The Casual Geek Ventures into the Deep End

Two years ago, I scoffed at the idea of tabletop role-playing games. I’m just a casual geek. That’s so far down the end of the geek spectrum. Fast forward to this morning, I went to Jollibee to play Dungeons & Dragons. Yes, you read that right -- D&D at Jollibee.

I was the only player who arrived but the DM and I decided to go ahead and play whatever module would fit my player character, Bronwyn the extroverted but low-charisma Ranger-Monk.

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This GIF was Bronwyn, 5 mins into a giant castle infiltration mission: "I can squeeze through that, right? 😅"

After a series of bad rolls including a natural 1 in acrobatics, she somehow managed to get to the other side. Nobody there. 😅

She gained a point of exhaustion from all the physical exertion but at least nobody saw her embarrassing entrance, right. 😅

THE FUCKING CASTLE: “Who are you?”

Bronwyn: “Hi, I’m Bronwyn. 😅😅😅” *She saw me. The fucking castle saw me.*

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Everything about today's game was incredibly funny to me. I managed to defeat a full-fledged vampire using an annoying run and shoot strategy (with 5 hp left at one point). I persuaded the fucking castle to let me off the hook by offering my services to them. I convinced a cloud giant to let me and my colleagues storm the castle to exterminate their partners and split the dragon hoard between us. I survived a castle raid that featured powerful mages and an adult white dragon using a funny/cowardly little spell called Rope Trick that allowed me to hide and shoot right in the middle of the battlefield with almost complete coverage. Nearly all of this was accomplished with all my skills checks at a disadvantage and I rolled 1s on my saving throws too.

My DM and I just kept laughing at how increasingly ridiculous my circumstances were and how my character kept coming up with dumb ways to get out of the bad situation. The more stupid the idea was, the more I feel compelled to try it.

That's why I fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons.

The roleplaying is pretty intimidating to me at first. Contrary to popular belief, I’m actually afraid of looking stupid. But once you ease into it, once you get caught up in the story, you get over the awkwardness and just do it naturally. At first, I’m just playing as myself. As I get used to it, I started considering the different personalities of my characters and try to act and make decisions based on their individual motivations. It’s an exercise in empathy and improv.

I’ve been playing D&D for about a year now and it’s been an amazingly fun and enlightening experience. We play at the Attack Arena along Congressional Ext. and sometimes at other venues like all the CBTLs and the 24hr McDonalds and Jollibee Branches in QC. The people in our playgroup are quite diverse in age, gender, occupations, and personalities. Each city has their own D&D community. I’ve participated in an event and learned that diversity is also present in all the communities. I’ve been DMing for my sisters and colleagues and the few times we played together, it was a fun learning experience for me.

I’m a solid D&D fan now and Will Byers has become my spirit animal.

That’s all for me today. Thanks for reading!


Sincerely,
Lenlen