START YOUR D&D JOURNEY!
Dungeons & Dragons takes you and your friends on epic journeys. Become characters you create, battle deadly foes, uncover secrets, find treasure, and make memories that last a lifetime.
WHAT IS D&D?
In Dungeons & Dragons, the players form an adventuring party who explore fantasy worlds together, embark on epic quests, and level up. The Dungeon Master (also known as the DM) is the game's referee and lead storyteller.
The collective creativity in your D&D game builds stories that you’ll tell again and again—ranging from the stuff of legend to absurd incidents that’ll make you laugh.
HOW TO PLAY D&D
At its heart, D&D is a storytelling game. Everything is your decision, from what you look like, to what you say, to how you act. The dice just help you along.
In D&D, each player creates a heroic character to represent them in the game. They might be a skilled fighter, a devout cleric, a deadly rogue, a spellcasting wizard, or something else entirely!
Together, the Dungeon Master and players create an exciting story where their bold adventurers confront deadly perils. Both the DM and players use dice throughout the game to determine the outcome of certain actions.
PLAYING AS A CHARACTER
Creating your character is the first step in every D&D adventure for the players. You get to choose your character’s background, skillset, appearance, personality, and add in a backstory if you’d like!
The number of character options in D&D is exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. If you aren’t sure whether a fighter or spellcaster is for you, check out these helpful D&D character class guides to find which type of skillset sounds like a good fit for your first character.
Create Your First Character
PLAYING AS THE DUNGEON MASTER
In Dungeons & Dragons, one person serves as the Dungeon Master, the game’s lead storyteller, and referee. The DM runs the adventure for the players, who navigate its hazards and decide which paths to explore.
The DM describes the locations and creatures in an adventure using helpful descriptions from their adventure book, and the players decide what they want their characters to do. The DM uses their imagination and game rules to determine the results of their actions and narrates what they experience.
Because the DM and players improvise with one another, D&D is infinitely flexible and each adventure can be exciting and unexpected.
HOW TO BE A DM
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ... AND DICE?
Your Dungeon Master may ask you to roll from a set of polyhedral dice to determine the outcome of your actions. Based on your character’s skillset, you may have bonuses to add to your rolls to increase your likelihood of success! For example, a fighter may have a higher Strength score than a wizard and would have bonuses to add to their roll to try and kick down a door. The wizard might not.
When playing digitally using a D&D Beyond character sheet, you can roll the dice right on your sheet. D&D Beyond will automatically apply any bonuses your character has and tally the math for you. Build a character and click any rollable action to try it out!
Build a character
RESOURCES FOR FIRST-TIME PLAYERS
The below materials were written with first-time players in mind. Check out the free adventure Intro to Stormwreck Isle, the D&D Starter Set, and even dive into the Basic Rules of the game.
FIND A D&D GROUP TO PLAY WITH
D&D is more popular now than it’s ever been before, and there are plenty of ways to find a group to play with.
DISCORD
Join the Dungeons & Dragons Discord to dive into the conversation and find groups to play with!
LIVE PLAY WEEKENDS
Connect with friends around the world and play D&D with some of the best Dungeon Masters anywhere.Find a game!
You may have a built-in network of D&D players already! Follow D&D and D&D Beyondon Facebook to see which of your friends do, too.
THERE'S PLENTY MORE TO HELP YOU GET STARTED!
We're just getting warmed up. Keep exploring!
