What Do You Need to Start Your Duet Game?

A Guide for New DMs and Players

Curious about the gaming materials and prep you need before you start your duet game?

With so many resources about how to play D&D, it can be hard to figure out what exactly you need to be able to play! In this post, we walk through the additional materials you’ll need to play the Crystalline Curse Trilogy or our Land of Vampires duet campaign.

A couple weeks ago, we got a great question on the blog asking what other materials you need to start your duet game if you’ve purchased our Crystalline Curse Trilogy from DMsGuild.

Needed Materials

• Dice (There are dice apps if you don’t want to commit to buying a set right away, though I am a big fan of the tactile aspects of gaming, and dice are so much fun!)

If you’re starting your duet game with our Land of Vampires campaign, you will also need character sheets. The Crystalline Curse Trilogy comes with three sample character sheets so you can dive right in.

Free Guides

For someone who is new, I would suggest, instead of buying the essentials kit or starter set, that you check out the New Player’s/New DM’s Guide on D&D Beyond. 

They created it to go alongside the Essentials Kit, and I love the way they break down the rules and essential parts of the game so you can work through them in bite-sized pieces that are also easy to reference.

If you want to invest in the Essentials Kit or Starter Set later, you totally can! But I think the free guides work to get you started while you’re trying things out.

We also have a guide for new players that you’ll find here, and a starter guide for DMs/GMs here!

Watch/Listen To a Game

The second thing I would recommend is that you watch/listen to a game. Before I played in my first session, I sat in on (without playing) a group session that Jonathan was DMing. That’s much harder now, of course, but there are lots of streams on YouTube or podcasts on your favorite app (We love Critical Role, which is a group game, and you can also check out And a Die Podcast, which is a duet). I’ll link to a couple of our videos below in case that’s helpful.

• Beth and Jonathan in Land of Vampires
  
• Beth and Jonathan session one for Tales of Eldura
  
• Beth and Jonathan play First Blush

What I like about watching a session is that it gives you a feel for the different parts of the game and how the interplay between the DM and player works, what kinds of rolls the DM might ask for, how combat works, etc. Once you’ve seen/heard it, it makes it easier to follow when you’re reading through the specific rules. 

My other favorite thing to tell new players, because this was confusing for me at first, is that unless it’s otherwise specified, you always grab the d20 (20-sided die) first, and you add the others ones later during combat. 

We’ve love to hear any follow-up questions you have in the comments below! And welcome to the wonderful world of D&D!

If you like what you’re reading, please consider supporting the blog by purchasing our adventures and supplements in our shop or sponsoring us on Patreon. We appreciate you so much! Thank you for joining us on this adventure! – Beth and Jonathan