The flip side from my Tuesday post (the shutting down of my DMing after 7 years) is that I’m suddenly geting to play D&D, as a player! Not just in my good old Saturday group, either - my newer group of friends that get together on Wednesday are starting a game this week. And I’m not running it. W00t! (You long-time DMs out there know exactly why I feel this way…) So, with a fresh start in mine, I’ll be posting about these new games with the giddyness of the new kid in school, ignoring the overwhelmingly negative connotations of that analogy.
I really crack myself up sometimes…
Tonight is the first session with my new-ish group. There are three male-female couples in it, which I realy like; it’s been a long-time since I’ve played in an all-boys game, but if I remember correctly I really prefer the energy of a mixed group. One couple we’ve known for years and years, and they live right next to us (literally, like 100 yards), and the men share a similar sense of humor and the women are very alike… so of course, we’ve rarely made the effort to connect with one another. Sad, really, but hey! We’re hanging out now! The other couple are the people I met at Half Price books in another post awhile back; the man is DMing this go-’round. Interestingly, L and I have played with the 1st couple before, and I can’t say that it went well. We liked each other fine, but I’d say our styles of gaming were very different, so it’ll be interesting to see how we mesh this time around. I suspect there’s a strong will in place to make this work, which should help.
The game is going to be set in the Forgotten Realms, to the delight of two of the couples, the indifference of my darling L, and the moderate discomfort of yours truly. I’ve never read the books, and I’ve always felt vaguely stupid when everyone else at the table knew things about a campaign that I didn’t, when I’ve been in the campaign for as long as they have. Sure enough, during character creation last week the DM told us we’d be starting in a village he had created, located on a lake in … er… Rasheman?
“Which side?” asks the woman in the other couple.
“North side,” he reples.
“Oh, along the trade road,” she says.
“Yep, that’s the one,” he replies.
“Oh Dear God,” thinks I. But I know they’re not showing off, they just all enjoy knowing a lot about the world they’ve been playing in for so long. I’ll get over it, eventually, I’m sure. (And in case you’re wondering, yes, they know about this blog. I’m not poking anybody with a stick here, I find this story funny even if it also makes me a little queasy.)
I’ll give you a run-down of the players and the starting scenario tomorrow.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Bryan Metz 01.14.09 at 10:57 pm
You lucky duck, able to pick up a game so quickly. I know 4-6 people who claim they want to play, but then when I ask them to pick a time they are all “whine whine I want to hang out with my girlfriend/wife/fiance” or “whine whine I need to go to sleep at least once a day” or “whine whine I haven’t seen my house in months.” Wimps.
And I totally know how you feel about joining an ongoing game. Last year I went to my first (and likely last, since they changed to exclusively 4e) RPGA D&D convention; there were people there who have been playing the same character in the same setting with the same convention-friends and same convention-DM’s for literally *years*. And there I am, li’l ol’ me who doesn’t even know how the convention works, let alone knowing how to wrap my head around the minutia of the setting. Luckily for me (and probably you), D&D players are, on the whole, a pretty friendly bunch and have noooo problem spending hours explaining to you the exploits of such and such a minor character in the campaign.
Worse comes to worse, you can always made the “nice job spilling the soda — you must’ve failed your reflex save” joke
-B
John 01.15.09 at 3:35 pm
You know, I’ve never trusted cons. I’m not sure why, although now that I ask myself the question the first answer that comes to mind is “I don’t want to go through the initial showing-off-to-impress-new-people” phase of meeting people while trying to game at the same time. Thousands of people enjoy con-gaming, so it must be fun, but I just look at it askance.
As for trying to wrangle your friends, believe me, I count my blessings. I’ve been through plenty of failed campaigns and groups, I know how lucky I am that I fell into an incredibly stable, friendly bunch. Even at the end of my campaign, I didn’t experience any negative feedback from them.
~ John