Tuesday, May 16, 2023

You Want Me to Play What!?

The Beginnings


Growing up, I never really had a chance to play Dungeons & Dragons. I didn’t know any friends that played, and it seemed that their parents and mine were still very much under the “Satanic Panic” mindset that culminated in the early 80s. All I ever heard mentioned about D&D in my small town and circle was that it was “evil” and “we don’t play or talk about stuff like that.” I have no hard feelings about this. After all, we were a small town. Sports, board games, and video games were about the breadth of variety we had there. This "D&D" was unfamiliar, and our parents were just trying to keep us out of trouble. I had no clue what I had been missing out on these past couple of decades until a few short years ago when an old friend invited me to come play one Friday night. Initially, I turned him down because of time constraints and not really knowing anything about the game. There were still a few vague memories associating it with "those games we don't play," so I dismissed it without much further thought.


Several months later, the wife was encouraging me to find some sort of creative outlet that would get me out of the house for a little while to decompress. The whole adulting thing, job, kids, etc. can do a number on the old noggin’ after a while. I’d been seeing more about D&D in the news, social media, and the blogosphere, so I started reading up on it and watching a few videos. This thing that was popular when I was a kid appeared to be some sort of mainstream thing now, or close to it. I wish I could’ve seen my face when I realized that this “evil” TTRPG was just a bunch of friends sitting around the table with dice, telling a story, goofing off, and letting their imaginations run amok. I called my friend back, and thankfully, they had a spot for me at the table. I was told to grab a set of dice, a notebook, pencil, and to create a Level 3 character. 


I then read a lot of things about how to create a character, watched a load of videos, and scrolled so many Reddit posts my eyes began to cross trying to figure out what to do before Friday night. My buddy suggested I play a cleric, and in the end, I believe I used one of the many online character generators to roll up my very first D&D PC: Brommur the Hill Dwarf cleric. I then printed out some cool-looking art I found on the internet and loaded it along with my character sheet and blank paper into a spiffy three-ring binder. Now all I needed was for Friday night to hurry up and get here. Oh, and to actually figure out what I was supposed to do to play. I still wasn’t sure about all of that. So many features, bonuses, skills, abilities, proficiency, etc. Kind of made my head a little dizzy trying to decipher it all. As you can probably tell, I’d never been a practitioner of any real tabletop game other than simple board games, let alone a complex roleplaying game. My buddy told me not to worry, and that I’d learn as we played. 


Friday night finally rolls around, and I show up to play. I know half of the people in the room, and the other half are strangers. They welcome me in and already have a spot set up at the table for me. I sit there taking it all in as my buddy, the DM, starts up where the party had left off the week prior and gets to a point where my character is introduced to the group. I distinctly remember the party getting on a tree elevator. The DM asked who wanted to throw the lever to activate it. I volunteered and he told me to roll a strength check. A what? I need to check to see if my character is strong enough to operate a lift lever? Okay, what do I do? I tossed my D20 on the table, and it landed on a natural 20. Awesome, we made it up without incident! I still have that exact d20. This was great (even though I was still a little bewildered why that required some sort of check)!


The session progressed nicely through the night. I learned a lot about the mechanics as we played just as my buddy had said. It was a boon that everyone there was so welcoming and helpful as I stretched my fledgling wings into this world of TTRPGs. I’ve read enough horror stories on Reddit to realize this is not always the case by a long shot. As things were winding down, the party was about to receive some magical cloaks that required another d20 roll to determine the strength of the effect that each PC would receive. I eagerly reached for my lucky green d20, which had served me so well at the beginning of the night. I eagerly reached for that lucky green d20 that had served me so well at the beginning of the night. I was well prepared to toss it on the table again when it came around to my turn.  I’d seen more than half of the party get some awesome bonuses before it made it around the horn to me. At last, I tossed that math rock out. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Before it quite registered what had just happened I heard the gasps and suppressed chuckles erupt. I looked down at the table and saw a big, fat 1 staring up at me. The night was ending the polar opposite of how it began. I quickly learned the meaning of “the dice giveth, and the dice taketh away.” I didn’t let it deter me though. My bonus wasn’t great like the rest of the party, but I still got a +1 to my AC! I knew by this point in the night that this was nothing to be upset about. 


The gears were turning in my head all the way home. Tonight had been a blast. I got to goof off with old friends, make new friends, roll some dice, and take part in a zany story. I was tired from a long night (and a week of work), but I was weirdly refreshed. I was excited and already had machinations forming for what to do next Friday and the Fridays after that. I dipped my toe in, and now I was hooked. If you’re on the fence about playing I say just go for it. Hopefully, you’ll have a similar group of welcoming people as I did, and not the gatekeepers oft mentioned in the bowels of horror stories circulating the web.


You Want Me to Play What!?

The Beginnings Growing up, I never really had a chance to play Dungeons & Dragons. I didn’t know any friends that played, and it seemed ...