What IS d&d?

[RoaCh of DisCord]

Ok, so I've heard this term for as long as I can remember, but I've never really understood the concept of it. I understand it is a real life roleplay, but that's all I know.

Care to possibly further educate a curious newbling?

 

[Laharl]

Dungeons and Dragons is one of the oldest, and possibly most influential games in the fantasy genre. It's a roleplaying game, traditionally played at a table with pencil, papers and maybe small figures to show walking order.

There are two types of players:

1. The players. They are their hero (and maybe cohorts if they treat them well enough).
2. A Dungeon Master (DM) who runs the entire game. He roleplays as everyone other than the players.

There are also a set of "main" or "default" character classes:

Barbarian: Tough, strong, but somewhat primitive. They's are the only character class in the game that doesn't start off literate.
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice0]

Bard: Able to cast spells through song, and remember things using bardic knowledge. All his spells involve verbal components, and cannot be done without them. They also has the ability to entertain, and perform diplomatic tasks.
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice1]

Cleric: Holy (Or profane!) warriors with holy or dark powers granted from their god (or goddess). They can cast heal/simple hurt spells, and other such things. They also choose "domains" which they also get spells/an ability from. Example Health Dice Roll: [dice2]

Druid: Nature warrior who gets powers from, well, the powers of nature. Their spells are naturally almost all nature based and they cannot use metal armour/weapons (Although replacements out of wood can be made and strengthened using an appropriate spell).
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice3]

Fighter: Trained weapon's mater who gets a lot of bonus feats per level. He also gets a fair bit of hp (d10) per level. Unlike the barbarian these fighters focus on training over brute force.
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice4]

Monk: Focus heavily in their marital arts skills (Mostly fight unarmed). Their goal is to achieve a state that is beyond the mortal realm.
Note: Monks cannot multiclass without being unable to continue leveling as a monk!
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice5]


Paladin: Holy warriors, with the power to smite evil. However they have a code of conduct of sorts they cannot go against, or they lose all their paladin powers and cannot continue advancing as one.
Note: Paladins cannot multiclass without being unable to continue leveling as a paladin!
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice6]

Ranger: Protector of the woods, Rangers are more physically combat oriented versions of the druid, with "favoured enemies" that they are more adapt at fighting/etc.
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice7]

Rouge: Some are stealthy thieves, others are scouts / infiltrators / spies / diplomats /thugs. In general they are good at getting what/where people don't want them: Vaults, past deadly traps, secret battle plans, or some random person's money.
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice8]

Sorcerer: I feel the D&D player's handbook says it best. "Sorcerer's create magic the way a poet creates poems, with inborn talent honed by practise. They have no books, no mentors, no theories - just raw power that they direct at will." They are slightly more trained in weapons than wizards.
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice9]

Wizards: They are similar from Sorcerer's except they study/practice their magic to a higher degree and must "prepare" their spells at the beginning of each day. (Sorcerers get slots per level with limitations) and can "know" more spells than any other spellcasting class.
Example Health Dice Roll: [dice10]

 

[Shados]

Way to over-explain. Read this introduction bit from wikipedia, should help clear up things a bit.

Players of D&D invent fictitious characters who embark upon imaginary adventures in which they battle many kinds of fictional monsters, gather treasure, interact with each other, and earn experience points, becoming more and more powerful as the game progresses. D&D departed from traditional wargaming in this regard by assigning each player a specific character to play, as opposed to legions and armies. D&D also developed the concept of a Dungeon Master (DM), the storyteller and referee responsible for creating the fictional setting of the game, moderating the actions of the players' characters, and roleplaying the supporting cast of non-player characters.

A game usually continues over a succession of meetings among the players and the DM, in which case it is called a "campaign". Usually, each player plays one character, although some games allow a player to play more than one character. The players and the DM keep track of their characters' activities, attributes and possessions using paper and pencils, or the electronic equivalent. The published rules of the game explain how to create and equip a character for adventure, how the powers and abilities of the characters work, how interactions and combats work, and describe the many magical spells and items that characters are likely to encounter. However, the rules encourage DMs to modify the rules to suit both their own campaigns and the group they are playing with.

The early success of Dungeons & Dragons quickly led to a proliferation of similar game systems, such as RuneQuest, Tunnels and Trolls, Traveller, and Arduin. Despite this competition, D&D has continued to dominate the roleplaying game industry throughout its existence, enjoying a nearly impenetrable market position. In 1977 the game was split into two slightly different versions: the simpler Dungeons & Dragons and the more complex Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as AD&D or ADnD). In 2000, the simplified version of the game was discontinued and the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons was released as a major revision of the AD&D game. The current version of the game, released in July 2003, is Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 (also known as the Revised 3rd Edition or D&D3.5).

As of 2006, Dungeons & Dragons remains the best-known and best-selling roleplaying game, with an estimated 20 million players worldwide and over US$1 billion in book and equipment sales (according to a BBC news report). Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of the RPG products sold in 2002[citation needed]. Outside of the gaming community, D&D has become a metonym used to refer to roleplaying games in general.

Hope that helped -_-.

-*meow*

 

[Laharl]

That's abou it, though. It's by far the largest RP game, and is shamelessly ripped off by others. I call it the fantasy genre.

 

[Ntrik_]

how do you play this game on BF?

or is there actually a program out for this..?

 

[Laharl]

General large scale things are done in "The Tavern", and combat over AIM. Why?