Yes! All adventure stories are fully compatible with the official 5e DnD gaming system.

For kids and beginners, we love a slightly smaller group. We find that 2 or 3 players plus one Game Master is a great size to keep the story moving and lets everyone’s character enjoy plenty of time in the spotlight.

With smaller groups of 2 or 3 players, the Game Master will get lots of practice! The Game Master might consider playing a sidekick or NPC along with the adventurers to add more flavor.

A table of 4 or 5 players is always a total blast! But this will require a more experienced Game Master to herd the cats and keep the plot moving forward.

One-player games, with one adventurer and one Game Master, can be great! One thing to note, with only a single player, they can get overwhelmed by monsters. So it’s important for the Game Master to play an NPC (Non-player character) sidekick to keep the adventurer company and out of serious trouble. Find Snickers and many more free, downloadable NPC options on our RESOURCES page.

Consider adding a fighter or a paladin as a sidekick for your player’s character. Paladins are great because they are both a tank and a healer. Also don’t be afraid to have your monsters get distracted or confused and skip a turn in combat. Or fight one another!?! Or even, out of sight, fudge a critical dice roll in your player’s favor. Feel free to do whatever makes sense to even the odds. The game Master’s #1 goal is to keep things fun and balanced!

If you have a larger group of players, more than three or four, you might consider scaling up the adventures. A handy rule of thumb: if the players get through one encounter unscathed, then ‘double down’ the next encounter.

‘Double down’ small creatures such as Goblins, spiders, and rats by doubling the number of creatures. Double down big baddies by doubling their hit points! That should keep it challenging.

Each adventure includes tips on how to level up the adventure for higher-level players, making the adventures challenging for 3rd, 4th, and even 5th-level characters.

Both! This series of adventures is simple enough that a child who can read, and do basic math will be able to run their own DnD adventure group as a Game Master.

It is also perfect for an older child or adult to Game Master with kids.

When you sign up for your monthly subscription, add our DnD Quickstart Guide to your order during the checkout process. This will have everything you need to get started running your first DnD session. Our goal with the Quickstart Guide was to streamline the 1,200 pages of official DnD rules into a simple, straightforward, easy-to-follow 20 pages.

The DnD Quickstart Guide covers the three core game mechanics — ability checks, combat, and magic. But we trim off some of the more detailed, complex stuff.

Our Quickstart Guide also has three pre-built characters and a starter adventure, which walks everyone step-by-step through their first DnD experience.

These adventures all take place in a home-brewed world, named Otherworld. Most of them start in the tiny northern town of Tumbledowns. It would be easy to swap out Tumbledowns for any small-to-medium town for your own campaign.

We steer away from top-down, traditional maps because we’ve found that weapon and spell ranges, and combat tactics like “Flanking", “Prone” and “Reaction Actions” are too much for young and beginning players to manage, and it gets in the way of their enjoyment of the game.

Mini figures and “top-down” maps are not required to play. Most of our maps are “isometric” without distance grids, to emphasize our “fun over facts” approach to role-playing. If the players are close enough to engage with a monster, we assume they will be able to move, engage, attack, and cast spells.

If experienced players want to layer in the more complicated combat tactics and engagement rules (as mentioned above), our adventures are still very much compatible with that style of play. It’s official DnD 5e after all.

Printable maps for each adventure are available on our website RESOURCES page.

Starting DnD for the first time can be intimidating. But don’t worry, once you roll up your sleeves and get into the game, you will quickly find your rhythm and everything will start to feel very natural. If you miss a few rules along the way, that’s no problem. You will get the hang of it pretty fast. Meanwhile here are a few links that might help give you some flavor of the game:

• “How to Play” videos from the official publishers of DnD is a straightforward explanation of how it all works.

• Fan-favorite MCDM “Running the Game” Videos. These are more dense and faster-paced, but a lot of fun.

• Also, check out all of our DnD Tips & Tricks! We’ve covered most of the basics there.

• Check out our “Getting Started” Resource Page

At the end of the day, just remember the #1 rule of DnD: “Have Fun”. Don’t let the rules get in the way of letting the people at your table tell a great story. Have fun and enjoy the ride. Don’t worry if you don’t have the rules exactly right; that will come over time.