How To: Play Dungeons and Dragons

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.