WEBVTT - How Dungeons and Dragons Works 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcome to Stuff you should know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:11.280 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:15.400 There's Charles W. Truck Bryant. I'm just a I'm just 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.040 a simple cleric mind in my way. Are you down 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.439 the Primrose Path? I was gonna ask you what what 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.759 you were? Got my staff, got my sword? Yep, that 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.680 you would be well outfitted man, ready to battles some nerds? 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:34.800 So have you have you played before? Okay, this is 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.960 about dungeons and dragons, and I think that is a 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.200 good move. Is two things one caveat if you're a 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:46.000 big D and D person. We're not gonna get everything right. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:49.680 We'll get what we what we can write, obviously, but 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.120 when it's not gonna be as comprehensive as you want, 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:55.040 I'm going to go over the basic indition and too, 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:57.400 I think we should both relate our own experience. So 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:00.560 people just knew I played a little little bit because 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:02.440 this is right in my wheelhouse. Dude, I was. I'm 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:08.720 really surprised that you're community. Let you play the Baptist community. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.720 Uh yeah, I didn't hear it talked about much in church, 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:16.759 but um, in school, there were some of my friends 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.720 started to play, and I played. I started to a 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:23.960 little bit, but it was always way too complicated and 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.560 involved for me. Um I played a little Top Secret. 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:30.080 That's another role playing game that was like the espionage 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:32.759 James Bond, D and D. So I played a little 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:34.880 bit of that, but I never got into it man 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.520 like other people did. And I think it's because I 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.200 was so active, and I was I would always rather 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.720 be out riding my bikes, my bike and playing at 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.400 the creek near my house and building forts and zip 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:54.320 lines and setting things on fire and putting fireworks and 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.520 bottle rockets and model planes and flying them off my roof. 0:01:58.120 --> 0:01:59.760 So I was doing stuff like that. I wasn't so 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:02.440 much inside playing D and D or I was early. 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.040 I was an early gamer, so I'd be like, screw 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.240 dn D. Let's play adventure on Mataria and be a 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:12.080 block with an arrow right exactly. That's the real cutting stuff. Yeah, 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.600 So that that was that was my deal. Mine was. UM. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:16.160 I did all that stuff, like I had a four 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:17.799 in the woods and I had I could make a 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.880 pretty good machine gun sound, and um, I did all 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.200 that kind of stuff. But I also played D n 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:28.040 D fairly extensively. Several summers like that were just basically spent, 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.080 you know, in a friends basement playing Dungeon D. I 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:34.440 think it depends on who your friends, said is, unless 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.080 you're the initiator, like you'll just fall in and do 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.240 whatever your friends are doing. Um, and here's the deal. 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:42.280 I think this affected it too. I grew up on 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.679 a street in the woods with like six houses. I 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:48.800 didn't grow up in one of those big, sprawling neighborhoods 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.000 like all my other friends. So they would walk down 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:52.720 the street and play D and D. In the basement, 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.440 it was just me and my bro out. Like in 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.799 the woods. I would walk across the street for one 0:02:57.840 --> 0:02:59.959 group and there was another one where I had arrived 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.679 I by distance I was. I was secluded. I was 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.520 sequestered out in the in the forest, and I got 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.200 made fun of because of that until later on when 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:10.880 all my friends were like, dude, you live on two 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.680 acres in the woods. That's rad. Let's have a bonfire exactly, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.239 and we did so. So we both played D and D. Uh, 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.360 And we both are not experts in any way, shape 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.840 or form. Like from the time I last played D 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.400 and D until we started researching for this episode. I 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:33.240 forgot everything basically over those three months. So it was 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.560 like a pretty cool trip down memory lane, like going 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:37.880 back and researching that. Yeah, me too, some because I 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.040 didn't I don't think I remembered how much I had 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:41.520 played it, And it was a little bit more than 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:42.960 I had remembered because a lot of stuff was like 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:44.800 oh yeah, I remember that, Yeah, I remember that cover, 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:46.760 I remember that box. But there was, like I tell 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.640 you exactly, there was a ton of new stuff that 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.280 I didn't know that I learned in researching this, Like, um, 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:59.160 like Gary guyas gas oh Man, have a bunch of 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.080 people just put the ropes on, put the hoods on 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:07.320 their heads, like, um, Gary Guy GaX. Let's call him 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.640 Gary g from now on. He He is the co creator, 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:15.080 along with Dave Arnison, of Dungeons and Dragons UM. And 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.920 he started out as a war gaming fanatic, so much 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.600 so that he started gen Con at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:30.400 his hometown, UM, which is this huge gaming convention still um. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.039 But he started out as a war gaming convention. And 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.000 that's basically where you rolled dice move little men. It's 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.680 like risk. Risk is a war game. It's like that 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.800 and Access and Allies are like quintessential war games. It's 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.440 a great game. But Guy GaX and and his buddies 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.599 were doing this before there was ever any risk, Like 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.520 they were making their own boards, they were reenacting battles 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.800 or doing alternate universe battles of them. Um. And then 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.839 along came Dave Arnison, who I kind of had this 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.560 idea for something a little less stilted, a little more 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:10.400 free form UM, and he didn't quite have a conception 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.040 of it yet, but Guy GaX did. He was working 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.840 on something called chain Mail, and they got together and 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.640 that ultimately became kind of the first dry run of 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.000 Dungeons and Dragons. Uh, And they liked what they were 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.279 doing and they kind of took it from there and 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.119 then ultimately made Dungeons and Dragons in nineteen seventy four. Yeah, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:33.719 I didn't find out a whole lot about UM. About Arnisson, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.640 it seems like Guy gas is always the I guess 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.960 because he was the original, like the originator of the idea. 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:44.040 He's always the one that's revered and like, you know, yes, 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.839 he was also I get the impression UM a lot 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:52.200 more of the self promoter than Arniston is UM. But yeah, 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.160 I mean they were both very much intimately involved in 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:59.520 the creation of this game, right um. Guy gags. Also, 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.800 by the way, slidebar says that he is a descendant 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:06.000 of Goliath. Is there a yeah? He well he he 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.560 didn't let me rephrase that the interview I saw. He 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.720 wasn't like, I'm a descendant of Goliath. Yeah, he wasn't 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:13.560 like that. He was a cool guy, Yeah, he said. 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.560 The guy GaX means giant and supposedly, like the family 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.640 law is that we are descendants of Goliath. So I 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.640 thought that was sort of interesting, more appropriate than descendant 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.159 of a biblical giant than to make this fantastical fantasy 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.200 game right exactly, you know. Um he And there's actually 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.159 like a really neat Wired article on him that includes 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.400 a pretty decent amount on artists and too, um called 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.560 The Dungeon Master. It's about Gary Guy GaX, who died 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.480 in two thousand and eight. Say um. But the two 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:45.719 of them get together, and this is when when things 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.320 are really good, and they set up something called TSR, 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:53.279 which is a company called Technical Studies Rules, which sounds 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:58.400 like the most boring company you could ever think of, 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:03.919 But this company is what produced the this what became 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.880 the role playing game. Like you said, um, top secret 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.400 was the James Bond D and D. Yeah, you didn't say, 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.600 top secret was the James Bond role playing game and 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.640 D was literally literally become synonymous with role playing games, 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:19.920 and for good reason. Like in nineteen seventy four when 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.080 Dungeons Dragons came out, there was nothing in the entire 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:28.120 world that even remotely resembled it. Yeah, it was super unique, 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:30.920 and that's one of the reasons why, you know, people 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.240 always say it's like a nerd game, and you know, 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.120 you sit in your basement by yourself, and they did 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:39.080 have adventures. You're going by yourself. But they pointed out 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:41.080 in this article it's a very social game because you 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:42.840 would get together with your friends and sit around the 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:47.000 table and you could play it straight and just sort 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:49.200 of play, or you could start acting things out and 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.880 doing funny voices and make it more like a dramatic 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.520 like portrayal of this game. It was really kind of 0:07:55.600 --> 0:08:01.000 up to you. But it may have a nerdy h connotations, 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:06.280 but they're just punch nerds together playing right well. And 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:08.600 if you look at some of the recent ads for 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:12.280 Dungeons and Dragons, um in some of the gamers magazines. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.720 They are still appealing to that, the fact that it's 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.120 a social game. They're trying to get people who play 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.760 World Warcraft like start playing D and D again. Um 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.240 and and they're they're using taglines like, if you're gonna 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.280 sit in your basement and pretend you're an elf for 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.080 hours on and you might as well do it with 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:34.000 a group of friends, that's a great so. Um. It 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.480 has been social from the beginning. And what what guy 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.920 GaX and Arniston came up with was essentially a book 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:45.880 of rules that used dice to advance imaginary characters along. So. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.320 And then in seven they released the basic set. That's 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.240 the red box. That's that's the one that makes us nostalgic, right. 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.920 And then they also simultaneously released Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.320 which kind of had stricter rules, it was more eeping 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.080 in scope. But they both came out in seventy seven, 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.960 that's right. Uh. And then in seventy nine, the the 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.720 d M Guide was introduced. And if you play Dungeons 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:12.520 and Dragons in a group, you got to have a 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.839 someone running the game, and that is the Dungeon Master. 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:19.440 That is a person that sits behind a little cardboard 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.520 screen and hides all of their stories, and they're the 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.720 ones who create these basically kind of right the game. 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:30.560 And like some people will spend hours in days and 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.840 weeks creating these campaigns in these games for their friends 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.480 to bring to life as characters. And it's it was 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:43.120 definitely unique at the time. So you've got all these additions, right, 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.000 there's I think ten now they're working on the tenth, 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.640 depending on who you ask, right, And with every edition 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:54.320 of Dungeons and Dragons, there was a m like there's 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.199 a change. Sometimes they are really big changes. Like they 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.480 released the second edition of Advance Dungeons and Dragons and 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:03.280 like it did away with a lot of like the 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:05.920 evil monsters because like d n D had gotten a 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.800 bad rap wh we'll talk about later um. And there's 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.560 like a kind of role that you had to figure 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.120 out how many hit points you lost or how many 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.880 hit points were UM inflicted. It was just different. And 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.720 so with every addition, it's been different and different and 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.720 different um and so you get adherence to different sets, 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.200 different versions, uh, which has kind of led to this 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:35.160 weird fracturing in the Dungeon's Dragons community. Apparently. And you 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:40.360 know the grabster at Grabowski, one of the writers of 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.200 many of the articles that we've talked about. He's a 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:45.680 bit of a D and D expert, it turns out, Yeah, 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.120 and you can go check his stuff out. Agreed. Uh. 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:54.720 He writes extensively on I O nine dot com about 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.360 D and D c check out his stuff. He's basically saying, like, Okay, 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.040 because a big fractured community of dn D players, everybody 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.720 has their own edition that's their favorite, but everybody still 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.480 wants to be able to play together. But it's just incompatible. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.439 So what he's saying is Wizards of the Coast, to 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.320 people who made um Magic the Gathering and ultimately bought 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.679 dn D, they have said, Okay, this fifth edition is 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.360 going to bring everything together. We'll see about that. Well, 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.200 that's what Grabanowski says. He says, Um, there's no possible 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.840 way to literally unify the various editions under a single 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:29.840 rule set. It would be like trying to build a 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.360 car that uses parts from a two thousand ten Mustang, 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:37.160 a nineteen fifty packard, and a tractor. So he's incredulous. 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.839 But they have it in like open gaming testing right now. 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:41.880 The fifth edition. I don't see what the big deal is. 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:43.360 I think that's one of the cool things about D 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:47.679 and D is that depending on who you play with, uh, like, 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.679 find your people, you know, like they might want to 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.640 play a certain edition. I know that some players like 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:55.719 to play with the little figurines and some people think 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.040 that's an abomination. You should only use your imagination. Some 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.120 people go and make up their own campaigns. Some people 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.200 stick to campaigns that are in the books. So, like, 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:07.719 I think that's a cool thing about it is there's 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:12.079 something out there for everybody. Unless you're just not into it. Well, yeah, 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.880 then there's nothing for you, nothing for me. Um, So 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.319 let's talk about how to play. Like, we'll just give 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.400 a brief primer and we since we're nostalgic for the 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.240 Red Box, which is the basic set, basic rule book 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:30.400 that came out first and seventy um that we're just 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.240 gonna go with that. Don't yell at us, but it's 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.520 a very basic, good intro to D n D for 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:37.400 all the other people who are listening to this one 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.680 who don't know what is going on. This is a 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:41.480 single episode on D n D, and you could have 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.760 an entire podcast that's about d n D that you 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.359 did for five years. You know, I'll bet there are 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.720 and right in let us know, we'll tweet, we'll tweet 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.960 about it. Okay. So, like we said, it is a 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:58.679 role playing game. So the basic concept is by the way, 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.679 you can't win. There is know, like endpoint. It's all 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.719 just about the fun of continuing with these characters you create, right, 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:09.880 The only beginning and and really is the creation of 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.040 a new character and the death of that character. And 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.800 even still if like that character dies, it sucks depending 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.280 on how far along your character was, but you can 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.080 always create another one. So you bother me about it, 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.760 I think is I was too late, like I would 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:28.360 cheat it and just make up characters. Well that's why 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:30.760 I was never invited back, you know. And so you 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:32.880 were that guy? Huh No, I mean I don't remember 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:34.600 if I was. I just remember not getting it and 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:36.800 being like, well, my guy's good at all this stuff. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.920 I'm gonna go sit someone on fire, all right. So 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.680 you create your character, and in the red box and 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:46.679 the basic set, you have these different attributes and abilities 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.200 that will come into play as you play the game, 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:52.199 and they are strength of course, it's pretty easy. How 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:54.880 much you can, how much damage you can inflict with 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:59.280 a weapon, Wisdom, how intuitive you are, dexterity, which is 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:01.800 good if you're nimb um. It could help you with 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.439 a weapon or getting in that high window on the 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:06.840 second floor, especially like a missile weapon like a bow 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:09.120 and arrow or something. If you have a high tex 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.080 you want to pair that with a bow and arrow. 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:16.600 For intelligence, um, how smart they are, how how much 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.120 they can learn things as a character, constitution which is 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.360 your stamina, and how much stuff you can carry, how 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:25.280 long you can fight. But if you have that bag 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.640 of holding, you're all set. Uh. And then charisma, which 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.960 is your likability. So uh, if you want to hook 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.000 up and make friends or get out of a fight 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.880 with some bad character, that's when that's going to come 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:40.280 into play. And all these are determined by rolls of 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.560 the diet. Yeah, Like everything we just talked about is 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.680 represented by a number UM. And then in addition to 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.120 the armored class of the character, which is a number 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.360 that represents ay, how easy it is to inflict damage 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.440 on that character. Uh. And then the number of hit points, 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:59.640 which is I guess the representation of um basically how 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.680 much life you have left to get your health right exactly. 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.320 In a video game, that would be your health par exactly. Um. 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.200 And you put all these together and you have a 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.480 character that, so long as it can stay alive, can 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:12.600 go out and go forth into the D and D 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:19.440 universe and in adventure indefinitely basically. Uh all right. So 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.240 there were seven playable characters in the Inn the basic set, 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.840 and I think I remember being a cleric, but the 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.480 first one is a fighter, and that's what you think 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.680 they're They're stronger, and they're better at fighting, and they're 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:36.000 probably not as smart or as uh charismatic as like 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.320 another character might be. It depends. You can have high 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:40.960 curuismen like in the D and D um the Basic 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:45.280 sets players Manual, the first character they hook you up 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.920 with has high curuisma and high strength. But strength is 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.880 the prime requisite for being a fighter. Yeah, okay, so cleric. 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.720 I think I was a cleric. Uh. That's sort of 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.040 a fighter in a in a wizard, so that they 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.160 have good fighting abilities. But they're all so very dexterous 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.120 and wise, and you can cast spells, which is very important. 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:09.040 Right with the difference between a cleric and a magic user, 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.520 which is the next one, is that a cleric received 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.880 spells through meditation, so they have to sit around and 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.440 rest sometimes before they can get a new spell. Um. 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.720 And they also can turn undead, which means literally turn 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.560 the undead the other way. So if you have a 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.040 zombie on your trail, you're it's good to have cleric 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:31.000 to say, hey, zombies, turn around zombies. Where they called 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.880 zombie zombies is one? Where is another? Undead skeletons. I 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:37.520 didn't play enough. I don't know any of this stuff. 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:39.400 I didn't either until I went back and read the 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:42.880 entire players manual again the other day. So magic user 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.680 can do cool things like their balls of lightning and um, 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:50.560 learn other spells, learn new spells without meditation. No, it's 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.400 learning from book learning, which means you have to have 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:55.960 the prime requis is a high intelligent score. It's not 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.360 a meditative thing, right, it's just from learning books. Uh. 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.920 You have the door worf. Of course, what fantasy game 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.159 would be complete without it? Four feet tall? Got that beard? 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.119 Males and females have a beard. Yeah, and uh, and 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:10.120 just like in like the Lord of the Rings, they're 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.880 they're kind of ornery and super strong and have great constitution. 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.520 And of course they're good fighters because they're a little short, 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:22.800 mean boogers. Um, you've got the thief, which you would think. Um, 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:24.240 and it took me a long time to figure this 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.720 one out. To the thief, why would you want to 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:28.720 have a thief around the person is going to steal 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.680 the thief, Well, a thief typically doesn't steal from people 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:36.960 they're adventuring with. Um, but they do know how to 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:42.879 find secret doors, traps, picklocks, picklocks. Uh. Yeah, and so 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.520 they have a very high dexterity score. Yeah, but they're 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.199 they're also going to turn their back on you in 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.720 a battle because it depends they're not great fighters. Okay, right, 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:52.720 you don't want them near the battle. You want them 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:54.080 like kind of off to the side, get out of 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:55.960 the way, and let's get the fighter in there. Maybe 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.320 a dwarf or two as well. But yeah, the thief 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.200 is just kind of meant to stand back and maybe 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.960 be like, yeah, get them over there a second to 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.760 them and just cheer along. Uh, you've got halflings. They 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.320 are even smaller than the dwarfs. They're only three feet tall, 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:14.200 about sixty pounds, and they're demi humans and um, they're 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.240 dexterous and they have a great constitution. They're tough to 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.040 hit because they're tiny, and so they're good fighters, the 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:24.040 very spry. Yeah. Um. They're also like dwarves and elves, 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:29.320 capable of sustaining magic attacks. Um, which leads us to elves. 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.320 It's another demi human character. And they're a cross between 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:34.560 fighters and magic users. So they have high strength and 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:39.480 high intelligence. And it's not you don't just say with 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:41.560 any of these like, oh I want an elf. So 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:43.960 you roll until you have something with high intelligence in 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.520 high strength. You can you're not supposed to when you're 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.399 supposed to roll, and come up with your ability scores 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:52.600 first and then figure out what you have based on 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.200 those scores. Yeah, And it is interesting. And one thing 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.640 I do remember is that it is about the imagination. 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.440 And even though these these characters exist as a series 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:06.280 of numbers on a chart, is all it is. Um, 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:08.400 you create them in your mind and that's the fun 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:11.720 part about it. And like, I never started acting things 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:14.520 out like I've seen other people do, which can go 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.800 overboard pretty easy. Um. And I guess that was sort 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:20.399 of the precursor to what ended up being LARP. Was 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:22.640 just sitting around the kitchen table doing accents and things, 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.719 and some people thought, hey, let's let's go outside and 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.600 take these broomsticks and actually do this fight. You got 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:30.680 you got some cardboard. I'm in the move from making 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:32.880 some sorts. Yeah, I'm really an active guy. I think 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.280 you know, sitting around this table is no good, right. Um. 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.920 So you said that everything is represented numerically, and that's 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.440 absolutely true. Um, except there's one thing that that kind 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:45.880 of lends itself to acting, uh or at the very least, 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.840 decision making of a character in this alignment. And there's 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:53.240 three kinds of alignment and basic D and D there's lawful, 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.320 which is what we would equate with good goods, where 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.119 if you have a lawful character, they're they're probably the 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.359 hero type. You're gonna put their own skin on the 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:04.320 line in order to save the group. They're certainly not 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.040 going to turn and run without the rest of the 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:10.720 group doing the same. Um. Chaotic is the opposite of that. 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.159 It's what we would equate with evil. Yeah, they just 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.439 sort of look out for themselves forget the group. And 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.440 you'd think that would be the worst one, but apparently 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:22.639 the worst is neutral because you can't tell they're just 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:24.800 gonna do whatever is best for them no matter what. Well, 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:29.600 that's neutral is very it's animalistic um where it's basically 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.480 just about the survival of of the the individual. And 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:35.679 if you have a neutral person, they might fight with 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:37.600 the group if they feel like the group's gonna win 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.000 and just will protect them, or they may just turn 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:42.240 and run with Hey, no hard feelings, they got nothing 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.840 against you, But I'm just very instinctual. That's what neutral is. 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.800 The alignments there are all manner of like shelter and 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.280 weapons and foods and all these different things you can 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.760 pick up along the way, uh, and even languages that 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.800 if you approach a character and they don't speak your language, 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.240 then you can't communicate and you have to take a 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.520 different path on your adventure. But everyone can speak at 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.840 least two uh universal And then alignment tongue. Alignment tongue 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.120 allows you to speak to other characters in that same 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.560 alignment without the other people knowing what's being said, and 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.280 it's your private little conversation exactly. So, if if both 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:23.399 of us were chaotic magic users, right Chuck, yes, and 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:25.560 there was a somebody playing and there was a fighter 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.600 who was lawful, we could say, hey, let's put a 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:31.680 charm spell um on this guy and make them do 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:34.840 our bidding. Um. And so the player is going to 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.679