Dungeons & Dragons Beginner’s Guide

Now that you know you want to play D&D you need to figure out how. Well, it isn’t as complex as you might think thanks to the plethora of resources available to help you get started. The game itself isn’t as scary as it seems either, more often than not it only takes a game or two until you can start putting together your own adventures and trapping all of your friends in your own horrible schemes. In order to get you on your way, we’ve put together this Dungeons & Dragons beginner’s guide to help you take your first steps. 

Dungeons & Dragons Beginner’s Guide

Before You Play

The first – and probably best – thing you can do is to grab your free copy of the rules from here. This is pretty much everything you need to begin your transformation into a Dungeon Master. It will also give you the bits and bobs you need to help your friends choose what kind of characters they want to be and even build them. That being said, if they want to really get into the character creation, then the D&D Beyond character creator is an exceptional resource.

If you want to get into things a bit more then you’ll probably want to pick up D&D Starter Set which has things like dice, pre-made characters, and of course the rule book. Then, if you want to go even further, you can pick up things like the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and even a Monster Manual. It can also be worth picking up a small whiteboard or something too, battles are far easier with a map. 

Story Stuff

This might all seem like a lot, but these are all one-purchases that will undoubtedly lead to countless hours of campaigns and nonsense with your friends. This stuff isn’t the be all end all though, as I said here, the rules can be very flexible if that’s what you want. The whole point is to have fun and the rules should never get in the way of that. 

Before planning your own story it is well worth following along with the one included in the Starter Set or even finding one online to follow along with. It will give you a good idea of what to aim for when you’re building your own stories as well as helping you become more familiar with your role as a DM. 

Playing The Game

Now that you know the story and you have some players, it is time to get to the game itself. You might find that the first session is spent on character creation and story discussion. While you can play D&D as very straight-laced, you can also play it in a very tongue-in-cheek way too. It can be as dark or as funny as you want, but it is a good idea to make sure everyone is on the same page, to begin with. 

Then it is just a matter of going along with the story you have planned and deciding on how you want your adventurers to do. While it is important to have your NPC characters built and the interactions planned, do keep in mind that the adventurers might decide it is a good idea to go fishing instead…

Now that you’re fully acquainted with our Dungeons & Dragons beginner’s guide you should have a look at our Hub where more and more guides will be appearing in the coming weeks. Make sure you’re following Prima Games on Twitter too, that way you’ll never miss a thing in the world of gaming.