History & How to Begin, Dungeons and Dragons Edition

By: Lance Kleinman

We all have our hobbies that we play in our free time, some people draw, some people cosplay, and some people like to play tabletop RPGs. The most popular of which is what we refer to as D&D 5e. Why is it the most popular, and how do I start playing? Well, allow me to explain. 

In 1974, Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson created the original Dungeons & Dragons, or what we refer to now as OD&D, and it was relatively successful on launch! However, years later, when the 80’s began, D&D began getting popular for all of the wrong reasons. Certain groups of people began accusing D&D players of Satanism and Witchcraft, and that ultimately hurt the game nearly beyond recovery. Over the next few decades, several versions of D&D would be released, and the rights to D&D would be acquired by Wizards of the Coast. In 2014, Wizard’s of the Coast released D&D 5e, making a more player friendly version of D&D, as opposed to the overly complicated debacle that was other versions of D&D. D&D 5e was a smash hit amongst the masses, introducing new players, and reinvigorating old players the like! 

As for learning how to play and starting to, it’s not too complicated. When it comes to learning there are hundreds of videos out there of DMs and Players the like, describing their first experiences, and how they got into it. The “Basic Rules” book is free from Wizards of the Coast, and is definitely a recommended read, if you’re trying to get into D&D. Some favorites for online resources are D&D Beyond and Roll20, which both have vast compendiums of D&D Sourcebooks and Adventure Modules. Whether you decide to learn from other people, or take a deep dive into D&D Sourcebooks, I have no doubt that you’ll find a way to play.

Basic Rules: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules 

D&D Beyond: https://www.dndbeyond.com/ 

Roll20: https://roll20.net/ 

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Lance Kleinman / Opfar is a staff writer at All Ages of Geek. You can follow him on Twitter @LanceKleinman & on Instagram @alancealot

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