D&D Next- Loads of Old Fashioned Fun

Art and Writing by David Finley

 In my last few posts, I talked about why I started playing games like Dungeons and Dragons (spoiler: cause I was cool in high school) and how to use novel writing techniques to enhance your campaigns.

 Today, I'll discuss the newest version of the game (still in its playtest stage): D&D Next. I won't bore you with a complete review here, but would like to say that my group's experience has been very positive with it so far.

 Personally, I find it to be the first version of D&D in a long time that feels like the old AD&D days. Combat is simplified, character builds are focused more on the character's story and background, and the game encourages thinking outside of your stats and powers. This feels like I found the D&D I fell in love with in my teens, who, despite some added years, is still hot.

 My group agreed to playtest the game with an adventuring party of dwarves, in an adventure of my own called, "The Caverns of Murder". Since the game feels a lot like the classic D&D, I wanted to play things on the nose a bit, and write a similar feeling adventure. Those treacherous caverns are filled with spiked pits, acid pools, demons, giant boulder traps, gelatinous cubes, and gobs of treasure.

 The barbarian in the group, Braun Bloodstone, has been particularly successful, even jumping from a mountain cliff and seizing his own griffin mount. A miss would have meant certain death, but he went for it. (pictured above)

 So, all in all, consider me really excited about where Wizards of the Coast is taking the venerable franchise. While no version is perfect, I haven't had this easy of a time playing it in a long time, and that has made for some really fun sessions.

David

Dungeons & Dragons is owned by Wizards of the Coast.

My First Time- Confessions of a Dungeons and Dragons Nerd

Art and Writing by David Finley

 The first time I played Dungeons and Dragons, President Clinton was in his first term of office. I was fifteen.

 A friend of mine from band class invited me to play, and since I loved comic books, Star Wars, and fantasy novels so much, it seemed like the perfect game. Now I know what you're thinking: band class? Dungeons and Dragons? Comic books?

 That made me the coolest kid in school, right?

 Yep. Sitting in the basement game-room at my best-friend John's house, armed with a warm, flat, generic Mountain Dew knock-off and some really weird blue dice, I eagerly embarked down the rabbit hole of nerdom. For my first character, I decided on a dwarf fighter. I didn't know much about dwarves, but they looked really cool in the pictures inside the 2nd edition Player's Handbook.

 Plus, they had awesome beards.

 As the session began, the odor of cheap microwave burritos and stale farts hung heavy in the air. That's what I like to imagine a real dungeon would smell like so it made for good atmosphere. However, I later learned a real dungeon probably doesn't have anything as pleasant smelling in it as cheap microwave burritos.

 The dungeon master, John's younger brother, Mark, wove a tale about a mad wizard named, Hallister, who was unleashing chaos upon the Realms from somewhere deep in the Undermountain, a subterranean dungeon nestled snuggley beneath a rich and thriving town called, Waterdeep.

 Needless to say, our adventuring group vowed to mess his shit up. No need to thank us. It was all in a day's work.

  As we braved the terrain, our scout came running back with dire news, not about an insane spellcaster, but instead a band of orcs, who had heard our clattering and were coming to kill us.

 With weapons in hand and dick jokes at the ready, we prepared for battle.

 My friend, David, played a wizard character, and once the orcs started pouring in, cast a wall of fire spell in the middle of the invading group. Unable to stop their momentum several of the orcs plunged into the flame, dying quickly in its terrible heat. I marveled at David's magical might.

 David just took it in stride. He was a veteran.

 The orcs who had made it past the flame wall fared no better as the fighters, including my dwarf, halted their charge with shields and swords, as our scouts emerged from the shadows, stabbing the orcs from behind.

 I think one orc got stabbed in the kidney, which hurts really bad, but he deserved it.

 We celebrated our victory with raised fists, feeling truly happy and triumphant. That night I, a rugged and impressively bearded dwarf braved the tunnels of a lost dungeon, and I had dealt evil a heavy blow right in the you-know-where.

 I was hooked.

 Dungeons & Dragons was a reprieve from the confusion of adolescence, and as my friends and I journeyed through imaginary lands playing made up people with exotic names, the bonds of friendship, companionship, and brotherhood grew stronger and deeper in a very real way. To this day, I consider those guys to be among the best of my friends.

 We never did find Hallister, though.




Dungeons and Dragons is © and property of the really nice people over at Wizards of the Coast. Maybe some day they will offer me a sweet job.