Here’s what you need to play D&D with one or more friends (a typical group has five people):
Players. Each player creates an adventurer who teams up with the other players’ adventurers. Working together, the group might explore a dark dungeon, a ruined city, a haunted castle, a lost temple, a lava-filled mountain, or another location described by the DM. The adventurers also solve puzzles, talk with other characters, battle fantastic monsters, and discover magic items and other treasure—all while supporting each other’s fun.
You also need these resources, either in physical form or on DnDBeyond.com:
Player’s Handbook. This book is your essential reference for the game’s rules, and it guides you through making an adventurer of your own.
Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual. The first of these books guides the DM through creating and running adventures, and the second holds hundreds of monsters to fill those adventures.
Dice. You need a set of polyhedral dice (shown in chapter 1). You can find dice like these in game stores and from online retailers. Dice-rolling apps are also available.
Character Sheet. To keep track of important information about your character, you need a character sheet, which can be as simple as a piece of paper you write notes on or as feature-rich as a digital record.
The DM might also find these accessories useful:
DM Screen. Many DMs like to use a screen to shield their notes and dice rolls from players. It’s bad manners to peek over the screen!
Miniatures and Battle Grid. Some DMs use a battle grid and miniatures to run combat encounters, since they help everyone visualize the action. A battle grid can be anything marked out in 1-inch squares, from disposable sheets of paper to poster maps. And miniatures range from simple tokens to detailed figurines. Online maps and miniatures are also available, including on DnDBeyond.com.
Learn by Watching
A great way to learn the basics of D&D is to watch people play it. The Internet offers videos of D&D play that show off the tremendous range of possibilities the game offers. As you watch, pay attention to the ways that some players help make the game fun for everyone in their group. The only audience you need to entertain when you’re playing D&D is yourself and your group.