How do you play?
One person, called the Dungeon Master (DM for short) puts together an adventure. They create a place for the characters to explore, and fill it with monsters and NPC's (Non-Player Characters) for the "party" (the group of adventurers) to interact with.
The rest of the folks in the group each create their own character, called a Player Character or PC. This can be anything from a dwarf or an elf to a shifter (werewolf) or deva (angelic being). The PC's "class" or job, might be a bold fighter, a devout cleric or paladin, a cunning rogue, a sorcerer or wizard or any of a number of other character classes.
Once these are in place, you get together, sit down and explore the DM's adventure, creating an ongoing story in the fantasy world.
So is it sort of like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy?
Actually, Dungeons and Dragons is one of the games (perhaps THE game) that inspired both of those. Unlike those games, which are usually played online, D&D is generally played in person. (Though it is possible to play over the internet.) More important, because Dungeons and Dragons is played with real live people, you aren't limited by what the programmers decided to let you do, or what things they made clickable. If you want to swing from a chandelier and plow into your enemy, or pick up a rock and throw it or climb a wall to the roof you can attempt to do that.
Even better, D&D doesn't have what MMORPG (multiply massive online roleplaying game) folks term "the grind." In a computer-generated game there are only so many quests that you can go on. So you usually end up running several characters through the same old been-there-done-that quest that all your other characters did already. Or you want to buy things so you "farm" monsters or crafts to level, over and over and over again. Yawn! With Dungeons and Dragons, every quest can be new and different, only limited by the minds and desires of the group.
What do I need to play D&D?
First you need some friends. The optimum number of people is three to six players and a Dungeon Master but I've seen people make it work with just one player and a DM, and with as many as ten players.
Next you need the rulebooks. At the bare minimum you'll want the Player's Handbook
, which holds the rules for creating your characters and for combat, the Dungeon Master's Guide
, which teaches the DM how to run the game, from creating combat scenarios to dispensing treasure to tweaking adventures toward the goals and desires of your players. Last, you'll want the Monster Manual
, which has the statistics for the various creatures that you and your players are facing. Note that only the Dungeon Master needs all three of these. The rest of you only need the Player's Handbook, and you and your group can share. (Yes, I just inadvertently promoted you to Dungeon Master, since you're the one who's reading this.) You can pick up these books individually or if you don't have any of them, you can get these three core rulebooks as a group. For the DM I also HIGHLY recommend the Dungeon Master's Guide 2/a>
Dungeon Master's Guide 2, which expands the basic information, with brilliant essays on helping the characters to create backgrounds, advanced storytelling, skill challenges and more.
Next you need dice
. The game uses several different shapes of "polyhedral" (geometric solid shapes) dice, which are abbreviated as "d" plus the number of sides. All together a set of dice contains a a four, six, eight, ten and twenty-sided die. One set is enough to play the game, however most gamers find that the game is speeded up if everyone has their own set.A game mat of 1" squares is also very useful, especially in 4e (Fourth Edition, the latest version of the rule set) where combat is very much based in the PC's exact location. I use the Chessex Mat
. Some groups use their laptops to track this, or graph paper. If you're using a game mat, you definitely want a set of wet erase or dry erase markers. (Check your game mat, since some work only with one or the other.)Believe it or not, miniatures are NOT needed. I use Scrabble squares wrapped in clear tape, and write the character or monster's name on them with dry-erase markers. Paper tokens are good as well. Miniatures are useful however, and some folks take pride in having minis depicting each monster the party will encounter. Goodie for them. I'm fine taking the cheap route.
How long does a game take?
Although sometimes you might find a group or a game store that will offer a one-shot adventure, most groups play what is called a "campaign". This is an ongoing story featuring the Player Characters as protagonists, and can go on for weeks or months or even years. Most campaigns are broken into sessions of several hours each week or so. I've found that the minimum comfortable session is about four hours long.
How old do you need to be?
Old enough to read the rulebooks helps. I once was actually paid to run a game for homeschoolers (talk about a dream job) where the youngest was ten. However I know of folks who play with children as young as four. As far as the maximum age, there isn't one.
Is D&D only for geeks?
Well, personally, I take the word "geek" as a compliment. You do need to be intelligent and imaginative. Being able to read helps majorly! You don't need a pocket protector or to know how to use a slide rule and nobody will care how you dress one way or the other.
I've been told I'll never get laid if I play D&D. OR Is it a game for girls too?
Ack, I hate that question. First of all, I'm a girl. Well, a woman now. I started playing when I was sixteen, now I'm fourty-seven. As a kid, I was the child who wanted to play with the Tonka trucks, and the plastic animals, while my kindergarten suggested I should limit myself to "playing house" with a fake kitchen and ironing board and Barbie dolls.
Back when I started gaming, somehow the game seemed marketed to teenage to college age boys. As a girl gamer, I was at once an anomaly and every teenage kid's wet dream. Fortunately the world has grown up and I'm no longer seen as either weird or the date-target for every pubescent creep on the block. D&D is now being targeted toward female gamers, as is pretty obvious from the rulebook's choice of alternating she/he examples.
But D&D was NEVER meant to be a game just for males. It also wasn't meant to be a game only for teenagers. All you need to play Dungeons and Dragons is a mind and an imagination. Thank goodness that's not limited by the player's sex.
As for the "getting laid" question, one could ask that of any hobby a person might take on, from flower arranging to football. You limit yourself only by how much time you spend on your favorite hobby and on your potential for being social and making friends.
Me, I'm a married woman, and I'm also the DM for a group that includes my husband. The funny thing is that the two of us met while I was taking a hiatus from D&D and we never even really discussed gaming until we'd been together for four years and I wanted to go back. Turns out he was a closet gamer himself.
Is D&D Satanic? Make you commit suicide?
The other silliest questions. Short answer: NO Dungeons and Dragons is not a Satanic game. I know plenty of devout Christians who game, and as of yet, God hasn't struck them dead, deaf or blind nor thrown any lightning bolts in their direction because of it. The rumor started probably in part because the D&D world has "gods" defined for some of the clerics (a class that is in most part based on healers and the clergy of the real world). If you want, you can have your party worship the "one true God" whatever you see that as. If you so desire, D&D can relate your Christian values, or any mindset that suits you personally. Like your own mind, it's amorphous and powerful.
From there, a few kids committed suicide or something, and since one of their hobbies was playing D&D that got mentioned as a supposed cause. Lets face it, the tabloids and newspapers want to sensationalize everything. Their job is to sell newspapers.
The honest fact is that though I doubt anyone's run the statistics, there are just as many kids (or more) who commit suicide who knit, play football or participate in dog shows or the 4H.
Lets just get over it, folks.
Is D&D good for children?
This is where I can unequivocally say yes. As I mentioned, I had an actual job playing D&D with homeschool kids. The parents/teachers wanted the children to do something social, and give the parents some time off. One of the kids suggested D&D and somehow my name got mentioned and I got hired.
In the short (because I had to move out of state) year or so that I gamed with them, the children got interested in reading (because they wanted to read the rulebooks) and their vocabulary improved. Their math skills soared because they wanted to understand things like probabilities, bell curves and what a +1 sword would do to their likelihood of hitting a monster.
Even better, they started developing some awesome social skills. Because as a party they had to work together for their survival. Suddenly the kid who had been the major antagonist of the others was encouraging them and suggesting the means to help their characters survive. A pair of bickering brothers now became a team, with the older child helping his little brother to get through encounters.
They learned to negotiate with the NPC merchant selling wares, became gallants who rescued small children and all in all became cooperative. It was fun and exhilarating and fabulous to watch.
