Newbie

[Antisthenes]

Uh, hey everyone,
Normally i just read threads, normally i just casually stay tuned in with things i find interesting. For some reason, i feel the need to start up some DnD. I've played once, using core 3.5 rules, a single session with people who never play (DM's first time too) and i had a great time. That was about a year ago.
After discovering and consequently devouring this Rich's comic (also Erfworld) i have come to the not so stunning conclusion that i need to make DnD a part of my life.
So heres the point of my very partially drunken escapade into new territory, how should i get started? I guess i need a list of things to A) read B) do and C) is there anyone in Seattle (or the internet i guess) who is running a campaign thats willing to host a n00b?

[Assassin89]

For something to read, the srd might be a good start.

[Tokiko Mima]

I had good success with meetup.com wen trying to locate other players in my city. Definitely get a copy of the PHB and be familiar with how the DnD 3.5 system works (or 4.0 if you prefer, but they are very different games.) Be ready to be a little awkward until you find your roleplaying/gaming rhythm, and start out with something simple. Be sure and ask questions!

[Teln]

Pick a good tavern name.

[Devils_Advocate]

Picking up and reading (some of) the Player's Handbook for whatever edition you want to play would probably be a good start.

You could check the Finding Players (Recruitment) section of this very message board for newb-friendly games.

[Quietus]

For the best results, you need to find a group of players in your area, and meet up with them. As noted, meetup.com is a good first step towards that. Trying to learn D&D from the SRD, or during play-by-post, is going to be frustrating at best. You'll learn best from a group you can sit around a table with.

After you find a group that works for you, find out what they play - 3.5 and 4.0 are two entirely different games, so you'll need to know which book to look for. You'll only need a player's handbook to start, so your initial investment isn't going to be too high.

[Keld Denar]

HI from Seattle! Well, kinda. I'm not really in Seattle much, even though my mail always finds me there. Unfortunately, I haven't had a whole lot of success finding regularly meeting groups (surprising, I know!). I don't know what your demographic is, but I do know of a group of longstanding RPers who would be relatively newbie friendly. They regularly play in....oh...crap, whats the name of the city at Exit 177 on I-5 N? Is it bad that I remember numbers and not names? I guess it helps when you are an engineer...lol!

Anyway, there's also a few game stores around. I believe one place is called Berzerk in Greenlake, and theres another one...I forgot where.

Take a google over to Emerald City Con, which, IIRC, should be coming up soon as well. Thats a general gaming and comic book con, but might be a good place to find like-minded people. There's also the yahoo group: Seattle Gamers Assemble, which I'm sure you can find without too much trouble. Post over there and you might get some feedback. I know they advertise a weekly thursday night game at a coffee shop downtown. Its never D&D, but its still fun and you might meet people down there who know of D&D games you might be able to join.

I guess the most important things to give more info would be what your relative age is (HS, college student, young proffesional, old fogie) and your mobility is (do you have a car? money to spend recreationally on gas, etc).

I'd offer to show you some ropes, but I'm not in Seattle at least 6 months out of the year (I work in Alaska...lol), and tend to vacation a lot when I'm not working. Makes me wonder why I'm paying $1500 a month in rent when I'm never home!

[warrl]

Also, even the official city limits of Seattle include a pretty large area and at the wrong time of day it can routinely take over an hour to travel between certain points. The metropolitan area is vastly larger.

[Zaq]

The number one best way to learn 3.5, in my experience, is like so:

1) Find a copy of the PHB. I really recommend against the SRD. It's a wonderful resource, but it's not very much not conducive to helping neophytes. The PHB isn't that expensive on Amazon, some of the bigger libraries have it (it doesn't hurt to check, right?), or you can just check whatever gaming store you prefer.

2) Read the PHB. Try to go cover-to-cover if you can, but if you can't, that's understandable. You need to understand the basics, though (the difference between a normal attack and a full attack, a basic understanding of what the classes do, what it means to have a skill versus not having it, and so on), and try to start to get an intuition about other parts of the system. (For example, a veteran can be presented with a strange effect and tell you offhand, "oh, that'd be a Fort save." vs. "oh, that'll require a Will save." Try to get a feel for which would require which.)

2a) Don't panic. The PHB is huge, rather byzantine, and in places needlessly complex. You won't get it all the first time around. This is ok. Really.

3) Find a friend who knows how to play. If you don't know anyone who plays already, ask someone at the gaming store, and be up-front with them about the fact that you need some patience. Sit down with him (or her... sorry ladies, but I'm gonna use the masculine pronoun here) face-to-face (on the phone or over IM could work, I suppose, but face-to-face really is best, especially if you're looking at the same book). First, explain to him (yes, YOU explain to HIM) the rules of the game, as best as you can. Then, ask him questions. Get him to explain things to you. "So how come the rogue gets this ability?" "What does this skill actually do?" "What does it mean to use metamagic, really?" All kinds of questions like that. Sure, the book might tell you (if you know exactly where to look), but a human being can EXPLAIN it to you. Have them make sure you understand the important parts. Have them quiz you, even.

After that, if you can, try to join a game. Again, be honest and up-front about the fact that you're a tyro and you need some help. I recommend AGAINST a level 1 game, since frankly, nothing works at level 1 the way it works at any other level. (The difference between levels 1 and 3 is way bigger than the difference between levels 3 and 5.) I recommend a level 3 game to start with, personally, but that's just me. Get someone to help you make your character, and no matter what, don't let them do something you don't understand. Have them explain WHY they think this feat is a good idea, WHY they don't think you should use that spell, WHY these two abilities are redundant. You don't have to play an optimized character, but it will also help if you have a friend around to help you make sure that you're not worthless. It's not fun to be worthless. You want to have fun, don't you?

Depending on how many books you have in your communal collection, you might want to take the time to look over those as well. It really depends on how easy it is for you to access splatbooks... if you have a friend with a small library of them, or if the actual library has some, or if your gaming store will let you sit and read some of them without buying them all, some people (like me) really enjoy diving headfirst into the piles of books and seeing what you can come up with. Some people like to keep it simpler. You have to decide for yourself, really.

Of the PHB classes, here are my recommendations about how easy it is to play each of them. This is just my opinion and should be taken as such, no more, no less.

Barbarian: At low levels, barbs are very easy to play. You just kill things, in the face, with an axe. While screaming. That said, they're also very one-dimensional. If you're okay with that, a barb is a really easy starting character. At higher levels, they require some kung fu to become better, or they start to slack off in power very quickly.

Bard: Bards are hard. Out of the box, they're not very powerful, and you need to really work with them to make them worthwhile. That said, if you're happy in a very laid-back, supportive role, you can make a bard and just sit back buffing your allies, patching up problems after combat, and more or less observe how things go on your first game.

Cleric: Hugely powerful, but since divine casters require a lot of bookkeeping (all prepared casters require bookkeeping, and divine casters know EVERY SPELL ON THEIR LIST), it might not be a good idea unless you have a real head for keeping that kind of thing straight. Still, they're incredibly versatile and can be a lot of fun.

Druid: See Cleric, only more so. Druids are ridiculously powerful and are almost impossible to screw up (you won't have to worry about making a weak druid), but you have to worry about keeping track of the stats for two characters (you, and your animal companion), you have to worry about prepared divine casting, you have to worry about the stats for your summoned allies, and if you're high enough level you have to worry about the different forms you can wild-shape into. If you love bookkeeping, they're great. But if you don't know what you're doing, they're a lot of work.

Fighter: Stay away from the fighter. Some people will tell you that the fighter is a good newbie class. These people are wrong. It's very hard to play a fighter who doesn't just trip all over himself and get in the way. If you want to kill things with a large piece of metal, play a barbarian.

Monk: See fighter. Monks are arguably the weakest class in the PHB, so unless you're in a group consisting entirely of novices, you WILL lag behind in power, and that will get in the way of you having fun.

Paladin: This isn't an enormously powerful class without some optimization kung-fu, but it's fun and it's reasonably simple for novices like you. A paladin is an excellent starting character for learning the ropes.

Ranger: Rangers aren't very powerful, but they're pretty simple overall. I've noticed most of the people I've played with who run Rangers getting bored with them rather quickly, as they tend to be one-trick ponies.

Rogue: Rogues are a blast. They can be as simple or as complex as you want them to be, and they're pretty good at what they do without being game-shatteringly powerful. The only thing is that a Rogue does have to worry about staying alive, as they're kind of fragile, but they're great for new characters.

Sorcerer: This is another great choice for a starting character. It lets you get a good feel for what magic is and how it works, without the bookkeeping of the cleric or wizard. Just remember, you only know a few different spells, so don't have them overlap too much (one or two damaging spells is enough, honest!), and give yourself some variety. Oh, and stay in the back. You're fragile.

Wizard: Generally regarded as the most powerful class in the game, it's really easy to make a bad wizard, and they're a lot of work. If you want to learn about magic, play a sorcerer.

[Gorbash]

From my experience, it really helped playing Neverwinter Nights. After playing through it, I could easily follow the flow of the game on my first session with some minor reading on my class and you learn a lot of stuff as you go. I really don't know anyone who actually a book from cover to cover, people just usually find what intrest them and in the long run they do read the whole book.

[warrl]

From my experience, it really helped playing Neverwinter Nights. After playing through it, I could easily follow the flow of the game on my first session with some minor reading on my class and you learn a lot of stuff as you go. I really don't know anyone who actually a book from cover to cover, people just usually find what intrest them and in the long run they do read the whole book.

And a prospective DM should also play NWN2 and then just remember: don't do that!

[ericgrau]

Uh, hey everyone,
Normally i just read threads, normally i just casually stay tuned in with things i find interesting. For some reason, i feel the need to start up some DnD. I've played once, using core 3.5 rules, a single session with people who never play (DM's first time too) and i had a great time. That was about a year ago.
After discovering and consequently devouring this Rich's comic (also Erfworld) i have come to the not so stunning conclusion that i need to make DnD a part of my life.
So heres the point of my very partially drunken escapade into new territory, how should i get started? I guess i need a list of things to A) read B) do and C) is there anyone in Seattle (or the internet i guess) who is running a campaign thats willing to host a n00b?

I'd join an existing group just like you're planning so there's less of a learning curve. Forums like this one usually have looking for group threads, sometimes organized by region. As does www.wizards.com. I would bet other sites like www.enworld.com (org?) also have them. It's a bit of work, but be persistent.

As for what to play, I group classes into 3 categories:
Martial ("Fighter"): Best for new players, easy to play. Includes barbarian, paladin and fighter (in order of increasing difficulty). For more advanced tactics, read the Combat section of the PHB or SRD and start using combat modifiers (situational bonuses) and special attacks (tripping, etc.). Try a scimitar & heavy shield (with option of dropping the shield at any time for bonus two handed damage) or falchion (two handed) for a basic damage dealer, plus a longbow as a backup ranged weapon. But once you start using special tactics, read the descriptions of other weapons and pick the one that works best with your tactic. Strength should be your first stat, or dex to focus on archery. Con comes second, and the rest is mostly depends on your style.

Caster ("Mage"): Harder to play well, but easy to become powerful once you figure out what you're doing. Includes wizard, sorcerer, cleric and druid. Cleric and druid also have some martial aspects to them. Spell selection is key when playing such a class, so read all spell descriptions carefully before picking. Pick a good array of combat spells to prepare each day. Combat spells include direct damage, enemy disabling spells (barriers, area debuffs, etc.), non-stat buffs (like haste & invisibility) and high level healing spells. If you have extra slots, prepare a couple stat buffs to use outside of combat in the morning or during a pre-fight buffing round. Put low level utility spells and low level out-of-combat heals on scrolls & wands. Your primary stat should usually be your casting stat if you rely on lots of spells with saves, but it's possible to work around this. Your secondary stat should usually be con. Dex is kinda nice to have, as are other stats.

Skillmonkey ("Thief"): Hardest to play well. In fact most people play them mostly like martial classes and never learn. That includes the DM, so even if you know what you're during your opportunities to use your abilities may be limited. So often there' not much payback for this difficulty either. Includes rogue, ranger, monk and bard. Most/all have some martial aspects to them, especially those involving special tactics like skills, combat modifiers and special attacks. Read the skill rules carefully along with any relevant combat rules. A variety of ability scores may be important for these classes, depending on your style. Though physical ones tend to be more important even when the mental stats are handy. Con is still usually your second stat for survivability. Unless your campaign isn't loaded with face-to-face (vs. sneaky or etc.) fighting, which is possible with skillmonkeys but overall it's rare.

[valadil]

Gamers tend to hang out at game stores. Some stores even have space for playing. Most will have a bulletin board for players/GMs trying to find each other. The nice thing about getting involved with a game store is you'll meet a whole network of gamers as opposed to just one group of them.

If you're of an appropriate age, most colleges have gaming clubs. Regular meetings or mailing lists are another great way to meet other players.

Like everyone else said, read the PHB. If you're going to play 4th ed, you might also want to listen to some of the Penny Arcade/Wil Wheaton podcasts. I haven't heard them myself, but one of my friends learned 4e just by listening.

[warrl]

Gamers tend to hang out at game stores. Some stores even have space for playing.

Some gaming spaces even have stores for buying gaming stuff and snack foods.

Fantastic Games in Edmonds, WA is that kind of space. It's on the second floor of a small office building. The game space is about 3.5 times as large as the store space - and the latter includes an assortment of gamer fuel.

[Panda-s1]

There's a game store in the Seattle area I would recommend, but it's out of business :/ So other stores... Well there's always Uncle's Games. It's a chain of three stores, conveniently located in malls, one in Bellevue (Crossroads), Southcenter Mall, and Redmond Town Center. Cons: it's in a mall, meaning it's always busy. Pros: there's always people there, and the store is always gonna be stocked. I can only really attest for the Bellevue location, I know they run 4e on Sundays, and at the very least it's a good place to meet people and ask around.

In Seattle, the only game store I've been to is Gary's Games and Hobbies in North Seattle. It's a small store, but it was pretty cool the one time I went there. Also from what I gathered mostly 4e oriented, though I could be wrong. Also in Seattle is The Dreaming on University Way near UW, but they seem more like a comic book shop that happens to sell RPG material. I could be wrong, though, they might have events.

In Redmond is Genesis Games & Gizmos. They're okay (and I might be biased), but they're pretty popular, and they run RPGA events on Saturday, though I'm sure regular games happen there as well.

Hell I'd run a game, but summer's not a good time to run a campaign. I might run a one-shot sometime, I don't know. But either way, good luck getting into D&D!

[Tyrmatt]

Like everyone else said, read the PHB. If you're going to play 4th ed, you might also want to listen to some of the Penny Arcade/Wil Wheaton podcasts. I haven't heard them myself, but one of my friends learned 4e just by listening.

I wholeheartedly agree with this as when they went into it, one of the PA guys had never played before and the other had played only previous editions so the GM was rather good in his descriptions of how things work and what had changed. Not to mention I still crack up when I hear "Splug" being roleplayed by the DM.

As a player in Edinburgh, UK, there is only one gaming shop I've found (which astounds me in this city) called Black Lion Gaming which is the most non-descript shop you could ever imagine. It's a neat little treasure trove though and the guy who runs it is a nice dude who appreciates the business as well. Pricing seemed fairly competitive with online and the selection while not epic, is extensive and covers pretty much any ruleset you could want. Any Edinburgh folks shop there?

[Keld Denar]

Also in Seattle is The Dreaming on University Way near UW, but they seem more like a comic book shop that happens to sell RPG material. I could be wrong, though, they might have events.

I live about 4 blocks from The Dreaming. Its not a game store. Its like a comic book store that also sells a few misc gaming items. Their book selection is low, and they don't even carry the Munchkin card game...BLASPHEMY! It also has 0 play space and the staff are mostly the stereotypical comic snob type that sit around and talk about various nuances of different settings and hypothetical situations with different heros. Not that its a bad thing, its just not my area of interest. They actually are the ones who refered me to Berzerk in Greenlake, but I haven't made it up that far yet. Maybe when I'm on R&R next week...