Which game is easier to get into, Dungeons and Dragons or Warhammer 40k? And yes, I understand that D&D is a roleplaying game and Warhammer is a wargame.
I’m not an expert, but my personal experience, I’ve found D&D more accessible and easier to get into- it’s more commonly known to those "outside’ of the fanbase, and it’s cheaper if you find the resources/dice etc online.
The price and lack of others who play Warhammer keeps me away from that one. Plus, I’m not a meticulous painting type of person- the “art” of Warhammer doesn’t attract me as much as the role playing of D&D.
Cost wise, the Dungeons and Dragons 4E Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Monster Manual will set you back about $70 if you get it online. Here’s what you’ll need to get started with Warhammer 40k:
40k Rule Book: $57
40k Army Book: $33 (probably)
Miniatures: $115 (just for starters, but probably more)
Paints: $40 (minimum)
Painting tools: 30 (minimum I think)
Case to hold minis: ?
Total: $275 just to get started.
For both games you’ll have to learn how to play. For Warhammer you’ll also have to invest a lot of time in painting your miniatures. You should be able to find plenty of people to play either game.
D&D is cheaper, quicker to start up, and more popular. Speaking as a long-term D&D player and newbie Warhammer player, D&D is definitely the easier way.
Core d&d is free, look up the D20 SRD.
Though, that’s the old (3.5 edition) version of the game. The current edition (4th) isn’t legitimately available online in that format, as far as I know.
That said, a lot of D&D players are still playing 3.5 (or Pathfinder, which is very similar, and which also has its core rules available online).
By easier to get into, do you mean price-wise or rule-wise? I am almost completely sure that almost any tabletop wargame will be more expensive than a D&D-type RPG.
Technically, couldn’t you bypass the miniatures cost of a tabletop wargame by just using cheap cardboard cutouts, or the like? Granted, the culture of actual players seems to favor hand-painted pewter, but it seems to me that that’s a different thing from the game itself.
And I don’t know wargames, but you can play D&D without actually knowing any of the rules, as long as there’s someone else at the table who does. You say what you want to try to do, and the DM says whether it succeeds or fails. You can try to do anything at all. Now, granted, you’ll probably play more effectively if you know ahead of time which things you might try are more or less likely to succeed, but you don’t actually have to know that.
Warhammer 40k is a hobby that happens to include a game. And honestly, the game isn’t that great. If you get into it, it should be because you’re interested in the hobby. And that’s going to take a lot of time and investment.
If you’re interested in playing tabletop wargames, the most important thing to do first is to find people to play with. If you can find a thriving gaming community, then it’s best to play whatever they’re playing: even if it’s not your top pick, it’s much better to play a mediocre game with fun people than to have an awesome game you can’t play at all.
If you can’t find a group to join, but you think you can convince some friends to join you in a new game, then your best bets are either an RPG or a smaller scale tabletop game.
For RPGs, I’m biased towards the modern crop of indie games. Games like Apocalypse World, Burning Wheel, or Unknown Armies are much cheaper to get into and honestly encourage better gaming habits in their players. On the other hand, because they’re not your standard D&D, you don’t have the crutch of letting timid new players just make a fighter and roll dice when it’s their turn. You have to have everyone willing to jump into the deep end from the get go.
If you want to stick with mainstream, D&D 4e is… weird to get into right now. The best entry point for new players isn’t obvious: You want the Rules Compendium, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the Monster Manual 3 or the Monster Vault, and a subscription to Insider. The subscription is sadly pretty much mandatory, it turns character creation from a confusing slog across multiple books to a quick exercise in clicking on awesome names and getting excited about playing.
I don’t actually like Pathfinder personally, but right now you can get the pathfinder beginner box a lot more easily than the D&D beginner box.
For a wargame, I think the easiest to just jump in and play right now is Warmachine. You can buy a starter box that gets you enough figures to play a small game, plus a copy of the basic rules, for about 50 bucks. 100 bucks gets you enough for two players, and a more complete version of the rulebook.