How to Win at D&D

Rule Zero: Play to win

The first step to winning at Dungeons and Dragons is to realise that it can be won. Your XP total is a score, just like the score in any other game. If you’re scoring XP, you’re winning the game. If your characters keep dying, you’re losing.

In a game as complex and varied as D&D, it’s easy to feel like winning and losing is arbitrary, that the points don’t matter as long as you’re having fun. This is not the case. Smart play, as is described in this document, will eventually, on average, produce results. To play smart requires you to try your best, to pay attention to what works, to feel the bitter sting of defeat when it doesn’t, and resolve to do better next time.

The axioms presented below are not prescriptions for good D&D, they’re descriptions of what has worked in the past. They’ve worked reliably in multiple campaigns, across a variety of rules-sets and against a number of different dungeons. They’re won through hard experience. But D&D is not a game of rote regurgitation of ancient wisdom. It is a game of discovery. If these axioms don’t work in your game, don’t wave this document in your DM’s face and tell them they’re doing it wrong. Clearly, circumstances are different. Each campaign, each DM, each dungeon demands its own calibration. Figure out what works for your game, and then let me know so we can all survive these dungeons a little longer.