Today I ran a game for my little brother and his friends. These kids were all 13-14, mostly eighth-graders, and only my brother already knew anything about D&D. During college, playing in the dorm's study room, I taught a fair number of new players what all this Strength and Dexterity nonsense was about, but I was a bit anxious about trying to teach four unruly youths at once. I mean hell, half these kids play Skyrim and the other half uses facebook. I need to compete with that.
We were running the Palace of the Silver Princess, mostly because I'm a lazy cur who forgot to prepare anything the night before. This week I should probably read the damn thing, since at the end the party was attacked by some priests and I have no idea who they work for. So, new players, unread adventure, motley collection of house rules. I had no idea how this was going to turn out.
What followed, much to my amazement, was one of the most typical D&D sessions of my life. Game started an hour late. One person didn't show up, no reason given. Two pizzas were devoured in their entirety. But what really shocked me was that a mere two hours after I explained to a girl that yes, I do call all the dice "d something," that's what the d means, that very same player was looking in panic over her character sheet, trying to find anything that could stop her mysterious strangler. Eventually she said "Wait, if I do the mermaid thing and turn my legs into a tail, will he fall over?"
"Well yeah, you're not supporting your own weight. He *rolls* drops you and staggers back, while you land dazed into the water."
At which point a friend chimed in "I've been telling you to do that for the last two turns!"
So yeah. One hour, I'm telling them how roleplaying is half play, half videogame, and half make-believe, while the next they're stabbing guys in the neck and making bandages from the bad guys' robes. They bickered over which of the four corridors to go down first, and laughed as the meat shield kept falling down stairs in the darkness (they brought no torches, a fact I frequently lambasted them on).
They didn't get very far though. Between the lateness, chargen, and me having to nip out for a trip to Little Caesar's, they only managed to explore a couple of pitch black corridors and fight some acolytes. In true D&D fashion, the mage almost died and was in fact choking on her own blood from a neck wound before being healed by magic.
Between the half brained schemes, yelling, rules layering, character death, stupid jokes, and looting of bodies, the kids hit just about every milestone of what used to be a typical Friday night with my old group. Which asks a powerful question: is this kind of hack and slash, zany group fun inherent in the oldschool D&D game? Or does my GMing just naturally bring that kind of play style out into the fore?
I can see arguments for both sides. Whatever the reason, everyone had a lot of fun, so I'd call the game a success. We'll see who comes back next week to explore the Palace of the Silver Princess, and whether things continue in the same fashion or whether the group develops a unique character of their own. I'm definitely looking forward to it, and might even post a play report if they accomplish anything of note.
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