The party gasped as the Wizard's Illumination spell cast a brilliant light into the oppressive gloom of the dungeon's once splendid throne room. The Thief let out a slow admiring whistle, "there it is!" The thick, stale air carried ominous notes of brimstone and blood as the Half-Orc barbarian approached the dusty bones of the once proud king, his steadfast hand reaching slowly for the glittering crown adorning the ancient skull. "Roll for initiative", declared the GM as the great stone doors slammed shut behind them and something deeper in the darkness of the room growled.
Tabletop role-playing games have been capturing adventurous minds of all ages for more than fifty years. A lot has changed since Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson published the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons way back in 1974. What hasn't changed is the genre's ability to foster imagination, collaboration, and good ol' fashioned fun. Getting into table-top games can seem overwhelming with the multitude of different systems, campaigns, and various manuals for players and GMs. But TTRPGs at their core require little more than pen, paper, and dice once the general rules of a system are understood.
There are many different TTRPG game systems but the most popular two are Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. Both games play very similarly and have many published campaigns or adventures for players to take on. One player takes on the role of the Dungeon Master (DM) or Game Master (GM), while the others play adventuring characters within the game world. The GM guides the events of the game within the world, including things like monster encounters, non-playable character interactions, and quests for the party members to engage with.
For a starting group, there are three recommended types of books within each system that will guide play and help everyone learn the rules. These are commonly a GM guide, Player guide, and a campaign to play. Between the two rule books and campaign, the group has everything necessary to run a game. However, Dungeons & Dragons has a few excellent "starter sets", that include the basic rules, a short adventure, character sheets, and even all the dice necessary for a small group to play conveniently combined into a box set. There's no easier way to get started!
Aspiring adventures need look no further than the library to start their quest. We carry many of the necessary rule books for the common game systems as well as books on campaigns, monster manuals, world building, character creation, and much more! We even have one of those nifty starter sets I talked about earlier. There's also a lot of free content online for the major game systems including some simplified versions for younger players and even a completely free game system called Basic Fantasy.
Happy adventuring!
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