Look.
If you’re a new player, and you’ve just Googled, or Yahoo’d or (gods-forbid) Bing’d something along the lines of “How To Not Make A Complete And Utter Fool Of A Took Myself In My First Game Of D&D,” you’ve come to the right place.
It is safe here. Come in from the Storms of Uncertainty. Rest your weary bones.
- Check these out:
So you want to play D&D, do ya?
Amazing. That enthusiastic attitude is already about 90% of what you need. The rest can usually be borrowed from a kindly DM or a player who has more dice than they know what to do with.
Secured yourself a group to play with and some modicum of an idea of how to play the game? Great! Now all you need is your very first character.
And here’s where things can get a little tricky.
You might be sitting there with the Player’s Handbook and a blank character sheet in front of you pencil (or pen, if you really ARE new) in hand, waiting for me to tell you exactly what quadrant of this sheet you’re most likely to mess up on.
I’m sorry to say that I’m not that guy, and this isn’t that blog post. There are plenty of other resources out there online that can walk you through the minutia of filling out your character sheet for the first time, and even more explaining exactly why and how this specificbuildisoptimalwiththissubclassandthatmulticlass…
And honestly? That’s not really the D&D we’re all about here at The D&D Dispatch.
Don’t get me wrong; I like creating some Frankenstein(‘s Monster) of a physics-defying, hard-hitting build as much as the next ex-DM, but all that can come later once you’ve got a handle on how to, you know, actually play the damn game.
For now, we’re instead going to focus on the actual character part of character creation — namely, the personality, traits, and being that you’re going to pretending to be for the next who-even-really-knows-how-many hours.
Because a lot of new players get some of these things reaaaally wrong.
You Are Not A Hero (yet)
Unless your DM has you starting at like, level 10 or something (which they really shouldn’t be doing if they have a brand new player at the table and they know that) there is no way that your freshly created character should have a laundry list of epic deeds that they’ve already accomplished.
No 1st (or even 3rd) level character should have been able to kill a dragon, topple a king, or lead an army before finding themselves in the company of a ragtag band of adventurers.
Those epic deeds are to come.
The Loner Schtick Gets Old Quick
A lot of D&D players want to play the coolest character they can think of, and that’s all well and good, but a lot of D&D players also think that the coolest type of person to be is hot broody loner boy who isn’t understood by anyone and doesn’t frickin wanna be, Mom!
(Though, if we’re being honest, 9/10 times they’re orphans because obviously.)
What a lot of new players don’t really get when they come up with this Edgelord Rogue is that D&D IS A COLLABORATIVE GAME and becoming a party is kind of built into the whole fabric of the thing.
So yeah, you kinda gotta be able to play well with others if you want anyone to enjoy, you know, playing with you.
Disclaimer: No, I’m not saying NEVER play edgy characters, just give them a reason to start liking the party they’re going to be stuck with within the first session, or else things can get kind of not fun.
Don’t Stress It All Too Much
…He says, after having just laid out rules as to how much you can mess it up. Who does this guy think he is?
But for real. Unless you find yourself playing someone who is completely at odds with the rest of the party, or someone who is unbearably obnoxious to be around (and usually that is just the player bleeding into the character and it is on DMs to be on top of that), you are going to be fine.
Most players focus a bit more on what’s going on with their own characters than they spend on scrutinizing others, so what really matters about creating your own character is what you want to be, and who YOU want to play as.
Oh, and one more thing:
We Were All Terrified Too
Seriously. We were. Anyone who says otherwise likely has some incredibly flammable pants.
Presenting a character of your very own creating to a group of experienced D&D players is a scary thing, but just know that everyone there WANTS to like you and your character, and they want you, and everyone else at the table, to have as much fun as possible.
Unless they suck. But again, that’s on the DM to chuck. Them. Out.
But that’s just my two coppers.
