When It All Started

January 2024: Introduction to D&D 5e

It all started after the new year, during the last week of vacation. For some reason, I got the urge to try D&D, or at least know a little bit more about it.

And honestly it was confusing…

As someone who pretty much only “knew” that Dungeons & Dragons existed, I had a vague idea of what it really was. A kind of board game with dice and miniatures (something along those lines), I told myself.

So before buying anything, I wanted to do some research. I read lore about heroes, villains, monsters, regions, etc. Every time I learned something new, I wanted to know more. I was fascinated by the world of D&D, and I wanted to know everything about it.

So I decided to pull the trigger and after reading some Reddit posts about “what to buy first”, I bought the core rulebooks special edition slipcase. I found a good deal online, and that was it.

Player Handbook

I opened the slipcase and saw the dungeon master screen, the monster manual, the player handbook, and the dungeon master’s guide. I was so excited to read them all, but I started with the Player Handbook.

Immediately, I was overwhelmed by the amount of information. I didn’t know what to read first, and I didn’t understand most of the rules. But I kept reading, and I was definitely attracted by the idea of creating a character. So many options, so many possibilities. Even though I didn’t understand the rules, what an ASI (Ability Score Improvement) or a feat was, I loved the design of each class, each race, and the flavor of each element.

The Dungeon Master’s Guide

This was definitely more confusing to me than the Player Handbook. Again, the idea of how the game was played was still very vague, but one thing I appreciated about the book was the lore in it. The deities, the planes of existence, the regions, the monsters. All this information sparked my curiosity even more. I wanted to know more about the world of D&D and how to play it.

The Monster Manual

This was the book that hooked me—I was sold. The artwork, the details about each monster, all of it was incredible. The stat blocks, on the other hand, were complete nonsense to me. Some of it I was able to figure out—more HP probably meant it was tougher—but AC, CR, and all the other stats or abilities? Forget about it. For now, the artwork and flavor of the monsters was enough to keep me interested.

Now what?

So I got the books, still had a few days before having to go back to work, and I wanted to play. But how? I didn’t know anyone who played D&D, and I didn’t even know how to play it.

This is when I started to find resources online and discovered an amazing community of passionate people. I discovered that the rules I had were the 5th edition of D&D, and that soon enough it would be the 50th anniversary of the game. I also learned that new core rules would be released this year… So I kind of felt bad about my purchase for a moment, but I loved the books so much that I didn’t care in the end—“just look at that Flumph!”

So I learned the rules, watched some videos, and found some recommendations on which adventure to play first. Then I purchased one of my still-favorite adventures: Dragon of Icespire Peak (The Essential Kit).

And I loved that it came with accessories like a DM screen, a map, cards, dice, etc. I’ll definitely write more about why I liked it so much in a future post.

Is playing solo even an option?

I am an average, regular, normal guy (for those who get the reference). I have a full-time job, a family, and I don’t have a lot of spare time to play games. Sometimes during weekends, or when the kids are asleep, but not much more than that. So I started to wonder how I would be able to play D&D with my schedule. I absolutely didn’t want to have a regular schedule with a group—just thinking about having to cancel a session because of a billion reasons made me anxious. I want to play a game, not feel like I have to play it.

This is when I started to think about whether playing Dungeons & Dragons solo was even an option. How would that work? If I know the story, secrets, and encounters in advance, is it cheating? I did not want to cheat. Would it be fun? I wanted it to be fun. Only one way to find out—try it.

To my surprise, it was fun. Really fun. I did it the most basic way possible—I created four characters, read the adventure, and played it. I didn’t really roleplay; I just winged it. Mostly going from encounter to encounter, sometimes trying to “not be aware of the secret door,” sometimes trying to randomize situations or decisions. But there was no real methodology or structure behind the game I was playing. I just wanted to go as far as I could, try out my characters’ abilities, and level them up.

Flipping through the pages of the adventure and the Player’s Handbook was fun. I felt more confident about the rules, more confident that I had found a game I would enjoy playing.

The dragon in Dungeons & Dragons

I ended my short adventure when I killed Cryovain, the white dragon. I couldn’t believe it—I was so happy. Probably my favorite monster design in the Monster Manual; something about it is so different from the other dragons. Anyway, I stopped playing after that for a few weeks, as my vacation was over. But this gave me time to think about what I learned and what I would like to do next.

The Beginning of a Solo RPG Journey

There were definitely some things that were a little bit annoying about my play session. I didn’t really roleplay, and by that I mean that I didn’t really create personalities for my characters—they were basically moving stat blocks. That I knew I wanted to change.

It was also difficult to manage and keep track of everything. Four characters was a lot, but it didn’t seem feasible to play with fewer characters. Some encounters were already difficult; fewer characters would have made it even tougher or maybe even impossible, so I needed to keep thinking about a solution for this annoyance.

Also, knowing the story, the secrets, and the encounters in advance was a bit of a bummer. I wanted to have some mechanics that would allow me to prevent myself from acting on “meta knowledge.” If I knew the secret, fine, but I didn’t want my characters to know it too.

Those were the main issues I wanted to solve, and I started to think and look for resources that would help me have a better solo RPG experience.

In a future post, I will write about what I found and what impact it had on my second playthrough as well as my solo RPG journey.