So, I Joined a Dungeons & Dragons Group

And I’m loving it.

We’ve only had two sessions so far but I’m having a blast. I’ve rolled myself up (ok, stat arrayed myself up) a human barbarian who is totally not Conan. In fact, I’ve accidentally reverse engineered Conan. I designed a guy with a mercenary/military background, who has a really sharp sense of fairness, and who now wanders the land until he witnesses an injustice, where he will, with a cold rage, despatch the people who would exploit and abuse those weaker than them.

A bit like Jack Reacher.

Who is pretty much Conan the Barbarian.

Oh well.

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I’ve had an interest in D&D ever since I played the original Baldur’s Gate, along with the other Infinity Engine games Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment, and learned about the ruleset behind all the mechanics. What the hell is THAC0? Why is a lower number better for armour? I didn’t really have an appreciation of what tabletop D&D looked like. I didn’t know any elder nerds who could guide me. I hung around at the Games Workshop a bit, and I collected and painted a bit of 40k, but otherwise D&D was mostly a computer game thing for me.

Some friends and I got invited to join a tabletop group when I was in my late teens. They were playing 3.5e. We were joining to replace some players who left, I think? I just remember being given a character that someone had been playing before me. It was a dwarven monk that was basically fitted out to wrestle things to death, and also, he was mute.

I can’t imagine how *annoying* that must have been for the DM. This was my first ever TTRPG experience, and I was having to figure out the 3.5e grapple rules. Yeah.

Had loads of fun though. I remember nothing about that campaign, except, through a combination of careful argument and good rolls, one of the other players launching me in the air to grapple with a dragon.

Oh, I also remember how frustrating it was not to be able to speak. The group had decided on an RP thing before I joined where another player knew sign language and so did I, so I could “talk” directly to him, and then he’d relay it to the group. The DM eventually took pity on me and decided to give me back my power of speech through a demonic bargain with what turned out to be the BBEG. I can’t remember if the debt ever got called.

It annoys me that I can’t remember anything about this campaign, and I daren’t have a look at any of my journals from this time. This was a period in my life where I was otherwise Not Happy. My journals probably don’t have anything about this campaign anyway. Probably just complaining about a girl.

So this new group, this new campaign, I am determined to take lots of notes. I’ve got a nice fresh notebook I am using exclusively to capture our tabletop sessions, and I am recording the dates and session numbers. I am not logging every action, just taking general notes the way I am trying to in other contexts in my life. (See my post on keeping a journal, and keeping a reading journal. I really need to get on my post about keeping a commonplace book).

I am also considering taking part in this group to be storytelling practise; D&D is just storytelling after all. The rules give it structure and the dice give it a frisson of unpredictability, but really, what you’re doing is telling a fantastic story with a group of friends. I’ve enjoyed the fantasy I have read (Book of the New Sun was boss and of course I love Tolkien), and I’ve got more on my shelves too read, but I’ve never really tried writing it.

So I’m writing up my notes from my character’s perspective. A bit of backstory, too, but I intend to flesh that out more as the campaign goes on. I’ve been reading up on West Marches campaigns and I really like the idea that it can be really valuable to your group to keep a record, but it can also be fun to see how you’ve perceived events, what was important to you and what wasn’t.

I also really, really like Scott Hanselman’s ideas about not wasting your keystrokes. I absolutely see the value in writing something up just for myself, but if I intend to share it, I could just share it among the WhatsApp group, or I could put it up on a blog to make it more accessible and allow other people to possibly get some enjoyment out of it too.

So that’s what I’ve done. You can read it here. There should be a new post every couple weeks. I’ve put it on a separate blog because I’m not sure the people who read this one (all three of you) are interested in a D&D 5e campaign journal. But hey, if you are, let me know, I haven’t spent any money and could always change where I’m posting. I’ll probably be writing a bit more about D&D on this blog anyway, as it pertains to SFF, as I want to do something on Appendix N/E.

I’m already having to stop myself buying a new set of dice every week, and am thinking about maybe running my own game for my family. Soon I’ll be looking at new games. There are some Fallout TTRPG systems I’d like to try…