D&D Beginner

[magintz]

Hey guys.  I'm being taken into a D&D game in a week for my first time to make up the numbers, I think I'm going to enjoy it but have no idea about anything; I've played Baldur's Gate but that's as close as it comes:P

Does anyone have any good tips or web-links to make me understand what goes on so the first game runs smoothly.  Also does anyone have any character suggestions and how do I go about creating one.

It's not going to be really geeky like in the movies is it?

Ta,
Maggie

[LGM]

Depends on who you play with, really. I played a long time ago when I was in 7th grade. My first time wasn't too eventful. You build a character by rolling dice and such. I don't really have any tips other than don't be a halfling, it sucks.

The first day is usually devoted to either introducing you into the campaign somehow, or just watching others play so you can get the jist of what's been going on. If they're a good group, they'll be very helpful in explaining things. Since I was young and my group was a bunch of high school nerds, they weren't very helpful to me.

Hopefully Evil stumbles upon this thread because he started playing with that group after I left so his working knowledge is probably fresher than mine.

As long as these aren't hardcore nerd D&D players, you should be fine. Be sure to bring some chips or soda or both, though, they love that shit.

[evenwolf]

My friend took me to play D&D and I was a non-human druid or a warlock - basically I was an evil munchkin wearing a cloak.

The party kept getting pissed at me because they'd be asking townspeople for information while I bit the heads off of rabbits and peed down chimneys.    The game seriously pissed me off because nobody ever actually roleplayed with me.    Everyone was omnipotent about everything I did in secret.

I'd be outside chewing the hooves off everyone's horses while they were asleep, and still they *knew* to roll for "run outside and stop the guy from eating our horses".      The game is such mamsy - pamsy shit.     Roleplay my ass.


I would have had fun if there was ANY tolerance for goofing off.   Serious D&D is not for me.

[TwinMoon]

@evenwolf: You should've been with the group I've been with, we would have loved it. Although I probably wouldn't be able to stop laughing   Ok, I admit it, I'm a geek.

@magintz: Unless they have the fascist tendency to check the rulebooks every time you ask a question you should be allright.
The group of people I played it with were very considerate towards newbies. Anyway, the first session always was about discussing who would play what.

And don't forget the crisps of course 

[evenwolf]

Hahaha, you know you would have metagamed if I was eating your horse's hooves.   That night was pretty awesome just from improvising and testing the GM's brain.

But everybody else - I can't explain the joy they received from playing it because I honestly can't empathize.   Just rolling dice over and over and leveling up mindlessly.    Imagine watching a movie of one of these D&D games...   it would be like LOTR starring the Borgs from Star Trek.

[m0ds]

Just be like "Hi I'm and my best friend is and I'm new to this but has given me a helping hand so I want to go through with it."

[Seleceus]

  Check out this site:  http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric/, and download the pdf (link on the right-side of the page).  This is a very nice compilation of the basic rules (nearly identical to anything TSR published) and it's free!  Keep in mind that these look like the ones I used to play with (pre-2nd Edition) so they may seem dated, but will still give you good insight.

  Advice for the new player:  Until you're comfortable with the rules, and how a particular group plays (especially the DM/GM), keep it simple or you won't have any fun.  Avoid spell-casters, if you can, for the first couple characters you play.  Only start playing multi/dual Class characters until you have played each Class individually.
  Just like school, have your paper and pencils (definitely NOT pens), dice if you've got 'em (if not just borrow for a few games), and be prepared for a long session.  As most have said here, take snacks and beverages.

  Speaking as a long-time player, your experience will depend entirely upon the group you're with.  Personally, I've played with folks from nearly every extreme.  Fastidious rule-followers to 'dice-never-hit-the-table' types, dead-serious to 'monty hall' (just ask someone in the group, they'll know what it means), each has it's merits and pitfalls.  Whatever happens for you, don't judge the game by the first group you play with.

Have fun!

P.S.  Halflings aren't 'that' bad.  Really.  You just have to find something to hide behind...alot!

[jetxl]

As a player I'm there for comic releaf. I once had this awesome half giant character in a dark sun campaign that touched eveything with his balls. And this was before tea bagging in halo. The combat in my group isn't that smooth. There isn't much team play and it always feels like everbody just fights for his own survival.

As a DM I'm very lazy. You can do anything as long as I don't have read into the rules. So Evenwolf you can eat as many horse shoes as you like, though you are most likely to encounter another adventuring group that wants your bounty for hurting the horsies. If you can stop them (by paying them off or killing them, whatever) then you're off the hook.

If you're new to the game, I'd suggest a fighter since they are very straight forward. The best fighter in D&D 3 edition is the barbarian class. Since a high strength score is key for fighters you could pick the half orc race, that or just be a human with no bonus and penalty points.

The new 4th edition that's just out dropped both the barbarian class and the half orc race (only to be added later on in additional books, I'm sure). I don't know much about the new new edition since it just came out last week or so, but it looks fun to me. My group will most likely stick to 3.5 for another few years before even looking into 4th edition.

[Andail]

I played a lot of D&D in my mid-teens. I had an elf who could dodge arrows and speak with unicorns, and other awesomely corny crap.

[Tuomas]

Geeks

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The party kept getting pissed at me because they'd be asking townspeople for information while I bit the heads off of rabbits and peed down chimneys.    The game seriously pissed me off because nobody ever actually roleplayed with me.    Everyone was omnipotent about everything I did in secret.

I'd be outside chewing the hooves off everyone's horses while they were asleep, and still they *knew* to roll for "run outside and stop the guy from eating our horses".      The game is such mamsy - pamsy shit.     Roleplay my ass.


I would have had fun if there was ANY tolerance for goofing off.   Serious D&D is not for me.

It really sounds to me like all you wanted to do was goof off and be an ass to attract attention.  I've played it with people that were just dumb jerks the entire game doing pointless things to either attract attention to themselves or be knobs and the end result was ruining the fun for everyone else.  D&D isn't about immersing yourself in a random persona so you can do every puerile thing you can't get away with in reality, it's about imagining yourself in another time as some kind of hero/villain/neutral person surrounded by fantastic things that, for them, is commonplace.

If I'd been GM'ing at that game I would've thrown my d20s at you! 

[magintz]

@evenwolf: I hope they aren't too geeky and take some messing around as a joke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9FMURHhgzc&feature=related
I'll try to spend most of the game on the bench though till I get more comfortable with everyone.

@Seleceus: Thanks for the link, I'll have a read this weekend.

Does anyone know a few basic classes and races that are a good place to start?

[evenwolf]

isn't about immersing yourself in a random persona so you can do every puerile thing you can't get away with in reality, it's about imagining yourself in another time as some kind of hero/villain/neutral person surrounded by fantastic things that, for them, is commonplace.

Yeah but you're simply leaving out the level of detail of interaction.  I wasn't being an ass as you stated.   I was exploring the given environment more thoroughly than anyone else.   I was sticking my hand down tree stumps rather than just walk past trees trees trees.    For my first night I didn't know what to expect so I really looked for the termites in the trees, so to speak.     

[Ryan Timothy B]

I was sticking my hand down tree stumps rather than just walk past trees trees trees.

I've never played, nor have I seen anyone playing (other than in my old school seeing the table of geeks in the cafeteria -- damn they would get excited while playing that game).

But is it really that detailed where it explains where you are and what you're doing, and the possibilities of what you 'could' do with the roll of the dice?  Or was that just an exaggeration?

[Seleceus]

Magintz:  You're welcome.

Ryan:  A game session, or campaign, is only as detailed and rich as the DM (Dungeon Master) is capable of imagining.  Designing a world for the players is a very intensive project, even at it's most rudimentary.  So, the cleverer the person running the game, the better.  As far as needing to constantly use those infamous d20's (20-sided dice, for the uninitiated) is another quirk of the DM. 
  D&D, or ANY pencil and paper rpg for that matter, is an exercise in imagination.  If you can think it, you can attempt it.  The DM is the one who ultimately decides what's possible.  The dice are just there to provide a random outcome.
  So, no, it's not an exaggeration.

[blueskirt]

Sorry for this wall of text, I put my reply to Evenwolf and Ryan on the top, tips for magintz are just below.

Evenwolf and Ryan:

But everybody else - I can't explain the joy they received from playing it because I honestly can't empathize.   Just rolling dice over and over and leveling up mindlessly.

Some people like the roleplaying aspect, other loves battles that are a bit more tactical than your usual computer or console RPGs, for other, it's the cheer freedom to be able to do anything you want, put in a gaming context (imagine how it would be to play an adventure game with a text parser that would react and/or generate a funny answer for litteraly everything, actions or dialogues, you supplied it, not a single unrecognized word or verb). Personally, I like all aspect of the game.

In term of interaction, you are not limited to killing every monsters and leveling up. You can interact with every objects in your surrounding, and get a reaction from the GM for it. Most obstacles won't be monsters in a tabletop RPG, and all of your stats, skills, spells and items can be used outside battle as well, you can cast spells on your environment, not only on monsters, you can sneak past obstacles, solve them intelligently or creatively, you can use diplomacy or bluff to escape tricky situations, you can create overkillingly complex traps to kill monsters (not unlike those in Scooby-doo) or Rube Goldberg devices to solve other situations, you can desguise yourself or ask a minion to do it for you, or, you know, you can just slay the crap out of the monsters if that's what you really want to do.

In term of storytelling, you don't have to play the mandatory PC with spiky hairs and killed parents/girlfriend a game is forcing you to play, you can play absolutly any character with any physical aspect, sex, morality, personality, flaws, qualities and quirks you want. You are free to do absolutly anything you want morally speaking (as long you don't badly ruin the GM's campaign), and affect the story accordingly or suffer the consequences, good or bad, of your acts. Sometimes, interactions from players end up creating big subplots the GM hadn't envisioned at first, sometimes players take the ball tell the story themselves by talking and interracting with others, for the joy of the GM, who can sit back and become a spectator. Storytelling and multilinearity in video games might be more advanced nowaday, but it will never beat a game where a GM and his PCs tell the story directly.

The only limit to what you can do in a tabletop RPG is your imagination and what your GM is willing to accept. I read something on Slashdot once, which sum very well the level of freedom you can have in a tabletop RPG:

My character is standing watch one night while the rest of the party is sleeping. A lone goblin approaches.
Me: I toss a marshmallow to the goblin
*DM looks at we strangely for a moment*: the goblin pokes the marshmallow with his spear and then sticks it into his mouth
Me: I cast Enlarge on the marshmallow.
*everyone falls out of their chairs*

A tabletop RPG, with serious players and a good GM is all you need to show how primitive video games are in term of interaction, storytelling, interactive storytelling, freedom and non-linearity.

magintz:

I can't really help you if you want to be the GM, but if you are only a player, I'd say the first games will be about introducing the campaign and the characters. I doubt you'll go that much into the rules right away, also, the GM will most likely manage all the rules needs for the first few games.

That being said, if you truly end up liking the group and consider playing on a regular basis, I suggest you get a copy of the Player's Handbook and read all the revelent parts for your character (classes, races, feats, skills, items, battle mechanics, and the 100 pages or so related to spell casting in case you happen to be a spell caster) as it's going to help you in leveling your character, tell you what you can do and what you cannot do, and speed up the battles as you won't have to ask other people what to roll during battles and won't try to do things that cannot be done in the rules (and you might be able help other people with their rolls and the rules).

If your character isn't created already, I suggest you ask some info about the campaign to your GM, in order to be more useful in the game. If most of the campaign will be spend in the wilderness, you might want to play a Ranger or a Druid who are more useful in that kind of environment. If a lot of the action is spend in an urban setting, a Bard or a Rogue might be more useful than a Ranger. In a dungeon however, all character classes are equally useful.

Also, ask the other players what classes they are playing in order to be more effective in the game but also that everyone feel equally useful. A party of 4 players generally only need a meat shield, a spell caster, a healer and a skillful guy and one of them need to be a diplomat. While having more than one fighters or spellcaster never hurt as these come in different style and flavors, having two Clerics or two Thiefs in a small party will makes both players seems less useful as they will share their role with somebody else.

Here are some tips I suggest you to follow anytime you play with a completly different group:

Before the campaign begins, check what the other players are looking for in the game. All players are here for fun, but the idea of fun vary from player to player, some players love to roleplay, other loves to roll dices, some loves the tactical battles, some loves to escape situation intelligently... It's important that you don't just love one activity and aren't alone in your group to love an activity because there are chance you will be bored anytime you aren't doing what you like to do. Sometimes entire sessions are spend roleplaying, sometimes entire sessions are spend battling or sneaking past monsters... A good group should try to reach a common ground about fun, and players should learn to love more than one activity in a tabletop RPG. If your group like roleplaying but you don't, try at least to roleplay a simple, one dimentionnal character, so you aren't completly left out when other players are roleplaying.

Also, for the first campaign, I'd suggest your character to be about the same alignment as the other players' characters. In a party of good characters, players who play a chaotic evil character who kills and robs absolutly everyone in sight, PCs included, tend to be annoying, get in a lot of arguments in their own group and become loner or just give up the game altogether. On the other side, in a party of players who have no problem bending the law for their advantages, people who play stick-in-the-butt paladin who police everyone, PCs included, tend to be annoying as well. All players having the same alignment, either all goody-do-gooder, all law bender or all jerks (as long they don't backstab each others) will reduce the amount of argument and bickering between players and also help to create this party family feeling. If all player's characters aren't of the same alignment, I suggest that your character is of the same alignment of the majority of the other players' characters. It is easier to be in the group than be the loner of the group.

Also, if you know and are friend with every other players, I'd suggest, if it's the first game for many players, that you ask your GM if it's possible to not have to roleplay the characters introduction, and just use the "You are a bunch of childhood friends who decided to go on an adventure!" introduction careless of how illogic it might be, it's generally the easiest way to create a party family feeling.

This whole party family feeling is important because it's when you reach this state that fun begins. When players and characters feel like a family rather than a bunch of loner forced to work with each other, jokes, running gags and funny situation between PCs abound, you don't mind dying for another player or saving their butt from tricky situation even if it's their own stupidity who put them there in the first place, more importantly, when players have a lot of expericence as a family under their belt, it is easier to play characters with clashing personalities in later campaigns.

[Evil]

I used to play quiet a bit in junior high. I knew a bit about the game, but the best way to play as a beginner is to have a few silly games with friends who play a lot. We always tried crazy, crazy stunts when we played. Like throwing a pint of alcohol on someone and trying to light them on fire with a flaming arrow. Or pickpocketing everyone in a pub, sometimes three or four times if we kept getting caught, which always resulted in a bar fight. All of which made our quests 10 times as long.

Ryan: Yeah, it sort of depends on who you're playing with. If you like pillaging and trying to tickle Orcs instead of killing them, that's fine as long as everyone else thinks it's funny too. Switching up DM always helps too. If one DM is more straight forward, have someone else DM thats a little more wild. Usually the other DM will be a bit more open too. Plus, there are two types of people that play D&D. There are the ones who goof off the whole time, and those who just want to play buy the rules and nothing more.

Those people are also the ones who find a loophole in every task you give them. "Well, I'm a half-wood-elf at level blah dee blah, so that means I can breath under water, and blah blah blah, so now your quest is ruined, Harry! Blah de blah!" Never play with more than one of these people. One is not recommended, either.

P.S.  Halflings aren't 'that' bad.  Really.  You just have to find something to hide behind...alot!

I don't really have any tips other than don't be a halfling, it sucks.

I was always a Halfling! Those are the best! Not only can you hide really well, but you can steal things. And isn't that the best part? Don't tell me you played Elder Scrolls and didn't walk around stealing everything from everyone.

Halfling Rogue is the way to go, my friend. Especially if there is a larger character with you, because you can ride them or hide in their coats.

Well, the best advice I can give you Magintz is to go to the Wizards of the Coast website and download the character sheet PDFs. The local library will sometimes have a Players Handbook which will help a lot, but you can find them online in torrent form or maybe even on those PDF book search things. Pick something basic, like a Human, an Elf, a Gnome, whatever you're happy with. Fighters are good, Rouges are good,  Bards, Barbarians, Ranger, even Clerics are good. Paladins are not. Also, don't shank yourself will the rolling of stats. If you get a really bad stat, roll again. No one other than the super Nerds will care. -1 is fine, but shoot for at least 0's.

Also, the best place to get help is from the players themselves. Most of them are happy to help you and tell you all of the rules.

[Oliwerko]

Does anyone know a few basic classes and races that are a good place to start?

I've never applied this approach on my playing. In any RPG I always play what I would like to be, not what is good for what. That is the role play in it. While it is definitely easier to be a warrior than to be a warlock, I would go for the warlock if I thought it suited me well, despite the difficulties I may face.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Paladins are excellent, Evil.  Shut your face!

[Huw Dawson]

The only word of warning I can give is this - DnD REQUIRES a group of people who can all work together and with the DM.

I played for a few weeks with a good DM, but the oldest player used the exercise to act up. The problem was that the other two players did nothing. So it ended up being a competition between me and this older player to play the game properly. I just quit after a while - even staying at home is more fun than being mocked by a DnD group for wanting to go into the ruins when they're just going to wander down lollipop lane...

- Huw