A Quick Conversation with a DnD Player

Here is a snippet from a conversation I had with a DnD player about Glyph Wardens.

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Are you tired of the cliche classes? 

Kind of?

Me too. Really. So we just threw that book out the window. No more classes – school’s out! Want to pick up a sword for the first time? Sure! Oo look, you can swing it, now let’s try…

Swinging my sword again?

Ah, if I had a nickel for every time I heard that, I wouldn’t need to make this game, but I still would because I’m in LOVE with it! So anyways, yea, no. There are skill trees for every weapon. There are even specialized skills for that magical sword you picked up. Don’t know what those are, huh? What a mystery! Mystery, you say?

I didn’t…

– That’s where downtime swoops in to save the day! 

Wait, what’s downtime? Isn’t that when I roll on a bunch of tables to see if I end up in jail?

Not anymore! With 15 downtime activities, you’ll be chomping at the bit to get back to camp! Train to level up your skills, identify magical items (yourself!), unlock their secrets, then take a break and have a nice meal with your friends! Yes, sharing a meal gives you a tangible benefit. Add some magically spiced goblin drumsticks, and your campsite’s on fire! 

Uh, literally?

Only if your cook screwed up the spice ratio. Now you can sit back, tell stories, and delve deep into your relationship with that special someone.

Oh yea, romance, huh?

Well, echem, after a night well spent, you’re back to adventuring! You get up, do your morning, stretches, eat a quick bite, and set off with high spirits and high team initiative – you’re ready for anything! 

And then you hit a wall. A literal one. It’s a dead end! What are you going to do? 

Roll a Wisdom check to figure it out? 

Oh-ho no you don’t. There’s a wall in front of you – what the heck do you do?? There’s no rolling your way out of a problem. 

You have skills to back you up, but they’re your skills. You have them. No rolling necessary. If you’re an expert lockpicker, you open the damned lock. Not an expert trap-finder? Well then, you spring the trap! Damn. So, back to this wall situation. I, your friendly Guide, give you a description of the room. 

Wait, no Perception check? 

Hah. Do you have two eyes? 

Yes. 

Do they work alright? 

I guess… 

Well, then, this is what you see. Stop complaining!! Do you think you might have missed something? Take your time and take careful action. 

Okay?

You take 10 minutes to look around, kick or some rocks and such. And lookie there - you found something! Buuut while you were kicking rocks around, a pair of blood bats (you don’t want to know) heard you and are right behind you! Lesson learned. Taking time and making noise are your biggest enemies while exploring. That, and the blood bats. And the stupid wall.

Roll for initiative!! 

Yea, no.

Wait, no rolling for initiative? 

Nah, man. But that time you took kicking rocks around –

Yea, stop reminding me!! 

– lowered your ongoing team initiative, so the bats get the drop on you! Let’s play this out.

Well, sucks to be them – they’ll never get past my cool plate armor! 

Uh, yeah. The first bat came and scratched your face for 2 damage. Are you going to defend? 

What about my cool plate armor?!!! 

You can use your instant action to raise your shoulder so it scratches your cool plate armor. But no, it doesn’t automatically do anything. Other than being automatically, uh, cool. 

Uh, okay, I use an instant action to do that. 

Great! Now the other one flies in your face, going for the eyes for 4 damage!

%$*#, I already used my reaction! I’m toast! 

Yea, you still have four actions to use…you can use your armor again, or one of the six skills you have available. 

Wait what?? Only six skills?? What about the hundreds of skills and no classes thing you talked about?! This is bull%$*#. 

Hold your horses. 

I don’t have any—

Shut up. You have six skills and six items ready for battle. You can switch them out when the battle's over.

Uh okay, can I do anything other than use my armor? It seems like a drag, doing the same thing every time.

Let’s see, you have three defense skills readied - nice prep work!

Blank stare. You prepped this.

Shut up. You have a sword equipped, so go ahead and use your Parry 3 skill for one action point.

And how do I use that? Does it reduce 3 damage?

Aha – so you’d think! This is where the dice come into play!

I was wondering what these were used for…

Shut up. So this is a Tier 1 skill, so you roll 1d8.

I got a -2. What the heck is wrong with these dice?!

That represents how well your training, the 3, did against active resistance – the bat trying to eat your face. So your total effect is 3-2. So –

One. I can math.

– it reduces the damage by one. 

So NOW I’m toast.

Have no fear, your friendly ally is here! Allindra slams her staff into the bat’s face as it tries to eat your face, shoving it off and knocking it to the ground!

Say what? It didn’t even attack her.

Ah, my good friend. You may not have seen this much in your previous adventuring days. It’s called teamwork. And it is glorious.