World Wide D&D Day

On Saturday, I celebrated World Wide D&D Day with a number of friends, old and new. We had a blast talking about old times - our common experiences and the stories that sound so similar. We shared kef, in a manner of speaking. Food and drink were aplenty, and many trees were sacrificed to the Gods of Preparedness. Our kids played together, and our kids laughed with the rest of us as we watched a certain 18 year old video tape. Oh, and we played Dungeons and Dragons.

Perhaps fittingly, my oldest friend arrived first, even as we were finishing up the house keeping. Jessie and I used to sit on his porch and just make up stories – I would create the situation and he would describe his character’s exploits. He and I have certainly logged the most shared D&D hours. My second oldest friend arrived early also. Edwin and I shared many solo D&D adventures in the tiny kitchen that was his bedroom! Unfortunately Ed couldn’t stay, but he was torn in half by his decision. While I was gone to pick up our second newest friend Keith, our newest friends arrived. Josh and Teresa, who we met through Keith, have played D&D for many years. Josh is about my age, with similar preference in stories and music. Teresa is a truck driver - they got along fast with Jessie and his wife Mary! Keith is a senior at Woodward. Jennifer used to teach him at Riverside. When Jennifer was at Woodward for a year, we found out he also played Magic. We went from meeting him at the library a couple times over the summer to late night magic sessions with Josh and others. Josh introduced Keith to D&D recently, so he was invited as the New Blood. Tim arrived next, with his button-cute Lizzy and armfuls of chips and pop! Tim’s sister once dated Jessie. That’s how we originally met Tim, but he has been our good friend for nearly 20 years! Dave, another original member of the Rahn group, would arrive later – he couldn’t get out of a family birthday party obligation! Dave has been playing for 20 years, with stints as DM in the mix and crazy adventures with his ex, my wife and her ex! My wife Jennifer was very much looking forward to using her new purple dice at this event. She’s played for years as well, and in two other groups beside mine! Another friend, Eric, couldn’t make it, as he now lives in North Carolina.

As we ate, we shared our stories and laughed out loud. The details are mostly lost on me, as I was both laughing too hard and focused on the execution of the actual D&D session to come.
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We finally got started. I distributed the pregenerated characters randomly and they selected minis to match. Borrowing from King’s Dark Tower series, they were sucked into the Grapefruit and the fun began!

After dispatching some gargoyles (with claws!), they solved an easy puzzle and boarded an ancient locomotive. As they followed the path of the beam in an attempt to escape the pink Glass, things changed. Dave arrived just after the supersonic locomotive crashed into a giant web. I collected their character sheets and randomly distributed new PCs. 2nd edition PCs! The theme was revealed – the many different formats and rules systems of D&D! We all recalled 2nd edition fairly easily and it went OK – especially when the fire elemental mounted the giant spider! Or, as our eyes perceived it, the Pokemon mated with the spring and bell spider decoration! Everyone got a kick out of using other people’s famous characters. But as they went on and met the half-spider half-ape, it changed to BASIC D&D! Yes, the original Red Box that at least 3 of us started with back in 1983. Basic edition was harder than I remember, but mostly because I’d forgotten the rules in the last 20 years! Oh, and because I had just come up with the whole idea 3 days prior. Oh, and because I asked Dave to find some pdf docs the NIGHT BEFORE! Oh, and some of the character sheets had only names and ability scores! So, that part didn’t go so well. Further along the path of the beam, they fought a Legendary Ape, but this time we used Battle Cards! I had found these at an antique mall last year. They’re from 1993! Each player selects a card, and they have rub off circles, like lottery cards - if so many hits show up, yer dead. I took down one PC, but they eventually killed the large ape! They moved on to a verdant grove where they became 3.5 characters – each other’s most recent characters, including Meesha, noekeres, and Kerwyn. The angry unicorn and his flaming (hoof) buddies were handily destroyed. After moving on to the Badlands, within sight of the giant pink exit globe, they battled an 8-headed hydra. This time, the idea was to go diceless. Each player would describe what they would do and I would describe what would happen. Unfortunately, I did not clarify the idea enough, and everyone went outside the box – no, outside the warehouse! 50’ tall heroes, melted ground, and force choke nee’ magic missiles, among other things, ultimately dispatched the beast, and they exited through the giant pink sphere.

As corny as it sounds (and boy, was it corny when I actually spoke it that night! ), it’s not about the rules or the system or the amount of ink on the page – it’s about friends and stories.

Despite a mixed bag, especially at the end, it was quite a bit of fun. Many belly laughs and giggles, fun pokes and self-ameliorations led to coughing fits on my part! This was easily the most fun I’ve had playing D&D in 10 years. That’s imprecise, because I can’t honestly remember the last time I laughed THAT much in that setting! We’ve had great times since, but we’d have to go back to 1991 for ROTFLOL - and that’s exactly what we did!

I broke out the old video tape from a 1991 D&D session in Todd’s Garage. (Yes, it’s capitalized.) I had it cued to a part where the camera panned across the players. We got a good view of Todd’s ginormous eyeglasses, then there’s Todd’s brother Mark, my brother Mark, Dave, Tim, Jessie, and me. Our kids got a great kick out of seeing the US from nearly 20 years ago! There’s also Jim K., the gravitational pull of charisma, and Greg P., with whom I’ve recently reconnected on Facebook. Tim and Dave and Jessie are all serious, and Todd is trying desperately to hold it together. For the rest of us, though, the long day had deteriorated into a night at the Improv! We got a big kick out of Greg’s camera work, getting nice views of everyone’s butt, including the “classic” shorts worn by both myself and Jessie. There’s Jim’s laughingly dubbed “Same Bat-Channel” shtick. There’s bad Monty Python skits, and poorly-executed Monty Python skits. There are Bill and Ted imitations. There’s a neighborly reprimand from the old lady across the street - and constant reminders of that reprimand! And ultimately, there’s the classic basketball scene from the following day, with fascinating commentary from my ex-wife!

An aside: Our new friend Keith hangs out at school with my ex-wife’s son, a freshman at Woodward! Small world, as they say….

After more reminiscing and sharing of kef and bitching (to the choir!) about the economy and the White House, (and a match that was likely disappointing to a certain young Magic player) we all returned to our lives and went our separate ways.

What a magnificent day! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

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