Hey forums fam! For any who don’t know, Dungeons & Dragons is one of my special interests – it’s a TTRPG with magic, mayhem, mischief, and dice! Not only that, but it gives me a chance to step outside my day-to-day stress and embody a life of adventure.
SO! I want to start up semi-regular D&D sessions with any forumite who is interested! This thread serves as an opportunity for expressions of interest, Q&A, or for anyone who is simply curious and wants to learn more!
What is D&D?
D&D is a Tabletop Role Playing Game (TTRPG), set in a medieval fantasy world of monsters and magic. It is a game driven by imagination and collaboration, and allows players to roleplay as a character setting out on an adventure through this magical world.
In D&D, each player creates a heroic character to represent them in the game: this might be a skilled fighter, a devout cleric, a deadly rogue, a spellcasting wizard, or a shapeshifting druid. Together, the Dungeon Master (or DM) and players create an exciting story where their bold adventurers confront deadly perils. Players work together to overcome obstacles, discover hidden treasures, and confront evil monsters and deadly plots.
The rules of D&D give structure to the adventure, using the randomness of dice rolls as a way of determining the consequences of the adventurers’ actions. Players roll dice to resolve whether their attacks hit or miss, or whether their characters can scale a cliff, roll away from the strike of a magical lightning bolt, or pull off some other dangerous task. Anything is possible, but the dice make some outcomes more probable than others.
In a nutshell, playing D&D is a three-step process:
Describe – The DM describes the scenario of the adventure
Decide – The players decide what they want to do
Roll – The player rolls the dice to determine if they succeed or fail
From there, the cycle of steps continues, taking the heroes on a legendary adventure. The decision of each player is what makes the game unique and special, ensuring that no two campaigns are ever identical.
You can read the D&D Basic Rules & Outline here.
How would it work?
- Sessions will have 2-5 players who each play as their own character - more on that later.
- Sessions will run for 90 minutes to start off, with the option to extend to two hours (depending on story progression and player fatigue levels)
- I will guide players through short stories (aka ‘One-shots’) giving everyone a chance to engage in combat, roleplay, and of course, finding treasure and defeating the Big Bad!
- Sessions will be run via zoom, with cameras off and using forums usernames to de-identify participants.
- I will have my own camera pointed at a table displaying important info (such as a map, pictures and other story-telling aids, and for some dice rolls).
- The DM narrates the action, and players declare how they would like to proceed. The DM will call for a dice roll where appropriate and narrate the outcome.
What do I need to join?
- A Zoom account
- Character sheet (can be provided)
- Pen & paper (optional, but helpful)
- Dice set (for players who don’t own a polyhedral dice set, I will make rolls for you, or you can use an online random number generator)
- Your imagination!
Characters
For newbies and beginners, I’d recommend playing as a premade character – I will have a selection available so that you can choose your class but not have to worry about filling out all the nitty bitty details found on your character sheet.
For anyone familiar with the game who would like to create their own character – please use classes and races from the Basic Players Handbook only (sorry artificers!). You can find a guide to the playable classes here, and a guide to character creation here.
We generally want our adventuring party to be balanced, so having a range of different classes in the mix is advisable. This will be worked out together once we have enough players.
What comes next?
Anyone interested is encouraged to respond to this post! Please feel free to tag anyone you think might want to join in, even just to dip a toe in. Once we have enough players, we will start with a ‘Session 0’ – an introductory session where we can discuss expectations, clarify rules, set out what kind of adventure players are keen to have, and get to know one another too (if we don’t already)! Sessions will then run semi-regularly on a Tuesday evening.
This is still just a trial at this stage, with the aim to provide easy access for newbies to join at any point along the way. Depending on numbers, interest, and engagement, a long-term campaign (multiple sessions/adventures with the same players and characters, allowing for character growth and more challenging combat) is possible – watch this space!
For now, I encourage anyone who would like to get involved to respond to this thread, and let me know if there’s a particular kind of adventure you’d like to play! Feel free to share resources, ideas for characters, and of course ask any questions you might have. I’d also recommend having a read through of the basic rules if you haven’t already.
Further Resources
How to Roleplay – short video
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