So, you want to start playing Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop role playing)

[Lynn LeFey]

So, you hear Lynn talking about D&D, and how she slings those sweet, sweet dice, and you too want to be one of the 'cool kids'. 

Anyway, Styx asked in another thread, and assuming he's not just yanking my chain, I figured I'd answer.
"where to start when wanting to get into D&D?"

The TLDR:
The easiest way to start is the get the D&D Starter Set
The more complete way is to get a copy of the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, a couple sets of dice, pencils, paper, and 2 to 5 people.

The LONG version of the answer:
What you need is as follows...

The rules, some 'special' dice, pencils, paper, at least 2 people, although 5 is the 'normal' size of a game group, and imagination.

You can get the rules a couple of different ways. If you want the stripped down basic version, along with essentially everything else you need, maybe consider getting the D&D Starter Set.
http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/rpg_starterset

It also comes with pregenerated characters, an adventure for the Dungeon Master to run, and some dice.

So, what is a 'Dungeon Master' (DM)? Right. In a game of Dungeons and Dragons, you have 1 person running the game (the Dungeon Master, or DM), and all other people are Players. The Dungeon Master is sort of 'telling the story'. He or she describes the locations, acts as all of the 'non-player' characters that the players encounter, and arbitrates all the rule issues, like coordinating combat. Players take on the roles of specific characters within the fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons, and thus make decisions for that character.

If you get the Starter Set, the characters are pregenerated, like being assigned a role in a play. If you get the full version, players may create their own characters, describing the character's history, 'class', and other aspects.

The 'Full Version' of the game is a series of books, but the core of it is 3 books. For Players and DMs, the most used book is the 'Player's Handbook'. This has all the rules for creating a player character (PC). It has rules for how magic works, equipment, pretty much any of the rules that specifically relate to the player. In a group, there might be multiple copies of a Player's Handbook. In fact, things work best when there's one book for each player. The next book is the 'Dungeon Master's Guide'. This book is all of the remaining rules for the game, with information on how to run the game, how to create interesting settings, how to determine what treasure the players find, etc. The final of the three core books is the 'Monster Manual'. This is a collection of the threats the players will face; Vampires, dragons, dinosaurs, etc. After those three books, each version of the game (we're currently on version 5) adds books for different things. There will be more books with more monsters. There will be books describing specific settings in great detail, in the event you (the DM) don't want to create your own. Until, toward the end of the run, it gets nauseatingly unnecessary, and you are looking at a store bookshelf with a book like "The complete harrowing bagpiper's guide to the socio-political infighting of the city of Flurquest in the Silver Age, before the coming of Gulthar, Man-God of Weaselton.'

If you don't want to buy lots of copies of the Player's Handbook, you can just get one, and everyone else can use the online rules (They're not complete, but usually good enough to answer most questions a player might have during play).
http://5e.d20srd.org/

With imagination, you REALLY only need those first three to run a game that lasts literally years. Since they revise the rules every so often, you could get books cheaper by getting older versions. I recommend version 3.5  for an older rule set that is still very good. In every version, the core three books are the same; Player's Handbook, Dungeon master's Guide, and Monster Manual.

Oh, right...

You don't 'WIN' Dungeons and Dragons'. A short game might be called an 'Adventure', like...Four intrepid heroes are hired by the local sheriff to look for the missing son of the local blacksmith. Something like that for starting characters. But as one adventure leads to another, it inevitably becomes a 'Campaign', where, after lots and lots of adventures, now your players are questing to the depths of the underdark, facing the twisted dark elves and their spider-goddess worshipping priestesses to stop their attempt to reawaken Lolth, who wishes blot out the sun forever. Or whatever. The game goes as long as the DM can come up with new stories, and the players aren't all called off by familial duties or network issues at work. And assuming your player's characters don't get themselves killed. And despite what some idiots believe, no, you don't actually kill yourself when one of the characters dies. That would be like committing suicide every time you drop Mario down a drainpipe in a video game. Although, the way some player's whine when their characters die, you'd THINK they were dying. Sheesh.

The dice: There are a number of ways to form regular polyhedrons. That means geometric shapes where each face is the same shape. We usually think of 6-sided dice, but you can also make 4-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided- 12-sided, and 20-sided dice. And that's what D&D uses. All those crazy dice. When it's important to determine if an action succeeds or fails, you roll dice. For most things, it's that 20-sided die. So, for instance, you have a character who wants to jump across a 10-foot pit, to a ledge on the other side. Failing means falling on spikes, like a scene from Indiana Jones. Well, there are rules that tell you how good the player is (which is translated into a bonus added to the role) and how hard the task is (a set difficulty number). Let's say the difficulty is 15. And let's say that the character has a total bonus of +5 on their roll. Then to succeed, they need to role a 10 or higher. That, right there, is the basic idea of the game. if the outcome is in doubt, and failure has negative consequences, then they roll to randomly determine success.

The other dice are almost always used to determine how much damage a weapon does in combat.

In any case, as with Player's Handbooks, it's probably best that each player and the DM have their own dice.

You can kind of think of most of D&D as improv acting, with the DM guiding the insanity. Then when things get dangerous, the dice come out.

After that basic stuff, you might also want a way to show combat more clearly, like a big dry-erase surface, laid flat, and miniatures that people can use to represent their characters. You can honestly use anything as markers. We've used M&Ms before, but it can get as high-end as having custom minis 3d-printed for your character...
https://www.heroforge.com/

Hope this answers the most basic questions.

[Don Pablo]

 

[Don Pablo]

Have you ever adapted a movie or book or something into a D&D adventure/campaign? 

[Lynn LeFey]

Have you ever adapted a movie or book or something into a D&D adventure/campaign? 

I steal elements all the time. The problem with taking them whole-cloth is that there's no surprise if the players have seen the movie/read the book.

You can certainly do games 'in the style of' other things. I mentioned Indiana Jones. That's great. I loved the Ray Harryhausen films as a kid so '7th Voyage of Sinbad', 'Jason and the Argonauts', and 'Clash of the Titans' are probably a good deal of what got me into D&D when i was a kid, wanting to tell those big, epic adventures. Then, of course, in middle school, I read 'Lord of the Rings'.

However... 

[Don Pablo]

I'm playing around with outlining a Star Wars/Indiana Jones adventure, with MTO style elements thrown in. 

[magentus]

I'm playing around with outlining a Star Wars/Indiana Jones adventure, with MTO style elements thrown in. 

But who will Harrison Ford play? Indy, or Han? 

Tusken Raiders of the Lost Ark?

[Don Pablo]

I'm playing around with outlining a Star Wars/Indiana Jones adventure, with MTO style elements thrown in. 

But who will Harrison Ford play? Indy, or Han? 

Tusken Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Indy of course. 
...an Indy who can fly a spaceship.

[magentus]

I'm playing around with outlining a Star Wars/Indiana Jones adventure, with MTO style elements thrown in. 

But who will Harrison Ford play? Indy, or Han? 

Tusken Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Indy of course. 
...an Indy who can fly a spaceship.

Chewy would never allow it. FACT.

[Don Pablo]

I'm playing around with outlining a Star Wars/Indiana Jones adventure, with MTO style elements thrown in. 

But who will Harrison Ford play? Indy, or Han? 

Tusken Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Indy of course. 
...an Indy who can fly a spaceship.

Chewy would never allow it. FACT.

ShortChewy would.
Just joking, combining those two particular characters would probably be sacrilege or something. 

[Lynn LeFey]

ShortChewy would.
Just joking, combining those two particular characters would probably be sacrilege or something. 

What?  'Hang on lady, we going for a ride. Yub-yub!'

[glenfiddich1983]

 

I did play D&D when I was a student.

Good times.

Life was so much simpler back then, when I was a dwarf barbarian 

[Don Pablo]

ShortChewy would.
Just joking, combining those two particular characters would probably be sacrilege or something. 

What?  'Hang on lady, we going for a ride. Yub-yub!'
(Image removed from quote.)

I GOT to use that. 

[styx]

i wasn't joking. so first I need to find some people that can tolerate my cynical, deadpan smurf

[Don Pablo]

i wasn't joking. so first I need to find some people that can tolerate my cynical, deadpan smurf

If only we lived nearby.

[pfrsantos]

i wasn't joking. so first I need to find some people that can tolerate my cynical, deadpan smurf

If only we lived nearby.

If only we had a way of comunicating with each other, regardless of physical distance...

 

[pfrsantos]

I did play D&D when I was a student.

Good times.

Life was so much simpler back then, when I was a dwarf barbarian 

That reminds me of a guy that started playing in my old group. He went through awl the books, choosing the best race/class/weapon combo. So, what happens when you go full-munchkin? You end up behing a Dwarf Paladin with a heavy lance and tower shield.

First thing out of town, the DM leads us into a thick thorny underbushed forest, with lots of vegetation, vines, felled trees... It was the first time I saw a Paladin entering a squirmish armed with only a dagger.

 

[pfrsantos]

As for dice, you can play some games (like Shadowrun) with just D6s. A few D6s...

Show content

 

[Don Pablo]

i wasn't joking. so first I need to find some people that can tolerate my cynical, deadpan smurf

If only we lived nearby.

If only we had a way of comunicating with each other, regardless of physical distance...

 

Anyone up for MTO D&D?

[Lynn LeFey]

Anyone up for MTO D&D?

There are a number of pretty good freeware game tools.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/play-paper-and-pencil-dd-online-with-distant-friends-with-free-apps/

[Don Pablo]

Anyone up for MTO D&D?

There are a number of pretty good freeware game tools.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/play-paper-and-pencil-dd-online-with-distant-friends-with-free-apps/

Coordinating time zones would be a pain in the smurf. 

[magentus]

There's got to be a time zone sweet spot.  I'd be up for a bit of d&d 

[Don Pablo]

 

[styx]

I'm in if y'all don't mind me being a complete and utter beginner. Actually that wouldn't even be hard to explain, I'll just say that my character is a drunk

[Don Pablo]

I'm in if y'all don't mind me being a complete and utter beginner. Actually that wouldn't even be hard to explain, I'll just say that my character is a drunk

I’m basically in the same boat too. 

[styx]

I'm in if y'all don't mind me being a complete and utter beginner. Actually that wouldn't even be hard to explain, I'll just say that my character is a drunk

I’m basically in the same boat too. 

two drunks in a party? yep those ogres are done for. I wonder if you can do a KFC deep fry on a harpy

[Don Pablo]

I'm in if y'all don't mind me being a complete and utter beginner. Actually that wouldn't even be hard to explain, I'll just say that my character is a drunk

I’m basically in the same boat too. 

two drunks in a party? yep those ogres are done for. I wonder if you can do a KFC deep fry on a harpy

Pluck the feathers first maybe.
After that...

[magentus]

Can I be Optimus Prime?

[Don Pablo]

I’ll be Vicky the Huntsman.

[Lynn LeFey]

Can I be Optimus Prime?

Bad news. Someone already transforms into a semi truck. BUT... you could transform into a photoropter, and be... (wait for it...)... Optometrist Prime!

I worked REALLY hard on that bad of a joke. 

[styx]

ok before we start, which version are we going by? and when can I hit something or someone with an axe?