How to play Dungeons and Dragons for beginners

Good news – learning how to play Dungeons and Dragons is way easier than you’d think. There may be a lot of jargon and rules to get through, but this guide includes everything you need to get started. Our team has over 50 years of collective roleplaying experience, so we can make learning how to play D&D snappy and easy.

We’ll explain what DnD classes and DnD races are, as well as what dice to roll and when. We’ll also cover important information for outside of your game, such as finding groups to play with and what sourcebooks are worth buying.

Here’s how to play Dungeons and Dragons:

What is Dungeons and Dragons?
What you’ll need to play D&D
How to create a D&D character
How long a D&D game takes
Playing Dungeons and Dragons
How to play D&D online

What is Dungeons and Dragons?

Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game that uses dice and improvised roleplaying to tell a story. It’s played by a small group of players, who act as characters in the world, plus one Dungeon Master. The DM is the chief storyteller who describes what happens on the adventure, narrating the details of the story and the consequences of the player’s actions.

What you’ll need to play D&D

To start playing D&D, you’ll need a few supplies:

DnD rules

When playing, it helps to have a copy of the DnD rules on hand. Dungeons and Dragons is a fairly complex game, with a huge number of options and terms to wade through (more than even this comprehensive guide can cover). You won’t be expected to remember every rule while playing, and it’s common to remind yourself how a mechanic works mid-play.

We’ll go through the most important D&D rules later in this guide, but you can also find a free, basic version of the rules on the Wizards of the Coast website. However, for the full experience, you’ll need to own some DnD books. The Player’s Handbook contains the core rules and character options, so everyone should own a copy of this.

If you’re interested in playing as the Dungeon Master, the Dungeon Master’s Guide covers extra rules and tips for worldbuilding that’ll help you run a game. However, the fifth edition DM’s Guide isn’t well regarded by the community. In fact, you might find it easier to learn how to be a DM by reading articles and forums online instead.

All DMs should have a copy of the Monster Manual, though. This is filled with stats for DnD monsters, which you’ll need if you want to run encounters for players.

Dungeon Masters can also buy books filled with pre-written DnD campaigns or one-off adventures (also called DnD one shots). If you don’t feel ready to create your own world or story, these are a helpful time-saver. Wizards of the Coast publishes many official adventures, but third-party publishers and members of the community also offer excellent options.

For absolute beginners, we recommend picking up one of the official D&D starter sets. These include a streamlined version of the rules, plus a pre-written adventure designed to teach newcomers how to play.

Other players

Dungeons and Dragons is a multiplayer game, so you’ll need a group of willing participants to play. The ideal number of players is four to six (plus one Dungeon Master).

It’s possible to play with two or three players, or even seven or more. The ‘balance’ of adventures may feel different with groups that are too small or too large, though. Larger groups will find combat takes longer and is too easy, while tiny groups may have the opposite problem.

If you have friends who want to try D&D, then great! All you need to do is decide who will be the Dungeon Master. Not everyone has a willing group ready to go, though.

Luckily, there are plenty of communities out there (in person and online) filled with people itching to play D&D. Local game stores often host games specifically designed for new players, and plenty of D&D social media groups include ‘find a game’ forums.

DnD dice

In Dungeons and Dragons, almost everything you do is determined by dice rolls. A DnD dice set includes the following dice, each named after the number of sides they have:

D4 – A small, pyramid-shaped die that’s most commonly used to calculate damage
D6 – ‘The regular die’ that’s used in many board games
D8 – Used for rolls like damage and regaining hit points
D10 – Some dice sets include two D10s, which can be rolled together to create a D100
D12 – If you’re very lucky, you’ll get to roll this die for damage or healing
D20 – Used for most general rolls in D&D, including attacking, casting spells, and attempting skills

Maps and miniatures

Most of D&D is played out in the ‘theater of the mind’, which is a fancy term that means your imagination. The Dungeon Master describes a scene, and the players act out how they respond to their environment. This is largely freeform, and you don’t need to do much tracking (other than the odd note of something important said in conversation).

However, the combat and exploration sides of D&D can get pretty fiddly. For these sections of the game, a Dungeon Master might want to use DnD maps and DnD miniatures to represent where the characters are and where they’re standing. This helps everyone understand how far they are away from enemies, how far they can shoot an arrow, what rooms they’ve visited in a building, and so on.

Maps and miniatures don’t have to be fancy. Many committed D&D players will use websites like Hero Forge to create custom minis of their character, but a simple token or object will do. For example, in our early games, we used Monopoly pieces to represent our characters.

The same goes for maps. A sheet of paper or a whiteboard with drawings on can be just as useful as a specially printed map. We advise using graph paper that has squares on it, as these can help you track distances more easily.

DnD character sheet

All key information about the character you’re playing is written on a character sheet. This includes their DnD stats and abilities, as well as any backstory you’ve come up with. See our dedicated guide to DnD character sheets for advice on where to find these and how to fill them out.

How to create a D&D character

If you’d like a step-by-step tutorial for creating your first Dungeons and Dragons character, we have a complete DnD character creator guide that can help. For a shorter version of this, here’s the key rules you need to understand to create a D&D character:

Classes

The first, and biggest, decision to make is your character’s class.

Your character’s class is akin to their role in the world, as well as their calling. It influences their available skills and abilities. You might choose to be a Wizard who studies arcane scripts to cast powerful DnD spells, or prefer to be a sneaky Rogue who’s adept at quietly outwitting the enemy. Class is the primary determining factor of what your character will be able to do – both in battle and out.

For a more comprehensive rundown, check out our guides to each individual DnD class:

Races

The second big choice to consider is your character’s DnD race (soon to be renamed species by Wizards of the Coast). D&D’s vast fantasy world is replete with all manner of creatures, including Elves, Dwarves, Dragonborn, and more. Your choice of race will also impact your character’s abilities, although not to the same extent as your class.

There are a huge number of races to choose from, but for your first character, we recommend choosing one of the basic options from the Player’s Handbook:

Ability scores

All D&D characters have six ability scores that influence gameplay:

Strength – How strong your attacks are and how much you can carry
Dexterity – How well you can fire a ranged weapon or dodge damage
Constitution – How many hits you can take in a fight
Intelligence – How knowledgeable you are
Wisdom – ‘Street smarts’ that helps you understand people and places better
Charisma – Covers all sorts of social skills

When creating a character, you’ll assign different numbers to these scores, which gives you ability score modifiers. These are added to various dice rolls you make in the game. Ability scores can be increased by other character options (like races), and they change as you level up. They also affect how good you are at various DnD skills (see our guide for more information).

Equipment and spells

If you’re planning to battle enemies, you’ll need DnD weapons and some DnD armor. Alternatively, you might learn to cast spells that are useful in and outside of combat.

How long a D&D game takes

Dungeons and Dragons games are split into ‘sessions’. A ‘one-shot’ might play out over one or two sessions, while a ‘campaign’ can span as many as you like.

You can make a D&D session as long or short as you like, but a typical session might last between two and six hours. A campaign’s length can also be flexible – some may end after a few weeks, while others are still going after several years.

When organizing a game of D&D, it’s important to agree as a group how often you’ll play. Will you meet once a week or once a month, for example? Scheduling will play a big role in how long games last.

Playing Dungeons and Dragons

Broadly speaking, gameplay in D&D can be split into three categories:

Roleplay

‘Roleplay’ covers everything that happens between dice rolls. This includes conversations player-characters have with NPCs (usually played by the Dungeon Master) or with each other. Players might also create plans and describe their actions in more detail as part of roleplay.

Exploration

Much of D&D involves exploring a location. This might be a single house, an entire city, or even a map of a much larger section of land. Your goal in these places might differ, too. Perhaps you’re investigating a house to try and solve a murder, or you’re trying to cross a wilderness to find your way home.

Whatever your aim is and wherever you are, the gameplay will follow the same structure. The Dungeon Master will describe a location, including the people and objects in it. This will be followed by some version of the question ‘what do you want to do?’.

At this point, players will suggest actions they may wish to perform. This might be looking at an object in more detail, or interacting with something or someone in the room. Performing these actions will lead to dice rolls and consequences that shape what the players do next. This might lead to one of the two other categories.

Combat

When players encounter hostile creatures or characters, combat begins. First, everyone makes an Initiative roll to decide who acts in what order. The DM rolls Initiative for monsters and adds them to the turn order.

When it’s your turn, you can perform one action and one bonus action, and you can move up to your character’s maximum speed (for example, 30 feet). Basic combat actions, spells, and class-specific abilities will tell you whether they cost an action or a bonus action. Additionally, you can perform one reaction per round if the right conditions are much (such as with DnD opportunity attacks).

Attacks against enemies usually require you to roll a d20 and add the relevant ability score modifiers (plus your proficiency bonus). To hit, the result must be higher than your target’s armor class. Some spells instead ask the target to roll a saving throw, which is still a d20 roll, but with the relevant saving throw modifier added instead.

When everyone has taken a turn in combat, the round is over, and the first person in the Initiative order takes their next turn. Combat ends when the threat has been neutralized. This might be when all enemies (or players) are dead, unconscious, or running away to safety.

How to play D&D online

If you want to play D&D online, the rules and gameplay remain the same. The only difference is the tools you’ll use to get the game going.

Since you’re not sitting around a physical table, your group will need something to represent the maps and miniatures you’d usually use to play. Virtual tabletops are applications that simulate the feeling of sitting at a tabletop. There are a range of virtual tabletops out there (our guide lists some of the best options).

One is more popular than the rest, however – Roll20. This is a free, browser-based application that features everything you might need to play a tabletop RPG.

Roll20 lets you buy digital books, find online groups to play with, upload maps and tokens, fill out character sheets, and even roll dice. It can also do things a physical tabletop can’t, such as play music or add animations to your games. Because it has so many capabilities, learning to use Roll20 can be quite complex, so be sure to check out our guide for a walkthrough.

For more tutorials, here’s how to play Magic: The Gathering. Or, for more Dungeons and Dragons, here’s everything releasing on this year’s DnD release schedule.