I didn’t really get Dungeons & Dragons until I came across a video on YouTube titled “D&D meets NYC.” I had played a few sessions with friends, but I got tripped up at every turn and didn’t think I could ever learn all the rules. As it turned out, “D&D meets NYC” was the first episode of Dimension 20: The Unsleeping City, a recurring actual play D&D show. In the first five minutes, the audience is introduced to Pete the Plug, a sorcerer who is meeting with his doctor shortly after getting top surgery. I was hooked.
I didn’t realize D&D could look like that—that it didn’t have to exist in the medieval fantasy worlds I had seen and heard so much about. Still, it can be intimidating to break into an activity that’s so dense with jargon and rules and has a history of gatekeeping. WIRED talked to some experts on how to get started and the role of identity in tabletop role-playing games.
The hardest part, as is true with most things, is getting started. But you really only need to get a couple of friends together and figure it out as you go, says content creator and D&D performer B. Dave Walters. “Don't stress too much about the rules,” says Walters. “Don't stress too much about what you're supposed to do.” Instead, think of your favorite fantasy movie, show, book, or even character, and go from there.
“Growing up as a little Black kid in the south, there weren't many opportunities to feel powerful,” says Walters. “And that was one of the things that D&D gave me originally—a chance to feel heroic. Not just reading about superheroes or watching movies, but actually going out and living one.”
Walters has been playing D&D since he was 13, but the game has changed significantly since then. “We played the first one, like something straight out of Stranger Things sitting in your mom's basement, with the miniatures playing the crunchiest version of it,” Walters says.
Today, the rules are simpler and the internet provides new players and DMs with a myriad of resources (including glossaries on, say, what a “DM” is).
Walters recommends new players check out D&D Beyond. “One of the joys of D&D is also one of the most overwhelming parts of it for new people—there's just a lot of books,” Walters says.
But you don’t need any books to get started. He describes D&D Beyond as a digital tool set that has everything you need to get started, from fillable character sheets to rule books to digital dice.
Once you have the basics down, it’s time to form a party. All you really need to do is find a group of people who also want to play. There are websites and subreddits you can tap if you can’t find takers in your real life.
But it can be valuable to find people from similar, underrepresented demographics and backgrounds like your own.
Kelly Lynne D’Angelo, writer and dungeon master for Girls, Guts, Glory, said DM-ing for an all-woman show was a breath of fresh air. “It was a completely different experience,” D’Angelo said. “I felt like when we sat around the table there was sort of a preciousness that we all recognized.
Since then, D’Angelo has been running an all-Native D&D campaign.
“We are oral storytellers, my tribe. That's how knowledge is passed on, how information and culture and our livelihood are passed on,” D’Angelo says. And D&D is, in many ways, another form of oral storytelling. When D’Angelo first sat down with her all-Native party, she said it felt like “fireworks exploding my heart.”
“Because this is what our ancestors would have wanted,” D’Angelo says. “And our ancestors are celebrating the fact that we're alive and present, and we're still creating stories to this day.”
If you feel like you’d be more comfortable playing with others who understand your background, find those people.
People play for a lot of different reasons—some are more interested in the combat and tactics of the game, while others may be more interested in the role-playing and storytelling. But those different interests and approaches can coalesce at the right table as long as everyone is invested in the game and in each other.
Before you start playing, you have to build a character. In D&D 5th Edition, there are 14 classes and even more races depending on how creative you want to get. There’s nothing wrong with basing your character off a fictional character you already know and love, but here are some other things to consider.
Picking a race and class, and building your character sheet is important, but motivation is equally important and can also help inform those choices. Brennan Lee Mulligan, host and dungeon master of Dimension 20, says it can be tempting to create a fully formed character, but you’ll have more success building a character who has something to gain from joining a party and going on an adventure.
“The best thing you can do for your PC (player character) is build them around the idea that this is a person who wants to go on an adventure,” says Mulligan. “This is a person who maybe has room in their story, to make these new friends and find this new family of who these other heroes are going to be.”
Your character can also help with self-discovery outside of the campaign. Dimension 20 cast member Ally Beardsley played a cis woman in the first season of Dimension 20 and a transgender man (the aforementioned Pete the Plug) in the second, as they worked through their own gender identity.
“It was a huge thing on my mind of transitioning and what that looks like for me and what of the à la carte options I was going to choose to pursue,” says Beardsley. “So it was fun to be like, yeah, this is an option I'm considering, let's play that.”
Beardsley intentionally made their character transgender, but made sure that wasn’t the focal point of his character arc.
“This guy is just a dude in New York City. It is a part of his reality that he's trans, maybe he takes T, but that wasn't the headline. The headline was that he sees magic,” Beardsley says. “His transness doesn’t eclipse him, which was fun because that’s real.”
Your character can really be anything you want, and it can even be, in some sense, you, if that’s what you choose.
“I personally grab onto parts of myself that I'm excited to like, see and explore,” says Dimension 20 cast member Lou Wilson. “When I create characters, the performances I'm able to give as my characters are exciting and good because you're watching me be me.”
There is a vulnerability to that, though, Wilson says, and it’s essential to honor that as well. Putting yourself out there can be challenging, because if someone makes fun of your character, it can often feel like they’re making fun of you.
“But I think that being vulnerable, really, is going to lead to the most exciting, well-rounded characters that people enjoy playing. Because once you are playing them you know exactly what you're working with,” Wilson says.
Wilson says he has had some of his favorite experiences playing D&D professionally, and wished he had it when he was younger.
“I really want to encourage people of color who are interested in or thought about playing D&D to do so,” Wilson said. “There's a lot in society and in the narrative that suggests that this game is not for us. But I think we play this game better because of the depth of our own narratives that we carry from a cultural sense and how much those aren't represented in the traditional fantasy realms.”
Your first time playing can be nerve-wracking, especially when you aren’t sure what to expect. But if you’re playing with people you trust and respect, it can also be very healing. When Krystina Tigner’s father passed away in April, she was struggling to grieve in the way she wanted, due to the nature of Covid-19. Tigner, an actor and Into the Mother Lands cast member, says that D&D was helpful in her grieving process. “I found myself having moments in-game where I just broke down in the middle, like there was this crack between myself and my character,” Tigner said.
Over the years, she says, she’s used D&D to work through her trauma as well. “It's a very powerful thing, and I think it's important to know that it's not just a bunch of nerds playing a game, but it is people playing together and feeling and connecting,” Tigner says.
While in-person D&D is great, Tigner notes there are some benefits to virtual gameplay as well. “You've got this virtual table that we can take advantage of, to interface with each other, and that closeness is important,” says Tigner.
If you’ve gotten the basics of the game down, or you just can’t find anyone else who wants to do it, it may be time to try your hand at DM-ing. Being a dungeon master—or game master if you’re playing a different tabletop game—comes with its own set of rules and stories you have to keep in your head. Luckily, you’re not the first one to do it.
There are plenty of prewritten adventures that you can adapt to your table, and plenty of maps designed by other enthusiasts that you can use in Roll20 if you’re playing with friends virtually. It’s also important to make sure that your players feel comfortable at the table.
Mulligan suggests giving your characters scenes of their own to get into character during the first session, “rather than just being like, ‘OK, we're going to Tavern, what's everybody doing,’ which is a great way for someone who's a little bit shyer to feel steamrolled.”
For example, he suggests a scene where the character is in their element, or accomplishing something important to them, so the player behind the character feels more confident from the beginning.
And while having a story in place will help move the game along, D&D is a collaborative effort, and your players’ input is extremely valuable.
“When people feel railroaded, they will resist it,” says Walters. “You're there to paint the scene for them to have a meaningful experience, but in the process, you get to have meaningful experiences. You get to see their joy, and as you're playing off of them, they will push you to new and different heights.”
Watching actual play shows like Critical Role, Dimension 20, The Adventure Zone, or Girls, Guts, Glory can provide inspiration for your storytelling and your style as a dungeon master. But don’t worry about holding yourself to the standard of the professionals.
“You can't do what we do, but we also can't do what you do,” Walters says. “Sing your song, and let your friends and people at your table share that wonderful experience with you.”
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