Get the D&D Basic Rules for free now!

By Rene Ritchie
published

A few days ago Wizards of the Coast made the D&D Basic Rules available as a free download in PDF format. For anyone who ever played Dungeons & Dragons in any of its incarnations, from Gary Gygax to TSR to now, from Greyhawk to Dragonlance to Forgotten Realms, to — well, you get the idea — the potential fun to be had is obvious. Best of all, you can download the straight into Apple's iBooks app if you'd like, or any other PDF-friendly app you might have installed on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

The Basic Rules for Dungeons & Dragons is a PDF (over 100 pages, in fact) that covers the core of the game. It runs from levels 1 to 20 and covers the cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, presenting what we view as the essential subclass for each. It also provides the dwarf, elf, halfling, and human as race options; in addition, the rules contain 120 spells, 5 backgrounds, and character sheets.

How to add the D&D PDF to iBooks

If you want to keep your free copy of the Dungeons & Dragons basic rules safe, you can easily store it in iBooks.

  1. Go to Wizards of the Coast.
  2. Tap on the regular or print.pdf) version of the PDF.
  3. Tap someone on the screen to show the Open In... controls.
  4. Tap on Open in iBooks.

If you'd rather use a different PDF app, just tap on Open In... and select the app from the list.

Give the D&D Basic Rules a look and let me know what you think of them!

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

5 Comments
  • thanks for the heads-up!
  • Back in the day, this would be the "Red" book. The blue was advanced. :)
  • The red box is out! http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0786965592/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1405305878&s... (Also, glad to see I'm not the only iMore geek that likes table top gaming, downloaded this on day one)
  • Just started playing again last week, but the players wanted 3.5. More power to them.
  • 3.5 has the most additional material, I believe. This generation, which was called next in testing and is now just called DnD even thought it is 5th edition, is closer to 3.0/3.5 than 4e