Nawaz: My family and I have become Dungeons & Dragons high-rollers

The TV series Stranger Things led Saleema Nawaz to believe playing D&D would involve snacks.

Author of the article:

Saleema Nawaz  •  Special to Montreal Gazette

Since March 2020, many of us have dabbled in new hobbies that have proved to be short-lived — just ask the huge jar of yeast in my fridge that my husband keeps asking to throw out. But at this point, I’m not sure which will end first: the COVID-19 pandemic or our family Dungeons & Dragons game.

Two summers ago, when our extended family gathered hesitantly for the first time — after the requisite quarantine for family visiting from Boston — we embarked on a D&D game (that’s Dungeons & Dragons, for the uninitiated) with my husband’s sister’s family.

They were already experienced players, and our nephew, 11 at the time, wanted to be Dungeon Master a.k.a. the DM: the storyteller and referee of the game. He’d effectively memorized all the rulebooks, including expansion sets, for this fantasy tabletop roleplaying game. His parents asked us to round out the party. My husband had played with his older brothers when he was a kid, and though I’d only played once with roommates, I was enthusiastic … especially because the TV series Stranger Things led me to believe it would involve snacks.

I play a young moon elf cleric named Raewynne Lómelindë. She has a magical staff that transforms into a giant constrictor snake, as well as a dangerous penchant for casting Fireball. My husband’s character is Lord Gralf, a super-strong paladin with buffoonish tendencies who he plays with comic bravado. Just don’t ask me to define what a paladin is, since after two years, I still don’t know.

Our adventuring party has defended an orchard from orcs and bugbears (though I accidentally set it on fire), freed prisoners from a boat (which also burned), fought some chaotically evil geese and dropped a 4,000-pound dead chimera on a bunch of gangsters. Dropping large, rotting corpses on the enemy became something of a specialty for us.

At the end of summer 2020, the Bostonians went home and we moved the game online to Roll20.net, a virtual platform for playing D&D and other role-playing games like Warhammer and Vampire: The Masquerade.

Via Roll20, players can simply click to wield a weapon in their inventory or roll multiple virtual dice with a few keystrokes. Though you can use the platform to play with friends at a distance, it also allows a solo player to find and join a game. The main drawbacks to online play are occasional technical difficulties (especially with slower WiFi), and the deafening sound of snacks crunched too close to the computer’s microphone.

As the pandemic has continued, so too has our game. In summer 2021, as we gathered in person again in the Eastern Townships, we kept our gameplay online out of convenience. But when fall came around and regular life began to push back in, trying to fit a three- or four-hour online game into our schedules every two weeks became increasingly challenging. More than once, an adult fell asleep in the middle of an interrogation of a quasit or glabrezu demon.

Our nephew is now 13 and our niece is 17 and can drive her family up from Boston. We’ve all progressed to the highest level. My husband’s character can sprout wings out of his back and my cleric can raise people from the dead — though she prefers setting things on fire.

Around last Thanksgiving, our DM concocted an epic battle to close an interdimensional portal for what was meant to be the game’s final encounter. It turned out to be so epic that the portal continued to spew out hundreds of bad guys — and we are somehow still playing it.

Though sometimes considered the domain of male nerds, D&D is a fun, imaginative game for parents and older children to play together. Played virtually, it’s a great way to stay in touch with extended family.

Montrealers looking to get into D&D in person can post on the MTL_DnD subreddit to connect with other players in English or French, or check out D&D MTL, a local non-profit that organizes games to raise funds for local charities. The Draconis Festival, which bills itself as the biggest role-playing game event in Quebec, is Oct. 14 to 16 at the CÉGEP du Vieux Montréal, where it’s offering more than 100 different sessions from established games like D&D to ones designed by independent and local creators.

For families who want to get started on their own with real dice and the official manuals, visit a gaming store like Le Valet d’Coeur in the Plateau or Librairie Crossover Comics in St-Henri, which also hosts its own game nights.

Just be careful. You never know how … or when … the game will end.

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