It all started a couple of weeks ago when I was Barnes & Noble. My girlfriend and I noticed the Dungeons & Dragons section and she seemed genuinely interested. I figured, sure, let’s try it out. I bought a red box labeled ‘Starter Set.’ My cat definitely seemed to enjoy it.

After browsing through the pamphlets provided in it, I knew that we would eventually want to play with more races and classes. So over the next few days, I researched only to discover that I needed to get the core books which include the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual. I spent quite a few hours reading and rereading the DNG and PHB, not really retaining a whole lot. Clearly, the first few sessions would go a little slow as we got into the swing of the things, as the group, including myself, are (for the most part) noobs to D&D. Sure, I’ve played a few tabletop games a few times with friends, but never a steady campaign. There was always someone who regularly played and would guide us. This time I have to figure everything out from scratch.

After a few weeks of reading the books, looking up D&D blogs,  subscribing to the D&D podcast, and watching the PAX celebrity session with Wil Wheaton, we actually created some characters. Naturally, the power went out while dinner was prepared. Thankfully our gas stove continued to churn out the honey beer chicken. We wasted the last of daylight, then started to play by candle and iPhone light - making sure to save up every ounce of energy we could. My sister used the cover of darkness to create a dice tower.

We were able to (I think) successfully create three characters, save for selecting armor and gear. I got stuck looking up how many powers players were able to choose. The rulebooks can be wordy and starting out is kinda tough when having to flip though so many pages to figure out how things work. It’ll get easier with practice. 

During our second impromptu session, we actually finished selecting equipment, weapons and other various adventuring gear. During the times where I was silently lost in the books looking up rules, the players decided to create some lovely portraits of their characters. It is my honor to present to you:

Grendelina, Slayer of Leaves and Seducer of Men, Or, as she is known to friends, Wootica - an Eladrin Wizard (who clearly has great taste in music and spell-casting)

Vikinia, Daughter of Stevenius - an Elf Fighter (whose inability to spell “humorous” can be attributed to a low intelligence score)

Ladyboy Bruce Glitterkin - a Dragonborn Rogue (that’s acid dripping out of her/his mouth)

Together they are the founding members of the Five Tampon Knights (FTK, for short). If you haven’t figured it out yet, the players are all female with an acute sense of humor. It’s been quite the experience.

Soon I’ll plan out our first actual gameplay session, as well as help our other players create characters. Then we can actually get around to learning how to run encounters. I’m excited to see where the story goes.