So my first step into the world of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition was pretty successful. Spending the money on the books and all the accessories was well worth it. The group I ended with was a perfect example of how easy it is to start playing Dungeon and Dragons. The players were:

My Niece (age 9) played a Cleric
My Nephew (age 8) played a Fighter
The Newb (age 35) played a Paladin
The old Bellman (age unknown) played a Wizard
The Bellman’s kid (age 14) played a Rogue

Other than me and the Newb none of the players have ever played any pen and paper RPGs. The kids have dabbled in some of the MMOs I’ve played so some of the concepts were not to alien to them.

I was the Dungeon Master and I sucked. Running combat was fine. But anything were I had to try to convey a story of any sort using NPCs just was horrible. I felt like a dork trying to speak as if I’m the NPCs. I ended up awkwardly reading the text out of the adventure book. We made it through two encounters and the one awkward bit with npc interaction. Total time spent playing was around five hours or so.

A little after the first encounter was finished the Teacher came over. The Teacher lives next door to the Newb. He’s played DnD and has been a Dungeon Master before. I was hoping he would show up as we played. In the back of my head I was hoping I would be able to pawn off the DM duties to him. By the end of the session it was decided he would borrow the books and read up on the new stuff in 4E. With any luck I will have some people to play Dungeon and Dragons with. I want to play. I don’t want to be the DM. I do think I’ll continue to abuse the kids and run a kids game for them. I’ll try to practice getting over my feeling like a putz when speaking for NPCs.