TTRPGs & D&D

We had a get-together for two of my brothers' birthdays (they both have birthdays in early December) and my 12 year old nephew asked me to walk him through D&D while we were hanging out. If you ever have someone brand new ask you for a walk-through, I HIGHLY recommend using the technique Deborah Ann Woll used in that interview with Jon Bernthal. My nephew had read enough online to know he wanted to play a paladin, so I just walked him through "you've been asked to slay a monster that attacked a village." No paper, no writing, but we did use the set of dice I keep on my keychain - I didn't even name the skills he was rolling for, I just said "so you're really good at listening, so roll a d20 and just add three to it" and so on.

And his ten year old brother was eavesdropping, so we invited him in, and I ran another five minute scenario. He wanted to be a wizard so I just made up spells for him. I want to throw the goblins in the air." Okay let's see if the goblins can dive out of the way of your spell or not.

It was really just TTRPG Lite but it got them into the idea of how you can kind of do anything, and you roll some dice to see if it works. They got some nat 20s and a nat one and I showed them how failing can be fun (so you don't see the owlbear... but the owlbear sees YOU!") And now they want me to run them a real game with a map and everything. Maybe get one of their cousins to play too.

And, weirdly, my nephew is officially the only person I've ever met who asked to learn D&D because of Stranger Things. I keep hearing about how the show looped people into the game but didn't believe it.

Anyway, he downloaded the DnDBeyond app on the way home and sent me his first characters sheet, Sir Juniper, about an hour ago. Fricken adorable, man.
 
That's rad. Some of the most fun games I've played were very systems, light and all in the name of telling a good story.

I agree with you that stranger things gets a lot of attribution but I'm sure if I polled everybody I know it's going to be critical role.
 
Love that, doc. I'm not sure the action figure hobby will outlive us, but D&D definitely will.

My entry point was Baldur's Gate 3. My friends and I had shown an interest before, but our games dissolved before they got off the ground. After BG3 hit, I said, "What if we got serious about D&D?" We've been playing for two years now.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
Love that, doc. I'm not sure the action figure hobby will outlive us, but D&D definitely will.

My entry point was Baldur's Gate 3. My friends and I had shown an interest before, but our games dissolved before they got off the ground. After BG3 hit, I said, "What if we got serious about D&D?" We've been playing for two years now.
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I've got this amazing superstar of a player in my Weds. night game who had never played before he joined us, then actually got hooked on BG3 as a way to expand how he understood the rules. It's not a perfect 1::1 ratio but it is pretty goddamned close. He'd come in to the table asking "is this just in the video game or does it have an equivalent I can do in our game?" It was really fun to watch.

Speaking of action figures outliving us, one of my OTHER nephews is the only kid I know who is fully, unapologetically into action figures. This Christmas is going to be expensive for me as an uncle but only because I'll be damned if I don't support these kids bing into D&D and action figures as tweens. Let them know it's okay to find joy in stuff like this.
 
docsilence said:
Speaking of action figures outliving us, one of my OTHER nephews is the only kid I know who is fully, unapologetically into action figures. This Christmas is going to be expensive for me as an uncle but only because I'll be damned if I don't support these kids bing into D&D and action figures as tweens. Let them know it's okay to find joy in stuff like this.
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Get them so many action figures and so much dice. It is your duty.
 
I forgot to mention this yesterday because I got caught up in making fun of Bobby Vala, as has become nightly tradition. But I thought @docsilence would enjoy this in particular:

My son ran his first actual TTRPG yesterday via a Zoom-like program the kids use. He DM'd for his best friend and that friend's brother. They're doing the Kids On Bikes game since they're all currently watching Stranger Things. First of all, my son has some minor developmental delays, including super high anxiety around people. He had a few doctors at various points tell us he'd always be behind his peers in social interaction, reading, and math.
This kid is excellent at math, reads like two grades above his level, and is now -GAME MASTER- for other kids and actively trying to recruit more kids from his class to play. He's basically the 'life of the party.' It's amazing to see.

Hearing him from down the hallway laughing and at one point screaming 'YOU PLUNGE THE KNIFE INTO HIS CHEST' was one of the best feelings I've had in a long time. This kid gets it. I have a feeling he's gonna be a lifer.
 
That is AMAZING. Man, there's nothing like hearing a kid truly get it and go all in with their whole heart. I keep hoping for something similar with my super anxious godson who needs that one thing that can help him break out a bit.
 
Damien said:
I forgot to mention this yesterday because I got caught up in making fun of Bobby Vala, as has become nightly tradition. But I thought @docsilence would enjoy this in particular:

My son ran his first actual TTRPG yesterday via a Zoom-like program the kids use. He DM'd for his best friend and that friend's brother. They're doing the Kids On Bikes game since they're all currently watching Stranger Things. First of all, my son has some minor developmental delays, including super high anxiety around people. He had a few doctors at various points tell us he'd always be behind his peers in social interaction, reading, and math.
This kid is excellent at math, reads like two grades above his level, and is now -GAME MASTER- for other kids and actively trying to recruit more kids from his class to play. He's basically the 'life of the party.' It's amazing to see.

Hearing him from down the hallway laughing and at one point screaming 'YOU PLUNGE THE KNIFE INTO HIS CHEST' was one of the best feelings I've had in a long time. This kid gets it. I have a feeling he's gonna be a lifer.
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This is exceptionally wholesome. So happy for you both. What a great feeling.
 
Damien said:
. First of all, my son has some minor developmental delays, including super high anxiety around people. He had a few doctors at various points tell us he'd always be behind his peers in social interaction, reading, and math.
This kid is excellent at math, reads like two grades above his level, and is now -GAME MASTER- for other kids and actively trying to recruit more kids from his class to play. He's basically the 'life of the party.' It's amazing to see.
Click to expand...
We are the future, Charles. Not them.
 
I ran one of my annual holiday-themed D&D one shots last night. I wasn't sure if I'd have time to do it this year, but my regular Weds crew didn't want to miss two weeks in a row with Xmas Eve and NYE and they all happened to be free on Tues instead. It was nice cos two of them have been dealing with family issues and not able to attend so it's been the other four plus roving guest stars. Anyway, they had to save the Stag of Winter (with golden antlers... some might even say they glow) from the abominable snowman (a dire yeti). We got the guy who is afraid to play casters to play a warlock, we had not one but TWO people show up playing centaurs, and we had two tee-shirt worthy lines:
Cleric: "So tell me if this, almighty dungeon daddy..."
And, when player A asked his wife to blow in his dice for luck and failed:
"BLOW HARDER NEXT TIME, I ROLLED A TEN"

And a line I didn't even hear the context for as I was checking stats:
"We're just popping cherries left and right."

Not quite the dragon fight last year were everyone showed up as characters based on the muppets, but a pretty good game overall.
 
Ran my first session of Draw Steel today with some folks from the day job. First impressions as a Director in that system:
  1. In terms of ground-floor complexity, it feels comparable to the 5e learning curve. If you want something rules light, it isn't that.

  2. Given that, it feels immediately more fun than 5e. We got to the first encounter today and in the starter adventure characters 'unlock' parts of their sheets in each encounter to make learning things easier. Even at 1/3 of a first level character sheet, the players were doing cool stuff. Knockback is a seemingly common feature in this game and I can already see how fun that's going to be.

  3. Never missing is awesome so far.

  4. So is side initiative. Easier to keep in your head with no markers.

  5. We haven't done a lot with skills yet, or other types of roll, but I can already see how the tiered results table will become second-nature shorthand. It won't take long at all for that to lodge deep into my brain.

  6. Obviously I've only run two types of enemy so far (goblin warrior and goblin assassin) but at level 1 a goblin assassin has a hide action they can take even if you're looking right at them and that seems like it should be busted as fuck but turns out it's just really cool.
Anyway the group is meeting again Sunday to play again before we're all off vacation. Will report back after that one as it'll be our first encounter with minions.
 
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I wasn't paying attention when this came up before, but really no missing? Just hit every time?

Otherwise, it reminds me that my favorite innovation in 4th ed. was the little unique abilities different monsters can use to demonstrate that they're different. Like an extra shift move or making your underling take damage instead of you because you used them as a shield.
 
Ran a level 20 one-shot tonight. They were playing mythic heroes from the world’s past who sealed a dead god in a place that would one day become a dark and corrupt city (they found the god’s body, and the highly exploitable resource of his blood, in a previous campaign). Anyway someone polymorphed the paladin’s pegasus into a dragon so this happened:
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