Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a Tabletop Role-Playing Game. That is, it is an RPG that is played with a group of friends, generally sitting around a table, or over voice chat. D&D is played with one or more rule books, printed or digital character sheets, one or more sets of dice, and is role-played verbally, as opposed to being an RPG that is played on a video game console or computer. D&D uses a d20 set of dice. That is, a set of several dice ranging from 4-sided dice, to 20-sided dice.
Typically, there is one Dungeon Master, who is well acquainted with the rules of the game, who acts as a storyteller and guide for an adventure or campaign. Additionally, there are anywhere between 2-4 players, who will usually play a single character during a session. If a character dies, the Dungeon Master may allow them to be resurrected. Otherwise, the player has to roll (create) a new character.
Any amount of players, such as a single player, or 5+ players, is considered a very small, or very large party respectively. Having too many players will make the time between a player’s turn excessively long, as a turn in combat can typically take between 5-10 minutes per player. Thus, if you have 6 or 7 players in addition to a Dungeon Master, a player could wait upwards of an hour before they get a turn again. Role-playing outside of combat can take any amount of time, but with the trade-off of multiple characters being able to act in tandem. Outside of combat, the Dungeon Master must be careful to balance the time spent on each player, otherwise the players who aren’t currently participating could become bored.
History[]
D&D was first published in 1974, and was originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was unique, in that it took a step away from traditional strategy games like Chess and Checkers, that were a representation of military engagement. Instead, D&D places the player in control of a single character, which they can then roleplay as, and journey on a myriad of adventures.
The game was considered controversial by some religious groups, who expressed concerns over the artwork, which showed frontal nudity (particularly in female monsters); and the use of names such as “devils” and “demons”. This controversy, coupled with the nerd culture which was frowned upon at the time, lead those who played the game to become secretive about playing it. These “secret” meetings further fueled the rumours that Dungeons & Dragons was some sort of occult or devil-worshipping game. As nerd culture became more stream throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, Dungeons & Dragons shed its controversy as well.
There have been many different publications of Dungeons & Dragons. Each major publication consists of a set of rule books that are required to play the game, known as the “core rule books”, “core books”, “core rule set”, “core set”, and so on. Over the years, there have been several revisions to these rule books, where each major revision is known as a “ruleset”. As of this writing, the latest D&D ruleset is the 5th Edition (5E).
Core Rule Books[]
The majority of the mainstream D&D rulesets are comprised of 3 core rule books:
Dungeon Master’s Guide[]
This is the rule book for the Dungeon Master, which contains rules for how to create dungeons, monsters, magic items, and so forth. It also has a list of existing magic items, charts for rolling random encounters and item drops, and so on.
Player’s Handbook[]
This is the bread and butter of character creation. This book has the main races, classes, and equipment for a given ruleset, along with the rules for how to build, equip, and play a character.
Monster Manual[]
This is a beastiary of the main monsters in a ruleset. Some of the monsters contained within may be build as playable characters, but are most often used for encounters during player combat.
Major Rulesets[]
Original Dungeons & Dragons (OD&D) (1974)[]
This is the original Dungeons & Dragons. It had only a handful of game elements, compared to modern editions. There were three character classes: Fighting-man, Magic-user, and Cleric. Four races: Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Hobbit (Later renamed to Halfling). Three Alignments: Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic. The original ruleset was clunky, amateurish, and had a strong dependency on the players having previous knowledge from, and ownership of strategy games that used miniatures. The rules were later fleshed out with supplementary handbooks.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) (1977)[]
This edition revised and refactored the rules from the Original D&D ruleset, along with the rules from supplementary handbooks and other miscellaneous revisions. The classes of Assassin, Druid, Monk, Paladin, Thief, Bard, Illusionist, and Ranger were also added to this ruleset. There was also a split between rulesets, with Basic D&D being a more improvised, entry-level version of D&D, while Advanced D&D had more detailed ruled for advanced players.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition (2E) (1989)[]
This edition was a revision and update to the original AD&D ruleset. It also removed references to “devils” and “demons”, and removed any nudity from the artwork which was the ire of certain religious groups that had given the game bad publicity. Additionally, the classes were streamlined into four groups- Warrior, Wizard, Priest, and Rogue.
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition (3E) (2000)[]
This ruleset ended the divide between Advanced D&D and Basic D&D. This edition also departed from the confusing Armor Class rules from AD&D (Where a lower, more negative number was better), to a modern interpretation of AC (Bigger number equals better armor). Along with various revisions and updates, this edition was also published under the Open Game License, which made the system open source, and allowed 3rd party publishers to create campaigns and supplementary books that worked with the core ruleset.
Dungeons & Dragons Revised 3rd Edition (3.5E) (2003)[]
This is considered by many who have played Dungeons & Dragons for years, to be the definitive edition of Dungeons & Dragons. It has the well, fleshed out ruleset of 3rd Edition, with several small changes that players had complained about. The core books were also expanded as well. This edition has a strong balance between character creation and gameplay. Given the longevity of the ruleset, there are many pre-build campaigns and resources available. 3.5E is also easily compatible with campaigns, monsters, items, and other resources from 3E, furthering available resources for 3.5E
However, certain skills and gameplay aspects could stand to be streamlined, and there are few character management and creation apps/software for 3.5E, as modern conveniences like the commonality of smart phones weren’t available throughout the majority of 3.5E’s prime.
Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition (4E) (2008)[]
4th Edition, unfortunately, is the most widely despised version of D&D. This was seen as Wizards of the Coast’s (D&D’s publisher) cash grab to try to lure in World of Warcraft players. At the time, WoW was the most widely played and profitable MMORPG, and WotC felt a strong need to create a ruleset which would presumably appeal to a wider audience.
4E has minimal rules for non-combat roleplaying, expecting this to be performed free-form. This edition also relies heavily upon having an actual battle-map laid out, which further emphasizes the combat-focused playstyle of 4E. Roles were also introduced in this edition (and only this edition), which defines which role a class takes during combat, serving as an attempt to bridge Dungeons & Dragons to World of Warcraft style of play.
Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (5E) (2014)[]
5th Edition is the most recent ruleset as of this writing. It returns to a playstyle that’s similar to the beloved 3.5E, but with some streamlined revisions to allow faster character creation and management. The biggest difference between 3.5E and 5E is that upgraded and magical equipment is highly restricted, with a strong emphasis on actual gameplay, while minimizing character building as much as possible. Very restrictive crafting and attunement rules have been added, in order to prevent players from giving their characters too many, or too powerful of magic items. The major advantage to 5E is that there’s a plethora of apps and online materials to help build characters and campaigns.