I wish to put on my robe and wizard hat

So for the longest time I've been embroiled in the world of fantasy, from "The Lord of the Rings" to "A Song of Ice and Fire," but only in cursory glances have I regarded Dungeons and Dragons. Now, however, I want to foray into the realm from which there is no return: I want to start playing D&D.

I've figured as much that I need at the very least a starter kit, which I managed to pick up from Target (of all places), and included was a guide, some maps, and some dice. What I want to know is should I buy miniatures, if so what kind and where, and how many people at the LEAST could make up a D&D game? I've got three friends I know are as geeky as I am, so if that's a good number (with me as DM) then coolio.

inb4 greasy pizza-face, basement dwelling, and cracks at my virginity

Starting on the D&D, huh? Good fun to be had! As for your question, at the least you will need one other player. It is perfectly resaonable to run an adventure with just one player (Easier, too), but if you are like most GM's, you will want a group of three people or more. Usually no more than 5, after 5 it gets a bit unruly for a beginner. As for miniatures, any gaming store in your neighborhood should have some, but you should realize that these aren't necessary. They are flair, bells and whistles, and can easily be replaced with a chess pawn or some such.

Perfect, thanks for the advice!

For the most part I thought that miniatures were a necessity when gaming; don't know why, really, I guess I just thought that using something like a Monopoly piece in lieu of a miniature of a Dwarf would ruin my stats or the game, haha.

Also, have you ever gone to pick up games at hobby stores or the like? I've always wondered how that works, because I've heard that some sessions take course over a few non-consecutive days.

Miniatures or some kind of marker and a map are usually very very helpful. More so depending on which edition of D&D you plan on playing but still always useful.

Edit: The length of a game and how sessions are broken up usually is determined by the GM or by a group agreement, it's pretty much whatever works for people. As for picking up stuff at a hobby store I've done that my fair share, though now I can't afford to and just download pdfs of the gaming books I need.

Lol, non-consecutive days. Not exactly a rule as to wether the days have to be in order or not, you just play whenever you can actually get people together; a task that can be rather difficult sometimes when everyone always has something else to do. A decent session can last anywhere from two hours to all night, depending on your supply of mountain dew and your committment to keeping hobgoblins out of peaceful villages. If you are just starting, you should try for an intro adventure, possibly included in your starter pack. It will introduce the players to the game and allow you to get a good look at what your players want. Sessions are usually a mix of hack n' slash, dungeon exploration, and puzzles; you need to figure out the right ratio for your party. As for hobby stores, I pretty much do what Ramsus does. There are simply too many supplements to shell out 30 bucks each time they put out a new one.

Hrm, I guess I didn't word that correctly. What I meant was "over the course of a few days, though not necessarily one day after the other, but rather spread out over a week."

Or did you in fact provide the correct answer?

Man, fuck grammar.

Anyways, thanks again. I just wanted to get an idea of what DnD was like not from a LOLWUT XBOX HOOGE guide, but from people that had already spent a good amount of time playing it.

DnD is alot of fun, if you have good players, and you should realize that starting out as a DM without having had the benefit of playing it in order to observe the game flow of a session, might be a bit difficult. Do you have a general idea of what you need to do in order to prepare? Even if you are just playing a pre-made adventure given to you in the guide, you still have some work to do. There's the technical stuff - keeping track of dice rolls, Player and Monster HP, Maps and the like. Then there's the fun stuff. You are trying to relate a story to your players which means you have alot of talking to do. The most important part is to make it interesting; your players need to feel that they really are in that mildewy old corridor, picking through a pile of discarded bones for the iron key they need in order to proceed to the ancient waterway. Feel free to ask any specific questions.

Miniatures can be good for keeping track of who is where in the game. For example, if a group of three is fighting a bunch of goblins, it's helpful to have figures set up to show that Person A is in front of Goblins A, B, and C and that Person B (an archer) has a clear shot at Goblins D and E. Without miniatures, that sort of thing can get confusing, and players may repeatedly ask if they are near a certain enemy, how many enemies there are, etc. But as tsuyoshiro said, you don't need some fancy, offical D&D figure to do that; you could use anything, as long as you can tell what is what without much trouble.

As for how long sessions may last, that's what's really great about D&D - you can create your own adventure and make it as long (or as short) as you wish. If you want to recreate the Dark Tower series or Lord of the Rings, you can do it. You just have to be willing to put in the work. Though, seeing as you're a beginning, I think it'll be awhile before you get comfortable enough with the game to create your own quests. Still, you can experiment and test all you want. It's not like anyone's going to scold you if you break some of the rules or don't do everything 100% by the book.

Since most people here already told ya about the minis, (in my superhero rpg, we use those mini marvel figures for everybody, and chess pieces for random badguys), I'll try to help ya out with the later question, ie, how many people your party should have. In my group, we usually have about 4 people, (besides the DM), playing, and some of us have two characters. When we had a 5th person, it took a lot longer for turns to get done, and sometimes it was very easy to get distracted by things. However, once we were down to four people, it was a much more pleasant experience. So, I would recommend 3-4 people besides your DM in your group, and try to pick people that you are comfortable with.

And don't worry, I was a rookie about a year ago, too. I was afraid to get involved in it because of the stereotype, but my boyfriend bought me a book that explained things very well, and I decided to make a group, and it's been going strong ever since. We even have a website now with forums and bios so I think that you'll find it to be a lot of fun!

As for length of play or how often (I think that's what you were trying to discuss). Usually games last anywhere from a couple of weeks to months to....um...forever I suppose. Usually played once a week, preferably the same day every week. Though of course it's impossible to never miss a session due to something coming up.

Yup, sounds about right. I've been involved in a superhero rpg for about a year now. During the school year we meet about once a week, but over the summer it's a bit harder to meet, and this summer, we've only been able to do two sessions.

However, we do some soft roleplaying on our website, (since it has a forum), and you could also do an online session if worst comes to worst.