Dungeons & Distancing

How did we do so much when we were younger? Sure, we have more responsibilities now, but it's not like we had none at all back then, is it? And yet, it feels like we always had time for our friends, or to dive in and learn things, or have new experiences.

Nowadays setting up a gaming night for a group of six people has to be done a month in advance. Spontaneity seems to be the casualty of an over-programmed existence in many ways, and it feels like the days of saying, "Hey, did the two of you want to come over tomorrow and play some Battletech?" are well behind most of us now.

Thankfully, my family and friends are all firm believers in the power of connection, and we do our best to share activities as best we can. And it turns out there is nothing like a global pandemic and massive societal pressure to reduce physical interaction to force you to explore new ways of doing things.

After having seen numerous articles explaining how it is possible to gather a group of distant players around a virtual tabletop, the local lads and I took our first real crack at online Dungeons & Dragons last night on Roll20.net. We gathered together during the week in order to figure out the platform and roll up characters.

Roll20 presents wannabe Dungeon Masters and players with a means to view the same map in a web browser, access character sheets, and roll dice together - really, everything you need in order to play a roleplaying game like D&D. They also support a number of other games (Call of Cthulhu, GURPS, Pathfinder, etc.) and have officially licensed material you can download. This is critical, because creating a good-looking adventure on screen requires a degree of time and preparation that I simply do not have anymore.

The platform also provides numerous opportunities for automation, for example, automatically adding modifiers to dice rolls. In truth though, a lot of these processes seemed kind of buggy, and the six of us found it far better to play it a bit more old-fashioned, scanning the virtual character sheets for skill checks, ability modifiers and racial or class features. This had the added benefit of teaching us a bit more about this fifth edition of D&D, something none of us had actually played before.

We also abandoned the in-game video chat, since we were unable to get it working to a point where all players could hear each other. We ended up using Google Hangouts instead, some on their desktops, while I ran mine from my iPad next to the computer monitor. Being able to see and hear your friends added a little to gameplay, but did remarkable things for my soul.

"The books are guarded by a small, white beast with 11 teeth..."

Prior to playing online, I figured that having the third core rulebook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, would be a good idea if I was going to be running a virtual campaign, no matter how simple I intended to keep it. I put an order in for the DMG at Mission Fun and Games in St. Albert last weekend, to minimize the time spent in the store for the sake of physical distancing, but also thought, well, hell, I have almost everything I need to play a full game in person too - might as well grab a DM's screen while I'm out and about, right?

When I told the girls what I was heading out to pick up, I half-jokingly asked if they might be interested in playing D&D together since we are all trapped at home together anyhow. Fenya had played a little bit with me over a decade ago and relished the idea, and Glory was interested in giving it a try. Audrey agreed to join us, and on Friday night, the four of us sat down and played our first-ever RPG as a family.

The family that slays together, stays together

D&D Beyond had official "5e" character sheets and I purchased a short module online called "Tower of the Mad Mage" from the Dungeon Master's Guild. Now, Audrey's Dragonborn Barbarian, Fenya's Halfling Druid and Glory's Tiefling Rogue are slowly making their way through a goblin-infested tower, aided by an outcast member of the tribe who knows where the rest are keeping a stash of dragon gold. We are probably a third of the way through now, they've already leveled up once, and are having a great time.

I played online again this afternoon, this time with Rob in Ottawa and Island Mike on Vancouver Island - three old friends in three different time zones, gathered around a digital "tabletop," rolling simulated dice and slaying imaginary monsters. Figuring out the interface, slowly grasping new rules, and cracking jokes - it was glorious.

"Lessee here, three, plus my proficiency bonus, plus my dexter- nope, it's still crap, sorry."

If anyone at work asks me what I've been up to since Friday, it will be a little weird to tell them that I  played more Dungeons & Dragons in one weekend than I have since I was 17 years old - 18 hours, all together - but I couldn't be happier.

It feels like old times, in the best possible way.

"I swing my axe at it - does a 15 hit?"