How to start doing otb tournaments

I have never been in one and i would like to know how to enter one and what i need to know ect if anyone could help me it would be awesome

First thing I'd do is google for the Ohio state affiliate of the USCF... here is is:

http://www.ohiochess.org/

They should have a tournament listing somewhere.

You need to be a USCF member to enter by the way... so maybe that's actually the first step.  You can pay online and become one.  If you're already one you can look in the back of the magazine for a listing of your state's tournaments.

Then you just show up on the day it says, in time for the registration (hours will be listed) pay the entry fee and the first round should start within an hour.  Often you can pre-register for a small discount to the entry fee (tournament directors like to know how many to expect).

Tournament directors also like people to come to their tournaments.  In the listing it should say the TD's name.  You should be able to find some contact info on the site, if you have any questions they'd be more than happy to answer them I'd imagine.

This might help:

https://secure2.uschess.org/webstore/member.php?mode.x=18&mode.y=14

Hey waffle, if one shows up for one's first tournament ever, how do they handle assigning the person as far as rating?

For your first game you're simply unrated.  I'm not sure how the TD handles that as far as pairings go.  I'm sure they have some leeway.  If you entered a section like U1200 (<1200) it wouldn't matter too much, if you entered a large open section it could cause some awfully one sided pairings.  I'm sure one option is to place the person at the bottom of the list, meaning they'll be playing a middle seed.  In an U1200 section that may  mean an 1100.  In an open that may mean as strong as an expert

If there is a local club you can test the water there, and ask about tourneys... because if you enter a small local tourney it may be 20 class B though expert players who play eachother all the time and you won't be able to win a game.  If you can find a larger tourney, maybe the state championship, you'll likely be able to enter an U1200, 1300, 1400 whatever section and have some good games.

And by "you" I mean the OP ;)