gamesandrants

Kia Ora friends

Today's Topic: Dungeons & Dragons

In all honesty, I'm rather a hipster when it comes to games. Although I do have some favourite systems, I tend to get the most fun out of playing a variety of different systems and settings, most of which are on the more indie side of things.
In my local game group, D&D 5th Edition has become enormous and is essentially the only game that many people play. Some friends of mine are in upwards of three campaigns of D&D, each meeting once a week. The reason for its popularity is obvious, so I'm not even going to get into that. It's also a great game, doing a lot for the hobby.
Sometimes I wonder though, what is it that makes people stick to a particular game? I am somewhat puzzled by people who are able to play a game and decide 'This is the one. I don't need other RPGs.'
I am more like a fantail, flitting from system to system as whims take me, trying things out and then moving on.
I love that our hobby has so many people with different likes and desires from their gaming. I also love that when I do want to play some D&D (which is reasonably often) our local DMs are very practiced and I always have a great time.

What I'm playing

Over the Easter weekend, I got together with some of my old gaming buddies from high school for a D&D marathon. We essentially played 10am-5pm Friday and 10am-10pm Saturday (with some breaks). The game was expertly DMed by my friend Chris, with a strong focus on our characters' personal goals and backstories. I felt a strong investment in my character, a bar-tending bard and was genuinely upset for him when it was invaded by his arch-nemesis: the Guzzler.
D&D worked excellently for our epic combats, and fairly well for our negotiation sequences as well.
It didn't help us quite so much in out investigations, however. D&D is a great game, but I think most would admit that it can't do everything. Overall, it was a very rewarding time!

Here's a thing

Obviously I've had D&D on the brain for a while now, so this is for use as a unique set-up for a D&D campaign. It has an initial sequence of play where the GM rotates each session. A gaming goal for me this year has been to experiment with sharing the GM role, or getting rid of it in unexpected places, so I very much hope I can give this a try. If you end up testing it, please let me know!

D&D- Heroes of Tragedy

Enjoy,

Ciarán