Learning to Roll with 4th Ed. at Worldwide D&D Game Day
July 2008 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Make Your Own Mounts
- Gaming in the Media: Nintendo Learns It Ain’t Easy Being Green
Interviews
- Interview: Lady Fireez [The Guild of Gaming Women]
Articles
- Girls Just Want to Make Fun
Author: Mara Poulsen
- Game with Your Family
Author: Robyn Fleming
- Learning to Roll with 4th Ed.
Author: Carla Lee
Mara talks about how Microsoft is revolutionizing video game development.
Robyn has some tips on what kind of games are ones that the whole family can enjoy.
Carla shares her experience playing D&D at Worldwide D&D Game Day.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
Odds 'n Ends
Hi, my name is Carla, and I don’t play D&D.
This makes me an oddity among the gamers I know, female and male, old and young. Sure, they all play other games, too, but every single tabletop gamer I’ve ever met either used to play or currently plays Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve had wonderful gaming groups, supportive gaming groups, interesting and creative gaming groups where I couldn’t participate for weeks or months at a time because they wanted to play D&D and I didn’t. Dungeons & Dragons didn’t appeal to me for a variety of reasons, but mostly that it didn’t feel accessible to me with my (still new!) background of d10 gaming, and I wanted more emphasis on the roleplaying and less on the dice – more role, less roll.
When we played other games, my gaming groups had a good balance between the roleplaying and the dice rolling, but as soon as D&D hit the table, it all changed. I tried it with a couple different groups, and never liked it. I resigned myself to a life of part-time gaming, and being the odd one out in my gaming groups.
When I heard that 4th Edition D&D was supposed to be new-gamer friendly, family friendly, and far more accessible – and I heard this a lot, both from gamers anticipating the release and from a variety of people at the release itself – I took it as a challenge.
I’m in the Seattle area for the summer, and since Neumo’s was going to be the site of the Worldwide D&D Game Day Headquarters and 4th Edition launch, I thought it was time to put the new version of D&D to the test. When I mentioned this to Robyn Fleming, she asked if I would like to write something for Cerise about my experience. Of course! I said. It’s an honor, and a pleasure, to help support a magazine which is doing so much for women in gaming.
To make things more interesting, I also took a friend of mine to the event. Even though I didn’t like D&D, I went in with an established love of gaming. My friend, Kelley, had never gamed. I thought it would be a good way to put the idea of accessible gaming to the test.
I’ll admit it. Everyone was right. D&D, at least the 4th edition, is awesome.
The Event
I spent a lot of time talking to Sara Girard, Associate Brand Manager at Wizards of the Coast and marketing lead for Dungeons & Dragons, who was eager to explain things to me. I was worried that it would be frustrating to the staff when I asked questions without having a background in D&D, but everyone was happy to talk to us, and Sara was particularly helpful. She, too, talked a lot about wanting to bring in new gamers and give families a game they could play together. She even convinced us to give the short game, an encounter with a white dragon, a try.
When I first arrived, the guys really outnumbered the girls, and I was afraid I’d finally have to face negative comments about being a female gamer. I’ve been lucky, so far; my gaming groups have been predominantly women. The group at Neumo’s wasn’t what I was used to facing.
The balance changed as the day went on, however. A lot of families showed up, and I saw more and more women at the tables. Kelley and I sat down at a table with four female players, one male player, and a female DM. In a nice segue from what Sara had been saying, the other players were a family: Dad, Mom, and daughter. They all had experience in earlier editions of D&D, but didn’t bat an eyelash at our inexperience.
The Game
Our game wasn’t perfect. Of the five character sheets provided, four were for male characters – not a very even ratio. It was really difficult for a group of level one characters to take on a white dragon. No one really had their own dice, and the dice provided didn’t roll well for us. The game was supposed to take less than an hour, but it dragged on for some time more.
And yet, not once did I get bored. Even though there was a lot of roll and not as much role (it was a single encounter focused on battle), I found that there was still roleplaying to be done when making decisions about where to attack on the board, or whether to retreat.
Members of the party died, and still we struggled on. We killed the white dragon. It was mostly luck, and a little bit determination, and also a complete rush. Kelley and I cheered, and then took our new miniatures and character sheets and went on to be dwarfed by the giant Beholder.
The Result
Did 4th Edition turn a non-gamer into a gamer? I’m not sure. I don’t think Kelley will be running out to join any gaming groups while we’re here this summer, but I talked to her about hitting the gaming stores when we get back to school in the fall. She had fun, at least, and felt very welcomed, not like an outsider at all, because everyone took time to explain things to us, and to answer our questions. She really got into the game while we were playing, and though she wasn’t sure how people play it for hours on end, week after week, she said she could see it being a lot of fun for short-term games. It gave her a new view of gamers and gaming, and she’ll have a good story to tell about her summer.
Did 4th Edition turn a non-fan of D&D into a fan? Absolutely. I enjoyed it so much I went out two days later and joined a new gaming group for the summer. We meet twice a week, there is an even balance between men and women, and 4th Edition continues to be much more fun than I ever expected.
I don’t regret not playing D&D earlier. It never felt right; it was more like work than fun. But I am glad I went to the release party and gave the new version a try, because it is my favorite game right now. Logically, I knew I was a legitimate gamer simply because I gamed; sometimes I wondered, though, because everyone else always loved D&D so much. Was it me? Was I doing it wrong?
I came home from Worldwide D&D Game Day with my first miniature, the first d20 I had ever used for gaming, my first D&D swag (t-shirt, pencil, stickers) – and the knowledge that, no, I wasn’t doing it wrong. It finally made sense. It finally felt right.
Hi, my name is Carla, and I play D&D.
