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.
 
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