How Do You Play Dungeons And Dragons?
 

So going to a... comic/game/miniature shop... thing... today, I watched a friend play table-top Warhammer with his miniatures. The whole thing seemed needlessly complicated and involved the use of measuring implements that I had never seen before. Anyways, while I was down there, I managed to have a peek at the newest Dungeons and Dragons manuals.

Now I've DnD'd afore, but that was under... less than amiable circumstances, with an easily distracted DM and didn't last for very long. I am still interested in the game, though not particularly interested in messing around with miniatures. What I'm interested in is writing and, if possible, DMing my own campaign. I have a very basic understanding of the game, but have access to a few manuals.

What's the best way to get started in DnD, and make it a fun experience for other players?

Know the group you're playing with, know your own personal playstyle preference, and have a good DM.

The first one, because if you have two hack n' slashers in a game with two serious role players and a rules lawyer, well, someone's getting bored somewhere, and it's probably going to be the hack n' slashers during the RP scenes, and the RPers during the fights, and the rules lawyer any time he can't hold a book and cry, cry, cry.

The second one, because you don't want to find out you're a die-hard RPer in the middle of a game of four other hack n' slashers.

The third one, if good enough, can honestly bring down any of the aforementioned difficulties. I've seen a DM bring together an extremely varied pack of players, all looking for something different in the game, and make them have fun. Just don't let that give you the idea that being a good player isn't at least as important, because he only got through it due to a certain level of tolerance and off-table negotiations with the players.

Ideally, just go into it to have fun, and you should be fine. Don't judge people, mainly, don't eyeball the RPers when they get into character, don't look down on the hack n' slashers just because they're getting into the fights (Unless they're starting to sound like a group of Halo kids), and try not to be too demanding of the DMs time.

McTarh pretty much covered what you need. Have a good imagination and you're set to go.

I'm sure I'm not the only person on this board who has played campaigns without any miniatures before. All you really need is a piece of paper, if even that. For me miniatures are just a good way of keeping track of things. If your party and DM are not overtly fussed with minature placement and combat rules, a piece of paper or even better a whiteboard are more than enough to lay out things in combat.

And if you find any of the rules overtly complex or time consuming? Throw them out and make your own. It's one of the most powerful tools you can do with P&P roleplaying.

To be honest if you're going to want to play D&D without miniatures your best bet is to go back to a previous edition. 4th Ed. is built around miniature use with the measurements and powers mostly central to where figures are on a board or mat. I personally don't mind this since it really helps the players get a sense of where things are in combat, I don't have to keep telling people fluctuating distances every time they ask or disappoint someone by saying "well you thought they were this far but you are wrong so you can't do that," and I feel it gives a nice solid structure to the combat system that is less amusable.

It's sad really because 4th ed. offers a lot in the way of free-form roleplaying outside of combat. But yeah, if you're against the minis you can always give 3.5 a try. I was never much of a fan but there are still a lot of people who swear by it and several more who haven't made the jump over yet.

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned that. Previous editions of D&D are pretty playable without miniatures. 4th is much more miniature oriented than previous additions.

I would also recommend 3.5!

We've always played relatively informally. For the longest time we had no miniatures and even no board to track PC/NPC position. I just winged it all in my head and the players had to visualize in tune. Ah, those were the headache days.

Then our group invested in a big whiteboard, and now I draw world maps, local maps, and battle maps, and we track player movement with poker chips or miniatures as they become available. I quite like this upgrade, to the point where we've considered purchasing a second whiteboard.

But our group hasn't played in about a year. So I guess my final answer is, I don't play D&D. :(

you don't need to use miniatures, you can just use little scraps of paper, or dice, or a really old wad of gum. The point is that combat is a lot easier to keep track of with a visual aid, after 15 rounds of melee with 4 players characters and 17 goblins of various character classes and levels, you'll probably understand the value of this.

Of course if you're not interested in combat tactics then you probably don't need any of that, just roll a bunch of dice I guess.

Yeah, miniatures are really just up to personal appeal. You can get by in 4ed with SweetTarts and Smarties for all it matters, and it makes clean-up fruitilicious!

I played 2.0 without any sort of miniatures whatsoever, with the DM having simple graph paper maps for personal reference. I have no idea why, considering how often she broke physics in an attempt to divide and kill everyone (kinda killed the experience for me), but her brother kept track of maps much the same way and managed to keep it fun on the occasions he hosted, instead.

I'd imagine 3.5 works much the same way from all the books of it we inexplicably own.

You kill it, you eat it.

3.5 works fine without miniatures, you just have to make sure you're all on the same page. A whiteboard works, or in smaller groups just descriptions are fine. Prepare to ask if opponent a is within 25 ft a lot, though.

4E, I wouldn't dare try it without a grid. Although that may be worth an experiment for that test session I'm running...