Can somebody outline the rules of D&D please?

[The_Void]

I've been a big fan of this comic for a while, I'm absolutely loving the character development and humour. However, I'm missing out on about half the jokes because of one little snag in reading a D&D-based comic. I've never played D&D. I've never seen anyone play D&D. I've never looked at a game of D&D. And it gets even worse here on the forums, where frankly, I do not have a clue what you people are talking about.

So, I thought it was time I found out about the game. How does it work? How you you play it? What are the objectives? What are the basic rules? Start with the basics, I know it's a tabletop RPG and that's it. Your help would be much appreciated.

[Snake-Aes]

I've been a big fan of this comic for a while, I'm absolutely loving the character development and humour. However, I'm missing out on about half the jokes because of one little snag in reading a D&D-based comic. I've never played D&D. I've never seen anyone play D&D. I've never looked at a game of D&D. And it gets even worse here on the forums, where frankly, I do not have a clue what you people are talking about.

So, I thought it was time I found out about the game. How does it work? How you you play it? What are the objectives? What are the basic rules? Start with the basics, I know it's a tabletop RPG and that's it. Your help would be much appreciated.

You'll find a good start in the D20SRD. I'm afraid, though, that many of the rule jokes are also referring to stuff that isn't around anymore, or stuff that only shows up as you play.

Is the "jokes you didn't get" thread still around?

[The_Void]

You'll find a good start in the D20SRD. I'm afraid, though, that many of the rule jokes are also referring to stuff that isn't around anymore, or stuff that only shows up as you play.

Is the "jokes you didn't get" thread still around?

That site seems detailed, but it still assumes a basic knowlegde of how you play the game.

[Snake-Aes]

More or less. The Core Mechanic section explains how you roll, literally. From a rules PoV, there's no place to start other than that really.


Also, realize that this is a creative game. Players gather around another player who will happen to create a world for them, and give them a lot of fun through trouble, hilarity, drama, action, mistery, or whatever the group may enjoy to play. The rules themselves are just to prevent the whole "I shot you - but I dodged - no you didn't!" situations.

[DrivinAllNight]

Best way to understand the game is to simply play it, I would check any local comic book stores for not only D&D books, but also to find out if they are looking for new players in your area. There may be some online ways to find local groups but I do not know of them. just my 2cp (copper pieces).

[Zeitgeist]

When I first started reading, my knowledge wasn't much beyond knowing that you needed to roll a die for pretty much everything. Combining that, and my current knowledge of console RPGs, many of which were based on DnD, I was able to understand 90% of the gaming related jokes.

But there's so many rules to DnD that you'd be better off linking to comics that you didn't get. Once a few were explained, you'd probably be able to deduce the rest.

[The_Void]

When I first started reading, my knowledge wasn't much beyond knowing that you needed to roll a die for pretty much everything. Combining that, and my current knowledge of console RPGs, many of which were based on DnD, I was able to understand 90% of the gaming related jokes.

But there's so many rules to DnD that you'd be better off linking to comics that you didn't get. Once a few were explained, you'd probably be able to deduce the rest.

It's not so much not getting the jokes that's the problem, because I have some experience of playing other RPGs, and I usually just ignore the jokes that go over my head. I just really want to know how you actually play the game. What do you, you know, do?

[Snake-Aes]

It's not so much not getting the jokes that's the problem, because I have some experience of playing other RPGs, and I usually just ignore the jokes that go over my head. I just really want to know how you actually play the game. What do you, you know, do?

Well, inner humor about d&d requires you to know d&d in the first place :p

[whatchamacallit]

I wonder if it's actually sadder that I get all the jokes regarding DnD rules...

[Silv]

It's a difficult game to explain without playing it, which is why you're not really getting a reply.

Basically you create a character to play as, with a set of stats used to modify the results of a dice roll, for example, if you have a strength stat that gives you a +2, when you need to do something that requires strength you would roll a d20 and add 2 to the result to see how you did. If you roll high enough, you succeed. If not, you hurt your back or something. There's lots of check fail jokes in the comic, like Elan trying to move silently, so that should help explain something ;).

Like I say, it's difficult to just explain, but the DM/GM controls what happens and the PCs choose how to react. Hope that sorta kinda answers your question maybe. Perhaps.

[PhantomFox]

DnD is, in essence, an video game with one person being the computer for you. You and your friends go on an adventure run by another person (the Dungeon Master, or DM for short). Each person has their own character that they design themselves (Player Character, or PC), and you go off and do whatever you want. Of course, that's not fun by itself, so the DM has an adventure set up for you to follow. For a (very) simplistic example, monsters are harassing the countryside, and you and your fellow players have been hired to take care of them. So you tell the DM what you want to do, and he decides what happens.

Say you organize yourselves and decide to track down the monsters, and after some searching, the DM informs you that you've found a spooky cave. Y'all decide to search it, and perhaps you find some monsters. If you decide to attack, the fighting begins (in a somewhat organized fashion) where each player says how they're going to attack, use whatever special moves they have, etc. They role some dice to see how successful the attack was, taking your character's stats, abilities, and equipment into play, the DM does some calculations, and says what happens. Then he does the same for the monster, and the fight goes on...

Say y'all win, and you continue exploring the cave, fighting the occasional monster, and then after defeating some tougher monster, you find some evidence that this monster problem was caused by, I dunno, an evil wizard or something. Well, there you have your next plot hook, and your party might decide to go after the wizard.

So basically, you're playing a big game of pretend mixed with a video game. You can do whatever you want. The DM is running the show, making things up when things don't go according to plan, and being a storyteller all at the same time.

You might want to check out the comics Darths and Droids, or DM of the Rings, which run on the idea that the movie they're using (Star Wars and LOTR respectivly) is a DnD campaign. They'll give you a good idea on what a DnD session is like.

[Wyvern_55]

The core mechanics boil down to: attempt to perform an action, roll a 20 sided die to see if you succeed.

in a little more detail: Players choose a race and a class (or multiple classes if they want to multiclass) and they get specific benefits, each player will roll (or spend points on, or whatever) their abilities and choose skills, feats, and general style to suit the character they have in mind.

combat boils down to a move action and a standard action, usually moving into position and then attacking, though there are a great many things that modify this (for instance a full attack is a full round action, some spells, abilities or circumstances change the types or number of actions you get). rolling a hit is just like rolling to succeed in a task, roll a d20 add some modifiers (strength bonus, attack bonus etc) and see if it is higher than the opponents armor class.

One player will be the 'Dungeon Master' or the 'Game Master' who will create the adventure and adjudicate the actions of anyone that is not a player. If the characters start launching fireballs in the king's court, the DM will decide what happens (most likely the king's guards attempting to kill/capture the player characters.) Often the DM will have a story that will unfold as the game progresses, or it might just be a casual game with a chance to get treasure and experience points to grow more powerful, it is really shifts from game to game.


Clearly this is not an exhaustive rule set, but it is a starting point. I would recommend taking a look at The SRDs though they will be daunting at first. the best way to learn is to find a group who needs another player and seeing if they would be willing to let you play with them, you will learn the best as you go.

[Lissou]

Okay, here is as simple yet complete an explanation as I can think of.

First, you create a character to roleplay.
For that, you roll stats. You roll dice to get numbers for Strength, Charisma, Dexterity, Wisdom, Constitution and Intelligence (out of order).
You choose a race (human, elf, halfling, dwarf...), a gender and a class (fighter, rogue, ranger, wizard...) that work well with your stats.

Then you get skills. Skills are things like Climb Rope of Bluff and so on that are mentionned in the strip. Most skills have a stat that goes with them, for instance Charisma with Bluff.
When you try Bluffing someone, you roll a d20 (20-sided-die). Then you add to your result your modifier and any ranks you put in the skill. (Every level you have a certain amount of ranks, and you decide what skill to put them in).

Your modifier is "(stat-10)/2". So for instance if you have 18 Charisma, your modifier is 4.

The DM decides how difficult Bluffing that person is, and gives you a number to beat. If you roll over it (including everything you add to it), then you bluff the person, if you roll under, the person sees through your bluff.

That's how skills work. In battle, it's about the same thing, except you roll to know if you manage to hit the enemy, and need to beat a number called their armour class, or AC (you have one too, that the DM has to beat to hit your character). Then, if you do hit them, you roll to know how much damage you make (Hit Points that are removed from their current total).

That's as simple and complete an explanation as I could give you, I hope it was clear.

[Mando Knight]

I just really want to know how you actually play the game. What do you, you know, do?

...You pay those Wizards by the coast a couple hundred bucks, read through some books, write down numbers on a pre-marked piece of paper (or just a whole bunch of numbers and letters on a normal piece of paper), roll numbered polyhedra, and pretend that an imaginary character in an imaginary world did something by comparing the sum of the rolled numbers and numbers written down on the aforementioned sheet to other numbers which may or may not be known to you and are most likely written down on someone else's sheet of paper.

SERIOUS BUSINESS:

Spoiler

Show

As an RPG (Role-Playing Game), you as a player create a character to interact with the world of someone else's design. That someone else has a proxy (or him/herself) that regulates the interactions of your character with that world. If the proxy is another human, then the human is called the Game Master in many d20-based games, and specifically the Dungeon Master in Dungeons and Dragons. If the proxy is a computer (or dedicated video game console), then you're playing a cRPG (Computer Role Playing Game), occasionally implementing the rules of D&D (such as Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights).

By playing D&D, you, the other players (usually 3 to 5 others) and the DM agree to use the rules of one of the four-to-six editions of the game. (Original D&D, Advanced D&D, Advanced D&D 2nd Edition (also just called 2nd Edition D&D), 3rd Edition D&D, D&D Edition 3.5, and 4th Edition D&D. The current (4th) edition is the only one officially supported by Wizards of the Coast, which owns the license to the game system, and for which all most of the new material will be written. Edition 3.5 is the one that OotS is primarily based on, and continues to be the most popular edition in the Playground, although some here (like myself) prefer the newer 4th edition.)

The basic mechanic of third and later editions of D&D is rolling a twenty sided die (d20) and adding various modifiers to it to try to exceed a target number. Earlier editions weren't completely unified in whether you added the d20 to the modifiers and shot high, or subtracted the d20 from your modifiers to shoot low. You have a health value, called by the staple RPG term HP (hit points), an AC for the opponent to try to exceed to hit (and thus hurt) you, and saving throws (until 4th edition) for you to roll to ignore detrimental effects like lethal spells or dodge a fireball. You also have usually either spells or a weapon with which to try to deplete your opponents' HP. Sometimes you have both.

Spells will have various effects based on the description, such as instant death, healing, resurrection, "buffing" (in which you improve the statistics of you or your allies), "de-buffing" (which does the opposite, and can usually be directed offensively), and basic offense (such as throwing arrows of pure magic or a massive fireball at the opponent). They usually use the standard 6-sided die (d6) for their effects, especially if they use multiple dice to resolve the effect, as it's easier and cheaper to find about ten or twelve d6s lying around to roll than it is to find several d8s or d10s (8 and 10-sided dice, respectively)

Weapons will have a "damage die," which is the size of die you roll to determine the amount of HP damage the opponent takes when you hit them with an attack. The common ones are the d3 (not a physical polyhedron... some use a d6, divide by 2, and round up), d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12 (but see here). Some use a pair of damage dice, usually 2d4 or 2d6. This changes up the probability of the damage dealt by the attack, making higher and lower totals less common while increasing the chance of an "average" roll)

Another feature is skills, which the player invests "skill points" in to enable the character to do things that aren't cast spells or hit people on the head with sticks. Skills include Diplomacy, Jump, Swim, Ride, Concentration, and Open Lock. Bards and Rogues have many skills, Sorcerers and Fighters do not. Wizards have more skills than Fighters, but only because their intelligence allows them to study nearly everything. However, their skills are usually Knowledge (such as arcane and religious lore) and spellcasting-related skills. (Concentration for casting while threatened, Spellcraft to figure out what the opponent is casting, etc.)

D&D usually takes place in a Tolkein-esque fantasy world, though depending on the setting, there may be a higher or lower technology or magic level, with tech usually anywhere from the Iron Age to the Renaissance, and magic from none/nearly none (like Earth), to high (like OotS-verse), to "Tippy-verse," which is a high magic setting (named after the Playgrounder "Emperor Tippy") in which the players and high-level NPCs use their magic prowess to break out of the medieval-ish societal norms (such as city sizes, fortifications, and supply logistics), causing either a utopia or dystopia depending on who figures out how to do it first in the world.

The easiest way to understand D&D would be to find an experienced group to join and purchase the Player's Handbook for the edition that they play.

[Catskin]

I just really want to know how you actually play the game. What do you, you know, do?

You might check out the play-by-post forums for an idea of what goes on. A lot of what's done is mental activity, particularly of the creative and verbal variety. If you do check the play-by-post forums, you'll see that different groups play differently.

The best times I've had roleplaying didn't require much dice-rolling or rulebook raising. You create a fictional character and then act like him or her in an imaginary world with your friends' fictional characters. Similar to a fantasy improv troop that just talks. Or like writing a fantasy novel wherein the DM or GM is the narrator and every character except other PCs (who are portrayed and designed by the players). If you ever pretended you were a superhero/ninja/spy/etc. with your friends when you were a kid, it's like that only with rules to keep things fair and less physical miming and more verbal description of your superpowers.

The rules--from stats to races and classes--are explained in great detail on the d20 site. Basically use them to do anything you want.

[Thrudh]

What makes it more fun than a video game is the DM (Dungeon Master). Since he's human and not a computer program, he can react to ANYTHING you do....

So it's very open-ended...

DM: "Okay, you've all been summoned by the king. The guards find you at the local inn (where else?), and escort you to the king's throne room"

DM (as King): Heroes and Champions, your fame has preceded you... Will you help us in our hour of need?

Player1 (playing a rogue): So I check out the King's Throne... Any easily pryable gems on it?

DM: What? No, no gems... it's a solid stone throne.

Player1: Ah, rats...

Player2 (playing a bard): I check out the Queen... Is she hot? I wink at her...

DM: WHAT? Ok, fine... let's roll to see if the King notices you winking at the Queen... (rolls a die)... Yep he saw you...

DM (as King): Did... did you just wink at my wife??

Player2: "Er, no, your worshipfulness... I had something in my eye...." As soon as he looks away I wink at her again...

Player3: Oh come on, you're just trying to get us thrown in the dungeon!!

And so on...

This kind of fun NEVER happens in a pre-scripted video game...

Hope that example helps... :)

[Thrudh]

Here's another decent example inside the comic itself

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0565.html

[Reluctance]

PoofBunny put it best. The best way to learn how to play is to join a group and dive in. Heading down to the play-by-post forums is probably the quickest way, and I'd hope whoever was DMing would help ease a new guy in.

If you want a quick and dirty look at how things go, you can click on the D&D link on this page. It won't explain the stuff all the old hats know, but it at least covers the basics. (Despite the tag on the button, just going to playdnd.com won't help you much. I'll get to that in a sec.)

Be warned that there have been many editions of D&D over the years. The link I sent you to will give pointers on the 3.5 version (the same one the comic is based off of), playdnd.com will link you to the main page for the most recent fourth edition, and the comic has at times poked fun at rules from earlier editions. Unfortunately, explaining the niggling minutiae of prior rulesets is exactly as boring and time-consuming as you'd expect.

[Renx]

First you decide what you want to be -- a wizard slinging spells, a warrior hitting stuff, a thief sneaking in the night... then you roll up 'stats' which are supposed to represent the randomness of human genealogies at birth. They basically describe how strong, fast, intelligent etc you are.

Then you have this guy called the 'DM' who tells a story and tries to kill your characters. You roll dice (this is why it's called roll playing), and if you roll better than he does, you win.

[Roc Ness]

I prefer one of those "ruless" rpgs, the one that are kinda like choose your own adventure stories.

You would have at least 3 players

The Narrator. He creates and then tells the story and makes the decisions based on the player's actions

The Roleplayer. He decides what happens during each stage of the story

The Pacifist. He has to be totally fair and unbiased (which is why I'm usually chosen ) as he resolves any arguments between the narrator or the roleplayer.

There can only be up to two pascifists and narrators and any number of roleplayers. Out of all the pascifists and narrators any but not all can roleplay at the same time, at least one of them has to stick to his position to maintain fairness.


That way you can have dnd fun without the annoying rules (I mean, people are generally killed by an arrow in a fatal wound. In dnd some people need more than five "fatal wounds" to kill them. I mean come on)

[The_Void]

Thank you all for your help. :) I'll probably head over to the play-by-post section now to try and put together a game.

[Tempest Fennac]

Void, if you want ruleless RPing, you could try the Freeform Roleplaying section in the Silly Message Board Game section. That covers ruless RPing pretty well.

[Roc Ness]

Not quite, tempest. I know you probably haven't played before, it is a common misconception.

A ruless needs planning. Its not just a bunch of what would you do ifs, You need a story, or at least a basic storyline, which gives it the purpose of roleplaying. You can add various bits of humor but the storyline gives it meaning. It gives a player something to strive for, something for him to tune in carefully, so that it isn't just a "what would you do if yada yada yada"

[Kish]

Then you have this guy called the 'DM' who tells a story and tries to kill your characters. You roll dice (this is why it's called roll playing), and if you roll better than he does, you win.

You...are joking, aren't you?

A DM who actively tries to kill the PCs 1) can always do so and 2) is a thoroughly bad DM. And "roll-playing" is generally used as an insult, to denote roleplaying done badly, with more of a focus on the dice than story or character.

[Mithicalbird]

My dad was the one who introduced me into D&D, I soon became a DM by asking about rules as we played (I was a total dork and almost memorized the 5e monster manual, which he found quite annoying.), every time a rule came up that I didn't know about I would ask him to explain it, after doing this for a while I got the basic rules of the game and started one of my own (I still sucked when it came to rules, and storytelling, but I got MUCH better).
After getting the base rules I read through some of the player's handbook, skipping the rules I already knew about and getting to the more advanced ones that didn't come up much but were still required to make the game go smoothly.
If one of your family members isn't a DM it may be harder, but ask your DM about the rules when they come up in your game, you'll soon get better, and then refine what you know, or replace it with something better, then you will become a great DM.
If your doing 3.5, get most of the rules from the DM, if thats not enough, give up, (I tried learning 3.5 without knowing anyone who played it, I will never try that again.)

I cannot include the base rules here, because I feel that all the rules are needed, every piece counts, thats what I feel, not what you feel, so do what you want.

[wumpus]

You...are joking, aren't you?

A DM who actively tries to kill the PCs 1) can always do so and 2) is a thoroughly bad DM. And "roll-playing" is generally used as an insult, to denote roleplaying done badly, with more of a focus on the dice than story or character.

I would think so. That was a 0e or 1e (possibly 2e) style DM. By 3e, the players dictated to the DM what was going to happen. There should also be a "rule playing" joke in here somewhere, between rules light games (typically not D&D) and something like 3e where there is an assumption that the correct rule is there and needs to be played, even if it is buried in a thousand pages of rules.

[Ron Miel]

How does it work? How you you play it? What are the objectives? What are the basic rules? :

I have an answer, but it's too large to fit in the margin.

[T-Mick]

I'd suggest getting into Nethack. Besides enriching your life, you'll learn enough D&D lingo to laugh at those early comics. That's what I did.

[denthor]

It's not so much not getting the jokes that's the problem, because I have some experience of playing other RPGs, and I usually just ignore the jokes that go over my head. I just really want to know how you actually play the game. What do you, you know, do?

Basic of the game is conflict if it walks Flys or slithers and is not us kill it.

Dice hit the table conflict resolved your dead they are dead. either way conflict resolution.

There is more to if but very few want to talk for 7 hours save the..., capture the... next challenge

[Grey Watcher]

To add my two cents that will get drowned out, I think the best way to describe D&D (or tabletop RPGs in general) to someone who is completely new to any knowledge of it is thus:

Think of some kids playing with action figures, toy soldiers, or the like. You'll probably see something like this.

Kid 1: Bang! You're dead!

Kid 2: No, you missed!

Just about every tabletop RPG (including D&D) is essentially a guide for resolving this kind of dispute. Play is basically step 1) DM (who is essentially a referee) describes the situation 2) players say what their characters try to do 3) DM directs them in determining if they succeed or not (usually via rolling dice) and finally 4) go back to step 1.

As for getting specific jokes in the comic, that... could take a bit of effort educating yourself. The comic runs on Dungeons and Dragons, 3.5 Edition (which means the third version of the game, plus some changes they added to make it work better). D&D 3.5 is well-known (some would say infamous) for having very, very complex and intricate rules, with many, many special cases, exceptions, and other little weirdnesses. So much so that, in the two rule versions since (4th and 5th Editions), simplifying things has been a major goal of the game designers.

I have an answer, but it's too large to fit in the margin.

I hope this isn't your last theorem.