How to begin playing D&D

[Ftaghn To You Too]

Don't play 3.5. NEVER play 3.5. It's an unbalanced mess designed by a moron who hated new players and who wanted Wizards to be objectively the best class ever. By far the worst edition and down there in the list of all RPGs. Pathfinder is heads and shoulders better, but is intrinsically marred by being based on 3.5.

I'd go with a Retroclone like Hackmaster, Dark Dungeons, or Castles and Crusades if I were you. They're modernized versions of classic D&D that retain the old flare and style while still being modern games.

I'd heavily recommend that whatever you do, research other games. There's all kinds of gems out there for every genre. My personal favorite for fantasy is Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd edition.

Oh, and look at my first paragraph. You will run into edition warriors. People that see people having fun with systems they don't like and getting very angry about it. Don't get too worked up about what you choose, and collect a large base of opinions on what games are good or not good. Roleplaying games are such that you can have fun no matter how bad the system is a lot of the time, so just grab some dice and have fun. If you don't like the system, find a new one. That's all there is to it.

I wish you luck on your adventures!

 

[Sandernista]

Good luck, as someone new to table top RPGs you might want to check out Savage Worlds, it's very noob friendly and has tons of premade worlds from which you can jump right in.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Thanks everyone, you've been really useful. I probably won't be able to join an existing group, as I live in the country and have no easy means of transporting to a game/card/comic shop, but some of my friends are very keen to play.

I'll also check out these other RPG games, I love cyberpunk!

As long as you have some friends who are interested; I always had friends who liked that kind of stuff and friends who didn't.

Just some advise:

Even though you might be the leader of your RPG group, you may want to elect someone else as DM/GM. Pick whoever is best at telling stories and/or always full of shit. They (believe it or not) make the best GMs. That guy who is always full of shit knows how to weave quite a tapestry if you give him something to focus on. But no-one who smokes too much pot as GM. We always liked to have a spliff or two but if everyone gets too baked (or drinks one too many) the game goes nowhere.

Dont do drugs kids. "There's a time and a place for everything, and that's college"

I would recommend Palladium over D&D if this is your first RPG. It's a pretty straightforward rule set; the game can really slow down if you have to look up a lot of stuff. You can get the basic rulebook on ebay for $10 and thats all you really need. The great thing about it is that you can start off in the Palladium fantasy and start over or spin off into Rifts which is the Cyber/sorcerer-punk version. All the rules and stats are compatible. I spent a lot of years playing D&D but was quickly converted to Palladium. It has a wide lexicon of material (including Battletech & TMNT: that's right you can have anthropomorphic Pandas piloting mechs in a fantasy/cyberpunk world if you want to go there; all compatible) but with the basic rules you can make up your own stuff.

Most important advise: Have fun.

 

[SumoTroll]

In my own experience the best way to START playing is to get a small group that's interested in the game, and go in with the rules thrown out the window. My very first game was with an experienced dungeon master, and a group of complete, fresh out the pond newbies. We didn't use character sheets, only on a rare occasion would we reference the rulebook, and the dungeon master pretty much had reign to decide what you can and can't do. This made for an easy, light hearted game, where both us and the DM had motivation to be awesome heroes with minimal effort. I've used this technique myself, and have found it to be very effective for teaching roleplaying, and introducing players who are either not used to total freedom, or want even more freedom than provided. ("I kill it." "You need to role for that." "I thought you said I could do whatever I want") After that, once they know the game is fun and are willing to invest time into it, introduce rules. If you do not wish to DM the game, find someone with at least mild levels of experience to do it.

 

[Thanatos5150]

The difference between D&D 4E and Pathfinder is huge.
D&D 3.5 is often considered the best edition, but it's kind of an unbalanced mess. Pathfinder is sort of like 3.75, as it's basically a slightly more balanced version of 3.5

Must... not... start... edition... wars.

Personally, I find D&D 4E to be superior balance-wsie to 3.5, which fell quite neatly into the old "Magic users are better than everything because MAGIC!" trap. I have Evil Thoughts about getting a bunch of friends together to play in That One DM's Campaign using nothing but Dwarven Clerics. Pathfinder, as well, seems to me to have just taken everything that was broken about 3.5 and, after a long and thought deliberation, decided to Break It Further.

Thus, I prefer 4E. Your mileage may, of course, vary.

Again, D&D Next is in playtesting right now, and, from what I've seen of it, appears to be continuing the "proud" tradition of shafting the guy who doesn't want to play a magic-user. Because, hey, why play as a boring ol' Fighter when you can be a WIZARD, right? All that phenomenal Cosmic Power from Level Six and Above is going to make your noobie dumbface jerkjock friend who wanted to play Fighty F.McFighterson totally get what's coming to him when he's obsolete for the entire campaign!

...

Shadowrun is rather nice, I hear, but nobody around here plays, so I have zero anecdotal experiance. Simularly, I'm quite a fan of World of Darkness and Dark Hersey/the rest of the 40k roleplaying games (Except Deathwatch, because the only cool Astartes are the Raven Guard, but you know somebody is going to play a Blood Angel or a Space Wolf or a - and I shudder to type it - Ultramarine).

 

[Ghaleon640]

Personally, I prefer RP games that are as word based as humanly possible, it lowers the start-up cost substantially, especially if you aren't sure about if your friends will stop after 2 sessions (this happens even with the best of friends, it just does,) and people question you about rules less, it probably makes it harder for them to die, which if you are all new probably helps a bit since character death can be a hard thing to deal with.

I've started my first game role playing game with nothing but dice and a few weeks of planning a couple of scenarios and asking them what they want their characters to be able to do ahead of time. Though, I have played other games before, (legacy crossing, DnD 3.5, some super hero one, and some customs)

Also, an important thing, I feel that you should not only feel free to go against the rulebook, but I encourage you to. One of my friends brought out a warhammer game and set us up against zombies that weren't fit against our levels. We were outnumbered 3 to 1 against faster, stronger, tougher enemies that could kill us in one hit. But choosing not to adjust their stats made the day end very very poorly.

The most important thing you can do as a DM is to pay attention to your players. What do they like/dislike, and having your own personal character is often the most boring thing you can possibly do to them, because they are often taking the show away from the players, covered in plot armor, stories revolve around them... its not pleasant.

BEST OF LUCK!

 

[keideki]

Personally I would recommend playing with a well established group at a game store once or twice to get a feel for how the game is run and how the players play. Trying to form a D&D group with only people who are totally new to the game can be rough, you will spend a lot of time consulting the rule books (which is fun for some) but which can ruin the game for some people. If you are dead set on playing it with friends I would say you should try one of the 4th edition starter sets or the pre-made campaigns. They have simplified rule sets and explain it in a way that would make it easier for a newer player. 4th edition is a little less rule intensive so it can be much easier to pick up than 3.5 or pathfinder.

That being said, pathfinder and 3.5 have a much richer rule set with far more options for your play style. Aside from that, playing with an established group has lots of other advantages, access to all the books without having to pay for them or download them illegally, access to quality play places and surfaces, access to a plethora of minis to use. The game really changed for me when I went from playing on grid paper with pens to playing on a nicely printed or drawn map with minis.