1. Introduction

“Welcome to the world of Dungeons & Dragons!”

Hello.  This is the D&D Players Academy, where new and aspiring players of the popular game, Dungeons and Dragons, can learn the ins and outs of the game.  My name is Carl, and I will be your guide. This site’s target audience will be shiny, brand-new, greenest-of-green players. Players who never played before and don’t even own a set of dice. There will also be tips and techniques for DMs as well. What’s a “DM?” We will get to that…

If you are a veteran player, most of this site probably isn’t for you. You probably know most of this stuff already.  However, if you know somebody who hasn’t played and he or she is looking to start (or has just started and he or she is feeling overwhelmed with the whole thing), send them this way! Also, check out the DM Techniques section. Some good stuff in there if you DM!

Back to the show…

So, you’re thinking about trying Dungeons and Dragons? I think that’s great!  Dungeons and Dragons (or “D&D,” sometimes written as “DnD”) is one of most popular games/hobbies/pastimes.  It’s part of our culture now, like Monopoly or Scrabble.  Perhaps not everyone has played it, but everyone has heard of it – kind of like Parcheesi!  You’ve probably heard D&D referenced in some media, such as Stranger Things, Big Band Theory, or Airheads.

Although, it seems in media such as TV and movies, D&D is typically portrayed in a negative light as a thing only socially awkward people do. Rest assured, that is not how it is anymore.

Perhaps you have heard the good things about it, though!  Maybe you have friends or neighbors who play. You hear them tell stories of their adventures and antics.  They tell their tales with genuine enthusiasm and excitement. You want to try it, but even though you’ve heard the media references and heard the stories, you really don’t know much about it other than it’s some kind of game in a medieval setting with warriors, wizards, traps, monsters, and magic spells. Sounds worth trying at least, right?

But…if you never played D&D, or know anyone who has, the task of learning how to play it can be quite intimidating. I get it. I mean, when you look at rules for board games, they are typically 1 or 2 pages long. Maybe a more complex game might be 3 or 4 pages. Typical board games are designed to be quick to learn. The D&D Player’s Handbook is an actual, hardcover book that spans 316 pages. Yes, three-hundred sixteen.

Oh. Em. Gee.

On top of that, if you’ve been doing some preliminary research, you might’ve come across a swath of other things people use for D&D: minis, miniature terrain, maps, battle mats, DM screens, dice towers, dice trays, character art, and tons of other trinkets and nick-knacks. Wow. Where or how does one even start? You’re buried before you even rolled a die! This looks like a herculean task here, acquiring and learning all this stuff, right?

Well, you can do it, and I’m here to help you get started. And the FIRST thing I’ll tell you is: you don’t need all those nick-knacks, trinkets, and accessories. There are nice to have, fun to make (if you enjoy crafts), and might make your game a bit more immersive. But bottom line–they are all ultimately unnecessary–especially if you are just starting out. I plan to address many of those accessories at some point, but right now, the goal is to get you started with the easiest and simplest things int he game as well as demystify the game. As you gain experience playing the game, you’ll naturally pick-up on the rules as you go along and become more adept at the game–kind of like the character you will be playing! Before you know it, you’ll be good all this, and won’t need this site anymore! But please keep visiting! =)

Who Am I?

Am I an OG D&D player who started playing in the 1970’s, who has played all editions, and has all the rules memorized?  No.  Kudos to those who have those credentials. 

I’m just an average, middle-aged guy who started playing in the late 90’s, plays now, reads the books, and spends lots of time thinking about the game. It’s currently my favorite pastime. Most of my limited free time is spent doing things related to D&D. You read that right. You can work on things related to D&D even if there isn’t an active game going on.

Why Do I Play?

I play D&D for a few reasons. D&D is a game where what can happen is only limited by the imaginations of the participants, which is almost equivalent to saying there are no limits as to what can happen. I consider myself a little bit of a creative person, and D&D scratches the creative itch for me.

Growing up, I loved watching fantasy adventure movies. I’m aging myself here, but as a kid, I always thought the stop-motion creatures of the old movies were the coolest things.

• The tyrannosaurus rex from King Kong (1933)
• The cyclops and dragon from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
• The harpies and animated skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
• The centaur, griffon, and Kali statue from The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
• The troglodyte, minoton, and smilodon from Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
• Medusa, Pegusus, giant scorpions, and the 2-headed dog from The Clash of the Titans (1981)
• The Eborsisk from Willow (1988)

It was awesome seeing the characters in those movies fighting and interacting those creatures. With D&D, when I play, I have a chance to do that too. And as a side note, almost all of those things mentioned above are officially statted-out creatures in D&D. Well, at least there’s something pretty close to them. And even better, almost all of those creatures, except the troglodyte and Eborisk, have their states available to use legally for free!

Maybe you’re a bit younger than me, and grew up loving the Lord of the Rings movies. Well, things like the wraiths (nazgul), orcs, crystal balls (palantirs), mithril armor, trolls, balor (balrog), treants (ents,) giant spiders (Shelob), swords that warn you when enemies are near (Sting), are in D&D and ready for you to encounter. Oh, their stats are also available legally for free!

Love the Harry Potter books and/or movies? Flying brooms, invisibility cloaks, owl familiars, goblins, basilisks, potions of water-breathing (gillyweed), hill giants (Grawp), hippogriffs, merfolk, philters of love (love potions), and liches (Voldomort) are in D&D (and also legally free).

Starting to see the appeal?

Another reason I play is that D&D is a creative outlet for me.  While I was growing up, I wanted to be a video game designer.  I would write down descriptions and draw all my ideas for video games I came up with.   I still have the notebook I started when I was 12 or 13 full of rudimentary System Reference Documents for games I thought up.  My career took a different turn to the IT field, so creating adventures, magic items, and monsters in D&D is the closest I come to designing something that people will actually play.  It’s a means of living my childhood dream.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, D&D is it time spent having fun with friends and family. The real world is a tough to slog through. Work, bills, and a myriad of daily problems that require you to be on the go constantly. D&D is a nice way to escape the pressures of everyday life for a few hours.

Final note, I will direct you to this YouTube video by game designer and author, Matt Colville. In the video, he explains it more eloquently and entertainingly than I can. If you an aspiring DM or even veteran DM, I can’t recommend his videos enough.