Rochester Gamers Community

It is the quintessential role playing game. There can be no other game being described by those words. Whether you love it, hate it, or are completely indifferent, Dungeons and Dragons is what most people think of when they think of role playing games. It wasn’t first, nor is it necessarily the best one for you, but there is no denying its staying power and sheer appeal. Countless video games, board games, miniature games, card games and even cartoons and movie adaptations bear the D&D brand, to say nothing of the mountain of sourcebooks available to the player who just can’t get enough.

The concept is simple enough, one player, the Dungeon Master, designs a world of fantasy and magic, or uses an individualized version of one of the published settings .to do so. He controls who does what, except for the other players. Each of them takes on the role of a character in that setting, each with their own morals, goals, ambitions and religious beliefs.

It is in the interaction of each player’s character with the world around them that the genius of this game lies. One session can involve a battle with dark creatures of myth and legend, and another can involve diplomacy and guile, convincing others that your path is the one to save the villagers lives. Most sessions will involve both elements, and balancing them is the job of the DM.

If you can think of a fantasy character or race, its available in some way in the D&D universe. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Dragons, races descended from the divine or the demonic, each plays a role in shaping the world. Naturally, there can be tensions betwixt and between these groups, often providing the stuff of adventure for the player characters.

Each player character assumes one race, sometimes a half breed between a human and a non-human race, and then chooses his or her profession. They too run the gamut of skills and talents. Some can fight better than others, some have skillful talents that can come in handy in sticky situations, still others have the ability to cast spells in service of their gods, and others seek arcane knowledge long forgotten by all but the most sage in the land. There are specialized versions of many of these, some which blur the line between two or even three of these.

Each profession, or class, has certain skills that it is typically better at than others, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t take the abilities that are usually reserved for someone else, it just means extra time spent specializing. If you want to be a hefty fighter who can pick locks, you can do that, but it will likely be one of the only abilities you have. Few are the skills that are reserved for only one or two classes, yet this restriction is what makes those classes so desired.

In addition to the skills each character has, they also have feats, abilities that represent either natural ability or trained talent that allows you to do things that even other members of your class can’t do.. These too can include nearly anything, from the ability to destroy someone’s weapon to the ability to take more damage or extend the power of your magical spells to levels previously unattainable.

Characters gain experience as they adventure through the land the DM creates, becoming even more powerful as they advance in level. This leads to advanced skills reserved for more powerful characters. They even can become the rulers of the land, though that typically means they have more mundane tasks to do than adventuring, also meaning they’re less likely to be played.

There are no winners or losers in this game. You play a role, you decide what it is you’d like to do with your character, you decide if you want to join the group, or why it is you want to do so. Characters can and do die in the game though, the cost of trying to defeat the forces of evil (or good, if you’d like) can be dear.

To play the game all you really need is a willing group of at least 3, one of whom is willing to be responsible for the majority of the preparation as the DM, and 3 sourcebooks. The game probably plays best with 5-7, including the DM, but any number higher than 1 can work. The players really only need a copy of the player’s handbook while the DM should also be familiar with this book as well as the dungeon master’s guide and the monster manual, as the players will eventually have to fight some enemies.

A knock against this game is the many rules that govern things like combat and spellcasting. Each action is one of 3 types, and differentiating these can be confusing for new players. Some players will have difficulty understanding when an action is risky and when it isn’t, and that can be frustrating as well. Once you’ve played a couple times you begin to understand the system more, and you know where to find the rules you’re interested in. Each spell has its own rules, and these too can take a moment to understand. The basic encounters at lower levels will prepare you for the more confusing, more challenging rules to come.

Why the 3.5 edition? Simply put, the rules introduced in the third edition needed more tweaking than could be done through errata and re-releases. There were classes that were flat-out more powerful than others, and that just isn’t good for the game. The third edition represented over 10 years of development from the 2nd, and there were bound to be imbalances that players could exploit. A game where one character can solve any challenge isn’t fun for anyone. Why would that character ever take someone else with him? They’d only slow him down.

While the game isn’t perfect, I’ve personally been playing it off and on, with different groups of people for over 20 years. I started with my uncles, moved on to friends throughout school, and now have found one of the greatest groups of people I’ve met through my desire to find a group in Rochester. If I weren’t a D&D player, I might never have walked into that comic shop that day, and wouldn’t have found great friends in RGC. This game is what you make it, and I can say without a doubt that I’ve made it something I’ll enjoy for a long time to come. If the idea of getting together with friends and playing the roles of fantastic heroes and diabolical villains appeals to you, I’d recommend you give the game a chance as well. You might just find something you love in something you never thought you’d even like.