Living in the Twilight Zone

For the past fifteen years, my wife has been an adamant opponent of role-playing games, in particular Dungeons & Dragons. While she never fully articulated the reasons for her opposition, I think it boils down to two. One, it's not meant to be a solo activity, and I admit that I did spend a lot of time when I was younger playing solo D&D. Two, and this is the main one, my wife sees it as a 'nerd' thing. She grew up around the same time I did, when D&D was most definitely NOT the cool thing. On the high school social scale back in the 1980s and early 90s, RPG players ranked below the Glee Club.

And then, she married a writer of fantasy fiction and raised a son who grew up loving fantasy books and movies, especially Harry Potter, which he is really into right now. And she found out, to her horror and confusion, that there is a homeschooling gamers group here on the Island.

And so, after a decade and a half, my wife has finally relented and will allow Tanner and I to play D&D, as long as it's not just the two of us. Which I'm fine with. I'll get to be a DM for the first time in years, I'll get to play with my son, and he's going to have some friends to play with as well. He's already got a couple of friends who want to play, and we'll be having our first game this coming weekend.

But here's the best part: My wife asked how many people should be playing, and when I told her at least four or five players plus myself, she actually advertised the game on the homeschooling group. My wife is actively looking for players for us. Mind. Blown.

So, the question becomes, what version of the game? After all, there have been so many of them. Original D&D, BECMI, five editions of AD&D, countless clones built on the OGL...what to do?

Well, I don't play the newer versions, and there's no way in hell we're going to be buying any new materials. I have plenty of stuff here. I've got almost a full collection of the BECMI line (that's Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, and Immortals for the uninitiated), but I've also got the 1E project I've been working on which follows the history of the game and its development. I'd really, really like to do that, especially since it's set in the world of Meterra. Either one will be easy for the players to learn, with character creation taking far less time than it does in the newer versions. Fifteen to twenty minutes, and we'll be ready to go.

I've got a week to decide, but my gut is telling me to go with Meterra and the 1E project. It will be a good introduction for the players, and there's a natural narrative that I developed as I went through the early stages of the project to explain the various changes that happen in the game world. Not to mention, it's a bite-sized chunk instead of a whole world, so it will be easier to get into it.

Decisions, decisions.

To get an idea of what the world of Meterra looks like, check out the first two books in the series: Arrival, and The Devil's Playground.