Someone very thoughtfully gave me the new D&D starter set for my birthday, and despite never having actually played D&D (barring one short and not-terribly-enjoyable stint with Pathfinder), it seems as though I’m in the process of turning into a DM. In theory, the starter set contains enough information that even brand-new players can open the box and start to play, but listening to Critical Role for something like the past ten months will be hugely helpful. For one, I can draw slightly on Matt Mercer’s abundant wealth of NPCs when I have no idea what a character’s voice should sound like.
The plan is to run the game for one player, so I’ve been mulling over the adventure book, considering how to scale the encounters and whether to add more than one sidekick in addition to the character I’ll be playing. I’ve also been redesigning some of the locations, drawing maps, making notes on additional background lore (who can resist building a backstory for dragons?), and trying not to wade too deeply into the bog of “Oh gosh, I need to know what’s in every drawer in every cabinet, and the title and author of every book in the library, and what wood was used to make the bookshelves because it might be significant.” Even Matt Mercer had to start somewhere (presumably).
It helps that neither I nor my player have actually played before, and we’re learning together how to create characters, how to fall into backstories, how to play and world-build and explore together. It helps that we’re both epic nerds who have been accumulating knowledge of lore and fantasy for years. It helps knowing that this is the first time, so it’s alright if it’s clunky and exploratory and awkward. What matters most, as it says in the adventure book, is that everyone has fun.
