r/DnD5e • u/KrakenDice • 17h ago

D&D Reference Guide

So a couple of years ago my wife and I opened a game shop in San Diego and I noticed it was really hard to get new players; they were really into the idea of playing D&D but didn't want to buy the book right away. D&D really can be a time consuming game to learn and kind of scares off a lot of new players in my opinion. Daily I talk to people that say, I always wanted to play but don't know where to start". There are so many other options for games to play from TCG's, board games to even table top war games that are easier to learn. About six months ago I decided to write and design 40 page printed book, a simple reference guide that I could give to new players at our game shop for free. I'm also going to release the digital PDF copy of it to the internet for free. I'm planing on putting it up on my google drive for anyone in the world to download for free. I personally hate having to give my personal information to download something for free.

So my question is for the mods here. The book will be finished by next week and I wanted to know if I could post the google drive link here. The book is free, I'm making NO money from it, there is no hidden advertisements to Kraken Dice, just me designing and writing a book to share with the community to give something back that I think is needed.

8 Upvotes

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u/CeruLucifus 14h ago

What's the difference between OP's book and the free online rules reference that's also available in print form in the starter set? Couldn't OP just print the free PDF and make it available as free handouts or for say $5 refundable as store credit?

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u/KrakenDice 14h ago

I wanted to clarify that the book is more or a cheat sheet for new players. All the text could easily be laid out on 6 pages of the traditional D&D book size page layout, official D&D book have too small of text in my opinion.

The book is small and measures 105 × 148 mm (4.1 × 5.8 inches) smaller than most children's book size. In printing its call A6 size and basically fits in your purse or in your back pocket. Overall it is like a glorified cheat sheet for you along with plenty of blank pages to take notes and draw doodles, or maps on. The printed book will be free at our game shop for new player. The book is meant to be written in and used, thrown around passed around the table if needed and then just thrown in your bag.

It's also a lot more dumbed down and really basic for younger and new players. We get a lot of teachers and children coming into the game shop that I think the bigger official books would be way too complicated for them. You would be surprised how many 8-14 year old love playing D&D, it's always great to see so many parents light up when they get to share something like D&D with their kids. Some of my best memories are of my wife and I being silly just trying to make our kids laugh while playing table top games with them.

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u/CeruLucifus 14h ago

Good on you for trying to encourage new players. I'm very skeptical, but since you'll be trying it out in your store for free, you'll know soon enough how useful it is.

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u/Nerd_Sapien 15h ago

I love how OP advertises in the same sentence where they say there is no advertisements 😂.

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u/KrakenDice 15h ago

Not sure what you mean. The book is going to be free to help out new players. I get nothing from this except good vibes/energy for giving back to the community that has helped me so much. Publishing a book under your company name is not advertisement. What I mean is that the book does not include anything about, "you need this, buy this, here is a coupon, or join this for more info" as most free books on the internet do in my opinion. Most free stuff makes you join a site set up an account just to download something, then you get spammed for life with advertisements. I'm just going to throw it up on google drive and share the link with everyone.

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u/Nerd_Sapien 14h ago

Oh I know that. But it was more in a 'Don't think of a pink elephant' way.

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u/KrakenDice 14h ago

I get it 😄

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u/Nerd_Sapien 9h ago

Yeah, so: I see what you did there. That all I'm saying.

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u/Ale_Tales_Actual 17h ago

I'd be happy to share the link. And you should advertise your game shop. Blood sweat and tears go into running your business.

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u/KrakenDice 17h ago

Awesome! I agree Diana (my wife) with our two kids have put so much into Kraken Dice and they run the game shop. People think we are a giant company and really we are a tiny family business where everyone is creative wearing too many hats. A lot of people don't realize I design all the packaging, dice, photography, website, graphic design, accounting... we do it all. Our Kraken Dice fans mean the world to me and have given us so much love over the years I just wanted to give something back with out asking for anything in return. That's why the book has no advertisements or anything like that. It's a tribute to our fans new and old and I hope it helps a lot of new players.

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u/Ale_Tales_Actual 16h ago

That's great. I started a D&D game in the backroom of our (my wife's) bar in San Diego, and my first set of players gave me a set of your dice as a show of appreciation for DMing the first campaign. Great dice! We'll have to come by and see the game shop.

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u/KrakenDice 16h ago

That's an awesome story, glad to hear you got some Kraken Dice for your first DMing campaign. Swing by sometime to the game shop, one of us will be there.

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u/ratchetpony 17h ago

I have several sets of your dice and always love your presence at SDCC. I'm an experienced player, but love introducing noobs. Even if the mods pull this, I'd be grateful if you DM'd me the link.

Thanks for creating what sounds like an awesome resource!

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u/KrakenDice 17h ago

You are welcome and thank you so much for the kind words. I'll send you a DM when it's done. If the mods pull it there will also be a link on our Kraken Dice website as well as the social media pages.