Dungeons & Dragons 5E is a roleplaying adventure game of exploration, social interaction, and combat.
Play in D&D generally follows this basic procedure:
The DM describes the situation—what the characters see, hear, smell, taste, or feel.
The players may ask clarifying questions, to which the DM will further describe the situation, or the DM will indicate what action must be taken to acquire said information.
Based on the presented information about the situation, the players declare what actions their characters will take.
The DM and players resolve all such actions.
The above steps are repeated.
When exploring the dungeon, time is tracked in dungeon turns. A dungeon turn lasts about ten minutes and proceeds thusly:
The DM rolls for wandering monsters.
The party decides what they want to do—moving, entering rooms, listening, or searching—and the DM describes what the party sees and what happens. (If monsters or NPCs are encountered, the Social Interaction procedure is used.)
The DM updates time records, paying special attention to light sources, spell durations, and the party’s need to rest.
The wilderness is organized into six-mile hexes. When exploring the wilderness, time is tracked in wilderness turns. A wilderness turn lasts four hours and uses the following procedure:
The party decides on a course of action—moving into an adjacent hex, performing a task in the current hex, et cetera.
The DM rolls for weather and random encounters.
The DM describes what the party sees as they travel and asks the party what they do, switching to the dungeon, social interaction, or combat procedure as required.
The DM updates time records, paying special attention to supplies, spell durations, and the party’s need to rest.
When social interactions happen in town or other civilized parts, a specialized procedure isn’t necessary. Instead, such interactions generally follow The Basic Procedure outlined above.
The DM rolls for surprise, if applicable.
The DM determines how far away the monsters are from the players’ characters.
Initiative is rolled (see below) to determine who acts first.
Individuals that are not surprised decide how they will respond to the encounter (such as by fighting, running, talking, or waiting). The encounter is played out accordingly.
When an encounter turns violent, time is tracked in combat turns and rounds. A combat round lasts about six seconds and proceeds thusly:
Initiative is rolled (if it hasn’t been already).
Starting from the highest to the lowest initiative, everyone takes turns doing some or all the following (in any order they choose):
Move up to their speed.
Make an action.
Make a bonus action.
Between turns, reactions are taken when called for.
Usually, when following The Basic Procedure, things simply happen as described. But when outcomes become dangerous and uncertain, the dice are used.
Most of the time, 1d20 is rolled and modifiers added in an attempt to match or beat a given number. It’s usually as simple as that.
Character creation follows the steps in the D&D Player’s Handbook and the Basic Rules with the exceptions outlined in the 5E Character Creation document.