High Rollers (working title)

The moment I glanced at the twenty-sided die I knew that this was a game that had many dimensions. Never in my life had I played anything so complicated. Dungeons and Dragons can be one of the most immersive games you’ll ever play or the shallowest. When I entered the room of my fellow players the first thing I noticed was a large table with so many seats crowded around it you had to crawl underneath the table to get out. I never played the role playing game before but I was familiar with the elements. I have played Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights(which are based on the same rules as DnD), as well as various MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, so I had a general idea of what the game would be like.
The unique thing about Dungeons and Dragons players is that they don’t consider there to be a winner. “If you have fun, you won” is the motto they say. Instead of trying to beat your fellow players, your goal in DnD is to work together, they explained. The way the game works is that one person is in charge of the game, called a dungeon master. The dungeon master is like a story teller in a way, they tell the players what type of world they live in and “role play as all the NPCs (non-player characters). They are essentially the god of the world that the players play in. I noticed everyone treated the DM extra nice, as if they were mean the DM may have a few lizard men ambush them as part of the story.
In dungeons in dragons each player creates a character who they pretend to be. Different groups have different rules as to how much the player must pretend to be like their character. Our group allowed you to speak OOC(out of character) as much as we liked, but many groups do not allow anyone to speak about anything other than the game unless absolutely necessary. It is taboo to speak out of character usually, but this was a very casual game.
On the table were tankards in front of each seat for us to drink out of, and a pile of about 18 hardcover books, slightly larger than a magazine which had the rules of how to play. Only three books were really need though, and those were the player manual, the dungeon master’s guide (which players were not allowed to look at) and a monster manual. Everyone started grabbing them and filling out “character sheets” which had information about your character.
Anything you could think of to describe a person could be put on the sheet. There were spots for usual things like height, weight, eye color etc, but you could also add things like personality or other physical features. Characters could be as dynamic as the player wanted them to be. For example, one of the more interesting characters was a Goliath Barbarian, which is like a mountain troll warrior. He claimed that his race’s language did not contain pronouns, so he spoke of himself in third person. Another player was a half-orc who kept the teeth of the enemies he defeated on a necklace, and wore little clothing so he could show off his battle scars.

It took us about an hour to fill out all of our character sheets. The dungeon master helped me get through it, and it was complicated but eventually I understood it. Depending on your class(which is like a job, all of which of course involved fighting skills) you would focus on different real world “stats”. For example wizards would focus on intelligence because that would let them cast more spells a day, as well as constitution to increase their hit points(the number of attacks they can take). My character was a cleric, which is like a battle priest who wears heavy plate armor, so I focused on strength(to increase my chance to hit as well as physical damage) and wisdom (so I could cast more/better holy spells).
While I was still working on my sheet, other players were practicing their own superstitious pregame rituals. Jarrett, a half-elf druid, practiced his dice rolls while Steve, a human sorcerer, studied a manual called “The Complete Arcane”, which contained all of the spells he used.
When we finally started playing I noticed how deep and enthusiastic the role-playing culture was. To make the game seem more realistic we drank root beer from metal tankards and equipped ourselves with various toys we found in the room, which included props from various Halloween costumes such as swords, shields and cloaks, as well as various play toys like nerf crossbows.
The game itself was like a grown-up sophisticated version of pretend when you’re a kid. All actions were controlled by dice rolls (usually a “d20”, or twenty-sided die unless it was to tell how much damage was done, then it would be a different die depending on what type of weapon was used).