Matthew Ro Hunt

English 91
Informative
A Start
Pushing into the darkness a burst of light cast into the chill that was forming up their backs; a
soft word of magic warms the group and shows the end of the journey, final the blood, the death and
horrors are over, they are at the end. Opening the chest the skillful rouge dismantled a trap saving his
friends from a nasty shock, they have found they magic that will free the goddess Ehlonna. This is just
one of the ways a good Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) campaign can run; getting this game going can be
very challenging at times. To run your own game there are a lot of key components, or the game cannot
run smoothly. The necessary components: the core book, minimum of four players, DM, and Story.
Getting your core books is going to the first step to get your game started, these book can be
bought at any local book store, gaming store or even online. The first book that is needed is the Players
Hand Book, (PHB) this book will help you start making your character and learn about how your
character lives in their world. The Monster Manuel (MM) as the name implies, has all the beginning
monsters (mobs) that one will fight. The Dungeon Master Guide (DMG), has the rest of the rules of how
the game is be to run, we all know without the rules there will be no fun, of course the DM does have the
ablity to make house rules that can be used in his game and take out book rules that are not to be used in
his game. With these basic book mastered you can advance onto the next set of helpful books.
Most players chose to move on to the Epic Level Players Hand Books (EPHB) this book will
show how to continue your class you chose past level twenty. Even more will duel class now to expand
their characters abilities by using one of the complete compendiums, there is ten of these for the third
editions of DnD. There is the few that will keep using the core books to expand their characters abilities.
Of course for the extreme players there is the Rules Handbook, DMG II and the other smaller guilds that
that one can get to just expand the world its self. No matter what books you do pick up and use you must
find the ones that you like and that can help your adventures grow. Always keep looking for a new book
that might be able to give you an edge over the other players to maybe make a little better of a character
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that can last longer, hit better, and role play with more style. If anything the more you play the more you
can learn about each class can improve and hinder each other.
Finding the group of friends to play with can be and will be difficult. There will be long gasps of
time when you will not find a game to play never have the right fit of player to get the game going. That
might sound a little strange how can you not get four or five people together who enjoy playing a game
together four or two times month. As with everyone in the world we have work, family, school, and
hardships and this can keep us all for doing anything we want to.
Once you have that magical group you are meeting for that first time, the DM is now either
picked or already has been pick; for most games he is the one that started getting everyone together. Now
this first meeting the DM sets his rules, talk about these later on, and he will part the player so each as a
private area to make who they want to play. The DM will meet with each play getting their stats based on
the rules that were set by the DM, once these are on the Character Sheet (CS), the player will now input
the rest of their race, class, skill, feat, equipment, on to the CS while the DM is now helping the other
players.
The Player with be using the PHB for all this, once placing the stats in the right place they add the
modifiers (mods) to the right place page 8 this mods also are places into other place; skill have ability
mods, also with reflex, will, and fortitude. Now we pick the race of who you will play; Dwarf, Human,
Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Half-Orc, Half-Elf these will go in hand of your class, due to the stats that can
reflect on your class page 12 to 20 will have all the base races that can be played. The class is your next
chose, page 24 to 58 Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rouge, Sorcerer,
and Wizard. Each class has own abilities, spells, class skills, and few with spells all of which is written in
these pages of course this all needs to places onto the CS.
Now you get to spend your skill points this is based on your classes Intelligence modifier and
how many skills they have this is on page 62. Each skill is then from that page listed in alphabetical order
as in the whole book. There are some classes that have to have skills to do anything a magic user needs
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English 91
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Knowledge Arcane and Spellcraft, and the rouge needing Move Silently and Hide. There is many other
skills that each class can use and then some that are not part of their class skill to gain one rank in these
you need to spend two skill point an any skill. After your Skill you now need to pick your Feat all but
Human only get one, this is just due to how versatile that race is page 90.
With all of this on your CS we now have a rather shapely from starting in this world that will be
played, maybe a Dwarven Fighter, or Gnome wizard. With each party and each play being so different
you never know what can really get picked till that day. Now you can get to the equipment section page
115 this will have weapons, armor, gear, and water, everything an adventure will need to journey into the
word. Always remember your starting gold is limited but you must get you need for the journey you will
get more as you travel, questing will get you money and better gear.
Now that CS is almost full there a few spot empty, height, eye, sex, god, aliment, mostly for looks
this is up the player think of how your person has lived their life what has happened to them why are they
are out doing whatever it is they are now doing? Pushing for powers, trying to save the area from evil,
prove their worth to them self? Try to find that center of who they are and you will have if there is a god
they worship 106, what aliment they follow page 104, who they like and dislike, if they drink? All of this
is need. Once you are done you will show this and tell your story to the DM alone so only they will know.
You want to keep what you can from the player until you meet them and know how your person will
interact with each different character in the game.
Once the game is going the DM with start the story, this will also be cover latter on. You will be
asked question, and what your character will do in each part. Most the time you will need to roll to how
this works out, every roll needs a die, this can also be acquired at most book stores and game stores, the
most common roll is the D20 or dice twenty. You roll your die and then add your skill, for an example if
you want to see who coming up on the road some distance away you roll your 20 then add you spot check
to that roll to see if you can make him out. The DM would already know the DC difficult class of that
check before you rolled to know what you can make out.
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English 91
Informative
As for most games it all about the fighting, this always start with roll initiative to see who the fast
to respond is. Roll the D20 and initiative to that roll, the fight is done in order, for ties higher initiative
score is first if still tie reroll till higher. With each round now all players have two actions they can do
these can be mixed in anyway one would like move move action, Full attack, move attack, Charge attack,
or standard action spell. And there is a lot of free action moves most common is dropping something and
talking.
Once attack you will roll the D20 to try to hit you are try to meet or break your opponents AC
armor class, this is 10 + dexterity modifier + armor + shield + natural + miss, and the DM will let you
know what happened if you hit or miss. Each weapon has a critical (crit) chance if this rolled, based on
DM rules you confirm critical if you hit again you score a critical damage hit, and you can if want to
triple for auto kill but if not a critical it only regular damage. After hitting you will roll damage based on
the die your weapon has and add any modifier availed to you; this will go on until on side is killed.
Now that the game is going and you know what is going on you might someday want to be that
DM, that is always a good chose you can run the player and see if they can live or die in your world. First
you want to get your rules down. Most follow what is in the PHB and DMG either using a point system
for stats or roll 4d6 dropping the lowest number and rerolling any ones, each DM has their own idea on
how they want their world to work and what can happen. Now you need your story, as a new DM you can
find some modules, prewritten campaign, a lot of good one too. Take your time get a few of them read
them if you dont like them dont run them use what you played, read, seen, know to build your own story
make the game yours.
In every aspect of this game you always want to make sure you are enjoying yourself. If not stop
playing for while or find different player or a new DM that keep you locked in to the work a bit more.
There is always more that can be done more that can be learn, and even more of the world of Dungeons
of Dragons that can scratched at with this small exert of knowledge. With just the base of knowledge you
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can go far just the core book, your few friends, the DM and a Story can keep get your night going, have
you into your own game of Dungeons and Dragons