Alright, this is the only place I can go for some tips from players (that I can get feedback from if there's questions) aside from my one friend who plays, but she plays an older edition...so here's whats going on so I'm not just coming out of the blue with this.

I found out that there's going to be a D&D session next month at our library for players to "Learn the basics during play." or something and all skill levels are welcome. Ive decided to try it out since this is the first real chance Ive ever had at a real D&D session (no one actively plays much out here, if it goes well I'm going to sign up for another session they've got in May, and if that goes well...Ill see if I cant convince them to do another, or get the players to start a group so we can keep going).
They're using the 4th edition.

Now, Ive got the Player's Handbook and Ive gone through it. I have basic knowledge, and I'm making sure I understand everything I need to so that I can play without completely pissing off everyone who has played at least a game or two.
Only real problem I've got is that I'm struggling with picking a character.

I really want to try a wizard or a warlock, though I'm not sure if I really should since it's my first session. I've heard rouges and warriors are good for beginners, but Im not huge into melee. Im also leaning towards Half-Elf as my race since ts got traits from the two, though Teiflings look pretty badass.

I have no information about the campaign aside from it's going by 4th edition.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any tips you players out there could give me.
Like tips on what not to do, what class/race I should pick (being new and all), things you wish you knew when you started, etc.
Anything that would be helpful, really.


So.....tips for a newbie?


Edit:
And an alignment. Im probably going for Unaligned....something that give me more freedom than "Good people do this. :I" and "Evil people do this! >:I"

Don't question the DM

Do not fuck with the DM

Do not touch the DM's figures.

Do not look over the DMs book.

Do not Fuck with the DM god dammit!

When the DM says "Are you sure?" Reconsider your actions.

Do NOT OPEN THE DOOR! Stay away from all doors and let the others open it.

Dont be afraid to ask questions, we were all new at some point

Dont take tips from other players IN game

Read over your abilities a few times to make sure you know what you got, a newbs worst enemy is a technicality

Do not try to be party leader at first, let someone else be the one everyone blames lol

Actually, you should open the door if it's locked and you're the only rouge, or open an obviously booby-trapped door if you have the most health, it's not fun to set up your teammates for failure. But first of all harness detect traps on all doors in mid-level dungeons, and try to find a way to disarm it. Now, if you're expecting an ambush have a stealthy character make listening checks through a crack or a hole. If you can tell from experience that your DM is finding reasons to kill off impatient players, find a new dungeon, maybe an outdoor one.

Don't buy a house!

Don't say you're with the paladins!

When asked whether you want a pony or a pony pony the correct answer is to run for you're life.

Don't engage in drinking contests you never know what will happen but its almost always bad.

Don't trust the other players.

Don't set fire to a nymph's forest!

And if you learn anything from me at all if you find a magically enchanted belt don't put it on for the love of god don't put it on!

(I speak from my two time experience when my bro got me to play with his friends and him so results may vary)

Don't listen to these guys. Just sprint ahead of the rest of your group and make sure to grab all the loot your guy can carry and sneak out I kid I kid.

If it's a learning group, there really isn't much to be brought up on. I'd say learn as much as you feel comfortable, learn the character creation and what type of character you're going to want and make sure to know the skills. Don't be afraid to learn technicalities, using them against the DM too often may result in death though.

Start off by saying "I put on my robe and wizard hat..."

Things will go downhill from there.

In a good way.

Probably a good rule is to keep your first character simple. don't try to run a multiclass wizard/monk/cleric your first time through unless you want your head to explode trying to remember all the abilities spells and special rules. Specialize.

Choose a Fighter or Barbarian, a melee based meatshield. It's probably the easiest way to go ince you only have to think about two thing, "How Hard/Much Can I Hit?" and "How much more can I be hit?". The rest in the game, like talking to people, buying things, healing, buffing up party members, picking locks and all of that are the problems the other players have to worry about. Be a simple Meatshield and piggyback your way through the game untill you've learned how the other players uses their classes.

And one more thing... Never piss off the NPC guards.

If you're going to do the entire LARP aspect that the hardcore DnD-ers are into, make sure you dress up as a barbarian and smother yourself in Crisco. That's a great way to distract the Dm whilst you edit the stat sheets.

Especially the ones standing at their post holding no weapons...Biggest mistake my PCs ever made.

If you play barbarion, Get rid of the concept that you always need armor. I have a barbarion who has such a high dex modifier (7) that it just doesn't pay to where a heavy suit of armor.

Don't assume that the weakest weapon is the weakest weapon. A dagger only does 1d4 damage, but has an 18+ crit range. This is a good thing.

Roleplaying can be funny and serios at the same time.

Remember, its not a video game, your character can die VERY easy, (for god sakes, a cat can kill a lvl 1 wizard in 1 round.)

If at all possible, haggle with your DM. I once ended up with a ranger that had a special bow with a Katar attactched to it, allowing me to make melee strikes AND ranged shots, without changing weapons (which would provoke attacks of opportunity)

and on that, DON'T PROVOKE ATTACKS OF OPPOURTUNITY.

most of that was likely in the PH, but its worth reiderating.

Any tips out there for a beginner DM?Me and my friends already played about half the beginners dungeon and we have our summer vacations coming up, so I'm thinking of starting a campaign.I've been reading articles on world building at giantip.com and i've alredy started working on it, but any tips on the actual playing part would be much appreciated.

Be prepared for any eventuality. Just because the easiest way to find a cave is to follow a river leading to the mouth of a cave gaurded by bugbears, does not mean your party won't go around that area and find the secret entrance to the tunnel systems, surprising your boss wizard in the dungeon who fell due to lack of preparation.

BE READY!

Roger, roger!!!

If they are starting with D&D 4.0 then pretty much any class is ok for a new player as they've made it simple. I call 4.0 vanilla wow.

If the are using 3.5 or earlier, I'd sugest a mele class so your not book banging looking up your spells excessively. I didn't play a caster class till my 2nd or 3rd character (as my first 2 had regrettably died). 3.5 dex based warriors are one of my more favorite classes to play tho (swashbuckler ftw!), once I fell into excessive wizarding tho I was almost exclusively playing a mage, wizard or cleric type role.

Also, get attached enough to your character to role play who they are, but don't go so attached that when you die (which you will) you freak and don't want to play anymore. I've seen a few of those scenario's and those people piss me off. Just roll a new toon >_<

Everything fluffy said, and:
Don't eat your fallen enemies, they can give you diseases.

Be Chaotic Evil.

And whatever you do, do NOT hit on the DM's sister.

I tapped the DMs girlfriends characters ass one time with my sword to punt her to the door. A meteor hit me.

Reward ingenuity.

If a player finds a simple solution to your problem, and you didn't think of it, don't get pissed, let them do it, and have an even harder one later. Another good thing is to have moments that the players aren't expecting. I like having the whole, door doesn't work trick. It usually only works once, but its fun to see the players get mad at eachother when the door's broken and the rougue can't open it (when that happened to me, the fighter was just about to stab the rouge when the barbarion picked him up and smashed him through the door).

My last D&D game i had our DM rolling so much that he couldn't focus on the game.

Our rolls that night sucked. For all of us. We were papercutting the dude to death and I had my sleep spell backfire and put -me- to sleep instead of the assailant. Finally come through and EVERY frost ray misses him. Like by a long shot.

Finally on the last desperate attmept, it hits....right on his crotch and my sorceress couldn't help but start laughing and pointing as he looks down and said "He's got blue balls"

The next shot from our other adventurer split his head.....after that, all our shots hit....i blame it on the blue ball syndrome.

Blue balls will do that to a guy.

I had one game in which I was playing an artificer with a bandolier of wands of every type imaginable. We got into a fight with a bunch of gnols and I whiped out my 10th lvl Wand of lighting landed 6 on every roll, and obliterated one gnoll so badly that his head flew into the sky and killed the guy next to him the next round. Then I ran into a Barbarion with every reflex feat you could imagine and couldn't land a single shot on him. My wand of mislles was out of charges, and the only thing that saved my life was turning my amulet of light on right in his eyes. He realled back and off a cliff.

Also, I've only got the basic set with the advanced rulebook for version 3.5, anyone know where I can find more races/classes/monsters etc.We don't get DnD stuff here in India, I've only got the basic set 'coz my uncle got it for me on a visit from the US.

the website scribd.com has some good places to look at the manuals online, and it's a free community. You could try there zdhusn