How To Get Into Tabletop Roleplaying Games In 4 Easy Steps

If tabletop roleplaying games were video games, D&D would be Super Mario Brothers. It's the biggest, it's the most universally recognized, and it only scratches the surface of a very rich and diverse form of entertainment. And like Mario's World 1-1, it's still probably the best place to start roleplaying.

Dungeons & Dragons easily introduces the fundamentals of pretend gaming in a beautiful package. One player comes up with a cool dungeon, draws it on a piece of paper (or computer screen), and everyone else plays an adventurer trying to explore it. You fight monsters. You take their treasure. You get stronger and find bigger weapons to help you explore bigger, scarier dungeons. Rinse and repeat until you're the strongest in the land, or until real-life responsibilities stop Sarah from showing up on Thursdays and the whole thing falls apart.

Are there better games out there with friendlier, more streamlined rules? Yeah, probably. Almost everyone has a strongly held opinion of what the perfect beginner game is, but D&D is still the top dog, and may always be the main reference point in the hobby. 

The Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set remains the best place to begin. For a reasonable price you've got the game's rules, some beginner characters, and a decent pre-written adventure module that'll keep you and your friends busy for a couple of evenings. It doesn't come with a lot of flashy, distracting bits and bobs ... only the bare minimum to get you playing, and that's a good thing. 

If you want to go against the grain, there are still plenty of options. There are a number of great Star Wars games to take your adventures into space, Fiasco will help you and your friends recreate the chaos of a Coen Brothers movie, and 'World Wide Wrestling' will have you battling for glory and the championship belt.

The only thing you'll be losing is the massive community of Dungeons & Dragons fans who are talking about the game, and champing at the bit to help answer specific questions. Other games, of course, have their niche communities ... they can just be a little harder to find.   

Once you've chosen the game you're most interested in, you're ready to dive into the wonderful world of tabletop roleplaying and ... wait what? You need other people to play with? You can't just play this dumb thing by yourself? 

Crap. That means we're going to have to talk about ...

The first step, obviously, is to leverage your existing social ties. With the game appearing on shows like Community or Stranger Things you might be surprised how many of your friends and family actually would be excited to check it out, they just haven't been asked. Many have had success putting their groups together with literally just a Facebook or Twitter post: 

"Anybody want to try this game out a couple times?" 

Your situation could be different, however. It's entirely possible that no one around you wants to hang out in your basement and swing a pretend sword at a pretend orc. Never fear! That's what the magic of the internet is for. 

Communities like Roll20.net exist to connect people looking to play roleplaying games online. Their "Join a Game" listings are like a haven of personal ads, but instead of trying to show you pictures of their junk, they want to talk to you about their Game of Thrones knock-off campaign worlds. The listings are numerous, and there are so many people lobbying to get into games that it's sometimes easy to get overlooked when trying to get into one, especially as a new player. The fix? Run your own. 

Running a game of Dungeons & Dragons on a site like Roll20 immediately makes you the equivalent of the most attractive person on Tinder who is also into fun, freaky sex stuff on the first date. Everyone wants to get up in a DM's DMs. 

You can be honest about the fact that you've never been a Dungeon Master before. Most players will be happy to walk you through any of the technical bits for an excuse to play in a game.

Three to four players and a Game Master is usually the ideal number of people to gather. This number lets everyone have an even amount of spotlight, and helps keep slower paced parts of the game moving along. You can certainly play with fewer, or with more, but each direction comes with its own challenges. 

So now you've got a game, you've got your friends, but ... what's next?

The good news is that you're pretty much never on your own. If a game exists, there's probably a video on YouTube of a group playing it. There are probably blog posts filled with advice, philosophy, and personal session recaps. There's almost definitely a subreddit or a Discord server with fans excited to talk to anyone about their favorite game. (There's also a good chance that the writer of your game of choice is on Twitter, happy to answer any questions.) 

The beauty of roleplaying is that it's a social hobby. Even when you don't have your friends around a (physical or virtual) tabletop, there's always something to talk about. Fans are trading tips, sharing stories, and waxing philosophical on every street corner of the internet. We're all nerds in the biggest Twin Cities basement together. 

The only question that remains is, what do you do if you don't feel ready?