A Sample Scene
At The Table
Five minutes at a real game, transcribed like a play. Everything a new player needs to see.
The best way to understand Dungeons & Dragons is to watch five minutes of it. What follows is a short scene between a Dungeon Master and two players — one who has played before, one who has not. It takes the party off the Trade Way, through the edge of the Cloak Wood, and into a small problem involving three goblins and one very unlucky hive of bees. By the end of it you will have seen, in context, almost every mechanic that matters: a check, a turn, an attack roll, armor class, damage, and a saving throw.
You do not need to understand any of this yet. Just read it the way you'd read a script, let the rhythm land, and the mechanics will sort themselves out in the margins.
The Cast
The DM — runs the world. That's the person who sent you this link.
John, playing Fennick Oakshadow — a Half-Elf Druid. Barefoot, talks to birds, carries a quarterstaff he calls "Greta."
Ellen, playing Brunhilde "Bru" Stonebeard — a Dwarf Fighter. Chainmail, shield, bad attitude about elves until a second ale.
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The party has been walking the Trade Way for three days. It is afternoon. The road narrows as it cuts through the outer edge of the Cloak Wood. The wagons they were escorting are a day behind.
DM
You round a bend. The road narrows between two moss-furred oaks. Somewhere ahead, very close, something wet sniggers. Then something else does. Three goblins step out from behind the trees. One has a rusty scimitar. One has a shortbow. The third is cradling, with surprising tenderness, what looks like a clay jar.
John
What's in the jar?
DM
Make me a Perception check. Roll a d20 and add the little number next to Wisdom on your sheet.
(A "Perception check" means "roll for noticing things." There's one of these for each ability — Strength checks for lifting, Dexterity checks for balance, and so on. You'll see a lot of them.)
John
(rolls) Fourteen, plus two. Sixteen.
DM
You're a druid. You've seen that shape before. It's a wild beehive, lidded off with clay. He's going to throw it. The bees inside are audibly furious.
Ellen
Of course they are.
DM
Roll initiative, everybody. That's a d20 plus your Dexterity bonus. Whoever rolls highest acts first, and then we go in order from high to low. That's the turn order for the whole fight.
John
(rolls) Seventeen.
Ellen
(rolls) A nine. Ugh.
DM
(rolls three d20s behind the screen) The goblins rolled a fourteen, a twelve, and a six. So the order for the round is: John, goblin A, goblin B, Ellen, goblin C. John — you're first. What do you do?
John
How far can I move?
DM
Thirty feet, same as everyone.
John
I move twenty feet closer to the one with the jar, and I cast Produce Flame at him. I'm aiming at the jar. I want to cook the hive in his hands before he can throw it.
DM
Love it. That's a ranged spell attack. Roll a d20 and add your spell attack bonus — it's on your sheet, plus six for you.
John
(rolls) Fifteen. Plus six. Twenty-one.
DM
The goblin's Armor Class is fifteen. Armor Class — "AC" — is how hard a creature is to hit. It rolls up all the stuff that keeps arrows off them: armor, shield, speed, whatever gods happen to be looking the other way. You compare your total attack roll against it. Anything that meets or beats it connects. Twenty-one comfortably beats fifteen. It's a clean hit. Roll damage.
John
(rolls a d8) Six fire damage.
DM
The dart of flame splashes him across the chest. He shrieks — but the jar survives. It is now, you notice, glowing faintly red where his fingers are wrapped around it. He looks extremely unhappy about this. End of your turn. Goblin A — the swordsman — charges Bru.
DM
(rolls) Seventeen total. Bru, what's your AC?
Ellen
Eighteen. Chainmail and a shield.
DM
Seventeen against eighteen is a miss. The scimitar skims off the rim of your shield and throws sparks. Goblin B looses an arrow at you from range — (rolls) twelve. Also a miss. Arrow plinks off your pauldron and buries itself in the dirt. Ellen, you're up.
Ellen
Can I get to the bowman?
DM
He's about fifty feet away. You can Dash — spend your action to move your speed a second time — and cover sixty feet. You won't be in reach to swing, but you'll be right on top of him for next turn.
Ellen
Done. I dash at him. I'm also yelling something uncomplimentary about his mother.
DM
He understands none of the words and all of the tone. End of your turn. And now — Goblin C, the one with the hive.
The DM grins. This is the moment he's been waiting for.
DM
He cocks his arm back and hurls the clay jar directly at John's head.
John
Oh no.
DM
Make me a Dexterity saving throw. A saving throw is what you roll when something bad is happening to you and you're trying to avoid or resist it — the opposite of an attack, where you're doing something to someone else. Roll a d20, add your Dex bonus. The target number is thirteen.
John
(rolls) ... an eight. Plus two. Ten.
Ellen
Oh Fennick, no.
DM
Ten against a thirteen is a fail. The jar shatters against your shoulder. For the next minute, you are swarmed — a furious halo of bees, stinging, everywhere, constantly. You have disadvantage on attack rolls — that means you roll two d20s and take the lower one — until you spend an action to shake them off. Also, you take one point of damage at the top of each of your turns, because bees.
John
I would very much like to rage about this.
DM
You are a druid. Druids don't rage. You are, however, currently the most visually impressive thing anyone in this forest has ever seen. John — you're up again. Top of the round.
Fade out on the sound of bees.
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What Just Happened, Mechanically
- Ability Check. John rolled Perception to notice something. That was a d20 plus his Wisdom bonus, compared to a target number the DM set privately.
- Initiative. At the start of combat, everyone rolls a d20 and adds their Dexterity bonus. Highest goes first, then in order from highest to lowest. That order holds for the whole fight.
- Movement + Action. On your turn you can move up to 30 feet and take one action — attack, cast a spell, dash, help an ally, try something weird. Some classes also get a bonus action.
- Attack Roll vs. Armor Class. When you attack, you roll a d20 and add your bonus. If you meet or beat the target's Armor Class — how hard they are to hit — you connect. Then you roll damage.
- Saving Throw. When something happens to you — a spell, a trap, a jarful of angry bees — you roll a d20 and add the relevant ability bonus. Beat the target number and you avoid or resist it; fail and you suffer the consequence.
- Advantage / Disadvantage. When things are in your favor, you roll two d20s and take the higher. When they're not — like, say, being covered in bees — you roll two and take the lower. It's the whole game's way of saying "this'll be harder than usual."
You don't have to memorize any of this. The DM will prompt you with the right roll every time until it becomes second nature — which takes about one session.