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I've never played D&D.

What kind of character did you roll, and what version are you playing?

Also 4e is better.

The real important question is:

Who did Masa San kiss?

He better, or I'll send him angry messages on the PS3.

I think he's heard that 4.0 is silly.

This is wrong. Whoever told you this has no idea what they are saying. Aside from narrative, you are mechanically forced to rest after so long because you need to recover abilities and healing surges. Running around with a character that never sleeps in 4e is like a 3.5 Wizard who never sleeps, in that he never prepares more spells.

The classes were balanced. They are similar in that now a fighter or non-caster has access to the same variety of options in combat as a mage (he can maybe use a special technique to sever an enemy's tendon and slow it down, or he can bash them upside the head to send them into a daze, etc.). In 3.5 casters get to think and non-casters get to auto-attack, over and over again. In 4e you also mattter if you're a non-caster. In 3.5, by about level 10, no one but the wizard in your party really matters.

This is wrong. Whoever told you this has no idea what they are saying.



What I've noticed is that there are a lot of people who staunchly prefer 3.5, but don't really know anything about 4.0. I honestly think they prefer 3.5 because that's pretty much what they are using to playing and that anything different scares them. They dislike 4e out of bias, because it is different. It is also much, much better.

Roleplay the same quality regardless of the game, that's more dependent on the participants. What makes 4e better is that combat is vastly more interesting and balanced. If you want to play "let's make believe!" and that's all you care about, then 3.5 is fine. If you want to roleplay and play a combat simulator, then 4e is the only option D&D offers.

Edited, Feb 7th 2011 9:06am by Allegory

Read the Player's Manual. You can find a PDF of it online somewhere (probably through a torrent). As for finding people to play with, the best option would be to try to get some friends together for it, but if all else fails just find a gaming store in your town and ask around.

Keep in mind that this is just for basic information for when you're starting out. There are a lot of rules and resources out there, but that will be good for getting you started. The best thing you can do to learn is play a game with people who know what they are doing, willing to teach you, and patient.

Allegory, I'll get Manosuke to post in here about 4.0

I was just going off of reviews, on the major differences between 3.5 and 4.0

You make a good point, and maybe it already is done online somewhere, but I think for a lot of people (including myself), a big part of the fun of the experience is through getting together with friends, and actually sitting down together to do it. There's just something satisfying about being able to roll the dice yourself rather than clicking a button for them.

The first thing a player needs is a Player's Handbook as Daimakaicho said. This book will explain to you all the fundamental rules about how to play as a player as well as give you tools to make your first character (such as classes, races, items, etc).

Even before that though, you need to settle on a version of D&D to play. The most popular ones at the moment are 3.5 and 4.0. 4.0 is the currently supported version, while 3.5 is the previous version that many players have chosen to stick with because for whatever reason they didn't like the change. As someone totally new to D&D, I would recommend 4.0 over 3.5, not just because I personally like 4.0 more but because I feel 4.0 is much easier to learn. 4.0 is like Spanish in that there is a structure and pattern throughout it that helps you pick up on things faster. 3.5 is more like English, in that it is a mess of different ideas thrown together.

It is. Maptool is one of the best tools I've found for playing it online. I've played numerous campaigns both online and offline, and I actually prefer a lot fo the convenience and improvements by playing via maptool. I know a lot of people who use maptool for their campaigns even though they play in person, just because it can improve the experience greatly.

Playing D&D online requires additional learning and preparation, which can be a lot for a new player to take in. In addition to all the normal stuff you have to learn and do for D&D, to play with maptool optimally you would want a voice chat program as well (I use skype), you might need a virtual network like hamachi, you need to know how to set up characters in maptool, you need to know how to use macros in maptool, you need to prepare maps and enemies largely in advance, and more.

I have practically everything for 4.0 in PDF form. Much of it is already on a friend's megauploads account, but I forgot his password. I'll try searching for it for a bit, and if not I'll throw up a new megaupload link for you.

4.0 PHB1

I've got a lot of other stuff up there, but I'm lazy so I'll probably only link it on request.