Tables & Tales

I tried D&D long ago for the first time and it was meh. The DM was a sadistic a-hole, the plot mundane, the party obviously less interested in playing together and more interested in showing off their prowess by starting fights every five minutes.

If you didn’t enjoy your first tabletop experience it could very well be the table, not the game.

Fast forward nearly six years and my new partner decided we were going to play not D&D but another system our friends had always wanted to try written by the team that helped put together the rules for Third Edition (Note: D&D has various editions, currently we’re on Fifth Edition I believe). This system, called 13th Age, focused more on storytelling and less on rules / rigidity. Each player in addition to the usual stats and abilities has to make up “backgrounds” which they assign points to and then have to storytell during the campaign in order to get the bonus to their roll. For example, I once played a bard who was 5 years sober and refused all drugs (i.e. health potions included), but thanks to their willpower I got +3 on my recovery rolls.

The absolute funnest part though is selecting your “One Unique Thing” - which is a thing that has absolutely no impact on your dice or your battle prowess. It’s just a weird quirk your character has that you have to constantly roleplay into the story. I’ve fought with an elf who had a lisp. I’ve fought with a half-orc barbarian who had a soft spot for fluffy enemies and wouldn’t attack anything with fur. I’ve fought with a ranger who was human but raised by vampires so they had weird fake-vampire traits. I’ve fought with a cleric who worshipped a god who gifted them a flask that was always nearly empty (don’t ask - they role played amazingly well). It’s random, but also hilarious.

After changing systems having a new crew completed the experience. Our new party enjoyed finding creative solutions to problems outside of looting & burning towns. My favorite campaign was likely the one where we were tasked with procuring dragon teeth...so after much discussion we determined the easiest way to do this would be to break into a retirement home for dragons and steal their old teeth. The DM paused at this point to confirm we really wanted to do this and we demanded that yes, absolutely we wanted to break into a dragon retirement home - obviously they’re wealthy and can afford hospice care in their old age.

Having an understanding DM also makes the game way more fun. The DM acknowledged our idea, ran with it, and an hour later we were trundling down a hill in a stolen cart filled with dental equipment and discarded fangs while being chased by drakken nursing staff.

Good times. Also for the record drakkens are not fluffy - a very key point for strategy planning. Vampires also know a thing or two about fang removal. Who knew.