How to Play Dungeons and Dragons

The granddaddy of all role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons, was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and first published in 1974 by TSR. In D&D, players interact with each other as characters from their own imagination in settings created by the leader/referee, the Dungeon Master (DM).

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Dungeons & Dragons Players' Handbook
• Dungeon Master's Guide
• Monster Manual
• Campaign map (Pre-made or drawn on vinyl battle mat or hex paper)
• Miniature figures
• Polyhedral dice: four-sided, six-sided, eight-sided, 10-sided, 12-sided and 20-sided
• Pencils and scratch paper
• Graph paper

1. Gather a group of people. Designate someone to act as Dungeon Master. This person should be thoroughly familiar with the system and the Dungeon Master's Guide.
2. Provide each of the remaining players with a character to play. Players may create their own characters in one of several classes (fighter, thief, wizard, cleric) and submit them to the DM for approval. They also can play characters already created by the DM. Collectively, these characters form an adventuring "party."
3. Establish the parameters of the adventure. The simplest adventure is a dungeon crawl, where the characters wander through a dungeon or similar structure, battling monsters and finding treasure. More complex adventures involve quests to find a particular object or objects necessary to destroy a major menace.
4. Start the adventure. Typically, this is done by issuing the party members a challenge, which usually means someone or something giving the party a task to complete, such as finding a dragon's egg or taking a magic ring to the heart of a volcano to destroy it.
5. Role-play various actions through verbal description, dialogue and rolling dice to determine whether those actions succeed or fail.
6. Combat monsters, animals and evil forces. To destroy an opponent, the damage player characters inflict on an opponent must exceed the number of hit points the opponent possesses.
7. Reward the players with treasure and additional equipment after they succeed at a task or combat. At the end of the adventure, award experience points that players can use to enhance their characters' abilities.

Tips & Warnings

• If using pregenerated characters, assign them to players according to the players' natural strengths and interests. Don't give a fighter character to someone who would rather solve problems with his brain.
• While the Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks provide a detailed set of rules, the rules are guidelines, not absolutes. The rules should be adapted to the needs of the DM and players.