How to Play Dungeons and Dragons: A Beginner’s Guide

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is known as a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG). A collaborative storytelling and board game experience that rolls different dice to help determine the progression of the game and story. With the recent release of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, more and more people are interested in how to play this classic game. Now in its Fifth Edition (D&D 5e), D&D has never been so familiar and easy for new players to understand, and now’s the perfect time to join in the fun!

What you need to play D&D

• people
• rule book
• dice
• character sheet
• miniatures and game boards

1. The People

D&D can be played with a minimum of 2 players, but 3-5 is often the ideal table size. At least the Dungeon Master (DM), or other game master of his TTRPG, and he needs at least one player. That said, there is no limit to the size of your adventure party, so invite as many friends as you can fit in your house.

The DM leads each game session, develops the adventure, dictates the rules, and fills the world you explore with people, places, and things. The DM role can be a daunting task at first, but an incredibly rewarding experience for anyone interested in building a framework for a heroic story.

The following two books, the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Monster Manual, will help DMs get started. There are also dozens of official adventures (modules) to help you jumpstart your D&D Dungeon Master journey!

2. Rulebook

These are the main books you need to start your own adventure, but as a player you only need one!

Player’s Handbook – The only book you need to start playing D&D as a player! It contains all the rules necessary for how to make a character, how to play, everytime Helpful for experienced users too!

Dungeon Master’s Guide – For aspiring Dungeon Masters, this book will help you develop non-player characters (NPCs), cities, countries, and your own complete adventure.

monster manual – No heroic adventure is complete without a few monsters for your hero to fight! pose a challenge.

There are player creation options, worlds and lore to help the DM create, and many additional books that embody the full adventure that can reduce the DM’s workload. A great starting point that has everything you need to play and run the game without purchasing anything, including the main books mentioned above, Dungeons and Dragons Starter SetThese include ready-made characters, adventures, dice and maps. And a condensed version of the rules. These are available both physically and on most virtual tabletops.

3. Dice

No game of D&D is complete without a set of shiny math locks! I need a set. These dice are colloquially called d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20 respectively. The Dungeon Master and each player only needs one set of dice, but there is nothing stopping him from developing an unhealthy obsession and collecting hundreds of dice. Check out some of the best D&D dice sets you can buy.

4. Character sheet

These sheets detail your character’s stats, abilities, equipment, and other relevant information. Basic character sheets can be found in the Player’s Handbook, but you can also find them online or digitize them at sites like: Dn D Eyeond.

5. Miniatures and game boards

These items are optional, but they help you visualize your characters and scenes. They are used to indicate the setting and placement of characters, villains, and monsters in combat. Gameboards and miniatures of his figures are often fun projects for players and DMs to design, paint and personalize.

• Virtual Table Top (VTT)
  There are many VTT options, offering free access resources to the game as well as more powerful paid tools. These are great options if you can’t get everyone in one place for her. Use sites like DnDBeyond to create character creations and digital rulebooks. For online games, virtual tabletops such as Roll20 and FoundryVTT can replace miniatures and maps. Plus, tools like Zoom and Discord let you play online and connect with friends near and far.

Now that you have all the people and things, what are you going to do?

How to play Dungeons and Dragons

1. Create a character: Each player is responsible for creating their own character. Players use her handbook as a guide to assign their character’s stats, abilities, and equipment. These affect your travel success.
2. Create a setting or world: This is usually the Dungeon Master’s responsibility. The DM gives players details of the world and story in which they find themselves. These settings and stories can come from the DM’s imagination (self-made) or from pre-made modules created by other authors.
3. Waiting: Players take turns sharing the spotlight, explaining what their characters are thinking, feeling, or doing as they drink in taverns, explore the world, talk to NPCs, and fight Hydra. The DM controls the flow of the game, so if there’s something you want to do, just ask!
4. Roll the dice: Depending on the actions you take during an adventure, your DM may ask you to roll a die to determine the outcome of an effort at risk of failure. Set the difficulty to be called. Roll the dice and add relevant modifiers from your character sheet. Defeat DC and you’re good to go.
5. fight: Combat is a little more structured than typical exploratory play. Each player uses their turns to attack or use their abilities to defeat enemies.

character creation

Before embarking on an adventure, players must go through the process of creating a character. This can be a very fun and challenging experience, but it can also be difficult for first-time players.

1. Select Race: Information on the various races in D&D can be found in the Player’s Handbook. Many may be familiar to you, such as humans, dwarves and elves, while others may be new. Please read.
2. Select class: Your class determines most of your stats and abilities. Classes tell players what they can and can’t do. Each class has different strengths or weaknesses. Again, there are many options to choose from such as Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Barbarian.
3. Set stats: There are six stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Players determine how strong each of these stats are against their character by rolling dice to determine the score for each. Other factors such as race and class can also affect these scores. It is important to note that there are alternative methods for setting Ability Scores as defined in the Player’s Handbook.
4. Please select equipment: Let’s all bring what we love! Players decide which items they have, such as weapons, armor, and items. Choose from several possible starting items determined by your class and background, but don’t worry, you’ll soon be looting the dragon’s hoards for magical items!
5. Setting the backstory: Decide who your character is. What are their names? Where are they from? What is their tragic backstory that is dramatically revealed to the rest of the party around the campfire? Add as much personality as possible to your characters Or play the strong taciturn type. There’s no wrong choice here, but I recommend working with your DM so they know how best to reflect your backstory in the world!

terms of service

D&D is vast and contains hundreds of unfamiliar rules and terms. Even experienced players can find it difficult to keep everything straight! Keep in mind that all adventures start with the same amount of knowledge on these subjects. As time goes on, your understanding of the game will deepen. In the meantime, please refer to the rulebook if you have any questions. To get you started, here are a few extras that are helpful to know so you can easily get started with the game.

1. Behavior: During combat, characters can perform actions. Actions may have designations such as actions, bonus his actions, and reactions. These are attacking, casting spells, dodging, dashing, etc.
2. Initiative: During a formal battle setup, players roll initiative by rolling a d20 and adding an initiative modifier from their character sheet. This number determines the order in which players and monsters act during combat.
3. Hit points: Hit Points (HP) is your health. HP decreases when you take damage, and HP increases when you recover. When a character’s HP drops to 0 he loses consciousness and is in danger of dying permanently.
4. Armor class: Armor Class (AC) is a number on your character sheet that determines how strong your character will attack in combat. Attack rolls under determined AC do not hit!
5. leveling: As you play, your character levels up and gains new stats and abilities. Leveling is determined by the DM and is either based on experience points (XP) or by milestone achievements such as defeating particularly ferocious enemies.

Tips for becoming a better player

1. Share the spotlight: Being the hero of a story can be fun, but D&D is about sharing experiences. Remember to give time to other players.
2. Vulnerable: Roleplaying as another person can be difficult. I often feel ashamed and insecure. Start slowly by describing what your character does or says. Finally, you can transition to first-person role-playing, including the character “voice”!
3. encourage: As mentioned earlier, exposing yourself while roleplaying can be intimidating. Encourage fellow adventurers to push themselves, welcome mistakes, and create a space to celebrate success.

Tips for becoming a Dungeon Master

Being a DM can be a difficult and thankless job, so here are some helpful tips.

1. Be prepared: The more you know about your world, the easier it will be to adjust when players decide to go left instead of right. If improvisation isn’t your thing, having ideas for people, places, and items in the world can help make the moment less stressful.
2. Be open and flexible: The plan goes awry. The player decides to kill her favorite NPC. Even if you’re running a game, allow your players to freely shape the world and story, as this is a shared experience.
3. Reward Creativity: Encourage your players to think outside the box and not solve all problems one-size-fits-all.
4. Forget the rules: Sometimes the cool rule alone is enough. After all, this is your table, a shared experience. Rules are like guidelines. Ultimately, you decide what is and isn’t allowed at your table. So play as strict or loose as you and your table enjoy.
5. Set expectations: Before the adventure, it’s good to establish what kind of game you and your players will be playing. Will you claim the soul of yours? Tools to help with this are Safe Tools, X/O Cards, and Session 0.
6. Tools used: There are thousands of tools online to help improve your game. Use sites like DnDBeyond to create character creations and digital rulebooks. For online games, virtual tabletops such as Roll20 and FoundryVTT can replace miniatures and maps. Plus, tools like Zoom and Discord let you play online and connect with friends near and far.

Dungeons and Dragons can be enjoyed by anyone. With a little preparation and a willingness to share your story with others, you’ll be well on your way to an amazing adventure. Light the beacon, summon the party, roll the dice!