Convention Gaming and Trying DnD5E

 I went to Supercon yesterday, a local geek convention that I usually try to make. Last time I got to go as an exhibitor, at the library system's table, and even demonstrated a couple simple wargames. They didn't do that this year. So for me, this was a shopping trip at a markup, and an opportunity to game. In previous years, there were wargame and boardgame demos set up (mostly Games Workshop), but the gaming this year was a mix of family boardgames, videogames and Dungeons and Dragons. No miniatures gaming.

I partly went to get some dice and a tray. It turns out 8mm dice are not made in bulk by the suppliers I found, so that idea for using my not-quite-12mm unit markers is out. Perhaps I'll buy the 16mm markers and use 12mm dice.

I never have sat down for DnD 5th edition, but the con was an opportunity to play at a table for the first time in forever. I was surprised at how easy the pregenerated character sheet was to read and play - I probably could have run Free Kriegspiel with it:

The GMs were able to run adventures mostly off the cuff. The players were able to just adventure, with, as a commenter pointed out on an earlier post, the nuts-and-bolts of the game safely out of view. Spells weren't described, only the name providing any context, but most weren't combat spells that would require you to know how much damage they did.

There were some nuts-and-bolts, of course. DnD is mostly a skirmish game, and most adventures are mostly about fighting.

My character's at the back, with the excuse that
she's standing on the steps to get overhead line-of-sight.

The stereotypical starter adventure starts with a bit of scene-setting, continues with a march to the scene of adventure, optionally has a puzzle or roleplaying in the middle, and ends with a fight. So the two adventures I played in went. The first one did have an interesting puzzle that I might have to swipe for my own adventures, and the minis were pretty cool, especially given my increasing Paperboys collection. I may need to buy some:

Flat plastics from Arcknight Miniatures. I like the clear bases!

I've learned that character improvement is a useful motivator for bringing players back to the table. I leveled up my character between adventures with help from another player, which turned out to be a good thing in the next adventure. I used a new spell (Sleep) to neutralize an enemy that, under the circumstances, probably would have killed the party otherwise. It was only icing on the cake that our job was to capture this fellow alive. The disadvantage was that we weren't using minis this time, just a map and what is called "Theater of the Mind." A good GM can paint a picture in the mind's eye - I'm not quite there yet.

Another useful thing about DnD is, of course, the gamemaster, who was able to adjudicate rules without resorting to the rulebook. Players (especially new ones) always come up with unusual ideas and actions, and the GM can rule on things the designers never thought of - or things they did, if he's in a hurry and doesn't want to look things up.

Now, the fighting took up the bulk of both sessions, and part of the problem was that there were six or seven players in the adventures. (DnD has a "sweet spot" of four plus GM.) There's always a "hurry-up-and-wait" aspect to combat in war games of any sort, and DnD has a bad reputation in this area. But the low complexity of the rules and the table banter helped quite a bit, and reminded me why I enjoy this sort of play. There are plenty of historical RPGs out there - even variants of Dungeons and Dragons itself. Some of the methods - particularly the Move/Action/Bonus Action mechanism that players choose from on their turn - may work for the skirmish wargames I'm planning.

I'll have to check out DnD again.