So… you want to play Dungeons & Dragons, but you’re overwhelmed by options. You know there’s books you need to buy, but what do they do? What is a DM? How many dice do you need to get started? Luckily, it’s not nearly as complicated as it seems, and we’ve organised this quick selection of essential hints to get you started.
Our top 5 Dungeons & Dragons tips for beginners
5: THE BASIC RULES ARE COMPLETELY FREE
You do not need any of the Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks in order to play your first game. All the information you need to start playing, whether it be on a virtual or actual tabletop, is available for free in the form of the game’s Basic Rules. These basic rules encompass creating your first character from a fairly generous range of options, playing the game as either a character or the Dungeon Master, and everything you need to get started.
Believe it or not, the basic rules and character options D&D Beyond provides as standard are more than adequate to get started on some pretty considerable adventures. You can play D&D without spending a penny, and if you like it you can expand your options within the game by purchasing the rulebooks.
4: USE THE DND BEYOND CHARACTER CREATOR
If you’re considering playing Dungeons & Dragons these days, a Beyond account is an absolute essential. This is the official home of every online sourcebook, purchasable in digital editions for convenience, and a ton of resources to help new players learn about the game.
The Basic Rules and character options we outlined above are plugged directly into your Beyond account, and you’re able to build a character using both advanced and very simple processes fit for any user. If you decide to further your adventures by buying The Player’s Handbook via Beyond, it’ll basically act as an expansion pack that adds a full suite of character creation options to your builder.
Creating a Dungeons & Dragons character used to be much more maths-intensive, requiring actual pen-and-paper sums and constant referencing of sourcebooks to pull off. Beyond makes the process easy, more like creating your character in a video game. Beyond’s character creation tool will walk you through every step of what can be quite a complicated process and will get you to your tabletop of choice so much faster. And when you’re ready to expand your options, you can buy the sourcebooks directly through it.
3: FIND YOUR LOCAL GAME GROUP – OR JOIN A VIRTUAL TABLETOP
The hardest part of playing Dungeons & Dragons can be finding people to play with, but technology makes this considerably easier. Back in the day, you’d all need to sit down around a physical table, roll some dice, and set aside a decent chunk of time to get everyone together on a regular basis.
With the advent of Discord and websites like Roll20 you can now run entire campaigns online, which makes it easier – in theory, at least – to bring everyone together. Combine this with the amazing digital resources on offer at DnDBeyond and you’ve got a streamlined way of running DnD that replaces all maps, dice rolls and character tokens with digital stand-ins.
In my opinion there’s nothing quite like playing around a real table, which is where approaching local games shops to see if they’re running games can be essential. As the game grows in popularity even more spaces are making room for Dungeons & Dragons groups. Where I live a trendy coffee shop has even booked out every second Friday evening as a tabletop night, so have a look around – your community may surprise you.
2: BE PREPARED TO MAKE MISTAKES
Dungeons & Dragons is built on a lot of rules, and nobody can be expected to remember all of them – not even your DM. Be prepared to ask questions and get things wrong! It’s the only way to learn your ways around the specifics.
The best thing you can do to help your games run smoothly is learn your character as they level. How do your spells work? What dice do you need to roll to work out the damage you’ve just dealt? Are there any tools – like counters to track your spell splots – you could use to run a little smoother?
Some people I’ve played with have a legendary grasp of the rulebooks, back to front, almost to the point of quoting page numbers and lines – but I assure you, this is the exception, not the rule! And a pretty large percentage of Dungeons & Dragons players just learn how to play their characters and interact with the world within the confines of said rules. If you approach the game with this attitude, it’s much less overwhelming.
1: TAKE NOTES!
Consider Dungeons and Dragons as one big collaborative story. Players and DM work together to bring a fantasy world to life; sometimes in short bursts, sometimes across years worth of campaign time. This can result in a lot of spontaneous story threads or random encounters that may not stick around in your head between sessions, little character moments that might impact how people see your character, or just details of the world you’d like to explore more.
I’d recommend grabbing a dedicated Dungeons & Dragons notebook for this purpose, logging your adventures in as much detail as you’d like. This gives you an easy resource to refer back to when the DM decides to hit you with a blast from the past – or, perhaps, you uncover a specific enemy’s weakness and want to make sure it’s remembered. You need to remember how a certain spell works, so you write the dice/formula in shorthand on a page.
Keeping notes is mechanically very useful, but also invaluable for maintaining the consistency of your character’s narrative between sessions. Doing things the old-fashioned way and taking a pen and paper to a Dungeons & Dragons game is generally a smart move, anyway – you’ll definitely find something to use it for.
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