How To: Play Dungeons and Dragons

Fantasize about role playing? One of the most popular venues for role playing medieval fantasy is the board game, Dungeons and Dragons. Get a group of three or four together and have a blast!

You Will Need:
• A Dungeons and Dragons group
• A Player's Handbook
• Pencil and paper
• A Monster Manual
• A Dungeon Master's Guide
• A tetrahedral dice set for each player
• Character sheets (optional)
• A computer with internet access (optional)

Step 1: Join a Dungeons and Dragons group
Join a Dungeons & Dragons group. The group will typically consist of 3 to 7 individuals. One person is the Dungeon Master. The other members of the group are players.

Step 2: Choose your character
Choose your character. You might, for example, choose to be a fighter, rogue, wizard, or cleric. The Player's Handbook describes the rules & options for playing characters.

Step 3: Keep notes
Keep track of statistics related to your character & the game with a pencil and paper.

Step 4: Accept an adventure assignment
Accept an adventure assignment from the Dungeon Master, like protecting a town from goblins, saving a damsel, slaying a dragon, or looting a wizard's tower. The Dungeon Master finds statistics for the monsters that Player Characters encounter in the Monster Manual. Adventures are described in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Step 5: Roll a die
Roll a twenty-sided die to determine the outcome when you face an action that has a possibility of failure. The Dungeon Master will set the target number that your roll is measured against. If you roll a smaller number, your action fails. Other dice determine other results, such as how much damage your weapon or spells cause and the damage to you if you get hit.

Step 6: Continue playing
Continue playing until your campaign is over, & then begin a new one. Collect experience to raise your character to higher levels with every adventure, and hope your character doesn't die in the process.