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

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.

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A Second Scene

The Quiet Kind of d20

Same party. Same afternoon. A very different kind of roll.

Combat is the loud part of D&D. Here is the quiet part. After the goblins, John and Ellen walk into a roadside inn to find out why three woodland creeps were trying to weaponize a beehive in broad daylight. No swords drawn. No initiative rolled. The dice still matter — just differently. Read this one the same way. The mechanics will sort themselves out in the margins.

New Face

Wendel Brackwater — a twitchy traveling leather-goods merchant. Nursing a mead. Has seen too much. Played by the DM, like everyone else who isn't a PC.

The road brings them to the Crook & Cauldron, a slouching two-story inn at the crossing of the Trade Way and a cart path into the Cloak Wood. The sign above the door: a seven-pointed star, painted in peeling gold. Inside: low beams, a fire, seven or eight locals at the bar, the smell of onions and a beer nobody's heard of. One man sits alone at the far table, facing the door, drinking too fast.

DM As you cross the threshold, the room goes mostly quiet. Not all quiet — that would be too obvious. Just the tavern-version quiet. Conversations get shorter. A man by the fire pretends not to look at you. The bartender is a dwarf, older than Bru, wiping the same spot on the bar he was wiping when you walked in.
Ellen Bru goes to the bar. "Ale. Whatever's on. And one for him" — (she points at John) — "and put it on his tab."
DM The bartender nods. "Seven Gate Porter, two. That'll be four copper."
John Seven Gate Porter?
DM That's what's on tap. That's the house ale.
John Fennick raises an eyebrow. He hasn't heard of it. He files that away.
DM You've got your ales. The room is back to its low hum. John — you're naturally the one who notices things. Give me a Perception or an Insight check. Your call.
John What's the difference?
DM Perception is what do I see? Insight is what does this person's behavior tell me? Right now, you're looking at the man at the far table — the one drinking fast. Which question do you want to ask?
John Insight.
DM Roll d20, add your Wisdom bonus.
John (rolls) Fifteen, plus three. Eighteen.
DM He's scared. Not of you — he was scared before you walked in. He's got a mead he's not tasting, and his eyes have been on the door for longer than yours have. When you came in, he flinched. Then he tried not to flinch. Then he pretended to read the label on his mug, which doesn't have one.

(An Insight check is how you read people. Same d20, same math. Different question.)

Ellen Bru's seen enough. She walks over, puts her ale on the table, doesn't sit. "Friend. Sit down. Don't move. You saw something on the Trade Way you weren't supposed to see. We killed three of them an hour ago. I want you to tell me which one sent them. I want you to tell me now. Or I am going to guess. And my guessing can get loud."
DM Roll Intimidation. Charisma check with your proficiency bonus.
Ellen (rolls) Twelve, plus one. Thirteen.
DM He goes completely still. He doesn't look at you. He looks at his hands. Then he stands up, puts two silver on the table, and says to the room, "I've had enough." And he walks out the back door.
Ellen Wait — I rolled a thirteen.
DM You did. And the DC for an Intimidation check on a man who is already this scared is about a seven. You succeeded beautifully. He was absolutely intimidated. Problem is, he was more scared of whoever he was running from than of you. So he ran from both of you at once.

(Succeeding on a roll doesn't guarantee you get what you want. It guarantees the narrated effect of the thing you tried. Sometimes the thing you tried was wrong. This is good. This is the game.)

John Fennick puts his ale down. "Let me try." Is there a dog in the tavern? Or a cat? Anything?
DM There is, in fact, a tavern cat. Orange. Overweight. Asleep on a stool next to the fire as if it paid rent.
John Fennick goes over, sits on the floor next to the cat, and just… talks to it. Low voice. I'm not casting anything. I just want the room to see a weird barefoot elf having a quiet conversation with a cat, so when I go out the back door after Wendel, nobody thinks I'm a threat.
DM (pause) Yeah. You don't have to roll for that. That's just a good idea. The cat half-opens one eye, decides you're fine, closes it again. You get up, bus your ale to the bar, and slip out the back.

(This is the thing about roleplay — when the plan is smart and in-character, the DM often won't ask for a roll at all. The roll is what happens when the outcome is in doubt. Good plans remove the doubt.)

DM You find Wendel behind the inn, next to the stables, trying to unhitch a mule with hands that are not cooperating. He sees you and freezes.
John Fennick stays ten feet back. Doesn't move closer. Hands visible. "My friend is loud. I'm not. We fought the goblins on the road — the three of them, with a beehive. We won. They're dead. Whoever hired them doesn't know we know they hired them yet. But we do. And you do. So we can help each other for about ninety seconds, and then I leave you to your mule, and nobody sees us talking."
DM Make a Persuasion check. This one I'll tell you — the DC is ten. He wants to talk. He just needs a reason.
John (rolls) Nine, plus one. Ten. Right on the nose.
DM Just barely. He exhales like he's been holding it for a week. "It was two nights ago. Hooded. Wouldn't drink, wouldn't eat. Paid the goblins in silver — but not road silver, nothing I've seen struck. Coins with a star on them. Seven points." He touches the inn's sign without looking at it. "Same star. I don't know what it means." His eyes flick toward the back door. "I know which way he rode after, though. East. Into the Cloak Wood. Locals call that stretch Sector 7G — old name, nobody remembers what it's short for. The goblins don't even go there." He swallows. "And these three weren't the only ones he paid. Name came out once, when one of them said it too loud. Brogan. No first name. Just Brogan."
John Fennick nods once. "Thank you." Turns around. Goes back to get Bru.

The coin Wendel saw is on the table now, even if the players don't know it yet. So is the star. So is the tavern ale. So is the fact that someone — hooded, unwilling to drink — has been hiring muscle at this crossroads. The party leaves with a name they don't yet have and a shape they half-recognize. The goblins were the first page. This was the second.

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What Just Happened, Socially

Combat has turns. Roleplay has beats. The rhythm is different, the math is the same, and you'll get used to both by the end of the first hour.

Now pick a character →