D&D Beginners Series: How do I Take Actions in Dungeons and Dragons

One of the big hurdles with learning to play Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, or other similar tabletop RPGs is wrapping their heads around how they can expect to practically play the game.  What should they expect when they sit down to play and how will the game actually transpire.

Assuming you’ve got your character sheet, dice, some friends, and maybe even some semblance of a back story ready to play, here is what you could expect during the actual play of your session. There is a basic pattern that’s repeated over and over again that looks something like this:

First, The Dungeon Master (DM) describes what your characters are experiencing

This could be meeting new non-player characters in town, or getting ambushed by bandits on the road, or a tree falling in the road before you as your caravan travels. The possibilities are endless… but either way they will set up the circumstances for which your player will be able to act in…

Second, The players decide what they want to do.

This is where D&D takes a whole different path than something like a video game where the options tend to be finite, or linear.  Here you have an open amount of options for what to do.  Brigands attacking your caravan… do you want to attack them? Reason with them? Run away? Hide inside the cargo boxes?  Etc.

Third, if there is a chance of failure, the DM will assign a roll for you to attempt. 

For example, in 5th edition D&D to heave a huge boulder down a cliff at enemies below you may need to roll an athletics check which (warning, this gets math-y) Is your strength modifier + proficiency score if you are proficient in athletics + your d20 roll.  You would report these results to the DM, and you could add some description for flair and flavor.

Fourth the DM will describe what the outcome of your check was. 

For the above example, the DM may have decided that this was a pretty heavy boulder and the player would need to meet a 16 to be able to succeed.  Let’s say that Krog the barbarian was rolling and he rolled a 12, plus is +3 modifier for having 16 strength, plus his +2 proficiency modifier for being proficient in athletics.  Krog rolls a 17 total… and lets the DM know that he scored a 17. In this case, the DM would describe to the player what the results were of this big boulder successfully being pushed down over the cliff. (hopefully, it squished lots of baddies!)

Fifth, Rinse and Repeat

This can take many forms, but the DM updates you with details on what else is happening, and you decide what you want to do next!

If you are looking for more information on how to get started in Dungeons and Dragons check out our D&D getting started guide or our D&D character creation guidelines.