Learning to Play D&D | What’s it all about?

Today, I’m excited to share the first part of my new series for brand new players: Learning to Play D&D. While most of my past content has focused on Dungeon Masters, this series is all about helping brand new players—especially those who’ve never played a tabletop role-playing game before—understand what D&D is all about and how to jump in.

At its core, D&D is a cooperative game where you and your friends work together to overcome challenges, explore the world, and tell a great story. You’ll create a character with their own backstory and personality—like a cunning rogue, a wise wizard, or a brave fighter—and you’ll adventure together, encountering magical creatures, ancient ruins, and dangerous mysteries.

There are three basic pillars of play in D&D: exploration (like traveling through dangerous lands or ancient dungeons), social interaction (talking with merchants, negotiating deals, making friends or enemies), and combat (fighting monsters and overcoming threats). Your Dungeon Master, or DM, acts as both storyteller and referee—setting the scene, playing NPCs, and helping make the world feel alive.

You don’t need to memorize every rule to start playing. All you really need to know for now is that you’ll be rolling a twenty-sided die (d20) for almost everything you do, adding or subtracting modifiers based on your abilities and skills, and seeing if your total meets or beats a target number set by the DM.

The heart of D&D is creativity and teamwork. There’s no single way to win the game—it’s all about having fun and making great memories together.

This is just the beginning of the series. I’ll be covering more topics for new players, like how ability scores work, what your proficiency bonus is, and how to bring your character to life at the table. If you’re a new player, just focus on having fun and know that everyone is there to help you. If you’re a veteran, I’d love for you to share your own geek philosophy and advice for beginners in the comments.

Let’s keep making this hobby more welcoming and accessible for everyone!

Cheers,
Brian