What is D&D?

It's time to step back a bit.  This blog is generally aimed at an audience who plays or GMs table-top RPGs, but I have neglected another facet of my audience: people who are new to D&D entirely.  Since I started the blog, I've had some friends ask me about it.  What is D&D like?  How do I get started?

Now, there are several places I could send you to find out more information, but I figured, why don't I just explain it here, in my own words, for your benefit?  So I'll be doing this in three installments: this week, I will talk about D&D and table-top RPGs in general and how to get started with them; next week, I will post a starting adventure that I created recently, including everything you will need to run that adventure for some friends; and the week after, I will post an account of what happened when I ran that adventure for my girlfriend's parents and some of their family friends.



So what is D&D?

Dungeons & Dragons is a table-top role-playing game.  In it, and in other games like it, you and your gaming group take on the roles of characters that you have created.  Those characters inhabit a world that is controlled by one player - called the GM or Game Master*  - who guides your characters through an adventure by describing the world as you interact with it, and by playing the roles of all the other people and creatures - friendly or hostile - in that world.  I like to describe it as collaborative storytelling.

*or Dungeon Master, which I do not use on this blog because it is a registered trade mark of Wizards of the Coast.

Your character is created according to the rules of the game.  You will have ability scores that represent things like your strength and intelligence - these are determined by dice rolls during character creation.  You also choose the race of your character (human, elf, dwarf, etc.) and the class (fighter, wizard, rogue, etc.).  There are usually other things you can choose that give you more powers and abilities and change how your character interacts with the world.  Of course, you can customize your character's appearance and personality however you like.  Generally, there is a lot of room to make whatever sort of character you want.

You interact with the world through your words and through your dice.  You determine what your character does and says, but everything you try that would have a reasonable chance of failure - such as climbing a wall, playing an instrument, reasoning with a guard, resisting the effects of poison, or attacking a monster - is determined by a roll of your dice, modified by your character's abilities.

As for the world you are playing in, that can be as varied as the people running it.  Your GM might create his or her own world and come up with original adventures and plot-lines for it.  Your GM may also use published adventures that have all the information you need to run them.  Using published adventures is recommended for beginning GMs and is a really good option for more experienced GMs as well; home-made adventures can be really cool, but they are incredibly time-consuming to prepare.

The game takes place in the 'theater of the mind' - that is, your imagination.  The GM describes the world and what is happening, and you and your fellow players describe what your characters do in that world.  Example:

GM: You reach the cliff's edge and see the jungle spread out below you.  Rising up out of the dense curtain of vines and greenery is a step-pyramid of crumbling yellow stone covered with carvings that you can't quite make out at this distance.  'This must be it!' your guide exclaims, 'The Temple of Ashen Phoenix!'

Steve: How tall is the cliff?

GM: You estimate it to be about 200 ft.

Steve: Okay, I take out my climber's kit and start splicing some ropes together.

Alice: You can't have my rope! I paid good money for that!

Philip: I jump off the cliff and cast feather fall.  

Although not mandatory for most editions of the game, it can come in handy to have a 'battle mat' for you map out battles and dungeons using markers and mini-figures as an aid for your imagination.  It is really helpful during longer or more complicated fights.  Most game companies will be more than happy to sell you gaming minifigures or at least little cardboard cut-outs, but I like using Lego and spare dice.

Generally, you use the same characters over and over again across a series of adventures, getting progressively more powerful as you advance.  In such a campaign, your characters may grow and develop through role-playing, and you may begin to see the effects of your actions upon the larger world.
If you want an idea of what a campaign can be like, check these out my write-up of the most recent campaign I have run.  This was played using the Pathfinder rules.

I should also mention that the popular perception of D&D as a game for socially inept basement dwellers is completely wrong (not that there aren't a lot of socially inept basement dwellers who play D&D).  D&D is a social game by definition - it requires you to have a social group that meets regularly for several hours of personal interaction.  The typical game of D&D, in my experience, is a group of friends gathered around a table with snacks and drinks, talking, laughing, and role-playing.  Dressing in costumes and talking in accents is far more common in TV depictions of D&D than in real games.

So how do you get started?

Ideally, you have a friend who is well-versed in the game and wants to GM for a new group.  But not everyone is that lucky.

The best way to get into D&D is to read about it on blogs like this one, read D&D based comics like Order of the Stick, and listen to podcasts (see "Recommended Listening" below).  Once you have decided what version of D&D you want to play, I heartily recommend buying a rulebook and reading through it.  It is time consuming, but it is really the best way to get into the game if you don't have a more experienced player to show you the ropes.

                      As good a starting place as any           (source)

You will need the core rulebooks and some dice in order to play.  All of them are available at your local gaming store, and I heartily recommend you search yours out and visit it - the staff will likely be happy to answer your questions and make some recommendations.  I also recommend looking at used book stores, though this is less likely to produce results.  Amazon, of course, has very good deals on RPG books, as well as used books you can buy (For some reason, you can always get Pathfinder books new on Amazon more cheaply than you can from their own store).  As for dice, you can get them in a store or online.  Usually they will come in a pack of all the different dice you need:

Although you only really need those seven dice, if you start to get into it, you will probably buy a lot more...

Maybe three pounds more

If you want to play Pathfinder (my personal favourite version of D&D at the moment, though perhaps a little intimidating to the beginner), you'll need the Core Rulebook and a Bestiary.  The PFSRD website has a lot of the information from the books available for free, but there is so much of it that it can be overwhelming.  It is especially helpful for finding monsters.  If you end up playing Pathfinder, consider using my improved Pathfinder character sheet.

5th Edition is on its way, and from what I have seen it looks promising, but the current official edition of D&D is the divisive 4th Edition.  The Wizards of the Coast website has a lot of information on things for you to buy from them.  4th Edition is very focused on movement on a grid, so you will definitely need some sort of battle mat.  This can come in handy for other editions as well.

If you are looking to get into older editions, Wizards of the Coast has, fortunately, made a lot of their old material available again.  The basic rules of 3.5 edition D&D are available for free at the d20SRD.  The rules for 2nd Edition are available from Purple Worm.  OSRIC (the Old School Reference and Index Compilation) basically reproduces 1st Edition AD&D, available as a free PDF from their website.  And, of course, you should be able to find used copies of the original books online or in used book stores.

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Recommended Listening, Viewing, and Reading - if you have the time:

• Mike and Jerry of Penny Arcade and Scott Kurtz of PvP and Table Titans joined forces to play 4th Edition D&D, and the results were incredible.  Soon, they were joined by Wil Wheaton, and later by Pat Rothfuss.  I highly recommend that you listen to the podcasts here:
  And they continued it in front of a live audience at PAX every year: 2010, 2011, and (trying out 5th Edition) 2012, 2013, and in 2014 with Morgan Webb.
• The Mines of Madness podcast of Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub, Molly Lewis, and Stepto playing 5th Edition is buried down somewhere in the Acquisitions Incorporated archive as well, despite being unaffiliated.  
• If you want to know why I didn't use Lord of the Rings analogies to explain D&D, it's because LotR wouldn't make a very good D&D campaign.  

[Edit - 2 Aug 2014: D&D updated their website, destroying any and all hyperlinks that I had crafted to it.  I've tried my best to salvage the above list.  This is not the first time Wizards of the Coast has made sweeping changes that destroy any semblance of backwards compatibility.]

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Well, that's about it for this week.  Tune in next week for my starter adventure designed to introduce players to the game.

~your informative d20 despot