Solo Dungeon and Dragons

 I'm not sure why a female has so many issues finding a D&D group willing to let her play. In my experience I've been able to join the group but there is never an open spot for me. After a year of "trying" to join a campaign in 2019 unsuccessfully, I became determined to become a Dungeon Master (DM) and start running my own games. Unfortunately, 2020 rolled around and covid hit. I was able to play The Land, a RPG (Role Playing Game) created by a local New Jerseyan. I had to make my character twice since it was not saved over when moving to the new server. I played one campaign through a combination of discord and roll20. Somehow something was still missing, the virtual avenue was not for me. Although I realized I enjoyed character creation.

Next in 2025 I spend a year running D&D through a women's sci-fi group I was already a member of. We started by playing the D&D card game Dungeon Mayhem. There was a lot of interest at first and the game is easy to learn. It takes about 15minutes to learn to play, by reading the instructions and what is spelled out on the action cards. There were some players that were really inexperienced and didn't want to attack another player or weren't sure who to attack. At this point I was beginning to see why a newbie wouldn't be welcome. My original plan was to start with a couple meetings of just Dungeon Mayhem, then progress to Dungeon! the board game, then an actual campaign. However the 3 times I listed playing Dungeon! the board game as an event, there was little interest and many excuses such as I have never played before. But isn't that true of every game you play for the first time? Shouldn't you give it a try first before giving up? I had found the tutorial video and promised multiple copies of the instructions, but still no takers. Dungeon! the board game is from 1975, one of the earliest forms of D&D game play. Players work together to advance deeper in the dungeons, kill monsters and gather treasures. The first player to return to the Great Hall, with their designated winning treasure amount is declared the winner. Players can choose from a Rogue, Cleric, Fighter or Wizard. Playing the game, which I own, is still on my bucket list.

Fast forward to January 2026 and I was accepted by the Cranford library to join their D&D campaign. So far I spent over a month creating my character, which is an elf. My older brother has been most helpful in answering some of my questions. I'm set to play for the first time on Wednesday February 25th. There are many active players in the campaign so I won't be playing every week, but hope to join in once or twice a month and finally cross playing D&D off my bucket list. I will be given 3 lives, hopefully that's enough to play through some of the basic game mechanisms. During my round of emails to the librarian running the game, it did become clear that I'm not your average newbie. I have over 30 years of experience playing Nethack the computer game which is D&D adjacent. I will explain more on Nethack in an upcoming post. 

While I wait for my turn to play I began researching solo D&D games, which are in fact harder to find since most games require a DM. Games for a pair of players are more common. I did locate some interesting solo games and that's where my idea for this blog game in. By the end of 2026 I will be able to confidently say I've played D&D through a combination of the library group and my solo adventures.