The best and simplest way to play D&D 2024 is completely free-to-play right now

The D&D 2024 Free Rules are pared down to the essentials. But I almost envy those of you that don't have all 384 pages of the brand new Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player's Handbook sitting in your lap. There is such a thing as being paralyzed with options. Having decision paralysis is when you've got too many options staring at you, leaving you incapable of narrowing your choice down to just one thing. Making a D&D character out of the book has always been harder than it should be anyway.

It's true, the D&D 2024 Free Rules (which are separate from the D&D 2014 Basic Rules) don't let you play Aarakocra or Aasimar, Centaur or Minotaur, Gith or Grung. You can pick from:

• Dwarf
• Elf
• Halfling
• Human

See? You probably already know which one of those you'd like to play. Those are the four original races (now called species in D&D 2024) that were available in Original D&D 1st Edition from 1974. It's a quietly brilliant celebration of D&D's 50th anniversary—taking us back to the choices creator Gary Gygax gave us back when Richard Nixon was resigning as President and Steely Dan was singing "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." There are always new kids on the block for you to explore later.

You've also got four character classes to choose from:

• Cleric
• Fighter
• Rogue
• Wizard

Why those four? You guessed it. Back to the roots. Back in '74 they were called Cleric, Fighting Man, and Magic-User, as Thief came along a little later in the first Greyhawk supplement.

When it comes to subclasses, there are—you got it again—four. One for each. And they're exactly the ones you want if you're given only four classes to choose from in the first place:

• Life Domain subclass for Clerics
• Champion subclass for Fighters
• Thief subclass for Rogues
• Evoker subclass for Wizards

When you see "Evoker" think KABOOM.

The D&D 2024 Free Rules come with four Backgrounds, too—although there weren't any Backgrounds in OD&D, they play perfectly into the four character classes above. Backgrounds are where you get ability score boosts from, too:

• Acolyte background for the Cleric
• Soldier background for the Fighter
• Criminal background for the Rogue
• Sage background for the Wizard

Not only are these choices free, they're stress-free. While still playing like the 5e we've come to love and hate over the past 10 years, they're boilerplate archetypes. According to the Class Overview chart that kicks off character creation in the 2024 D&D Player's Handbook, those four character classes also rate very low in complexity to play. Fighters and Rogues are low complexity (the only two that are). While Clerics and Wizards are rated average complexity. You can save the high-complexity Bards, Druids, Monks, Sorcerers, and Warlocks for later. 

For now, if you haven't already been overwhelmed by D&D 5e's plethora of species, classes, subclasses, etc., then start simple. Start with the D&D 2024 Free Rules. It's the best start you could hope for. All that other stuff you get in the 2024 Player's Handbook? The 12 classes, 48 subclasses, 16 backgrounds, and 10 species will be waiting for you when you're ready. And again, I'm envious that your choices are so easy to make.