It's the opening day of London MCM Comic Con. The Excel Centre halls are filled with the sounds of laughter and the sight of hundreds of lovingly crafted costumes. After a stroll through the stalls, a close encounter with some LARPers, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a Baldur’s Gate 3 panel it was time for me to venture into the unknown… centre stage for an Actual Play of a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons one-shot (stand-alone short a🔥dventure) at the Dicebreaker panel.
Mark ‘Sherlock’ Hulmes from High Rollers takes the dungeon m🐠aster chair, joined by Jess Jewel from Questing Time, Johnny Chiodini from Oxventure, Jasper William Cartwright ꦡand Dicebreaker’s Liz Kennedy from 3 Black Halflings, and Shamini Bundell from RP Geeks.
Nat💧ural Six Is The Perfect Entrypoint For Those New To Watching Others Play Dungeons & Drag💙ons
Watc𒊎hing Natural Six at EGX made me realise I could learn so much from watching others play Dungeon🌊s & Dragons.
My journey into D&D is a recent one. I've known the basic premise for a long time, but have never gone beyond looking through source books and admiring the beautiful artwork. That is, until TheGamer D&D group began a few months back. Now, every three weeks or so, I join my co-workers as we journey through an adventure expertly crafted by Editor-In-Chief/DM Stacey Henley. Every session we absolutely ruin all her plans with our complete lack of ability to make smart choi𒊎ces and🌃 our tendency to embrace chaos.
This leap into the world of D&a𝔍mp;D sparked an uptick in my interest, or at least enough for me to buy Balder’s Gate 3. Yes, I know it’s not the same, but everyone’s playing, ok? I wanted to be a cooI kid and was sold as soon as I saw Karlach. I’ve equally enjoyed bringing chaos into its beautifully crafted D&D setting, but I’d not yet rolled the dice on watching other people play their own meticulously crafted campaigns.
Of course, I’m aware of the feast of D&D games easily accessible on the internet for us all to enjoy, I’ve just never watched them. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Critical Role remains the largest🦹 of the bunch, but there are so many talented people in this sphere, how am I supposed to choose? I’m not averse to watchi🐓ng people play games, in fact, I regularly used to watch Will Wheaton’s Tabletop, but I just couldn’t decide where to start. So I didn’t.
Then along came Comic Con. It was a live, 90-minute one-shot adventure with a range of the best talent around all right in front of me. What could b𝔉e a better place to begin?
The introductions were as fierce as the outfits, as one by one the panel took their seats. Some had brought dice, while others used apps to roll. It also became apparent that the cast of characters was as varied as the way they played the ဣgame.
Our setting was a wedding, our characters mainly a mix of guests. Some knew each other, while others were strangers. Liv Kennedy was Delta, a singer brought here to flex her vocal chords for th🃏e bride w𒊎hom she considers a friend. Similarly, Shamini Bundell played a druid named Donna, another friend of the bride who was in charge of the, ahem, unique flower arrangements.
Joining them was Johnny Chiodini 𓆏as Jasper, a ‘homeopathy expert’, who appeared to be on the guest list after apparently curing the plague, something he was as surprised to hear as the rest of us. Jasper arrived with his companion Supplies Closet, a sentient supply closet played by Jess Jewel, who contains and distributes the ‘remedies’ Silas sells. Finally, we were introduced to Azul, a &lsquo🍨;waiter’ with a sinister plan, the details of which I’m still not entirely sure of.
As the story unfolded, guided 𝓡by DM by Mark Hulmes, the first thing that struck me was how quickly I became completely and utterly invested in this narrative. The scene had barely been set before I decided that Supplies Closet was my favourite, and I absolutely wanted to be her bestie. Even before I discovered that she had some kind of interdimensional TARDIS thing going on, with room inside her for a bride to prepare for her weddi⛄ng.
There was drama, mystery, intrigue, and some very sinister moments. However, this was accompanied by a lot of humo♍ur and some, shall we say, questionable, decisions. I also quickly realised that this medium is unlike any other.
The panel had dressed for the occasion with꧅ Bundell in particular going all out with an amazing druid costume. After introductions they all slipped into their characters, interacting with each other with the same chemistry and grace as a theatre troup would. While actions have to be requested, such as asking to do a perception check, everything flowed seamlessly and felt like part of the story.
Actual Plays lack the hand-holding elements of a play or show. There’s no scenery, mi𝔉nimal costumes, and few props. Here the story was played entirely in The Theatre of the Mind.
In many ways, it’s more like reading a book or listening to a radio play, when you ജhave to use your imagination to picture the details. However, it’s not just the people telling the story that make it unique. It all comes down to the roll of the dice.
Rolling dice is the heart of D&D and it’s what makes watching or playing a𓆉 game unique. Every dice roll can change the story, no matter the plans of the DM. A badly timed low roll can mean a character missing out on vital information they’ll need later, or a natural 20 on a decision the DM was hesitant to allow can really send an adventu꧂re off track.
Watching both players and DM adjust to the roll of the dice in seconds is a fascinating thing to see. There were unexpected rolls scattered throughout the game, with a natural one scuppering plans almost as often as the natural 20's encouraged them.
It’s this unpredictability that makes D&D so fascinating to watch, and as the very last dice roll determined a character’s fate, I was struck with the realization that I need more of this. There jus𒅌t r𝓰emains the same question as before… where on earth do I begin?