May 4th 2020

Figurines represent daddy’s Half-Orc Barbarian taking on the Nothic Monster guarding a cave, with a D20 die in the background.

Of all things for a 12 year-old to be obsessed with during a pandemic requiring lockdown, I can’t imagine anything better than Dungeons and Dragons.  Literally the only drawback I can think of to D&D is that it requires you to be indoors a lot… which happens to be perfect right now.

Mind you, I don’t really understand the game, but us family members are all Gavin has to work with right now, so we’ll have to do.

Mostly what I see is my son -the long suffering Dungeon Master– like this:

Except when he is wrestling his exasperation with my ineptitude, like this:

(The Dungeon Master -or “DM“- narrates from behind a screen filled with information and rules as he or she navigates the players through detailed stages of a “Quest” involving all manner of battles with mythical creatures and an elaborate network of rules that are regulated by rolling dice which have anywhere between FOUR and TWENTY sides.  At least as far as I can tell.)

Here is Gavin showing Daddy a tiny piece of the map from the quest he is DM’ing us on, so we can understand where we are without ruining the “surprise.”

Things get a little heated with LARPing (Live Action Role Play).  Here Daddy -aka: Loric the Half-Orc Barbarian– demonstrates the body slam he is using on the Nothic Monster, represented here by Gavin.

You know who is really good at the game, understands what is going on and makes a lot of great moves?  ClaraJane.  Her character, Kathria, is a High Elf Wizard.  I don’t know when she got so good, but she is ON IT.

BTW: My DM wants you to know that the Nothic actually looks like this:

And although my character, Faevaer (“Fay-vare”) is a Wood Elf Rogue Charlatan, I still seem to look like this:

To be continued…

♦