How to Play D&D part 1 - A Sample Game Session

hi everyone you're watching WASD 20 my name is Nate today's video is intended for newcomers to D&D to give you a little more comfort with the game and to help you understand what the heck this game is and how it works for this one I'm assuming that you have a character sheet that maybe you've seen some of my character creation videos and our goal here is really to understand now that you have a character sheet now that maybe you've created a character how do all these numbers and words work and actual practice in the game what do they mean and how do we apply them to the game so to do that we're going to actually be playing a sample session of Dungeons & Dragons I will be both the player and the DM and we'll give it a shot here should be kind of fun if you don't have a character sheet I recommend you check out my website WASD 20 net on the resources tab there and I'll put a link to this in the description I'll have a section there with some pre generated characters including the one that I'm using today and you can download those check them out and follow along with me what I'm doing or if you're feeling adventurous you could try to create your own character sheet I also have a whole series of videos dedicated to that now I just want to say that this video is totally optional let's say that you've been invited to play Dungeons and Dragons for the first time and you're wanting to learn all the rules before you show up to actually play well good luck with that the rules are pretty dense there's a lot to learn about the game and I'm I would never attempt to do something like that in this video it would be hours long if you've been invited to play in a game one of the best things you can do is just show up with an open mind if you have a good dungeon master and a good group they're gonna welcome you and teach you the rules on the fly as you go that's how I learned but that said if you want to learn how some of the basics of the game work in practice this video is for you so keep watching with that out of the way let's get down to the game here we have our battle mat you don't always play D&D with a map like this but some people prefer to if you're not playing with a map you're just kind of imagining things and we call that the theater of the mind but for our sake today just to have a visual we playing with a map and we'll be playing with minis too first I'd like to just say a word about the Dungeon Master the DM in dungeons a dragon is the lead storyteller the rest of the players should also be a part of the storytelling and depending on the DM it could be a very big part of the storytelling but the DM is the lead storyteller in general the DM is also the adjudicator of rules they make the calls on what goes and what does not and sometimes they can choose to bend the rules a little bit for the sake of the game they don't normally play a character but they do play multiple non player characters so they're not going to be a party member in general but they do get to play lots of characters the DM also describes scenes creates obstacles and adventures for the players all the while trying to adapt to player actions so usually you begin a session of D&D with a Dungeon Master setting the scene in this case when I'm speaking as the DM I'm going to do my best to have the read d20 out here and when I'm describing the actions of the player and speaking in my players voice I'll have the purple d20 out here now today I'll be playing as aired on cero shent who is a wood elf fighter he happens to be a character I play in the provokers campaign and he's level 3 usually you'll be starting at level 1 but I just happened to have this level 3 character sheet handy so I figured I'd use this and it'll give us a few more abilities to play around with - during the session so we generally start with our dungeon master setting the scene with a little exposition a little narration if you will so now the dungeon master is going to set the scene you are aired on cero shent a young wood elf soldier who has been tasked with scouting the position of a fierce orc vagabond known as he lost the man-eater rumor has it he has moved into the area and everyone knows he is no good the village elders have tasked you with finding his location so that a raiding party might be sent to root him out all right now air Don is a bit of a brash soldier shoot the arrow now and ask questions later type of guy so I have a feeling he's not going to be so into the task of scouting but he's going to try to take out a loss himself if I'm playing in character that's what I'll probably do now as the player one of the first things you need to know about D&D is you just narrate your action so I am going to say I walk down the path to the river to see if I see any footprints now the DM might say you see footprints scattered about in the mud and they're going in many directions okay well I think I want to move a little closer here and see if I see anything on or across the river anyone across the other side perhaps you don't see anyone but you do see a fishing line out in the middle of the river looks like it's coming from your side of the river okay well I think I want to try to sneak along the the back here and see if I can see anyone from further back so it's not to alert them now the DM might decide that I need to be stealthy but in this case the sound of the river is loud enough where I can do it without making a stealth check so I sneak along here and the DM says on a rock you see with his back to you a man he's wearing leather and he is holding a fishing pole hmm a man well I have a feeling he might be able to give me some good information so I'm just gonna knock an arrow just in case pull out my short bow nock and arrow and I'm gonna call out to him you there now what I just did is I spoke in my character's voice rather than just saying I call out to him I said I call out to him and then I actually did call out to him in character voice now your character might actually have the same voice as you you don't have to put on a funny accent some people enjoy that some people don't but the point is you're speaking in the first person kind of well you're speaking from a first-person perspective you were immersed and so that's that's a style I prefer but everyone has different styles some people might just say I call out to him to try to get his attention anyway I call out to him you there and the DM says he turns around looking quite startled and he says what was that who goes there I say have you seen anyone traveling around here any any signs of well uh no work a narc well hmm no no I can't say I have I'm just here minding my own business you know trying to catch some fish so as the player I have a feeling this guy might not be telling me the truth I feel like he might not be totally honest with me so I'm gonna try to figure out is this can I tell if he's nervous as he's shifting and can I tell if he's telling me the truth now the DM is going to say make an insight check alright so we have our very first skill check this is an essential part of D&D our skills are all listed on the character sheet right here and in air Don's case we find that insight has a +2 bonus for all skill checks and this is true of most d20 games not just D&D you're going to be rolling a d20 and then adding the appropriate modifier for insight which is how I would tell if he is telling the truth or not I'm going to roll my D 20 and add 2 so here we go alright I have my assistant here five-year-old Caleb and he rolled a 17 for me excellent work Caleb so 17 plus 2 is 19 so the DM is gonna say you can tell that he is not being very truthful he's shifting he is twitching and looks very nervous okay so he's not being totally truthful with me well err Donegan is kind of a brash guy I think I'm gonna move up and I'm gonna try to intimidate him I'm gonna not keep my arrow nock and I'm gonna move closer glaring at him raising my bow just slightly and tell him you had better be truthful with me I can tell you know something else make an intimidation check alright so now I'm going to make my second skill check intimidation for aired on you can see I have a plus 1 to intimidation actually Caleb's gonna roll for me alright you rolled a seven which intimidation plus one that's an eight and I'm going to say that this guy is probably not going to be intimidated by that so as the DM I will say he stares you down and says don't you threaten me elf I have powerful friends what to do what to do so he's just staring me down well I think I'm gonna back off I don't think I want to provoke a fight with this guy I'm gonna back off and say all right well I'm gonna be on my way and you stay out of my way and he's going to move move on - keep looking for this orc I move away but I continue to watch my back as I move alright so I failed to intimidate that guy wasn't able to get any information from him so I'm going to keep moving and I'm just going to try to you know kind of sneak around and and see what I can see you see if I see any other tracks or anything out of the ordinary I think I'm going to move this way stop when you get right here you hear a sharp twang and you need to make a dexterity saving throw alright so saving throw this is my very first saving throw and they're similar to skills in some ways they are based on our abilities ability scores and ability modifiers just as the skills are they're more general so in this case I'm going to be making a dexterity saving throw and I have a plus two bonus there so saving throws are things that you know you'll face that you need to resist in some way whether it's through the force of mind and will or through through the just brute strength or Constitution or whatever in this case it's it's kind of quickness and agility so something is is going to be falling on me just tell you it's a falling net trap so I have to make a dexterity saving throw and I make a five plus two gives me a seven which is not going to be enough the DC on this is ten that's the difficulty so that's not going to be enough so a net has fallen on me all right I am knocked down and I am going to try to get to my dagger and try to cut myself free from this all right so I'm going to reach for my dagger and see if I can't hit this thing it says in my book here that the net has an armor class of ten so I have to get 10 to hit this is kind of like combat here I'm going to be using my dagger and I have a +4 attack bonus so I'm going to roll my D 20 and I'm going to add my attack bonus of 417 plus 4 is 21 I had to get 10 to get this net and so that that is a hit my damage for my dagger is 1 D for which I have here plus 2 so here we go all right I got a 2 plus 2 is 4 and that is not quite enough so I'm not able to cut a big enough gash in this with my dagger I think I'm going to try to just throw this thing off it's probably weighted down in some way I'm just going to try a strength check to throw it off so in this case this is just a straight-up strength check here it's not really a saving throw so much and so I have a plus 2 to strength and I need to get a 10 in order to throw this thing off I got it - all right so that's not working so well I'm stuck in this net I'm going to give it a shot with my dagger again all right 16 plus 4 is 20 so I definitely am able to hit and now I'll roll one D 4 plus 2 damage 3 plus 2 is 5 you cut a gash that is big enough in the net slashing it with your dagger in order for you to be freed from its grasp all right so I'm out of the net there a bit of a struggle I think now I'm going to actually try to climb this tree that trap is made to be suspicious and I'm going to try to climb the tree and see what I can see see if I see anything out of the ordinary in this area the DM might decide that I need to make a check in order to climb the tree but in the interest of time here I'm just going to say I'm able to climb the tree so what do I see from up here I'm looking for anything out of the ordinary straight ahead you see a cave opening and you see light flickering from within the cave it has become dark outside but you can see light clearly flickering from within the cave oh I'm sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger there what could be in that cave hmm well so far in this one we've covered the role of the DM we've covered how to narrate action how to make a skill check how to make a saving throw and the next one we're going to get into some real combat against something that hits back something that is not made of rope and does not simply fall from a tree so that should be fun until then make sure you give this one a thumbs up if you enjoyed it leave me a comment below let me know what you think and everybody take care until next time happy gaming

Channel: WASD20

Views: 2,620,104

Rating: 4.9384289 out of 5

Keywords: Dungeons & Dragons (Game), Role-playing Game (Game Genre), Tabletop Game (Game Genre), Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (Game), Session, how to play d&d, ttrpg, D&D, DnD, DnD5e, roleplaying, Dungeon Master, DnD 5e, how to play dungeons and dragons, how to play, dnd, dungeons and dragons, how to play dnd, dnd for dummies, dnd tutorial, tutorial, learn to play d&d, d&d tutorial, dungeon master, dm, game master, dungeonmaster, rpg, tabletop rpg, beginners, wasd20, 5th edition

Id: jT3FRzEJDp8

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 10 2015