This paper proposes a frequency domain based methodology to analyse the influence of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) configurations and system parameters on the travelling wave behaviour during a DC fault. The method allows us to gain deeper understanding of these influencing parameters. In the literature, the majority of DC protection algorithms essentially use the first travelling waves initiated by a DC fault for fault discrimination due to the stringent time constraint in DC grid protection. However, most protection algorithms up to now have been designed based on extensive time domain simulations using one specific test system. Therefore, general applicability or adaptability to different configurations and system changes is not by default ensured, and it is difficult to gain in-depth understanding of the influencing parameters through time domain simulations. In order to analyse the first travelling wave for meshed HVDC grids, voltage and current wave transfer functions with respect to the incident voltage wave are derived adopting Laplace domain based component models. The step responses obtained from the voltage transfer functions are validated by comparison against simulations using a detailed model implemented in PSCAD?. Then, the influences of system parameters such as the number of parallel branches, HVDC grid configurations and groundings on the first travelling wave are investigated by analysing the voltage and current transfer functions.