Week Four: Convention Roleplaying Game

I've been playing in and running Dungeons & Dragons games since I was in the 8th grade, but I've never been to a convention. Even though there have been roleplaying conventions in Fort Wayne for a couple decades and Indianapolis hosts the grandaddy of tabletop roleplaying games, GenCon, every year.

So, when Amy's P52 event got cancelled due to the weather last week, I looked to see what was going on and the Dungeons & Dragons Experience was going on this week. I swapped weeks with Amy, as now she had little time to plan something in place of her cancelled P52 and made arrangements to get us both in a game.

This was my first time playing a game at a convention and Amy's first time playing a tabletop roleplaying game at all. So, we both went into the evening a bit cautious.

Before the game, I had already created both of our characters. I tried to get Amy to review her character sheet, but she wasn't really interested in spending any more time in the DnD world than she had to. I also bought her a set of pink dice to play with.

Now, I tried to get us both into an intro adventure, but they were all booked, so we got stuck playing the first of a three series adventure chain, starting at 6th level in the world of Dark Sun (which is notorious for being pretty brutal and not a great place to first experience DnD). But that is what we had, so I took it.

As soon as we sat down at our table, along with four other players and a Dungeon Master, I could tell Amy was out of place. And then everyone started talking about DnD stuff, which I could only assume all went over Amy's head.

When we started playing, things got a little better, but since everyone just acted when it was their turn, I really just looked at Amy's character and recommended what she should do and told her what dice to roll. And we did that for four hours!

Amy endured. I had fun, despite feeling bad that she wasn't getting the feel I wanted her to get. Plus, our DM was average at best. He moved the game on, but didn't really add much to the base experience. I guess it kind of showed me that I wasn't missing anything by haivng only played home games all these years.

It was interesting to me that a bunch of strangers playing DnD for many years could come together and have fun together at a single table. So, for me, that was worth the experience. I have talked Amy into letting me run a session just for her, to give her a different feel, so that will be a P52 week I will look forward to. Amy did make me promise it wouldn't be scheduled for a few months!

Things I Learned:

• For some events, shocking the system by going for full immersion is not the best idea. I can only imagine Amy was bewildered and struggled to understand anything that was going on. Unlike a new board game where the actions are repetitive, a roleplaying games can have an unlimited variety each time you play. It would have been better if I eased her into a home game first before going to the extreme.


• Preparation. Pre-registration for DDXP was back in November and I could have gotten the "right" event scheduled. While it was nice to be able to buy passes at the door, the selection was limited.


• I need to watch out what I schedule, because if it bombs too badly, Amy is going to make me jump out of an airplane. Which I will NOT be doing under my own free will!