We hosted our dear friends the Hawkins this weekend - the first time they have been able to stay with us since 2019. Even through the pandemic we have managed to at least maintain our traditional pre-Xmas get-togethers, even at the zoo or with Fort Edmonton standing in for one of our homes.
Normally we try to get in some sort of outing, but no one was really feeling it this year, so instead Jon took me up on my offer of teaching him and his boys Caleb (gr. 10) and Josiah (gr. 7) how to play D&D, something he hadn't done since university. And that was how we spent the majority of our Saturday afternoon. I had found some cool dice sets online that even came with cool-looking bags, and we rolled off with an oversized d20 to see who would get first pick of the colours.
Fenya and Bobby joined us, both to get in some extra visiting and add a little oomph and experience to the party. I found some pre-made character sheets for first-level characters (possibly from Lost Mine of Phandelver?) and everyone rolled off to see who would get first pick.
A short while later, Thoradin the Dwarf cleric (Jon), Galendan the Elf wizard (Caleb), Z'baltazar the archer (Josiah), Tilly the Halfling rogue (Fenya) and Halbard the axeman (Bobby) were duly assigned and miniatures chosen that at least roughly approximated them. (I was actually pretty chuffed that Josiah selected an old Grenadier model for his archer that I had painted back when I was probably his age!
We took a few moments going over the different dice and then went over the character sheet in a moderate amount of detail, but before anyone could get too bored, we kicked off our adventure.
I had purchased a set of short adventures called Defiance in Phlan when I was introducing the game to Bryce and Sara; five mini-quests designed to be playable in a single evening at a game store. I highly recommend this, and the segment we played (The Dead at Highsun) was an ideal introductory scenario wherein a cemetery official asks the party to accompany him while he investigates a crypt.
The game kicks off, not with a fight, but with a trap, seeing the players working together to solve a puzzle within a sealed crypt while gas seeping in kept the pressure on.
Then they had to explore the secret catacombs beneath the crypt, fighting skeletons and zombies (very tough opponents for a first-level party!) while discovering their secret weakness.
And when all was said and done, Z'baltazar simply had to know what happened when he poured the blue beaker into the green cauldron in one of the previous chambers, and was horrified to discover it reanimated the skeletons they had already fought! I applied a little creative license and leveled them up before the undead rematch, and everyone managed to make it back and receive their reward - only one death save ended up getting rolled.
When we were all done and packing up, I asked everyone what they thought of D&D and was a little surprised that Josiah was the first one to speak up, saying "I want to play again." Delightful!
Listening to him and Caleb relate their adventure (and misadventures!) to their mum Michelle over dinner reminded me of similar tales related to my family and other non-players when I first picked up the game in junior high. Nerd persecution was a bit more pronounced back then, so finding other players could be difficult but it was always gratifying to find someone else who knew what saving throw or armour class meant.
Now nerdy stuff is mainstream and even kind of cool, and D&D is a hugely successful product with its own pop-culture cachet and even a major motion picture coming out. (I know it's not the first - we don't talk about the Jeremy Irons one.) But as big as it gets, and even with a plethora of how-to books and tutorial videos and live-play sessions to guide newbies through the rules, learning to play with friends around a table is still the best kind of experience, and one I was pleased and privileged to introduce Caleb and Josiah to.
I hope they get to use their new dice again soon!
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