Beginner’s Guide to D&D 5th Edition

 Hello and welcome to the Beginner’s Guide to Dungeons & Dragons! If you truly are new to D&D 5th edition, you’re in for a real treat. Why? Because this game is great, and here you’ll find some excellent resources to help get you started as you embark on this new adventure into  the world’s greatest hobby! Simply click on the images below to navigate to helpful tips, video tutorials, websites and PDFs. If you feel anything is missing that could help newcomers, I welcome your feedback down below!

char creation

how to play

buyer's guide

pre gens

37 Comments

  1. Where can I find printouts for paper tokens/miniatures I have looked around and could not find any but I wasn’t looking very diligently I would prefer free download but if there arnt any I would be okay with that

    • Google ‘paper miniatures’ and you should find some. What I have done in the past is just find pictures I can use (google image search) re-size them, print on cardstock and then put them back to back in a stand or just cut a little extra paper to fold so they stand up. Hope that helps.

      • Thank you for that comment. I am a new DM for a startup DDAL and I own 4 miniatures and I feel bad offering players scraps of paper to write their character’s names on and for me to write G1 O1 P1 for Goblins, Orcs, Plant enemies. I didn’t know this was a thing.

  2. Hi I watched your How to Play D&D videos, and I wanted to know if you’ll make a video specifying the changes they made to 5e from 4e.

    • I wish I could! But I’ve actually never played 4E, so I would not be the right person for that. Based on my limited knowledge of 4E I can tell you 5E is very much streamlined and simplified over 4E. It has less “crunch” and is less reliant on magic items and special abilities and tries to get back to what the original role playing game is all about. Combat moves more quickly and it encourages role playing in character. I love the system and its pretty widely acclaimed. Great reviews so far. A lot of people who were hanging on to previous editions have jumped ship. I know the channel Draven Swiftbow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0x3gYU__nw) was pretty in to 4E and has now changed to 5. You might ask him or see if he brings it up in some of his vids. Thanks for visiting the site and watching my videos. Happy gaming!

  3. I just watched your D&D beginners guide since I really want to get into it, it seems fun. But, where can you get maps and adventures from, do you have any downloads like the other resources on your site?

    • If you google D&D maps you can find tons of ideas for making your own on gaming paper or something. If you want to buy some I’d recommend Paizo flip mats or D&D dungeon tiles. For adventures, If you are new to it and not wanting to create your own adventures, I’d recommend the Starter Set. It’s fairly cheap and has the Mine of Phandelver adventure which is quite good. Also – here are a couple free adventures that look like they might be good – http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?categoryid=38 I haven’t looked at them to closely. 🙂 Good luck to you!

  4. I was wondering where you got the pieces since I would love to play this games with friends unfortunately I don’t know where can you get the its to play the game

    • I think you are talking about the miniatures, but if not let me know. I usually get the miniatures from my local hobby shop. Also check out reaper miniatures online. They are great. I usually get the plastic ones (Reaper Bones) because they are cheaper.

      • Or you can just use the cardboard pogs that come with the set. No detail, just monster one, two, three.

  5. Hey I what to start d n d game with my family but I don’t no what figures to buy so we can see it while thinking what is happening at the same time I got the starter set and a table top battle ground but don’t no what figures I sould get

  6. Dungeons and Dragons is the real life!
    I am really truly a cleric in real life and cast heal light wounds – it heals faster.
    I believe in an emergency there is almost instant healing…
    Once I saw someone hit themselves in the head with a bottle, and then they couldn’t walk anymore.
    After a while I prayed for them and hummed a sacred tune, they were healed instantly then.
    Hm m!

  7. Hi ,my 12 year old son has asked for a dungeons and dragons board game for Christmas. I really don’t know where to start ,please can you advise me on which board game he can start with. Also do you think ,this will be too hard for him to play ? Many ,many thanks.Jill Page .

  8. hey, Nate, I love your videos even though I just started watching them! but I have a question in How to Play D&D part 1 – A Sample Game Session at the 52 second you said there were premade characters that we can download on this website where would I find those?

  9. Hey Nate, I have stumbled across your videos and been watching with interest, I haven’t played DnD since I was a kid (some 30 years ago) and was reminded of it recently. I want to get my kids into it but its a steep learning curve for me and confusing to the kids. Do you know of any really simplified version of DnD that exists that I can start them (and me) off to see if they enjoy it?? I want to let them freely use their imagination but don’t want to be weighed down with the very technical side. Any advice would be appreciated. Regards Rich

    • Hi Rich, I’d recommend checking out the Black Hack (very simplified), or Index Card RPG (not as simple but definitely less complex than D&D 5e). When my kids were VERY young we started on Hero Kids, so that might be worth a look too.
      That said, if you watch my How to Play videos, I think the rules for 5e are quite manageable. And the Starter Set does hold your hand really well through the whole process. It’s a good teaching tool and a great way to get started at a reasonable cost.

  10. Hey Nate, sorry for posting here. I could not find an email or other appropriate contact specific area.

    So 2 questions:

    1. Is this a good place to contact you from? If not, then where?
    2. Is there an equipment sheet, [similar to World of Warcraft MMO or other. Like armour slots, jewelry, weapon slots, etc], showing the amount of slots available to a character to wear?

    This would allow me and my son to see more clearly which slots are not filled yet and which slots can be swapped out with improved gear.

    Sorry if this is an ‘obvious’ question but it seems I cant find a good answer and a google search came up blank despite rewording the search a few times.

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  12. hey Nate in the pre-generated characters when i click the Tiefling Warlock
    and it does not bring me its sheet plz help

  13. Hi!
    Thank you for this. I want to have a beginners campaign that lasts about 2 to 2.5 hours with everything as pre-made as possible. It is just to get a flavor for the game and 5e. Are there any mini adventures that I can use to accomplish this?

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