Save vs. Awesome

Worldwide D&D Game Day is coming up on Saturday, November 3. GeekDad sez:

This year's WWDDGD boasts over 1,000 venues (mainly game stores) and an estimated 30,000 attendees from every continent except Antarctica. The centerpiece is a special Icewind Dale adventure in honor of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the creation of fantasy character Drizzt Do'Urden. There are D&D themed giveaways including D&D miniatures and RPGA campaign cards. Active players, former players and absolute noobs are welcome to attend, and no sign-ups are necessary -- just show up! Check for games in your area.

I love this! What a great excuse to introduce someone -- like your teenagers, for example -- to tabletop RPGs! Wizards is sending out adventure kits to participating game shops, that sound pretty cool:

These come with everything your store needs to turn it into the center of fun you’d expect from such a global celebration. This includes: character packs keyed to one of five different player characters. In each of these packs are the painted miniature, character sheet, d20 and pencil. Basically everything your players need to have an action packed adventure. For the DM there is a, special to game day, adventure and a pack of dice (d4,6,8,10,20,100) and a unique RPGA rewards card offered nowhere else!

My friendly local game shop is running one-shot adventures in the morning and afternoon. I'm not sure what they have in mind, but Wizards says

We are sending each venue a treasure chest of goodies that include an special adventure sent in Icewind Dale a location in the popular Forgotten Realms world. Each chest contains enough adventures, complete with full color maps and miniatures, to ensure 25 players can strive for fame and fortune at the same time.

I looked at the character sheets (they are already posted as PDFs online) and the set-up seems to be: two Dwarves find a map to their ancestral home, gather some friends and a stranger together, and head up into the mountains to find it. Sounds like a classic adventure to me, with some wilderness encounters on the way to the obligatory ruins that I'm pretty sure go deep into the mountain at some point, almost like a dungeon. Yes, a dungeon that you could crawl through.

Whether you're a longtime gamer with a gaming monkey on your back, or a normal person who's always wanted to give tabletop role playing games a try, this is perfect. Just show up, grab a character and some dice, and get ready for adventure. Wizards has wisely created 4th level characters for the festivities, so players won't have to suffer the indignity of being killed by a single kobold. On the other hand, players won't get to enjoy the rite of passage we all enjoyed the first time we were killed by a single kobold, while trying in vain to defend ourselves by casting Light.

Comments

[CJ]

I was confused... I thought you were talking about Drizztdj!

;-)

[morbidesque]

one thing we lack up here in Northern Central Pa is a decent gaming store. there are gaming groups locally, but no-one seems to commit to using their house for a get-together. there is one guy locally who wrote the D&D "seafaring adventures" modules back in the 70's, who wants to host, but he creeps me out too much.

[Punxking]

+5 Posting of Hilariously Painful Memories!

The "trying in vain to defend ourselves by casting Light" reference nearly made me snarf coffee through my nose. That seriously shook the cobwebs off some fond (and not so fond!) memories. Well played Wil, well played!

[Alan]

My cousin introduced me to D&D in either the late 70's or early 80's. I was really young -- several years before I really got into it in 5th grade. He has the original basic set.

I remember playing a fighter and insisting on wearing both chain mail and plate armor -- because that is how I thought that armor worked. I could barely carry anything else. We opened two doors in the dungeon before the whole party was wiped by a couple of goblins. And then we never played it again for some reason.

He had some other early role playing games. I think one was called "Melee".

[Soo]

This is awesome! My regular game day will be the 4th! Maybe I can convince my group to hang with me at our local game shop one day early.

[trinitytao]

on a totally unrelated note ...
WIL HAVE YOU SEEN THIS ???
http://www.fireflyfans.net/sunroomitem.asp?i=18267
check the right hand side you are in there ...
OMG !!!
its actually pretty funny :P

[Mad Monk]

I couldn't find where to logon for this event - do I have to wait for an invite or?

Wait - you mean people, face to face?

I rather like sitting here pretending I'm an elf alone in my office.

Go WoW!

[Morph]

The SpouseCreature as run the premade for WWDDGD that last two or three years; this year he's hoping to get to play!

[Lahatiel]

Wow, n00bs can play too? I have never actually sat down at a table and played a tabletop RPG, with pencils and everything. I'm kind of excited. I hope the people at my local shop aren't all, "Ha, n00b! You suck!"

[gordie]

Wil: Unrelated to the game, but I had to let you know. You must have seen this comic before, but just in case you havn't, here it is. It is awful! Haha. Have a good night.

http://www.somethingpositive.net/arch/poorpony.gif

[SandieK]

Hah. Irony is hysterical. WHY does it have to be the same weekend as USBC City Tourney?

[JavaWarlord]

Wil, Thanks for the info! It's been so long since I played but this is a great excuse to jump back in!

[kaellinn18]

I can think of no better post to bring back out this gem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vChEPj0dXXk

[Hisham]

Heh! If I'm at the FLGS I'd probably sneak in a West End Games Star Wars RPG session instead.

[CowKitana]

Oh, Wil, I was so excited to see the phrase "every continent but Antarctica" (not your words, I know), seeing as I'm in Cairo for a few months, and if there was one in Africa, it's sure to be here...LIES!

No locations listed for Africa. :(

Thanks for the info, though!

[Jaded Empath]

W00tage - Sword & Steele is one of the particpants; wifey and I will have to pop down on Game Day! All our friends moved away - graduate school/promoted at their job/etc - so we haven't *really* played in months.

Thanks for the PSA! ;)

[Paul Crowe]

Awesome! We got our own holiday now! :-D

Wish I had heard about it earlier though. Got concert tickets for that same night. But I'll try to make the local event any way!

[bluesong2]

I haven't played in awhile either.. one of the things that stink about working on weekends. However.. its nice that D and D etc is still out there

[raphael]

Wow. I see that Game Empire in Pasadena is participating. I haven't played D&D (excepting the computer adventures) in some years, so this sounds way cool.

Time to launder my Think Geek shirts and practice my dice-rolling skills.

[Celtic Mama]

Hubby and I bonded through D & D. We were friends before, but my human cleric Gwyneth and his dwarf, Bones, worked so well together we decided to move it off the board. I miss our D & D days. As long as your DM was cool, the night was fun. I still have my dice and figures. Now I have to go dig them out!

[vincentsmommy]

Wil, I just want to say thanks for posting about this! My hubby's been a D&D player since high school, but I've only just started role-playing over the last few years, and that's been strictly in the Cthulhu realm. I think he knew about the WWDDGD from his visits to the WOTC website, but the concept would never have been brought up if you hadn't said anything in your blog. So, we signed up at our FLGS, and met up with a small group of people, yesterday morning. We even took our 15 month old son, who did the best job of being patient with us while we gamed! It was the greatest experience I've had role-playing in a while, and though "Hack-and-Slash" games really aren't my cup of tea, I still had a lot of fun being the sorceress and using up all of my spells. I now love Magic Missiles! I even did the team some good a couple of times, ending the lives of some particular nasties! My dice kind of failed me near the end, but no worries. We all were still alive and well by the end of the game. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you again for letting us know about this great day, and for giving my hubby and I a chance to connect on another (gaming) level (pun intended)! It was so much fun, and the whole group, including the DM, were very helpful and patient when it came to my n00b status and unfamiliarity with the mechanics of the game. Fellow roleplayers and D&Ders FTW!