I know next to nothing about Dungeons and Dragons. After purchasing the two Players Manuals yesterday night, I spent a little time looking around online and found an application that let me roll a character with just a few clicks instead of scouring various indices. The software actually provided a player sheet that was very well put together, and organized my bonuses in a way that made me much more efficient than if I had tried to get all the values by hand. The books themselves ended up being very useful in combat as well, and many people at our table used them as a reference. I was fortunate that there were several people there tonight who had been around yesterday, and they set up a lowbie table for those of us who were just getting started.
Apparently we played a campaign from Living Forgotten Realms (?), but who knows what the hell that actually is. I had to fill out some official card to track something or other, but even though they play every Monday, I can’t see myself taking advantage of anything significant over a long period of time. Regardless, I was excited to get going. Our group actually ended up saving a nobleman’s daughter from a twisted werewolf ritual, which took us about 4 straight hours of gameplay. This included some pretty hilarious role playing, actually, which was great because I didn’t find the combat all that interesting at first. My pet got into all kinds of trouble, and one guy even paid a hobo from Baluder’s Gate to follow him around like my dog.
I was rewarded 100 gold / 410 XP for my efforts, and look forward to my next encounter so I can get close to the 1000 XP I need to level up. I also earned “the gratitude and respect” of Scepter Lord Mazak al’Azeem for rescuing his idiot daughter.
I now know at least two younger guys who were there on Sunday, and a few older people in our group closer to my age. I’ll definitely be going back next week, if only for the popular ritual of demolishing Thai food from the restaurant next door, which is just as amusing as any involving werewolves. I’ve never seen such hilarious gluttony. Pictures of one of my new friends (left) and our DM (right) below:
I felt very uncomfortable when I woke up this morning. Lately I’ve been consuming massive amounts of content alone in my room during the week, and I can feel my social prowess moving away from me, drifting ashore. I turn to the Aubreyad immediately after work, and have made several trips to the library to acquire the necessary supplemental material, now scattered across one half of my bed. I’m so surrounded, in fact, that whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, I am usually overwhelmed with what amounts to literary claustrophobia. I still haven’t figured out the heater in this apartment, so at 4:30 am when I thrash myself awake covered in sweat, I tear the comforter off my bed and a half dozen hardcover companions and histories about Revolutionary France fall to the floor. While I happily take them to bed with me at night, I can’t sleep until I make sure I am completely alone.
And although I find myself with plenty of time to pursue my personal interests this winter, I’ve been noticing that my level of activity has dwindled. The few friends I’ve made here in the last few years live in the suburbs, and often work on the weekends. My other social activities, although usually very rewarding, tend to be relatively passive. Dinner, perhaps. Talking someone into a movie. I solved this when I moved here by driving begrudgingly to Best Buy to pick up a copy of World of Warcraft, but after several months of exhausting conversations trying to convince my friends in Grand Rapids to join, I disabled my account after hitting 80 by questing almost exclusively by myself.
This winter is actually proving more difficult than I would have imagined, due to a number of factors that are, admittedly, somewhat within my tiny sphere of influence. I’m at a loss for how to move forward, however. Somehow after living in Chicago for over two years, I feel as though I have failed, socially. Concerts, conventions, dinners and volunteering have been half-hearted and calculated. Even when I want to, I never sound (or feel) genuine, and people around me can tell.
So when I woke up this morning and panicked at the thought of not leaving my apartment, I was fortunate enough to come across an item on the Gaper’s Block calendar that caught my eye. There was a gaming store in Edgewater that was putting on a D&D 101 class, which would include pre-rolled characters and introductory campaigns. Local gamers would discuss the history and lore of the game, and even help you roll your own if you were interested.
The drive up north was bizarre. When I stepped out of my apartment around 5 pm the weather was very warm, and I took off my jacket before getting into my car. By the time I made it up Damen, it had already begun snowing. When I finally arrived on Broadway I could barely see the store across the street. Everything was soaking wet, and it felt like I had been traveling for hours.
Almost immediately after sitting down, a tall 30-something stuck out his hand and introduced himself. He looked as nervous as I was, and sheepishly admitted that he had never been able to play as a kid because his parents were so religious that they actually believed in witches and warlocks. The Holy Spirit, for example, compelled them to throw his dice not onto the table, but into the trash. Unprompted, he also expressed a great interest in the Christian Reformed Church, since he had never heard of it, and wanted to learn more about the denomination.
From there, of course, the rest of the night just got better and better. I purchased the Player’s Handbook, along with the Martial Power supplement and my own set of dice to begin working on rolling my first character: A Half-Elf Ranger. He probably won’t be too far removed from Temmen, my dwarf in World of Warcraft. I actually met a lot of people who, like myself, enjoyed the Role Playing aspects of the game more than raiding, and who were interested in the kind of character development that simply isn’t going to happen online. Although I never got a chance to jump in a game, I listened with particular pleasure to the various dungeon masters who guided their players through tunnels and cemeteries with careful voices.
The pictures below don’t really do the evening justice, but there were well over 40 people who showed up, and there weren’t nearly enough seats. Everyone was in good spirits, tempered by a sort of broad, awkward feeling of excitement and confusion. I felt like it was the first day of 5th grade, and even though there was plenty of new curriculum, everyone really just wanted to sit down and chat. So we did.
I tried very hard to have an enjoyable weekend. The weather was so beautiful this afternoon that I caught a glimpse of spring, and was reminded why moving here was so important. I should make it through the next week without a problem.
A brief summary of my Sunday, and why I wish i had more friends living here:
Paying to park my car just to drop a book off at the library
I decided to have a productive, though rather quiet Saturday. Things have been so hectic during the week that I’ve been pushed into that familiar, unfortunate position where I crave the weekend above all else.
After finishing Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander, I now move to the second novel in the series, which is Post Captain. I’ve been listening to the stories, read by Patrick Tull, which has been such a necessary, relaxing experience. No one knows how to use the thermostat in my apartment, so as the heat becomes nearly unbearable, I open up my bedroom window before bed, and click to iTunes. Here is what I hear each night before drifting asleep:
The person who posted the 12 GB torrent (all 21 novels, e-books and original cover art) took great care to clean up the audio files, and they sound much better than that youtube clip, of course. He borrowed them from his local library, equalized the volume, and performed low pass filters to delete pops and hissing. By far the most useful task he undertook (and no doubt most time consuming) was organizing the files into chapters, which, other than the digital format, is what makes the torrent so much better than simply checking these cds out from CPL one at a time. I highly recommend the Aubrey-Maturin series to all of my friends, especially the Vans and Fulljeff in particular. I enjoyed a good deal of historical fiction when I was in college, but never had the time to give this sprawling series the attention it deserves.
If you’re interested in exploring the novels further than simply re-watching the Russell Crowe movie, you can start with a wonderful interview with O’Brian on NPR from about 15 years ago. If the callers don’t convince you of how great a pleasure it is to work through his novels, nothing will.
Speaking of libraries, I also decided to finally check out the Lincoln-Belmont branch, which is 5 or 6 blocks away from where I now live in Roscoe Village. I found it rather bustling, actually, which was a welcome sight. Most of the computers were spoken for, and there were at least 5 or 6 families dispersed among the stacks. I checked out a book on Chicago Maritime History, and renewed my library card. I also put a hold on A Sea of Words, since as far as I know there is no existing database of POB’s arcane naval terms. If it proves useful I’ll definitely have to buy it.
The walk home was particularly pleasant, and I peered into the many antique shops that line Belmont from Paulina to Damen. Some even have signs that require you to ring the bell just to be let inside, provided you are a “serious” dealer, with genuine interest and a pocketbook that lends itself to 17th and 18th century chandeliers.
I went to Smoke Daddy for dinner (much easier when you can just stroll up to the bar and order your food immediately), and then headed to the California Clipper to see Fulton County Line before finally driving home, back to Post Captain and my sweltering bedroom.
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