Well the best wat to learn is to play with an experianced group but if you can't or arent too enthusiastic about that listern up...
Lets gfive you a toned down version so you can get the basics.
I've played DnD for about 8 years now and still like the game. I have mainly played as a Dungeon Master (DM, the person who makes the maps and runs them). If you have enough dosh go out to a hobbly shop and get the 'players handbook' so you can learn the basics, equipment and pretty m,uch info on the importants of the game. If you wan to learn about DM'ing get the 'Dungeon Masters guide', it's full of useful extras and tips.
But DnD isn't about the numbers, though they play an important role in keepsing the game fair and versatile, the main thing if Fun. The best way to do this is to add a little imagination to your games.
DnD is a Pen and paper based game, with die rolls to simulate randomness, rules to add extras like 'leveling up' and weapons etc. And your imagination. I'm going to give you an overveiw of the basics you need ok? Get the players handbook as soon as possible but you don't need it to play.
1> Find some friend who are interested, three is a good number. Got them in mind? good.
2> Get a pencil, as many D6 (a normal six sided dice) as possible and plenty of paper. I am assuming that you and your friends have never played before.
3> YOU are going to be the DM, the person that runs the game. The others will be the players. I will call them player Characters, or PC's.
4> CREATING: I suppose that you have an Idea that DnD is a fantasy game, so there are elves, dwarves beasties and magic. Now what you do is create a world for them to exist in. It dosen't have to be complex or complete. For this example I want you to create a "dungeon", an underground complex and perhaps something special for your players to get at the end like a nice big Diamond or some other type of rareity. Give it about 7 'rooms' The best way for you to create a dungeon is to get some grid paper and draw some rooms with corridors connecting them, perhaps a few doors and some treasure chest here and there. Put an entrance where the PC's starts off and the Diamond treasure somewhere deep within.
OK, you don't have to have done that yet but just imagine you have. This bunch of lines is now your "dungeon", this is the normal name used for a DnD adventure (hence the name Dungeons and Dragons).
5> MONSTERS: Now that you've made your map. IOt would be boring for your Players to just seem to wander around in an empty dungeon with nothing to do. So lets add some exitement. The best way to do this is with monsters. I want you to put some circles in these rooms,do 5 about the size of a person is the room was real (and yes, do it to scale). Now these will be our monsters, call two of them ork, one snake and two wolf. We now have some monsters for your players to verse. I'll get onto how to play and have combat and stuff in a moment. If you've played and computer games before you know about Healt \ hitpoints (HP). Give each of your monsters a certain ammount of HP (write it next to the circle), about 6 for the orks, 5 for the wolfs and 10 for the snake. Ok now we need to think of how hard these will be to hit if your swinging a sword, shooting a bow or trying to cause some type of damage. This is called an Armour Class (or AC). Give the orks 1, the snake 0 and the wolfs -1. Now these actually work in reverse when in combat to the niumber. The lower it is the easier it is to hit. Now all we hjave to do is put some treasure in, like gold coins (GP) or maybe a silver sword? You decide.
6> CHARACTERS: now we have some monsters we need some characters. We'll say that you have three players and they are a warrior (Fighter), wizard (Mage) and a theif (Rouge). Each character needs a few basics. Armour (AC), hitpoints (HP) and attack. Start by telling them to roll 2dice and tallying the result. The fighter is tougher so add 5 to that score, the theif gets 3 and the mage none. If they get below 4 roll again. Write these numbers down on a seperate peice of paper for each of them and label the numbers HP. Next we need armour. The fighters a tough cookie so they get 2, the theif 1 and the mage none. Write this down as AC. Now we need attack. Both the theif and fighter get 1 and the mage none. Now why are we picking on the mage, well they get spells. Write down on the paper for the mage Magik blade x 2 (which when used will give the player it's used on an extra attack for the rest of he battle), Fire bolt x 1 (which will kill an enemy outright) and Sleep x 2(which will put an enemy to sleep). And the theif? give em' Sneak (when they use sneak they can't be seen by enemies). Ok, we now have characters for your players.
7> PLAYING : Well now we have a "Dungeon". I'll have to tell you how to get your players into it. DnD is a turn based game, each player takes a turn at doing something like 'I want to move down the coridoor', 'I want to open that chest' or 'I want to attack the ork'. You are running the game, try starting from left to right. So in your dungeon lets say it looks like what you expext an underground medievil dungeon (stone walls, dirt floow sotne roof, torches on the walls etc.) When you first start your game I want you to say something like. "You have heard rumors that this place is filled with riches, twart with danger and that only the bravest and srongest can recover the fabled Moonstone Diamond" or something equaly as interesting, this is to get the players exited about their adventure into this imaginary world. Explan the room they are in, contents, exits, smells sounds. You don't have to be very detailed but it adds to the atmosphere. "You come down a long narrow passage from the surface, the light of the sun is a dim flicker behind you. Ahead of you is a small room, the walls are covered in moss and two passages lead off into darkness, one to your right and another to your left", that is an alright description. If you've thrown a large chest into the room thell them "A large wooden chest sits in the far corner, the lid held shut with a padlock" AH whats this, how do we open it they might ask. Well they don't have the key so they might try breaking it open with thir weapons if they have any. To do something, or anything like this tell them to get a dice. Roll it. If they get 5 or 6 it breaks and you can reward them with the contents (gold? sword? bow? lint?).
8> COMBAT: The players decide to go down one of the passages and (ask who is going first, then second. Thius is called a marching order) WHAT THE HELL IS THAT! ARGH it looks like an ork you say. The ork is rather angry looking and is holding a nasty looking axe, hav some bits of armour and looks altogether nasty. Hmmm no negotiations here...combat! DnD is a turn based game so we need to know if the ork gets first swing .Depending upon who saw who first will give you an idea of who starts. For intrest sake lets say the ork goes first, say something like "The ork cries savagely and lunges at you with it's axe!".Now here come's the dice. Tell your player (who ever walked in first) to roll a dice, take the players AC from the dice, if it is 3 or above, roll another dice and take off that number from the playes HP. Now they can attack the orc starting from right to left, first in to last or another order that seems suitable. Well now that that is over it's the players time to attack. If the mage isn't using spells you can run an ordinary attack. Lets sat the fighter goes first. so the battle order will be Ork, fighter, theif, mage. Tell the fighter to roll a dice, add his attack to the number and atke away the orks AC if it is above 3 then it is a hit. (lets say 4+2-1=5=HIT). Now roll for damage and take it from the orks HP. keep going around in this irder untill either all the players or the ork is dead (most probably the ork). If the players win give them each 5 "experiance points". I'll explain this later. Now that combat is over the players can loot the room if it has a chest, take the orks axe, armour and use it themselves (+1 attack if they had no weapon, +1 AC if they had no armour ect.)
9> Experiance (Xp). When a player reaches 20 xp they will level up. Add 1 to their attack, roll another dice and add it to their HP and give the mage an extra Sleep spell. This may interupt play so it is better to do it at the end of an adventure.
10> Resting: If they are hurt let them rest, they can recover a dice worth of HP, and the mage can get back a dice worth of spell (starting from sleep, then maik sword then fire bolt).
11> If the Players survive, kill all the monsters and get the treasure they win, you can give them extra "quest" xp or gold and generaly congradulate them (and yourself) for a job well done.
Now that is a simple was of playing a simple map. You can have fun and get used to the rules without haveing to do too much. The actually DnD game is alot more comples, indepth, versatile and fun. But you get the idea.
A good way to get used to the game is to get a book like What is dungeons and dragons? (by John Butterfield, Phillip Parker and David Honigmann), or see if you can get your mits on a "Dungeons and dragons Begginers box set". Then once you've got the jist of it move up a level and go out and byt the 3rd edition (new edition) of thr Cungeons and dragns Players handbook. If the rules seem overwheming dont worry, you'll soon catch on and you don't use all of them at onece. PM and i'll send you one of my maps by e-mail.
Phew that took alot, hope it helped :P
