During the first major lockdown in Victoria last year, Sarah and I made the decision to move in with my parents temporarily for mutual company and some support with Ellie. I was optimistic. We were going to fill our evenings, I had decided, with drinks and games. What a sight I must have been arriving on their doorstep with bag in hand, little Ellie on my shoulders and a stack of board games and dice tucked under my arm. A small campaign of Dungeons and Dragons was just the thing. I had attempted to run a game once before with only a small amount of success but I was confident I was ready this time – I had been watching “how to” videos after all! So after a great deal of badgering, Mum and Dad relented to humour me and sit down for a session, along with Sarah and my brother Dan (They often read this blog. Hi family!). Here’s some things I learned on the way.
Accessibility is vital to keep new players interested
To the horror of many a veteran rpg gamer, I chose to run a 5th edition D&D game – I find it very accessible for new players, and I wanted to make sure my folks didn’t lose interest. I wrote a quick map and the first few encounters, and a not tremendously original story about a sleepy border town and children being kidnapped by a necromancer and their followers. I decided on premade characters – I made a handful and let everyone pick who they liked best. As a bit of a personal spin I drew a picture of each character to go with their character sheet. In the end we had Sarah as Valerie Trueheart the human paladin, Mum as Lanni Featherfoot the gnome ranger, Dad as Althos Branduin the half-elf barbarian, and Dan as Magog Thunderfist the half-orc monk. I think the moment they really started to get into things was when I placed their character sheets and a sketch I’d drawn of each character in front of them.
Enjoyment is more important than rules adherence
I’m a big advocate of being flexible with rules as a DM. I’m there to facilitate an enjoyable story, not to beat my players into the dust like I’m playing a game of Risk or something – I’ve been a player in a campaign like that before, and I have to tell you it was about as fun as stubbing your toe. Maybe I’ll write about it down the track. Back to the family game, in practice this meant that when I realised I had misjudged the power of their first random encounter terribly I simply had the damned creature run off once they’d hit it enough, as if this was my plan all along and not just a rookie error. They got the success of scaring off a monster (which I maintain is more realistic behaviour than every single enemy fighting to the bitter end, and keeps things varied), the story progressed, and I avoided having a total party wipe in the first session.
Not for the faint of heart
My family approach a game of DnD with all the wild enthusiasm of the proverbial bull in the proverbial china shop. Within the first 30 seconds they had latched in to a throwaway NPC whom I’d used to set the scene, and completely ignored the big dangling plot hooks which I had oh so cleverly placed.
Dad and Dan soon found the tavern and apparently decided to go drink for drink with their respective characters. Several gin and tonics later and I could barely get a word in edgeways between them. Mum would conceal a dice roll and with a decidedly impish grin insist that she had rolled a natural 20. Sarah was eager to get the most out of her paladin (a class she had never played) and so spent half the first night pouring over rules documents. I’ve participated in games with twice the number of players that were half as chaotic.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
Giving dad a barbarian character may have, in hindsight, been a mistake. Monsters were met with his axe. Puzzles and traps were met with his axe. NPC interactions were met with threats, at least one attempted kidnapping, and then his axe. It’s not that he disliked roleplay, or puzzle solving, or anything like that; but when the solution is in your hands and you still have a Barbarian Rage left in your pocket, why not play to your class strengths? By this point I had learned not to invest too much preparation into each individual NPC, or into elaborate traps – if something was needed I just made it up on the fly which actually worked fairly well.
I would do it all over again
Despite things coming close to careening off the rails everyone had a grand old time. Mum especially has talked about playing more, which has been a pleasant surprise. At the time of writing we’re back in lockdown restrictions again and can’t visit each other, but you can bet once that changes I’ll be kicking down their door with dice in hand. Whether you’re new to tabletop RPGs or a seasoned veteran, you can get a lot of value out of this spin on family game night.
Adventures of a Nerdy Dad 