How to Play Dungeons & Dragons: The Comprehensive Guide

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game first published in 1974. I was 2 years old, so I didn't hear of it until 1980 or so. In D&D, you explore a world filled with remnants of primeval civilizations, immense cave complexes, and savage frontiers where only the hardiest adventurers dare to explore. In recent years, the game has seen a resurgence in popularity, thanks in part to shows like Stranger Things and Critical Role. It has become one of the most popular games in the world, with millions of people playing. I've played for most of my life, and just like almost every gamer I know, it is the game that got me into the RPG world. If you're new to the game, and just want to know how to get started, this guide will help you. I promise it isn't as hard as it looks. Willing friends and imagination is all you need. You can begin playing right now for absolutely free, or you can spend tens of thousands of dollars a year on this hobby, it is entirely up to you.

So, what is Dungeons & Dragons, and why is it so popular?

Part 1: DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS BASICS

Dungeons & Dragons is a role-playing game. In fact, it is the FIRST roleplaying game. Let's start there. It is a storytelling game in which players create characters and go on adventures in a fantasy world. The character is not you, and the choices you make for your character are as much a part of playing the game as the dice you roll and add some numbers to. It's structured pretend. And, oh man is it one of the best times you'll ever have.

The Starter Set is an excellent beginning to the game, usually found for under $20

There will be times during the game when people are arguing, sometimes heatedly, over what to do next. The Gamemaster (called a Dungeon Master, or 'DM', in D&D) is reading in a book or writing furiously on a page. You may look around and think, "we aren't even playing the game." Ah, but you are. You are taking part in a storytelling experience with a group of people from different walks of life. Even if you go to the same school, or work at the same job, what you bring to your D&D table is unique. You, thinking about and arguing about those decisions, is very much a part of the experience. This isn't Monopoly.

This is a story with near-infinite possibility. Depending on the decisions you make in-game, and your DM's ability to adapt to your goals and incorporate them into his vision for the story, ANYTHING is possible. When it's good, it is unbeatable as an experience. You will rarely remember sitting around a table, or snagging the last Mountain Dew, you remember wading through orc corpses to get to the tunnel exit. You and your friends work together to accomplish goals and overcome obstacles. Sometimes, you can talk your way out of trouble as easily as you can fight your way out, that's up to you.

This isn't a game you win, by the way. You can beat an encounter, and you can finish a dungeon or a quest, but the game can, and usually does, go on. Campaigns often go for months or years, as long as the players and DM are having fun, they pick the story up next week and keep playing. Your character will develop - with every kobold killed, every trap evaded, every prince rescued - through experience points. As you gain in experience, you will rise in level, and develop new abilities that allow you to take on tougher challenges. And so on.

Resolve that you will at least pay attention to the rules. You can purchase the handbooks or read through the SRD to learn the rules of the game, but if you can't (or don't want to) do that (which I get, 'cause it's a lot), at the minimum pay attention and remember the rules while you are playing. The 5th edition of the game has been designed to be new player friendly, and easiest to get started, and is the most recent version of the game. In-game, for a player, there just aren't that many things to remember, but you have to want to. More on that later.

So, the first thing to recognize is that you are responsible for the decisions of one of the characters in the story. Your characters are the PCs (player characters) and everyone else will be controlled by the DM. These are the NPCs (non-player characters, fer the lovva-).

Characters can be of many different races, depending on the sourcebooks you all agree to use. Having a common sourcebook list is important, because it allows you to literally all be on the same page. If you want to play a swarm of locusts animating a suit of armor, there are rules for that out there. Myself, I would only allow that in a one shot, but you play your game. The point is, stick to the Player's Handbook, or the SRD, and you can't go wrong. We will discuss those resources in the next section. For now, just be aware that there are a number of different races, and each has their own abilities, with benefits and drawbacks to each race that will affect the proficiencies and best class for your character

What races are available usually is determined by what game world you are playing in. Standard D&D, that means Faerun, aka the Forgotten Realms. FG campaigns are fun, and the world has EVERYTHING in it. Just about. There's room for it, if your DM isn't a hardhead, anyway. But, it could be Eberron, or Krynn, or Greyhawk, or some other licensed game world... or it could be their own stuff. What they call 'homebrew' these days. That's not what WE called 'homebrew', but whatever. Whatever world you are playing in, it is with near certainty that I assume it is based in medieval fantasy, with creatures, items, magic, and places that make the world unique.

It is a world built upon the ruins of a fallen empire, with many ruins and buried cities to explore and loot. The best, and worst, of that ancient world is still out there, waiting to be re-discovered. The world is now (probably) in a darker, wilder age, with civilization pushing back against the entropy of encroaching wilderness and monstrous threats. There is, to make a long story short, tons of cool stuff out there waiting to be discovered.

Your character's class is what your character does, what they’re good at or have chosen to do with their life. Your character’s class will further define what they can do, and how their abilities will assist the group in combat.

 Alignment determines your character’s moral outlook and assists you in deciding how your character will react in differing circumstances.

Best thing you can do, if you are playing for the first time, is to go to D&D Beyond and use their generator to make your character. It's quick and easy, and lets you get to playing immediately. Running through the menu, you can quickly choose race, class, and background. There are a number of different classes, and each has its own unique skills and abilities. It can be overwhelming, but just hunker down and make the choices you make. There are many different ways to play the game, and players can customize their experience to suit their own preferences. For your first time, just play something that seems cool to you. You can print this character out, or you can keep it on your phone. Plenty of the folks at the game store show up with characters on their DND Beyond app, I promise.

As part of that character creation process, you were given equipment to assist you on your way. You need the weapons, most likely, for combat. Though, you may be focused on other areas, like stealth or magic, to make you formidable in battle. And battle is important, gang. This game is about finding cool stuff being guarded by monsters and bad guys and carving your way to the loot. Or something not too dissimilar.

Combat has gotten simpler over the years, but it can still be confusing for the new player. Essentially, you are going to want to know a couple of things about your character and combat. First, how do you do damage. If the answer is 'I hit them with a thing in my hand' then you add your STR bonus to the roll, and your proficiency bonus of +2 if you are proficient in attacking with the thing in your hand. (It, um... says on your sheet. Yeah, down below the... yep, right there.) If the answer is 'I hit them with something from far away', then you add your DEX bonus to the roll, and the proficiency bonus if you... yeah, see, you get it. If the answer is, 'I cast a spell at them', then maybe you add your spell attack bonus - look, just do what the spell says.

Oh yeah, dice. If you've never seen the dice before, it can be a bit confusing. Various polyhedral dice are used to play D&D. These dice generally consist of 7 dice of different denominations (4 sides, 6 sides, 8 sides, 10 sides x2 (one is a ‘tens’ die and one is a ‘ones’ die, 12 sides, 20 sides). A set comes with the Starter Box, or can alternately be purchased at Amazon, or at a local game store. The dice represent the element of chance, the random element that the player cannot control, and will make the difference between success and failure. If you roll high, you have a good chance of accomplishing your task or hitting your opponent. If you roll low… not so much.

Next, you want to know how hard you are to hit. What is your Armor Class (AC)? Learn that number, and if it is affected by a shield or anything else. That is what the DM has to roll to hit you. When they do, they are going to take 'hit points' away from your total. Learn that number. When you get to zero, you have a slim chance to live, but let's not push it, ok?

Finally, how far can you move? Usually that is 30 feet, or 6 spaces on a battlegrid, but not always. It's very important to know that, so you can plan your moves. Think of it like chess. You only get your turn in a round of combat. You can move and act and bonus act (if you have one). Plan around that movement, and your abilities, and what you know or think you know about your enemies.

Let's make the monster's hit points get to zero first! Work together, and use your strengths, which usually boils down to remembering your abilities and using them, and you can kill the monster, and gain some experience! Experience is given, usually for dealing with said monsters and bad guys, though often just for completing a story arc, and with experience come levels.

Leveling up in D&D is a simple yet profound experience. The character gains in proficiency and abilities , and is able to take on tougher challenges. The view of the world widens, and they begin to have a larger effect on events around them. They often attract the notice of powerful people and organizations. Depending on whether they are perceived in a positive or negative light by those people and organizations, the story is complicated in certain ways. Each level widens the scope of the adventures in the world, and the resulting story is often called the 'campaign'.

DMs don't lack for story these days. Even if they couldn't find infinite content online for free, Wizards of the Coast, the Hasbro subsidiary that brought you Magic: the Gathering and brings you Dungeons & Dragons, is constantly updating the game with new content, so there is always something new to discover.

So, those are the basics of the game. If it sounds like something you want to pursue, there’s just a bit more to cover. We’ll do that in a future post, because this one is getting a bit longish. See you next time!