Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy.

Whether you watched the Stranger Things kids fight a demogorgon, listened to Taako, Merle and Magnus hunt down relics on The Adventure Zone, or watched and listened to “a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons” on Critical Role, chances are you’ve consumed D&D in some form of media.

The iconic fantasy role-playing game is having a moment. Publisher Wizards of the Coast confirmed to Syfy Wire that 2017 was its biggest sales year in history, thanks in large part to streaming. When high profile nerds like Dan Harmon and Felicia Day bring their celebrity friends to the table and put it on the internet, their fans are introduced to the joys of fantasy roleplaying without ever picking up a 20-sided die.

Watching live D&D campaigns can be alternately inspiring and intimidating for potential players looking to get into the hobby. I spoke to Nathan Stewart and Greg Tito, two representatives from Wizards of the Coast, who both compared watching D&D streams to watching professional athletes. You can appreciate the “sport” while recognizing that you won’t reach that level of mastery without years of practice.

1. In the Dungeons & Dragons game, each player creates an adventurer (also called a character) and teams up with other adventurers (played by friends). Working together, the group might explore a dark dungeon, a ruined city, a haunted castle, a lost temple deep in a jungle, or a lava-filled cavern beneath a mysterious mountain.
2. D&D 5e Player’s Handbook PDF Free Download. Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition consists of all the required information and set of rules that you must need to run the fantasy game with the help of RPG (Role Playing Game) system.

In January 2013, Wizards of the Coast announced their return to PDF sales, with the launch of Dungeons & Dragons Classics in partnership with OneBookShelf. When the site launched on 22nd January 2013 it contained 81 out-of-print D&D titles in PDF format, stretching from the 1981 Basic Rulebook (edited by Tom Moldvay) right through to a selection of 4th Edition titles.

Whether you’ve watched a ton of D&D streams and are ready to run your own games or you have never seen a roleplaying game in action, this guide will help you figure out where to start. It can be daunting, but the good news is that there are so many resources out there for new D&D players.

Why D&D?

While Dungeons and Dragons is definitely the most popular tabletop roleplaying game, it’s not the only one. There are tons of RPGs with different settings and mythologies. There are Star Wars games, games based on tarot cards, and even a Wet Hot American Summer game. All come in varying levels of rule complexity and structure.

Dungeons and Dragons is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum — the rules are simple enough to follow as a beginner, but there’s a very clear structure to work within. Players have room to get creative without feeling paralyzed by infinite choices or bogged down by complicated rules. Unless you’re looking for something extremely specific, I’d recommend starting with D&D and branching out from there once you get the hang of roleplaying.

Getting Started with D&D

One of the great things about D&D is that you only really need a copy of the rules, some pencils and paper, a set of dice, and your imagination. Wizards of the Coast put a PDF of the basic rules online for free because they “want to reduce the barrier to entry as much as possible,” according to communications director, Greg Tito. The pared down version of the ruleset cover the core mechanics and math of the game, a step-by-step character creation guide, and information on monsters.

D&D famously uses a bunch of weird-looking dice, which some players collect like they’re Pokémon cards. If you’re super into that aspect of the hobby, you can fall down an Etsy wormhole of unique handmade dice sets. (I’ve never been one of those players, but will admit that I backed a Kickstarter to get a set that looks like the bisexual pride flag.) For everyone else, a standard set of polyhedral dice from Amazon works just as well.

The best place to start is with, well, the Starter Set. The box includes everything you need to get started: an essential rules handbook, an introductory adventure (which fans of The Adventure Zone might recognize from the first few episodes of the podcast), five pre-made character sheets, and a set of dice. There’s even a Stranger Things Starter Set, with an adventure based on Mike’s homebrew campaign to fight the demogorgon.

Buy the Starter Set here: Amazon | Walmart | Barnes & Noble

Players are sometimes disappointed that they don’t get to make their own characters, but trust me, all those pre-made character sheets do is get a bunch of math out of the way for you. The personality traits, motivations, and relationships listed on the sheets are meant to serve as inspiration, not hem you in.

Of course if you really want to create a character from scratch, you can do that too. The website D&D Beyond offers a character creator tool that can help.

The hardcover Player’s Handbook, which covers everything in the Basic Rules with additional character customization options and beautiful art, is good to have at the table to reference spells and abilities while you’re playing. The Dungeon Master can also pick up the Dungeon Master’s Guide, which covers how to create memorable stories, and the Monster Manual with stats for creatures to challenge your players.

Buy the Player’s Handbook here: Amazon | Walmart | Barnes & Noble
Buy the Dungeon Master’s Guide here: Amazon | Walmart | Barnes & Noble
Buy the Monster Manual here: Amazon | Walmart | Barnes & Noble

Becoming the Dungeon Master

The Dungeon Master (DM for short) refers to the player who acts as narrator, antagonist, and guide to the rest of the players in D&D. (In non-D&D games they’re called the Game Master/GM.) According to Wizards of the Coast brand director Nathan Stewart, rule number one for aspiring DMs is “you don’t have to know all the rules.” In fact, he shared a quote from the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax.

“The secret we should never let the game masters know is that they don’t need any rules.”

Do you have to create a story from scratch?

As a new DM, it’s usually easier to run a pre-existing adventure rather than immediately come up with your own story. You certainly don’t have to — former Polygon producer and current GM on The Adventure Zone, Griffin McElroy, says that “one of the best starting points is to take something you like and figure out how to D&D-ify it” because the rules are so easy to tailor to what you want to do. However if you’d prefer to start with a pre-written adventure, your options are practically endless.

The adventure included in the Starter Set is called Lost Mines of Phandelver and is a good introduction to how stories work in D&D, as well as its settings and lore. Wizards of the Coast also periodically publishes full campaigns that are either stand-alone adventures or part of a series. These assume that you have a regular group playing together frequently, because campaigns are meant to be played out over several weeks or months. For shorter one-off dungeons that can be finished in one sitting, you can check out the anthology Tales from the Yawning Portal.

Buy Tales from the Yawning Portal here: Amazon | Target | Barnes & Noble

Officially published adventures are only the beginning. D&D is a hobby that is very easily crowdsourced and people publish their own adventures on the internet all the time, many of which are free. You can find a bunch of free, cheap, and premium adventures on DriveThruRPG, which is a lot like Steam for roleplaying games, or their D&D specific site, Dungeon Masters Guild.

Adventure Time

Once you’ve decided on your adventure and have assembled your players (the website Roll 20 has a matchmaking-type service for virtual groups), you’re ready to get started. Assuming you’re not using the pre-made characters in the Starter Set, you’ll probably spend the first session creating characters together, discussing your characters’ relationships to each other and setting the scene for the adventure.

I’d also recommend talking about what kind of game you’ll be running. Do you want to run a serious, by-the-book campaign, or is there room to get silly and loose with the rules? Neither option is necessarily better, it’s just a matter of preference, but it’s good to be on the same page with your players about the tone your sessions will take.

When you start running your adventure, you’ll probably be referencing the book a lot and that’s totally okay. No one expects you to have every spell and monster memorized. A Dungeon Master’s Screen can help here. It does double duty since it hides notes and die rolls from the players and has handy references to the stats and rules you’ll use most often while playing.

Once you start running your adventure, you may find that the dungeon crawls and combat simulations are a lot easier with visual aids. These are generally referred to as “maps and minis” and they can become a hobby unto themselves. If you don’t want to fall down the rabbit hole of drawing/painting/3-D printing your own maps and figures, you can just pick up a dry erase adventure grid and some dry erase markers. (For running a virtual game, Roll 20 has a marketplace full of digital maps and tokens you can buy.)

The real treasure was the friends we made along the way

Playing D&D, like any game, gets easier the more you practice. It can feel awkward getting started, but as long as you have an open, supportive group, that awkwardness goes away quickly. The game is as much about relationships as it is about fighting monsters, so make sure that the people you bring to your table are people you’d be willing to get trapped in a dungeon with.

The online community of players and DMs is (for the most part) incredibly supportive and encouraging of new players. They can answer any questions you have, no matter how dumb you think they are. Case in point: the most googled D&D-related question is “are dnd dragons immortal.” (No, they live a long time but they can be killed.) The subreddits r/dnd and r/dndnext are great resources as well.

Dungeons And Dragons Rules Online

Thinking of starting a campaign and don’t know where to start? Have specific questions about running a game? Feel free to post them in the comments below!

D&d 5th Edition Rules Pdf

The Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set is a set of rulebooks for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. First published in 1977, it saw a handful of revisions and reprintings. The first edition was written by J. Eric Holmes based on Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's original work. Later editions were edited by Tom Moldvay, Frank Mentzer, Troy Denning, and Doug Stewart.

The Basic Set details the essential concepts of the D&D game. It gives rules for character creation and advancement for player characters at beginning levels. It also includes information on how to play adventures inside dungeons for both players and the Dungeon Master.

1977 version[edit]

The original Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set was published by TSR, Inc. in 1977.^[1]

TSR hired outside writer John Eric Holmes to produce the Basic Set as an introductory version of the D&D game. It incorporates concepts from the original 1974 D&D boxed set plus the Supplement I: Greyhawk.^[2] The rulebook covers characters of levels one through three, rules for adventuring in dungeons, and introduces the concepts of the game, and explained the game's concepts and method of play in terms that made it accessible to new players ages twelve and above who might not be familiar with tabletop miniatures wargaming. Although the Basic Set was not fully compatible with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, players were expected to continue play beyond third level by moving to AD&D,^[2][3] which was released beginning later that year. Holmes preferred a lighter tone with more room for personal improvisation, while Gary Gygax, who wrote the Advanced books, wanted an expansive game with rulings on any conceivable situation which might come up during play, and so could be used to arbitrate disputes at tournaments.^[2]

The first Basic Set was available as a 48-page stand-alone rulebook featuring artwork by David C. Sutherland III, or as part of a boxed set, which was packaged in a larger, more visually appealing box than the original boxed set, allowing the game to be stocked on retail shelves and targeted at the general public via toy stores.^[4] The boxed set included a set of polyhedral dice and supplemental materials.^[2] In that same year, Games Workshop (U.K.) published their own version of the rulebook, with a cover by John Blanche, and illustrations by Fangorn.^[2] Supplemental materials appearing in the boxed set included geomorphs, monster and treasure lists, and a set of polyhedral dice.^[5]

For a period in 1979, TSR experienced a dice shortage. Basic sets published during this time frame came with two sheets of numbered cutout cardstock chits that functioned in lieu of dice, along with a coupon for ordering dice from TSR.^[6] The rulebook also included a brief sample dungeon with a full-page map. Starting with the fourth printing in 1978, the two booklets of maps, encounter tables, and treasure lists were replaced with the module B1 In Search of the Unknown;^[2] printings six through eleven (1979–1982) featured the module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands instead.^[2]

1981 revision[edit]

After the release of the AD&D game, the Basic Set saw a major revision in 1981 by editor Tom Moldvay.^[2] The game was not brought in line with AD&D but instead further away from that ruleset, and thus the basic D&D game became a separate and distinct product line from AD&D. The former was promoted as a continuation of the tone of original D&D, while AD&D was an advancement of the mechanics.^[7]

The revised version of the set included a larger, sixty-four page rule book with a red border and a color cover by Erol Otus, the module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, six polyhedral dice,^[2] and a marking crayon.^[6] The book was predrilled for use in a three-ringed binder, and the complete set of polyhedral dice came in a heat-sealed bag with a small wax crayon to use in coloring the numbers on the dice.^[8] The revised rulebook was visually distinct from the previous version: the Holmes booklet had a monochrome pale blue cover, while the Moldvay rulebook had a bright red cover.^[9]

With the revision of the Basic Set, discrete rulesets for higher character levels were introduced as expansions for the basic game.^[10] The Moldvay Basic Set was immediately followed by the accompanying release of an Expert Set edited by Dave Cook with Steve Marsh that supported character levels four through fourteen, with the intent that players would continue with the Expert Set.^[2][11]

1983 revision[edit]

In 1983, the Basic Set was revised again, this time by Frank Mentzer, and redubbed Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules. The set included a sixty-four page Players Manual,^[12] a forty-eight page Dungeon Masters Rulebook,^[12] six dice,^[2] and in sets in which the dice were not painted, a crayon.^[6] The 1983 revision was packaged in a distinctive red box, and featured cover art by Larry Elmore.^[2] Between 1983 and 1985, the system was revised and expanded by Mentzer as a series of five boxed sets, including the Basic Rules (red cover), Expert Rules (blue),^[13]Companion Rules (teal, supporting levels fifteen through twenty-five),^[14]Master Rules (black, supporting levels twenty-six through thirty-six),^[15] and Immortal Rules (gold, supporting Immortals, characters who had transcended levels).^[16] Instead of an adventure module, the Basic Set rulebooks included a solo adventure and an introductory scenario to be run by the Dungeon Master.^[2]

The rules for the game were little changed from the Moldvay set, but the presentation was overhauled into a more tutorial form, to make the game easier for younger players to learn.^[17]

The 10th Anniversary Dungeons & Dragons Collector's Setboxed set, published by TSR in 1984, included the rulebooks from the Basic, Expert, and Companion sets; modules AC2, AC3, B1, B2, and M1 Blizzard Pass; Player Character Record Sheets; and dice. This set was limited to a thousand copies, and was sold by mail and at GenCon 17.^[2]:147

1991 revision[edit]

In 1991, TSR released a new version of the Basic Set, labeled as The New Easy-to-Master Dungeons & Dragons Game, and nicknamed the 'black box'. This version was principally designed by Troy Denning and made very few changes to the game. It included support for characters up to fifth level, instead of the third-level limit of prior Basic Set versions.^[18]

The rules are presented twice, once in a 64-page rule book and again in the Dungeon Card Learning Pack, a set of 48 cards that also includes four-page supplementary mini-adventures. Inspired by the SRA reading program,^[18] the front of each card features a discussion of a single facet of the rules, such as non-player characters, hit dice, or initiative rolls. The back of the card describes a brief scenario to illustrate the rules discussed on the front.^[19] The set also includes a Dungeon Master's Screen which doubles as a folder for the cards, fold-up cardboard pawns, a color map sheet, and dice.^[19]

The Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia was published by TSR the same year, compiling and revising the rules from the Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master Rules box sets to allow players to continue beyond the black box.^[18]

1994 revision[edit]

A final version of the set was produced in 1994, entitled The Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game. Edited by Doug Stewart, it removed the tutorial cards of the 'black box', incorporating the material into sidebars within the single 128-page Rules and Adventure Book. The set also included a Dungeon Master's Screen, a set of six plastic miniatures for players, 24 foldable cardboard enemy standees, a poster map, and a set of dice. It was packaged in a tan-sided box.

Reception[edit]

Clayton Miner reviewed the 1981 version of the Basic Set for Pegasus magazine #1 (1981).^[8] Miner commented that 'the book is a vast improvement over the earlier version. Better organization and well written rules are the main features of this edition.^[8]

Doug Cowie reviewed the 1983 version of the Basic Set for Imagine magazine and gave it a positive review.^[12] According to Cowie, while the rules stay the same, thus allowing those with the older version to continue using their sets, the presentation has changed. He approved of the fact that 'at long last',^[12] a game company released a product that explains to someone new to role-playing games how to get started. Cowie ended his review by stating that 'Basic is a lot closer to the spirit of the original game than is the rambling, unwieldy and sometimes pompous Advanced' and that 'for one-off dungeon type games I would recommend Basic to anyone, beginner and veteran alike.'^[12]

References[edit]

1. ^'The History of TSR'. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2008-10-04. Retrieved 2005-08-20.
2. ^ ^{abcdefghijklmn}Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. pp. 130–131. ISBN0-87975-653-5.
3. ^Gygax & Arneson (1977) p. 6. states '...experience levels that high are not discussed in this book and the reader is referred to the more complete rules in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'
4. ^Tresca, Michael J. (2010), The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, McFarland, p. 63, ISBN078645895X
5. ^Turnbull, Don (December 1978 – January 1979). 'Open Box: Players Handbook'. White Dwarf (review). Games Workshop (10): 17.
6. ^ ^abc'D&D Basic Set'. The Acaeum. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
7. ^Gygax, Gary (June 1979). 'D&D, AD&D and Gaming'. The Dragon #26. TSR. III (12): 29–30. ISSN1062-2101.
8. ^ ^abcMiner, Clayton (1981). 'D&D Basic Set'. Pegasus (review). Judges Guild (1): 85.
9. ^'D&D Clones!'. White Dwarf. Games Workshop (24): 29. April–May 1981.
10. ^Gygax, Gary (December 1978). 'Dungeons & Dragons: What Is It and Where Is It Going?'. The Dragon #21. TSR. III (8): 29–30. ISSN1062-2101.
11. ^Gygax, Gary, and Dave Arneson [1974], edited by Dave Cook. Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set (TSR, 1981)
12. ^ ^abcdeCowie, Doug (October 1983). 'Game Reviews'. Imagine (review). TSR Hobbies (UK), Ltd. (7): 42.
13. ^Gygax, Gary, and Dave Arneson [1974], edited by Frank Mentzer. Dungeons & Dragons Set 2: Expert Rules (TSR, 1983)
14. ^Mentzer, Frank. Dungeons & Dragons Set 3: Companion Rules (TSR, 1984)
15. ^Gygax, Gary, Frank Mentzer. Dungeons & Dragons Set 4: Master Rules (TSR, 1985)
16. ^Mentzer, Frank. Dungeons & Dragons Set 5: Immortal Rules (TSR, 1986)
17. ^Appelcline, Shannon. 'D&D Basic Set - DM's Rulebook (BECMI ed.) (Basic)'. dndclassics.com. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
18. ^ ^abcAppelcline, Shannon. 'D&D Rules Cyclopedia'. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
19. ^ ^abSwan, Rick (August 1992). 'Role-playing Reviews'. Dragon. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR (#184): 73–74.

Reviews: Different Worlds #12 (1981), Different Worlds #34 (1984), Dragon #84 (1984)

External links[edit]