Sue's Blog - Some assembly required.

D & D - does that mean dilly and dally?

So, Lauren expressed a wish to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons.

Philip still plays this once a month with a group of chums.  I haven't played with them for years and when I did, we played other games, like Vampire, Werewolf, Call of Cthulu etc.
I thought I had played D & D years ago though.

It was decided that Philip would run a game for me and Lauren to give her a taste of what goes on.
This was set up for last Sunday.
Philip spent a lot of time getting it all ready,  sorting out a plot, the characters and then setting stuff up on the computer so we could see the dungeon, the monsters and our characters.
This was all very new to me.
When I have played before it has been very sort of free form.
By that I mean, that most of us (me mostly to be honest)  hadn't a clue what we were doing or why.
We had lots of laughs, ate way too many sweets, played silly buggers and giggled at daft jokes.
We sort of said what our character wanted to do, rolled a dice or three and then either did it or didn't do it.
It would then be the next person's turn, whilst the rest of us sank back into giggling and eating sweeties.
I also remember going to Loughborough University to attend a GenCon weekend where we were invited to  play a new game ( to us ) called Hol.
It was the rudest ( and funniest ) game I have ever played.
We played it in the student union bar, maybe quite the most fun I have ever had I think.

Anyway, back to D &D.
We played on Sunday.  I realised I hadn't actually played this game before and it seems a little bit tedious.
That might be because we had just started, Lauren and I are not used to the rules and the characters are new to us.
But, having said that, we did play for a couple of hours or so.   I am not sure I like playing it using the computer screen.
The other games I have played around a table, so everyone feels part of the group.  Having us all staring at our screens and even rolling dice by clicking on an icon on the screen, just wasn't quite the same for me.
It sort of lost its coziness.
I think people Lauren's age would probably prefer it this way as they seem to spend their whole lives staring at one screen or another, but it just seems more social to be gathered around a table, talking, arguing,  watching each other throw dice and move characters.
Maybe it will grow on me.

Lily's leg continues to improve (thank the gods for that).  The mere thought of another trip to the vet gives me an anxiety attack.

posted by Sue Banks @ 3:20 PM