So, I’m what you would consider an ordinary geek-type person … making my living off computers, loving science, reading, science fiction, comics, etc. But I never did the whole role-playing game / Dungeons and Dragons thing, largely because none of my friends had any idea what it was about and neither did I. I did play Rogue a lot as a kid, and then NetHack when I found out about that, and I totally loved them both. But the regular tabletop dice-rolling RPG thing eluded me.
However, recently I’ve become addicted to the well-known webcomic The Order of the Stick, which is set in the Dungeons and Dragons world. Add to this the fact that pretty much every webcomic in the universe, including my all-time favorite Casey and Andy, deals with people playing D&D and GURPS and other RPGs, and I’ve found myself wishing I could try the whole D&D thing.
Of course, there are a few problems, such as A) I still don’t know anybody in person who plays these things, B) I have no idea how to play, other than what I’ve gleaned from NetHack, Order of the Stick, and glancing over some documents over at http://www.d20srd.org, which I gather is some kind of open gaming system that was based on D&D (right?), C) I have no dice or miniature figures or books or anything.
So, does anybody have any suggestions on what I could do? Are there any computer games, standalone or MMORPG-type, that are set in the D&D milieu that might help familiarize me with how things work ? Are there any introductory “So You Want to Be a Gamer” documents that might be helpful? Is there any way to find and play with people online rather than in person?
See if your library has D&D for Dummies. No joke, the book is actually a pretty decent introduction. To play you’d need a Player’s Handbook and a set of dice (or a programmable calculator). There are innumerable other books that are supplements, but you won’t need them to start with. I’d say check to see if your library has one, but it’s a frequently ripped off book for libraries that try to stock it.
Places to make contact with other players include comic shops (which sometimes have a gaming bulletin board), college interest clubs, and internet contact forums. If you’re interested, remember that every group is different so if you don’t click with the first folks you meet, keep looking. (Now that I think about it, I’ve heard the same thing about group therapy. Hmmm.) OOTS has a forum that you might want to check out.
Wizards of the Coast has a website. It’s been awhile since I’ve been there, so I don’t know what’s on the site now. There are hundreds of gaming websites and fora, if you want to learn the game mechanics. I’ve heard that there are downloadable books, but I’ve never gone looking for them 'cause I’m pretty sure it’s violating copyright.
Have you tried googling ‘how to play D&D’ or ‘How to build a character’?
Neverwinter Nights 1 was my first introduction to real D20, but I wouldn’t recommend it currently. It uses an older ruleset that’s not in use any more (D20 3.0; the current rules are 3.5) and fiddles with some rules itself. I had to unlearn quite a bit when I began playing real D&D. I have no idea if NWN 2 is updated at all.
D&D for Dummies might be a good start; I’d say just get the Player’s Handbook, but it’s expensive enough that you probably don’t want to drop money on it until you’re sure you want to get into the game. D20 SRD has 90% of the material you’d find in the Player’s Handbook (and d20srd.org is a very well laid-out site to boot), but that extra 10% is critical.
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the rules and are relatively comfortable with the idea of making a character, I’d highly recommend finding a location near you where Living Greyhawk is played, and try to be there before the meeting time. I won’t necessarily say you should play Living Greyhawk, as it’s not quite like straight D&D, but there will be a lot of experienced players you can talk to – and at least in my case, they were all exceptionally friendly and eager to welcome a newbie into the game. It’s a very accessible community, so you can start playing relatively early instead of needing to search for a group who has room for you.
I started playing D&D through LG; although I was quite familiar with the rules through online communities, I couldn’t find a group in my area to take me in. I went to the LG meeting to see if I could find someone interested in taking on a player, and before I knew what was happening the coordinators had me rolling up a character and getting into an adventure. I’ve stopped playing LG since then, as I found a weekly group and the scheduling doesn’t work out too well, but it’s not a bad alternative at all.
Thanks everybody. I’ll check into this Neverwinter thing, and I’m definitely going to check into D&D for Dummies. A Wikipedia search turned up a game called “Baldur’s Gate 2” that appears to be D&D-based and is supposed to be a really good game. What are opinions on that?
Johnny Angel, I don’t actually work at a company right now – I’m finishing up my computer science degree at University of Nevada Las Vegas. I wonder if there are any D&D players there.
I haven’t played Baldur’s Gate 2, but I believe it’s based on the old AD&D rules. That’s essentially D&D 2.0 (an imprecise name for it, but it works well enough), and there’s still some dinosaurs who swear by it, but the vast majority of D&D gaming these days is done with D&D 3.5, so it won’t be of much help to you. Most of the older D&D games – Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment – are based on AD&D rules. I think Neverwinter Nights was the first to use the updated ruleset. That’s not to say they’re bad games – Planescape: Torment is one of the finest RPGs I’ve ever encountered – but they won’t help familiarize you with D&D as it’s played today.
Keep in mind this warning: if you ever see the word THAC0, run! Run like the blazes! It is a torturous logic puzzle to try men’s souls and break their spirits! Some people deride D&D 3.0/3.5 as being too bland of a system, but dammit all, it doesn’t have THAC0, and that makes it good.
That, and it tweaks them rather heavily as well. It’s a good game, but you won’t learn how to play with 3.5 rules at all, or even everything about 2nd edition (another name for AD&D).
I second the Living Greyhawk idea. I play on Monday nights at my local gaming store, it’s a blast. Check out this website, there’s an LG group in Vegas that meets once a month. There are probably plenty of other D&D players out there too, you just have to look around a bit. Gaming stores (and here I don’t mean ones that just sell gambling equipment) typically have at least a bulletin board for people to meet up, and often a space to play in as well.
As for message boards, www.enworld.org is the largest D&D messageboard out there (with the possible exception of the official boards, which are, um, not closely moderated). There’s a Gamers seeking gamers section to it that’s pretty helpful, and if you start a thread in the main forum with the exact OP here, you’ll get scads of advice and possibly some game offers.
Be aware that, perhaps more than any other type of game, RPGs are made or broken by the people you’re playing with. If your first experience sucks ass, it may be because you’re playing with incredibly awful people. It happens. Your first experience may also be a revelation of fun, too :).
On the computer games front, there was also Temple of Elemental Evil, which although it was buggy, was a good implementation of the 3.5 rules. Although it doesn’t use the combat grid, a couple of the players in my group have said that it helped them see how the rules worked. Not until Neverwinter Nights 2 did any game come so close to implementing the actual rules from the game, though even NWN2’s implementation includes a lot of tweaks, especially to accommodate the fact that it’s meant to be playable as a sort of action-rpg.
Also, if you’re unable to find a local group, there’s a product called Fantasy Grounds II that is a computer-based tabletop. Its purpose is to recreate the in-person experience, and it has a pretty good setup. It has chat, visible dice you pick up and roll, the ability to show parts of a map, and much more.
I’d be willing to run a small introductory adventure, but I’m pretty sure you’d have to buy the software, which you may not want to do if you’re not sure you’d like the game.
The demo Johnny Angel linked to is actually a pretty decent (if badly acted) introduction into the game.
Is that kind of like the GameTable software that the Casey and Andy author made? I never understood what he was talking about in all of his news posts about it, but if it’s designed for doing what you’re talking about with Fantasy Grounds, I get it now.
I never heard of it until now, but based on the description, that’s exactly what it is. I found a screenshot of it here: Best Open Source Mac Software 2023
I’d like to second (third?) this. We recently had friends join our gaming group and comment, “This is the first group we’ve been in that doesn’t have drama!” Which made us all :dubious:. We’re pretty strict about kicking out drama queens and other annoyances.
So, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.