Session -1: How I got into playing D&D

 I wanted to build a world where the Party could go in any direction and find different adventures, so I made it with different continents and kingdoms that would offer up a variety of quests to give the players something to strive for in a way beyond leveling up. Part of that comes from the characters the players create, but I wanted to make a world where the actions the Party take has an impact. How they treat an NPC, who they help, who they ignore or who they kill, has consequences. I wanted the actions of the party to matter and it all stemmed from how I learned to play Dungeons & Dragons.

My introduction to D&D was the summer between 4th and 5th grade so about 1983ish. One friend, Alex got all the books for his birthday so we gave it at try at my house. It was a mess, my first character was a fighter called Thunderbolt, but before we could play, a huge argument broke out over if Eric could be a Minotaur instead of an Elf ("they're both magical!") and that was that it was a mess. Then in 5th grade, a new kid, Keith had a better idea of how to play so our game was headed in the right direction. Still, we were all young and relied heavily on the books and modules. We played during recess and had marathon sleep overs fueled by junk food and Mountain Dew. The games were all over the place, Tommy wanted to play Star Frontiers, so his guy had a wand (laser gun), encounters with NPC's had a 90% chance to end in combat and our primary DM (Alex) took an adversarial approach. Perhaps it was best show in the time my Elf, Concord, found an Arrow of Red Dragon Slaying +1. Which turned out to be super helpful when we snuck into the lair of a Red Dragon and even more helpful when I rolled a 20 when I shot at this Red Dragon... and the Dragon's saving throw roll was a... 1! Whoo-hoo! We defeated the Dragon and even Tommy shot his laser pistol in the air in joy. Alex was having none of it and declared that three more Red Dragons showed up to fight us. This resulted in a heated argument that put an end to our playing as a group. We formed a new group with a new DM (thanks Keith!), but still we were just sludging out way through the module's numbered encounters. Something was missing.

The summer between 5th and 6th grade, My Dad and I spent a week up at Uncle Dave's cabin in Maine where we canoed, swam and played all day, but at night? In the boonies of Maine, TV at night meant three channels, ABC, CBS and one from Canada. Since everything on TV was ice skating or something lame, my cousin broke out their D&D stuff. Now, being able to play D&D with my three older cousins and their friends was pretty cool to 12-year old me, but what stood out to me was they way they played. 

First, alignments were suggestions so if you character was lawful, they could do bad things or if they were chaotic, they could help others. Next, we could do whatever we wanted, but there would be consequences. So when we rode into a village and they offered us part of their meager treasure to stop the Bandits, we decided to kill their village leaders and steal all their treasure. That didn't seem like such a bad thing, but when we rode into town and tried to cash in their trinkets, we got outed as thieves and had a bounty put on us. From there on, we pretty much had to steal supplies, horses and hire untrustworthy NPCs to help us in our quest. We played the Keep on the Borderlands every night that week and battled our way through that hodgepodge of monsters and traps. We got betrayed by our NPCs in part because we were not good people, so we couldn't hire good people. We had an encounter with a Wandering Monster that was just a band of the villagers who were still after us and found us all the way down in the dungeon! ("Who are these guys?!?!")  Also after we got out of the Dungeon, a huge posse was waiting for us outside to arrest us. (Now that I think of it, maybe my cousins had watched Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid recently)

D&D was fun and not mired down in arguments over rules. We got to see what our characters could do with their skills and powers. I still remember thinking how cool it was that the Cleric could turn the Undead, not they were not cool enough to play one because the class wasn't allowed to use sharp weapons! Another thing I enjoyed was the music. My cousins had Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osborne and other metal legends playing in the background (but not too loud or else Dad and Uncle Dave wouldn't be able to hear the ABC Wide World of Sports) that helped set the tone. I got to see how they game could be and I was sold. They tracked who had the most kills in the group each night and whoever that was would get a chance to re-roll the next night. That Christmas I got all of the hardcover books as a combined gift from my Parents and grandparents. I read them all the way through and memorized which monsters could only be hurt with silver or magic swords. 

[ Sadly, when I was super-duper broke (or as I like to say, the years when I was trying to make it as an actor), I sold off all of my books and modules. Not that I could want to have all of them now, but if anyone out there sees a 1980s era Monster Manual with the signature "To Matt, from Grandma and Grandpa" let me know as I'd love to have that book back. ]

Where was I? Oh yeah, learning how to play in a way that was fun, cooperative and competitive has stayed with me. When I came back to our neighborhood, our game improved by leaps and bounds. I played with new friends in Middle School and was in the D&D club in High school, but we began to play other games. When Alan and I would hang out at Brian's in Lynn, it was a mix of bad horror movies with either me running Gamma World or Alan running D&D. I finally got my chance to DM and it was the start of my always inserting running gags in my campaigns. The first of which was that anytime they met an NPC and brutally murdered them for no reason, the NPC's dying breath was always something like "the Golden Scepter is hidden in the... Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!" and they NPC would fall off the tower!  

After high school is where D&D turned to Top Secret, Marvel Super Heroes, Wrestling Superstars, Boot Hill, (more) Gamma World, Champions of the Galaxy and more. We played almost every weekend for a while and it was a great way to stay in touch. As years passed, we added co-workers and our party grew bigger, which helped as people's lives changed and we lost players to distance or interest. We've gone to GenCon, PAXeast, Totalcon and one Unnamed Con where everyone freaked out at false live shooter alert that had everyone running out of the game rooms when someone mistook fireworks for gunshots. (USA! USA! USA!)  All of which is to say, D&D has been a big part of my life and I'm very glad for it.

Next up will be Session 0, where I will share how I came up with the world of Wyndham, the different societies, cultures and the events that would lead to the arrival of our Heroes.