![To paraphrase from a very
NSFW PPT…
“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. D&D
is just sitting around a table with your
[colleagues], making $#1% up. If you like
doing that, you will like D&D.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/dd-140911160014-phpapp01/85/Intro-to-Dungeons-Dragons-The-Very-Basics-For-my-Colleagues-4-320.jpg)
Intro to Dungeons & Dragons: The Very Basics (For my Colleagues)
- 1. Or Something Like That Lunch Hour D&D
- 2. Wait, We’re Doing WHAT? The Very Basics of Dungeons & Dragons
- 3. A World of Pure Imagination
- 4. To paraphrase from a very NSFW PPT… “I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. D&D is just sitting around a table with your [colleagues], making $#1% up. If you like doing that, you will like D&D.”
- 6. So How Do You Play? The Very Least You Need To Know
- 7. The Dungeon Master (DM) For all intents and purposes, in the game, the DM is GOD. He knows the whole story ahead of time…mostly…until one of the players makes a decision he hadn’t planned for and that little change mucks up the whole thing. MUAHAHAHA!
- 8. The DM (cont.) The DM: • Plays monsters and other non-player characters (NPCs) • Tells us when and which dice we need to roll • Tells us the outcome of dice rolls • Tells us about any treasure or experience we reaped • Informs us if we’ve killed or been killed
- 9. The Dice Every action that has a potential positive or negative outcome is determined by rolling dice. The DM will tell us which dice to roll. You add the outcome to other numbers on the character’s statistic sheet and keep track. Sorry! Math!
- 10. It’s Possible to Learn a Lot D&D turns 40 this year. It’s older than some of us. In the 80s fundamentalists thought D&D was Satan-worship and caused suicide and murder. Yes, for realz. There are 3 manuals for the game: Player’s Handbook (PHB), Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide. Jacob will do all the heavy lifting for us…in the beginning. As we learn, we’ll assume more of the burden ourselves.
- 11. The Golden Rule If the DM asks, "Are you sure?“, the correct answer is always: “On second thought, no, that’s a stupid idea. Let's think of something else."
- 12. Player Characters Who We’ll Be Playing
- 13. Things Get Interesting
- 14. Roleplaying You are not playing the game; a character is playing the game. To play a character, you take on a role. If you’re good at staying in character and play well, the DM can award “Inspiration” points, which you can use later to get out of a jam or do more damage or otherwise benefit the party. Small teams of 2-3 people will be playing each character for our game. Interesting…
- 15. Every Score is a Roleplaying Tool Don’t get hung up on technical stuff. Just ask the DM if you’re confused. When in doubt, remember your character’s traits, background, motivations and do what you think he or she would do in the situation.
- 16. Ability Scores Strength: Natural athleticism and physical power. Important for fighters, you’ll want to have high strength if you use melee weapons (things you hit people with hand-to-hand) or want to use heavy armor. Dexterity: Agility, reflexes, balance, and poise. Important for characters with ranged attacks (things you throw or shoot at people) or who don’t want to be hit. Constitution: Health and stamina. Important for everyone: Constitution determines how much damage you can take before you pass out and/or die.
- 17. Ability Scores (cont.) Wisdom: Awareness, intuition, and insight. Wisdom increases spell effectiveness of divine spell-casters, like clerics. Intelligence: Mental acuity, information recall, and analytical skill. Intelligence increases spell effectiveness for wizards. Charisma: Confidence, eloquence, leadership. Charisma helps determine how well a character can bluff, charm, or otherwise manipulate others. Charisma is important for spontaneous spell-casters like bards, sorcerers, and warlocks.
- 18. (Some) Things You Can (try to*) Do Listen Sneak Negotiate Befriend Attack Pick lock Intimidate Jump Climb Cast a spell Search Hide Run Away Ask Swim Lift Throw Cheat Dodge Grab Shove Duck Explore Lie Steal Pray Search *Roll a 20-sided die (D20) and find out if it worked!
- 19. That Which Does Not Kill You Makes You Stronger (Literally) Hit Points (HP): Your life. The amount of damage you can take before falling unconscious/dying. Experience Points (XP): What you get for beating monsters (while awake/alive); helps you level up. Our characters will start at level 1 and play to level 5. At level 1, you’re lucky to successfully attack and kill a somewhat vicious squirrel.
- 20. Classes So, what do you do for a living?
- 21. Fighter Knight, gladiator, warlord. A fighter can be all three — a versatile, powerful warrior who can focus on damage, protect himself and others, or even learn some wizardry spellcasting. • Fighters have the second highest HP in the game. • Fighters are proficient in all armor, shields, and all simple and martial weapons. • Fighters can choose a fighting style (such as archery, dueling, and defense) • Fighters can also choose a Martial Archetype such as Champion or Eldritch Knight (see the PHB for more)
- 22. Cleric Healers and warriors, clerics channel their deity’s energy through spellcasting and martial might. Clerics blend magic and melee, and can take hits and deal damage almost as well as a fighting class and cast spells as well as any spellcaster. • Clerics are proficient with medium armor, shields, and simple weapons. • Clerics choose a specialty related to their deity, which determines bonus abilities. No two clerics are the same. • Clerics are the prime source of combat healing in the game, and can even revive the dead as early as level 5. (Psst. That’s early.)
- 23. Rogue Rogues rely on skill, stealth, and exploiting foes’ vulnerabilities. They also hate fair fights, and happily stab enemies in the back while they’re preoccupied with meatier members of the party. • Rogues can learn the most (non-combat) skills, and can gain even greater bonuses to them. • Rogues are essential due to being able to disarm traps, open locks, and just generally being able to get into and out of all sorts of trouble. • Rogues can choose an archetype, such as a burglary Thief, a shadowy Assassin, or a magic-inclined Arcane Trickster.
- 24. Wizard Merlin. Gandalf. Dumbledore. Even Harry. We’re pretty familiar with what a Wizard does, right? A scholar of magic and an expert at spells, the wizard must choose one of eight specialties: • Abjuration • Evocation • Conjuration • Divination • Enchantment • Illusion • Necromancy • Transmutation Check the PHB for more info.
- 25. And More Barbarians! Bards! Druids! Monks! Paladins! Rangers! Rogues! Sorcerers! Warlocks!
- 26. Races Your PC’s race can modify his or her abilities — for better or worse. Some races are more inclined to magic; others are better at brute force. Let’s meet four D&D races.
- 27. Human What do we know about humans as a race? • They’re a mighty versatile crew and come in many shapes, sizes, sub-races and all alignments • All base ability scores increase by +1 for humans • Base walking speed is 30 feet • They’re fluent in Common and one other language (player’s choice)
- 28. Halfling What’s a Halfling? Half the size of a human. You may have seen a movie called…the Hobbit. • Dexterity increases by 2, because being little helps • Most halflings are lawful good • They’re around 3 feet tall and 40 lbs. • Walking speed is 25 feet. • They’re lucky—any time they roll a 1, they can re-roll! • They’re also brave and have an advantage on saving throws against being frightened. • They read, speak and write Common and Halfling. • There are two sub-races: Lightfoot and Stout. That guy is a Lightfoot.
- 29. Dwarf Short and stocky, dwarves are basically all Gimli from LotR. Dwarven women do not have beards. • Dwarven constitution increases by 2, allowing them to take more hits. • Most dwarves are lawful and tend towards good. • They’re between 4 and 5 feet and weigh approximately 150 lbs. • Walking speed is 25, but is not reduced by armor. • Dwarves can see in the dark with Darkvision. • Dwarves can always use battleaxes, handaxes, throwing hammers, and warhammers, even if they’re a wizard or rogue. • Dwarves have two subraces, the Hill Dwarf and the Mountain Dwarf. This guy is a Hill Dwarf.
- 30. Elf Long-lived, slender, and with high expectations that non-elves rarely meet, elves take up adventuring out of sheer boredom and tend to find careers that let them travel freely and set their own pace. • Dexterity increases by 2. • Elves can live to be more than 750 years old. • Elves tend to be chaotic good. • Their height varies from under 5 ft. to over 6 ft. • Walking speed is 30 feet. • Elves don’t sleep. Instead, they trance for 4 hours which grants the benefit of 8 hours of sleep. • They read, speak, and write Common and Elvish. • Elves have three subraces: High Elves, Wood Elves, and Dark Elves (Drow). This fellow is a Wood Elf.
- 31. And More… Consult the PHB if you’re curious.
- 32. Alignments What are your values, and how do you adhere to them?
- 33. What Would Your Character Do? Understanding alignment is the best way to decide what your character will do when the DM says: “You’re broke, hungry, have no place to camp, and the innkeeper just offered you 100 gold pieces to burn down his rival’s place across town, which is vacant and undergoing renovations. It is, however, guarded by two big trolls.”
- 34. Nine Alignments Morality Good Neutral Evil Attitude Toward Authority Lawful Neutral Chaotic
- 35. The Good Lawful Good Neutral Good Can be counted on to do the right thing as expected by society, laws, norms, custom, tradition…and maybe programming. Folks just doing the best they can. They’ll help others along the way. Usually. Sometimes reluctantly. Laws? Rules? Pfffft. Whatever. Chaotic Good Act according to their own conscience in the interests of good—and who cares what laws or norms have to be broken to get there?
- 36. Pop Quiz! Lawful Good: What Would Ned Stark Do?
- 37. Pop Quiz! Neutral Good: What Would Jon Snow Do?
- 38. Pop Quiz! Chaotic Good: What Would Arya Stark Do?
- 39. The Bad Lawful Evil Neutral Evil Methodically take what they want, within the limits of some set or code of rules, laws, tradition, loyalty, or other order. Do absolutely whatever they can get away with, without any compassion or qualms whatsoever. They are, however, very good about being careful getting caught. Chaotic Evil These are the true psychopaths of the world who are arbitrarily violent, spurred by greed, hate and bloodlust.
- 40. No Evil PCs Allowed Evil-aligned PCs in your party can be fun…if you’ve got a thing for being stabbed to death in the middle of the night by somebody you’re traveling with. For no good reason. Or having all your rations and weapons stolen by somebody who then vanishes into the night after setting you all on fire. Or being betrayed and sold into slavery the moment you meet the first bad guys. In other words, they make the game NOT FUN. But it’s good to know these guys are out there, because some NPCs will be these alignments. Don’t trust everyone you meet…
- 41. The Neutral Lawful Neutral True Neutral Believe in law, order and/or a code above all else and will always seek to obey and preserve order, even to the inconvenience of themselves and others. The true neutral character is driven by self-interest, doesn’t care to get involved in big moral questions and doesn’t want to take sides. Chaotic Neutral Follow their whims, value personal freedom above all else. Anarchists, libertarians, rebels, cynics, hedonists — count on them to be self-centered with no qualms about law or codes.
- 42. Pop Quiz! Lawful Neutral: What Would Varys Do?
- 43. Pop Quiz! True Neutral: What Would Tyrion Do?
- 44. Pop Quiz! Chaotic Neutral: What Would Robert Boratheon Do?
- 45. When in Doubt… Play your character, not his/her alignment. Try not to let your character die. But sometimes it happens. When it does, there will be a great imaginary funeral.
- 46. And a New Hero Will be Born (OK, Rolled)