How to get into tabletop role-playing without inducing a stress headache

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) have spent the last decade or so snowballing in popularity. Between the massive success of actual play shows like Critical Role and the cultural monolith that is Dungeons and Dragons (DnD), the medium has found itself thrust well and truly into the public eye. 

However, with ubiquity comes the pressure incurred by the immense weight of popular culture. Celebrity game masters (GMs) run curated games on massive platforms with the sort of public pull that sold out New York’s Madison Square Garden. For those who might want to tell fantastical stories with their own friend groups, this can make TTRPGs seem intimidating as hell, complete with impossibly high bars for storytelling and presentation. 

What’s more, the medium has often endured a long and uncomfortable tradition of gatekeeping against anyone besides white, cis, straight men. Anyone exposed to the shadow that the misogyny and other bigotries of Gamergate still casts over the world of video games will be familiar with this sort of odiousness. 

However, 12 years as a GM myself have taught me that, despite these issues, there are reliable, gentle, and deeply satisfying paths into the TTRPG world — it’s just a matter of knowing where to look. To help those of you who yearn to tell stories of your own but might find TTRPGs intimidating and disorienting, I’ve put together a guide to the basics as well as tips for dodging common pitfalls. 

We’ll cover more accessible alternatives to DnD, how to actually organize a game of your own, and how to feel more confident and assured in your storytelling. I can’t promise silver bullets, but I can promise that anybody reading this has the power to tell wonderful stories for their friends on the tabletop.