Moving from 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons to Old School Essentials

In episode 4 of the Strange Magic Podcast we discuss player character death in Dungeons & Dragons. Is it hard to kill PCs in 5th edition? What if you have a sensitive player who gets upset? Should you pretend the PCs might die but fudge the dice to keep them out of danger?

We discuss our approaches to preparing to run a new RPG campaign, and talk about our tips for using homebrew and pre-published adventures for Dungeons & Dragons. Thanks to everyone who supported our Kickstarter for Advanced Ancient Academy! You can get the zine in print and pdf at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/429427/Advanced-Ancient-Academy

We discuss our 10 favourite monsters in Old School Essentials and Dungeons & Dragons, and talk about our tips for including them in your games. This includes monsters you'd expect like goblins and skeletons, as well as a few more controversial picks. We wrap up our second episode of the podcast with a short discussion around character backstories and how much is too much. You can find our Kickstarter for Advanced Ancient Academy at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stuartdraws/advanced-ancient-academy

Liam and Stuart sit down to talk about their experiences moving from 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons to Old School Essentials. They compare perspectives as a Dungeon Master who started with 5E and DM who started with B/X D&D back in the 1980s. Initially setting out to list their 10 favourite things about moving to OSE, the discussions includes a few extra things they like about old school gaming.