Originally written on the old blog in 2022
Hey all you nerds and nerdettes! With everything going on in the world, it’s easy to feel a bit lost due to change. I definitely found myself having gaming withdrawals since I could not meet anyone for board games! It was not long until a few of us decided that we would not let social distancing stop us from being social! We decided that we were tired of being oppressed and wanted to take our lives back! We slowly crept upstairs from the airship’s galleys and took on the Orc crew head on! But how… how did we get outdoors despite everything going on you ask? Boy do I have some solutions for you!
For those that do not follow, I am of course talking about the magical game of Dungeons and Dragons. A role playing game where a DM (dungeon master) brings a fantasy world to live before our every eyes. As the name states, the game does require a bit of role playing, which some people may not be familiar or comfortable with, but I implore everyone to give it a try! Especially now when we may have more free time than usual. My group was able to come up with a social distancing approved method of Dungeons and Dragons which I am so excited to share with you guys!
First off is the free tool www.roll20.net. This resource allows the DM to craft maps and allows players to roll die virtually. The website also has a built in webcam feature so that everyone can see all your lovely faces! After all, what is adventuring without friends? The website has been such a great way of envisioning exactly where you are so that you can launch that fireball far enough to hit that thief in the face!
Once you have that up and going, you can use www.dndbeyond.com to keep track of your character. This site does have some resources one can purchase, however it also allows players to keep track of a multitude of stats and spells. It will also let you look up virtually any dungeon and dragon related lore to truly help paint that crypt you are venturing into!
Those of course are just 2 resources available for a game that is more than 30 years old! There are plenty more resources out there, but this will definitely be enough to give you a taste of how terrible the demogorgon truly is! With all that is going on out there, let us all use just a bit of our creativity to escape and have some fun!