Today I played D&D at the Flea Theater. They were kind enough to invite our meetup group to play in their space this morning and see the play She Kills Monsters after the game. I had a thoroughly good time at the game and the play.
We started in the lobby of the theater at about 10 this morning. It was an interesting mix for the first 20 minutes as members of the D&D meetup group were mingling with participants in their playwriting workshop. Eventually the groups split up and we got down to business. I ran ELTU03-02 Blue Wounds, the first part of a major quest that revolves around an outbreak of the spellplague in Elturel. My party was small but dedicated, and they managed to fight their way through hordes of plaguechanged monsters to save some innocent citizens. My players were a mix of brand new and experienced, and everyone got into the game and had fun.
As the actors from the show started trickling in, several of them sat down to observe parts of the game. They watched, asked questions, and were generally very pleasant.
The game wrapped up around 2 so the theater could get the lobby ready for the show. Having some time to kill before curtain at 3, I took a walk South on Broadway and happened across some sort of Occupy march. It stretched across at least 4 short blocks and filled the entire sidewalk. I couldn’t hear what they were chanting, but they were making quite a ruckus; the signs that I could read from my vantage point included gay rights, pacifist and economic messages.
Back at the theater, I waited in the lobby for a few minutes before the house opened. They had a display of some line drawings which were apparently inspired by a D&D campaign run with the express purpose of getting artists’ to react to it. Members of the theater staff chatted nearby with some of the players from the morning about everything from top shelf vodka to gaming.
The show itself was a lot of fun. The story revolves around a woman getting to know her sister by playing the D&D adventure that her sister wrote. The intertwined ‘real-life’ and ‘adventure’ worlds interact in both humorous and poignant ways. The game is treated seriously enough to satisfy gamers, but should still appeal to a lay-audience. I was most impressed by the detailed and imaginative props. I won’t give too much away, but I will say that it is worth watching just to see some iconic D&D monsters brought to life on the stage so effectively. It runs through most of December, so check it out if you can.
