The nerd barge has set sail for the holy land and I have arrived on the shores of the Sword Coast!

I am finally embarking on the adventure of playing D&D. I play video games, love ’em. I have no problem immersing myself into a digital fantasy world but I have never delved into D&D before. I think that may be because I started off with a lot of prejudices and stereotypes about what the game is and isn’t.

My lifetime of opinions on D&D has followed roughly this trajectory:

“Isn’t D&D Satanic?”

“Way too geeky for words”

“It’s cool for you if you like it, but it’s not for me”

“Seems kind of like it could be fun, maybe”,

“Okay who do I need to talk to make an elf and go on adventures RIGHT NOW?!”

I think this evolution in my thinking has occurred due to D&D, along with other “nerdy” pursuits, becoming more an accepted part of mainstream culture. SciFi, fantasy and RP are everywhere you look now and some of my previously dorky past times (I am mostly thinking of Star Wars here) are très au courant. Also, I am far less stupid than I was when I was 16 (or 30). More and more, I try to make choices that reflect who I am, not who I think I should be.

So, here I am in 2018 rolling my premiere toon in a game that I should have been playing since my college boyfriend was a DM. Better late than never?

Above are portraits of my fellow adventurers. Bunch of bearded devils and a blue elf. Should be fine, right?

Tristavyrr is the name I chose for my Moon Elf Cleric and she is in many ways a reflection of my nobler characteristics without all those pesky faults. I mean, she has faults, but they are not MY faults, that would be too on the nose to be fun, I think. So I have given her Hermione Granger’s faults, which are much easier to stomach.

The setting for our 5e campaign is the Sword Coast. I am joining the four other party members and a dungeon master on an adventure to (spoilers) fight dragons, possibly inside of dungeons.

Our group has now played one preparatory session and one full introductory session and I am having a blast! Today everyone spoke and acted in character for the first time and the results were smashing!

Going forward, we will stream our sessions (most of my friends are Twitch hams, what can I say?) and I invite you to come see how we fare, if you dare!

Due to vacations, the next session will not happen until June 24. You can watch it at twitch.tv/noviekpg

I have no idea how things will go– mistakes will be made, a lot of them undoubtedly by me, but I welcome the adventure, the lack of perfection and the laughs!