Dungeons And Dragons 5e

Dungeons and Dragons, also known as D&D is a tabletop RPG where you get together with a group of people. One player has the job of Game/Dungeon master, DM, and sets up the campaign the others will play. The other players will be tasked to build up their own character, this includes backstory, race, class, and stats, and more. The group will then get together to play the campaign that DM will lead them through.

When playing D&D the first step you have to take is creating your character, this one of my favorite parts of D&D. You are given so many options to choose from. You start by selecting your race each one has its own special abilities both good and bad. For the campaign I played for this paper I played as a Rock Gnome that had the Gnome Cunning skill giving me an advantage for saving throws. You will then select a class that you will play, the choice you make will depend on how you want to play. Do you want to be support, cleric, want to rack up damage, play a barbarian, there are also ranged and magic casting classes. You will then find your ability using your dice, when distributing your points make sure to consider what stats will serve your previous choices best. With these completed you have the option to put more detail into your character, physical features, backstory.

On the topic of ability score there are six, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. The Strength ability is used for measuring your physical power. Dexterity is for how agile your character is. Constitution is for your endurance and hit points/health. Intelligence is for your characters memory as well as reasoning. Wisdom will measure your insight and perception. Finally, charisma will be measuring your characters personality.

When it comes to the game-play it can vary depending on the setting. Some people might have mats that they use, some may play on the computer, when we played, we simply just used our imagination, with ambient noises in the background. To play the game you need to have six die, these include a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 and d100. Each die is used for different things, the one that you will use the most is the d20, which you use for checks and initiative. With the dice in play it makes D&D a game of chance which adds both suspense, from the fear of rolling low, and excitement, from the thought of getting a natural 20. There is also a leveling system, the way it works depends on how the DM chooses to do it, either EXP or by milestone.

With how combat works in D&D it starts with an initiative roll with a d20, the order of combat is then decided through this, the way your fight depend on what character you made, for me I had a Rock Gnome Fighter. My options for combat are limited to close up attack with the only “ranged” weapons I can use being hand axes. However, fighters can deal a lot of damage and take a lot of damage so when it comes to close and personal fights, I am golden.

One of the main positives and negatives of D&D is the party aspect of the game. Playing with other people in this game can lead to interesting scenarios that sometimes even the DM didn’t plan. This happened in one of the sessions we played where the DM had planned a little side story but do to the players decisions that plot went out of the window the drawback to this game is that the game can get heated and arguments might erupt. Also, the way the game goes is all determined by the DM. This is not a bad thing if you have a good DM. However, if you are unlucky enough to have a bad DM you will find the experience less than enjoyable.