Just Call Me Skullcrusher…or How I Played D & D for the First Time.
When my friend texted me asking if I’d like to play a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, my first question was, “What’s a campaign?”
Yes, I am that much of a newbie.
I’d flirted with the idea of playing D and D before. Many times, in fact. The game holds a certain mystique for me. I’d heard about it from movies and TV shows. My own kids play it. But the entire thing was shrouded in mystery. Still, what did I have to lose? I’m Covid 19 out of my mind right now, and any opportunity to meet with friends and family, even virtually, was welcome. So I agreed.
My one previous brush with D and D involved creating characters, a process I found exhausting. I’m terribly indecisive, so having to pick a race and class and gender and come up with a backstory overwhelmed me. (Yes, I get the irony in that since I am a writer, and that’s kind of what I do. However…) This time, my friend the DM made it easy by creating characters ahead of time. All I had to do was select one. Knowing that D and D is nothing if not a chance to live out a fantasy, I picked a half-orc Barbarian whom I named Skullcrusher. Ive always wanted to be bad-ass. Here was my chance.
There’s ten of us in this campaign (nine plus the DM). In real life, we have my family of five plus the “adopted” boyfriend of my daughter. The other members are a couple we’ve been friends with for over thirty years along with two of their children who are like my own kids. I was in good hands. I also wasn’t the only newbie. Thank God.
Starting the campaign was both terrifying and exhilarating. Kind of like the first time my dad put me behind the wheel of the family car and simply said, “Drive.” When I asked him which pedal was the brake and which was the gas, he said, “Pick one and try it.” I stomped the pedal on the right. Thankfully, everyone in the car was wearing a seatbelt.
I never realized how much goes into a D and D game, and I soon understood that I couldn’t fake my way through. I needed help. Lots of it. For starters, I didn’t realize I needed dice in order to play. Thankfully, there are plenty of on-line go-tos for that kind of thing. I also had no idea what half the characters were. My daughter’s BF is a paladin. I think that’s a military person of some kind. There are languages and maps and creatures and spells and items…the list goes on. My most frequent questions of the night was, “What die do I roll again?” and “Where is that on the character sheet?” At least my friends and family are all very patient.
My favorite part of the evening was smashing things and intimidating people. I sunk my ax into the barkeeps bar in order to make him give up information about the Duke who hired my companions and I to end an infestation. I ate a side of beef with a generous portion of grog (no idea what grog is…it just sounded like something a half-orc might drink.) My least favorite part of the evening was being hit in the neck by a stray arrow and nearly dying. It was okay, though. I know Tara the half-elf didn’t mean to get me. She’s practically my daughter in real life, after all.
Since we were merely starting the campaign, not a lot happened. We killed a Drow (not really sure what that is, but its dead now, so I guess it doesn’t matter.) I was blasted in the face with poison from a flying creature with the body, head and wings of a vulture and the paws and tail of a dog. I used a javelin which was pretty cool. I also found out I get to do something called rage which makes me even scarier.
I honestly didn’t think I’d have as much fun as I did. When the DM called it quits for the night, I realized with a sense of shock that four hours had gone by and I wasn’t ready to stop. That’s a first for someone with my tiny attention span.
We’ve set a date to continue the game, and I’m very excited about that. In the meantime, Ill be brushing up on my Orcish and looking up pictures of Drow.
