My Wifes First Dungeons & Dragons Adventure!

I consider myself a long time gamer. Now, I attended a christian school back in the early 80's, during the whole "Dungeons & Dagons is the DEVIL" period, so I did NOT play while in high school. Check out this article over at Atlas Obscura! I'm a late bloomer. But in 1985, at the tender age of 19, I had the chance to play in my very first session, which morphed into a fantastic campaign! First Edition RULES baby! Assassins, multi-class demi-humans, duel classed humans, crazy stat generation and the luck of the GAMING GODS to get the stuff needed for a Paladin! Let alone a Bard.... but I digress. I'm 50 now, good LORD, and still love the game. I will not discuss 4th Edition (I took a hiatus), but with 5th I am thrilled to be back in the fold! Having the chance to play test the system during D&D Next, was just awesome!

So, I'm a GEEK. I collect comics, watch fantasy flicks, play table top board games and just love playing RPGS! HANDS down, Dungeons & Dragons is my GO TO GAME. There's more geek things I do, but I need to keep the list short. My wife, is awesome. She knows I love to play, to read and collect those miniatures that I just never can get enough of. But, I really have been wanting to share this passion of mine with her. Now, during a few sessions that I ran at the house, she listened-in and decided that this wasn't for her. The whole, "roleplaying" a character, the "DM telling the story" and "interfacing with the game", basically stressed her out. I get that. But, that doesn't mean I didn't try to sway her to the GEEK SIDE!

She loves murder mystery books, action books. About a month ago, a few my gaming buddies asked me to run some Call of Cthulhu for them. A one shot. Which means, I bring a few pre-generated characters, give them the backstory 411, and off they go after evil cultist. To keep things easy, I made this a Cthulhu Now adventure, set the location in Clearwater Florida where we live, and added a few funny twists and turns. While telling my wife about my plans on what I wanted to run a few days before, she expressed interest in playing. WHAT? SO yes, she joined that session. And you know what? She did great! She was nervous. She was tense. She just listened and stared at me. But she NEVER said she hated it. So, I thought, this chick is GOING to be playing some D&D with us!

I asked her to play Dungeons & Dragons. She said no. I did dishes and cleaned the house. She said maybe. I told her it would be just her and two others, at our place. She could drink wine. So, she was in!

Now, I know she is shy. But, she did happen to know the two other players at the table that night, bonus! In my brain, I thought this would perfect! A buddy of mine [long time player, does character voices, etc...] and a female friend of mine who's husband was going to be playing Magic the Gathering that night so he was out [my friends, all GEEKS]. She was experienced, and a good player. The stage was set!

I decide to have my wife play a fighter. Human. She could wield two weapons, both rapiers and has the FEAT to make her even more bad-ass! Everyone is at least 5th level, so she's not squishy, and can have some fun! No spells, I don't want to have her trying to worry about that! Just see the bad thing, attack the bad thing and try to KILL the bad thing. Easy!

I start the session, and make the mistake of having her have to roleplay a message she was given by an NPC to relay to the others about the adventure. I could tell, I was losing her. She did ask good questions on "how do I influence the story", and "how do I roleplay". I could tell, she was really trying! We all told her the same thing. "You are basically in a book and the DM tells you the story. You simply respond to the what is said, to influence the book and open the new chapter." She got that, so cool beans. We also said to not worry about being someone, other than just you! When it comes to responding to a situation, just react as you think you would!! That gave her confidence, so game on!

The adventure was your standard, "my family was abducted by evil, they need to be rescued" type thing. I know, simple. BUT, it pulled everyone in! For the first encounter, I threw two Displacer Beasts at the group. The party was surprised, so the creatures kicked some ass. A NPC henchman [a unlucky halfling] ended up taking three times his current hit points in damage, so was essentially torn in half with the pieces being tossed aside. As I said this gleefully to the table, I realized I may have just lost my wife again.

But do you know what? Just the opposite happened! As she got into her first real combat, and we started walking her through her actions, she REALLY got into things! I pretty much figured out by the end of the encounter her gaming style was to sit and listen, and to relish the battle! Sweet!

After the fight, they encamped and found the main foe later the next day. They ended up battling the hoard of henchman minions, a Flesh Golem and a rather nasty Necromancer. Now, let me tell you, that Flesh Golem was giving the group a run for their money! And as the battle neared it's completion, it was my wife, facing off against the giant thug, frankenstein-type creature with her two rapiers! She was wounded! She was nervous! BUT was REALLY getting into it! She was tossing the dice, shouting out the damage and getting high-fived!! The golem staggered! She turned to me, and said, "I would love to just CUT this things HEART out!!!" Now, behind the screen, I knew it had roughly 20 hit points left. So, she could probably slay the beast with two rapier hits. One of the bards had thrown Faerie Fire on it, so she was attacking with ADVANTAGE. Up until this point, she really had not thrown a natural 20 for the night on a attack roll.

With the table cheering her on, she threw down her two, 20 sided dice. One, was one of those special dice that BLINK when you roll a 20. And, do you know what happened? Do you KNOW what GLORIOUS thing happened that night! You guessed it. SHE ROLLED TWO 20's ON HER ADVANTAGE ATTACK! The table, went absolutely crazy! The FREAKING red 20 sided BLINKIE dice, BLINKED it's little PIP off! Pandemonium and chaos as she SLAYED the beast, gutting it and ripping the heart out surgically with her rapiers! The photo that I've posted with this article, was taken just a few seconds after the event! She was smiling, laughing, and told me that the dice she used that night, where "NOW officially HERS!"

The session soon ended, and ALL of the talk, was about that double 20 roll! And as our friends left, my wife turned to me and said, "well, I really cannot wait to play again! I think I want to know how to cast some spells."

GEEK LEVEL REACHED, a new Dungeons & Dragons player is born!

#DD #Roleplaying