by Sherry Law

Created on: May 07, 2008

Nearly all of us played games of make-believe when we were kids - cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, or in my case "The Man From U.N.C.L.E" and "Lost In Space". Sometimes you dressed the part, more often, you didn't. Some "cops" and "cowboys" had toy guns and some just pointed their fingers and said "BANG - You're dead!" In essence, this shared experience makes it easy to explain Dungeons and Dragons to the non-player. Dungeons and Dragons is basically a game of make-believe played at a table with books, dice and paper rather than one that involves running around outside getting hot and sweaty.

The game is set in a world of fantasy - brave knights, elves, wizards and nightmarish monsters wander through an endlessly changing panorama of castles, caves, taverns and markets. Along the way they solve riddles, find treasures, kill evil creatures and survive attacks by their enemies. With each completed task or battle, the characters gain points and eventually move to the next level. With the increased level comes additional abilities, skills and strength.

Within Dungeons and Dragons there are the players and there is the Dungeon Master. Each player will become a character in the game. The characters' traits are determined by rolling special dice. Intelligence, strength, agility, dexterity, whether your character is aligned with good or evil factions or is neutral and other traits - all determined by a roll of the dice. The scores received by each trait determine whether the character will be learned wizard or a brave knight, a rogue or an elf. The Player's Handbook has information about the different characters, as well as how to play each of them. The book also contains basic rules for playing D&D. In addition to the sheet that player's use to track their character's statistics, many player's will keep a "cheat sheet" of important info - these are especially handy for newbies.

The Dungeon Master's Guide and The Monster Manual are two other books put out by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Dungeons and Dragons. The Dungeon Master's Guide has information about building dungeons, about treasure and lots of other information that the Dungeon Master (or DM) will need to create the adventures for the game. The Monster Manual contains information about the many and varied imaginary creatures that the players are going to encounter during their adventure. With the help of these two books, the Dungeon Master sets up each adventure and acts as the game's "referee"

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