Your race is the heart of your character. It is who they are at their core. Their thoughts, feelings, and upbringing are influenced by their race. This week we’ll be taking a look into the races of D&D and how they shape your character. Today we’ll be talking about Eladrin. [Read more…]
My Story, and Why D&D Means so Much to Me
It’s no secret that Dungeons & Dragons is a driving force behind my life. The game has changed so much of my personality and lifestyle, all of which for the better. It is the reason I’m here now, sharing the game and using it to improve other people’s lives. It is the reason I’m here now, just living. Dungeons & Dragons has not only changed my life, it has given me life. This is the story of how I found Dungeons & Dragons, and how the game saved me from ending my life.
Let’s rewind back to the later half of my high school days, circa 2009. Everyone was starting to find their niche, whether it be socially with their friends or professionally with their career paths. I was doing neither. I was not the most social of butterflies, and the friends I did make were few and far between. As far as my career direction, I had no clue. Everything I had tried until then was failing; my acting turned out to be terrible, my drawings were worse than my peers’, and the same seemed to be happening to my writing. Everything I thought I was good at, everything I wanted to be good at, was falling flat. And I was falling apart. With nothing to look forward to, nothing to work towards, I fell into an ever deepening spiral of depression.
Now depression is a hell of a thing. It eats away at your life, consuming the happy bits. And I don’t want to give off the wrong impression, I didn’t have the worst life by any means. My wonderful parents made sure I was well off, and the few friends I did have at the time were great. But still there was this nagging feeling at the base of my soul. It was always there tugging downwards, telling me everything good was fleeting, that my existence was a burden on others, that everything was going to come crashing down soon enough and to do everyone a favor and do it myself. I thought I wasn’t going to achieve anything and make the world better, so I must be a waste of resources. While I never had the knife in my hand or the pills in my mouth, suicide was an option I considered almost every day for quite a number of days.
It was at this time, when the darkness was at its worst, that my friend invited me to come with him to learn Dungeons & Dragons. At this point I figured why not. Even if it ended up being as silly as people thought it was back then (this was before the cultural rebirth that fifth edition and Critical Role inspired) I couldn’t lose anything other than my time, which wasn’t important to me anyway. So we went to the dungeon master’s house, rolled up our characters, and learned the rules of the game. I was set to be Oshi Oreg, a cyborg (homebrew) fighter. I didn’t know it at the time, but Oshi was going to be the vehicle with which I turned my life around.
We returned a few days later to play our first session. I started in the game like most players do, bumbling about social encounters and slowly realizing the true depth to the game. This was not like the video games I had played; it was so much more. I was able to make my own choices, be my own person, and forge my own path. It dawned on me that I could be Oshi, if only for a little while. The idea of being anybody but myself sounded fantastic at the time.
It was around the time of that realization in game when our party was sneaking into a castle through the barracks, filled with guards that outnumbered us 3 to 1. Elsewhere on the grounds was our party’s wizard, who split off to take care of the guard watch. He accomplished this with the least grace known to any wizard by chucking a fireball into the watchtower. The resulting explosion woke up the guards in the barracks. A head on fight would surely spell our doom, so we ran. As we turned to a hallway, we found it filled with guards ready to strike. I was at the head of our group so I made my move. Gripping my greatsword, I made a passing attack. The attack let me move and hit another target with each successful blow. I rolled my dice, and I hit. The first guard went down. I repeated my attack, successfully slicing through the next guard. I repeated a third time, and another guard fell. The whole group was on the edge of their seats. I made an attack against the last guard blocking our escape, hit, and cut him down. Everyone cheered and cried out the name Oshi!
That’s what got me hooked on Dungeons & Dragons; the idea that you could be someone you couldn’t normally be, someone better. When I was at that table I was no longer Andrew, some guy who wasn’t good at anything; I was Oshi, the man who could right wrongs and protect his friends. As more and more sessions passed, Oshi grew as a character. But as a side effect, so did I. By playing out these situations as someone I wanted to be, I learned how to incorporate aspects of Oshi’s personality into my own. I grew as a person, and the confidence that brought inspired me to drag myself out of the hole that was my depression. I was able to build myself into someone I wanted to be, an Oshi of my own accord.
That is the true magic of Dungeons & Dragons to me. The absolute freedom to be whoever you want to be, and the ability to grow as a hero. With the help of Oshi, the game, and my gaming group, I was able to push the darkness back. I’ve grown up so much as a person since then, and a lot of that I can attribute to Dungeons & Dragons. That’s why I’m here now, telling you this story, writing advice for running the game, and running games myself. I want to share the game that has done so much for me. If I can extend a hand to help pull even one person out of that black pit of depression, then all of this will be worth it to me.
All of that being said, depression is a many headed hydra. Dungeons & Dragons may not be the answer to all mental illness. It is a monster many of us have to face, and we need all the weapons we can get. So please, if you feel yourself suffering that same darkness then reach out. I will always be here to help. As will many others. There is a multitude of resources to help treat illnesses. The National Alliance on Mental Illness has plenty of tools to help, as does your local doctor. All you need to do is reach out. You’re not a burden, and we are all here to help.
Gift Guide 2018
It’s that time of year again! Christmas cheer is coursing through the veins of every boy and girl as they anticipate the holiday. Everyone’s out buying gifts for the next month, but some people are harder to get gifts for than others. Maybe you don’t know much about Dungeons & Dragons, or rpgs in general. Maybe you’re a part of their gaming group but are blanking on ideas. No matter what your conundrum is, I’ve got you covered with this guide to all the gifts that will fill your roleplaying giftee with glee come Christmas morning.
So It Begins: A Guide to Session Zero
First impressions are important. Session zero is a great way to make a good first impression in the world of rpgs. But what exactly is a session zero? It’s a more free form game play session where the players discuss the campaign they will be participating in. This includes character choices, expectations of both the players and GM, and playtesting. By these elements combined, players work together to ensure the game starts as smoothly as possible. So how do we get to this smooth start? Let’s look at each of the individual cogs that make a well oiled campaign machine.
Every good game starts with a base, and in rpgs players are that base. So it stands to reason that to start a good game we must start with the players. Every session zero should begin with players discussing what character they want to play. From a mechanical standpoint, this avoids the party focusing too much on one role. For example, a party full of barbarians sounds fun, until the GM throws any sort of social challenge your way. By diversifying your party you can ensure that each part of the game is enjoyable.
This also applies to the party dynamics from a roleplaying perspective. If one player wants to play as chaotic evil, it may not mesh well with another player who wants to play as lawful good. By discussing and changing characters before they’re set, you can avoid future problems that may slow the game down with arguments. This can not only solve problems before they start, but also create new opportunities. Players can work together to mold their backstories together. Think of Vex and Vax from Critical Role. If characters have relationships before the game starts it makes it easier for the GM to gather the party, and helps party cohesion in general.
Once the characters are good to go, then comes a frank discussion between all players and the GMs. This is when everything needs to be laid out on the table as far as expectations go. If the players want just a meat grinder killfest, your story focused GM isn’t going to have fun. Likewise, if your GM wants a serious emotional tone and your players want to joke around then they are going to clash poorly. For example, I’m sure that Matt Mercer would pull his hair out trying to run more than one game with the Adventure Zone boys. By compromising and setting up the tone of the campaign ahead of time you can ensure that everyone has a great time. After all that’s why we’re here, right?
Once the expectations have been set, and the characters have been made, it’s time to get to the game. But a session zero game is a bit more free flowing than a normal game. The idea behind it is you want to play a one shot out, but keep it detached from the campaign so that mistakes can be made and dealt with.Say you’re playing as a dragonborn fighter and you walk through town. You interact with people in a gruff manner, perhaps a Scottish accent. But after twenty minutes of this you feel something is off.
Session zero lets you change your character on the fly, adjusting his attitude, accent, or mindset. You may even play a bit more and realize this isn’t the exact incarnation of the character you want. You may mold them into a different race, or gender even. You may even decide to chuck the whole design and start from scratch. That’s alright! That’s exactly what a session zero is for.
Session zero is definitely the best way to kick off the campaign. It lets you work out the kinks in a noncommittal environment that is open to discussion and change. You can even make a big event out of it. After all, it is the start of a new game, we’re allowed to throw a little hype behind it, right? Plus the feeling of everyone digging through the books, finding new fun builds, and bringing those ideas to life is one of my favorite feelings that this game brings me. What about you? What do you do for your session zero? No matter how you start your game, make sure to start it rolling high!
Running npcs in your party
Over the past games in my campaign I have learned a few things. One of those things is my players have a penchant for npcs. While I love their enthusiasm for the characters I’ve created, it does get tiresome running several characters alongside the actual story. So how do you handle running multiple npcs that your party has gathered? Well there are a few ways.
The first way is the simplest, and that is to make a character sheet or stat block for your npc and give it to your players for them to run in combat. You still roleplay the npc, but any combat maneuvering is taken off your hands. The caveat to this is that you have players who are experienced. If your players are still at that stage where they constantly check their character sheet to see what they have, then perhaps giving them another one to track isn’t the best of ideas. The idea is to make the game run more smoothly, not bog it down. This does also require some trust, but if you can trust your players to not throw your npc into the jaws of a dragon then this is the simplest answer.
Another method is one I call the spotlight technique. This means the spotlight is shown on the npcs as the story calls for it, and all other times they are just background noise. For combat they can do one or two cool things per fight, but aside from that they just add damage for your group (this can be evened out by giving the enemies more health or upping the CR). This makes it easy since you can pull out whichever npc is appropriate as they become relevant, and ignore them any other times. But beware, this method could have your party forgetting their existence if they stay in the shadows for too long.
The last method I want to talk about is rotating cast. As your adventuring party travels the world they’ll meet new people, and some of those people will end up joining the party. While this is good in a vacuum, it does create this snowball effect. One game you’ll have a party of five, then seven, then ten or more. That’s way too many to keep track of on top of everything else. Luckily your npcs are people with goals of their own, and these goals play into the rotating cast method. The idea is that at certain points npcs will bow out to pursue their quests, making room for new npcs to join. This keeps the party dynamic fresh and keeps the game simple to run for you. An added bonus is that you can bring back any favorites hat your party is particularly missing, almost like a cameo!
Npcs can be pretty tricky when they stick with the party. They’re something that you always have to take into account when building encounters and planning stories. They require a delicate balance. If they are focused on too much your players might start to feel overshadowed, and at that point you’re just playing with yourself. On the other hand, if you let them fall into obscurity and don’t use them enough then what’s the point of them being there? Hopefully you can find the balance. Npcs can be great fun when they are recurring; it almost feels like playing yourself. But no matter how you choose to run your npcs, be sure to keep hose dice rolling high!
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