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I've seen the D&D books in the local bookstore a lot and I've skimmed them a couple times. It looks pretty interesting but I'm not exactly sure what it really is. I mean I know It's a role playing game, but from what I've heard It's just sitting around for hours upon hours just not really doing anything! I know this is probably just a stereo type or something and not entirely true but the thing is, with 40k you have minis and a clear object of the game. What is the object of D&D? How do you win? I think it would really cool to play but I don't want to play something that is really just sitting around making stuff up.

I would really appreciate any advice on this topic and descriptions of the game.

Thanks.

Its a roleplaying game set in a fanstasy worl. You ussually have about 6 people (1 Dungeon Master and 5 Player Characters). You go on adventures, if you are a player character, and fight monsters. The DM sets up the adventure and plays as the monsters.

Really fun, as long as your DM knows the rules and you make it clear to the magic users that they have a timelimit for chooseing which spell to cast.

There's probably a local gaming group in your area. That might be the best way to get into it, even if a couple of your friends want to join you. If you post on here looking for local people that want to play you might find someone who already knows how to play as the DM, which will certainly help. Failing that, trawl the internet. There's bound to be sites that will list local gaming groups. It's a great game, as long as the DM knows what they're doing. I definitely suggest you have an experienced DM for your first game. They will (usually) take it a little bit easy on newcomers as they want you to enjoy yourself too and it's no fun if your first game is over in three minutes.

rubiksnoob wrote:I've seen the D&D books in the local bookstore a lot and I've skimmed them a couple times. It looks pretty interesting but I'm not exactly sure what it really is. I mean I know It's a role playing game, but from what I've heard It's just sitting around for hours upon hours just not really doing anything! I know this is probably just a stereo type or something and not entirely true but the thing is, with 40k you have minis and a clear object of the game. What is the object of D&D? How do you win? I think it would really cool to play but I don't want to play something that is really just sitting around making stuff up.

I would really appreciate any advice on this topic and descriptions of the game.

Thanks.

Well, rubiks, It's hard to refute the accusation of "not doing anything" to D&D, but allow me to phrase it differently.

In D&D, you make a character. This character will have motivations, dreams, and the desire to accumulate wealth/prestige/knowledge/etc.
With the aid of your party (other characters played by friends and fellow players) and a DM (one friend who takes it upon themselves to organize and run the "world" your characters inhabit), you embark on adventures, and commit acts of varying moral standing.

Now, for instance, in my last D&D session, I rescued a king from enemy soliders, got him to the capital, and swayed two factions to support our nation in the coming war. Granted, in terms of physically doing things, I only slew a few monsters/enemy soldiers.

You don't "win" D&D, anymore than you "win" life or having a party, you have fun, you hopefully achieve something worth remembering, and associate with allies.
(NOte: You can win at a wide variety of things IN D&D. You can win battles, contests of skill, negotiations, etc. But the game itself is not discrete.)

I feel slightly defensive in regards to the "making stuff up" comment, as, abstracted, 40k only 'made up the stuff' for you.

D&D started as a wargame, that a man name Gary Gygax thought "Wouldn't it be cool if the characters actually did things, and started cool stories, instead of just running around fighting random people?"

It's a 'team' game.

You win when your team (or even your individual character) does something important or succeeds at a particular thing.

If you aren't a team player, or are convinced that winning is the only acceptable outcome, maybe it isn't for you (sometimes losing, but surviving is more rewarding.)

and all the gains you make in one adventure you can take with you on the next adventure - kind of like a campaign game of 40k

Also you progress in levels of experience, if you're a fighter, you can fight better, if you're a rogue your sneaky skills get better, if you're a wizard, you get more spells and they last longer etc.

I play both D&D and 40k and enjoy both of them.

I win D&D by killing lots of monsters, getting lots of treasure, gaining levels, finding magic items, and staying alive.

Some DMs run the game with little or no action. Some run the game with LOTS of action.

In fact, D&D can use a ton of miniatures, and the 4th edition game is geared toward this. It is difficult to do the game without miniatures. Each player is usually responsible for finding a miniature for his own character, buying his own dice, and likely, his own Player's Guide.

The Dungeon Master (DM) usually needs to own several monsters, a map for fighting combats on, and the three main books at least (Player's Guide, DM's Guide, Monster Manual).

As games go, it is quite inexpensive for players and DM. Of course, it CAN cost more, depending on how far players and DM want to take it.

Yeah, I figure that I have spent up of $500 on Sourcebooks.

But the Mini's are fairly cheap!

You don't have to make a map, in the D&D that I play we use a white board so we can have the map constantly changing. There is lines cut into the board that are then filled in with a marker.

Using a white board may not be for everyone because some people like to have everything actually there e.g. a pit of gunk aposed to having a couple of squares filled in with white board markers. But I prefer it like that so then I can visualize it in my mind.