D&D Character Sheet - Your Road Map

If you have heard of Dungeons and Dragons, then you may know enough to simply shake your head at how weird of a game it is. I used to be like that. I had friends who played and I just smile indulgently at them. "What nerds!" I thought. A few years later, and I find that I am one of those nerds.

The game is fun and easy, once you have a few basics down. There are lots of props for the game, everything from dungeon tiles (which help the game master design the game) to maps to miniatures, but what you really need is imagination. The easiest way I can describe D&D is to say that it is shared storytelling. There is an agreed upon universe (for example, a world of magic and dragons, versus, say, a world of robots and aliens) and the players create a character that will move through the universe like a game piece.

For readers familiar with video games, a Dungeons and Dragon character sheet will sound familiar. The reason for this is that the video game mechanics are often taken directly from D&D. So your character will have a certain score for strength and smarts and dexterity. These scores will tell you how likely it is that your character can do something. Rolling dice help introduce an element of luck. Here's an example: let's say that you are playing a character who is a talented swordsman. As in real life, sometimes talent in one area means you are lacking in another. This swordsman has high scores on strength, dexterity and intelligence. He does not have much charm, however. So when it comes to sweet talking a bar maid, the swordsman might have a difficult time!

The character sheet keeps the game honest. The game master will have her own copy of the sheet, so she knows exactly what score you need to convince the bar maid to tell you the information. Without a sheet of attributes, you have no road map for how the game could play out. In a shared story game, as any role playing game will be, you need to have a sense of where your character is going and what motivates him or her.

The game is complex -- as you would expect with a game that needs at least three people and a backpack worth of books to play. The tools seem daunting at first but as you begin to understand them, the game will also begin to make sense. And when it does, you are in for a wild ride!