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D&D AARPG IS your grandparents’ Dungeons & Dragons

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For this week’s look into streaming RPG programs, there’s a wonderful series put together by Geek & Sundry called D&D AARPG. In this series, writer and actress Amy Vorpahl guides a group of older players through a D&D adventure. Vorpahl handles Dungeon Master duties, while seniors Annie Coty, Bobby Reed and Art are joined by younger players Hector Navarro and Josh Flaum.

Like the Scarlet Sisterhood of Steel & Sorcery that was the focus of last week’s column, D&D AARPG is a different kind of game. Currently there are only two episodes, produced as part of the G&S Mothership program that streams Thursdays at 5:30 p.m.PST on Twitch and Alpha, and also is available on YouTube.

The enormous popularity of tabletop roleplaying games in general and D&D in particular has been a terrific boon for the hobby, and programs like this continue to expand the boundaries of how these games are played. Viewer comments on the two episodes show a majority that greatly enjoy watching these older players experience D&D for the first time. It reminds me of an article I read some time back about a 26-year-old DM who ran Lost Mines of Phandelver for his 70-year-old grandparents and their friends. Unfortunately, the original article seems to be lost on the internet, but it was a great example of the broad appeal of RPGs and their ability to almost instantly engage the imagination of players from any walk of life.

As usual, I’ll discuss where D&D AARPG is a Success or Failure along with where it scores a Critical Hit or a Critical Fail, with a Perception Check for hidden details or closer observation.

Successes

The length of each episode is very short. Each of the two episodes is about 14 minutes long, easily digestible in comparison to other streaming RPG programs that run anywhere from two to four hours and sometimes longer, which can be quite a time commitment for viewers, even when the show is engaging. It’s one thing to have a marathon game session at home where you’re a player or GM for eight hours, but maintaining concentration and investment watching others play a game for many hours can get exhausting.

The takeaway from the program’s short length is something you can bring to your own home game as well. I enjoy playing RPGs for hours at a time as much as the next gamer, but it’s not uncommon for adulting to encroach on my group’s game time. Running a single short encounter that takes anywhere from 15 minutes to maybe an hour offers gamers a chance to get their fix without needing to set aside a huge chunk of time to play. Granted, the actual session for each program was longer and edited down in post production, but the lesson here remains the same.

A short session of a single encounter can still contain GM narration, drama, humor and excitement. Characters can still experience development and opportunities for roleplaying, exploration and social interaction. Longer game sessions are essentially a series of these short encounters strung together anyway. So the next time your game group is threatened with missing a session because one or more players don’t have the time, consider getting together for 30 minutes and playing through a single encounter. It’s better than not gaming at all!

Failures

The inclusion of the younger players comes across as unnecessary. They don’t seem like experienced RPG players (I think this is Flaum’s first D&D experience), so they’re not adding much to the program. It is much more enjoyable to watch DM Vorpahl’s interaction with the older players, and since the premise of the show is based on that, having the non-senior players at the table takes away from the unique appeal.

As a campaign, it would have been interesting to watch the discussions that took place before play began. The players were given a choice of pre-generated characters to play, which Vorpahl explains were pared down to the bare bones for maximum ease of understanding. It would have been much more entertaining to let the players create their own characters and walk them through the process. New players tend to bring fresh perspectives to their choices, and these seniors have a wealth of life experience already that would surely inform how they approach character creation.

On the other hand, it’s not that unusual for games such as convention play to have pre-generated characters available. The difference is, these scenarios typically have players who are familiar with the game rules and mechanics. Not always, but most of the time. As a GM who loves introducing new players to RPGs, I would have really enjoyed at least a little bit of pre-game prep, character building and the like.

Critical Hits

Like all new players, not having a thorough grasp of the rules and mechanics winds up having a fun effect on the game. New RPG players often come up with unusual ideas on how to approach problems by virtue of not knowing how everything works.

“I’m not much of a winner or loser. I just want to have fun.”

– Annie, playing Ceres the human druid

RPGTwo situations that take place in the first episode are examples of the different perspectives new players bring. In the first, the party is investigating a crypt and the DM describes that one of the burial alcoves is empty. Art, playing Bevo the elf wizard, decides to lay down inside the empty space. In a side interview, Art says he thought of it two ways. On the one hand, his wizard was probably tired from traveling through the wilderness. And from a game perspective, he surmised it was likely some sort of puzzle in the room, and since the DM described the empty space, he figured it had something to do with solving it.

Art’s combination of imagination – thinking about how his character felt – and observation of the details contained in the DM’s description, helped him engage with the game in a meaningful way. For someone who just started playing D&D, that is a big success and showcases the best qualities of the game.

The second example is the party’s battle against a ghast. Bobby, playing Quip the dwarf cleric, was completely engaged with the scenario and excited to narrate how he attacked the undead creature, throwing his hand axe because he didn’t want to get anywhere near the thing. But more intriguing was Annie, who instead of attacking the heavily-wounded ghast, attempted to entice it by persuading it to lie down and die in peace. It was actually kind of touching to listen to her explain that death was near, but there was a chance for a peaceful end. Certainly, rules lawyers will find fault with this tactic and the way it played out under DM Vorpahl’s direction, but to me it shows the beauty of RPGs. Beyond the rules and mechanics, these games engage players’ imaginations in a way no other game really can. In the moment, Annie was roleplaying. Instead of looking at her character sheet and what the mechanics show that she could do, she looked at the situation through the eyes of a character who exists in the world.

Whether you’re a GM or a player, feel free to try different things in your game that might not necessarily be within the rules in the book. The best thing a GM can achieve is engaging players enough so they interact with the world in new and interesting ways that make the adventure unique. Instead of being afraid the story won’t unfold the way you thought, let it progress organically. The heart of any RPG is the collaborative nature of it, and when players try unexpected things, the game becomes a unique shared experience.

Critical Fails

D&DFor all that the short sessions and rules-light approach D&D AARPG takes, it does the players a disservice by not giving them a primer on what their characters can do. I don’t know how much time they spent around the table overall, but the players don’t seem too aware of even the basics of how and what their characters can do.

In a way, this is kind of insulting to the players. At both extremes of player age – very young to senior citizen – people tend to be more astute than they are given credit for. I can’t imagine these folks would have had a difficult time grasping the basics, and I suspect they would enjoy the game a lot more if they were aware of how things work.

In essence, this comes down to player agency. Something akin to a session zero is useful even for experienced and longtime players, giving them the opportunity to understand and contribute to what sort of game they’re all going to play together. Based on the players in this game’s reactions and growing involvement with the game, it would be cool to hear how they imagine their characters got together, what their goals and personalities are like and so forth.

It’s somewhat understandable that the series takes a different approach, and that does place it in a unique niche among live gameplay programs. But it would serve to strengthen the experience for both players and viewers if they were given more insight into both the rules and more control over their characters.

Perception Check

  • Side interviews with the players and DM are entertaining, giving them opportunities to talk about the experience and themselves. Hearing how they feel about different aspects of the game is useful for GMs and players to get further understanding about the hobby through other people’s perspectives.
  • The second show’s recap, wherein none of the players remembered much about the first session, speaks to the lack of player agency. The players might have been invested in the moment, but without giving them more chances to control the flow of the game, their interest waned.
  • D&D really seems to capture player Bobby’s imagination. By the second episode he’s speaking in character with an accent, narrating Quip’s actions and physically acting at the table. He’s hooked!
  • Art, who plays Bevo, is the most reserved in terms of being forthcoming with his interactions. But whenever the DM engages him directly, he shows remarkable imagination. There’s a great GM tip for you: the quiet player only needs a little nudge to get the ball rolling.
  • Props to Annie for actually employing the Druidic language into the game. She described how the magical language was able to affect the stone of a statue. It goes way off the reservation in terms of the rules, but still, kind of cool to imagine the secret language of druids can affect natural elements. And a good example of how GMs very often need to adjudicate strange player actions!

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Doug Vehovec

Nerditor-in-Chief Doug Vehovec is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, with D&D in his blood since the early 80s. Fast forward to today and he’s still rolling those polyhedral dice. When he’s not DMing, worldbuilding or working on endeavors for Nerdarchy he enjoys cryptozoology trips and eating awesome food.

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