Last week
showed gave me one of the greatest experiences I‘ve had to date while playing
Dungeons & Dragons – and, believe me, I’ve had a lot of great things come
out of that game. Those who’ve played D&D know that, every now and then,
there are moments that are... indescribable. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try
to describe them anyway. These moments happen when the players are so invested
in what’s happening in the game that they almost forget that they’re playing a
game. It almost seems like reality blends over into the game world.
Most often,
these times come in situations that bring up strong emotions for the characters
– sometimes it’s when the characters are bonding; sharing tales of their past
and feeling vulnerable. Sometimes it’s when they are discussing what they want
to do next and they have very hard decisions to make. Sometimes it’s when one
of the characters has died – and it feels like an actual friend has been lost.
This week, I
presented the players in my game with a decision that would shape the future of
the world they’re playing in – and I was careful to make the decision as challenging
as possible. You can read a more detailed account of the game over here, but
for the purposes of this blog I’m just going to outline the scenario.
The players
have helped found a settlement in a new land that seems to be bereft of
civilization. They have been working hard to establish the place and keep it
safe. In this game session, they woke up one morning to discover that the
settlement’s first baby was being born, to someone they had known for a long
time and was very close friends with one of the characters. The child was born,
but he was a tiefling (a demonic form of humanoid that is generally mistrusted
by society) – which might not have been a problem if his mother hadn’t been a
human. A mob arose, crying “demon worship” and “witch” and wanting to slay the
mother and child.
The player
characters were on hand to diffuse the situation, but it was a bit much for
them alone. They had to get the help of a known racist (racism in D&D tends
towards species, rather than skin color) who had a great deal of influence. He
managed to disperse the crowd with a promise that the council (which the
players are part of) would solve the problem. Then, at the council, he proposed
the idea of segregating the settlement into districts based on race.
As you can
guess, the players (most of which have characters of minority races) were not
too happy about this, but the council put it to a vote, with each council
member voicing their opinion. Now, as the Dungeon Master of the game, I had to
put a lot of work into this situation. I wanted the players to have a direct
influence on the outcome of this vote, so the majority of the rest of the
council had to vote in favor of the segregation – which meant I had to come up
with a lot of very convincing reasons for it; a challenge for someone who is
actually opposed.
In the end,
the scenario was designed so that, in order to avoid segregation, the players
had to all vote against it – plus, on top of that, they had to convince the
final voter, who would break the tie. Now, here’s what happened:
After
hearing the arguments of the rest of the council, one of the players was
actually swinging towards voting for segregation (a very rewarding situation
for me, on its own, because it meant that the arguments I came up with were
believable and convincing). The other five wouldn’t even consider it. One by
one, they each gave an impassioned speech against racial segregation; about why
this plan would fail and backfire. They didn’t just say “my character gives a
speech”, they actually made the speeches themselves. Each and every one of them
was incredible – so much so that I wish I’d recorded the session so I could
share their words. They were so well thought-out and convincing that they
convinced they brought the final member of their party back to their side of
the argument.
And they
easily convinced the swing vote (and even some of opposing votes) that they
were correct, successfully preventing the entire settlement from going down a
very dark path.
The amazing
part is how connected they were to the whole scenario, and that even I – the man
behind the curtain who knows how everything works and pulls all the strings – was
drawn into that psudo-reality where the story we were telling became something
more than just a story. That’s very hard to achieve from the DM’s omnipotent
position.
Those are
the rare and glorious moments that make D&D more than just a game – it briefly
transforms into something magical shared by a group of people. I wish they
happened more frequently, but then, I suppose they wouldn’t be as special then.
Still, if
you ever wondered why people play something like D&D, this is partially
why. It’s also why you should try it out, too.
Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.
Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.
If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
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