January 2024: A New Hope

Why Now?

Hope is never something that goes out of style, or at least it shouldn't be. But the years haven't been kind to us. We've been hit with a pandemic, losing friends, jobs, and years of our lives. We're watching the American political machine teeter on the brink of despotism. And we're watching remake after remake on the screen. It feels like "hope" has indeed gone out of style and the age of cynicism is upon us.

But I've always been a bit of a contrarian. When I was a kid, my family and friends told me to dream big. Instead, I dreamed very small and very achievable. Because of that, I've accomplished pretty much everything I wanted as a kid. And without a clear vision of what next to do, I've been feeling a bit lost. That's more or less where I started this blog: without enough new things to process, my mental autophagy began to take apart my identity.

I could try to appreciate the smaller things in life, but looking at the world around me, it feels like it needs more contrarians instead.

I'm not sure what that will look like practically. I fully admit that I may try and fail, or worse yet, not appear to try at all. But hopefully, at least what I can do is write in this blog on what I'm thinking about. And I hope that the process of writing my thoughts will prevent me from circling in on myself.

In a Total Tangent: How to get your friends to play DnD (and other things)

Before I get to deeper things, I have a simple little how-to blog post to write. Honestly, I thought it'd be a techy "how to set up your private image cloud". Unfortunately, my interests aren't anything so practical, and instead I've spent a lot of time figuring out how to make Dungeon's and Dragons (DnD) appealing to people who haven't played it before.

This is a surprisingly common and hard problem. It is hard enough to imagine getting your friends (or maybe even yourself) to learn a new board game. With rules. And a board. DnD has literal tomes of rules. Their volumes bend the shelves at hobby shops, like old HVAC reference codes. And DnD is a board game without a board. It exists in an intimidatingly ambiguous space in the players' collective conscious. And, above all else, the only content to help people learn the game is geared towards nerds like me: I personally asked for the rule books for Christmas.

That's why I thought it'd be a good use of my time to write a quick blog post about how to get started DnD if you're not a terminally nerdy person. I spent a lot of time reading articles and watching videos, only to find that the magic of the game is not in its list of hundreds of spells. It's in how DnD helps you to create a creative and cooperative world with your friends. It is amazing how much more you learn about someone when you're creating something new with them.

I think that magic should be more accessible to people, and I hope that this blog post helps make that the case. That said, if you're not already somewhat interested in the topic, I can't promise this is the blog post that will make you care (maybe I'll write that some other time :) ). But if you've been struggling to find ways to introduce your normal friends to the incredibly nerdy process activity of playing DnD, then this post is for you

(If not, feel free to skip to the snacks)

Tip 1: Don't teach them the rules!

If you want to introduce your friends to DnD, do everything you can to prevent them from learning about the rules. Because, I promise you, the rules are practically engineered to deter people from playing DnD. They're from a different time and place for the hobby. One of dark basements and gritty fantasy battlefields. Not only are those not for everyone, but they're really really overdone. If you and your friends wanted to participate in fantasy violence you would go try out as actors in the medieval times.

To enjoy the medium, I recommend that the minimum number of people learn the rules. Unfortunately for you, if you're the one introducing the game to your friends, that minimum number of people is just you. You're going to have to learn at least what modifiers and the basics of combat are so that you can clarify these rules when relevant. Luckily, all you're going to need to teach your friends are the following:

• We roll dice to determine ambiguous outcomes
  • The more difficult the thing you're trying to accomplish, the higher the number you'll need to roll.
  • If they find it confusing, tell them how high they should roll! If you're not sure, use this table for guidance.
• You're playing a different character
  • The simplest definition of a "character" is someone with a goal and a flaw.
  • They should tell everyone what their goal and flaw is. It's inspiring and other people may chime into help resolving the ambiguity of answering "what would my character do?"
• You're on a team playing against me (the DM)!
  • Technically, you're all on the same team, but it's probably more fun for them if they think they're beating you.
  • This is really important, but you should let your friends win.
  • This is also why we leave the rules vague: fudge what you need to so that your friends have a meaningful challenge but come out to a glorious victory in the end.

Tip 2: Teach Them to Improv

Okay, so if Dungeons and Dragons wasn't already a dirty word, I've gone and done it by bringing up Improv. Whether you've watched Bojack Horseman or The Office, you've probably seen the art of Improv be horribly bashed in popular media. I've personally never gone to see an improv show myself, and I bet neither have you. If all you've seen of improv is what media depicts, I bet this does not excite you.

But improv is actually really really cool. I promise! The magic of improv is directly related to the magic of DnD. Improv requires everyone to create a shared narrative. Sharing the writer's pen among a crowd is certainly nobody's comfort zone. But when you hit a groove, you'll start to see different sides of yourself and others. You can see how seemingly familiar situations are actually filled with expressive and meaningful choices. At the least, hopefully it gets everyone to laugh and loosen up.

Here's what I recommend:

• Have everyone's "character" be coworkers and meet at the pub.
  • The occupation is unimportant as long as its easily understood by everyone and matches the setting.
• You as the DM, should play a NPC that's one of their coworkers.
• Bring up topics like the following for the characters:
  • Hey why did you come in to work late today?
  • What did you want to be when you were a kid?
  • What are your hobbies outside of work?
  • Share something personal about the NPC, maybe they have a crush, minor family troubles, or a stroke of minor luck.
• Be prepared to add spice!
  • Have the NPC respond with interest: the standard when, what, how, why, and where questions all are great places to start
  • Throw a wrench into the situation, maybe they want to be a musician but it's hard to make money. Or maybe they were late to work and so they missed the fantasy company all-hands.
  • You know your friends and so exercise your judgement on what's "too spicy" (as in, maybe they won't know what to do if you ask "what do you think about the recent dragon president, Ae'Vayink?")

Tip 3: Make the game reflect them, not you

This is the most important guidance I can give you. You know your friends and what they enjoy. They may think it's really cool to kill a dragon. Or they may think it's interesting to help a town solve a crisis. Or they may be more interested in helping a long lost friend.

At the end of the day, that's what makes DnD amazing. There are plenty of ways of telling the story you want to tell. Books and movies are great ways to watch masters of the craft reach new heights. But DnD is unique in that it requires you to work with the people who are at the table with you. You have to tell a story that reacts to other human beings, and in doing so you end up having to live out the themes of what you're trying to convey. For you to tell a story about empathy at a DnD table, it's not enough to write a character that experiences empathy. You have to practice that empathy for the people sitting at the table first. And it becomes so much more meaningful for having done so.

My best tip for this is advice that I'd recommend to anyone at any time. Pay attention to the people around you. If someone is struggling, try to understand why. Work with them, give it a few tries. I can't promise that your friends will end up loving DnD. But I can promise that you'll grow for having tried to play it with them.

Snacks

Now to many people's favorite part, the snacks!
1. Season of the Witch: one of the most truly harrowing history books I've ever read, about a city that's been a huge part of my life. For most of my readers, I know that it's a big part of yours too. It's a slow start and honestly it's full of things that maybe you're better off not knowing. As for me, something about seeing how flawed the history of the city has been eye-opening. I grew up raised on fairly liberal politics at school and home. Seeing the effects of these policies from a new angle makes me feel like I can approach these topics fresh.
2. Starcraft 2: I've been really enjoying starcraft II lately, both as a game and as an esport. Recently, I've started to study my gameplay and try to get better. I find it incredibly refreshing to sculpt myself and my gameplay to reach new heights. It's reminded me that I really enjoy working on hard problems. Which is good, because looking around me all I see are them.
3. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off!: so... I'll be honest. I did like the original movie. I thought it was campy, and that Scott was a completely unlikable character. But every other character is hilarious and lovable to me. That said, I really hate Scott. And so I wasn't going to watch this, until I learned that (mild spoiler), this series is barely about Scott at all! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just know I recommend this show wholeheartedly. It's well written, animated, un-cynical, and pretty short!