OK so this isn’t the continuation of my last post, but I do promise to write it for next time. I just wanted to share what happened last weekend while it’s still fresh in my mind. We had a RPG Club meeting and this time 21 kids showed up, meaning we gained 4 new ones. It is so awesome that the group is growing, although at this rate, soon we will have to move to a bigger venue! We have a new GM that we are training right now, a friend of mine, and glad he is part of the team.
Anyway Last Month our Club had a D&D 5 event. The head GM and I were each going to run a group through the starter set and then give one away as a prize to a lucky member. Unfortunately I was not able to make it, so the boys (11) got to play D&D while the girls (5) played Dungeon World with a temporary GM. I came back this month ready to run D&D for an all girls group which I was super psyched about. Now the library got another copy of the Starter set so my brother ran it with a 3rd group (split the boys into 2 groups)
Like I said I was very excited to be running a game with an all girl group. I had 8 girls at my table,which is amazing! That is almost half the club. Times have totally changed – the world is a new place. Back in the day the role of the women was to stay home, take care of the kids, cook, and clean the house etc. Fast Forward, in the beginning of the hobby it seemed rare to see a girl playing D&D etc, they were not interested in it. (Correct me if wrong, cause I was not of this era). But now in present time there are girl gamers every where you look, not just in rpgs, but in all aspects of nerd culture. So I am always looking out for my fellow Gal’s, go Girl Power. Don’t get me wrong guys are awesome too!
My thoughts on the D&D Starter set. Awesome, awesome artwork, just magnificent, well done. The rules are easy to learn and understand which is great for new players. My club is made up of kids who have never played RPGs, and are very new to the hobby, so that’s a big thumbs up. Personally I like it too, there were some rules in 3.5 and 4th that I would be stumped on or be like, “now how does that work?” with this all my questions are answered -“Now I get it”. Especially magic, that was very hard for me to understand I didn’t really get it. But in the Starter box rules, It broke it down for me and explained it so well that I now fully understand it.
Of course there is a set of good dice in it, I definitely needed more. Love the advantage, disadvantage rules (If I get a low roll, that’s OK I get to roll again, very handy. I love the adventure, really well put together. I’m very excited to be running it. It gives you so much to do, intriguing plots, different places and people to visit and meet. Of course I’ve never read any other adventures, so I wouldn’t be able to compare. I usually make up my own. But I really, really like it. I wish they would have given another class character instead of 2 fighters. And when you are just beginning it is very easy to die, which is very frustrating for new players.
For our first session the girls got through more then I expected. They cleared out the cave except for one goblin holding an NPC hostage. All in all the D&D Starter set is great, I recommend it to all levels of gamers. I can’t wait to look through the actual PHB for myself and see what other things are in there. I’ve downloaded the pdf of the basic rules, but I haven’t really read it yet. I’ve just skimmed through it briefly. D&D 5 is the game that’s going to bring in new people to the system and to the hobby. Especially the next generation of gamers, which I have already witnessed with my club.
So any gamer gals out there tell me your story, and how you got into the hobby. Men if you have a special lady in your life that likes to game, tell me about her and if that’s how you met. If you have any D&D 5 stories please comment. Anybody who is running the D&D Starter box I want to hear your thoughts on it and what happened during your game sessions with your players. Thanks for reading, see you next time.