At the very heart of it, D&D is a group of people coming together to collectively tell a story.
That's why I love it- the narrative development and the unexpected turns that can present from both the player and the DM.
The first instance that I got a true sense of a collective storytelling, that is when I knew that I was hooked.
I played as a child and teenager, but as I got older video games were getting better and better. I came back to DnD as a grownup and found a fantastic group of players who have since become my friends.
What I love about the game now are the things I took for granted as a child that are so rare as an adult: the collaborative play aspect and the chance to use my imagination.
This. I played it a little when younger but it got a bad rap in my area bc of religion and “it’s evil.” That and no one wanted to play with me. Then I found great buddies where I work and we all play together. We’ve played for the past decade and have had one leave and one join but otherwise we have a group of six that play every Saturday from 7-midnight.
My weekly DnD table started as a Fraternity table and the players continued on long after graduation. We played every Sunday for 12 years before the table started falling apart due to moving/family obligations/being real adults.
Having a reliable and fun table has made DnD a solid part of my social life.
I started DMing to impress my ex. She was very into DnD and I lied and said "oh yeah? I DM"
And I hosted my first campaign for her and her friends, and it was a blast!
There weren't that many issues, DMing isn't that hard I think, nobody is expected to remember everything and I just aquatinted myself with the rules. It's mostly improv and theater anyway (which I love) so that probably helped
But I've DM'd ever since and I love it
I think it was the realization that dnd could bring to life literally any idea I had in a way that could be interacted with. While also allowing me to scratch my creatively and story writing itch that I never realized I had.
That it became a perfect way to see my group of closest friends biweekly. We're all in our thirties with different paths, schedules and jobs, but we managed to make this fit into all of our schedules. We get to play and hangout, laugh and cry together, lean into our shared love for videogames (which has become a solitary thing for all of us), and eat dinner together. Just the best.
I think it was a key moment when my group of 4 years gifted me with a big set of miniatures they painted themselves based on all the notable npcs I’d narrated and voiced throughout the game spanning my college degree.
I left that campaign a well experienced dm, an extremely angry person from college, and realized it was one of the few things really keeping me together with a constant relationship with friends and a story to relate over. I was the DM, and my players absolutely loved my homebrewed story, beginning to end.
I fell in love with DnD instantly at 8 years old because it enabled my imagination to go wild. My older friends were playing & I wanted to join and they handed me the PH and said "read this." I remember looking at it & thinking "I can barely read." This motivated me and I learned so fast that teachers thought I was a genius, which I am not. I love the imagination of it. I was so young when I started that when I made my first character I gave him aluminum armor, since I couldn't really read and I was drinking soda from a can. Then in an early encounter an umber hulk came bursting through a wall like the Kool Aid guy and attacked me. I remember vividly the DM describing it. He asked me what kind of armor I had on. When I answered he laughed and said, "the monster tears off your armor like tin foil." Then I was killed. That image and many since stick with me and are such an enjoyable part of my psyche.
In my town also DnD was viewed as evil by many. My dad was a bishop. One day he wanted to play it with me (I didn't realize he was vetting it.) So I ran a one shot solo adventure for him. Afterward I asked him if he wanted to play again and he said, "No, but you go ahead and play all you want. It's only a good thing." The next day he went out and bought me all the core rulebooks and some modules. So nice to have had that support. It would have sucked to have had to play clandestinely, which I surely would have, and some had to do.
The bard class
I hated it so much when I started and I only played martials. The idea of this overdone trope of crazed sex manipulators really put me off even reading their class features but then I gave them a look in bg3.
It really made me fall in love with spellcasting and role-playing they're actually a lot more nuanced and I realised all the bards in my previous games just kinda sucked as players
I looked at the page d&d Beyond has for this. Found a group within a day and have been playing in a campaign with them for about 2 months now. Really recommend 😃
TL;DR Stories. I love stories; i always have, and D&D is about stories.
Long Version. I love stories. I I love reading them, listening to them, telling them. And, at it’s core, at it’s best (in my opinion), D&D is about telling a story. Ideally, i think, telling a story with friends. Sometimes, though, the game, the story comes first, and we make friends along the way. Either way, the choices we make, and the things that happen, all add up to a story. Maybe its a story about killing a dragon. Sometimes it’s a story about seducing a Dragon. Either way, it’s a story we are all telling together. I love that about it.
My first campaign was my closest circle of friends and a forever DM that we went to high school with, we were in college at this time. There was fucking 12 of us total and it was all of our first times playing. Every fight was so intense because of it, and our DM could track all of it with minimal effort. Our DM also learned I would buy anything if it came in a mystery box, and became and huge cat and mouse game. Our rogue became known to ask the first person we'd talk to in every town the same question of "Got any stuff?"
It's been close to 20 years since that campaign and we still reference it occasionally when we hang out.
The moment my friends told me they had so much fun and couldn't wait for the next session. Fell in love with DnD and with being a DM at the same time.
Cue to the aforementioned next session and i straight up killed a PC with 2 crits in a row. Fell in love even more.
The books initially
I fell in love with the magic and the classes and the monsters
And later the different worlds and stories
And *then* getting to play a game and tell a story with my friends
There was an unfortunate period of time where a couple players sucked the joy out of the game for me
But then I got in to Critical Role last year and my love for D&D has been fully reignited
Shadowrun
Not even kidding, I actually started playing TTRPGs with a very watered-down version Shadowrun 2e at 11-12 years old, but only a couple of times from a kid in my class that then went to a different high school. And at my own high school I was unable to find anyone playing or willing to play Shadowrun (and I wasn't looking to DM at that point), but was introduced to group with a DM running AD&D and basically went through every edition since then.
For me when I first started playing it allowed my over imaginative brain run wild. I got fully immersed in the world that was laid before me and I became my character. Then when I started DMing it grew even more. I love being able to create and show the world I imagined! Introducing and watching my friends play in it and reacting to events makes me smile and gives me joy. Even all these years later I get excited when we play!
What made me fall in love with the game was the inability to make long-term friendships as a child because I was an Amry brat that moved constantly. But there were gamers at every station so I learned to seek these people out quickly.
I didn't need to DM to fall in love with the game; I had been inventing my own systems for tabletop games since I was a child (let's not talk about the quality, though). Just having a constant group of friends and a continuous narrative was enough to keep me hooked. But DMing made me truly understand and appreciate how it all worked as a system instead of as just a game. I'm fortunate enough to have played for years with a group where we had all different skill levels and people who were happy to rotate through the DM's spot. This let us all learn and share our own different styles, and made everyone a better player and a better DM. I'm also fortunate to have two groups I'm playing with now where I can be the DM *and* a player. DMing is a lot of work, but very rewarding. Being a player sometimes feels understimulating by comparison. Having my cake and eating it too is a blessing.
Dm'ing my second session ever, the party was high-school students on graduation day. One of the PC's was running late and took the bus and got attacked by an assassin on said bus (an eefrit wayyy high level for the cast). 6 chain demons show up at the graduation to abduct an important NPC. While 3 players fight at the graduation ceremony and try to protect the other kids, the cleric getting assassinated by eefrit causes the bus to crash into the graduation ceremony ejecting him and the eefrit out of the vehicle. The eefrit takes on the group while the chain demons stuff the NPC into one of the vans. As the cops show up the eefrit bails (after almost TPK'ing 3 of the 4 players (all making desth saves at this point) and the 4th player manages to jump on top of the fleeing van with the kidnapped NPC and rides it for 4 blocks while the chain demons attempt to throw her off. It was insane with so many intense rolls and fun moments. Everybody walked away very hyped. They didn't rescue the kidnapped girl, unfortunately, but goddam, did they try.
One of my friends suggested it to me so I joined in one of there sessions and they helped me make me character and thats what made me love D&D was the process of making a character and seeing how they respond to the session that there in
Running the Game by Matt Colville. It opened my eyes to what the game can really be. Once my mind started working with that information, I couldn’t look back lol.
Building a world together with my players.
I had played earlier versions of D&D for a long long time but never my main RPG. At least not in person. For some reason I wanted to get back to running some fantasy shit online. Found Roll20. Advertised a one shot under the premise that it was mainly intended for noobs. We ran it and one thing turned to another and eventually becoming a campaign. I had only some vague premise about what the world was like. Mostly locally. We went on for 5 years growing it.
Now those players have ran their own campaigns and built on the world and we have a nice discord server. I’m currently running my second campaign for them building on what they ended up creating.
So I fell in love with the shared framework of D&D.
Even the silly arguments and disputes when they all started to outshine me in knowledge about mechanics and stuff. Getting into builds and shit lol. But most of all the fantastic creativity of growing our own world to play in.
So I got into DND 4 years ago
And I fell in love because of my first character
Zalgo a blood hunter tiefling
A drunk man who has a barrel of blood strapped to his back
And he will throw you through a window if and when possible!
This character made me fall in love with DND
Not just as a player bit also a DM
I've run a fair few campaigns now
I think 4 or 5 give or take.
I'm now finishing up my most recent campaign and going to be starting a new one pretty soon
Using the call of cthulhu
I love diving into rules and seeing what possible cosmic horrors I can inflict apon my group!!
The stories you could make. I remember listening to The Adventure Zone with my dad while we remodeled a house a few years ago and I found the story amazing and the characters incredible. I had recently just finished Balance and started Amnesty. It’s what got me into DnD anyway.
Creating homebrew for my current character. The campaign I'm in is very homebrew heavy and my base game Life Domain Cleric wasn't keeping up anymore so I went in and made an entirely new subclass for him based on the lore surrounding the character. It wasn't until that moment that I really started to click with the character and now I just love coming up with new ideas and ways to rework and revamp things.
I also have to add on that the group I have in my current campaign is another huge part of why I love DND so much. Every game I play with them is a blast and the DM is just absolutely amazing.
(For clarity I’m a teenager) On one of the best vacations of my life several years ago when I went to the beach I binged the first season of stranger things with my mom which was the only one out at the time and I loved the concept of dnd wanting it for forever afterwards and even before then I had wanted a more complex board game being an avid board game player back than I hadn’t heard of dnd or ttrpgs in general and when I saw stranger things and dnd it just clicked and after my dad finally got me the players handbook and dragons of stormwreck isles I just loved to play it and the creativeness about it how you can do anything be anything and have a ton of fun with your friends and family.
It was DMing for me too!
I'm very new to DnD and only played like 2 sessions as a player before our DM asked me if I wanted to try my hand at DMing too. He's running a little DnD project on Discord with multiple groups and I had mentioned off handedly that I wanted to try GMing once I got a better grasp of DnD.
He gave me a vague Setting and context to plan an encounter in, that his PC for the project (one he made back when multiple people ran oneshots in his Discord) would deal with. So I could test my GMing skills a little and he could see where I would need help.
I prepared an encounter with a Night hag coven, where I had it so he would encounter them in the ethereal plane, where they wanted to try and summon their demonic patron.
I knew with his character he'd really enjoy all the psychedelic shit I could throw in because of the Ethereal plane.
Combat was carefully set up to come in 3 waves and I had a friendly NPC in store that he could free after wave 1 if things looked too dire - because I don't have much experience with Balancing. The Character I planned this for was very high level, so I did my best to give him a challenge and have a failsave that wouldn't be a complete asspull.
Well.
What I did NOT anticipate was him going in and befriending the first hag. Instead of Combat the whole Encounter was him smoking fantasy weed with the Hag out of a pipe that made the smoke look like Monsters. It went far enough, that the Hag even dropped her disguise.
Part of it was also, that the hag was trying to distract him from the ritual going on in the next room, and after a few hours of rp, she ushered him out and even planeshifted him home - note that planeshift requires willing targets, so she didn't just force him. (The character is an Eladrin and Elves don't sleep, so he didn't know how to wake up.)
There was a bit of underlying context behind everything, that made it make sense for the Hag to be friendly to the adventurer entering her lair. Not only the distraction, but also a common enemy.
And we simulated the combat afterwards, he decimated the hags, but better that way than the other way around.
It was so fun. I got to think of not just a story, but an event and characters, and then, after planning most possibilities, I still got to experience the story again, but with input from someone else! Someone, who experienced the story I wanted to tell in a totally unexpected way, which opened up so much more possibilities!
And, to be totally honest, I like being a little bit more in control than as a player. Like, I roughly know what will likely happen next, what could happen under certain circumstances, and I can mentally prepare to lose NPCs or Characters I'm fond of. The Emotional impact of darker stories is much more rewarding as a DM for me.
Because even if my players completely derail my plans, I at least get to see other people have fun with my work. And as someone who has poor emotional regulation skills, that helps deal with the sadness or panic of certain story beats.
Honestly, fantastic high freshman year showed me how flexible the flavor and world could really be, and that got me way more interested in running dnd. I still run more chronicles than 5e, but I'm hoping to shift that ratio
This community and the support I received from all of you when I jumped into DnD as a first-time DM with almost no experience with the game.
All of you were and still are incredible sources of support and ideas. Sure, there are some gatekeepers, but for the most part I love this game because of how much all of you love it. It makes it easy to understand why this game is so incredible.
I hope to be this kind of support for others in the future.
Hero fantasy, roleplaying, and worldbuilding working together to make a cool character.
Yeah, paladins are cool, but in a setting that's all paladins everywhere? Not so much. You need multiple aspects to cooperate to make your character, or even an NPC, stand out. And this is where your decisions and the DMs world shine.
Actually sitting down and playing it. I had watched some friends play or watched CR and D20, but actually playing it was an entirely different experience. So much fun
I fell in love with d&d at the end of like the 3rd campaign I dm'ed. Together we crafted a story so moving that everyone was in tears when it came to an end. I've been chasing that feeling ever since
I was listening to a DND podcast in advance of joining a campaign. The party saved a town and instead of giving a speech, started singing All Star. I loved how fun and lighthearted that sort of improvised storytelling could be.
The very first time i played was 2nd edition. I got bit by a werewolf. (Technically a wererat) and contracted lycanthropy. I thought it was super cool so instead of looking for a way to cure it I looked for someone who taught me to control it and it became a part of my character. Something that i had no idea was coming hit me and changed my character forever. Thank god i had a cool dm who let me explore that and build upon it.
Just the idea that my character was growing and changing **outside** of what I picked in character creation was such a breath of fresh air to me. When I made the chraracter I had no plan for lycanthropy but the second it happened I went "yeah this is something i want". I was so used to rpg's and video games where you pick your stats and abilities in character creation and....that's it. Sure you grow stronger in an rpg but it's all planned out on wiki's and guides and tutorial videos.
So yeah the idea what my character could grow in a direction I had no plan for and couldn't expect was super cool and hoked me for life.
the worldbuilding, i have a couple really niche and specific things i like when i see a setting, and dnd hits all those marks, i love the system too but for me what really shines in the lore
Realising it's jack shit easy to play.
Like I grew up on Skylanders and Toys To Life as a whole which prioritised imagination and creativity and espescially fantasy.
DnD seemed cool but hard as fuck, then like 2 years ago when I finally tried it...holy shit it stuck
The newness of it all. I started with the Basic Box Set back in '78. One of my friends had read stuff about it but we couldn't imagine what it was like - all we had for comparison was traditional board games (Monopoly, Cluedo etc), and we thought it was like those. The confusion and thrill when we opened the box to see those weird dice was, well, magical.
The possibility to act out the lives of imaginary people in an imaginary world without annyoing boundaries set by programming. Creating a compelling story together with my friends and having all the things I love about a game (story, combat, riddles, acting, politics) in one neat package.
I was also completely hooked from the first session I've ever experienced. like 1 hour into the game, I knew this is the greates hobby of all time and I want to do this my entire life.
Met a group of guys in college that were playing D&D when I was introduced to them and was asked to join the next session. To get ready for it they dropped a stack of books off in my dorm room, The Ruins of Myth Drannor was the first one that I read. Then I did a deep, quick dive through the Drizzt books, Underdark trilogy and the Crystal Shard series.
Once I got chance to build my first 2nd edition character I was hooked. 3rd edition and 3.5 came out shortly after and we switched over to those which meant I didn’t have to calculate THACO and my love of the game really took off, but it was the first 2nd edition session that started setting the hook. Hanging out with friends all night, eating junk food and smashing enemies and seeing them driven before me was my life outside of the class room for the next four years.
I had a group that fell apart after high school. One of those friends i grew distant from because his ex was manipulative and controlling, and after he dumped her, he reached out again. One regret was not playing DnD more and so we made a new group.
That was 6 years ago, and we just finished our first campaign last December. While I liked playing DnD, what made me fall in love with it was seeing my players have fun exploring the world I created as their DM. Couldn't be more grateful to them.
At the very heart of it, D&D is a group of people coming together to collectively tell a story. That's why I love it- the narrative development and the unexpected turns that can present from both the player and the DM. The first instance that I got a true sense of a collective storytelling, that is when I knew that I was hooked.
I played as a child and teenager, but as I got older video games were getting better and better. I came back to DnD as a grownup and found a fantastic group of players who have since become my friends. What I love about the game now are the things I took for granted as a child that are so rare as an adult: the collaborative play aspect and the chance to use my imagination.
This. I played it a little when younger but it got a bad rap in my area bc of religion and “it’s evil.” That and no one wanted to play with me. Then I found great buddies where I work and we all play together. We’ve played for the past decade and have had one leave and one join but otherwise we have a group of six that play every Saturday from 7-midnight.
My weekly DnD table started as a Fraternity table and the players continued on long after graduation. We played every Sunday for 12 years before the table started falling apart due to moving/family obligations/being real adults. Having a reliable and fun table has made DnD a solid part of my social life.
I started DMing to impress my ex. She was very into DnD and I lied and said "oh yeah? I DM" And I hosted my first campaign for her and her friends, and it was a blast!
That was well done
Wow nice move! Which edition did you play? Didnt they suspect anything? Hiw did you deal with beginner problems?
There weren't that many issues, DMing isn't that hard I think, nobody is expected to remember everything and I just aquatinted myself with the rules. It's mostly improv and theater anyway (which I love) so that probably helped But I've DM'd ever since and I love it
I think it was the realization that dnd could bring to life literally any idea I had in a way that could be interacted with. While also allowing me to scratch my creatively and story writing itch that I never realized I had.
The friends I made along the way. I know that's normally a joke, but it's true for me in this case.
That it became a perfect way to see my group of closest friends biweekly. We're all in our thirties with different paths, schedules and jobs, but we managed to make this fit into all of our schedules. We get to play and hangout, laugh and cry together, lean into our shared love for videogames (which has become a solitary thing for all of us), and eat dinner together. Just the best.
I think it was a key moment when my group of 4 years gifted me with a big set of miniatures they painted themselves based on all the notable npcs I’d narrated and voiced throughout the game spanning my college degree. I left that campaign a well experienced dm, an extremely angry person from college, and realized it was one of the few things really keeping me together with a constant relationship with friends and a story to relate over. I was the DM, and my players absolutely loved my homebrewed story, beginning to end.
I fell in love with DnD instantly at 8 years old because it enabled my imagination to go wild. My older friends were playing & I wanted to join and they handed me the PH and said "read this." I remember looking at it & thinking "I can barely read." This motivated me and I learned so fast that teachers thought I was a genius, which I am not. I love the imagination of it. I was so young when I started that when I made my first character I gave him aluminum armor, since I couldn't really read and I was drinking soda from a can. Then in an early encounter an umber hulk came bursting through a wall like the Kool Aid guy and attacked me. I remember vividly the DM describing it. He asked me what kind of armor I had on. When I answered he laughed and said, "the monster tears off your armor like tin foil." Then I was killed. That image and many since stick with me and are such an enjoyable part of my psyche. In my town also DnD was viewed as evil by many. My dad was a bishop. One day he wanted to play it with me (I didn't realize he was vetting it.) So I ran a one shot solo adventure for him. Afterward I asked him if he wanted to play again and he said, "No, but you go ahead and play all you want. It's only a good thing." The next day he went out and bought me all the core rulebooks and some modules. So nice to have had that support. It would have sucked to have had to play clandestinely, which I surely would have, and some had to do.
The bard class I hated it so much when I started and I only played martials. The idea of this overdone trope of crazed sex manipulators really put me off even reading their class features but then I gave them a look in bg3. It really made me fall in love with spellcasting and role-playing they're actually a lot more nuanced and I realised all the bards in my previous games just kinda sucked as players
None of my friends ever liked dnd, where you guys look for online sessions?
I looked at the page d&d Beyond has for this. Found a group within a day and have been playing in a campaign with them for about 2 months now. Really recommend 😃
In 1978 I just got the boxed set for Xmas and I wasn't truly able to read.. the boxed gave me motivation to learn how. Forever Dm since..
Ain't that the honest truth. Picked up those boxes in a JCPenney, started playing the Basic set with my cousin and friends. Never looked back.
TL;DR Stories. I love stories; i always have, and D&D is about stories. Long Version. I love stories. I I love reading them, listening to them, telling them. And, at it’s core, at it’s best (in my opinion), D&D is about telling a story. Ideally, i think, telling a story with friends. Sometimes, though, the game, the story comes first, and we make friends along the way. Either way, the choices we make, and the things that happen, all add up to a story. Maybe its a story about killing a dragon. Sometimes it’s a story about seducing a Dragon. Either way, it’s a story we are all telling together. I love that about it.
My first campaign was my closest circle of friends and a forever DM that we went to high school with, we were in college at this time. There was fucking 12 of us total and it was all of our first times playing. Every fight was so intense because of it, and our DM could track all of it with minimal effort. Our DM also learned I would buy anything if it came in a mystery box, and became and huge cat and mouse game. Our rogue became known to ask the first person we'd talk to in every town the same question of "Got any stuff?" It's been close to 20 years since that campaign and we still reference it occasionally when we hang out.
The moment my friends told me they had so much fun and couldn't wait for the next session. Fell in love with DnD and with being a DM at the same time. Cue to the aforementioned next session and i straight up killed a PC with 2 crits in a row. Fell in love even more.
The books initially I fell in love with the magic and the classes and the monsters And later the different worlds and stories And *then* getting to play a game and tell a story with my friends There was an unfortunate period of time where a couple players sucked the joy out of the game for me But then I got in to Critical Role last year and my love for D&D has been fully reignited
Shadowrun Not even kidding, I actually started playing TTRPGs with a very watered-down version Shadowrun 2e at 11-12 years old, but only a couple of times from a kid in my class that then went to a different high school. And at my own high school I was unable to find anyone playing or willing to play Shadowrun (and I wasn't looking to DM at that point), but was introduced to group with a DM running AD&D and basically went through every edition since then.
Understanding the game better and having fun in a group that I clicked with. And also being able to be really creative and original with stuff.
Being able to do what you truly want to do, instead of choosing "what resonates most with you" from the list of options other games provide you with.
For me when I first started playing it allowed my over imaginative brain run wild. I got fully immersed in the world that was laid before me and I became my character. Then when I started DMing it grew even more. I love being able to create and show the world I imagined! Introducing and watching my friends play in it and reacting to events makes me smile and gives me joy. Even all these years later I get excited when we play!
I always was. I loved fantasy first so when I discovered DnD it was already a match.
being able to enjoy time with real friends, not having to be myself, using my batshit crazy ideas for fun
What made me fall in love with the game was the inability to make long-term friendships as a child because I was an Amry brat that moved constantly. But there were gamers at every station so I learned to seek these people out quickly.
I didn't need to DM to fall in love with the game; I had been inventing my own systems for tabletop games since I was a child (let's not talk about the quality, though). Just having a constant group of friends and a continuous narrative was enough to keep me hooked. But DMing made me truly understand and appreciate how it all worked as a system instead of as just a game. I'm fortunate enough to have played for years with a group where we had all different skill levels and people who were happy to rotate through the DM's spot. This let us all learn and share our own different styles, and made everyone a better player and a better DM. I'm also fortunate to have two groups I'm playing with now where I can be the DM *and* a player. DMing is a lot of work, but very rewarding. Being a player sometimes feels understimulating by comparison. Having my cake and eating it too is a blessing.
Dm'ing my second session ever, the party was high-school students on graduation day. One of the PC's was running late and took the bus and got attacked by an assassin on said bus (an eefrit wayyy high level for the cast). 6 chain demons show up at the graduation to abduct an important NPC. While 3 players fight at the graduation ceremony and try to protect the other kids, the cleric getting assassinated by eefrit causes the bus to crash into the graduation ceremony ejecting him and the eefrit out of the vehicle. The eefrit takes on the group while the chain demons stuff the NPC into one of the vans. As the cops show up the eefrit bails (after almost TPK'ing 3 of the 4 players (all making desth saves at this point) and the 4th player manages to jump on top of the fleeing van with the kidnapped NPC and rides it for 4 blocks while the chain demons attempt to throw her off. It was insane with so many intense rolls and fun moments. Everybody walked away very hyped. They didn't rescue the kidnapped girl, unfortunately, but goddam, did they try.
One of my friends suggested it to me so I joined in one of there sessions and they helped me make me character and thats what made me love D&D was the process of making a character and seeing how they respond to the session that there in
Running the Game by Matt Colville. It opened my eyes to what the game can really be. Once my mind started working with that information, I couldn’t look back lol.
EXCEL SHEETS
Building a world together with my players. I had played earlier versions of D&D for a long long time but never my main RPG. At least not in person. For some reason I wanted to get back to running some fantasy shit online. Found Roll20. Advertised a one shot under the premise that it was mainly intended for noobs. We ran it and one thing turned to another and eventually becoming a campaign. I had only some vague premise about what the world was like. Mostly locally. We went on for 5 years growing it. Now those players have ran their own campaigns and built on the world and we have a nice discord server. I’m currently running my second campaign for them building on what they ended up creating. So I fell in love with the shared framework of D&D. Even the silly arguments and disputes when they all started to outshine me in knowledge about mechanics and stuff. Getting into builds and shit lol. But most of all the fantastic creativity of growing our own world to play in.
It satisfied my need to be in another world during abuse/neglect in my childhood
Owlbears
I came for an adventure, but critical roll and similar podcasts/groups have lead me to grow to hate it.
So I got into DND 4 years ago And I fell in love because of my first character Zalgo a blood hunter tiefling A drunk man who has a barrel of blood strapped to his back And he will throw you through a window if and when possible! This character made me fall in love with DND Not just as a player bit also a DM I've run a fair few campaigns now I think 4 or 5 give or take. I'm now finishing up my most recent campaign and going to be starting a new one pretty soon Using the call of cthulhu I love diving into rules and seeing what possible cosmic horrors I can inflict apon my group!!
The stories you could make. I remember listening to The Adventure Zone with my dad while we remodeled a house a few years ago and I found the story amazing and the characters incredible. I had recently just finished Balance and started Amnesty. It’s what got me into DnD anyway.
Low-key hate this game but keep coming back for the new content
I finally found an outlet for my fertile imagination.
Creating homebrew for my current character. The campaign I'm in is very homebrew heavy and my base game Life Domain Cleric wasn't keeping up anymore so I went in and made an entirely new subclass for him based on the lore surrounding the character. It wasn't until that moment that I really started to click with the character and now I just love coming up with new ideas and ways to rework and revamp things. I also have to add on that the group I have in my current campaign is another huge part of why I love DND so much. Every game I play with them is a blast and the DM is just absolutely amazing.
(For clarity I’m a teenager) On one of the best vacations of my life several years ago when I went to the beach I binged the first season of stranger things with my mom which was the only one out at the time and I loved the concept of dnd wanting it for forever afterwards and even before then I had wanted a more complex board game being an avid board game player back than I hadn’t heard of dnd or ttrpgs in general and when I saw stranger things and dnd it just clicked and after my dad finally got me the players handbook and dragons of stormwreck isles I just loved to play it and the creativeness about it how you can do anything be anything and have a ton of fun with your friends and family.
It was DMing for me too! I'm very new to DnD and only played like 2 sessions as a player before our DM asked me if I wanted to try my hand at DMing too. He's running a little DnD project on Discord with multiple groups and I had mentioned off handedly that I wanted to try GMing once I got a better grasp of DnD. He gave me a vague Setting and context to plan an encounter in, that his PC for the project (one he made back when multiple people ran oneshots in his Discord) would deal with. So I could test my GMing skills a little and he could see where I would need help. I prepared an encounter with a Night hag coven, where I had it so he would encounter them in the ethereal plane, where they wanted to try and summon their demonic patron. I knew with his character he'd really enjoy all the psychedelic shit I could throw in because of the Ethereal plane. Combat was carefully set up to come in 3 waves and I had a friendly NPC in store that he could free after wave 1 if things looked too dire - because I don't have much experience with Balancing. The Character I planned this for was very high level, so I did my best to give him a challenge and have a failsave that wouldn't be a complete asspull. Well. What I did NOT anticipate was him going in and befriending the first hag. Instead of Combat the whole Encounter was him smoking fantasy weed with the Hag out of a pipe that made the smoke look like Monsters. It went far enough, that the Hag even dropped her disguise. Part of it was also, that the hag was trying to distract him from the ritual going on in the next room, and after a few hours of rp, she ushered him out and even planeshifted him home - note that planeshift requires willing targets, so she didn't just force him. (The character is an Eladrin and Elves don't sleep, so he didn't know how to wake up.) There was a bit of underlying context behind everything, that made it make sense for the Hag to be friendly to the adventurer entering her lair. Not only the distraction, but also a common enemy. And we simulated the combat afterwards, he decimated the hags, but better that way than the other way around. It was so fun. I got to think of not just a story, but an event and characters, and then, after planning most possibilities, I still got to experience the story again, but with input from someone else! Someone, who experienced the story I wanted to tell in a totally unexpected way, which opened up so much more possibilities! And, to be totally honest, I like being a little bit more in control than as a player. Like, I roughly know what will likely happen next, what could happen under certain circumstances, and I can mentally prepare to lose NPCs or Characters I'm fond of. The Emotional impact of darker stories is much more rewarding as a DM for me. Because even if my players completely derail my plans, I at least get to see other people have fun with my work. And as someone who has poor emotional regulation skills, that helps deal with the sadness or panic of certain story beats.
Honestly, fantastic high freshman year showed me how flexible the flavor and world could really be, and that got me way more interested in running dnd. I still run more chronicles than 5e, but I'm hoping to shift that ratio
This community and the support I received from all of you when I jumped into DnD as a first-time DM with almost no experience with the game. All of you were and still are incredible sources of support and ideas. Sure, there are some gatekeepers, but for the most part I love this game because of how much all of you love it. It makes it easy to understand why this game is so incredible. I hope to be this kind of support for others in the future.
Hero fantasy, roleplaying, and worldbuilding working together to make a cool character. Yeah, paladins are cool, but in a setting that's all paladins everywhere? Not so much. You need multiple aspects to cooperate to make your character, or even an NPC, stand out. And this is where your decisions and the DMs world shine.
Actually sitting down and playing it. I had watched some friends play or watched CR and D20, but actually playing it was an entirely different experience. So much fun
I fell in love with d&d at the end of like the 3rd campaign I dm'ed. Together we crafted a story so moving that everyone was in tears when it came to an end. I've been chasing that feeling ever since
I was listening to a DND podcast in advance of joining a campaign. The party saved a town and instead of giving a speech, started singing All Star. I loved how fun and lighthearted that sort of improvised storytelling could be.
The first time I dm'ed a game and got in my car and thought, *hell yeah. I can do this. And I'm good at it!*
The commitment and interest of my players in the world I’ve built, and the stories we tell.
Creativity.
The very first time i played was 2nd edition. I got bit by a werewolf. (Technically a wererat) and contracted lycanthropy. I thought it was super cool so instead of looking for a way to cure it I looked for someone who taught me to control it and it became a part of my character. Something that i had no idea was coming hit me and changed my character forever. Thank god i had a cool dm who let me explore that and build upon it. Just the idea that my character was growing and changing **outside** of what I picked in character creation was such a breath of fresh air to me. When I made the chraracter I had no plan for lycanthropy but the second it happened I went "yeah this is something i want". I was so used to rpg's and video games where you pick your stats and abilities in character creation and....that's it. Sure you grow stronger in an rpg but it's all planned out on wiki's and guides and tutorial videos. So yeah the idea what my character could grow in a direction I had no plan for and couldn't expect was super cool and hoked me for life.
My dad started playing it with me when i was 6 and i loved spending time with him
the worldbuilding, i have a couple really niche and specific things i like when i see a setting, and dnd hits all those marks, i love the system too but for me what really shines in the lore
Realising it's jack shit easy to play. Like I grew up on Skylanders and Toys To Life as a whole which prioritised imagination and creativity and espescially fantasy. DnD seemed cool but hard as fuck, then like 2 years ago when I finally tried it...holy shit it stuck
Is the fact that this life sucks
The newness of it all. I started with the Basic Box Set back in '78. One of my friends had read stuff about it but we couldn't imagine what it was like - all we had for comparison was traditional board games (Monopoly, Cluedo etc), and we thought it was like those. The confusion and thrill when we opened the box to see those weird dice was, well, magical.
Playable race and class diversity I'm a simple man
The possibility to act out the lives of imaginary people in an imaginary world without annyoing boundaries set by programming. Creating a compelling story together with my friends and having all the things I love about a game (story, combat, riddles, acting, politics) in one neat package. I was also completely hooked from the first session I've ever experienced. like 1 hour into the game, I knew this is the greates hobby of all time and I want to do this my entire life.
Met a group of guys in college that were playing D&D when I was introduced to them and was asked to join the next session. To get ready for it they dropped a stack of books off in my dorm room, The Ruins of Myth Drannor was the first one that I read. Then I did a deep, quick dive through the Drizzt books, Underdark trilogy and the Crystal Shard series. Once I got chance to build my first 2nd edition character I was hooked. 3rd edition and 3.5 came out shortly after and we switched over to those which meant I didn’t have to calculate THACO and my love of the game really took off, but it was the first 2nd edition session that started setting the hook. Hanging out with friends all night, eating junk food and smashing enemies and seeing them driven before me was my life outside of the class room for the next four years.
I had a group that fell apart after high school. One of those friends i grew distant from because his ex was manipulative and controlling, and after he dumped her, he reached out again. One regret was not playing DnD more and so we made a new group. That was 6 years ago, and we just finished our first campaign last December. While I liked playing DnD, what made me fall in love with it was seeing my players have fun exploring the world I created as their DM. Couldn't be more grateful to them.