Wow! I am a changed man forever! It’s a bit of an overstatement, but that’s generally how I feel about this fantasy table-top game. I’ve tasted the sweet nectar of Dungeons & Dragons and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same. A couple weekends ago I met up with some D&D players in Marietta, GA and played for about four hours. Within those four hours, to my surprise, all the D&D stereotypes were confirmed. It was an epic experience for me and I certainly look forward to more encounters as I level up in real life.

Be warned that I am going to make fun of EVERYTHING! It’s all in good fun, though. I had a great time and I have enlisted with my new Band of Brothers- my Campaign Desperadoes- into the mysterious world of D&D players.

Getting There

This reoccurring meetup “Return to Raven’s Nest” is held every first Saturday of the month at… you guessed it… The Raven’s Nest. It’s a comic-book store in Marietta, GA. Since I’m in Fairburn, south of the airport, I figured it would take me about an hour to get there. If only I left the house when I wanted. I basically left 20 minutes later than expected. Something to do with bathing (darn those natural urges), feeding the children, whatever. Well; I raced down the highway (more like raced up since I was traveling on I-286 North). I got around to the I-75 intersection and my wife called. I pulled over and talked to her for about 10 minutes. I had to tell her that, “I wasn’t there yet so let me go.” I got off the exit and soon realized that the main road Google Maps was telling me to follow was blocked due to that city doing a 4th of July parade! So; traffic was thick and I had to find an alternate route. It was 12:30 PM when I finally pulled up at the comic-book store. With my heart pacing a bit, I collected myself and checked-in via Foursquare…

First Impressions

I try not to be nervous about these kind of things, but everything was so new. If you can imagine, I’ve heard about D&D my entire life, but never played. I haven’t been to a comic-book store since middle school (and I’m at the ripe ol’ age of thirty-one). I walked through the door and saw a couple racks of comic books on the left and about four tables to the right. People were already playing and I tried to acquire the attention of a Dungeon Master (DM). I asked were table #1 was and someone asked if I was looking for the 4th edition table.

After finding a place to sit the DM Mike asked me if I had a character. I proudly answered, “No I don’t, this is my first time playing D&D.” I felt kind of stupid after saying it like that. I was then given a half orc ranger to play. I normally like to play elves as rangers (WoW equivalent to Elf Hunters) but I went along with the set I was given. After playing for about an hour or so I really warmed up to the idea of playing as a half orc. I think it was mainly because of the stock image provided. The half orc didn’t look as horrid as I thought it would. Now this half orc has sentimental value to me. He embodies my idea of being a deadly warrior (strength, accuracy, distance, and cunningness). Funny that I now see elves as silky pansy vegans. Odd, I know.

After a while I started to notice the stereotypes popping up as I played. A morbidly obese fella, a quiet middle-aged guy, young nerds that fight over stats and side chatter way too much, greasy-faced players, non-athletic women, etc. The list goes on. I’m no different. I’m just calling out the stereotypes. I could really care less who showed up to this momentous event! 

Momentous because it was my first D&D session. I don’t think I’ve embellished that theme enough in this post. :D

Continuing with stereotypes, I was surely the “token black guy.” Someone else could have easily mark me as an overweight African American nerd playing D&D. I was getting a little annoyed with the young-lings playing though. The DM kept trying to move the story along and they continually bickered back and forth about every little thing the DM said. In D&D, it’s OK to ask questions about the environment or the situation in order to grasp a better picture of what’s going on, but these guys were over doing it. Or so I thought.

We all ate candy, chips and whatever else the comic store stocked. The group didn’t take a collective break, we would simply get up to stretch, use the bathroom, buy more junk food, as we ended our turn and waited for the rotation. You can see how this is a “healthy” way to play! ;)

The Heat of Battle

This is my first encounter. We fought spider and dog-like creatures in a tower to rescue two soldiers.

We played a total of three encounters and it took roughly four hours. It felt like a much longer time though. The first encounter was our group traveling to a tower to save some guy and bring him back to camp. We ended up acquiring a hermit Mage that was hanging out by an apple tree. We fought spider-like monsters, some four-armed dog-like creatures with two sets of mouths and a group of rival adversaries trying to gain back our rescued soldier. Even though the encounter was told in words with visuals being on the board and miniatures… the real battle took place in our heads. I could clearly see the tower, the monsters, the prisoners, and my epic arrows flying cross my comrade’s golden hair, whizzing by him to strike our opponents. It was truly an experience I will soon not forget.

While rescuing the two prisoners, we were spared from the horrifying “cloud of destruction” that took over the land. We went back to camp to see that everyone was dead. The other ranger in our group was sorely upset that he didn’t have time to loot the corpse of the general that recruited him on this mission. He needed to be paid. Four years past since that encounter and our next scene led us to a city in the sky. The DM said that we gained about 500 gold pieces within those four years and we were now meeting up in this amazing floating city.

The 3rd encounter. We attended a ceremony four years later after the first encounter.

The DM staged a ceremony and I knew a fight would be brewing. As we positioned our miniatures I made sure mine stayed far back. As a ranger I’m most deadly from a distance. Sure enough as the ceremony commenced a shadowy figure began attacking and we sprung into action once more. It was this encounter that I tasted the victory of stacking attacks and multiple dice-roll damage. I used a daily power with an encounter power while querying my foe. It was quite satisfying adding up d8′s, d6′s, and d10′s all in one turn. Our group brought down fiery vengeance upon the attacker… and then it was over.

Wraping It Up

We ended that session and I stuck around just enough to peruse through some of the comics and chit chat with the DM and other Game Masters packing up their tables. I inquired about getting my own miniature and dice. I looked through some of the game manuals. I left and went home to tell my wife of my adventures. Since then I’ve been looking for Half Orc Ranger miniatures on the web, playing with the Character Builder and getting stats help from the Meetup group. Here’s my latest character sheet [PDF] on Gaaki, the Half Orc Ranger. I can’t wait until next time!

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