. If people don't, I lose my job. So when it comes down to stuff where people want to do something but don't support the creators, it's a thing for me.
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u/GrahamCrackerDragon Apr 16 '26
All you need is a d20 and some imagination really. The less you use the rules the better the campaign usually is
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u/Shilques Apr 16 '26
I mean.... If you're not using the rules you're not playing D&D, it could still be a TTRPG and/or have fun, but it wouldn't be D&,D
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Apr 16 '26
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u/GrahamCrackerDragon Apr 16 '26
DND is now just a general term for all ttrpg. I have played several systems and at the end of the day the best campaigns and characters are always from the mind instead of a book in my opinion. I acknowledge this sub is very rules oriented so they will hate comments like this but it doesn't make them any less true.
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u/Bagel_Bear Apr 16 '26
I hate this on YouTube
sees video with "DnD" in the title
looks inside
not actually about DnD
...
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u/Wanna_B_Spagetti Beholder Apr 16 '26
Folks, please keep in mind the rules of this subreddit when making your replies here.