Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) played with your imagination, dice, miniatures, pens and paper, and friends; a form of mutual storytelling where you battle monsters, explore, and earn treasure and experience, and therefore greater power, all within the framework of the D&D ruleset.

Since you're literally playing a role that you designed, and since the story takes place in an imaginary world, the rules are sometimes complex and often exhaustive in their scope, but the basic mechanics of the most recent editions are simple--if you want your character to do something, roll a D20 (twenty-sided die), add your result to any other modifiers (such as a bonus to attack with a sword because your character is strong), and come up with your result.

 Dungeons and Dragons is one of dozens of similar RPGs. 

Last updated on June 4, 2008 by RPG Ike