WWJD? WWDDGD!
Anthony and I hit our first ever Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day yesterday at Empyre Games and we surprisingly had more fun than we would have expected. We were a little worried at first when we found out that we were the most experienced D&D 3.5 players in the group (except for possibly one other player), as the DM had only run 1st Edition D&D games. However, the one-shot adventure designed for the event (The Fall of Frostsilver) really turned out great for what it was. The DM in particular did an awesome job at keeping everything moving along and staying fun.
One of the best things about the event was the diversity of players there. There was a four person family (a dad, mom and two teen/preteen boys) who all came to learn D&D 3.5 together that were completely hilarious. The two boys were completely bloodthirsty and in it for their own characters (as they tend to be at that age), which made for some pretty hilarious exchanges. The younger one that was playing a half-elf rogue/sorcerer kept wanting to search all the bodies of everything we killed (even while a combat still raged) and the older one who was playing a dwarf paladin (ostensibly the brother of my dwarf cleric of Moradin) threw away his paladin class abilities when he kicked his mother's halfling away from a corpse he wanted to loot instead (and he only got 30 gold pieces in exchange for all his paladin class).
Because Wizards of the Coast sent more free stuff than there were players at this event, we managed to walk away with some pretty good loot as well. I managed to add an assortment of new miniatures to my collection and got another set of dice for the wife. One of the most interesting things was the 4th Edition preview stat card of the Spined Devil promotional miniature. The stats look much more streamlined than 3.5, but I'm more wary than ever. Will Dungeons & Dragons turn into a tabletop MMORPG experience? If so, I think I'll be sticking with 3.5.
