A Dungeon Master gets a hefty chance: His fiancée actually has not the slightest interest in Dungeons & Dragons, but has agreed to play a round on his birthday. Now he needs the help of the community.
Where does the Dungeon Master need help? The Dungeon Master explains to the community on Reddit that he wants to create a session for his fiancée’s first D&D experience that could change her mind about Dungeons & Dragons. His fiancée actually has no interest in the game.
On the occasion of his birthday, she has agreed to play a session along with a few other family members. Now the Dungeon Master needs help. He wants to know how to plan this important and decisive session so that she gets a taste of Dungeons & Dragons. And the community is eager to share tips.
Just don’t explain anything … ?
What tips does the community offer? Other D&D fans on Reddit find that the entry into Dungeons & Dragons can make a huge difference in whether you want to give the game a chance. Therefore, they offer various tips, including one that might initially sound counterproductive: Just don’t explain anything.
“For newcomers, role-playing games can feel like an agonizingly long round of Monopoly,” explains CraftyNerd1066. Instead of justifying every step, every reason, and every calculation for each action in detail, an experienced Dungeon Master should take a different approach.
To avoid overwhelming rules, one could ask what a player wants to do and then request the corresponding action instead of using too much “character sheet lingo.” A15minutestory explains it as follows: “For now, don’t worry about the rules. Just tell me what you want to do, and I’ll handle everything in the background. Maybe I’ll ask you to rephrase your request or roll a die. I’ll take care of the rest.”
How can you try to engage skeptical newcomers? In the case of the Dungeon Master who mainly wants to convince his fiancée of D&D, the community recommends committing a kind of Dungeon Master sin and slightly favoring her enjoyment of the game.
For the birthday session, it should be a straightforward dungeon that is not too overloaded. To gain his fiancée’s enthusiasm for the game, he should pay close attention to what interests her. He can take inspiration from her favorite books, movies, or other media, but shouldn’t lose the joy of spontaneous chaos in the process.
What the community emphasizes, however, is: If his fiancée finds that D&D is not for her even after the session, that’s okay. Fun cannot be forced, just like the happiness of enjoying such a great game.
Dungeons & Dragons could also be worthwhile for people who have previously had no contact with the game or tabletop role-playing games in general. That D&D can suit various people and purposes became clear to MeinMMO editor Caro in an interview with a psychotherapist: A psychotherapist explains to us in the interview how he uses D&D in therapy: “Often it’s easier to help the character”
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