Dungeons and Dragons, or as it is affectionately known, D&D, is one of the world’s most popular tabletop roleplaying games. It’s a game where you can get together with old friends or people who aren’t friends just yet and craft a world and a story that’s uniquely yours.

However, the dice, charts, character sheets, models, and maps can be daunting to newbie players. It sure looks like a lot of math and note-taking for a game. While it might look frightening, it’s nothing to be afraid of, because there are plenty of ways to learn what you need to start your very own game or join an ongoing one.

Books we have available for checkout

Books for Players:

For beginners, the best book that you can check out is the Player’s Handbook (5th ed).

D&D Player's handbook cover. A giant with grey skin and tribal outfit grabs for a woman in the foreground. She has a red braid and her hand is enveloped in magic in the form of white energy. In the bottom corner there is a ranger with a bow strapped to their back. They have dark skin and hair.

Player’s Handbook (Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition)

by James Wyatt, Robert J. Schwalb, Bruce R. Cordell 

A player’s handbook is more important than any other pieces you can get when starting D&D, more important than a pretty dice set, or a cool character model by bounds. This book will walk you through the basic rules of the game like attacks (ranged vs melee vs magic and more), items, money, movement, supplies, and equipment. It also gives a primer on the basic world of D&D: the fantasy lands, the animals and monsters, and the races like elves, goblins, and humans. Past this, all of the classes like rogue, bard, wizard, and their specializations are explained in full. This book is how players build a new character.

Even experienced players refer back to the player’s guide when making a new character and will also refer back to the book for clarification on rules and when leveling up, so don’t feel bad about needing to crack that bad boy open often, it’s a learning process!

The book linked above is the handbook for the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, which is the latest edition of the game. The rules are different from edition to edition, so there is always an option to play editions 4 and back.

For Example here’s the playbook for 4th edition, which is also available from our library system:

Dungeons and Dragon’s 4th Edition Handbook

Books for Dungeon Masters (DM)

If you’re more interested in ruling the world, dungeon mastering might be more your speed. The dungeon master is the mysterious character behind the curtain, pulling all the strings. Basically, you’ll be playing all NPCs (non-player characters) and describing the world to your players. Every game needs a DM, and every DM needs their tools.

Just like players have a handbook, the master of the dungeon also gets one:

Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master's guide cover. A skeleton figure gathers energy from a man in the foreground. He holds a staff with purple energy wafting off of it into the sky, with his robes billowing behind him. The man in the foreground has eyes obscured by ghostly light and is wearing steel platemail. They are in front of a bookshelf and smoke.

Dungeon Master’s Guide (Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition)

by Mike Mearls, Wizards of the Coast, Jeremy Crawford, Robert J. Schwalb, Rodney Thompson, Peter Lee

Master the arts of worldbuilding, learn all the rules, and flip through the list of magical items to tantalize your players with. Just like every person’s play style will be different, every dungeon master runs their game in different ways.

Also don’t forget, this is all just things to help you, if you don’t want to use some of the rules at your table, or want to make up your own rules and stories it’s a very normal thing to do in dungeons and dragons. The game’s format rewards creativity.

Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual cover. A beholder has its mouth open in a scream in the foreground (beholders are balls with large mouths full of sharp teeth and tentacles with eyes on the ends covering its top half. A dwarf wields a hammer near it as a man with a sword in hand runs. Lightning cascades across the background, striking statues behind the characters. Bats fly behind the beholder.

Monster Manual (Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition)

by Mike Mearls, Wizards of the Coast, Jeremy Crawford, Robert J. Schwalb, Matt Sernett, Steve Townshend

This is the last of the three basic books you will need to start a game. It’s a collection of all the monsters in the game and the stat-blocks you will use to interact with or fight them.

After all, what’s a dungeon without its dragons?

Which way to play?

There are many ways to play D&D. You can play fully online with the use of applications like Roll20:

Roll20 Logo.
Most functions come with the free version like maps, character tokens, spells, and digital dice to roll. There is a more customizable version for a fee.

Or you can play in person. The great thing about playing either way is that you can create anything you need out of graph paper and whatever you find lying around the house. Some groups play with monopoly pieces as their character tokens, some play with figures from gumball machines. This works because of the fact you can play entirely with “theater of the mind”. Since you’re making everything up if you say to your players they meet a terrifying sea monster and place down a goldfish cracker your players will fill in the gaps with their imagination.

Or come play a game with us!

If you’re looking for a non-judgemental game to jump in on, for beginners and experienced folks alike we run a game at the library!

Additional Reading

Dungeons and Dragons For teens banner. Dungeons and Dragons for teens, Sunday, August 29th. 3-5pm. Register Online.
Dungeons and Dragons for teens! All 6th-12th graders are welcome to join. Please register online by clicking the picture above and pushing the register button.

Now that you have the basics down you can move on to the fun stuff! There are plenty of books published by Wizards of the Coast that have additional races, classes, jobs, backstories, worlds, and stories for you to experience. Here are some that we have in our library system!

  • Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
    • Part one of the waterdeep saga! This story will take your adventurers through levels 1-5. Set your party on an urban treasure hunt for gold and glory in the city of Waterdeep.
  • Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
    • Part two of the waterdeep saga. Once your party finishes Dragon Heist they can take a stab at Dungeon of the Mad Mage, which is recommended for characters level 5 and can take them all the way to level 20. Mad wizard Halaster Blackcloak controls the labyrinthian underground dungeon your party will traverse for 23 layers of madness. Some parts are dark, and some parts the wizard will mess with your mind through game-show level antics.
  • Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
    • Monster scholar Rudolph Van Richten arms the forces of good against encroaching darkness in the eerie realm of Ravenloft. This book has resources for players and DMs to craft horror characters and stories to their spooky heart’s conent.
  • Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
    • Everyone’s favorite sorceress is back! In this supplementary book Tasha brings back from her interdimensional plane hopping (did I tell you there’s space travel and the multiverse in D&D) new spells, classes like artificer, magical tattoos, and more!
  • Explorer’s Guide to WildeMount
    • From Matt Mercer himself comes the world of Critical Role. Critical Role is one of the most popular real play D&D webcast/podcasts in the world. Explore the world of the mighty nein for yourself with WildeMount.
  • Mythic Odysseys of Theros
    • For fans of the card game Magic: The Gathering and D&D there isn’t a better sourcebook than this. Align yourself with and fight against the gods of the realm of Theros. No need to study legends when you can become one.
  • Curse of Strahd
    • Return to Ravenloft to face Count Strahd von Zarovich who terrorizes the town of Barovia from his eerie castle. Good for players level 1-10 who want a classic horror themed adventure.
  • IceWind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden
    • Icewind Dale has been plunged into eternal night. Can your party save the frontier towns in the tundra of the dale from the grip of the Frostmaiden?