Do you need an excuse to get together with your friends that isn’t Korean BBQ or drilling holes in oil pipelines? Have you ever dreamt of being an adventurer, seeing distant lands that defy logic, or punching things really really hard?
If you have tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) may be the cure for all that ails you. A TTRPG is primarily played through the describing of actions and dice rolls to determine outcomes of “skill checks.”
If you’ve got a couple of friends who have six hours on every Thursday burning a hole in their pockets, you might be curious where to start, well with a new edition coming out later this year it’s never been a better time to pick up D&D.
Aesthetically, “Dungeons and Dragons” pulls heavily from every fantasy film you’ve ever watched — or more accurately, most modern fantasy films probably started as somebody’s D&D campaign. It’s typical fantasy fare with goblins, wizards, and demons, including some stuff cribbed from Tolkien in true modern fantasy fashion.
This aesthetic familiarity assists new players, as someone coming in will likely already have a vague idea of the kind of character they want to make based purely on cultural osmosis. A quick search of “how to make (insert character) in D&D” will have you spoiled for choice.
When making a character in D&D you first choose a species and a class. Your species and class will give you bonuses to certain stats and abilities you’ll be able to use in and out of combat. While you may acquire bonuses to some stats, ultimately your stat totals are generated by rolling dice.
Your stats influence how likely you are to succeed on any task in session. How likely are you to hit an opponent? Decided by either your strength or your dex. How likely are you to convince this guard to let you pass without paying a fee? That’s dictated by charisma.
While daunting at first D&D is actually quite easy to pick up as a player, the position of the dungeon master (DM) or game master (GM) is an entirely different beast with them being responsible for planning out story beats and organizing combat. While it’s possible to play a campaign and learn the art of being a DM as you go it is usually best to try and find an experienced DM to start
Can’t find a place to host your game? Well luckily for you there are plenty of places to do it online. Roll20 (https://roll20.net/welcome)is one of the more common and importantly free options while also being able to host a myriad of other systems aside from D&D. So even if you can’t get together in person you have the option to play with friends.
If you can’t find people to play with? Baldur’s Gate 3 a game developed by larian studios that has been able to scratch the itch for a lot of people. It’s about sixty dollars but it’s a pretty good substitute for the real thing, in a pinch at least. However it might have the opposite effect and make you want to play real D&D even more.
Even if it might not seem like your thing or you’re intimidated by the thought of having to act out scenes with your friends, you should give D&D a try. It’s never been an easier time, and if there is anything that the last few years of big budget comic book adaptations and blockbuster anime movies have taught us, What’s good for the geek is often good for the gander.
