The History that Began an EPIC Adventure + Dice Explained
Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D for short, is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created D&D's first rule book in the late 1960s. The original rulebook used previous games the two created, Chainmail and Blackmoor, and was bought by Wizards of the Coast in 1997. Since the start of D&D, the newer edition of the rules that many use is the 5th edition, released in 2014.Â
To start a campaign, you need:Â
a Dungeon Master/Game Master (DM/GM) who will be the storyteller of the adventure the party of people will be going on
2-6 playersÂ
a character sheet (we'll talk about characters later)Â
And the most critical piece, in my opinion, is DICE!Â
While you only need six dice, a standard set will contain a second D10 dice. The dice below are the ones you will use during a campaign:Â
D4—This pyramid-shaped die is mainly used to calculate damage when using a smaller weapon (daggers and darts) and healing spells.Â
D6—This cube-shaped die is mainly used to calculate damage from spells and weapons.Â
D8—This die is often used to determine the damage done by weapons that characters can wield in one hand. Â
D10—This die determines damage from weapons and spells during battle. It can also be used as a hit dice to determine health gain during level-ups. Paladins, Rangers, and Fighters usually always have D10s as a hit.Â
D12—This die calculates damage with larger weapons or spells that do damage 1-12 points.Â
D20—This die is used for EVERYTHING! You will use it to make decisions, perform ability checks, take initiative, and determine whether an attack is successful.Â
Of course, these are just the beginnings of what you need for D&D; the next step—which is my favorite—is creating a character!Â
This is a multi-part series - check back for Part 2 soon!