D&D INTRODUCTORY SESSION

Hey guys! You're seeing this post because I thought it'd be easier to put everything on a single reference page that you can come back to, rather than send long-ass messages with links all over the place. (If you're looking at this post and you HAVEN'T received a message with a link to it... look, there is very little content worth looking at on the site right now, but maybe come back after we actually kick it off again?)

IN SHORT

  • THE DUNGEON MASTER: Viv, first-timer
  • THE PLAYERS: 4 (3 new players, 1 Blake)
  • THE MASCOT: Bodhi, the good dognoodle
  • THE VENUE: Bodhi's house (we'll text the address to those of you who don't have it closer to the date)
  • THE DATE: TBC - see Sorting out a Date below
  • THE TIME: It will probably start in the early afternoon and go for 3-4 hours.
  • THE GAME: I've got a few short, pre-made adventures that have been designed for both first-time players and first-time DMs. I'd like us to run 2-3 of them if we can on the day, because each of them covers different parts of D&D.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Basically, if you're really unsure about how much you're going to like D&D, you don't need anything at all except your fine self. Otherwise, this list will give you an idea of what you'll need before or on the first session.

  • A character (see the Character Generation section)
  • Dice (we have heaps, don't buy any if you don't want to)
  • Pencils & erasers
  • Snacks/drinks, especially if you're picky

CHARACTER CREATION

OPTION ONE: MAKE YOUR OWN CHARACTER! If you're super keen and familiar with games in general, you can have a go at making your own. You can either come a bit early on the day and we can help you out (it can be a lengthy process, ~30 minutes or more), or you can do it yourself beforehand and we'll check your work when you get here.

If you want to make your own but want our help, come by about half an hour to an hour earlier and we'll walk you through it (or you can come by on a totally different day, whichever is easier for you). This is generally a better idea than going it yourself because it saves you both time and potential cash, but we don't want to eat into the main session time too much, either. Let us know!

If you want to do it by yourself before the day and don't want to spend money on the Player's Handbook, then check out DND Beyond. They're affiliates of the makers of D&D and signing up free gives you access to the basic rules of the game... enough to make basic characters! The character builder on the website is super intuitive, and it walks you through the entire process. You can always let me know if you get stuck or have questions! Otherwise, if you prefer to go old school, the Player's Handbook costs $50-$60 retail and is known to be cheaper online; we can lend ours out too but we only have the one, so we can't let it go for very long! If you've got the cash, consider supporting the fine folks at Rabble Books & Games in Maylands.

You'll need a character sheet once you've created your character. If you've made yours on DND Beyond, we can log into your account from our computer here and print out the sheets once we've checked your character over. Otherwise, you can get blank Character Sheets here.

OPTION TWO: USE A PRE-MADE CHARACTER! If you're still a bit unsure of what you've signed up for, don't stress... I have a pile of pre-made characters that you can customise and use straightaway, all designed to be as easy on newcomers as possible! Their character sheets are already printed out with pretty pictures, they just need more meat on their backstory bones. Check them out below and let me know if you've like to bags one ahead of time, otherwise you can choose on the day!

Whatever character creation option you choose, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU LET ME KNOW!

SORTING OUT A DATE

Okay so across the 5 of us, 2 of us do shift work, one of us has a FIFO partner, and another one of us has a kid. This is going to make scheduling particularly difficult, which means the easiest answer is A POLL! WOOHOO!

In the poll below, click all the dates when you're able to be free. EARLY ARVO means around 1 pm - 5 pm. LATE ARVO means around 3 pm - 7 pm. EVENING means 6 pm to 10 pm. All finish time are a "worst case" scenario ... hopefully each session won't be much longer than 3 hours apiece. We can be flexible, too, so none of those start or finish times are set in stone!

ADDITIONAL READING

Thanks for reading to this point! Now we just have to wait for everyone to pop in their dates and we can get this going! Yay! If you want to read up some more on what to expect in D&D, going through the basic rules on DND Beyond is a good place to start; this is an especially good idea if you're wanting to play a spellcaster!