Tips to playing D&D

From the DM

  • Be prepared! Have your dice, character sheet, and pencil and paper ready for notes.
  • Consider extra player prep. Make a list of things your character would say, think of a goal, and plan on things you might want to say or do. What actions would fit your player’s backstory and personality.
  • Get other players involved by interacting with their character. Share the spotlight. Ask party members questions and defer to them when there is expertise, or simply when you notice them less involved. If you are the most talkative, take moments to intentionally stay quiet and prompt other players to speak.
  • Find a balance between knowing your character’s skills, abilities, and spells, and ignoring the character sheet. It’s often more important to think about what your character would do than to look down at your character sheet to find an ability you could use.
  • Do not fear the dice. Use bad dice rolls to tell an interesting story of how you fail. Moments of power and success are great, and you will have those. However, failure can be fun too! Make it interesting.
  • Help others have fun. The game is not just about you having fun. Do your part to help others have fun too. If another player does not seem to be enjoying something you are doing, consider stopping. Creating fun is not only the responsibility of the DM.
  • Try to get in your character’s head and think as they would think. This helps you avoid metagaming. Don’t think of what YOU know. Think of what your character would know.
  • Consider a player journal, either for yourself or to share with other players between sessions.
  • Try a different voice. It doesn’t need to be a crazy accent. Try changing your tone or even speech pattern slightly. It can be subtle.


RPG Player Tips

From Experienced Students


  • Challenge yourself, do not play it safe unless that is your character's personality.
  • Be patient with others, and help those that are learning the game.
  • Try to make your turn interesting, play to your character's strengths and weaknesses. For instance, if your character likes to steal door knobs, try to do so at interesting times.
  • Build a “smart” character (one that will work well with a game group). Healer classes and Tank (those with high armor that can take a beating) are important to a group. Mixed ranged and melee is a good idea to help when in combat, or one character that can pick locks/detect traps.
  • Ask questions, whether it be for information when learning the game, or when in game to help fill out the story and help characters. For instance, to find out if an NPC is lying, if you can find a food shop, or if there are any interesting elements to a room or person.
  • Start simple - a character you can play. Do not start with a harder to play character that requires clever building in order to play. Start slow, and learn the game. Those seasoned players should challenge themselves so they find new and interesting ways to play.
  • Be ready with spells and abilities, and be sure to understand how they work. If by chance friendly fire can happen and take those into account.
  • TRY not to meta-game
  • Vary your spells - pick some offensive and defensive spells
  • Be descriptive in all that you do. For instance, how you move, what you are looking for, and when fighting be descriptive. This will help you and the DM to explain the scene.
  • Don’t complain too much, this is a game after all. A game of chance with dice and that of the DM's creation. Respect the fact that this took a lot of time and energy to create the adventure.
  • Make friends with the healer.... just saying :)