This is a story about Taco, the Fighter. Taco was the very first D&D PC I played. I was introduced to D&D in Jr. High this way:
“Yo, Anthony. Want to play D&D?”
“What’s D&D?”
“Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a game. You can play an elf, a dwarf, a halfling, or a human.”
“Oh, like Lord of the Rings!”
“Something like that.”
Off to the library we go, and we get a lecture from Karen, the Librarian, about the noise of dice on the table (solved by rolling dice on a large map book). The DM helps me make a character and says I should play a fighter. He briefly explains rolling dice and says that I can do anything I want, and he’s the Dungeon Master, which means he referees all the actions.
Something clicks in my brain. “You mean I can act out how my character does things? I don’t have to follow some rules? We can just do stuff?”
“Exactly.”
So, at this point, I’m only moderately confused, and the adventure starts. I’m watching the other two players do things, and it becomes clear what role-playing is. The other two are cautious and want to know what everything looks like and what they hear, and smell and the weather and and and THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER. I still don’t see how we go from my character sheet to doing things, but in my mind, I picture exactly how everything looks.
Eventually, we find the Orc bandits, and the DM plays them as amused thugs. They challenge us on the trail. Give us your coin, and we will let you go. The other two are getting ready to attack.
“Hey, we can do what we want, right? Let’s talk to them and see if they’ll join our own gang. We could even offer to pay for them.”
“Yeah, right,” says one player.
“They are orcs,” says the other player.
“I go talk to the orcs,” I say.
“Sure,” says the DM. “You going to do it from there or walk up to them?”
Me: “I walk up to them!”
DM: “OK, you’re at the two orcs.”
Me: “Hey, uh, orcs. Do you…”
DM: “You have the coin, slug-skin?”
Me: “No, let’s…”
DM: “You hear rustling behind the trees next to the orcs. Roll initiative.”
Other Player: “Oh, man, a 1.”
DM to Me: “Longbow arrows come out of the woods at you!”
DM: Rolls dice.
DM: You get hit twice. You take 14 points of damage. You die with an arrow to your throat!”
At this point, I am sad because the other two are battling the orcs, and I died and didn’t, and then further sad as the other two (badly wounded) PCs get to loot the orcs and split it only two ways.
But I quickly rolled another fighter, called him Potato, and off we went. Potato lasted three encounters, but when he died, he had a will, and all of his stuff went to his brother Yogi. And I knew at that point D&D was the coolest game in the world.
How about you? How did you find out about D&D, and what was your first PC?
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Crossbow Man is NOT named Taco