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forgottenrealmsrp · 6 years ago

Note

Hello, I am very new to DnD and I would really like some tips on how to play and roll for certain things (Im not too good with examples) etc. etc.

Howdy! Mod Nate here coming at you with some Tips for Beginners. There’s a hell of a lot to cover that I cannot fit into one post (because, let’s be honest, that would be a nightmare), but I will try my best. So, without further ado, hold onto your butts.

The Three R’s

I find there are three main aspects to remember (and master!) when starting off in DnD or other such TTRPG’s. You can sort them into three categories:

Rules,

Rol(l/e)s, and

Roleplaying

Of course there are heaps of other things to consider in game, but for a beginner, it can get overwhelming very quickly, so we’ll just stick to the Three R’s for now.

Rules

What better thing for a game than rules! The first thing you hopefully would have done if you were gearing up for your first game is to get your hands on a Player’s Handbook (For DnD 5e), or your RPG’s respective rulebook. Hobby stores, book stores, libraries, even video game shops might stock a physical copy of our favourite WotC volumes, but you can also secure them online wherever you may find them.

Once you have your grubby little goblin hands on a handbook, give it to a friend, and have them read it to you. If that gets too boring, have them explain the rules in detail - you’ll need a pen and a notebook! If that is too time-consuming or - more likely - you don’t actually have any friends, you’ll have to settle for a hurried and often last-minute explanation of the core mechanics of the game, the finer details of which will be left unaddressed until you get your creative spirit crushed by your mean Dungeon Master, or local rules lawyer.

(Remember kids, if you aren’t sure of where to locate one of these “rules lawyers”, simply talk out loud about your homebrew weapon or Pathfinder game, and they will be sure to find you!)

In this fabled Player’s Handbook you will find a fun breakdown and walkthrough of the game’s races, classes, and backgrounds, all of which you will need to read through several times and then immediately forget. Only after you have asked yourself “Which Bard School is going to make Sildaar Hallwinter not a steaming pile of crap?” for the fifth time in 10 minutes, can you move on to “equipment” and “rules”. Make sure to read these thoroughly, because you’ll learn them pretty quickly after your party’s Paladin once again forgets how many d10s to roll. It’s two, Derek. You asked the exact same question last round.

Idiot.

Rol(l/e)s

Once you manage to wrap your head around the rules, you get to the meat of the sandwich - rol(l/e)s. Whoever came up with this idiotic word hybrid (me) needs to report to their editor (also me) and get his ass whooped (still me).

Now, I know you’ve gotten this far and thought “Wait, Nate, that may have rhymed but you haven’t actually given any tips yet?!??!?!?!!/1!?!?!?!?1?!???????????”. To that, I say yes (or no?), I have(n’t?) given you tips for how to play and roll for certain things, because the biggest tip I have for you is coming right up.

Wait for it.

You cannot build a dragon’s tower without strong foundations.

Meaning: Only once you have “mastered” the rules and basics of roleplaying (and rolling!) will you be able to spread your beautiful dragon wings and soar as a damn good DnD player. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have to learn and remember every single mechanic or rule in the book! Because that would be a nightmare and if you can do it, you will be God. No questions asked. But hey! People make mistakes, or remember things wrong, or guess incorrectly, or even make it up as they go along. Having the handbook or Dungeon Master’s Guide on hand for these occasions will save everyone’s sanity at least once, but knowing when to draw the line between fairness and fun will make everyone’s play a whole lot better.

So! Now that you’ve become God, rolling and role-ing (not a word) are your new best friends. And you know who makes the best friends? DICE! Just google it and have fun, kids, but remember that you have to eat and sleep somewhere warm and cozy tonight, so try not to build your hoard of shiny forbidden snacks too quickly, now. All you will need for starters is your standard 7-dice set: d4, d6, d8, d10*, d12, and d20.

*The d10 often comes in pairs to act as a percentile dice. The die with the ten’s (00, 10, 20, 30, etc.) will act as the ten’s place, and the other die will act as the one’s place. So, if you roll a 60 and a 9, you get a really funny number. If you roll a 00 and a 0, that’s 100! If you roll a 00 and a 1, however, that’s a 1. You die in game and you die in real life. Goodbye.

The handbook will tell you all the dice you will need to roll in order to both run the game, and make your character! That’s right! Maths begins even before the game does. Even Death themself cannot escape the point-buy system. Just submit.

Stats are fun.

What do they mean? What do they do? Who even knows what Constitution does?! I certainly don’t! But that’s where you’re in luck, bucko.

This post is already long enough without getting to the good stuff, so I’ll keep it simple.

Strength - a measure of how well you can do stuff with your muscles. Skills like Athletics (aaaaaaand nope just athletics, huh, really? No fish-lifting skill? Huh? Cowards) will benefit from having some damn good muscles. Also you can stab stuff real good.

Dexterity - a measure of how deft, nimble, and stealthy one can be. Contributes to skills like Acrobatics and Stealth, unsurprisingly. If you can move good, you can groove good. I’d add a skill for dancing if I were you, WotC.

Constitution - I lied before when I said I had no idea what constitution does, but it was only partly a joke. Constitution contributes to skills like not dying, staying alive, and stopping being dead. Sometimes it determines how much health you have. Sometimes it means you can drink an entire frog. Don’t ask.

Intelligence - Are you a smart cookie? Can you learn languages fluently in a short span of time? Can you destroy scores of defenceless troops with a single pillar of flame? Can you read? Are you kept awake at night by their screams? Intelligence makes you good (or not) at skills like History, Religion, Arcana, and being a nerd. Oh wait. No one is good at being a nerd. Sorry nerdlord. Also, if your intelligence is under 10, you can’t read! Just like me.

Wisdom - Not the smartest cookie in the shed? Like to eat leaves? You and me both, kid! Wisdom is a measure of your STREET SMARTS! so you can throw those nasty pervert kobolds off their rhythm. Unfortunately, starting equipment does not include a money clip. It makes you good at eating dirt and walking through forests and stuff. Also I think you can pet dogs really well?

Charisma - If you’ve ever played a bard, you would know what this is. If you haven’t played a bard, it’s not too late! Quick! Choose a Warlock or a Cleric if you want a Charisma based build! Choose the entertainer background if you must! -sigh- but if you insist, charisma is a measure of how easily you can quite literally charm the pants off a dragon. Also, sometimes you can roast people really well?

Having high skills is all fine and dandy, but the next tier of DnD player character power is owning your low skills. Have low constitution? Your tiefling is sickly or has a weak stomach! Low intelligence? Your character can’t read or write! Low charisma? You cause every single npc interaction to end with you being punched in the face. There is colour and interest in every aspect of your character, so make sure to let your character sheet represent your character as well as you can!

But how do you determine these stats?

Looking in your class description, you will see under the ‘Quick Build’ section the recommended stat scores, backgrounds and/or spells for that character. These are NOT mandatory, but I find them to be a helpful guideline for how to keep your character functional and, well, alive. Stat scores themselves can be determined a few different ways: Point-buy (I have no idea how this works but it looks like a lot of maths and that’s homophobic, so); Cascading, and rolling.

Cascading (or at least that’s my name for it, I have no other way to describe it) is where you take the values 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8 and assign each to one of your stats. For example, before adding racial stat modifiers, I could assign my barbarian’s stats as follows:

STR: 15, DEX: 13, CON: 14, INT: 8, WIS: 10, CHA: 12.

I may have a character-based reason for assigning my barbarian a relatively adequate Charisma score. Maybe he was a particularly intimidating character, or perhaps his iron-will makes his Constitution a 14. Maybe he likes to dance. You could have a particularly burly mage with a strength score of 15, just because you feel like it. Maybe your cleric is part of team sweet-flips? Or your monk could study tomes night and day to get her Intelligence to a lofty 17 points post-modifiers. Balancing stat scores so that you don’t die is awesome, but having a change to shout “YOU DO NOT SEE GROG!” and win 9 times out of 10? Priceless.

Rolling your stats is perhaps the most widely-used way to determine stats, but to be safe, ask your DM (or get crafty if you’re the DM!) about their preferred method. It’s pretty simple: roll 4d6 (the six-sided dice four times), noting down each individual roll. After four rolls, you cross out the lowest roll, and add the remaining three. Repeat five more times and you have some good good stats, bro! Don’t forget to add your racial stat modifiers before you assign your stat scores!

Modifiers seem pretty confusing as a newbie, but there is a handy table in the PHB to help you keep track. Alternatively, you could subtract 10 from your score, and then half what you have left, making sure to round down! A score of 19 would have a modifier of +4 (19 - 10 = 9/2 = 4.5 ≈ 4, rounding down). A score of 8 would have a modifier of -1 (8 - 10 = -2/2 = -1). Pretty simple, right?

So now I think I can finally address whatever the F*$# I mean by ‘Roles’. What the heck is a role? Do you mean roleplaying? No, dear reader, I do not. A ‘role’ is what I like to call your position in the party. Because yes, on the unlikely occasion that you do manage to wrangle a group of people willing (or able) to play DnD with you, you still have to play with other kids, Derek. That means that the typical balancing applies. You cannot just have a 7-person party filled entirely by bards. Or bees. Though I would prefer the bees. Who would want 7 bards? That sounds like the start of a bad joke.

A good rule of thumb is to make sure you have enough bases covered in the traditional party makeup that you won’t die immediately, but you also don’t have to deal with 7 goddamn bards, Derek, I swear to God-

You’ll want someone to hit stuff, someone to get hit, someone to help those who get hit, and someone to hit things when you don’t want to get hit. This could be solved any number of ways. Get creative, go hog wild. But not buck wild, Derek. I will not have the “Seven Buskateers” at my table again, do you hear me?!

This brings us to the finale. I’ve been writing this post for half an hour, and we’re finally getting to the good stuff. Thanks for stick with me so far. How about dropping your favourite stardew valley bachelor/ette down in the replies if you’ve read this far? Mine’s Elliot, because he’s beautiful and I love him, just like I love you. :3

Roleplaying!

It’s in the title! The very mechanics of the game! So, the question you’re asking me is: “Nate, how the Flippity Doo Daa do you roleplay?????????”

And I reply, “How are you making those noises with your mouth? Where am I?! Who are you? Why can I hear each individual question mark even though they shouldn’t have a place in the mortal coil? What are you?!”

And then I tell you about my favourite thing to tell my own players.

The easiest character to play is one that exists. So? What does that mean???

It means that YOU, my dead, dear nerd, can’t just pull a self-insert every single dang game, Damn it Derek! No one LIKES YOU! GO HOME! You have this opportunity to think of a fun, unique concept, and roll with it. So, how can you create the next Taako, or Nott, or Yashee’rak or Caduceus?

If you have a concept to work from, that’s great! If not, start from the ground up. Who is your character? What are their likes, dislikes, loves, hates, loyalties, vendettas? I often like to establish both a backstory and a goal for them to accomplish, the simpler the better, to get you on the right track. Perhaps a Neverwinter begger wishes to open their own tea shop in Ba Sing Se? A cursed child of an angel and a demon takes it upon themself to avenge their brother’s death? A simple farm girl falls in love and follows her princess Buttercup across Faerûn? You name it!

Some good questions to ask yourself about your characters personality could also include:

What would they kill for?

What would they die for?

What would they watch someone else die for?

What are some rumours your party members would have heard about your character?

What would they think of your favourite meme?

How do they treat their mum? How would they treat your mum?

Do they have any recurring nightmares? Why?

Etc. Etc. Think of them as a real being, with thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams and fears! The more detailed you can get in theory might help in the long run. If you find yourself deviating from these details, however, don’t sweat! That’s a character’s natural development and progression as a character! In fact, if things don’t change as you play, you might have to have a look at your play style. Loosen up. No one is one emotion their entire lives. Characters lie! They hide things and change details and cheat and steal! But they also act kindly, even randomly, and change and grow. Encourage that. Let them grow. They (and your party members!) will thank you for it!

I think that’s all I have in me for now, and oh man there are so many more things I could mention. DMing in itself will have to wait for another day, of course, but I hope this helped! I’m going to die now.

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electricoutdoors · 5 years ago

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Urban Bug Out Bag (What You Need to Make it Out of the City)

Urban Bug Out Bag

Bugging out should be a last resort for most people. If you live inside a city, however, you may find yourself wanting to bug out a lot sooner than someone that lives in the suburbs or a more rural area. This is where your bug out bag is going to come into play.

What is an urban bug out bag? An urban bug out bag is a survival kit designed to help you escape a disaster that is affecting a city. The end goal is to get to an area outside of the city that is safe and less populated.

When you’re packing a BOB to get out of an urban area, you should not only be thinking about what to pack, but you also need to try not to attract attention to yourself as best as you can. [wc_toggle title=“Table of Contents” padding=“” border_width=“” class=“” layout=“box”]

Urban Bug Out Bag

Urban Bug Out Bag Gear Selection

Backpack

How to Pack Your BOB

Water

Food

Shelter

First Aid Kit

Clothing

Light

Hygiene

Weapons

Protective Gear

Fire Starting

Cordage

Navigation

Electronics

Signaling Devices

Money

Identification

How Much Should an Urban BOB Weigh

Conclusion

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Urban Bug Out Bag Gear Selection

The majority of the world lives in cities. If you live in one of these densely populated areas, you need a bug out bag even more than those that live in rural areas. According to UN Water, the urban population is estimated to grow from 3.9 billion people today to 6.3 billion in 2050.

Urban areas are more likely to feel the effects of the following disasters:

Civil unrest like riots

Terror attacks

Cyber-warfare

Food shortages

Water shortages

Pandemics

Economic collapse

That means an urban bug out bag is way more likely to get used than the one I have sitting in my basement. Even if you don’t take action and start building a BOB right now, at least learn the concepts that will make it more effective in case you decide to build one later.

Start building your bug out bag by putting together the most important items first. The essential items for a bug out bag are the backpack, water, food, shelter, and first aid kit.

Backpack

For an urban bug out bag, you’re going to want to choose a backpack that doesn’t draw a lot of attention. I like backpacks that look like they would fit in the gym, or look like someone would carry them to work. This means that you’re probably not going to be choosing any kind of super tactical pack or something huge that would fine on the trail but really strange on the subway.

You should also choose dark, subdued colors like black, brown, purple and green. Don’t choose anything that overly flashy because that’s just going to draw attention to you which is exactly the opposite of what we want.

The Under Armor Hustle 4.0 would be great for an urban bug out bag. It’s certainly big enough to get everything you need inside and has plenty of interior pouches to organize everything.

How to Pack Your BOB

To keep your pack as stable as possible, load the heaviest gear next to your back and centered in the middle of the pack like the drawing above shows. Pack your lightest equipment in the bottom of your backpack with the medium weight loaded at the top and outer parts of the bag.

Fill in all empty space and use any internal tie-downs to secure your items in place. This prevents the load from shifting in your pack and it will allow you to fit more items into it.

Women and shorter men often find that carrying heavier weight slightly lower in the pack is more comfortable. Heavy items should still be high in the pack, but feel free to adjust your load for your comfort. This is just a general guide, not a hard and fast requirement.

Water

We all understand how important water is for survival.

I’d suggest having at least two 1 liter containers of water in your BOB. This will allow you to get some distance between you and whatever event made you bug out before you need to stop to get more water.

You can find water in cities in these areas when you’re bugging out:

Rainwater (pooled up in the area or collected)

Shops and restaurants (bottled water and other drinks)

Bathrooms (sinks and toilets)

Mechanical rooms (water heaters)

Fountains and water features

Rivers, ponds, and lakes

Any buildings that still have running water

You’re also going to need at least one way to filter the water you collect. A LifeStraw will do well and not take up a lot of space in your bag.

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You can read about how to choose the best survival water filter here.

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Food

You can go for a long time without food, but it’s so much better to not have to.

If you pack dehydrated foods or food that needs to be cooked or rehydrated, you’re going to have to stop to cook it and use water that you may not have. Pack convenient food that you can eat while you’re walking (energy bars, survival bars, etc.).

If you want to pack things like dehydrated backpacking food, you should at least throw some Power Bars in your bag to keep you going initially when you’re trying to put space between you and the disaster that made you bug out in the first place.

I typically throw an in my survival kits and call it good. They taste decent, don’t weigh a lot and don’t need any kind of preparation before you eat them.

Shelter

Shelter is a critical part of any bug out bag. It includes your clothes and anything you bring on top of that to protect you from the elements.

A military-style poncho will usually work pretty well, but a camo poncho may draw too much attention in the city. A dark color tarp or dark color rain gear are good options.

You could even pack large trash bags to use as a makeshift poncho in case you need it.

I don’t suggest adding the bulk and weight of a tent or sleeping bag unless you’re in a really cold area. You should be able to get by with a good coat and a cover of some kind to keep you dry.

First Aid Kit

My preferred loadout for when I want a good all-around first aid kit and the ability to treat trauma is the Adventure Medical .5 Kit, the Adventure Medical Trauma Pak, and the SWAT-T Tourniquet.

Clothing

You should add a few extra pairs of socks so you can change them out when your feet get wet or overly sweaty. This keeps your feet healthy and minimizes the chance that you’re going to end up with potentially very painful sores on your feet. This can slow you down or even completely stop your progress when bugging out.

Other than socks, you may want to put some underwear or a couple of additional warm layers of clothing if you expect it to be cold.

It’s always a good idea to have comfortable shoes when you’re bugging out. I like to keep comfortable boots on the outside of my bug out bag so I always know that I’ll have decent footwear if I have to get out of the house right away.

Light

I like to have a headlamp in one of the outside pockets on my bug out bag. This keeps it in a convenient location and lets you light your way as you’re walking without having to hold a flashlight.

Hygiene

Staying clean is important. Even though you should hopefully only have to bug out for a few days until you’re someplace safe, it’s still a good idea to pack baby wipes, a roll of toilet paper and a toothbrush and toothpaste.

After a day of walking and carrying a pack, it feels good to be able to clean up a little.

Weapons

Getting out of the city early is key if you want to avoid irrational, scared people. Getting ready to bug out once there are mobs in the streets is too late and going to make it much more likely that you’ll be forced to defend yourself.

If you have the option to own a firearm, I highly suggest that you get a pistol that you can take with you when bugging out.

In a city, it may be a good idea to conceal your weapon under a coat or shirt. Tensions are already going to be high and you don’t want to be stopped by a crowd or the police when they see that you have a pistol.

A rifle is another option, but it’s probably going to attract more attention than it’s worth. You could always carry a pistol in a holster and keep a rifle in your bug out bag until you’re out of the city. This is probably your best bet if you can do it.

Protective Gear

Certain types of disasters that could affect urban areas make it necessary to protect your hands, eyes, and lungs.

Dust, ashes and airborne particles are all very likely in many natural and man-made disasters. Earthquakes can cause buildings to collapse and fires can run rampant in some areas or be started by rioters. You can always try to wrap a dust towel or shemagh around your face but an N95 mask is going to be a lot better.

Consider adding these to your urban bug out bag:

N95 rated dust mask

Mechanix gloves

Clear glasses or goggles

Fire Starting

Being able to start a fire isn’t all that important when you’re bugging out, but it doesn’t mean you should completely dismiss the chance that you may want to get a fire going for some reason.

Throw a Bic lighter or two in a pocket in your bug out bag and you should be good to go.

Cordage

Survival Cord has all the strength of regular 550 cord, but it also has a flammable fire starter core that makes getting a fire going really easy if you have to. You don’t need to go with Survival Cord, but I’d at least have 25-50’ of 550 cord in your bag.

You can use 550 cord for all kinds of things from making shelters to repairing your backpack. It’s definitely worth taking some with you.

Knife

A quality knife of some kind should be in any survival kit. I like to go with either a strong fixed blade knife or a Leatherman of some kind.

Don’t underestimate the usefulness of having a knife. You don’t ever realize how much you need one until you forget to take one with you.

Navigation

You should have laminated maps of your area with points of interest marked on it. Make note of places to get water, food, find shelter, etc.

I also like to have a GPS in my bug out bag. A GPS with good maps can be a live saver and make travel a lot easier.

Electronics

You can add as many electronics to your bug out bag as you want, just remember that you’re going to need to power those things in order to use them. The good thing is bugging out should only take a few days at most so your batteries probably won’t die over that time.

Just pack a couple of extra batteries for your electronics devices and you should be good.

Signaling Devices

I like signal mirrors because they can be seen from long distances and you can use them as a normal mirror if you need one.

Money

In a bug out situation, it’s a good bet that society probably has not completely collapsed. This means that your money will still have value and you can potentially use it to buy items that you need along the way.

Bills in small denominations make the most sense so you don’t have to overpay for an otherwise inexpensive item.

Identification

When something horrible happens in an urban area, there’s a chance that checkpoints may be set up by the police or military. If they’re checking IDs it would better for you if you had one, regardless of if you choose to show it to them or not.

You may have to show an ID if you want to use any available emergency services provided by the state or federal government.

I would suggest a state or government-issued picture ID. Anything other than those may not be recognized by whoever is asking for an ID.

How Much Should an Urban BOB Weigh

Like any other bug out bag, an urban BOB should aim for a bag that weighs around 25 lbs. When you start getting heavier than 25 lbs. it can be difficult to keep traveling quickly.

Conclusion

Most people live in urban areas and the number of people living in cities is growing every day. These population centers are the perfect target for terror attacks and more susceptible to manmade disasters like financial crises, civil unrest, and major accidents. Natural disasters also cause the most damage when they strike urban areas than when they hit a rural community.

Due to the number of people that are affected by a disaster, things can go from pretty good to complete chaos almost immediately. That’s where an urban bug out bag comes in.

A good urban BOB can help get you safely from inside the city to an urban area that’s potentially unaffected by the disaster. If you live inside of a highly-populated area, I hope you consider putting one together. An even better option would be to move from the city before a disaster ever strikes, but I know that’s not possible for everyone.

Urban Bug Out Bag (What You Need to Make it Out of the City) is courtesy of: Ready Lifestyle Prepping Blog

Urban Bug Out Bag (What You Need to Make it Out of the City) published first on https://readylifesytle.tumblr.com

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junker-town · 8 years ago

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Alabama vs. Florida State: 6 things that will define 2017’s massive opener

Why the Noles have a better shot to make this a classic than you might think.

We’ve come close to this game a few times in the Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher era. The first was in 2013, when Alabama and Florida State seemed to be on a collision course until the Kick Six knocked Bama from the title picture. Plenty of people anticipated that they might square off the following year in the first Playoff, but Marcus Mariota and Ezekiel Elliott had other ideas.

In Week 1 in Atlanta, we’ll finally get it. It might be the biggest season opener ever. College GameDay will be there for a duel between likely top-five teams. The winner will be a title frontrunner. A few things to keep an eye on:

1. Which team gets championship-caliber QB play?

Jalen Hurts and Deondre Francois will both be entering their sophomore seasons.

Hurts had to carry a much greater burden, as Alabama became an option-running team, nearly getting three thousand-yard rushers. Hurts was brought along slowly in the passing game, although he still threw for 2,780 yards and 23 TDs.

In the Playoff, Alabama needed him in the passing gam,e and he threw 45 passes for 188 yards (4.2 per pass) and a single TD. Alabama is not beating Florida State without either a dominant defensive performance or a more dynamic Hurts.

Francois was also a factor in both the run and pass. He threw 400 passes for 3,350 yards (8.4 per pass) and 20 TDs while taking 74 carries for 485 yards and five more TDs. But the main thrust of the FSU offense was Dalvin Cook. If Francois could exploit the ways defenses played Cook, like against NC State, then FSU was nearly unbeatable. If not, Cook gave them a chance.

This was evident in the Orange Bowl against Michigan, which shut down Francois but yielded a 71-yard run to Cook and a 92-yard catch-and-run to Nyquan Murray. Without Cook, FSU will need Francois to make a leap.

2. Florida State’s defense might — might — be better than Bama’s.

Normally, there’s not a question of which team has the best defense, when Alabama is involved. But Florida State has some unique talents. It might be better than any defense Alabama faced en route to Clemson last season.

Losing almost all of 2016 to injury has only fed the legend of safety/pass-rusher/destroyer of worlds Derwin James, who has top-five NFL draft hopes.

The Seminoles move James all over, usually turning the deep field into a no-fly zone at field safety. He was absent in disastrous performances against Lamar Jackson’s Louisville and Deshaun Watson’s Clemson and will be instrumental to keeping Hurts contained.

Additionally, the Noles return safeties Trey Marshall and A.J. Westbrook, who gained valuable experience in 2016 playing without James. (Marshall is suspended for the first half of this game because of a targeting penalty in the Orange Bowl.) Also back is cornerback Tarvarus McFadden (eight INTs), both starting inside linebackers (Ro’Derrick Hoskins and Matthew Thomas), and a pair of excellent pass-rushers in Josh Sweat (seven sacks) and Brian Burns (9.5 sacks).

3. Obviously, Alabama’s defense is elite. But this is Week 1.

That’s despite sending seven defenders into the NFL. The Tide return four starters in the secondary, including their own Swiss army-knife safety, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and are plugging in the usual assortment of blue-chips across their front.

However, they don’t have an established pass-rusher. Also of note, Alabama has had an all-American inside linebacker every year this decade save for 2010, but the next man up, Shaun Dion Hamilton, is working back from an ACL tear. Rashaan Evans has star potential, but his specialty is not the interior run-stopping that has defined the Nick Saban era.

The Tide will be more than fine, as they have blue-chips with multiple seasons in “The Process” who can plug holes. But when they head into Week 1, they’ll have lots of guys who need to prove themselves. The Seminoles are loaded with up-and-comers who are used to playing in enormous games.

4. Hurts will have a massive challenge.

A major leap from either quarterback could make all the difference, but the deck is loaded against Hurts.

The hurdle to stopping Alabama’s offense is getting the ends and linebackers on the same page in how they are going to play the option. Damien Harris was a terror on the edge a year ago, Hurts is a plus ball-carrier on the edge and can go between the tackles, and Bo Scarbrough emerged down the stretch as potentially the most dominant of the three.

Florida State failed the test when they faced Louisville’s spread-option attack, largely because there wasn’t cohesion between the DEs and LBs on how they were playing Jackson:

LB Matthew Thomas (No. 6) is all over the place by this point. Since the Noles have a three-technique DT here in the read-side B gap (between the guard and tackle), their DE can be contain player on the edge without worrying about giving up a downhill crease. But Thomas is taking all kinds of confused steps, and instead of being freed up to play downhill, he’s darting wide out of concern for the handoff and making himself an easy target for the pulling guard, while setting up his teammates for embarrassment at the hands of Jackson.

Alabama doesn’t have anyone quite as shifty as Jackson, but the Tide have a superior OL. However, if FSU’s front goes in well-drilled on the option game, which seems inevitable after a full offseason of preparation, they can limit the easy creases up front and set up their own secondary to dominate. With McFadden back at corner, it’s likely that the Noles will load the box and keep a safety in position to clean things up.

You never know where James (No. 3) may end up after the snap, whether he’s dropping down (maybe even to blitz), locking down a slot so the nickel or Sam LB can attack the box, or dropping into deep coverage.

The hope in Tuscaloosa is that Hurts will be a bit more effective attacking teams that load up the box with deep shots to Bama’s star-studded WR corps.

He drilled an RPO fade in their spring game to Robert Foster that surely caught the attention of rival scouts. Bama loves to give Hurts the choice to hand off, throw, or keep it, and if he’s pinpointing his throws, that’s money.

FSU will count on its corners not getting burned by the Alabama wideouts, but if Hurts can throw back-shoulder fades and force some bracket coverage, that could open up the Tide run.

But this is a really tough Week 1 draw for Hurts, facing such a big and athletic secondary and a nasty pass rush behind an OL replacing left tackle Cam Robinson. If they can’t hit shots like that one, the Tide could be punting pretty often.

5. FSU’s offense is in more of a reload than a transition.

FSU always has offensive talent in high supply, so it’s never hard to imagine a return to the heights of 2013.

But the first-team tight end is Ryan Izzo, a solid target, but one who specialized in blocking for Cook. Potential star receivers Auden Tate and Murray are still just that: potential stars. The last time we saw Francois, he didn’t look like Jameis Winston. On its line, FSU returns plenty of guys who got snaps over the last few years, although they have to replace NFL-bound left tackle Roderick Johnson.

In rising TE Mavin Saunders, the Noles do have an intriguing weapon in the passing game.

But this supporting cast is still designed to make the run the main feature. That should be particularly true against an Alabama that’s loaded in the secondary and has one of their best anti-pass LBs we’ve seen under Saban, Evans.

So we can expect Florida State to reload the run rather than transitioning back to being a passing team. Jacques Patrick is back and had 61 runs for 350 yards (5.7 per carry) and four TDs a year ago, and Alabama should expect to see a lot of freshman Cam Akers, a five-star talent.

Florida State’s main goal on offense will be to progress in the passing game while holding steady (to the extent this is possible without Cook) in the run, in the hopes of overwhelming teams with balance. If Alabama takes a step back up front and Fisher can get after the Tide secondary, there may be a path to points.

6. The big shock in this game would be if it featured much scoring.

These are two teams with NFL athletes across their defenses (seven potential first-rounders, according to one early mock draft), squaring off in Week 1, when offenses are still working out the kinks.

The Alabama and Florida State offenses that are operating by the end of the conference play will be fairly different from the units in this game, but the winner will be strongly positioned in the Playoff picture regardless.

With their two players wearing No. 3 — James on defense and Akers on offense — the Seminoles might have enough big-play firepower to take down a perpetually rebuilding Bama.

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