Today I’ve decided to talk about how I got into D&D, because my story is a little convoluted and because this is week is quite a fitting week for it. You’ll understand why soon enough.
First all, let’s go way, way back, almost to the beginning. I’ve always been a fantasy geek. Sci-fi too, but fantasy always first. I read the Lord of the Rings for the first time when I was nine, but since even before then I have constantly and voraciously consumed fantasy books and movies and tv shows. So, if I’m honest, I’m almost surprised I never got into D&D when I was younger, but the truth is that for one thing, I never did well with socializing (which is kind of a big part of roleplaying games), and for another, I got into Warhammer (when I was nine as well, actually). That’s its own beast, I’m sure I’ll talk about it at a later time, but for the purposes of this, I reckon that getting into Warhammer filled that fantasy (and sci-fi) hobby/gaming slot in my life, so I never sought out another.
For the record, not that I regret the time I’ve put into Warhammer, but knowing what I know now about roleplaying games and their positive effect, especially when it comes to social interactions, I do feel that it would have been much better for me to get into D&D at that age. Not to mention how much more expensive a hobby like Warhammer is, but that’s neither here nor there.
Anyway, fast forward about thirteen years, and it’s 2015. I’m focused on writing in a way I’ve never focused on it before, because I’ve reached a point where I’ve actually completed the first draft of a full-length fantasy novel, and suddenly I’ve realised that that’s the easy part. Now, one thing that I’ve enjoyed doing for some time, and find quite enlightening, is watching Youtube videos of best-selling authors talking about their craft. Mostly talking about their craft, rather, as even when someone like Stephen King talks about something other than their writing, it’s usually quite fascinating anyway.
Now, it’s 2015, and I’ve been watching some videos of a well-regarded fantasy author whose books I’ve not yet read (I read them around this time, after watching a few of their videos, but I can’t remember if I had started them yet at the moment that this story is relevant). That author was Patrick Rothfuss. I only have two things to say about him: read his books, they’re possibly the best modern fantasy series, period (even though the third one isn’t out yet), and he is one of the most engaging, fascinating people to listen to, and probably one of the best, too, since he used his success to start a charity, Worldbuilders. You should check them out.
Anyway, after watching most of the Patrick Rothfuss videos I could find, I came across one video where he was on a stage with four other people, all of whom were sitting around a table and wearing strange costumes. I decided to watch it, and that’s how I discovered Acquisitions Incorporated.
Acquisitions Incorporated is a D&D game that gets played at the various Penny Arcade Expo’s (or PAX’s) throughout the year. It is run by the inimitable Chris Perkins, a game designer for D&D, with the players being Rothfuss, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (the latter two being the creators of Penny Arcade, an incredibly popular, long-running webcomic, and also the Expo’s), with a fourth player, these days usually a guest player that might join for a couple of games. There aren’t many games played per year, seeing as there are only five PAX’s and not every one has an Acquisitions Incorporated game, but they’re always a highlight on the D&D calendar. Plus, the latest episode was just played last Sunday (as of writing), hence how this week is a very relevant week for this story.
So, I watched that first episode of Acquisitions Incorporated, and then I watched a bunch more, because I was hooked. I didn’t go right back to the beginning (they’ve been doing it for quite some time, now) but I watched enough to get an idea of what was going on. But at the time, I was focused on a number of things, so I didn’t proceed with things any further than that. For the next year or eighteen months or so, I watched new episodes of Acquisitions Incorporated (including a short web series) as they came out, but that was the extent of my interest in D&D.
Then, in November 2016, I decided that since I had a bunch of leave left and had no holiday plans, I would take a decent chunk of the month off and really focus on doing a NaNoWriMo. The results of how I did that month are somewhere in this blog, but there was one thing that prevented me from doing a whole lot better.
Two words: Critical Role. I had been seeing references to Critical Role for a while by this point, seeing people talk or write about it as the epitome of a D&D show. So, when that November came along, I figured I’d give it a shot. I think it was the first day I had off, I found the first episode, and gave it a watch. And then I watched the next episode. And the one after that. And the one after that. And the rest of my November was pretty much NaNoWriMo and Critical Role.
Critical Role is a D&D game played by a group of voice actors, with voice actor Matthew Mercer as their DM. They started it as their own game two years before they began to stream it in early 2015, and it’s become something of a phenomenon.
Also, it’s really, really good. I’ll probably dedicate an entire post to Critical Role at some point, just because it’s so good and a fantastic example of the unique brand of storytelling that games like D&D can create.
Sometime during that first month or so of watching Critical Role, I bought the rule books for D&D, because it had finally inspired in me the desire to play. Just a few short months later, however, I decided to leave my job and go travelling, which put just about everything in my life on hold.
Finally, we get to February 2018. I’m visiting Perth for the first time in four years, and I catch up with a couple of old high school friends. In doing so, I discover that one of them has been running games for about a year or so. He invites me to come to his group’s next session, and I’ve been playing in with them ever since. An interesting side note: before I started playing, he hadn’t yet had a group end a campaign with a TPK (Total Party Kill, aka. everyone dies) – we’ve now had two. Coincidence?
Well, that’s the needlessly convoluted tale of how I got into D&D, and subsequently started playing. The next episode of the adventures of Spoon and the Pretenders will be going up on Sunday. Until then, may you always roll more 20’s than 1’s.