{"id":396,"date":"2011-01-26T09:52:51","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T09:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidhing.com\/?p=396"},"modified":"2011-01-26T09:53:30","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T09:53:30","slug":"killer-dice-keith-and-derik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhing.com\/chaotic-tortoise\/2011\/01\/killer-dice-keith-and-derik\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer Dice: Keith and Derek"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The dice are trying to kill you.<\/p><\/div>\n

I have an affinity for Dungeons and Dragons, one of the most geeky of games.\u00a0 In the right circumstances can be hugely enjoyable, with those circumstances largely being “not taking it too seriously”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of my first attempts to get a couple of my friends interested in \u201cproper\u201d Dungeons and Dragons did not go well.\u00a0 It was a standard basic-set adventure involving a dungeon for a dark wizard\u2019s salt mine that started the players in a prison cell and was meant to lead them to an exit that turned out to be a lost city, or something along those lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two players in question only made it to room number two before killing each other following a dispute about what to do with an unconscious hobgoblin that they were dragging along behind them.<\/p>\n

The warning bells for this scenario were probably starting to warm up around about the time the characters were rolled up and given the names \u201cKeith\u201d and \u201cDerek\u201d, the former being a thief, the latter a cleric.\u00a0 I\u2019ll admit that this was an early version of Dungeons and Dragons which was a little low on character customisation, with Dwarf and Elf being a class as opposed to a race, but in terms of fleshed out characters, Keith and Derek were particularly poorly dressed skeletons.\u00a0 Of course, this didn\u2019t register as a problem, as after all, these were pretty much new players to the game, and it was probably best just to get on with the adventure and let them work out their characters from there.<\/p>\n

What followed is probably more likely my fault than theirs, as I proceeded to allow things that a more seasoned DM would work around.\u00a0 Keith and Derek, with the help of burly NPC Axel, tricked their hobgoblin gaoler, Jerj, who I consistently mispronounced as \u201cJerry\u201d, and broke from their bondage.\u00a0 However, being without any equipment other than the soiled rags they were wearing, they were keen to keep a set of manacles that happened to be in their cell.\u00a0 Not only this, but they then decided to fill the manacles with an unconscious hobgoblin gaoler.\u00a0 Now the warning bells were starting to clang a little.\u00a0 I allowed it, regretted it, and then decided that I would have the hobgoblin regain consciousness slowly, leaving them plenty of time to leave him behind.<\/p>\n

Dragging their captive along behind them, for\u00a0reasons they did not fully comprehended, their captive hobgoblin started stirring into consciousness.\u00a0\u00a0They promptly entered a discussion about what to do with it.\u00a0 In a reversal of what you would expect, the thief thought it would be immoral to slit the creature’s throat whilst it was out cold, whereas the cleric practically had the knife to its throat before anyone could think.\u00a0 I can\u2019t quite remember what happened immediately following this, but either Keith killed Derek, or Derek killed Keith, or Keith and Derek somehow accidentally killed each other with some unfortunate rolling of dice (the Killer Dice principle).<\/p>\n

Taking a few things away from this misadventure, I learnt some fairly useful lessons.<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t always let players have their own way.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Learn to fudge the dice.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t always let players have their own way.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make sure your players actually want to play.\u00a0 A bit of a no brainer, but I have suspicions that Derek and Keith were less than keen.<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t always let players have their own way (but not at the expense of point number 4).<\/p>\n

If anyone out there recognises the adventure I\u2019m talking about (something along the lines of \u201cEscape from Zanzer\u2019s Dungeon) and has actually played all the way through, I’d be interested to know because I\u2019m convinced nobody actually made it.\u00a0 It seemed to go on forever and so in many ways, I\u2019m glad Keith and Derek never made it past room two.<\/p>\n

Additional Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Years later I would start a campaign and allow a game-breaking Barbarian-Wizard to be created.\u00a0 I swear the player used loaded dice to roll for his characteristics.\u00a0 It is an all new variant on the Killer Dice Principle resulting in a long slow death from exasperation for poor soul trying to run the game.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, if anyone laughs at you or otherwise teases you\u00a0for playing Dungeons and Dragons, remember the following two things:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0 They have heard of the game and therefore probably know what it is thus maybe just as geeky as you.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0 They are secretly jealous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have an affinity for Dungeons and Dragons, one of the most geeky of games.\u00a0 In the right circumstances can be hugely enjoyable, with those circumstances largely being “not taking it too seriously”.\u00a0 One of my first attempts to get a couple of my friends interested in \u201cproper\u201d Dungeons and Dragons did not go well.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[60,244,65,18,239],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-board-bames","tag-board-games","tag-board-bames","tag-dungeons-and-dragons","tag-games","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nKiller Dice: Keith and Derek - Chaotic Tortoise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.davidhing.com\/chaotic-tortoise\/2011\/01\/killer-dice-keith-and-derik\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Killer Dice: Keith and Derek - 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