I have a hard time believing that my last post was 3 months ago, but here we are. A lot has been going on that has contributed to taking time away from my hobbies. However, that is life when you are a family man with a job. Poor excuse though.

I work in higher education and when a new semester starts it is always a hectic time. However, this year I ended up switching to a new job in the middle of all that. I’m still in IT for a higher ed, but it’s just a bigger institution than I was at. A better work environment as well.

Now that all that has settled I can get back on this horse. I have different things planned. More that just DnD. I’m going to take a stab at twitch streaming. I know I enjoy watching twitch streams so why not contribute  to the community. Also might be a good way to get my son to play some games with me if I stream them right?

So, I’ve been reading about the west marches style of play. I see it as something that would be really beneficial to my family. With our busy schedules it is difficult for us to sit down a play regularly. Between work and extracurricular activities it’s tough to prepare a story/campaign with depth. Now what I can provide is dungeon delving.

To be honest it’s what my son wants. He’s 12 character development is not a priority. He was to find loot. Also it helps me in a way because I just like drawing out dungeons and caves. If they are connected story wise cool and if not who cares?

When I get the idea as a whole fleshed out I share it here. I know this is nothing new to the community as a whole, but I feel like some of you may have some feed back that will be useful.

My family and I just returned home from our vacation a couple days ago. It started out rough, but ended well. We went to our usual stomping grounds of Gulfport, MS. I ate enough oysters to probably put a dent in the population.

The first few days we were there my youngest kid was sick. She was pitiful. Luckily she bounced back well enough to enjoy herself.

Prior to leaving on this trip I was looking up hobby shop/table top place there in the area. I found just that in Biloxi. A pub called The Wayward Kraken. We loved it. Great atmosphere and the food was good and affordable. They had a good selection of games to choose from that you could take back to your table and play. You could bring your own games in and play. They also had a back room with large tables for D&D and Warhammer.

My wife and son wandered back and discovered a group playing D&D. They were great group. Let my son sit with them and watch and even invited us back that Saturday night for another game. Which we did return to spectate.

The DM (Richard if you’re reading this thanks again!) was really friendly and he did a great job. My wife and I learned a lot from watching their game and we really appreciated them being kind enough to let us sit in.

If you are ever down in Biloxi, MS. Stop in at the Wayward Kraken. Sit down have a beer and order the Ocarina of Lime tacos. You won’t regret it.

I love video games (shocker I know). One thing I’ve noticed since diving head first into this table top rpg world is that there are some D&D based video games. Now I remember playing Baldur’s Gate when I was a teenager, but I never really gave the game mechanics much thought. I just played the game. Same goes for Neverwinter Nights.

Now here we are almost 20 years later and I’ve played the games again (nostalgia is a powerful thing) and I have a greater appreciation for them. Baldur’s Gate is slow going almost to the point that it’s almost unplayable (Damn you Skyrim and Witcher! You’ve spoiled me!). However, it helps me understand basic D&D game mechanics and how the rolls work. Neverwinter Nights on the other hand still holds up in my opinion. Yeah the graphics are dated, but the gameplay has a pace that doesn’t leave me wanting to rip my eyes out.

Interestingly enough I had trouble installing NWN. So a quick google search for a fix led me down a path to a free mmo called Neverwinter. I downloaded and played for a few hours last night. The game is visually pleasing but that is about it. Sure the game is free, but it is absolutely full of micro transactions. I get they need to make some sort of income to keep the game going, but it hurts the story (lack thereof as far as I can tell). This also made me remember there being a Dungeons and Dragon mmo long ago. Which is still around and free to play as well (micro transaction included). I’ve never played it, but I’ve not heard much good about it.

Now here we are to the whole point of this blog post. Why aren’t there many good video games set in the D&D universe? I mean my go to answer is “well why make one when you have this amazing table top game that you can make your own?”, but sometimes you just want to be immersed in that sweet virtual world. Now I’m sure I’m probably missing some D&D universe video games (and if I am let me know I want to check them out!). I hope that in the future they can produce some games that are worth the investment.

I have been blessed with a family of like minded nerds. My wife is a wonderful woman who is just as passionate about books, games, movies, etc. (Although she does take it one step further with her rabid obsession with the Seattle Seahawks) This whole entire adventure started with my wife watching TableTop. Watching Whil Wheaton have terrible dice rolls lead us down this you tube rabbit hole to a show called Critical Role. We instantly feel in love with this group of voice actors playing a game that we knew about, but just never got a chance to play. I showed my wife the D&D books I had. In my college days my friends and I always wanted to play but we just never could get past making our characters. So, I bought the 5e players handbook and start set and away we went.

Characters were rolled and my wife is a half-elf bard and my son a half-elf fighter. I brushed up on how to DM and we had a lot more fun that I expected. I was worried it might be difficult for my 12 year old son to catch on to the story or make appropriate decisions. Boy was I wrong he picked up on small story details his mother missed (proud dad moment). He even really jumped in with the role playing as well.

Now that we have got that initial uneasiness and expectations out of the way I believe we will be able to just move right along. Having never ran a game before I have found a plethora of videos and blogs with tips/tricks and great advice out there. I must also add the 5e rules are much easier to grasp as a newcomer than 3.5 back in my younger days (hence why we struggled to make characters).

If your new to table top rpgs and you want to give it a try get the starter set. I picked one up on amazon for $13. It has everything you need to try it out and see if it is something you would like to continue doing.