Starting from Scratch

Moving to Baton Rouge meant leaving behind a bunch of awesome friends, including more than one gaming group.  I'm the kind of person that takes their time getting to know people or finding new friends, and being able to connect with those old friends through things like Facebook and Skype are helping make some of the transition easier, but reforming those weekend D&D games is taking longer than I expected.

Working in TV takes up a lot of my time, and with a wife studying for her PhD there's not much left over for us to get out and check out the local gaming scene.  I find myself back in the same spot I was five years ago when I first moved to Fort Smith; spending more time at home playing video games on the weekend, forlornly reading Wizards.com and other websites, and browsing through gaming shops while resisting the urge to buy a book I can't use at the moment.

Five years ago I joined a gaming message board group and managed to find some people who lived less than an hour away and needed another player.  Once or twice a month I would drive to Fayetteville to sling polyhedral dice and get to know these folks, and over time developed some great friendships.  So far those same avenues aren't paying off, so I've had to be a bit bolder.




Flying the Geek Flag


It has taken time for me to get to the point where I'm proud of my hobbies, and stop trying to hide things like photos of my last trip to the ren faire or that I have a raid tonight and can't cover for someone at work.  Getting a group together for D&D once a week is no less shameful than tailgating or watching UFC on pay-per-view (and in some cases, much more productive).  I sometimes even get to use my gaming knowledge at work (I'm in TV news).

One time I was listening to a co-worker talk about a hunting trip he had just been on; he was bemoaning how his friend's son wanted to stay in the camper and play XBox all the time, and how the game was ruining the kid and dad's weekend.

I reminded him that the dad was the one who brought the XBox along, and that most parents don't realize a lot of game systems come with parental controls that can help control how much the kids play.  After talking about it for a bit, he said "You know, that might make a good news story."

As big an advocate as I am of gaming, I do realize it's not for everyone.  I just hope that by being open and honest about the games I love to play, someone else that enjoys them can be just as open about it as well.

Gearing Up

In the meantime, I went out to pick up the new Red Box by Wizards, which is being described not as something for old dice-slingers, but as "the best way to introduce people to D&D".

Reading through the materials that come with it, it looks like they hit a lot of notes that I would have, if I had been on the design team.  There's a pre-made dungeon (WITH a dragon), monster and player tokens that I wish they would just print and sell wholesale, power cards and character sheets, and just enough rules to provide some extra reading for players and DMs before or after a session.

There's also a "solo adventure" I'm not entirely sold on.  It reads like a choose-your-own-adventure while it eases you into building a character based on your choices; if you want to fling a spell when goblins attack write down "wizard", if you want to stand in front of a giant boulder to save the kobold eggs write down "lawful good".  The initial problem for a DM is how am I supposed to guide a group of four buddies through that process at the same time, each wanting to make their own choices and characters.  I can see how it'll be useful to someone that has never played D&D before, I just would have included a sidebar or something for experienced DMs teaching new players, which I bet is going to be the majority of cases.

There's also a follow-up adventure written by Robert J. Schwalb available for DDI subscribers, which I thought was good follow-through on the part of Wizards of the Coast.

Game On?


Until the stars align and I can browbeat some people into giving my favorite hobby a fair shake, though, I'm stuck with too many ideas and not enough motivation to put them down on paper.  Hopefully one of those things will change before I have to start driving into New Orleans for the D&D Encounters games on the weekends; the hour-plus drive's impact on my budget is beginning to look less and less onerous with each passing weekend I don't get to roll for initiative.