I went to and played my first D&D game. Before the scheduled day, I met with my friend to develop my character. I chose to be a ranger named Xylith Shadowstar.

I found a definition of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) online that explains it well: “In D&D, you and your friends come together to tell a story that involves four key elements: your group, the characters you create, your Dungeon Master, and the dice rolls.”

The D&D “party” met at this brewery that sells hot pretzels, warm chocolate chip cookies, cheese or pepperoni personal pizzas, and a variety of their tap brewery beer. It’s not a big place. It has a small bar area, a few tables to sit at, and an offshoot game room with games such as Centipede and Pac-Man and Street Fighter. It also has random board games to choose from a bookcase that’s against the wall leading to the bathrooms.

The pub is really quaint and gives that living-room-with- friends vibe.

I’ll just break down the dice really quick, as there are 7 different die to roll.

The dice

There is the D4, (4 sided tetrahedron) D6, (six-sided cube) D8, (eight-sided Octahedron) D10, (10 sided pentagonal trapezohedron) D12,( 12 sided dodecahedron) D20 (20 sided Icosahedron) and D100 (10-sided die marked in increments of 00, 10, 20 etc.)

The D4-D12 dice shape the results of weapon damages, magic spells and healing effects.

The D20 often decides the success of your character’s actions. Such as; “Whether your hero is attempting a daring leap, a stealthy pickpocket, or a powerful spell, it’s the roll of the D20 that determines the success of their attempts.”(https://www.dieharddice.com/pages/dnd-dice-explained?srsltid=AfmBOooJkyTi-pEo5M-Km69kUl1KpGRLCz4mq6RiOYgzphFMVeDPDDTL)

The D.M. is the one that tells the story, or the adventure everybody in the party is going to go on. They are not an enemy of the players, as everybody works together towards a certain goal.

Our level 2 table had two beginners, including me, and two senior players who have over 10 years of experience.

The other table was level 4 and included about 7 or 8 people that had many years of experience.

The game was to go on for about 3 hours.

The big battle

Our little quest at table 2 was to find and get rid of this big, evil dire wolf. To start us off we had a goat that needed to be tamed, and each one of us rolled to see what our next move was going to be. Turns out I rolled low, and so did the others. That resulted in our goat running away, and us banding together to go catch the goat.

We reached a raging river in where we got some rope to tie us off all together to make it across. There was a ranger wood elf (me), a cleric, and a half-ling monk in our party. We all ended up getting wet after a bad roll.

While in the water, we had to fight a badger, a giant frog, and a troll. All of them popped up from under the water and were looking to fight.

Once we got past them we found a cave to dry ourselves to get our health back after being in the river.

We go on and after a series of rolls between all of us, we finally defeat the huge dire wolf.

Conclusion

D & D is definitely an interactive, roll playing game (RPG) where creativity comes into play. The more I talk to and listen to the older players of the game do I realize it’s its own little community of people of all races, class, and ages.

I came out with a bit more understanding of D & D, yet my mind felt a little overwhelmed. I’m not sure what die to roll at certain times, and I feel I’m not as imaginative as others.

But I’ve been told that once I have my character and know its attributes, everything else falls into place.

I will be back to play again. I had a fantastic time.