Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MraM 11-19-06, 12:18 AM	so heres my story , im currently on house arrest and have alot of spare time on my hands , ive been wanting to learn how ot play DnD for awhile now , the last time i walked into our local adventure store , i picked up a DnD book and brought it to the counter , the man behind the counter got angry at me and said a newb cant be trusted with the sword of a thousand truths and kicked me out ( rude i know ) ... so i decided to search the online , i downloaded the basic rules but dont undertsand them to well , and i also downloaded the samuria character sheets and have no idea how to fill them out and i have no DM , i was hopeing somebody on here could teach me how to play , my AIM is gullykidskully , im usely on and probly will be for the next 4 or 5 months considering im on hosue arrest
X-Codes 11-19-06, 12:39 AM	The SRD is really bad for learning the rules from. You could probably buy the Player's Handbook at www.amazon.com and read that to get a good handle on the rules. As for playing online, I don't have AIM, so I can't help you there.
MraM 11-19-06, 12:47 AM	ehh i figured , i got enough bank to sned a firend to get my the players handguide , mabye he will have better luck with the store owner then i did , and also if id ont have a group of friends to play with is there other ways or would i just have to solo adventure
JudgeDeadd 11-19-06, 12:56 AM	You can always try www.dndonlinegames.com.
MareltEkiran 11-19-06, 01:10 AM	Well, first of all, the System Reference Document contains all the basics... Read the second file in the list (Basics and Ability Scores to get an idea of what it is all about) SRD (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35) Most bookstores sell quite a few D&D books... Most of those books are supplement rules, which won't make any sense if you don't know the basics. The book that you need to buy to learn the game is called the: "Player's Handbook v.3.5" (that's what it will say on the back) The other two important books are the Dungeon Master Guide (which contains descriptions on how a world and a campaign should look) and the Monster Manual (which contains descriptions on monsters and creature that can be encountered and battled). These three books combined are called the "Core" rulebooks. On these forums, they are commonly referred to as the PHB, the DMG and the MM. Just to put things in a nutshell... D&D is a roleplaying game. You play as a character and you interact with a world that the DM (dungeon master) describes to you. You will be faced with situations and you will announce what your character will do to deal with those situations. A character sheet is pretty much just a sheet with statistics about your character. These statistics describe how good/not so good your character is at doing things. The key to things here is the 20-sided die (aka the d20). You need that die and other special dice to play the game... most gaming or hobby stores will sell sets of them. Essentially, whenever you announce an action with a chance of failure (you don't need to roll for "I walk to the bar", but you do need to roll for "I stab the dragon with my sword"), you roll that d20, add whatever statistics are relevant and compare the total result to a number that indicates the difficulty of the task. Some examples: You announce: I try to stab the dragon with my sword. The roll that is made: d20 + attack modifier (which is the sum of your attack skills, your Strength and other factors) The difficulty: The sum of the dragon's defenses (known as the Armour Class or AC) If your attack result is equal or higher than the dragon's AC, you injure the dragon and you use some other dice to determine how much damage you did to it (which is subtracted from the dragon's hitpoints) *Note here that dragons tend to have high AC and high hitpoints, meaning that it's hard to hit them and it takes a lot of hits to get them down. Goblins, on the other hand, are much easier to hit, so they will have lower AC. You announce: So those orcs tied me up? I try to wiggle out of the ropes. The roll that you make: d20+ your Escape Artist skill (which is the sum of your skill ranks, your Dexterity modifier and possibly other factors) The difficulty: The skill of the orc who tied you up (he makes a check as well) and the quality of the rope. If your check equals or surpasses the difficulty, then you wiggle out of the ropes. If you fail, then you're still stuck. P.S. I don't know what you mean with "character sheet for a samurai." All characters in D&D use the same sheet. It's what you write on the sheet that determines what kind of character you are. As for Samurai... I recommend you just start out with the class that is described in the PHB as "Fighter". Those are good for beginners. Of course, nothing forbids you from letting your fighter use a Katana and just call himself a Samurai. The main part of the game is still roleplaying. The rules determine the success or failure of your actions, but the actions themselves and the description of your character are left to your own imagination and ingenuity.
MraM 11-19-06, 01:41 AM	http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/charactersheets thats where i found the samuri thing , i wonder fi my librarys got the rulebook