- Dungeons and Dragons,
or D&D, is a fantasy role playing game that
people have been playing all over the world for over 40 years. It's the granddaddy of all
modern role playing games. And its release in 1974
is commonly recognized as the launch of the modern
role playing industry. I've been playing Dungeons
and Dragons since I was 10 years old, and I want
to share with you the joy that this game has brought me. Together with five of my
friends, a few of whom are going to be playing
for the very first time, I'm going to show you
the basics of how to play this amazing game. If you've never played
D&D before, or if you love the game and want to recall
the joy of playing it for the first time, this
is the show for you. I'm Jason Charles Miller, and
welcome to your Starter Kit. (upbeat instrumental music) To play Dungeons and Dragons, you really only need three things. A Dungeon Master, or DM. Ideally this is someone
who knows the rules of the game pretty well,
or is willing to read the rule books to learn. The Dungeon Master guides the story. You'll see how that works. For our story, that's me. An adventure. This could be a published
adventure from Wizards of the Coast who makes
D&D, one of any number of amazing smaller companies
who publish D&D Adventures, or one that's completely
made up by the DM. For Starter Kit, some
friends and I have taken a classic D&D adventure from 1979, In Search of the Unknown, and rewritten it to make it a good teaching
tool for new players with an experienced DM. Players excited about the
game, usually three to six, but any number works,
depending upon the adventure and everyone's experience. The players will each create
and play the main characters of our adventure. So you've got me, your Dungeon Master, and you've got an adventure. Let's meet our players, and together, we'll create our characters. - Hey. - Hey!
- Carmel. - Nice to see you again.
- Come on in. (laughs) Have a seat. - Hey.
- Hey. So, thanks for coming over today. - My pleasure. - We're gonna play
Dungeons and Dragons today. - This is exciting. - That you've never played
before in your life, right? - Never.
- Okay. (laughs) What I wanted to do was make
sort of a classic party, that's been represented
in D&D the entire time the game's been around,
and really, four classes. Class is your profession,
or your job, your main job. You're gonna have two fighters. Those are the guys that
are in the front line, swinging the swords. We're gonna have a wizard,
and we're gonna have a cleric. A cleric is the one... Just remember in the back
of your mind, I always want to keep that cleric
alive, 'cause she can keep the rest of us alive. - Okay. - I gave you a little bit of homework, to kinda look up some things. - Yes, I did. It was quite involved. - Yeah. - It's exciting. - We kind of came to a
conclusion that you might want to play a rogue. - Yep. - So, a rogue is sort of the
sneaky trickster of the bunch. Yeah, a lot of times in
Dungeons and Dragons, you're gonna encounter... There's gonna be traps,
there's gonna be locked doors, there's gonna be puzzles,
there's gonna be hidden things that a rogue has special
abilities to handle more so than anyone else. You're a good fighter,
but primarily you will be probably the second line of defense. We've got the fighters up front. But you could try to sneak
behind an opponent unseen and stab them in the back. That's what rogues do. - I see. (laughs) (laughter) - You're gonna play a halfling. And it's funny because you're
our tallest player today, and yet you're playing a
character that's three feet tall. - I know, I was like, "I'm small, "I'm small, remember that." (laughs) - Yeah, just... So we're gonna talk about
alignment for a second. You're chaotic good, and
that's a role playing... That's sort of a role playing guide. Meaning, chaotic good is,
you're good, but, you know, the ends justify the means. Like, whatever you...
- Like I could turn... - Yeah, whatever you have to
do to kinda get the job done, you're gonna get done. But you're still mainly a force for good. - Okay. - Think sort of like Han Solo, you know. - Okay. - He gets the things done, even... You know, is it illegal, maybe. But that's okay. - Let's roll some dice for your stats. - And what I like to do is, I would like you to roll these six times, and every time, we're gonna
throw out the lowest die. - Okay. - So the first roll isn't
necessarily for the top ability. We're gonna get six scores to choose from, and then we're gonna
assign those as we go. - Okay, so... (dice rolls) - Love it, so your first roll is a 16. That's really good. - Okay. (dice rolls) - This one, but I really like those too. (dice rolls) And 14, another good one. I'm really liking these scores. - Okay. - I wanted the rogue to have good scores. - Good. - 'Cause we're already
in a good position here. One thing to keep in mind too, is you're a light foot halfling. - Okay. - And those are the halflings
that want to go on adventures. - Okay. - Those are the ones that
you find sort of more out in the world, and so you actually
get some ability score help. You'll get some bonuses.
- Okay. - So, whatever you
assign to your dexterity, you'll get a plus two,
and whatever you assign to your charisma, you'll get a plus one. - Great.
- So that's always good. - I like those two. - I would say take the 16.
- Okay. - Because it's gonna turn into an 18. - I see, because you can't go
higher than 18, is that right? - You can, but it, so even
if it turns into a 19, you're gonna get the same modifier. - Oh, I get it, okay. - So, might as well...
- Do 16. - Yeah, so make that an 18. - Oh, 18, right 'cause I'm adding two. - Yeah, mm hmm, and then
add plus four to that, because that will apply
to your die rolls later. So we gotta figure out
where to put that 17. Wisdom is a great place for a rogue. Because you're gonna be
using that skill a lot when you're trying to
detect certain things, and that's sort of what the rogue does. You might sneak out in front of people. Charisma could be good too. Are you the kind of rogue
that's gonna bluff people, try to persuade them to do
what you want them to do? High charisma helps with that. If you're maybe a front
line fighter, do you want to be a crazy rogue
fighter, strength will help a lot with that too. So, I guess it just
really depends on where you see your character. - Okay, I think I'm
gonna go with charisma. - Okay, I like that. And, you have a bonus there too, so that 17 will turn into an 18. You got two 18s, that's... - I'm pretty bad ass. - Yes, that is a bad ass character. Yeah, I mean, usually, like
if someone were to show up at a game with a character
that had two 18s, the DM might be a little suspicious. - (laughs) I'm kidding. - I saw you roll that
myself, so, you know, I... - That's good, wow, okay. - This is really good. - I think I'd like to
put the 14 on the wisdom. - Yes, that's a really good idea. The 13 and the 12 are basically the same. - Right. - Because they'll both
give you a plus one, and the 11 won't give you any bonuses. So yeah, tell me what you think. - I'm thinking I'd like to
put constitution in case I get in the scrape. - Sure, yeah, that'll give
you a couple extra hit points, or at least one. - I feel like maybe
that there, strength 12. - Mm hmm. - And intelligence 11,
'cause I already have pretty high wisdom. - Yeah, I think that's great. It's gonna really, a well balanced rogue. Let's talk a little bit
about some of your bonuses that you get as a
halfling, and as a rogue. One of the great things I
love about halflings is, you have this ability that's
just called to be lucky. And what that means is,
any time you roll a one on a D20, which is not good,
that means critical fail... - Okay. - Your lucky ability lets you re-roll it. You automatically get to re-roll it. - Wow, okay. - If you roll a one
again, it's gonna fail. - Right, right.
- No matter what. But that's a really, really good ability. - Okay. - You also have advantage
versus being frightened. You're very brave. You can move through creatures
of at least one size origin. What that means is you're
not like, physically moving through someone like a ghost,
but if you're in combat and your official size is small... 'Cause there's small,
medium, large, giant, right? - Okay. - So humans and elves and half
elves are all size medium. So if you needed to move
through them to get to another area on the map, you could
do that with no penalty. - I see.
- Yeah. Also, you can hide behind
creatures and gain cover in combat, so that's very useful. - This is a great character. - It really is, and these ability scores, you're gonna have fun with this character. - Yeah.
- You really are. The last thing we need to
do is decide your name. - Okay. I have a name. - What is your name? - It's Tryn Hiltopple. - I love it, I love it. Tryn Hilltopple. So go ahead and write that in to your... - With a Y. - Okay, yeah, gotta have the Y. - Tryn kinda for rogue, and
Hilltopple for halfling. - Halfling, yeah. And, here's your... Here's your figure. - (laughs) That's awesome. - Great, and I'm gonna see
you when the party assembles. - Awesome, see you then. - Angela.
- Jase. - Hey! - I am so excited to be here. - Come on in, come on over. - Let's roll some dice. - Yeah, alright, you're ready to roll. - I am.
- Okay. You're one of my ringers,
you've played D&D before. - I have, that is true. But I will be happy to
learn more things today. - Okay, well, maybe you're
gonna teach me some things, too, and that's always good. - Yeah. - So, you know, the DM always
has to be open to learn from his players. What I wanted to do with
today's game was make a really balanced classic party. And you graciously
wanted to be the cleric. So I'm really thankful for that. - What if they get hurt, I'm here for you. - Yeah, we decided that
your cleric is going to be a cleric of the god Helm. Helm is the vigilant one, the
great guard and the watcher, god of guardians,
protection and protectors, and worshiped by guards and paladins. He was long seen as a cold and
focused deity who impartially took the role of defender
and sometimes also enforcer. So I think that's pretty
cool for a cleric. - It's very very good. - Yeah, yeah. - It's punch and heal. - Yeah, exactly, punch and heal. - Yep.
- Yeah. Slam and heal, we're good to go. You're really gonna be the
life blood of the party, and hopefully give them back some of their blood here and there. - Alright, are we ready? - We're ready, yeah.
- Okay. (dice rolls) - Nice. - Wow, that's very good.
- Nice. (dice rolls) What's great about being
a human is you can add one to all of those. - Oh, nice. - Fifth edition, humans
get plus one to all of their ability scores. - Okay. - So now let's figure
out where we're gonna go. - Still two eights, but that's okay. - Yeah, well, you know. Use that for your role playing. (laughs) Your role playing ability. - So I assume I want to
go wisdom high, right? - Yes, wisdom high for sure. So I would definitely
put the 16 in the wisdom. - Um, what else am I gonna need? Any tips from the DM here? - I would say, we want to
make sure you stay alive. - Mm hmm, so... - So, probably constitution,
I would go for. - I need to be alive so
that everyone else is alive. - Mm hmm, mm hmm. - I like having dexterity,
but intelligence might be more for spell casting? - With clerical spells, it
really relies on the wisdom more than intelligence, so... - Let's to dex so I can get out of the way if somebody's hitting me. - Exactly, great.
- Perfect. - Although, what I could
have said too is that because of the modifier,
an eight or a nine basically are the same,
yeah, they're both negative. - I feel it though, when I say, like, my charisma is an eight,
it feels different than saying my charisma is a nine. - Okay, yeah, that's fine, yeah. Different for you, so... (laughs) And actually, that kind
of maybe goes along with, you've got a lot of wisdom,
but not a lot of street smarts. - I'm book smart and not so
much street smart. (laughs) - Yeah, you can play it that way. We're gonna talk about
spells for a minute. As a cleric, you get your
spells directly from your deity. Wizards study spells
that they learn in books. Clerics get them from the divine. There are two types of
spells that you're gonna be able to cast as a first level cleric. One are cantrips, cantrips
you can cast at any time. They're not very powerful, but they're sort of ingrained in your body. You know how to... You've done them so many
times, you can do them whenever you want. - Light, light, light, light. - Yeah, there you go, just
throw light everywhere. And as a level one, you
have two level one spells. You can choose from any of these, but you can only cast two
of them per long rest. And a long rest is like, sleeping, for eight hours, hopefully. What we have to do now is... I hope you've been thinking
about a name for your character. - My character's name is Deborah. You can call her Dabber Debbie. - Okay, great. - Yeah, and she's here
to sort of be the mom, and take care of everybody. - I love it, I love it.
- Yeah. - Deborah.
- Mm hmm. I like, the thing I remember
from learning how to play D&D in high school was that
if you add just apostrophes in the middle of stuff,
it becomes a fantasy name. - This is, yeah, exactly. - So I'll just do that, and... - Perfect. And here's Deborah, here's your figure. - (gasps) Oh my god, she's so beautiful. - Custom painted. - That's gorgeous. - So you'll be using
her today to represent your character in combat. So I'm gonna see you in a little bit, when the party assembles. - Alright, let's do it. - Great. - Hey!
- Hi! - Come on over. - Oh, thanks.
- Come on in. - Thanks, man. - Yeah, thanks for coming. - Of course.
- Great. So, we're gonna play D&D today. - Alright, let's play some D&D. - So you've only played
one other time, right? - Yeah. - So you're one of my newbies. - I played on a web
show at Meltdown Comics. - Okay. - So I've never actually
played without cameras and... - And now you never will. So, one of the fun
things about playing D&D is creating your character. You chose to be a fighter. - Yes. - You're gonna be a dwarf fighter. - Alright. - Now, often when you're
a new player, the DM will give you a pre generated character, and we've done some of that today. But I wanted to do the
funnest part, for me anyway, which is rolling for your stats. - Okay. - And I am gonna give
you your very own dice. - Hey. - These are for you to keep. - Thank you.
- Yeah. And here's some extra dice,
'cause you can never have too many D6s, 'cause you're
gonna need a lot of these in the game, eventually. - Or maybe I should just call these dice. - Yeah. - I didn't realize these were dice. - There are so many different ones. So we've got some things set out here, but what we're gonna do
first is we're gonna roll for your six attributes score. Strength, dexterity, constitution, those are the three physical. And then intelligence,
wisdom, and charisma, and those are more the
mental or spiritual. As a first level character,
'cause we're all starting as first level... - First grade. - Yeah, you're in first
grade, as an adventurer. You know, you might have
done something else. In fact, I think we have
that your previous background with your character was
that you brewed beer. - Okay. - Okay, so you were a brewer before. - A kindergarten activity. - Yeah, yeah, and now
you're ready to kick ass. - Alright, where do I throw these? - Anywhere. - To the north, to the... - (laughs) To the east! No, just right there on the table is fine. Okay, wow, okay, so that
was a pretty good roll. So now we're gonna do
this five more times. - Oh. (dice rolls) (light instrumental music) - So now you got these six stats to place. One thing to remember is,
because you're a mountain dwarf, you get bonuses on top of this. So, constitution, you're
gonna get a plus two bonus to whatever you place this. And same with strength. - What's the difference between
constitution and strength? - Constitution is how
much damage you can take, how much like what your fortitude
is, whether that's like... - Okay. - Not only is it physical,
but also how much can you get through before you get exhausted. - Like kind of passive strength
or something like that? - It also has to do with what
we're gonna talk about later too, which is hit points,
how many hit points you get. - Okay. - So really, how much damage you can take. But also, you know, how long
can you hold your breath, how long can you, you know,
march before you fall over? All that kind of stuff,
that's constitution. - Gotcha. - Also, a great stat
for a fighter, for sure. - Okay, so I'll put my 16 in constitution. - Yeah, great, and then
because of your bonuses, that'll make it an 18. - That's right. - I think that's a really good idea. - Yeah, man. - Your ability scores also determine... You're gonna be rolling
different skills based on that, and you're gonna get bonuses. And with an 18, you get a plus four. So you're gonna write plus
four in that little one. The 15, you're gonna get plus two. - Alright. - And for the 13, you're
gonna get plus one. Now, we've got... - I feel like I'm applying
for a very weird job. - Let's cross those out. Yeah, you are. You're applying to save the world. - Oh. (laughs) - With the wisdom you get
a plus one, so that's good. And with the charisma,
you're gonna get minus one. So, you can look at that, and... (murmurs and laughter) Yeah, you could look at that many ways. Charisma's really like leadership ability. It's not necessarily
about physical appearance. - Right. - So, you're gonna... - I'm mostly beard, right? - Yeah, you're mostly beard, first of all, which I can relate to. (murmuring) Yeah, maybe you stink, or maybe, you know, you stink of hops because you're always brewing beer or something. - Yeah. - Or, maybe you're just
crude or you, you know, speak out of turn, stuff like that. What we're also gonna talk about
are your special abilities. - Okay. - So this is what's really
great about being a dwarf. You've got dark vision for up to 60 feet. - Yeah, nice. - You can see in the
dark, for up to 60 feet. - Because I live under a mountain, right? - Yeah, that's amazing.
- Right? - Yeah.
- Yeah. - So, you don't need any light
source, anything like that. You've got an advantage
on saves versus poison. We're gonna talk about advantages later. And, one of the great
things about fighters is, you have an ability
score called second wind. - Yeah. - What second wind is, is... If you get damaged, if you get injured, and call in your second
wind, and then roll a D10, add one to it and get
those hit points back. - So that's like WWE, when
it looks like I'm haggard... - Yes, and then... - Shake it off and then suddenly... - That's it, that's second wind! - Okay, perfect.
- Cool. You can do that every short rest, and a short rest is only an hour. So as long as you rest
for at least an hour, you can use your second wind power again. So very very helpful for fighters. - That's exactly what
I assumed it would be. - Oh good, okay. You've got a lot of
standard stuff in your pack. Check that out.
- Okay. - And the last thing that we
need to do is decide your name. - Oh yeah. - Have you decided your character's name? - I think so. - Okay, what's it gonna be? - I'm thinkin' Thumper. - Thumper.
- Yeah. - Yeah!
- Th'ump'ar Fireforge. - Th'ump'ar Fireforge, I love it. - Th'ump'ar is T-H apostrophe
U-M-P apostrophe A-R. - Okay, so Th'ump'ar. - Th'ump'ar.
- Yeah. - Th'ump'ar, great. Okay, so write that in there. And here's Th'ump'ar. - Hey.
- Boom. - Nice.
- There's your guy. - Little big Th'ump'ar. - So we'll be using him in combat today, and that will represent your character. - Alright. - Cool, I'll see you soon,
when the party assembles. Mixie, hey. - Hey.
- Come on in. - How are you? - Good, how are you? - Amazing.
- Cool. - I'm excited. - So we're gonna play D&D today. - Yeah. - And you've never played before, right? - No. - You're one of my brand new newbs. - Newb. - (laughs) Okay, cool. What I wanted to do
was sort of play a game where we have a nice
balanced classic party. We talked about you being a high elf... - High elf wizard.
- Wizard. Yeah, cool. Are you excited about that? - I am.
- Awesome. One of the most fun things
about creating a character is rolling for your stats,
rolling for your attributes. The six attributes are
strength, dexterity, constitution, and those
three deal with more of the physical aspects. - Which I don't do much of as a wizard. - Right.
- Intelligence? - Yeah, intelligence is gonna be your... - Or wisdom. - Yeah, intelligence,
wisdom, and charisma. - Which is totally not actually me. (laughter) - Well, you know, that's
why we play pretend. - And zero charisma. (laughs) - Nah. What we're gonna do is
we're gonna roll for these. - Mm hmm. - And the lowest score
you can get is a three, and the highest you can get is an 18. At level one, boom! (dice rolls) Look at all that. - I just throw all of them at once? - You throw them all, yeah. No, we're gonna just take four
of the D6s, these are D6s. - Okay. - So the way the dice work
is, this is a D4, four sided. Six sided, eight sided, 10 sided, 12 sided, and 20 sided. 20 sided you're gonna
use the most in the game. - Yeah. - Once we get playing. But now, just in character
creation, you're gonna use... You're gonna roll these six times. And we're gonna write that
down, and then we're gonna assign the scores that we
get to the ability scores. - Okay. (dice rolls) - Not too bad, 12. (dice rolls) Okay, nice, 14. (laughs) 14, okay, cool. So now, one of the things to remember too, is because you're a high
elf, you're gonna get a couple of bonuses. You're gonna get, to your dexterity, you're gonna get plus two. - Plus two. - So just remember that. And then for your intelligence
you're gonna get plus one. Now, intelligence is the stat for wizards. - For a wizard, right? - So what I, you know, I
can't see any reason why you wouldn't put that 15... - 15 on the intelligence. - Yeah, and make it a
16, because that will actually give you more bonuses, too. - Yeah. - So I'd take the, cross out the 15. - Cross out that. - Put it in intelligence. - And add the one.
- And make it a 16. - Okay.
- Yeah. And also you can add, do a
little plus three below that. - What's that? That's the bonuses you get
for any intelligence based skill that might happen later. So that's all very good. - Which are gonna be a
lot of skills for me. For intelligence.
- Yeah, definitely. So now, the next number
to place is we have a 14, that we need to put somewhere. And I would say, one of the
things that we need to remember about wizards is that
they can't wear armor. And so, either constitution
or dexterity would both be good places to put that. - What's the difference in
dexterity and constitution? They're both protecting you? - They're both protecting
you, but in different ways. So, constitution is how
hearty you are, how many hits can you take, how far can you
go without being exhausted, things of that nature. Dexterity is how agile
are you, can you jump out of the way if someone's
trying to attack you, can you balance on that beam. - So both kind of defense things. - Yeah, yeah. It might make more sense
to take the 14 and turn it into a 16 for dexterity. - Or a 14 in constitution. - And then you can take the
12 and put that in dexterity. - 12, yeah. - And make that a 14 too, that's great. That's a good idea. - What do you think, you like that? - Yeah.
- Okay, let's do that. 14, and then the 12 in dexterity. - Which will be 14 also,
because of your bonuses. - Plus two.
- Yeah. - Alright.
- Great. And then the bonuses with
those 14 will both be plus two, in the little thing below it. This is great. This is a very well
balanced wizard character. I like these numbers a lot. You're immune to magical sleep, which is also a really good thing. So if someone casts... - I read that I get, yeah. If they cast a spell on me, and
they put everybody to sleep, I don't go to sleep. - Yeah, that's... So you might be dragging people out. - I don't really sleep anyway. High elves only sleep,
well, they go into a trance, for like four hours. - Yeah. - Versus most characters,
are like eight hours. - Mm hmm.
- I read that. I did my homework a little bit. - Great, awesome, yeah. - I didn't want to be the super newb, so I tried to learn a little. - That's great. We're gonna talk about spells. - Sweet. As a wizard, you get your
spells from knowledge. You get your spells from
studying and from learning them from other wizards that might
give you a spell to learn, or a spell book that
you find along the way. - Or looting? - Or looting, yeah, you
can loot a scroll and then say, "Oh, this is a spell, I'm
gonna copy it into my book." You've got two types of spells. You've got cantrips, and then
you've got first level spells. Cantrips are the spells
that you can cast at will. You can cast those any time you want. They're the ones that
you've been practicing your whole life. So, you know, if you want to
cast fire bolt every round, you can do it right out of your finger. Level one spells, as a level one wizard, you can only cast two
of those per long rest. Or per day, sometimes people say, but really like, whenever
you go into your trance. Again, you can only cast two of these. You have all of these prepared,
so you can pick from these. And we're gonna add a few
more too, now that we know what your ability scores are. But you can only cast
basically two per day, or two per long rest. All we have left to do right
now is decide your name. What is your character's name? - My cat's name is Moon. - Okay. - So I thought Moon
could be my first name. And then, Blood. - That's great. - I just want to be a little evil. - Yeah, why not? I mean, you are good, but... - Good, but... - You know, we're good characters, but... - Moon Blood.
- Yeah, Moon Blood. I like it.
- Okay, cool. - I like it, great. So write that in your, right here. And here is Moon Blood. - Ah, that's me! - That's gonna be your figure today. - She's hot. (laughs) - And I will see you
when the party assembles. - Yay! Thanks.
- Great. Come on in.
- Hey. - Hal, what's going on, man? Hey, good to see ya. - Good to see you too.
- Have a seat. - Right on.
- Yeah. So thanks for joining us on
this little adventure today. - Absolutely.
- Yeah. - I love what you've done
with the place, by the way. - Yeah, it's great, right? - Yeah, yeah. - Everyone's got a suit of
armor in their basement. - No, just you and I.
- Oh. - Pretty much just you
and I at this point. - Okay, fair enough. (laughs) So, you're one of my ringers. - Right. - You're one of my veteran players. - That's right. - Tell me a little about that. - Well I grew up in a place
called Peaks Mill, Kentucky. And at the Tom Sawyer
Library, we would have Dungeons and Dragons every Sunday. I became the kind of defacto
Dungeon Master when I was 11, and then 12 years old,
because I was the only one who wanted to do the reading. - Well what we're gonna do
today is we're gonna play sort of a classic party makeup. And I didn't want to add any more classes, so we're gonna have two fighters. So you're gonna be the second fighter. - Right, that's good, yeah. - You're gonna play a half elf. Yeah, it's always good to have
another fighter in the party. - Yes. - What I love to do is, I love to have people
roll for their stats. We filled out a lot of this already. - Sure. - And we'll go over that in a minute. But I want to give you your dice. These are officially your dice,
these are your dice to keep. - What? - Yeah, all for you, for today. - Ah, very exciting. (dice rolls) I should have brought my loaded dice. (dice rolls) - Hey, not too bad.
- Yes. - Not too bad.
- Okay, finally. - Not too shabby. So we've got two 14s, a
nine, a 12, and two 10s. Now, because you're a half elf, you get plus two to charisma,
and, this is what's great, you get plus one to any
other stat of your choosing. That comes to the fact that
elves get higher charisma and humans add plus one
to all of their stats. - Right, and since I'm half. - Right, you get to do one.
- So... Yeah, I get that, a little extra help. Okay, cool. Well, since I'm a fighter, and you know... I'm gonna load up my strength
and my dexterity with the 14s. - Okay, great. - Like that, and that's a
plus one there too, so... - Okay, so go ahead
and write that as a 15. Now you can't add plus to
both, you have to pick. So you can only, so it's plus one to one of your choosing. - Oh, I thought... - And then plus two to charisma. - That's very disappointing. - No, sorry, you gotta pick one. - So, okay, so dexterity will get a 14. - Yeah. - And then, I get plus what on charisma? - You get plus two on
charisma, so whatever... - 12.
- Yeah. - Great.
- Okay. There we go.
- Not bad. I'm not stupid, but I might
make some dumb decisions now and again. - Right, but you're pretty strong. - Yes I am.
- Yeah. All we need now is your character's name. - Yes. Well Haldor is always my, kind of D&D.. - Go to?
- Go to name. - Yeah. - But we had, like... What did we come up for a last name, Spalharkus or something? - Uh, Spal Harks. - Spallarks.
- Yeah. - Haldor Spalharks? - Yeah, that works. - I like it. - And here's Haldor. - Ah, that's awesome! - He's gonna be your meme today. - Looks just like me. - It does, he really does. - Only taller. - And I will see you
when the party assembles. - I love it, cool. (upbeat instrumental music) - Do you guys want to introduce each other to each other really quick? Just kinda tell me your character's name, what your job is, your class is, and... - I am Haldor Spalharks. I am half elf, because
mother was that way. And not an elf, I mean. (laughs) You know what I'm saying. And I destroy evil, it's just what I do. - So hi guys, my name is Tryn Hilltopple. I am a am half halfling and half rogue. Oh, that's my class. - Yeah, right, actually,
you're all halfling, all rogue. (people talking) Yeah, your race is
halfling, your job is rogue. - You're half right. (laughter) - I'm halfling rogue, that's what I am. So I, you know, I'm here
to help us get to our goal, and that's what we're gonna do. Guys, you ready? - Mm hmm.
- Ready. - Hi, I'm Moon Blood,
I am a high elf wizard. And I will have your backs no matter what, through thick and thin,
through the whole entire night, and I will be there to cast
spells on all of our enemies. And I will be there for you all. - I am Th'ump'ar Fireforge. That is why they call me Th'ump'ar. I am a mountain dwarf. I like to fight. I will... I'm very strong, and I
have a lot of constitution. (laughter) And I grew up making beer. - Hey, let me talk about beer. Thoughts about beer, talk about beer. - Alright. - I guess that's where the
constitution comes from. - I'm more of a wine girl. - My name is Deborah,
I am a cleric of Helm, and I am here to just make
snacks and heal people. So please, if you need anything, I'm here. - Great, and heal people with your snacks. - I'm gonna kill people too, but I have to talk about the healing more. - Deborah. Th'ump'ar. Moon. Haldor. And Tryn. All five of you grew up
in the city of Water Deep. And all five of you met on
the steps of the Adventurer's Guild, a guild that all
of you are trying to join, but you've all been turned away. 'Cause you've been on new adventures. Tryn, in your underground network, being a rogue, you have heard of the legend
of Roghan and Zelligar. Roghan the Fearless and
Zelligar the Unknown are legendary names. Roghan earned his name as a great warrior, and his reputation spread
far and wide across the land. Zelligar, equally renowned,
earned his status and power as a foremost practitioner
of the mystical arts of magic and sorcery. No one knows what brought
these two together, but they formed a strong
bond of friendship. Eventually, stories surfaced
about a hideaway being built deep in the wilderness, far
from the nearest settlement, away from traveled routes,
where they practice their adventuring prowess
and kept their treasures. 30 years ago, a great barbarian
invasion came from the lands of the north, threatening
to engulf the entire land. Roghan and Zelligar and
their band of royal henchmen met the barbarian army in great battle. Roghan slew a horde of
barbarians single handedly, and Zelligar's powerful magic
put their army to flight. Eager to destroy the
hordes once and for all, Roghan and Zelligar
pursued the barbarian horde into the north, where
they met their demise in a great battle that shook the heavens. In the past week, it has
come to your attention that there is a man named
Darian in the town of Daggleford who claims to have a map
to a mystical lost keep, a place apparently called
just by one letter, Q. He claims it's the lost
keep of Roghan and Zelligar. It's filled with vast
knowledge and treasure, and he's entertaining bidders. The map is accurate. It could lead you to
the mystical place that was once their home and sanctuary. And perhaps, their treasure trove. Just the thing that you
guys might need to prove that you're adventurers,
and gain admittance into the Water Deep Adventurer's Guild. Now Daggerford is just
the next town south, it's just right down the Sword Coast. You can get there easily, so... Let's say you go. - It's pretty obvious. - Let's get a move on. - I'm for it, I just gotta
pack a lunch, and then, yeah. Just my character needs to... - I can bring lunch. I'm happy to, like if
anyone needs anything. - Vegan? - Anything. (laughter) - You have reached the town of Daggerford. And there is, you heard
that Darion is hanging out in the inn called the Broken Boat Rite. - Hmm. - Daggerford is a town of 900 people. It wishes it was a bustling metropolis. They try, but it's... There's not that many inns, so finding the Broken Boat Rite is pretty easy. - How can you trust people from
a place named after daggers? - And isn't the coast Sword Coast? - Yeah. (people talking and laughing) - That's a good idea. I get wisdom extra points for that. (laughter) Sorry, so what's our first option? - What do you guys want to do? - Well, we need to go in
there and talk to Darion. - Right, great. - And get that map. - I think so. - And now, who's good
at talking to people? Like, who's friendly, charismatic? - That would be me. - Oh, fantastic.
- Or you. You have spells. - My charisma's not really on its game. - Mine's pretty good, thanks. (laughter) If I do say so my damn self. - Okay. - I have the wisdom
enough to let you start. - There you go, alright. - So you entered the inn,
it's actually pretty bustling. There's probably about 20 people in there. You see the bartender sort of tending bar, and you know, wiping it down, and, he looks at you and clearly
doesn't recognize you. So he's like, "Welcome to Daggerford. "Never seen you guys here before, hmm." And sort of goes back to,
you know, cleaning glasses. - Let's kill him. - Sir, we look for an old friend of ours. - Old friend, you say, hmm. - Old, what's his name,
I didn't write it down. - Darion.
- Darion. - Darion, we seek Darion. - Are you sure you're not
thirsty from your long journey? You all look thirsty to me. (people talking) - Let's have a couple beers. - He's an expert on beer, my friend. He would love to taste your wares. - Would you like to taste our local brew? - Yes. - Okay, that will be
two copper pieces each. - Alright, here you go. - So, he gives you all... All five of you, beers. And you taste it, and it's,
you know, it's not, it's okay. You know, it's not
really, it doesn't live up to the Fireforge standard. - I want one of my coppers back. (laughter) You're cheating me out of... - Be nice, be nice. - No, you're fine.
- It's not bad. - Darion's over there. Thank you for the business. So he points to a man in a green cloak, sitting next to a fire, by the hearth. He's reading a book and he's
just sort of all by himself. - Let's go talk to him. - Absolutely.
- Yeah. - And then kill him. - I can't remember who
Darion is specifically. - Oh, Darion is the guy
supposedly selling the map. - Selling the map, right, okay. - Then we find the territory
of the two dead guys who... Roghan and Zelliger, Zelliger
the Unknown, who is famous. - Okay. - The famous fighter named
Zelliger the Unknown. (laughter) - He's like Zellig, he just blends in. - So yeah, he allegedly has the map. But I doubt we go straight
for map, so I think it's just kinda like, you know... - Chat him up. - Yeah, somebody's gotta chat him up. - Alright, you start while I... - Okay, I've got fairly
decent charisma I suppose. I ask him his name, and then I guess... Excuse me friend. - Yes. - Don't I recognize you from up the coast? (light instrumental music) Are you not a member of
the Adventurer's League? Do you not... - No, I'm not a member of the
Adventurer's Guild, or League. - Yeah, the Guild, the Guild itself. The League's a loosely
banded group of people, they're friends of mine however. But a friend of mine, Roghan,
a friend of my father's, said that he had friends down this way. And we are traveling adventurers. - Roghan, hmm. That's very interesting,
I happen to have procured recently a map to Roghan's abode. - Is that so? - Yes.
- We had no idea. - Father had always said
I should visit this place. It was a place of great learning. - Hmm, I somehow don't
believe you, but regardless, I have a map, if you have
gold, I have things to sell. - I say we grab the map and
go, we have bigger fish to fry. - We can take the whole town. - Should we check that he's even Darion? He said he was Darion but we didn't say... - Yeah, maybe we should see the map first, 'cause if the address on the map is like one of our houses, we'll know it's bad. - Yeah. - Okay, and then we turn
away from our huddle where we've been loudly
saying all of this. - Of course! - So he, out of a very ornate scroll case, he pulls the map out and sort of opens, just about, you know, a few
inches of it, to show you. And you notice the
surrounding countryside, everything sort of... - Recognize it. - So how do we know this is the real map? - You don't.
- We don't. - How much is it?
- How much? - 30 gold pieces.
- Ooh. - There are a lot of people that want their hands on this map. - Yeah. - I'm pretty firm on the price. - Mm hmm.
- 60. (laughter) - Or 60, sure, absolutely. (laughter)
- Okay, so... - Anybody got any fake gold? - Yeah, do we have money? - On your sheet.
- Oh. What is that?
- I have four gold. - You do?
- Yeah, it's right here. - Oh.
- Where is the gold? - It's right there in the bottom. - Oh, I got 12. I'm loaded, I got 12. - Yeah, I got 12. - I'm not paying for the whole map. - I've got 12. - You love maps. - We can all go in evenly on the map. - So, I will give my 12,
if anyone wants to match and meet with me to buy the map. - I've only got 12. - Okay, so we've got 24 right now. - I have four gold. - Okay, you have four. - I'm sorry, where does it say that? - Actually, yeah, you
have three gold pieces. - Okay, thank you. - I'll do eight and then
that will be 30, right? Four, oh, you only have four? - I only have three. - In the world, but it's fine. (people talking and laughing) - Okay, how about this? We'll give all of ours, and
you can give us six more. We just need six from you, 30 gold to him. Yep, so... - Or, just do it for 20 gold. - Yeah, I just write down
that you have zero gold. - The price is 30, I'm not negotiating. - Just pay for it and let's go. - Fine, here you go. - Do you have change for a 32? - I don't give change. Okay so you give him the 30 gold pieces. - And we get the map. - He hands you the map.
- Yeah. - And then immediately stands
up and walks out a side door. - Keep an eye on him. - Yeah. - Yes, let's keep an eye on him. - Want me to follow him? - Follow him.
- I'm gonna follow him. - You gonna go spy on him? - I'm gonna follow him. - Sure.
- Alright, I'll follow him. - Don't go too far.
- Follow him through the door. - Can I follow you through the door? - He's gone. - Dude, that dude just disappeared. - Mm hmm.
- Completely disappeared. - He's left it as a burden. - Alright, let's look at the map. - Yeah, let's take a look. - Let's look the map over. - Okay, so you roll out the map. - That guy might have been Zelligar. - It looks legit, and you
see basically, you know, what looks like the
surrounding countryside, about two days journey. You see the letter Q. So everything seems to
match up with what you heard in your spy rogue. - With mind setting
devices that one of us... - Not that Q, a different Q. - Oh a different Q, alright. - We can follow the map
and look at Q's line. - Yes, absolutely.
- It looks like a sword. - To Q.
- Yeah, okay. So I think we start on the... Is there a, can we tell from
the map if there is a more circuitous or more dangerous route? - It looks pretty dangerous. - Yeah.
- Yeah. I mean, it does look...
- Give me a look at it. - If from what you know,
you grew up in Water Deep, which is in the big city north of here, from what you may know just
with your survival skills. These don't look like roads or paths you've ever seen before. - Mm hmm.
- Let's go. - Then I think we start
on the firmest straightest path to Q, since that's our goal. We want to be in the Adventurer's
Guild man, we can't tiptoe around after that
nonsense trying to decide whether or not to buy the map. (laughter) I'm questioning whether we deserve to be in the Adventurer's Guild, us. - We're just getting
going, we'll get better. - We need to throw a little
caution to the wind, people. - Alright, you start out on the map. You're already well equipped for this. You're ready for this, you're ready to go. So what we're gonna do is,
I'm gonna get you right there. - Yeah.
- Okay. - Yeah, this is what our
adventure is all about. And what I want to say also
too, if this were a longer campaign, if this were a
campaign that we were starting as friends and we were gonna
play every week, you know, every Wednesday in the
library, there may have been a lot more detailed
things along the route. But I want to get you
to Q because that's what we're gonna be focusing on today. - The meat of it today.
- Yeah. - Great.
- So... - I'm excited, that's
where the fun happens. - That's where we're gonna go, yeah. - Let's go to Q. - Do I have a teleportation spell? - At level one, you do not
have a teleportation spell. - No, level one, you don't have... - Jack. - Yeah, right (laughs) - So, here's what happens. So, you're following along the map, and you're in a heavily wooded area. - Light. - Oh you don't need light
yet, it's during the day. (laughter) She's like, "Light!" - I wanted to use a spell. - That's good though, you
can cast as many times as you want. - Do you guys need light? - You can cast on each tree
as you run along if you want. You see as you're getting
closer on the map, it looks everything is kind of, you know, it's like third rock on
the left, kinda thing. Everything looks legit to you. And you're going up a sort of craggy hill. At the top of this path that
doesn't look very worn at all, you see a cave like opening. Somewhat obscured by vegetation,
noticeable at the end of a treacherous pathway which leads up to the craggy outcropping of black rock. By sweeping aside some of
the vines and branches, the opening becomes easily accessible. - A dungeon? - So, you look like you're
at the entrance of a cave. - The opening of Q. The opening of a cave, okay. So I say we enter the cave. - I say we enter the cave.
- Yeah. - Great, okay, and
that's where we're gonna take a little bit of a break. And the next episode, we're
gonna enter that cave. - Oh, boy. - Oh, wow. (upbeat instrumental music)
