Reviews: Dungeons & Dragons

Title: Dungeons & Dragons
Designer(s): Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Dungeons & Dragons has always been known as a pioneer in role-playing games, before the video game industry took the concept and added the visual settings, effects, and other graphic elements we are so used to today. However, there is always that extra element of surprise when you play D&D with just pencils and paper, and this experience was something we were looking for.

Coincidentally, Weiman, a friend of ours, introduced us to a couple of her other friends who used to play D&D quite some time ago. Looking to get back into D&D again, they agreed to help us ease into the game.

SETUP

The thing about D&D is the amount of prep you have to go through before the game starts. Apart from getting your Dungeon Master and finding your team mates, you need to read through your rules and create your characters and setting accordingly. This includes your character name, race, class, back stories, setting, and what not. You don’t need many tools as a participant, just these:

• Character Sheets
• Pencil
• Eraser
• D10
• D20
• 3 D6s

If you’re the Game Master, you need your scenario and dice value criteria for situations where dice need to be rolled.

STORY OF THE GAME

For our setting, our wonderful Dungeon Master a.k.a. Game Master a.k.a. Cedric, created a setting of a Post-Apocalyptic Singapore, at the risk of being overrun by evil care bears. So our band of characters has been called to fight this evil.

​CHARACTERS

Dr. Grimm, created by: Weiman Kow

​Dr. Grimm

• Elven Mage
• Neutral Evil
• Seems to be obsessed with magic cats and riding Mechs
• Also, not able to carry out any evil side actions just yet
• Played by Weiman

Willos Tealeaf, created by: Ben Chee

Willos Tealeaf

• Halfling Cleric
• Chaotic Good
• Has Halfling luck and protection from the Goddess Tymora
• Which is a good thing because he’s signal-whistle-trigger-happy and wants to eat orcs
• Played by Ben

Gluteus, son of Maximus, created by: Max Loh

Gluteus, Son of Maximus

• Dwarven Mage
• Lawful Neutral
• Seems to have an unexpectedly more volatile relationship with Willos than Dr. Grimm
• Will not hesitate to electrocute you into submission (especially if you abuse your signal whistle)
• Played by the Tiger

Alessandria "Contacts" Kuasimi, created by: Joelyn Alexandra, artwork by: Max Loh

Alessandria “Contacts” Kuasimi 

• Human Warrior
• Chaotic Good
• Apparently has strength rivalling Arnold Schwarznegger
• Cannot see for nuts so she ends up using Echo Location and Blind Telekinesis
• Played by Yours Truly

PLOT TWIST

Like many first timers into D&D, we started late because of prep and not knowing how to react to Cedric’s role playing antics. But as we went along, these were the main things we managed to take away from our first game:

1. For someone with Halfling luck, Willos has horrible rolls. Perhaps it’s because he’s meant to be Chaotic Good but he ends up blowing his signal whistle in dark, dangerous areas just for fun.
2. Gluteus was told it was uncommon for dwarves to become mages, but that didn’t phase him. Instead, he was attempting to electrocute Willos more than a couple of times because of untimely signal whistle usage.
3. Grey Care Bears are only the start. Stay away from Care Bears. And magical cats which resemble the Cheshire cat.

Those aside, it was fun being able to explore role-playing games with that extra dimension of immediate and unpredictable interaction. While you may miss your attack in a video game, rolling a “1” in any of our attack rolls may warrant something which will render you paralysed with stomach-clutching laughter.

Just note that this is a trial scenario, so we may or may not continue with these characters. If I could, I would class my character as a Ranger. Or a Fighter Mystic. Heh.

So far, we have slayed:

• 1 Boa Constrictor
• 1 Grey Care Bear
• And Willos’s signal whistle (kinda)

Our trial session ended quite well, and the beauty of D&D is that with all the information you gather with your own character sheets, you games can stretch for as long as you want.

At the same time, side plots and actions can be twisted into the game – something you can’t have in many video games – so everything is just down to your creativity.

However, we may be looking to have more sessions so please drop a comment if you would like to get episodic commentaries for future D&D hijinks!

Dungeons & Dragons was created by Wizards of the Coast and continues to expand. To find out how you can get started, click here.