I’m six years old and bored of hanging out at home, so I jump on the invitation to visit my neighbor. She’s a little younger than me, but all the other kids are huge; and not in that rounded sort of way, but in the godly sense. Like they’ve crossed a chasm I’ve only recently discovered.

These wise, young men [of the ripe ages eight to eleven] have lived through a golden age. They’re gathered around a table, eating their ambrosia-shaped chips. And they’re rolling funny dice while they laugh at sheets of paper.

If this sounds familiar to you, I’m sure you’re grinning. Maybe your first Dungeons and Dragons game was like mine. But if you’re reading this because you want to try out Dungeons and Dragons, well, the what-the-heck experience isn’t impacted by age. I’d know, since I just introduced two friends to Dungeons and Dragons last Friday.

We fought giant spiders in our first DnD game.

Their first session included the following questions:

• What if I don’t like what the DM is doing?
• What if we don’t do the things the DM expects us to do?
• What am I doing again?
• How dense is cork?
• May I have an octopus?
• What would you do?

I asked questions like this, too. Especially about the octopus animal companion. And our group had answers, which is why I simply must stress: it’s important to start with veterans. This game’s infinitely easier led by example, with a little monkey-see-monkey-do. If I had to learn Dungeons and Dragons from the Player’s Handbook, I’d ninja-star it into a dark place. Or maybe slide it under the bed.

Speaking of the Player’s Handbook!—you’ll need supplies.

Everything You Need to Get Started

1. A set of polyhedral dice.
2. A Player’s Handbook. I’m linking to my favorite, but there are different books available for 1st through 4th edition.
3. Paper and pencil.

The Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual help, but your PHB should come with some monsters in the back for play-testing. You can also use the d20 SRD for free 3.5 edition rules.

What You Should Know — and Expect!

People play DnD differently, just like the PvP and PvE crowds of World of Warcraft. What’ll happen in your game will depend on the group’s gaming style, but here are some gimmes to get you started:

1. You’ll create a character. You’ll have to choose their race (elves, dwarves and gnomes, oh my!), their class and other important aspects about them. Your character will act as your persona, similar to an avatar in an MMO. You’ve just become a fiction writer, but you don’t have to worry about those pesky plots and settings.
2. You’ll probably get in a fight. This will involve arithmetic and dice rolling, and it may involve miniatures. (If it involves swinging plastic weapons at each other, that’s called live action roleplaying, and it’s C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E-L-Y different from what we’re talking about here.) Battles are quintessential to DnD. If you’re not getting into this aspect of your first Dungeons and Dragons game, you should be on red alert. This may not be the hobby for you.
3. You’ll more than likely get into roleplaying. At least, I sure hope you will. This is when you step into the shoes of your character, speaking from their perspective instead of yours. It’s like playing dolls, or cops and robbers, only you aren’t three years old. And you get to crack a lot of inappropriate jokes.

If you gear up for your first time, and approach it with the right expectations, you shouldn’t get disappointed by this long-lived form of gaming. Just think, Dungeons and Dragons was the start of it all! I think it’s even before Zelda. I know, ghastly!

Here are some additional resources that could help DMing, if you’re a first timer without any veteran players:

• How to Be a Dungeon Master from wikiHow
• So You Want to Be a Dungeon Master from Dummies.com