Dungeons and Dragons
The classic Role-Playing game
D&D is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It was first published in 1974 by TSR in the USA, but soon caught on across the world. I started playing in about 1985, first edition AD&D. I played a dwarf fighter named Sven Olafssen (because I thought dwarfs were all Scandinavian). We played many adventures over a few years of weekly meets. I don't recall why we stopped, in fact! Probably people moving away... Since then, I've never lost the RPG bug. Once you realise how much fun you can have fighting monsters and casting spells and making a proper tit of yourself in front of your friends, you never look back.
When I started university as a mature student in 1992, I immediately joined the DMU Games Soc and that was where my gamer streak was strengthened and matured. Not just D&D, but Magic the Gathering, Shadowrun, Vampire the Massquerade, Call of Cthulhu and home brewed and LARP versions of these, as well. However, deep down, D&D was my true calling.
After uni finished, I moved around, ending up in Northampton and I kind of lost the chance for gaming, except in the newly emerging sphere of computer games and online RP (MUSH and MUD). It wasn't until about 2 years ago that my urge to table-top returned with a vengeance. It started when I went to see Knightmare Live on stage in Leicester with a chap whoo worked for Games Workshop in Derby. At the theatre, I met up with many of the old Games Soc denizens and I thought "I need to get back into D&D". FB proved to be a valuable source of persons seeking games and games seeking players, so I contacted some folks from Kettering who were looking for players.
The night of my first game in 15 years arrived. I turned up with a notebook, pencil and a will to play a character to the best of my ability. First job, generate a character. We were using the 3.5 edition D&D system, released in 2003. I decided to play a druid elf. We started at level 8 I think, so I had lots to fill out my character, including an animal companion (a dire badger), a bunch of spells and the ability to change form. My character, named Llyseuydd (Welsh for "herbalist") wasn't strong or pretty but she was pretty handy in a fight.
After that campaign ended, my gaming career exploded. I joined two further games with the Ketting crew and two online games with some folks I'd met in online RPGs and chat rooms. I have picked one at random from the eight D&D characters I currently have alive (i.e. they are still active, if not in actual games). This is for a 5th edition D&D game run on the virtual online table-top, Roll20.Meet Dasoda Runeminer, a dwarf cleric woman, whose chosen Diety is Gond, the god of Knowledge. Dasoda is 4'6" tall, with ash blond braids, green eyes but no beard! She wields a magical mace and she wears drow armour and shield, after an incident in the Underdark that robbed her of most of her original equipment. Dwarves tend to the Lawful alignments, but I didn't like being Lawful Good, and Evil wasn't really a good idea, so I made her Lawful Neutral. She will do what the law allows but isn't concerned by good or evil actions. As a cleric, she is relied upon as a healer and a protector, but also has powers against the undead, being able to turn them back with a word and a wave of her holy symbol (a four-spoked wheel).
Dasoda adventures with a small group that contains a gnome ranger, a goliath monk, a half-elf wizard and a drow rogue. Dasoda joined the party when they needed someone to drive a cart to the next town - a skill that hill dwarves have as part of their background. They also have intguitive knowledge of stone and buildings, particularly when underground - they have an inate sense of direction, gradients and orientation. In addition, Dasoda has rather good constitution, allowing her to resist poisons and fear.
5th Ed allows for a great deal of granular detail and refinement of your character, such as bonds, flaws, skills, feats and proficiencies. Dasoda is a people's cleric, caring deeply for harmony among the citizens of the world, dedicating her works to the common people. Secretly, she has a desire for power and this obsession drives her onwards to be a powerful cleric of her order. Recent adventures had the party overpowering a frost dragon in its lair, a fight which almost destroyed us all! However, Dasoda's deep historical knowledge allowed her to retrieve valuable pearls from the dragon's breath weapon glands. A messy job but those pearls are almost priceless! Further adventures await, and the game is streamed live firtnightly on Twitch TV, so if you'd like a taste of how D&D works, or if you just like to see people being daft online, come and join us. We promise there will be dungeons and/or dragons.