As you lift the oaken latch of the large double doors, you find yourself standing in the entryway of an elaborate study. The plush carpet is soft under your feet as you step past the gateway and into the library. Shelves stretch onward in either direction, each bearing labels in a language foreign to your understanding. The books themselves seem meticulously cared for, and not a speck of dust litters their bindings. You bring yourself slowly forward, catching whiffs of old parchment and incense as you pass.
Finally, the forest of shelves seems to open up into a clearing; and as you pass through two rows of them you catch the warmth of the marble fireplace before you. Two high-backed chairs are nestled neatly before it, and in one you notice a half hunched form unlike any you have seen . In his withered hand he holds a book. He turns at the sound of your approaching footsteps. His face is clear of hair , besides the wispy white that hangs down his back; his eyes are light, and filled to the brim with ancient knowledge, and his ears come to a point customary of the Elven folk.
When he speaks it is in raspy tones; he seems to already know your purpose in coming here. “Sit” he says, between light coughs “and I will see what knowledge I can impart on you before our time comes to a close…”
The tools in a DM's arsenal
Hello and welcome. Earlier this week, Kyle and Neal introduced you to the world of Magic The Gathering. Today, I hope to acquaint you with Wizards of the Coast’s other tabletop masterpiece. Enter Dungeons & Dragons; a communal story written between the players (that’s you, for now) and the Dungeon Master, an omnipotent force in the story who judges the outcome of events, and plays the Non-Player Characters (or NPCs). While Dungeons & Dragons was not the first tabletop Role-playing game (That honor is widely believed to belong to fantasy wargames) it was the first commercially available one. Published in 1974 by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax’s (may they rest in peace) TSR, it was eventually bought by Wizards of the Coast 20 years later. (somewhere between 2nd and 3rd edition for you D&D vets).
So, that’s the basic story. How do you play, you ask? It’s simple, really. You and your friends (one of them playing as the Dungeon Master) make characters, assign them classes and skills, and lead them through a series of events, using random probability (by way of an array of dice), and your collective imaginations to determine the results. That’s it. Still, the game can be rather daunting to first time players. My first experience with the game had a group of us caught up on the very simple question of “How far north, and how long since?” for an hour.
Even so, in seven years of playing, and DMing (that is, being the Dungeon Master) you tend to learn a few things. Today, I am going to share with you, dear readers, a few tips that I wish I had when beginning my first campaign (a multi-session game that covers a large story arc). While I will be focusing on the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset, these tips can easily apply to all of your campaigns, from 7th Sea to All Flesh Must Be Eaten.
Come Prepared
This should be a given as the first rule to any gaming experience. You can’t play a good game of Rock Band 3 with your friends without a few guitars, a drum kit and a mike, so why should a session of D&D be any different? What will you want to play through your first session successfully? I’m glad you asked!
1. Dice – Dungeons & Dragons, along with many tabletop adventure games, bases many things on chance. You roll your dice to determine the random factor of skill rolls, attack rolls, spell outcomes…any number of things can be decided by the roll of the dice. Specifically, you’re going to want to have at least one of the basic types of dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) along with a coin to represent situations where only one of two events can
These are very pretty, no?
occur. You can pick up dice for as little as fifty cents a pop at your local hobby shop, but if you want something a bit more fancy I’d suggest buying a set, such as this very beautiful Carved Elvish Dice Set.
2. A pencil and some paper – It’s not called pen and paper for nothing. You will be doing a lot of writing as you figure out your character’s skills, spells, and attributes, boggle over difficult dungeon puzzles, and pass secret notes to your DM (For when you have a plan that you don’t want your other players to know about). Why a pencil and not the aforementioned pen? Because you’re going to be making a lot of changes too, and it’s easier to erase from your character sheet, then to print out a new one entirely.
3. Snacks – Campaign sessions can usually get pretty heated. I’ve been on a campaign that lasted over 4 hours because no one wanted to stop in the middle of the dungeon we were exploring. That said, you’re going to get hungry and thirsty. Make sure you bring a few snacks, or coordinate ahead of time if there will be any ordering of food, and plan accordingly. Just don’t litter the game area afterwards.
4. Good manners – Remember, whether or not you’re playing in someone’s house or in a public place, always be polite. That means use your indoor voice if you’re in your friend’s house, or a public place. Clean up any snacks, and used up bits of paper, and leave the area looking as it did before you got there. This should be common sense, but it bares repeating.
Have more than one character in mind.
Characters die. That’s just a simple fact of playing the game. You kill orcs, and giants and fiends and all manner of foul beast. You crawl through dungeons, brave deadly traps and daring puzzles. Eventually something is going to get you. It happens to the best of us. When that happens we have two options. The first is to sit out of the rest of the game and mope about your long lost character. But that’s no fun at all. The second option is to be ready with more than one character concept at the beginning of the first campaign. This way, if the unmentionable does happen (and it will happen) you will be prepared to jump right back into the fun next session with a brand new character. The Dungeon Master will usually (but not always) take into account the level of the party, and scale your character accordingly, so it makes sense for he or she to be traveling with the more experienced members of the group.
Keeping a few character concepts in mind at the beginning of the first session also means that you can play a character that is more befitting of the rest of the group. If your party consists of a rogue, a sorcerer, a wizard, and a ranger, why not create a paladin or a fighter? After all someone has to take charge and offer to hold the front line if the rest of the party is going to be attacking from the shadows, or standing back to let their spells and arrows fly. Having multiple character sheets ready to go will make it easier for you to work with the party atmosphere of the game. This brings me to my next bit of advice…
Don’t take IC and make it OOC and Vice Versa
Wait. What? IC and OOC are terms adopted by the majority of the Role playing population. They mean, respectively, in character, and out of character. Everything that happens in the game, the actions taken by the player and non player characters, and the dialogue spoken are all in character, or IC. The discussions you may have with the DM about your character’s motivations, your feelings on certain events that took place during the game, and the conversations before and afterwards with your friends, are out of character or OOC.
You could very well be one of those hobgoblins.
Let’s take a more concrete example. Ranger Joe and Wizard Bob are walking through the woods. Ranger Joe spots an expensive relic just sitting there, ripe for the taking, and leads Wizard Bob over to it. Wizard Bob identifies the item as The Relic of Ultimate Power…and promptly casts a Finger of Death spell on Ranger Joe to take the relic for his own. Was it an awful, evil thing to do? Yes. But are you going to get angry about it, and take out that anger by giving Wizard Bob’s player the silent treatment or lashing violently at him?
Well, no. In character actions are just that; in character. They are based on the past, personality, and alignment (morality and code of ethics..but more on that in a later article!) of the character in question. They do not, or should not, in any way, reflect personal feelings towards your fellow players or your DM. Likewise, your DM actions towards your character are just that. There are, or should be, no grudges or favoritism in a game of D&D. If a character or DM action makes you angry, continue the game, and give it some time to settle. In time, you’ll likely realize that it’s all just that; a game. Nothing to get upset over, right?
This also goes the other way, believe it or not. Lets take the previous example. Say you’re having a snack break, and at that break you overhear your friend Bob the Wizard’s player discuss with the DM his plot to kill Ranger Joe (that’s you). Does this mean you can have Ranger Joe put an arrow in Wizard Bob the second the game is in session again? Well, no again. That would be metagaming, or using out of character knowledge in character, and is generally one of the most frowned upon actions in the game. Sometimes, it’s going to be very hard not to be tempted to metagame. Just don’t do it, okay?
Know your Setting!
No one expects you to be a Loremaster or even to have that many ranks in Knowledge: Campaign Setting before the beginning of your first campaign. Today I just learned that Moon Elves are blue at their joints. I’ve been playing in the Forgotten Realms settings for 7 years. You learn something new about the setting for every session you play in it. That said, there are ways to keep yourself up to date with the setting. The first good way is to do a simple internet search. Often times, you will find a wiki or at least a time line and a map for your setting, such the Forgotten Realms wiki, located here. Read through some of the posts on the front page, and try to at least get yourself accustomed with the basics. Where in your world does the campaign take place? What god does your character follow, if any? These are things you should ask yourself and research before the start of your campaign.
Insert obligatory dwarves.
Keep in mind, Wizards and other learned characters will know more about the world (most of the time) then some of the other classes. If you plan on playing one of these classes, you may be required to do a little extra homework before you start.
And know the rules too!
Since you’re not DMing this campaign, you won’t need to know as much as your Dungeon Master. Never be afraid to ask questions. Coordinate with your DM before the game to find out some of the basics. If you have a question, don’t be afraid to break character and ask the DM or a fellow player; many of them would be very happy to help you. That said, there are some resources that will help you figure out the fundamentals. Most game systems have a standard Players Guide that will teach you how to play the game. Some of these are freely available online, and some of them can be purchased from your local hobby store, along with more intricate books about the campaign setting you’re going to be playing in.
A perfect example of the online resources available to you are Wizard’s d20 System Reference Document (SRD) and the Hypertext d20 SRD, which both detail the basic and advanced rules of the Dungeons & Dragons open source gaming system. Each of these detail different editions (each edition features major changes to the standard rules) of Dungeons & Dragons so ask your DM which you’ll be using!
I do hope that this little introduction to the game was not too itimidating. As always, I would love for you to share your thoughts in the comment section below. What was your very first session of Pen & Paper like? Did it get better? I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours first.
Keep those dice rollin’!
InfaPlat
Tags: 7th Sea, alignment, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Campaign, Character Sheet, D&D, d20, Dave Arneson, DICE, DM, Dungeon Master, dungeons and dragons, dwarf, elf, Gary Gygax, loremaster, NPC, paladin, Pen and Paper, PnP, Wizards of the Coast
About the Author
Written by InfaPlat
As an avid writer, gamer, and dungeon master, it would be hard to classify Jessica Lynn as anything but a geek. Her favorite past times involve raining unholy fire upon her enemies, devising the next great way to kill her party, and figuring out just how far she can push a PC before it explodes. When not taking out her nerd rage on fantasy characters or inanimate objects, she can be found toiling away in the dungeon known as the IT department. If you're wondering; InfaPlat is short for Infamous Platypus.
well, the first time I played, I just showed up at the local hobby shop, cause they had giant “We play Dungeons and Dragons Encounters” sign on the front door. I showed up somewhat prepared…having read…ehh…skimmed the 4th edition rulebooks. Made my first character then and there (halfling rogue) and started playing then and there…the DM and other players were great, and taught me how to not die…bought a decent die set at the store at the end of the encounter, and haven’t looked back since.
also, like the photo of Belkar.
In school we used to play there and back on the 40 minute bus trip to our off-campus afternoon Running Start Computer Assisted Design classes.
First time ever? Me and my friend Steve and Dan were trying to play some sort of Dwarven campaign. I don’t even remember it, I just know that Dan was being the DM, and he was playing a dwarf in a tavern asking us to go find someone. He was reading the script (We were running a pre made campaign after spending 4 hours confusing our 14 year old selves making characters). He was doing his best dwarf voice, and we just kept stopping him to ask How Far North and How Long Since.
Again and again
Until the dwarf killed us.
I think.
The first campaign… wow… first year of undergrad in a gaming store at the mall. I don’t remember anything about it, other than that I played a dwarven fighter because that’s what I was told to play. We bought some books but never got back to it again until the next year when I met the DM who still runs games for me today. The second campaign, the one with the aforementioned DM, we played in the first floor study lounge of a residence hall. I made a female elven fighter that used an orc double axe and had extra negatives to her will save. This was during the era of 3rd edition DnD, though the campaign setting was none other than the legendary 1st edition DnD dungeon, Rappan Athuk. At least one of the players went through more than five characters, and I think my character should have died twice. I might still have the character sheet for that first character buried somewhere.
And just a quick comment on the IC vs OOC. It takes some time to get used to as a new player, because a good story, a good game, will invoke emotion. It’s supposed to do that, even. The trick is to not have your character act based on your emotion, but on what makes the most sense for the character given everything the character knows, which will almost always be less than you know. Just because you’re angry doesn’t mean your character should be angry, and just because you’re happy doesn’t mean your character should be happy, etc. So yeah, InfaPlat is right on for including OOC vs IC as one of the most important aspects of gaming to learn at the outset.