Player’s Basic Rules Version 0.2 Credits D&D Lead Designers: Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford Based on the original D&D game created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, with Brian Blume, Rob Design Team: Christopher Perkins, James Wyatt, Rodney Kuntz, James Ward, and Don Kaye Thompson, Robert J. Schwalb, Peter Lee, Steve Townshend, Drawing from further development by Bruce R. Cordell J. Eric Holmes, Tom Moldvay, Frank Mentzer, Aaron Allston, Editing Team: Chris Sims, Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Gray Harold Johnson, David “Zeb” Cook, Ed Greenwood, Keith Producer: Greg Bilsland Baker, Tracy Hickman, Margaret Weis, Douglas Niles, Jeff Grubb, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Art Directors: Kate Irwin, Dan Gelon, Jon Schindehette, Mari Baker, Peter Adkison, Bill Slavicsek, Andy Collins, and Rob Kolkowsky, Melissa Rapier, Shauna Narciso Heinsoo Graphic Designers: Bree Heiss, Emi Tanji Interior Illustrator: Jaime Jones Playtesting provided by over 175,000 fans of D&D. Thank you! Additional Contributors: Kim Mohan, Matt Sernett, Chris Dupuis, Tom LaPille, Richard Baker, Chris Tulach, Miranda Additional consultation provided by Horner, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Steve Winter, Nina Hess Jeff Grubb, Kenneth Hite, Kevin Kulp, Robin Laws, S. John Ross, the RPGPundit, Vincent Venturella, and Zak S. Project Management: Neil Shinkle, Kim Graham, John Hay Production Services: Cynda Callaway, Brian Dumas, Jefferson Dunlap, Anita Williams Brand and Marketing: Nathan Stewart, Liz Schuh, Chris Lindsay, Shelly Mazzanoble, Hilary Ross, Laura Tommervik, Kim Lundstrom Release: August 12, 2014 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, the dragon ampersand, Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. All characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast. ©2014 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Available for download at Manufactured by Hasbro SA, Rue Emile-Boéchat 31, 2800 Delémont, CH. Represented by Hasbro Europe, 4 The Square, Stockley Park, DungeonsandDragons.com Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB11 1ET, UK. Introduction The Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game is about teams up with other adventurers (played by friends). storytelling in worlds of swords and sorcery. It shares Working together, the group might explore a dark elements with childhood games of make-believe. Like dungeon, a ruined city, a haunted castle, a lost temple those games, D&D is driven by imagination. It’s about deep in a jungle, or a lava-filled cavern beneath a picturing the towering castle beneath the stormy night mysterious mountain. The adventurers can solve sky and imagining how a fantasy adventurer might react puzzles, talk with other characters, battle fantastic to the challenges that scene presents. monsters, and discover fabulous magic items and other treasure. One player, however, takes on the role of the Dungeon Dungeon Master (DM): After passing through the Master (DM), the game’s lead storyteller and referee. craggy peaks, the road takes a sudden turn to the east The DM creates adventures for the characters, and Castle Ravenloft towers before you. Crumbling who navigate its hazards and decide which paths to towers of stone keep a silent watch over the approach. explore. The DM might describe the entrance to Castle They look like abandoned guardhouses. Beyond these, a Ravenloft, and the players decide what they want their wide chasm gapes, disappearing into the deep fog below. adventurers to do. Will they walk across the dangerously weathered drawbridge? Tie themselves together with A lowered drawbridge spans the chasm, leading to an rope to minimize the chance that someone will fall if arched entrance to the castle courtyard. The chains of the drawbridge gives way? Or cast a spell to carry them the drawbridge creak in the wind, their rust-eaten iron over the chasm? straining with the weight. From atop the high strong Then the DM determines the results of the walls, stone gargoyles stare at you from hollow sockets adventurers’ actions and narrates what they experience. Because the DM can improvise to react to anything and grin hideously. A rotting wooden portcullis, green the players attempt, D&D is infinitely flexible, and each with growth, hangs in the entry tunnel. Beyond this, the adventure can be exciting and unexpected. main doors of Castle Ravenloft stand open, a rich warm The game has no real end; when one story or quest light spilling into the courtyard. wraps up, another one can begin, creating an ongoing Phillip (playing Gareth): I want to look at the gargoyles. I story called a campaign. Many people who play the have a feeling they’re not just statues. game keep their campaigns going for months or years, meeting with their friends every week or so to pick Amy (playing Riva): The drawbridge looks precarious? I up the story where they left off. The adventurers grow want to see how sturdy it is. Do I think we can cross it, or in might as the campaign continues. Each monster is it going to collapse under our weight? defeated, each adventure completed, and each treasure recovered not only adds to the continuing story, but also earns the adventurers new capabilities. This increase Unlike a game of make-believe, D&D gives structure in power is reflected by an adventurer’s level. to the stories, a way of determining the consequences There’s no winning and losing in the Dungeons & of the adventurers’ action. Players roll dice to resolve Dragons game—at least, not the way those terms are whether their attacks hit or miss or whether their usually understood. Together, the DM and the players adventurers can scale a cliff, roll away from the strike create an exciting story of bold adventurers who confront of a magical lightning bolt, or pull off some other deadly perils. Sometimes an adventurer might come to dangerous task. Anything is possible, but the dice make a grisly end, torn apart by ferocious monsters or done in some outcomes more probable than others. by a nefarious villain. Even so, the other adventurers can search for powerful magic to revive their fallen comrade, Dungeon Master (DM): OK, one at a time. Phillip, or the player might choose to create a new character to carry on. The group might fail to complete an adventure you’re looking at the gargoyles? successfully, but if everyone had a good time and created Phillip: Yeah. Is there any hint they might be creatures a memorable story, they all win. and not decorations? DM: Make an Intelligence check. Worlds of Adventure Phillip: Does my Investigation skill apply? The many worlds of the Dungeons & Dragons game DM: Sure! are places of magic and monsters, of brave warriors and Phillip (rolling a d20): Ugh. Seven. spectacular adventures. They begin with a foundation DM: They look like decorations to you. And Amy, Riva of medieval fantasy and then add the creatures, places, is checking out the drawbridge? and magic that make these worlds unique. The worlds of the Dungeons & Dragons game exist within a vast cosmos called the multiverse, connected In the Dungeons & Dragons game, each player in strange and mysterious ways to one another and to creates an adventurer (also called a character) and other planes of existence, such as the Elemental Plane of Fire and the Infinite Depths of the Abyss. Within D&D Player’s Basic Rules v0.2 | Introduction 2 Not for resale. Permission granted to print and photocopy this document for personal use only. this multiverse are an endless variety of worlds. Many 2. The players describe what they want to do. of them have been published as official settings for Sometimes one player speaks for the whole party, the D&D game. The legends of the Forgotten Realms, saying, “We’ll take the east door,” for example. Other Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Mystara, and times, different adventurers do different things: one Eberron settings are woven together in the fabric of adventurer might search a treasure chest while a the multiverse. Alongside these worlds are hundreds of second examines an esoteric symbol engraved on a wall thousands more, created by generations of D&D players and a third keeps watch for monsters. The players don’t for their own games. And amid all the richness of the need to take turns, but the DM listens to every player multiverse, you might create a world of your own. and decides how to resolve those actions. All these worlds share characteristics, but each Sometimes, resolving a task is easy. If an adventurer world is set apart by its own history and cultures, wants to walk across a room and open a door, the DM distinctive monsters and races, fantastic geography, might just say that the door opens and describe what ancient dungeons, and scheming villains. Some races lies beyond. But the door might be locked, the floor have unusual traits in different worlds. The halflings of might hide a deadly trap, or some other circumstance the Dark Sun setting, for example, are jungle-dwelling might make it challenging for an adventurer to complete cannibals, and the elves are desert nomads. Some a task. In those cases, the DM decides what happens, worlds feature races unknown in other settings, such as often relying on the roll of a die to determine the results Eberron’s warforged, soldiers created and imbued with of an action.