If I wanted to start playing the DnD boardgames, how exactly would I do that?

Fubby

So me and my 4 friends want to play the DnD games, not the videogames, the group thing. (Is it a board game? Imagination game? I actually have no idea). But after looking on the web it looks very confusing. My main question is, what should I buy if I want to get started in DnD?

Fubby

I am looking at the Pathfinder Beginner box, it looks like it has everything I would need to get started.

Drugar

Simple explanation: One dude is the Dungeon Master, the others play a character (a combination of race and class, like Dwarf Fighter or Human Wizard). The DM thinks up a plot with some monsters, adventure and treasures, the players tackle the hazards the DM has thought up, defeat his monsters, and claim the treasure (with which they can tackle bigger monsters). There's no winner or loser, the DM simply provides the plot and the players play it.

The starter box should have a quick guide on how to get started without too many rules weighing you down (there's rules for everything but start easy).
Watch some Youtube videos that'll explain the basics to you (like "you sit around a table with friends and pretend to play elves and dwarves and playing adventures).
The starter box should provide the core rules and some miniatures for you to play. Miniatures are not required, my first four years of D&D were played with people drawing X's on the piece of paper that was the map and lines for 'I walk around this way' (yes it became chaotic quickly), before we moved over to little cardboard cutouts.

If you have any questions (other than 'how do I play' because that's really too big a question) feel free to ask them here and several DM's will be willing to help out.

BelgarathMTH

The easiest way to learn to play tabletop D&D is to watch other players who already know how to do it. So, my advice would be to find a local hobby shop that sponsors D&D games on the weekends and go watch them for a while. They usually welcome newcomers and watchers, and they may have a few informal single module games going that they would invite you to play.

What you can expect to see upon walking into a shop that has an event going, is several tables set up, with several groups of people having several different types of games going, some of which will be closed, long-running campaigns that those people have invested some time in, and some with informal, spontaneously formed open games going on.

You will be able to walk around the tables and observe. You might even meet some new friends.

[Deleted User]

I'll second belgarathmth in that finding an existing group is a great way to learn.

The problem you might run into if you try to start a group and learn the game from scratch, is that unless one of your friends gets really excited by the prospect, you, as the instigator, will probably have to learn all the rules yourself so you can explain them to everyone else, and then you'll probably have to run the game (be the DM) for a while. If you're okay with that, more power to you, but if you'd rather play a character than worry about telling a story and being the referee, you're probably not going to be happy with that state of affairs.

(Incidentally, there are D&D board games out there. If no one wants to be the DM, they might be a decent way to get your feet wet. As an added bonus, a lot of the game pieces can be repurposed as minis for the D&D Pencil & Paper game.)

OneAngryMushroom

Sacrifice a goat and sell your soul to Demogorgon. It worked for me.