What would you like to do?
What would you like to do?
Something of an introduction and an appreciation post for a game I love.
The door to the pub opens with a slow creek. Outside it’s cold; when it rains it pours, and when it isn’t, everything is so grey it feels like it should be. As the door opens though a warm light and a welcoming clamour greets you. Even if your fingers are cold, your heart warms and your glad to unbutton your jacket.
It's busy inside, someone’s playing music in the back, tables are full and enclosed by people laughing and drinking, there’s a large fire place where people are embracing as more people arrive, and the staff are busy but they’re grinning. You can tell they have their regulars as they pat each other on the back and listen about their days, but there’s enough going on, enough spirit that at every table there’s a laugh or a joke or a tip.
You’re new to town and heard that the best way to meet people is to go to the pub and buy some drinks. The distracted bartender takes your order, takes your money and places three beers in front of you. You look around and there’s a spot at a table you like the look of. The people seem about your age, though quite the cast of characters, and judging by the big guy with a beard and the short women with shock white hair you’re pretty sure someone will take the drink.
You make your way over, smiling nervously, and catch the eye of the tall figure; he’s all in blue and wears a light smile but has a depth behind his eyes that gives you pause. But he glances at your drinks and his body language changes to welcoming. You relax a little. You’re about to get to the table, the others are turning towards you too when you hear,
‘HELP! Help! Outside!’
You turn and a middle aged man who’s red in the face and wearing boots caked in mud is shouting. The colour has drained from his face and he’s holding a deep, still bleeding wound across his shoulder. The noise in the pub deflates and in the moment you have to consider the situation the people at the table you were about to join stand and head for the door. You put the drinks down and follow a step behind them.
Outside there’s a fight. Five or six broad shouldered uniformed people are facing off against eight … creatures. How can I describe them? They look like scaled rodents. They’re standing on their forelegs, their scales are a patchy muted red colour, they’re a metre and a half tall, and they’re trying to jam spears into the guards.
The large guy from the table takes an axe from his back and swings. The small woman with paper white hair starts whispering under her breath and you feel as if the very ground beneath you starts to tense, and the tall man with blue skin who caught your starts calling for peace.
What do you do?
Playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D)
Dungeons and Dragons is a very silly game. You take some pieces of paper, some pencils, some dice, and as many or as few rules as you like, and you tell stories. Wait, no. It’s more than that. You become a character like you’re in a play with no script. You can be anyone, and do anything. Hmm. Well, both of those things are true, but actually there’s more to it. You get a group of people together, they could be strangers or your oldest friends, you sit around a table and as long as one person knows the rules you can make eachother laugh, and sweat, and cry.
At University I discovered this game and through it became five times closer with my friends. Later I ran the game for a group of my best friends and we played ‘the finale’ on vacation together. We cheered, we laughed, and two of us cried to such an extent that we still talk about it today, years later. Then when I lived in London I joined a group to play every other week and I made some of the fastest friends I’ve ever made. It’s everywhere.
Now I’m playing again, I’m shaking off a lot of rust and twisted tongue moments but I’m spending hours laughing and smiling and watching people who have never played before shout and cheer as they do something as menial as seasoning meat or crossing a bridge (it was a rickety bridge to be fair).
I don’t really know where I’m going with this but I have a love for this game that makes it a big part of my life and I hope it always will be.
When I moved to Abu Dhabi for a while some years ago and I didn’t know anyone, and I couldn’t drive, I was struggling. Hard. But I found a live stream of people playing D&D and it got me through it.
The first time I played, the person who ran the game asked me to ‘come up with a backstory for my character’. I ended up writing dozens of pages and discovered my love for creative writing.
When I play or when I run the game it gives me the opportunity to be silly and serious and creative. It becomes very wonderfully easy to get carried away and lost in the world. If you've never played before, ask your friends if they have, see if you can find a game to join and see if you like it. It’s not for everyone, but everyone should try it. If you have played before, bring it up more with your friends. Wouldn’t it be fun to do it again?
Or, and this is more common these days, if you’ve heard about it and are curious but don’t really know what its about, comment below your questions and I’ll point you to some good entry level stuff.
