What is Dungeons and Dragons?
February 14th, 2020
Before I start regaling the tales of my Dungeons and Dragons party, the Redstone Alliance, I should probably explain what Dungeons and Dragons is. Dungeons and Dragons is a table top role playing game. Typically played by 5 to 7 people, one being the Dungeon Master (DM for short). The DM runs the game and presents a narrative or obstacles for the players to overcome.
What does the Dungeon Master do?
The best description for what a Dungeon Master does lies in the 2015 Dungeon Masters guide. “The Dungeon Master (DM) is the creative force behind a D&D game. The DM creates a world for the other players to explore, and also creates and runs adventures that drive the story. An adventure typically hinges on the successful completion of a quest, and can be as short as a single game session. Longer adventures might embroil players in great conflicts that require multiple game sessions to resolve.” (D&D Dungeon Masters Guide pg 4).
The dungeon master plans the adventures. Setting up the people they meet, monsters they fight, and everything in between. The dungeon master is functionally the narrator and everything in the world other than the player’s character. My next post will go over the world I created for this campaign and some of its history to give you all some context before jumping into who the characters are and the players behind them. Speaking of players…
What does the Player do?
The players purpose is simple on the surface, all they gotta do is play the game! But looking into it there are nuances to it that are not immediately clear. To play the game you need a character. Making a character is more than just deciding that you want to play a Fighter or a Wizard but its making a person that you will role play as. Its like writing a protagonist from a movie or a book. Someone with personality traits, flaws, motivations and more. Who was this person before they became an adventurer? After I write about North Syonel, the continent my campaign is taking place on, I’ll write on the five characters in the campaign to show what all goes into making a character! Stay tuned for that in the coming weeks.
February 14th, 2020 at 3:09 pm
I’ll be honest it’s be at least a year or so since I last played DnD. Your description was perfect for new and old players alike. I look forward to seeing the world of North Syonel and your players journey’s through it.
@reader
February 16th, 2020 at 9:17 pm
I have not been apart of an actual campaign, but when I played for class, it was a lot of fun. I look forward to reading what adventures these players go on during the class.
February 17th, 2020 at 8:37 pm
I always hear people talking about DnD, yet I never had the chance to play it, ever. I do know how fun it is though because I will always here kids talking about how intense their DnD games were with their friends. I hope to play soon, and this blog gave me a good grasp on how to play and why it is played.
February 20th, 2020 at 3:59 pm
I am glad to hear you look forward to my future posts! If you’re interested in learning more about the game some places I started when I first got into the game was looking it up on the internet. Such as YouTube. If your interested in watching a campaign I would highly recommend a show called Critical Role. Its on YouTube and provides a look at what I D&D campaign can be. Another good place to start is on campus! There is a D&D club that meets in the UC on Mondays at 6:30.