The pandemic has modified how I play and work together with Dungeons & Dragons. For me, Dungeons & Dragons sits someplace between a significant pastime and an occupation. As a part-time journalist that covers the D&D beat, it’s my job to grasp how the game works. For over two years, I’ve run two games per week and taught at the least a dozen gamers create characters and dive right into a fantasy world stuffed with hazard, thriller, and loads of dragons. Dungeons & Dragons is a significant a part of my life, partially due to it provides me a artistic outlet and a strategy to spend time with my pals.
The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t change that, regardless of still-ongoing suggestions towards social gatherings. With nothing else to do on the weekends, I took the chance to launch what would turn into my most bold marketing campaign but – a closely homebrewed 5E game impressed by the fabled “West Marches” – a sandbox marketing campaign targeted closely on exploration and quests that may be wrapped up in a single week. That game turns 6 months this week, nonetheless going sturdy with two periods per week and 17 gamers taking part. Not solely does this marketing campaign present me with some a lot wanted social time on the weekends, it is also challenged me to seek out options to issues that did not exist in a pre-pandemic world.
While the game itself has settled into a gradual rhythm – games are performed on Fridays and Sundays with missions and quests picked out over the week – it’s nonetheless a little bit of an experiment. Much of the game is constructed on homebrewed mechanics, with an exploration position system and a crafting and harvesting system typically constructed on the fly. Two of the gamers use Unearthed Arcana feats or subclasses, whereas a number of others spend their weekly downtime making weapons or designing magic objects to generate some further coin. The game has additionally advanced based mostly on participant preferences. For instance, the unique intent was to maintain the game gentle on NPCs, however the marketing campaign’s residence base is now a bustling hub of misfits, with goblin refugees, tamed coral drakes, and even a couple of residents of the feywild all offering a bit extra taste to what was imagined to be a featureless start line for adventures. The game additionally was initially supposed to make use of a special leveling system based mostly on clearing aims in varied hexes on the map. That was tossed away with over the summer season, changed with a extra conventional milestone system that rewards gamers for ending a seasonal storyline.
The fully on-line nature of the D&D marketing campaign has been each a boon and a problem. Playing on-line means extra alternative to play with pals who don’t stay on the town, or who wouldn’t usually have availability on the weekends. It additionally permits me to mess around with encounter codecs, constructing bold periods that couldn’t occur in particular person.One specific week featured a two-part “event” the place all 17 gamers participated in a simultaneous assault on one of many marketing campaign’s major villains. The occasion solely labored as a result of it happened on-line – the gamers saved fight and technique organized via the usage of Zoom chat, leaving the voice channel open for the precise working of the game. The complete occasion took simply over 6 hours (break up between two periods), nevertheless it was solely attainable as a result of communication happened over a number of channels concurrently. While on-line play has opened up some potentialities, the game has additionally hit small street bumps resulting from a restricted map characteristic and occasional lag from overworked on-line character sheet databases.
Playing on-line has additionally radically modified how I DM, even with regards to constructing encounters. I print off monster blocks to release display house for maps and Zoom home windows, and I used fastened injury to avoid wasting on time throughout fight. I additionally let likelihood resolve my gamers’ destiny – monsters typically select targets based mostly on the roll of a d6 as an alternative of pouring over technique, which ends up in surprising outcomes. A pair of unhealthy cube rolls can result in an unconscious PC – and there’s barely per week the place at the least one participant hasn’t gotten uncomfortably near a everlasting dying. In reality, one participant did lose their PC resulting from some poor cube rolls and technique – we opted to not kill the character off however flip him right into a corrupted model of himself that may possible turn into a future villain additional down the road. Still, that was the primary time I’ve killed a PC in the course of a marketing campaign, offering me a brand new (and considerably surprising) expertise. I’m anticipating extra deaths/character retirements to comply with, particularly because the gamers go off towards threats like pink dragons, thoughts flayers, Imix, and extra within the coming months.
My “favorite” half about enjoying D&D in a pandemic is that the gamers appear a bit extra invested within the game, they appear to benefit from the distraction from the terrors of the true world a bit greater than when games had been performed in particular person as a part of a extra relaxed social occasion. Four gamers have commissioned artwork of their characters, and a few gamers commonly attain out asking questions on lore or tossing round potential character arcs. Most importantly, I really feel that the world grows and thrives due to the gamers who go to each week – a objective of any DM who opened up their imaginary world to others.
The pandemic isn’t displaying any indicators of slowing down within the US, which implies that this specific residence game might be round for at the least a couple of extra months. I don’t know if a twice-weekly marketing campaign might be attainable as soon as everyone seems to be allowed to depart their houses and see their family members, however I’m wanting ahead to seeing how this unusual little game will proceed to develop because the pandemic slogs on. Here’s to 6 months of having fun with Dungeons & Dragons throughout a pandemic – I hope the game has introduced at the least a little bit of consolation and distraction throughout these unusual occasions.
