Ramblings Of A Mad Mage

Peramble The following is a paper I wrote two years ago (October 18, 2022), towards the end of my first semester at the College of Western Idaho. While some on my oppinons on the subject have changed. Having just seen @AlchemicalRaker's pondering about posting his own thoughts on the subject of Dungeons & Dragon's relation to Christianity, I felt inspired to post this paper. I hope you enjoy. The Essay Sitting around a dining room table are five friends. Before them lay pencils, paper, snacks, and a twenty-sided die. One player begins describing a dimly lit stone tunnel. In an attempt to avoid a hidden trap placed before them, he asks the players to roll the twenty-sided die. If they fail, a large stone sphere will roll towards the group almost certainly crushing them where they stand. The scene playing out at this table is reminiscent of the intro to Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark. Dungeons and Dragons (which will be referred to as D&D throughout the rest ...

How This All Began At the beginning of February, my copy of ShadowDark arrived, sparking my excitement and igniting the urge to run a game of D&D. However, my current class schedule posed a challenge; it didn't allow enough time to prep and run my favorite setting, Yoon Suin . So, I perused my shelf of neglected D&D adventures and found a gem: Hot Springs Island , which is quickly becoming my second favorite setting. I then spent the next 16 days devouring the ShadowDark rulebook and how to go about running an in-person, open table game, culminating in the creation of the following poster. The Session Report Rolling Up Characters Our game began around 1:20 p.m. I provided each of my players with the option of playing pre-generated characters, or rolling up two random characters (with the option to reroll upto 2 stats, as I was feeling generous) . We ended up with the following rooster of characters: Tony Tuna , a level 1 Halfling Wizard (4 HP) , played by Nic. ...