You Don't Need to Know How to Play D&D Before You Play D&D

Don't ask for advice.

I can tell you how I run the game, he can tell you how he runs the game, they can tell you how they run their game, but nobody knows how you run your game! The best way to learn is by doing. I like to give advice, and I give it confidently. Do you know why? Because I've made enough mistakes to learn for the both of us.

You can learn one thing from success: what worked. Failure can teach you a hundred things about what didn't.

I see a lot of people asking how to get started with D&D. They want to know what books they need, what they need to learn first, what adventure they should run, what everyone at the table needs to know, and whether "they're ready" to be a Dungeon Master.

The fact is that you're overthinking it. You can just start playing make believe with your friends and have a fun time. If you need help, though, there are resources made for you!

Start With a Starter Set

They sell starter sets at Walmart. If someone can buy the starter set at Walmart, get some friends, and start playing, YOU CAN TOO!

100% I recommend a starter set if you can get your hands on one. Any of them will work, but I recommend Dragons of Stormwreck Isle.

Any of the starter sets will do you well, but Stormwreck is good because it can be completed in 3 sessions easily. Obviously, you can take longer, explore the island, and just take it slow as you learn, but the odds are you WILL finish the adventure. I personally think that the best thing a new DM can do is finish an adventure. Better to finish a 3-session adventure than to have your first attempt at doing so be at the end of your 3-year epic quest and have no experience once you're there!

The best part about a starter set (any of them really, they're all quite good) is that you just buy the box, get your friends, and play the damn game. You don't need to read or memorize the Player's Handbook (PHB) or even think about the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG). Everything is in the box, nice and neat.

But... You Don't Have to!

All you need to be a good DM is enthusiasm! Everything else is extra.

You don't need to pay for anything if you don't want to! You spend as much as you're willing to spend. I recommend the starter sets because if you're seeking help, it's the best help you can get.

If you are excited to run your own world, JUST RUN IT! Don't ask for help or think you need to meet any prerequisites. Just run your game in your world. Yes, this is more complicated, but you're not going to have more fun forcing yourself to play a prewritten module you don't care about when you can run the world that you fantasize about.

If you have a story and are excited to run it, then you don't need to buy an adventure, and the basic rules are free online! So, the story is free, the rules are free, and the rest can be free too! There's digital dice rollers, virtual tabletops, and even just using your imagination! You don't need battlemaps printed out to play. You don't need 10 sets of dice, no matter what anyone tells you.

You can spend money on books, dice, miniatures, terrain, digital tools, and all sorts of other things if you want to, but you don't need any of that to play D&D.

The game is ultimately just people sitting around and playing make believe with some rules and some dice.

Hell, you don't even need the rules. It's not "D&D," but general roleplaying or even LARPing has been around forever!

What If You Don't Know What You're Doing?

My advice? Play with players who are also new.

Here's the best part about starting D&D with other people who are also new:

They don't know what they're doing either!

You can make all the mistakes you want and nobody can call you out because they don't know the rules either! It's the lowest stakes in the world. Are you playing with friends? Just tell them, "Hey, we're all new, don't be a jerk if anyone messes up."

If your first game is running for strangers on the internet, who cares what they think? If they're jerks, just kick them and find a new group! There are more people out there looking for DMs than DMs looking for players. It's a DM's market.

As long as everyone at the table understands that this is a learning experience, then everything is good. Need to look up a rule? Go for it. Get a rule wrong? Well, now you know better. We should all be here to have fun, and anyone who isn't really shouldn't be playing with you.

Want to know something else great? There's plenty of people willing to be your player who are experienced and act as a mentor! I personally never wanted that, but if it's something you want, there's DMs out there starving for a chance to be a player. Just let them know what you want feedback or help on, and don't let them be a jerk.

There's never been a better time to start this hobby with zero experience.

You WILL Mess Up (That's OK)

Man... I remember hosting my first D&D game. I was running it for my roommate and my girlfriend at the time (surprisingly my wife, especially after this game lol). It was 100% CRINGE. We all had fun, some more than others, but really, looking back on it is fun but also very painful.

That's OK. That's life. You know what I haven't done since then? I've managed to not be cringe at all since that first one, and I call that an accomplishment.

I learned so much from every game I've run. I've run so many "newbie only" games that I have lost count. What I do remember is that despite running the same 3 starter sets 5+ times each, every single game was different. Every single person brought something unique and special to the table, and I was able to provide them with an environment where they could be comfortable learning and having fun.

Many people will tell you how hard or how scary DMing is, but I personally wouldn't give it up for the world.

Just Run the Game

You don't need to know everything before you start. You don't need every book, the perfect adventure, a dozen sets of dice, a fancy battlemap, or previous experience.

All you need is some people to play with and some enthusiasm.

If you want to run a published adventure, grab a starter set and run it. If you have some ridiculous idea you've been sitting on for three years, run that instead. If you don't have any clue what to do, steal from all of your favorite books, movies, and videogames. Hell, steal from other D&D games!

You're going to screw things up. You're going to forget rules. You're probably going to make some decisions that you'll look back on later and wonder what the hell you were thinking.

That's fine. You'll learn from it.

Eventually, you'll play enough games that you won't even realize how you got to where you are.

You learn by doing.

So stop worrying about whether you're ready and get some friends together.

Just run the game.