Baldurs Gate 3 made me play DND

I have long wanted to try my hand and play Dungeons and Dragons.
At the beginning of this month I did everything. I am sharing about how everything has passed, in this Long.

Approximate reading time: 19 minutes
Words: 3 104

Introduction

Hi all! My name is Sullivan. I’m a newcomer here and therefore I will start my adventures with a sincere story.

As for a month, I got hooked on the board game “Dragons and dungeons”.
Just don’t say that it is not in the know what it is ..

Dungeons & Dragons – This is a table role -playing game that saw light already in 1974, this is almost half a century ago!

The structure looks just at first glance. There are players and master of the game – the host who prepares the story, and the players in the course of its passage, they say they want to do. The results of the actions are determined mainly by the twenty -sided cube.

Sometimes the solutions of the master may not comply with the rules.
This is the gold rule of the game: “”DM is always right“, The so -called” masterful arbitrariness “.

I heard about DND for a long time, but I never tried to delve into what it is. He considered this a table of the same as all the others, with dreary rules, cringed miniature characters and strange manuscript drawings.

Confession

I never understood the joke to play board games. Especially in the age of development of computers and technologies. I honestly admit, but not trying to offend anyone – I considered such people who are affected by geeks who are playing from communication in such games or just those who do not have money for game iron in any manifestation.

But how was I mistaken. That is why he identified recognition by a separate paragraph in today’s article. I confess how wrong I was. And I hasten to explain it to the same players as I myself was just a month ago. Board games are not a backbone, but DND is generally a gap of everything. I can’t even imagine that such “technologies” were invented almost 50 years ago.
But any story has its own background, so it will be in my.

It all started in Baldurs Gate 3

In early August, a tactical role -playing game of the gates of Baldura 3 was released.
At that moment, the game industry was divided into “before” and “after”. No one could have thought that Larian Studios would be able to create a so large and relatively inexpensive project that will break through to the top of Steam. The preferences of the players were not the same. My game experience was no exception. The novelty made an indelible impression.

Having played a day on a pirate, I collected the last money and bought a licensed publication to express respect to the developers and officially join the trend.

The freedom of action, the number of classes and the abundance of the tasks worked out amazed. Especially bribed the opportunity to defeat the boss in her own way, free the captives or influence the game world. Crazy vertical gameplay in rooms, a stealth system and a bunch of other mechanics formed a perception around this game as a large worked out sandbox, although the open world is conditional here. I did not command 17 thousand endings, but at the same time, in the course of passage, I felt a huge scale that I can encounter in the future.

The system of partners also surprised. The first passage tried to play alone. I don’t like it when someone is dragging behind me. Taught that basically, satellites only interfere, occasionally helping in battle.
In BG3, my knowledge turned upside down. They are true here – unique cultural units, with their problems, characters and plot lines that I want to study. So everything is done cool, with love.

The temptation has become a highlight for me Real opportunity Wipe the conceived character. I have not met anything like it for a long time. In most role -playing games, you are allowed to be a barbar, thief or archer, choose a simple background and follow the plot. But none of this affects the gameplay and the experience of the game.

The gates of Baldur showed the true beauty of role -playing games when they gave the opportunity to respond in dialogs based on their race, class, background or consequences that you could allow. It was very pleasant to see an ambiguous reaction to the race of my character – an underground elf, who was taken cautiously on the surface. And the goblins in general began to be afraid and read, unquestioningly letting me where my first character had already received puffed rags around the neck.

Of course, I’m talking about AAA projects in which there are good graphics, an interesting plot and it’s nice to play it. I am sure that a dozen “Top Rolevok” is thrown in the comments, but I think that they will all be with graphics, as in “Cataclysm: Dark Days ahead”. Summing up, I remember a similar wig only in Fallout: New Vegas, which is rightfully considered the reference among role -playing games.

Someone passed Baldurs Gate 3 and forgot it, leaving her gather on the shelves in Steam. Someone did not like and the refund was issued, and someone still plays. I found something new in the game for myself – The source.

Baldurs Gate 3 created based on the fifth edition of the desktop Dungeons and Dragons. During the existence of DND, various reprints came out. There are five of them. They differ in content and volume of rules, gaming mechanics and all similar.

At some point, it became interesting to me: What are Dungeons and Dragons? How such a large -scale project was created in a board game and how he managed to conquer Steam charts, forcing the popular publishers.

UPD: I do not fully know what Warhammer 40,000 is, so I will not bring it in comparison or refer to it. I will definitely take care of leisure.

Sven Vinka and his team managed to do what they conceived – to introduce players who had not previously encountered board games, to DND. Show that there is such a game and that it is played like this, adding a mechanic with a throw of bones to a computer game, which I personally liked it very much.

Thanks to the gates of Baldur, I began to be https://shinyjokercasino.co.uk/ interested in dragons and dungeons. Thank you, Sven and Larian Studios.

Acquaintance with Dungeons and Dragons

The start of studying the game was bad. At first, YouTube met a video on creating a character that lasts forty minutes, then streams with a recording of games lasting more than five hours, and last and the news that some elders have been playing DND for forty years.

Most repelled “needlework”. Spawn was a troecomic in labor lessons. And here people are constantly driving with a stack of felt -tip pens, pencils, incomprehensible sheets and other office, which I have not yet understood where to embed dragons, adventures and dungeons in the world.

With each similar aspect, he experienced the severity in the study of the issue and in an unusual manner was moved away from the original DND towards analogues. For some reason, I bought “Epic fights of battle magicians”, began to study PBTA and, having listened to one of the readers, thought to buy “Tavern: Red Dragon”.

I wanted to quickly play something similar, authentic spirit Dungeons and Dragons, since the game itself contained an unimaginable and incomprehensible number of a mechanic that was too lazy to study. The game in this regard does not spare. Want to play – study. So it seemed to me ..

Anyway, something tormented inside, as if I were deviating from a given course and wasting time. I will not go into the subtleties and details of the game “Dragons and dungeons”. If interested, I leave you links to two instructions for the game. If interesting – read, they are only 300 pages. Each.

This is the problem DND. My idea of ​​attempts to play was like this: – Hello everyone, let’s play in the desk, where the total rules for 600+ pages.
After that, several options opened in front of me, after realizing the scale of the problem.

1. Find the same geeks that will make on this topic and take a chance to be ridiculed for being mistaken once in the endless walls of the texts.
2. Refuse from the undertaking play the original DND and continue to watch simplified analogues.
3. Take everything into your own hands and play by home rules, taking a ready -made story in advance, only prescribe characters for players.

It was at this moment that I understood – the game to be! Having a thought for about two months, I discard all doubts, I am looking for a distinct vanshot, I create colorful, but simple characters and announce the collection.

The final inspirer was the show “Curry Chicken Curry”. Star guests play “dungeons and dragons”, but by three times the cuts cut.
And it seemed to me a great idea. First, try the mechanics itself, act as a master and get acquainted personally with a board game, which I was secretly in love with.

Spoiler: This is the perfect tactic for those who want to force other players to play. If you, as a master, do everything right and approach the process in all seriousness, with enthusiasm – you can infect others.

The main thing here is to make it clear to the players that they have almost no restrictions, and the success of their choice will be prompt. The main aspect will be your desire to help the players figure it out – to prompt when it is necessary and not to climb if the player shows the initiative. Learn more about the rule “Yes, but …”

The first game

The “X” day has come. The moment at which I firmly decided that I would become a master and try to hold my first game with friends who are not familiar with DND and have never tried anything similar. He threw back the search for analogues and delved into preparation for Vanshot.
This is a separate game. As a rule, the duration of which goes no more than a couple of hours. With a clear beginning, prepared characters and a colorful ending in the framework of one game session.

I decided to take ready -made work from the Internet to understand what the final option looks like, what marks the master should do and how to decorate it all. I looked at streams how experienced masters lead the games, what difficulties they face, how and where they record the information necessary for the game.

I noticed that almost all sessions are built on adaptation to players’ actions. It is necessary to improvise a lot and cool so that everyone is interested in. Especially when the players “notice” the house or tavern, which the master did not initially register in history, only mentioned casually.
This scared me a lot, was never strong in improvisation and even a description of an inconspicuous house, an object and a character I could not immediately give out. I like to adhere to strict plans and frames that players are very joyful, acting in their own way.

In preparation, an interesting series of vanshots came across, which have a connection between – The resistance of the broom. These are some of the tasks separately separated by a common story and tie.
The plot is simple: In the glorious town of the flana, occultists appeared who hunt for dragon eggs. Players need to stop the villains, solve their secrets and find eggs themselves. That’s all.

There were no big plans for the game. Honestly, there were no plans at all. I was mentally ready for condemnation, to listen to how boring garbage for the nerds. These thoughts directed me in preparation. I tried to create as few interactions as possible with advanced mechanics of the game, concentrating players in conversations and fundamental mechanics – bone throws. I wanted to order physical cubes, but because of the fear of defeat, the first game cost virtual, on the phone of each players.

Along the way, he made the players, telling that in this board game you can do whatever they want, But in return he demanded to get used to the character, to win back actions in voice, facial expressions, movements and not to do what their characters would not do. Natively connecting players with their alter ego. The heroes themselves attributed to friends with whom he was well familiar.
I think that there is part of this, which interested the company to continue to play, because they literally ended up in a fantastic world.
Surprisingly – it worked!

In the first game, we got acquaintance with the characters, their characteristics, skills, orientation on the sheets of characters, the ability to throw bones and the most interesting in DND – being a player, to influence the development of history.

The initial adventure text consisted of 500 words, I added a thousand. “Painted” inconspicuous streets, introduced additional interactions and stopped on an approximate reading of the script at 12 minutes. We played for two hours.

UPD:: If interesting, I will post the original text and my version, plus a link to this series of vanshots.

The task was linear, the players did not make a turmoil and did not try to turn the plot in the other direction, but still enjoyed the atmosphere that we jointly created and supported. The improvisation that I mentioned above played a cruel joke.

Without understanding it, colorful descriptions of the types of plains and surroundings poured from the mouth. The prepared descriptions of the enemies and the goals of the assignment introduced into ecstasy both the master and the players listening to him.
In the end, the nervousness and the desire to burst behind the laptop monitor retreated. I saw the immersion and desire of the players to participate in the process. Only in the end did the shackles of awkwardness and clamping slept, we felt like a single team.
As a result, everyone was delighted.

Immediately after the end, we agreed to play again, but a week later. Friends begged me to make a new task many times longer, so that I would like to get tired of the game. The sip of the interaction that we received in an hour and a half of the game turned us in dependent, crazy.
The next few days, we began to communicate more closely, joked and remembered the past game with a smile. Along the way, I wrote a new adventure, taking as a basis, continued from the general series of vanshots.

Three days after the first game, the breakdown won. It was decided to play vanshot for other characters so that the expectation was not so tiring. I again took on the role of the master and began to write a new story.

The second game

This time I spread to the full. Without restraining his imagination and introducing new mechanics for more immersion and approaching the original Dungeons and Dragons.

The new story was a certain detective quest.
In the ice mountains, a frozen traveler is chosen to the players. Hendrick constantly talks about a certain golden figurine, which he and his comrade found in abandoned dwarf mines. But in fact, it turns out that a figurine is a once frozen creature that is already in the Tavern “Harse of Crafts”, absorbing one guest after another.
Players need to guess about the hidden danger and defeat the creature, saving as many innocent lives as possible.

Played in a new structure – nonlinearly. I created and prescribed several locations available for free movement and research. And then the first difficulties arose.

For example, the guys began to share either by once or by groups in two, due to the scale of action. This complicated and delayed the passage. While some did something, others were forced to sit and wait for their turn.
In subsequent games, we introduced a ban on separation. The maximum of someone can go away for his move for a personal conversation with the NPS, and then must return to the group. Where the team will go determined the majority of votes.

The “Higher Highway” turned out to be a game for the fifth to seventh levels of characters, but then I did not attach importance to this and took a restriction for convention.
Only now I understand that the author’s level in understanding was the skill and experience of players, not characters.
My adventurers only by the middle of the game realized that they could literally interact with the environment: to listen, inspect and do everything that is physically possible. Of course, players with extensive experience, such knowledge also more. Now I understand this restriction, keep in mind you.

To the new game, we invited a common acquaintance who, in real life of a calm soul,. Kind, open and charismatic. I decided to write for him an unusual character – Goblin, named Shish, who believes that he is actually Prince Faerun, who was enchanted by an evil witch.
When a beginner began to play a goblin, everyone was sitting with open mouths. It was so unusual to see a vile, cunning and slippery goblin, in a waging way, none of us could not cope. Interesting actions, the desire to communicate with others and personal motives were played “with a bang”. It was amazing.

The game itself lasted about four hours. The players failed the goal and were eagerly eaten by the creature. There were many mistakes on both sides.

I was wrong in that I gave too much will players who are still not familiar with opportunities, they even sometimes asked if they could do something. It can be over!
I was not going and do not plan to limit my players, but let them be ready for consequences. The level turned out to be too confusing and difficult for such levels, which is why, sometimes, they had a question “”And what should we do here?“

Players scattered their attention to unnecessary things and premises that had no value to what was happening. Sometimes their questions seemed merciless and had to invent answers on the go, which confused the course of history more and more.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed, found mistakes and made conclusions that the third game would be much cooler than everything that was.

The last game

After the second game, I was finally convinced that I had a new hobby. It was so absorbed in the process that I revised all the tips from Matt Mercer, began to master both books with the Dungeons and Dragons rules, became interested in writing characters and even bought a tablet for drawing.

The work was in full swing. Again took a backbone from a series of vanshots about flan, disagreed the essence and painted the story in his own way.

At the moment, this story is the longest text that I have ever written. 8 thousand 200 words. The total time of only reading ~ 52 minutes. We played six hours. We sat down at the table in the evening, and stood up before morning.
Working on a new adventure, I took into account all the mistakes and returned the linearity of the plot again. Added his own heroes, interesting NPSs and several third -party plot arches that will return to history in subsequent games. I did not skimp on the amount of text and painted everything as I could imagine.

I helped out personal enough. Introduced ideas from films, TV shows, comics and even cartoons into the plot. Among other things, I created a bunch of playlists for background music.
I highly recommend getting a small music column to create an atmosphere in games. This helps to catch up with the text in the text.

In the third game, we continued to add new, for our glass, mechanic. These features became the mechanics of theft in NPS, lutting and pumping the level. Different sites for its generation help help to create interesting loot in the pockets of creatures or on the shelves, on examination.
You just need to set a filter: potions, things, weapons and so on, and then generate several options. You yourself will not have time to understand how it happened. Played fresh and unusual for all sides of the party.

Results

“The devil is not so terrible as he is painted ..” – a saying that I would like to summarize a new experience and an incredible hobby that I got.

Dungeons and Dragons The incredible game that anyone who is not indifferent to role -playing games is obliged to play. This is an amazing experience for interacting with other people, the development of improvisation, social and writing skills if you are a master.

But to be a master is a huge work. It is necessary to observe a clear line between fun and prudence. The beauty of DND is that you, like your players, decide how to play. According to Roflu an hour after the plant, once a week with a carpenter, on serious srsas or completely different. Dungeons and dragons do not limit you and do not oblige you, on the contrary, helping you create a unique world with a unique story, interactions, plot arches and unexpected interchanges.

I saw someone playing the setting of Cyberpan, telepusics and other game. This is not my style, but what difference does it make if you enjoy the game? Probably this is the secret of the success of Dungeons and Dragons.

I am glad that one day I managed to collect eggs in a fist and decide to play your first party. For me, this is an interesting process that allows you to be in the spotlight, telling my story and imposing other people, together creating something new.

Thank you for reading!
Share your experience in the game in Dungeons and Dragons below. And if you still doubt yourself or look for a team for online races, I invite you to comment.