Play Dungeons & Dragons for Free
Dungeons and Dragons is an incredible hobby. It's an excuse to block off some time in your schedule to have fun and hang out with people you care about, all while being creative and injecting fantastical experiences into your everyday life. But, like many hobbies, D&D can get expensive. All the books can add up, plus dice, especially if you start collecting those shiny math rocks. Maybe add in a digital subscription or two. And that's without using miniatures and terrain, custom character portraits, the list goes on and on. You might want to commission a gaming table with a built-in TV screen and a bunch of cup-holders, in which case awesome, go for it, can I come over? But in this one we're talking about how you can play Dungeons and Dragons for free.
If you are just starting out or you're just on a budget, you don't need to spend a penny to start playing Dungeons & Dragons. The fine folks at Wizards of the Coast have made the basic rules available online, for free. Everything you need to build a character and play the game is in there. There's even a collection of monster stat blocks and some encounter building advice for Dungeon Masters. Weighing in at 180 pages, this PDF is going to cover all your basics and I think you can play for a while before you feel any sort of limits or restraints, especially if you're just beginning.
To that point, if you are really just beginning, I would actually point you to the rules that are included in the Starter Set. At 30 pages, this is a way more approachable document and if you're not playing a spell caster you can actually skip the last ten or so pages. If you're trying to dip your toe in the D&D waters or bring in a new player, I believe this way shorter PDF is the way to go. It is also totally free on the Wizards website.
What's missing in that shorter Starter Set rule book, among other things, is the stuff on character creation. Now character creation seems to be some peoples favorite parts of the game, but if you're just starting out or trying to save money, or time for that matter, there are a host of free character sheets available on the official site as well.
If you do want a more hands on experience and want to create your own character, I celebrate that. I think you're best bet to do so, for free or otherwise, is the website D&D Beyond. While there is a ton of stuff you could purchase, a la carte, bundled, by the whole book, or in ludicrous mega bundles, you can still dive in and access plenty of options for free. I made a video tutorial on using D&D Beyond where I create a dwarf life cleric. Cleric is a great choice for a player who wants to be able to do everything and isn't afraid of a little complexity, but even if you would prefer to roll up a different kind of character that playlist will still be very instructive on how to use the website step by step.
Also just recently released for free on D&D Beyond is the adventure from that Starter Set, the celebrated Lost Mines of Phandelver. It's a popular and excellent introduction to D&D as a player and a Dungeon Master that will take you from level one to five. Depending on your style and how long your sessions last, this could be weeks or even months of content. If you're thinking about running a game for your friends or family I've got a whole series (also free by the way) walking through each aspect of the adventure.
Rules, characters, a whole adventure, all online for free. Another resource worth remembering is your local library. Amazingly, for zero dollars a copy of Tales of the Yawning Portal is mine for the next month or two thanks to my favorite socialist institution: the public library. I wanted a physical copy an upcoming series and there it was, sitting on a shelf full of D&D and other TTRPG books for anyone to borrow. In-freaking-credible, if someone came up with the idea today no way would it ever happen. Thanks libraries!
With all that in hand, all you really need is maybe a pen and paper, and some dice. You can go full dice goblin and go crazy with tons of fancy dice, but for zero dollars you can just google dice roller, put an app on your phone, or use the built-in dice on DnDBeyond.
If you're playing online, I probably don't have to tell you that Discord, Skype, Zoom, or the galaxy of other ways to communicate with voice, video, and screen sharing. I am going to mention Owlbear Rodeo, which is a free virtual table top. It let's you move tokens around on a map, either a basic included one or something you found online and uploaded, so that everyone can see what's going on where. Other VTT's like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds have free access for players but to host a game someone will need to pay. And honestly, for my tastes I like Owlbear Rodeo better anyway because it is simpler. There's less complicated tech stuff to wrestle with in prep or explain during play, and it keeps things from getting too video-gamey for me.
If you have been playing for a while and keep borrowing the Player's Handbook from the person sitting next you, it is good form to pick up your own copy eventually. Here's an affiliate link where you can order a copy for the lowest price around as far as I know, but if you can afford to spend a little more I'm a big advocate of supporting your friendly neighborhood game shop. At the time of this writing the next investment I'd suggest a player make would be Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, as that's got some of the strongest subclasses in the game right now and a lot of optional rules for character creation that many tables have adopted. DM's will want a copy of the Monster Manual, which I would probably prioritize over the Dungeon Master's Guide at first, though I do recommend getting the DMG as well if you can.
But that's it, that's everything you need and more available for free with just a few clicks, or a journey to your local library. Get out there and play some Dungeons and Dragons, have fun, be kind, and subscribe to our newsletter for even more free content delivered directly to your inbox.
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