What to Give aDungeons & DragonsPlayer, According toDungeons & DragonsPlayers

Nearly everyone we spoke to recommended getting a hard copy of thePlayer’s Handbook(PHB), the game’s illustrated rule book for players. (Other core books like theDungeon Master’s Guideand theMonster Manualare necessary for DMs.) “Not only is it your guide to the rules for playing and building your first character, it is an essential reference for the base spells, combat, skills, and equipment,” says professional DMSatine Phoenix. Ally Beardsley, aDimension 20cast member, appreciates its tactility: “It’s very nice to playD&Dand not have your phone or any electronics, and thePHBis amazing for that.” It remindsJames Melo, who has DM’d most of the campaigns I’ve played, of “playingDungeons & Dragonsin the basement at the hobby shop that was in my neighborhood, and we’d be up until three in the morning slaying orcs.” Mulligan recommends it particularly for younger players: “Giving them books to get totally absorbed in is great.”

The background information in the book is also useful for longtime players.Dimension 20cast member Lou Wilson says thePHBhelps him improvise as a DM because “it lets me understand what the nature of a paladin is so that I can always figure out, based on what a player wants to do with a character, how that fits into the dynamic.” You can also buy a digital version of the handbook onD&DBeyond, but the hard copy is more fun.Plus, Wilson says, flipping through a book for answers is on-brand forD&D. “It feels of the game to be like, ‘Oh, do you have a question? Let us consult the tomes!’”

If you’re playing with other beginners, Melo recommends theD&DEssentials Kit. “If you don’t have a buddy who’s a dungeon master, it has all the rules that you need to play for a couple months without needing to get anything else,” he says.

You’ll find inexpensive Chessex dice at nearly any game store in America — the brand has been making dicesince the 1980s. “If really expensive dice make you super-happy, go for it, but I am on the cheap dice side,” says Beardsley, a self-described “Chessex-head.” They’ve given these swirl-patterned pink dice to “multiple friends to get them intoD&D” and describe them as “the most beautiful object I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Professional tabletop role-playerKrystina Ariellerecommends dice from Dice Envy, particularly its pink-and-gold set. She prefers dice that “have a nice weight to them when I roll. I don’t like flimsy dice, and they do not make flimsy dice.”

Meghan Kelly, the friend who first introduced me toDungeons & Dragonsand who owns about four pounds of dice, says this opalite set has a good balance of aesthetics and legibility. “They’re really clear to read, which I always appreciate,” they say.

“I recommend investing in a set that can withstand your epic gaming sessions and that you can also show off at the table,” Phoenix says.

“We’re all adults here, which means we have nice kitchen tables that we want to avoid scratching up,” says actorIfy Nwadiwe. He recommends dice trays (felt- or leather-lined landing zones for your rolls) from Wyrmwood, the Le Creuset ofD&Daccessories and a brand name mentioned by nearly everyone we spoke to. Mulligan has gifted Wyrmwood items to his family, and Beardsley describes its rolling tray as “the only bougie thing that I’d recommend.”

Before investing in a luxury dice tray, Kelly recommends beginners get a dice bag as a functional, affordable stopover “while you’re still figuring out what you want and what your setup is.” A dice bag is on the less formal end of dice accessories, but it’s lightweight, inexpensive, and can become backup storage once youlevel up to a dice vault.They like this eight-pocket bag from WanderingHare because it can be expanded and the center can be used as a rolling space.

“As you barrel through your campaign, there will be lots of information thrown at you and your party. You’ll need to document to have all this information at your disposal,” says Nwadiwe. He recommends keeping track in a notebook: “It’s also a good way to stay focused within the story, off your phone, and keep you from falling asleep as your wizard takes forever deciding which spell to use.”

Field Notes, the maker ofone of our favorite planners, also sellsD&D-specific gaming journals. The player version includes sections for character stats, a spell-casting table, and a session log. “It’s a great way to enhance your role-playing ability and make sure you don’t let any clues the DM has masterfully left for you slip away,” Jasper William Cartwright, a co-host of theThree Black Halflingspodcast.

Painting minis (miniature figurines used to represent characters) is a huge part ofD&Dfandom. A good way to test out the hobby is this compact beginner set, which comes with ten paints and an unpainted mini.Games company WizKids“hosts both in-person and virtual paint nights based on that kit, to sit down with somebody in the hobby scene and paint this mini, and they go over it with you,” says Melo.

Melo’s favorite brand is Counterspell Miniatures by 1985 Games, which he likes for its “superhigh-quality resin” and “dynamic sculpts.” Mulligan caveats that you should check with your DM before buying a ton of minis: “Some dungeon masters run exclusively theater of the mind,” he says, and you might not have use for them. Still, “it’s awesome to just have a mini if it’s like a little totem for you.”

If you don’t have minis, Melo recommends using a bag of gummy bears to represent characters. “That’s the beauty ofDungeons & Dragons: If you want to get into all the superfine-detail, high-verisimilitude physical representations, you can do that. But it’s equally fun to be like, ‘You come across a patrol of goblins that are torturing a merchant,’” he says. The red gummy bears “are the goblins; the green one there is the merchant; these five blue ones are you guys.” A built-in incentive is that “when you kill the bad guys, you get to eat the gummy bear.”

This vinyl battle map is what Wilson “grew up with” as a kid playingD&D. It’s reversible and can be marked up with a wet-erase marker to model a range of combat scenarios.

Melo brought out these condition rings, a gift from Kelly, in the first game of IRLDungeons & DragonsI ever played, and I loved using them. They’re a bright, easy-to-read reminder of conditions affecting your character — whether they’re blessed, poisoned, concentrating on a spell, etc. — which are always harder to keep in mind than you expect.

Beardsley says spell cards are “a great tool that I learned about way too late.” If you’re playing paper-and-pencilD&D, buying a pack of spell cards will save time spent preparing spells and streamline the process of deciding which to use; just make sure to pick up the pack that corresponds to the character’s class. (If you’re playing on a computer or tablet,D&DBeyond includes the same information, but it’s still satisfying to hand a card to your DM as you explain how your fireball will destroy their ice elemental.)

“I’m not gonna sit here and tell you how to live your life. But if you don’t wear a fun, character-relevant hat, how are people supposed to know you’re really going for it?” says Justin McElroy, who co-hostsThe Adventure Zonepodcastwith his brothers and father. (He wore this hat to play “conservative futuristic country star Pepsi Liberty.”)

“In the old days, folks used paper and pencils to track their character sheets,” says Burch. Today he recommends using a form-fillable PDF and a tablet. “Granted, youwillhave to deal with your friends mocking you for not rolling ‘real’ dice,” he says. “Whatever. They’re just jealous that you’re living in a slick cyberpunk future while they’re still huffing eraser fumes.”

Several of theD&Dplayers who run their own games mentioned the importance of music in creating an immersive experience for new players. Mulligan and Wilson recommend using a portable Bluetooth speaker; Wilson likes the Wonderboom, which he describes as “a great speaker.” He also says Zoom and theD&Dplatform Roll20 allow you to stream music to players, which is helpful for pandemic-era games. “When everyone is in disparate spaces, playing music helps build the atmosphere and world,” he says.

Inspired byDimension 20, which uses lighting to signal the beginning of combat, Beardsley recommends Phillips Hue bulbs for an at-homeD&Dgame. “Having the lights all turn to red right when you’re like, ‘Roll initiative’ is so impactful. It’s so punchy.”

Cartwright told us about Hero Forge, a company that produces 3-D-printed miniatures. “You can create nearly any character you can imagine into a 3-D-printable mini. You can either download the code if you have your own 3-D printer or they can print it and send it over,” he says. Wilson mentioned the company as well — he gifted Hero Forge minis to the players in the game he DMs as a Christmas present.

MostD&Dplayers we spoke to recommendedD&DBeyond, the game’s official online platform. I use the free version, which allows me to create up to six characters and access free game content online; a subscription begins at $3 per month, which gets you unlimited character slots and access more content and features including home-brewed systems made by other players. Phoenix says she uses it “every day, multiple times a day,” and Cartwright describes it as “the most effective way to run a campaign.” Arielle likes the site’s “extremely user-friendly” character builder, which I’ve also appreciated as a new player. “It makes keeping track of everything really streamlined,” says Jake Hurwitz, a co-host ofNot AnotherD&DPodcast.

Another consensus favorite is Roll20, an online platform for runningD&Dgames remotely. “If you’re playing virtually with cross-country or cross-neighborhood pals, Roll20 is a wonderful tool that’ll help you keep track of basically every element of your game no matter how far apart you are,” McElroy says. Cartwright appreciates the site’s “dice rollers, inbuilt character sheets, chat, and maps, including a feature called Fog of War, which lets you hide areas of the map from other players.” Although the density of Roll20’s features can be intimidating at first, “once you get into it, it’s really awesome,” says Wilson.

“My thing withD&Dis all about engagement and immersion,” Wilson says. He uses mapmaking platform Inkarnate for the campaigns he runs: Having a detailed map, he says, “makes it that much more concrete, which I think is really special for players.” A subscription starts at $5 per month or $25 per year, but the “free service is also great,” Wilson says.

“Fateis a simple RPG system you can use for literally any setting and story imaginable,” says Burch. “We once DM’d aSpace Jamcampaign inFate, and it worked like a charm.” Kelly recommends an accessibility toolkit designed to work with theFatesystem “for both being disabled at the table and playing disabled characters. That’s very worth including regardless of what system you’re playing.”

McElroy mentionsThe Quiet Year, a gaming system that follows a community’s decisions in the year after a collapse or cataclysm, which was used to create a backstory for the current season ofThe Adventure Zone. It’s available as a PDF for $8 or a “lovely evocative set” for $51.

[Editor’s note: The physical set is out of stock until January, but the PDF is still available.]

If combat-oriented systems likeD&Dare one pillar of the role-playing community, dating simulators are another. Kelly mentionedMonsterhearts 2, “a spooky teen romantic drama, but you’re also a werewolf kind of thing” in which “you’re just trying to kiss your friends, which is all I’ve ever tried to do inD&Danyway.” It’s available as a PDF from $10 or a book from $25.

Beardsley is a “really big fan” ofKids on Bikes, a gaming system that uses most of the same polyhedral dice asD&Dbut tailors rolls more closely to characters’ strengths and weaknesses. “I think the whole game setup for it is great, and the book was written in a way that I think is so cool and easy to generate characters,” they say.

Mulligan describesWickedness, a role-playing game that uses a tarot deck instead of dice, as an “incredibly profound game. You play as a coven of witches facing the challenges of a fantastical world you co-create together.” It’s less rules-intensive thanD&D, and he recommends it for “people that are looking for a tabletop role-playing experience that allows you to fall in love with a character but also to have more control over the world and setting that you’re in.”