Dungeons & Dragons - A Beginner's Guide
By Tenzin Lekshey
Welcome student and/or not student! You have probably at least heard of Dungeons and Dragons because it is a huge presence in pop culture. But you probably think of D and D being geek stuff, which is so sad because it is so fun and thrilling. Being the most basic I can be, D and D is a game of imagination. So if you are interested read the rest and smash the like button.
Deeper Intro to What D&D Is:
Going a little deeper, Dungeons and Dragons is a game played by a bunch of people and one leader who comes up with the story and guides the other people who are the players. This leader is the dungeon master. Each player receives a character sheet that says all the things about your character, like gender and race, of which there are many, like dwarfs, elves, human, dark elves, and so many more.
The game’s outcomes are decided by the roll of a dice and different number stats on your character sheet. Dungeons and Dragons can get really complicated, so I’m not going to talk about how stats work or the dice. If you ask me, the stats and the dice are the most boring stuff to write and talk about.
So why do I play? I don’t always like the real world so maybe that’s why I enjoy going into a fantasy world more. Actually I don’t even like the story, I love the lore and world-building. So if you don’t like the boring part, then don’t even play D and D, just sit on the floor with your friends and use your imagination.
Lore and World of D&D:
The world of D and D is a large and complicated multiverse. The place where 97% of your campaigns (stories) will take place is on Faerun or the prime material plane, middle earth from The Hobbit basically. Your basic fantasy world. Surrounding that are the fire, water, air and earth realms, which are what you think they are. The inhabitants of these realms are elementals, which are beings made of their respective element. There are also primordials, ancient chaos gods, but they are basically the same as the normal gods so I don’t care about them. By the way there are also gods in D and D!
Then there are the outer realms. I’m only going to talk about three because they are the interesting ones - the Abyss, the Nine Hells, and Limbo. These realms are chaotic evil, lawful evil and neutral chaotic. The outer realms are organized in this order: chaotic, lawful, good, evil and neutral. The Abyss is filled with demons, beings of pure chaotic evil. And whenever you kill one outside of the Abyss, it is reborn in the plane. There are new demons being born always. They are in an eternal war with the lawful evil devils of the Nine Hells, or Battor, who wants rule the cosmos while the demons seek to destroy it. The devils are fallen minions of the gods I talked about earlier and they are ruled by the deity Asmodeus, first of the fallen. He became a deity by eating another god who fell into the hells after fighting the primordials. They have a deal with the gods called “The Pact Primeval.” This deal means all souls that commit an evil act or make a deal with a devil will go to the hells and be turned into new devils.
But the demons are more interesting to me so let’s go back to those. The Abyss apparently has 666 layers or is possibly infinite. Demons are savage creatures but they do respect strength and the strongest become demon lords. Demon lords control layers and are filled with evil chaotic energy. Some of these demon lords include the demogorgon, a two headed giant baboon with tentacles for arms. Orcus, lord of the undead. Juiblex, a slime demon who consumes the souls of everything. Lolth, a fallen drow (dark elf) god and many others. At the heart of the Abyss is ared sea which at the center is a shard of complete neutral evil. The original demon lords were primordials that attempted to get the power of the shard.
Here is an interview with George Haraguchi from my advisory.
[Tenzin] - Do you like D&D?
[George] - Yup.
[Tenzin] - Why?
[George] - I like the ability to be anything I want.
[Tenzin] - Like what?
[George] - A dragon.. I guess
Welcome student and/or not student! You have probably at least heard of Dungeons and Dragons because it is a huge presence in pop culture. But you probably think of D and D being geek stuff, which is so sad because it is so fun and thrilling. Being the most basic I can be, D and D is a game of imagination. So if you are interested read the rest and smash the like button.
Deeper Intro to What D&D Is:
Going a little deeper, Dungeons and Dragons is a game played by a bunch of people and one leader who comes up with the story and guides the other people who are the players. This leader is the dungeon master. Each player receives a character sheet that says all the things about your character, like gender and race, of which there are many, like dwarfs, elves, human, dark elves, and so many more.
The game’s outcomes are decided by the roll of a dice and different number stats on your character sheet. Dungeons and Dragons can get really complicated, so I’m not going to talk about how stats work or the dice. If you ask me, the stats and the dice are the most boring stuff to write and talk about.
So why do I play? I don’t always like the real world so maybe that’s why I enjoy going into a fantasy world more. Actually I don’t even like the story, I love the lore and world-building. So if you don’t like the boring part, then don’t even play D and D, just sit on the floor with your friends and use your imagination.
Lore and World of D&D:
The world of D and D is a large and complicated multiverse. The place where 97% of your campaigns (stories) will take place is on Faerun or the prime material plane, middle earth from The Hobbit basically. Your basic fantasy world. Surrounding that are the fire, water, air and earth realms, which are what you think they are. The inhabitants of these realms are elementals, which are beings made of their respective element. There are also primordials, ancient chaos gods, but they are basically the same as the normal gods so I don’t care about them. By the way there are also gods in D and D!
Then there are the outer realms. I’m only going to talk about three because they are the interesting ones - the Abyss, the Nine Hells, and Limbo. These realms are chaotic evil, lawful evil and neutral chaotic. The outer realms are organized in this order: chaotic, lawful, good, evil and neutral. The Abyss is filled with demons, beings of pure chaotic evil. And whenever you kill one outside of the Abyss, it is reborn in the plane. There are new demons being born always. They are in an eternal war with the lawful evil devils of the Nine Hells, or Battor, who wants rule the cosmos while the demons seek to destroy it. The devils are fallen minions of the gods I talked about earlier and they are ruled by the deity Asmodeus, first of the fallen. He became a deity by eating another god who fell into the hells after fighting the primordials. They have a deal with the gods called “The Pact Primeval.” This deal means all souls that commit an evil act or make a deal with a devil will go to the hells and be turned into new devils.
But the demons are more interesting to me so let’s go back to those. The Abyss apparently has 666 layers or is possibly infinite. Demons are savage creatures but they do respect strength and the strongest become demon lords. Demon lords control layers and are filled with evil chaotic energy. Some of these demon lords include the demogorgon, a two headed giant baboon with tentacles for arms. Orcus, lord of the undead. Juiblex, a slime demon who consumes the souls of everything. Lolth, a fallen drow (dark elf) god and many others. At the heart of the Abyss is ared sea which at the center is a shard of complete neutral evil. The original demon lords were primordials that attempted to get the power of the shard.
The final realm is Limbo, the realm of complete chaos. This is a realm of floating islands that are constantly changing and shifting. it has no rules. Sentient creatures can control parts of Limbo with their minds.
So the story is that long ago, a deity named Primus put a Giant rock of pure lawfulness named the spawning stone into Limbo. Primus is the god of the modron, a race of robots who live in Mechanus, the realm of neutral law. And the rock is called the spawning stone because even though it was supposed to bring order to Limbo, it instead brought the race of the Slaad. These monsters look like frog people and don’t reproduce through normal means. There are 8-ish types - the red, blue, green, grey and death are what you find in the monster manual. The blue Slaad are created through a red slaad piercing another humanoid creature. The red slaad has a tadpole in its claws that will eat you from within before bursting out. You will have to find out before that happens and remove it through magic. But what's interesting is the tadpole will never grow into a red slaad. It will become a green slaad if the person was a powerful magic user and a blue slaad if they weren’t. So the question is, where do red slaad come from? Well they come from the blue slaad of course. Their way is substantially faster but also more obvious. The blue slaad can give you a disease called chaos fage which will turn you into either a green or red slaad. This will take longer the more powerful person is, since it changes not only your body, but also your mind. When this change is finished, there is absolutely no way to go back except a wish spell which is extremely powerful. So what about gray and death slaad? Well they’re pretty much just the green slaad but stronger. After a while, the green slaad will have an epiphany and will go somewhere secluded to meditate and become the gray slaad. And the death slaad will be created by a grey slaad eating a dead death slaad. And that doesn’t happen much. And the final two are the white and black slaads which are created through meditation. These creatures of chaos literally tear the reality around them apart.
A glimpse into what it’s like to play in advisory:
If you are reading this article, you are probably an HPCMS student. And if you are a sixth grader you might play D and D in your advisory. Well my advisory with Mr. Stapp was the first to do it so it’s the best. And if your in an advisory that doesn’t play D and D, them I am sad for you.
So the story is that long ago, a deity named Primus put a Giant rock of pure lawfulness named the spawning stone into Limbo. Primus is the god of the modron, a race of robots who live in Mechanus, the realm of neutral law. And the rock is called the spawning stone because even though it was supposed to bring order to Limbo, it instead brought the race of the Slaad. These monsters look like frog people and don’t reproduce through normal means. There are 8-ish types - the red, blue, green, grey and death are what you find in the monster manual. The blue Slaad are created through a red slaad piercing another humanoid creature. The red slaad has a tadpole in its claws that will eat you from within before bursting out. You will have to find out before that happens and remove it through magic. But what's interesting is the tadpole will never grow into a red slaad. It will become a green slaad if the person was a powerful magic user and a blue slaad if they weren’t. So the question is, where do red slaad come from? Well they come from the blue slaad of course. Their way is substantially faster but also more obvious. The blue slaad can give you a disease called chaos fage which will turn you into either a green or red slaad. This will take longer the more powerful person is, since it changes not only your body, but also your mind. When this change is finished, there is absolutely no way to go back except a wish spell which is extremely powerful. So what about gray and death slaad? Well they’re pretty much just the green slaad but stronger. After a while, the green slaad will have an epiphany and will go somewhere secluded to meditate and become the gray slaad. And the death slaad will be created by a grey slaad eating a dead death slaad. And that doesn’t happen much. And the final two are the white and black slaads which are created through meditation. These creatures of chaos literally tear the reality around them apart.
A glimpse into what it’s like to play in advisory:
If you are reading this article, you are probably an HPCMS student. And if you are a sixth grader you might play D and D in your advisory. Well my advisory with Mr. Stapp was the first to do it so it’s the best. And if your in an advisory that doesn’t play D and D, them I am sad for you.
Here is an interview with George Haraguchi from my advisory.
[Tenzin] - Do you like D&D?
[George] - Yup.
[Tenzin] - Why?
[George] - I like the ability to be anything I want.
[Tenzin] - Like what?
[George] - A dragon.. I guess
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