How to play Dungeons and Dragons for beginners

How do you play Dungeons and Dragons? The good news is that it’s way easier than you might think. This guide includes everything you need to learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons, including a step-by-step guide to creating a character, rolling dice, and how to play D&D online.

We’ll explain what DnD classes and DnD races are, as these are crucial for building a 5e character. We’ll also walk you through the basics of roleplaying, dice-rolling, and what a Dungeons and Dragons game actually looks like.

How to play Dungeons and Dragons:

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

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 learn how to play D&D, you’ll need:

Rulebooks

While the basics of D&D are simple, there are enough smaller rules to fill multiple hundred-page rulebooks. Thankfully, you won’t be expected to remember every rule while playing, and it’s common to remind yourself how a mechanic works mid-play by looking it up.

We recommend that at least one person in your group has a copy of the following DnD books:

Player’s Handbook – Explains the core gameplay rules, including character classes and races.
Dungeon Master’s Guide – Additional rules and advice for the DM that’s running the game.
Monster Manual – A collection of stat blocks that the DM can use to build combat encounters.

The Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide were both released in 2024, but there are 2014 versions of both books. However, we’d recommend picking up the new editions if you don’t already own the Dungeons and Dragons rules.

The core rules for Dungeons and Dragons are the same in both rulebooks, but there have been plenty of minor changes in the newer versions. Weaker classes have been upgraded, and new DnD magic items are available, for example.

A new version of the Monster Manual is also on the way, but this won’t launch until February 2025. If you can’t wait that long to run a game, the 2014 Monster Manual is perfectly compatible with the 2024 rulebooks.

If you’re not ready to invest serious money, you can also find free versions of the basic rules on the dedicated D&D website, D&DBeyond. Alternatively, you can also pick up a cheap D&D starter set that’s specifically designed to teach D&D for beginners. This gives DMs a streamlined version of the rules, plus a pre-written adventure they can run straight out of the box.

Players

The ideal number of D&D players is four to six (plus one Dungeon Master). It’s possible to play with two or three players, or even seven or more. However, larger groups will find combat takes longer and is too easy, while tiny groups may have the opposite problem.

If you don’t have a group of willing friends to join your party, 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

A DnD dice set includes a D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20. Each of these is named after the number of sides it has. If you don’t have a physical DnD dice set, you can also find dice rollers and random number generators online.

Maps and miniatures

Most of D&D is played out in the ‘theater of the mind’, which is a fancy term for 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.

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 and enemies are standing.

Many committed D&D players will use websites like Hero Forge to create custom minis of their character, but any 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 make a Dungeons and Dragons 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 are the key rules you need to understand to create a D&D character:

Classes

Your character’s class is akin to their role in the world, as well as their calling. Class is the primary determining factor of what your character will be able to do – both in battle and out.

The core D&D classes are:

These 12 classes can be found in the Player’s Handbook, but they aren’t your only options. The Artificer 5e can be found in an optional book, and D&DBeyond features rules for popular third-party classes, such as the DnD Blood Hunter. However, these extra classes are quite complex, so we’d recommend sticking to the core 12 until you’ve fully learned how to play D&D.

Races

The second big choice to consider is your character’s race (also known as species). 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 DnD 2024 backgrounds), 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 DnD 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 DnD one-shot might play out over one or two sessions, while a DnD 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 lasts 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

When playing Dungeons and Dragons, the DM begins by narrating a scene. Players then suggest actions their characters take in response to the scenario, and then the DM decides if any dice need to be rolled to resolve the outcome. 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 explained above. 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 met (such as with DnD opportunity attacks).

Attacks against enemies usually require you to roll a d20 and add the relevant modifiers. 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.

Important D&D terms

Learning how to play Dungeons and Dragons involves picking up all sorts of new jargon. Here’s a condensed list of the most important D&D terms you need to know:

Ability scores – Six numbers that affect almost every dice roll in the game. These decide your character’s Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
Actions – In combat, characters can take actions, bonus actions, and reactions to interact with their surroundings.
Alignment – Your character’s DnD alignment represents how good or evil they are, as well as how chaotic or lawful they are.
Armor class – This number represents how hard it is to hit your character with an attack. Your Dexterity ability score and the armor you’re wearing can modify it.
Backgrounds – Your choice of background helps explain your character’s backstory, and it offers specific ability score boosts and extra abilities.
Hit points – The maximum amount of damage a character can take before they risk dying. These can be restored by resting or using healing spells and potions.
Initiative – The order in which characters take turn in combat. Every character has an initiative bonus, which they add to a d20 roll to calculate their Initiative.
Levels – Every player’s character has a level from one to 20 that decides how powerful they are. Characters gain new abilities and grow stronger with each DnD level up.
NPCs – Non-Player Characters that are typically controlled by the DM (though not always). NPCs tend to be friendly characters – any hostile creature is referred to as a DnD monster.
Proficiency bonus – A modifier that’s added to certain dice rolls (for example, +2 or +3). This number is decided by a character’s level.
Saving throw – Characters make saving throws when they are trying to avoid a negative effect, such as a spell or attack.
Stat blocks – All the key information about a monster that a DM needs to control them in combat. It includes things like hit points, armor class, and special attacks.
Subclasses – Once a character reaches level three, they can be customized further by choosing one of these subtypes, which offers unique extra rules.

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.