Hello, fellow dungeon crawlers! Welcome back to my series on everything Dungeons & Dragons. This week we will be delving into gameplay and materials needed for a session of D&D.
Gameplay
As a first-time D&D player, it can be overwhelming. Many game components can be hard to understand, such as character creation, combat, spellcasting, etc. The most important step in starting a game is having a group of people interested in playing. This can be a group of friends and family or a group at your local game store.
The group will then assume their characters and roleplay as who they want their character to be. One person will have the role of the Dungeon Master (DM). They are there to adjudicate the rules, narrate the story, and control anyone your characters meet throughout the story.
The DM could play the part of an old beggar on the side of the road sending you off on a quest or just your average barkeep pouring you a mug of ale. The DM is the person who can create a good or bad experience playing the game. The group then will travel through the DM's adventure and battle against great evil to achieve a common goal.
Another aspect of the game that can be confusing is combat, which can occur many times in a campaign, or you can go through multiple sessions without it and focus on role-playing your characters. In combat, each round is approximately six seconds. Each person will get a chance to take an action, a movement, and a bonus action.
Here is a quick reference to actions, movements, and bonus actions:
Actions
Attack
Melee or ranged attack
Grapple
Special melee attack
Shove
Special melee attack
Cast a spell
Cast time of 1 action
Dash
Double movement speed
Disengage
Prevent opportunity attacks
Dodge
Increase defenses
Escape
Escape a grapple
Help
Grant an ally advantage
Use Object
Interact, use special abilities
Use shield
Equip or unequip a shield
Hide, Search, Ready
Choose trigger and action
Use class feature
Some features use actions
Improvise
Movements
Move
Cost: 5ft per 5ft
Climb
Cost: 10ft per 5ft
Swim
Cost: 10ft per 5ft
Drop prone
Cost: 0ft
Crawl
Cost: 10ft per 5ft
Stand up
Cost: half movement speed
High jump
Cost: 5ft per 5ft
Long jump
Cost: 5ft per 5ft
Improvise
Any stunt not on this list
Difficult terrain
Cost modifier: +5ft per 5ft
Grapple move
Modifier: speed halved
Bonus Actions
Offhand Attack
Use with the Attack action
Cast a spell
Cast time of 1 bonus action
Use class feature
Some features use bonus actions
Once you reach higher levels in the game, you can unlock other features such as multiattack. There could also be a chance to use a reaction, such as when an enemy passes by you during combat, in which you can try to attack him as he leaves. The DM will let you know if you can use a reaction. Once you become familiar with how combat moves, you’ll pick it up in no time.
Materials
There aren’t many materials you need to play the game. The main things you will need are a character sheet, pencil, and dice. Most character sheets you can find online and print for free.
The dice used in D&D are essential to the game. You can get a set at your local game shop for less than $5. They help determine everything. Here I will go into depth about each die used in the game and what they are used for.
D20 ICOSAHEDRON: Used for most rolls, such as skill checks, saving throws, attack rolls, and ability checks.
D12 DODECAHEDRON: Used for large weapon damage.
D10 PENTAGONAL TRAPEZOHEDRON: There are two forms; one is 0-9 the other is 00-90. When rolling both, these are used for percentile rolls, and just one is used for large weapon damage.
D8 OCTAHEDRON: Used for large weapon damage.
D6 CUBE: The standard cube shape used for character creation and weapon damage.
D4 TETRAHEDRON: Used for small weapon damage and healing spells
This summarizes how the game works and the materials you need to play. Next week, we will go into how to build your character step by step to help anyone be able to start playing D&D.
Happy Rolling!
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