Dungeons & Dragons

posted September 10, 2018 12:02 PM

Want to get together and play some Dungeons & Dragons?

This IRL post is a long shot but apparently playing Dungeons & Dragons is cool now so I wanted to see if there was sufficient MeFite interest in the Los Angeles region to get four to five players together from time to time (maybe once a month or so?) to play. Five players would be ideal so that in any given month if one or two players have other priorities we can still put together a workable group.

5th Edition. Open to players over 18 years of age. All experience levels welcome; we can work together to help you figure out the game if there is anything with which you are having trouble. Players of any ancestry, sexual orientation and gender presentation are explicitly invited; tabletop roleplaying is for everyone.

posted by Parasite Unseen to Proposed (21 comments total)

This sounds like fun, but my schedule is so random I doubt I would be able to make it work. But... maybe?
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 1:31 AM on September 11, 2018

Yes please so I can learn!! (yay critical role)
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:36 AM on September 11, 2018

That sounds fun to me. I have very minimal experience, but I'd love to try to learn more and play.
posted by ajroyer at 5:13 AM on September 11, 2018

I am not experienced but potentially interested!

Question: is D&D explicitly heavy on combat and fantasy? Or can it accommodate minimal to no combat, and Harry Potter levels of magical realism?
posted by Goblin Barbarian at 9:29 AM on September 11, 2018

My tabletop experience is outdated, but I would like to give this a shot.
posted by itesser at 10:15 AM on September 11, 2018

I've been doing Pathfinder monthly with a group for a few years now; it'd be interesting to see how 5th edition and a different group plays, assuming we can work out all the time/geography issues LA usually presents. :)
posted by wildblueyonder at 12:06 PM on September 11, 2018

If it's in Burbank or Glendale, I could be down; I have extra dice from back when we ran CoC/Delta Green games that have been gathering dust for a while.

(I am not an authority, GB, but if you want no combat/mostly social RP, I imagine one of the indie systems would work better?)
posted by tautological at 1:39 PM on September 11, 2018

Generally speaking, do Saturdays or Sundays work better for everyone? Or is this the sort of thing that should be decided month to month? I want to set a date, what is everyone’s availability like the weekend of September 28-29 or October 13-14?
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:49 PM on September 11, 2018

Question: is D&D explicitly heavy on combat and fantasy? Or can it accommodate minimal to no combat, and Harry Potter levels of magical realism?

The short answer is: Yes it is. No it can't.

The longer and slightly more nuanced answer is that Dungeons & Dragons can run a zero-combat, more-realistic campaign but good golly does one have to force some square pegs into some round holes in order to make that happen. The system was designed with a certain play style in mind and while it is possible to accommodate a different style it would be considerably less work to run the sort of game you want with something that was designed with your preferred style in mind.

We're in sort of a golden age of tabletop roleplaying and there is an embarrassment of riches in terms of game choice right now. I've run low-combat magical realism campaigns successfully and with little to no need to modify the system using the Monsterhearts and The Dresden Files campaign systems in the past few years. You may want to give them a look.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 2:10 PM on September 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Thank you for taking the time to answer and pointing me towards additional resources. Sounds like I will pass for now. :)
posted by Goblin Barbarian at 6:37 PM on September 11, 2018

What edition and whereabouts?
posted by ApathyGirl at 10:12 AM on September 12, 2018

I plan on using 5th Edition. I'm located in Santa Monica but I recognize that that's an unreasonable distance for a lot of people so I was thinking somewhere more central (Pasadena-ish?).
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:36 AM on September 13, 2018

I'm interested and in Santa Monica as well, but could do somewhere accessible. A weekend (Sundays in particular) if it was once or twice a month or a particular weekday in the evening. Sep 28-29 work well for me, but not Oct 13-14.
posted by EsotericAlgorithm at 12:12 AM on September 14, 2018

I'm good generally with either Sat or Sun. I'm in West LA so SM works for me.
posted by ajroyer at 12:19 PM on September 15, 2018

I don’t remember anything about how to play beyond that it was a good time, so I’d definitely be up for joining a campaign provided ya’ll can stomach the hand holding. In WeHo as well.
posted by karanlyons at 6:00 PM on September 16, 2018

I think I have to pass on this go-around due to personal bandwidth issues - but I'd be interested in the future!
posted by ApathyGirl at 3:56 PM on September 18, 2018

I'm curious, though in Los Feliz. I have a generally flexible schedule. I haven't played legit D&D since uh well, I have the AD&D second edition player's guide so I assume some things have changed since then. And only own d6s anymore.
posted by klangklangston at 11:03 AM on September 20, 2018

Hi everyone, I'm still very excited about the possibility of doing this but my father-in-law had a heart attack recently (he is actually in surgery as I type this) and that's been preventing my wife and I from making any concrete plans until there's less of a chance that we'll need to fly to the East Coast on short notice. I will absolutely be returning to this topic to try to get a game going once things are a little less tenuous around here. Thanks for your patience!
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:24 PM on September 27, 2018

Sorry to hear that! Good luck with FiL health.
posted by klangklangston at 12:44 PM on October 1, 2018

Checking in here because it’s been at the back of my brain since I got the irl email. Sorry to hear about your father-in-law Parasite Unseen. If you get to a place where this is something you can do, I’m in. I’m in the West Valley, but I’m down for anywhere on a weekend.

I’ve been running a 5e game for my friends and our kids for the past couple of years. It’s the first time I’ve played since Jr High and it’s been pretty fun DM’ing for them, but I really want to be a player.

I don’t visit this site as much as I used to so if this ends up happening you can reach me at the email in my profile or MeMail.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:22 PM on October 4, 2018

If you want the basics of D&D 5th edition, Wizards has a free, fully playable version here.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:28 PM on October 4, 2018