A New Dungeoneer Approaches

Honestly, all things considered, it’s a little shocking how long it has taken me to get into Dungeons and Dragons.

It combines so many different things that I enjoy: Chiefly, doing funny voices and all things fantasy.

I grew up as a fanatic of Lord of the Rings. My childhood best friend and I would have sleepovers basically every weekend and we would, without fail, watch at least one of the movies (the extended versions, of course). I loved the Legend of Zelda games, both watching them and playing them (I assume you’re all familiar with the curse of being the younger sibling and watching your older brother play games before you got to. Luckily for me, I was more than happy to watch my brother play them because I just wanted to consume the story, design, and characters without the stress of winning).

And the list goes on! I read The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman upwards of ten times, I traveled sporadically through the Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett, I went to midnight releases for and acted out the stories of Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling with my Beanie Babies (thank god for audiobooks!), I read through the entirety of The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (yes, including the incredibly boring prequel The Magician’s Nephew), I obsessed over Eragon by Christopher Paolini (just the first one. I could not get through the sequels. Sorry!), to name a just few.

And I rode the waves of urban fantasy as well, like The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, The Raven Cycle and The Wolves of Mercy Falls by Maggie Stiefvater, and Curse Workers by Holly Black. I was an early reader of the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer as well, believe it or not.

All this is a long-winded way of saying that fantasy has been very, very formative in my life.

Yet, I was still really resistant to try Dungeons and Dragons out for some reason! I’m not particularly lucky and I’ve never rolled dice well. I also didn’t know anyone who played, which is a bit of a hurdle to overcome in a game that requires at least four to five consistent players. But! That’s just a bunch of excuses!

These excuses began to feel a bit weak after listening to my brother play as Dungeon Master, a role he is incredibly adept at, and my interest began to grow. And especially after hearing him say that he did not have the hottest rolls in the world, it began to reassure me that maybe you didn’t need to roll well to have fun anyway!

So, when Skyler’s older sibling, Forrest, approached us this winter break and asked if we wanted to play DnD with them and their friend, I was excited–still a bit nervous, but more so excited–so I bullied Skyler into agreeing.

I dove headfirst into learning about the game after that, getting a Player’s Manual (Thanks Mom! Those things are mighty expensive), watching some videos about the gameplay, and developing an addiction to listening to DnD podcasts, a side effect that I could not have expected less. I gobbled up the first 69 episodes of the podcast The Adventure Zone in less than two weeks (a little ridiculous considering every episode is over an hour long). I also recently started d20 Dames, another DnD podcast.

(Another rad byproduct of this addiction to listening to these podcasts was the creation of ample background noise to create art to, so the last two weeks have been pretty art-heavy for me, along with being DnD-heavy. They’re actually the reason I continued working on the oil painting of La Casa Batlló that I mentioned in the last post).

Our first session went well enough, but my fears of poor rolls were manifested to their fullest extent. I think I had one roll over 10 the whole sesh. But the four and a half hour long session we had yesterday went much, much better. While rolling well definitely made me feel like a more productive member of my party, I had fun regardless of the numbers that were popping up, which is what’s really important!

My family has also begun a campaign, both to quench my insatiable thirst for all things DnD and so my mom could play too! She’s an OG DnD-er, one who played in the 80s when being a nerd was explicitly un-cool. It’s also a little funny to see my dad try to figure all of this out because, to say this kindly, role-playing as a barbarian dwarf is perhaps not his strong suit (You’re still killing it, Pa! Your voice work is excellent).

So, give DnD a go! Even if fantasy hasn’t been as important in your life as it has been in mine, it’s a great way to spend a Friday night with your friends or family (or both!). The first couple sessions may not go exceptionally well as you get the hang of it, but in my humble opinion it’s more fun when all things don’t necessarily go your way on your adventure.

Good luck and happy dungeon diving and dragon slaying!