6. Dungeons and Dragons
If not for this adventure quest, I would never in a million years have spent an evening as Arizima the Blue Dragon Sorcerer, fighting swarms of dog-sized rats and following distant violin music to Koaka the dryad, who holds the answers to the origins of the rat invasion.
People spend their time in such interesting and unusual ways.
As I descended the steps to the basement at Pandemonium Games in Cambridge, I entered an alternative world. A maze-like warren of rooms held groups of gamers, talking and laughing and living in worlds where monsters threaten villages and gnomes dream big. Who knew?
In the little red room where they hold beginner events for Dungeons & Dragons, I met my fellow players and our “DM,” or Dungeon Master, who runs the show. All warm, welcoming, and intelligent twenty-something guys, I’m sure they were surprised to see a middle-aged lady join their ranks.
While Pandemonium bills the event for beginners, the two other players knew WAY more than I did, which was nothing except that D&D is a role-playing fantasy game. They each owned their own D&D text-book sized reference book that spells out the details of the different kinds of characters.
And I do mean details.
With Jacob, aka Bodyknock Gormidock
We spent an hour filling out our character sheets, figuring out which weapons and skills we each had, learning about our traits, ideals, and flaws. (Arizima speaks several languages, including Giant, Elvish, and Draconic. I mean, c’mon - haven’t you always wanted to speak Giant?!?)
After we completed our character sheets, it was game time.
Without warning, everyone started speaking in character. I don’t know why this surprised me. All of a sudden Doruk, the DM, switched from his regular voice to a more high-pitched tone as he introduced our circumstances. Jacob, the really nice guy sitting next to me who helped me look through the manual and figure out my character, started speaking in an “Elvish” accent.
Well, duh, it’s a role playing game.
“Paleus Anton”
Jacob became his character, the three-foot tall Bodyknock Gormidock. The other player morphed from a sweet kid into Paleus Anton, an entitled bad boy whose parents disowned him because he burned down their woods after smoking a cigarette.
I had a harder time finding an accent and staying in character, in part because it turns out I chose a pretty boring character, who doesn’t like people much, and in part because, well, I guess role playing’s not really my thing.
The game itself, though, was fun. The DM set up the story: we’re traveling together and reach a village where everyone is putting some cheese outside then running indoors and bolting their doors and windows. A woman sees us and starts yelling, “Get inside, quick! They’re coming, they’re coming!” We go inside and she tells us about the vicious, swarming rats. We have to save the town drunk who makes an easy target for the rats, defend ourselves when Katrina, the woman who beckons us inside, turns into a rat version of a werewolf, and rescue the village from the plague of rats.
Doruk, our DM, spinning out the story
Along the way, at each of our turns, we have to decide what action we’re taking, what weapon, if any, we’re using, whether we save others or run. In essence, we’re playing against the DM, who positions the rats near us. Rolling of the many different kinds of dice in this game determines the success or failure of each of our moves.
The complex point system of D&D takes a long time to learn, but beginners can jump right into the story and role-playing. If you’re interested, podcasts dedicated to the game can help you learn the ropes. A group of friends looking for something out-of-the-ordinary to do together could have a blast learning D&D.
For me, once was enough. Having dodged the rat queen, Arizima’s going back to her home in the wilds.
Pandemonium Books & Games: $5 for a three hour D&D beginner’s session. They also hold D&D events for families on Saturdays, which would be really fun with kids (or grandkids).
