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A Night Of Pirates And Fancy Hats

Our bright-eyed group of adventurers cautiously entered into the dimly lit hat store. As their eyes adjust to the half light, they notice dozens of beautiful hats lining the walls and windows. The group begins to move through the small store, failing to notice the large trapdoor in the ceiling. As they reach the middle of the room, a large net suddenly falls from the ceiling, entrapping the party. One member takes the blunt of the blow on his head and is knocked unconscious, another pinned down to his stomach. The rest struggle free as the shop keep runs out side screaming for guards. The gang attempts to escape out the back of the shop, but the unconscious man slows them down too much and the guards just manage to apprehend them.

This was one of many fun and absurd moments on Tuesday night at the Dungeons and Dragons Big Read event at Herrick District Library. This was a fairly sizable event, with about 35 people in 5 different campaigns. There were a few more players than expected, so I ended up being a dungeon master and lead a group of players through the campaign. We had 6 players, 1 who had played a lot, 3 who had played a little, and 2 who were brand new. Everyone used premade characters, and our party ended up with a halfling rogue, a half orc cleric, a human warrior, a halfling monk, a dragonborn bard, and a human paladin. Despite the variance in skill, everyone caught on to the game pretty quickly, and we got into the storytelling aspect very easily. Everyone was talking in character and acting out their actions as we went along, and we progressed pretty quickly into the campaign.

Overall I had a ton of fun. This was my first time playing Dungeons and Dragons in nearly year, and fell back into the swing of it quite quickly. Having a few new people in the group was also really enjoyable as it reminded me of my time learning this zany, fun and abstract game.

Comments

  1. I really enjoyed your storytelling part in the beginning, it really drew me in and made me wanna keep reading. One of the only reasons I had to not go to this event was that I had never played D and D before, but hearing that there were new people, and that they caught on quick, makes me wish I had gone.

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  2. I haven't played DnD in over 3 years and at first I chuckled at the idea of using it as a big read event. But the human connections you make over storytelling are wonderful, and, in a way, tie back to Station 11.

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