An Adventure Begins (Anew)

An Adventure Begins

I had not played D&D at all for decades - not seriously since 1e, and my son recently discovered D&D 5e with his friends. This blog will document our journey as we set off to create new memories playing the game together.

Before the beginning

I was excited to hear that my son would be joining a group of his friends to begin playing D&D. I was so excited, in fact, that I turned to the Internet to do some research on the current state of the game... Over the years, I have tried to return to the game, dabbling a bit in first 3.5e, then 4e, having not played seriously since my younger days in 1e. I really had not felt a connection to either 3.5e or 4e, finding them far different than my nostalgic 1e days. They were so rules-heavy, neither of those editions lent themselves well to quick learning or casual dalliances.

I was delighted to find that 5e felt much more like what he remembered fondly from AD&D! I was even more delighted to find conversions of nostalgic, historical modules and tips for converting the classics into the 5e system. Wistfully, I pored over classic 1e material online and excitedly dug into 5e as well.

I ventured out into the garage and dug out my crate of treasured D&D stuff: miniatures, magazines, modules, 1e tomes, binder after binder of homebrewed material... The musty smell evoked the very dungeons that were depicted on graph paper and module covers. My son dove into the crate as if it was an actual treasure chest, voraciously rifling through a previous generation of D&D inspiration. We traded stories: my of his experiences in the 'Lost Mines of Phandelver', and I of many adventures and campaigns in nearly forgotten modules and settings - from B1 'Keep on the Borderlands', to G1-3 'Against the Giants', to U1 'The Sinister Secrets of Saltmarsh'.

Inspired, we set out to build a common, shared father-son experience... One-on-one has never necessarily been the ideal paradigm for RPGs or D&D, but it promised to allow for a bonding experience much as any other shared hobby or interest, like fishing or sports.

We decided  to begin at the same place where the I began almost 40 years earlier: at the 'Keep' and the 'Caves of Chaos'...