January Life Update; Welcome 2019!

Hi readers and welcome to a new year!

I'm currently full of a cold which I've had mildly for awhile but it seems to have turned into a bad cold now. Plus, I've been sleeping on the sofa and not been getting much sleep. Family have been staying over and sorting my old bunk bed out was too much for me.

At least my dog, Patch, in the photo above has been cosy in her bed with her new soft penguin toy.

Christmas and New Year for me has been full of family, fun, food and busy activity. We've had our normal 3 day Christmas and then I went over to my boyfriend's and had a second Christmas. I spent new year's at his then come back and joined my family for a homemade Chinese fest. I got lots of awesome Christmas presents too!

On Christmas Eve we had another year of wearing crazy hats whilst playing board games and doing the present lucky dip. Here's me wearing one of the favourite hats of the night.

It's hard for me to pick the best present I got, must my stuff is still half packed up or stacked up as I've not had time to sort much out. Not in the mood either. Below, is one of the presents my boyfriend got me. He has been into Warhammer and 40K again for a good few months now and we have been playing battles against each other with his different armies. 

My favorite is the Nurgle. At first, I wasn't keen on them and I found them about gross but they have grown on me and I feel I have a good connection with them now, mostly due to being ill and Nurgle like to share illness with everything.  

I've been bugging my boyfriend for a Beast of Nurgle for awhile now because they are like big puppies. I got to design it myself, and mine doesn't look like the one on the box. I've to paint it now and when I've done, I'll post it up.    

Another of my presents were some balls of soft, super fine, mohair wool which I was going to make a knit snood out of but my mum did it instead whilst I was away. Having seen the wool and finished snood, I'm not sure I could have knitted it as it's really fine and I'm not good with anything less then double knit. With more wool left, I might give it a go at some point.    

In my last post of 2018, I should my current knitting project which was a colourful scarf made out of 100% pure wool from Norway, see photo below. I finished it around Christmas eve and it turned it really well. It's super long and warm! Though the winter weather in in the middle of England has been mild so far. I've been feeling too hot due to medicine side effects too. 

My current knitting is finishing off another patterned wool baby blanket. I still have a neon colourful baby jacket to complete too but it's taking forever and I've not had the motivation for it. 

My mum has now started me off on another thing, which is a super chunky sleeping bag. It was meant to be a mermaid/fish tail sleeping bag/blanket and she knitted one for my brother's girlfriend and it turned out great. I didn't fancy the fish tail though but the sleeping bag was prefect for using when I'm at at my PC. So, mum's done the top rib and I just need to knit the rest of it now.     

So after those three projects, I have another lined up! I want to make four of these 'square' dog soft toys below. One for myself, one each for my two brothers and one to give to my best friend's baby for her first birthday. Making this dog will be a huge step in my knitting as this will be my first teddy toy. I've made a knitted baby cube, but this will be different and I get to work with blending two different wools together too! I'm looking forward to getting going on this soon! 

Last knitted thing to share is this awesome sheep my mum made! He is so warm and fluffy, made out of the same wool as my scarf. The big story here though is that 29 years ago my mum made a sheep like this one, only he was a bit bigger and I called him Baa. I still have him, though he is in a right state! When I do some tidying, I'll dig him out and do a side by side photo of old Baa and new Baa.  

I've been also colouring a lot over the holiday. I got two sets of colouring pencils and both have been really good. I'm not great at creating 3D effects and shading - it's actually connecting to my learning disabilities and the way I see things. I don't think bad art should put anyone off and you don't have to show it to anybody, it's enjoying it that counts the most. I thought I would share on my recent colouring, though I not that happy with the hair but it was a good practise. 

I've also been playing lots of games with my family and we played a new one my younger brother got called Ticket To Ride. I had heard of it before but didn't realise how easy it was to play! It can't take me awhile sometimes to get into new games and remember the basic rules, but with Ticket you just have to build railway tracks. It was lots of fun, my mum won and I'm hoping we can play again soon!

Lastly, I wanted to share this website with you that sales jewellery and other things to support animals. They have a page were they give items away for free and just charge postage. I have ordered lots of things over the years and have only had one issue with missing items but I was refunded and also sent the item. They have good customer service, though shipping to the UK takes forever! It's worth waiting as the necklaces are so nice.   

https://www.helpinganimalsatrisk.com/collections/free-animal-jewelry?fbclid=IwAR3Pkwzydpe4xAfNXQW5LRX7W01pwmheotOQfg38F44c0kze-20svlmaR54


(Photos from Facebook, Amazon or my own).

April Life Update: Being Ill Is Not Much Fun.

Hi readers,

Sorry, I've not posted in two week, but I was ill and so was my mum. In fact, I still am as this cold doesn't seem to want to go. Sometimes I can think of nothing worse then a bad cough that just won't quit! I guess it doesn't help that I've had hardly anytime to rest up. I've had a busy time at work, covering other peoples' shifts and volunteering on reception. Plus, I had an interview for working with the seniors, but I didn't get the job. Didn't get my PhD interview either, which was a shock.

Also, I can't let go of my ex-boyfriend no matter what I tell myself and it's become a complicated issues of us not being together and agreeing we really are not getting back together, but acting as if we are a couple again! So yeah, I'm feeling really low about stuff. And though I hate to admit, I'm wondering if I'm getting depressed again. Though, it's more like my run of bad luck and feeling ill that's giving me those thoughts. But if it does get worse, I'll be going to talk to someone.

I've not been up to anything crafty or arty outside of work. I've still got my felt steggie dinosaur to make and my mum is busy knitting me a werewolf, so maybe next month to show off them? Though got my trip to London first! So, excited about that.

Firstly, I'm currently taking part in the A-Z Challenge on my other blog. Every day, but for Sundays, the post has to be titled and be about a word starting with the next letter of the alphabet. So last week as an example I wrote stories about Anxiety, Bedazzled, Cacti, Dog. I'm finding it lots of fun and a great way to meet other bloggers. Of course, it's also to get you writing and blogging more, but I all ready do that!  

Secondly, I wanted to write about my reading goals for this year, which I had put on my Goodreads page, but forgot. I choice to try and read 30 books this year and so far I've read only 10. Feels more then that though! Last year, I did a reading challenge from Popstar, I think it was and there was around 30 books on that last too. I didn't get to read all of them though. Hopefully, having to do a book review 3-4 times a month will help as I'll need to start reading faster again.

I've got lots of books that I keep meaning to start, like the True Blood ones as I've finished watching all the seasons now. Also, the Vampire Diaries, Anne Rice's wolf books, though I'd love to read Interview with A Vampire again. Then I've got some steampunk ones and some YP ones and just, yeah far far too many! I'm sure I'll get around to them all though.

Here's the link to my Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7400715-hayley-hardman

The only upside to being ill has been that I've spent a lot of time playing Bioshock. This is like my third time playing through it now. I'm way out of practice and found the medium setting a bit hard. I've never been good at shooting games, nor any other game really, but I do still like playing them. I think Bioshock grabs me because of the dystopia setting and the story line. It feels like a different experience to other games and I remember watching my dad playing and getting hooked. I feel like I did a review of it once on here...anyway....

I've finished it again, but I'm going back for some of the achievements I've missed and then I've got to play through it again for two or three more as well. I've moved on to Bioshock 2 now, which is my favorite. I love playing as a Big Daddy and learning more about Rapture! I don't know why I find the second easier to do, maybe its the add strength of being stronger or because I've played it that many times I just know it. My favorite level is Siren Alley. I'm not sure why, but it really sticks with me.

In fact, I started reading the novel that is set before the first game and I'm going to review it next week now.

So on Thursday of last week, I was feeling so fed up with everything that I decided to take the plunge I was planing to do at the end of this month or maybe later. I joined two dating websites. Well, it turned out that okcupid still had my profile...don't know why, but it seems I forget to delete it. I also joined plenty of fish, which I was on ages ago, but got rid of after meeting my second ex-boyfriend.  

Writing and talking about all the thoughts and feels I had when I'd set up the accounts and glanced at some photos of possible dates is just impossible. I have the urge to try though, but I guess it'll be hard for people who've not been in this situation to understand. I just felt so guilty and sad and like it was wrong. I was betraying and being unfaithful too. But of course I'm single now, so why would I feel like all that?! I guess the idea of moving on is just too painful still and thinking that I'll never find anyone who's better then him. I just felt worse about everything.

Then the messages started...it's weird I was thinking I'd have to wait hours, days maybe before guys saw my profile, but nope. I'm not playing 'the I'm desperate game' or 'I'm super lonely' ect, I'm just being me, though a lot less flirty then I remember being before. I still don't know if it's what I want, but I know I won't be meeting up with anyone anytime soon. Jumping into another relationship isn't going to help, but seeing that there are other men interest in me will make me feel a bit better. And I never know who'll meet, so I'm going to try and have some fun...though not to much, can't get carried away! 

So, next week I'm going to review the Bioshock book and then hopefully, fit another review in the Monday after and before I go to London. Still really excited about that!

Till next time!  

Images from:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/7670/
https://pixabay.com/en/love-heart-broken-sad-unhappy-cry-1281655/

Steampunk - An Introduction to the Genre.

Hi Readers,

Today I went to the Steampunk Market at the Mill. Its a small fair at the historic Queens Mill, Lancashire, UK. I went last year, but it seems that I didn't write about it and that I've never done a post about Steampunk! I'm still a novice about the genre really and today was only my second fair and my first time dressing up, (see photo below). Though now I've a taste for it I'm eager to do it again!

The best way to describe today is probably to compare it to a comic/Scfi/game convention and a Victorian themed market. Spreed throughout the mill were a number of different stalls groaning under the weight of handmade and specialist items. The streampunk theme echoed within them all. There were Victorian style clothes; top hats, mini hats, corsets, dresses and waist coats but most had been 'punked' up with metal cogs/wooden cogs, goggles and metal embellishments. You could also by all of these separated. There was a fantasy games area, a poster/postcard stall with bespoke images of airships. There was also jewelry and other accessories, though some of it looked gothic to me. There was an afternoon tea and cake stall and I just had to try out the carrot cake. Which turned out to be awesome. My only small disappointment was that three of stalls I actually wanted to visit again from last year weren't there! They were the Victorian sweets, fudge and handmade soaps.

The mill itself is a museum and you can see how they made textiles there. They have a working loom room, which is really noisy and you have to wear ear defenders. A steam engine which provided all the power needed for the factory and lots of different hand looms. It's a good afternoon out, but I prefer Manchester's museum of Sciences and Industry.  

What exactly is steampunk?

In it's basic form it is a sub-genre from science fiction, though it is fast growing into a genre of its own now. The setting is normally an alternate version 19th century Britain, the Victorian era or the America Wild West. The biggest theme of steampunk is the growing industry and the use of steam run technology, only its more extreme and inventive then in the actual Victorian era. It influences everything; fashion, art, style, culture and architecture. Another big feature is airships and hot air balloons as these as a symbol of the Victorian era and fit in with the Steampunk style well.

Being a sub-genre is is very easy -especially in fiction and movies- for elements of other genres to appear in steampunk. These are mostly; history, horror, fantasy, supernatural, adventure and detective/crime. Though it can be crossed or mixed with just about everything. Mostly these are used in plot lines to add more to the story. They work well alongside the steampunk genre and can also add the the realism.

Elements of steampunk begin appearing in the 1950s/60s, but it was in the 1980's when it was coined as a humors take on cyberpunk* from there it has grown steadily and been most prominent in fiction. I think it's only been in the last few years though that it has really taken off and people have become interested in creating the fashion of steampunk.    

However, for some people there is no clear definition of steampunk or else there are a lot of different alternatives.
   
*Cyberpunk is another sub-genre of ScFi and it is normally set on earth in the near future in a post-industrial dystopia. It's main theme is advanced science, where technology is used or is able to do things that were unanticipated.*

Steampunk Fashion

For me the fashion of steampunk is one of the biggest draws. I think this is because there is a lot to it and there's no right or wrong. I think also just about any piece of clothing can be steampunked. The 'normal look' starts off with Victorian style clothes. For women its the long skirts, corsets or dresses. For men it's breeches, shirts and jackets. Other varies are Victorian adventuring/safari clothes, military uniform or engineer clothing. Some people might go for a more futuristic cyber look.

After that the steampunk elements get added. Normally this would be a pair of goggles on a hat or on a head. Then belts and gun holders. Leather pouches, arm or wrist guards and long leather boots or ankle boots. Other accessories are also added like; long necklaces or chokers, gloves, watches, other jewelry and other things that finish off the costume.  

Other elements included embellishing items like hats, boots and corsets with metal/wooden cogs, gears, watches and shapes like compasses, owls, wings, octopuses and butterflies.

If you want some inspiration just check out the links below or Google it.

Steampunk in Fiction

Like I said before, Steampunk started in fiction writing and novels and short stories set with the Steampunk genre have been rapidly growing. Most are influenced by 19th century writers like; H .G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, H .P. Lovecraft and Charles Dickens. 

There is only a handful of the first official Steampunk novels dating from 1967-1995. The most know are the books which make up A Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy and the Anno Dracula series. It seems to be a small group of writers who've only had success with one or two Steampunk genre novels. 

However, in the 21st century there seems to be a boom of interested in Steampunk fiction. There are lots of new writers who seem to be writing series or a lot of one off novels. The most well known are The Parasol Protectorate series, The Clockwork Century series and The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series.  (I'll review them all eventually!) 

There is also a few anthologies, which collected the short stories of Steampunk together. The best are;  

The Mammoth Book of Steampunk, Steampunk, Steampunk! Reading one these is a great introduction to the genre. 

Lastly, there is the non-fiction books. These are really interesting because they contain a lot about the genre as a whole. These are works like the Steampunk Bible, Steampunk Style Jewelry and Steampunk: The Art of Victorian Futurism.

A list of stearmpunk books and movies can be found in the links below.

Steampunk in Movies and Games 

Most people will have come into connect with Steampunk through movies and games and not even realized it! There are lot of current and past movies and computer/console games that are either completely Steampunk or else have a lot of elements in them. Probably, the movie that is most well known  is Wild Wild West, though some people won't realize that it is in the Steampunk genre.

Other most well known films are; Treasure Planet, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Three Musketeers (2011). All these films are well known for the Steampunk elements which appear in them, though some of them are set in non-Victorian or wild west times. However, they either have a Steampunk fantasy or alternate world setting, which does still make it. 

There are a few other films out there, but let's move on to the games. I'm not really a big player of them in general, so when I saw the list I didn't really know what to pick. So, I'm going to list the two that I've sit through being played by someone else and they are Dishonored and Bioshock Infinite. I can understand why Steampunk works well in games because they are some what closer to novels then movies are.  

I think that's it for now, until I come back to review a Steampunk book! 

Images from:

http://www.iplayawriter.com/?tag=steampunk
Author's Own (2014)
http://www.addicted2heroines.com/2011/10/review-phoenix-rising-ministry-of.html
http://500px.com/photo/36402244/she's-leaving-by-michel-reichmann
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/steampunk-corset
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120891/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/12/12/bioshock-infinite-will-come-with-a-reversible-cover-community-to-vote-on-the-contents/

Additional Information and Other links:

http://www.visitlancashire.com/whats-on/steampunk-at-the-mill-weekend-p716320
https://www.facebook.com/marketatthemill
http://thetoychronicle.com/reviews/doktor-a-steampunk-market-at-the-mill/
http://www.thesteampunkempire.com/
http://www.leedssteampunkmarket.co.uk/
http://www.ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com/what-is-steampunk/
http://www.steampunk.com/what-is-steampunk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steampunk_works
http://www.steampunkemporium.com/steam.php

Coming Soon Posts!

Thought I'd just create a list of posts that I want to write up in the next few months or so. I think the idea is to keep me on track and give me more stuff to do instead of me wondering around being bored. Hopefully, though you'll find this interested and if you've got ideas about other stuff I could review then post below and I'll look into it. (Note: these are in random order.)


1. The Secret Garden - book and movie review.
2. Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - book review.
3. The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy - book review. 
4. Bioshock Infinite - games review
5. New Dungeons and Dragons encounter game. (I'm in the middle of one which I've not been writing up, but I want to do the next one.)
6. Has eduction made us hate Literature? - my opinion on this topic.
7. Adventure in the Lakes - my Easter week spent on holiday in the Lake District.
8. The Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge - book review.
9. Poetry of World War 1 - book review.
10. The publication of my collection of short short stories - announcement.
11. World Book Night 2013 - announcement and review. - I missed it...oops.....
12. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - book review.
13. Is there a better way to edit? - My opinion/research on this topic.
14. Bioshock 1 and 2 - games review.
15. Rapture by John Shirley - book review.
16. Cats -musical review.
17. Wicked - musical review.
18. Lover At Last (BDB 11th) by J R Ward- book review.
19. The Wizard Of Oz - book review.
20. The Tribe - TV show review.
21. The Darkest Secret by Gena Showalter -book review.
22. One Day by David Nicholls - book review.
23. Memoirs Of A Gesha by Arthur Golden - book review

*Update- the ones highlighted have now been done!

D&D Part 8: Victory Finish

On Wednesday evening, I played the last encounter of the Council Of Spiders adventure. The large group was spilt into three small groups of 4/5 players and we were off with our DMs for the final battle. My table was warned before hand that this ending was a bit disappointing. Which is interesting when the other encounters have been building up to something that felt really big, like a epic Drow war or battling a Goddess or a wizard army. Having never experienced the last encounter of an adventure I was keen to find out what was going to happen.

I was still playing my female Drow rogue, Kai. There was a female priestess, another rogue and a human slave. Now we were searching for this Drow called Valan Jaelre, who is one of the Council's leaders. Questioning him and then killing him could be very useful and possibly help put an end to the unrest that has been going on in Menzoberranzan (that's basically the whole of the Drow society). We entered some catacombs, which then turned out to be a forgotten shrine to Lolth. There were large patches of cobwebs everywhere and we were told that disturbing them and/or killing the spiders would lower our renown points. (Renown points are given or taken away due to actions taken by the players. Worth points work in the same way, but are decided on by the characters' stats as well).

A brown cloud of smoke appeared and started speaking to us telepathically. This smoke turned out to be connect to Lolth and was a sign of her favour or displeasure depending on how we answered. It was a role playing moment with each of us answering to why we where here and though we had agreed on the goal of completing the Demon Weave, it being all telepathic meant that we could answer with something different if we had decided to have individual goals. Myself, the priestess and the slave stuck with the goal and the rogue decided to bluff a different answer and failed. Lolth was displeased and cursed him.

We were then attacked by Valan's allies and they were Hex Knights and Spellsinners. I would like to say by a cruel twist of fate, but actually it was by the DM's hand, that I who'd put Kai at the back, got moved to the front and because I'd rolled a higher number then anyone else, I had to go first! I had no choice but to fire an arrow at the nearest enemy. I hit and did some small damage. Everyone else then got immobilised, weakened or slowed down by Valan. They couldn't really fight on their turns, so I had to fire another arrow and deal some more damage. I also got hit though and had to be healed by the priestess. I was then joined in the fight, though I was still stuck leading the group. I'm not very keen on being in that position, just because Kai isn't built for fighting and I'm still learning!

The other rogue tried to hide almost the skeletons in the alcoves of the catacombs. This didn't work so well and I decided that corners were still good shields. In front of us there was a staircase going down and we had to try and fight some of the enemies on it. This was a little bit hard and then it got worse because one set of the enemies (I forget which) when they went down turned into bone spiders. So, we had to fight them off as well. They turned out to be easy enough to finish off....as long as you weren't blind or weakened. The rogue somehow was weakened for six rounds before finally shaking it off with a good dice roll. Valan then cast a spell and covered the staircase in cobwebs, making it difficult terrain. This meant for me and the other rogue that we could only move half our movement number (which is 6) down the staircase. The priestess and slave were on the last step when the spell hit, so they were the first to enter the chamber at the bottom.

We quickly dispatch the remaining enemies and were left to face Valan. The DM did a bit of RP, acting as if we couldn't defeat him and he was so powerful. However, the priestess soon changed his mind about that and hit him twice with a magical attack really reducing his hit points. It was then my turn and it was decided that we'd question him before we killed him. The DM muttered that it wouldn't matter and I rolled high numbers. Kai took aim with her bow and shot him with an arrow to the head. He dropped and silence hit the table. The DM claimed it was over and that on searching him we find the last piece of the Demon Weave. It also meant that the Drow civil war was dropped and things calmed down, going back to normal for Drow society.

So that was it and with such an anticlimax too! I have to admit that I did feel a bit disappointed by this because I'd been expecting a bigger finish and a much more victorious feel. I think if we'd not been warned before we'd started, I'd feel even worse. I'm not sure why the adventure had to end that way as it really felt rushed and unfinished. However, I'm happy to say that Kai (below) and I survived our first D&D adventure!

So, as the book closes, what is my conclusion about D&D and the Council of Spiders adventure? Well, I know I still have a lot of learning to do! But that'll come with practise and time. The best way to play D&D is really how I've done it; going to a place which holds D&D playing and joining a group with newbies and an experienced DM. I've had a great time and it's given me something to look forward too each week, which was so needed after four years of uni! I've also made lots of friends and had a lot of fun. I know at the beginning I was worried about a number of things; from not liking D&D and RP, to not being accept as I'm a girl, to being seen as silly for not understanding. This quickly disappeared though and I now have to admit that I really do like playing D&D. I like listening to the back stories behind the story of the adventure, I like creating characters, I like fighting the monsters, (even though I complain about it all the time!) I love all the little random events that happen like; characters jumping on tables, hiding in bones, arguing with the DM, role playing between the slaves and masters/mistress. Also for a change my writer and nerd sides are both happy.

As for the adventure itself; I enjoyed it and liked all the missions we had to do. It was good that everyone could be in a different house because we were all- beside from the goblin, human and dwarf slaves- of Drow race, so it was good that we were still able to have conflicted between characters because of the different houses not getting along. It was interesting how things were revealed too in twisty ways that could also be shocking. I liked doing the secret missions as it added a different element. As for the role playing, this is an area I need to work on and not be so embarrassed to be seen doing. It can make you feel a little silly at times and the DM ends up encouraging you to act in the mind set of your character. Other people are really great at RP and this just brings the game alive and gives you so many funny moments.

There are only two small negatives I can think of to add. The first is that this adventure is actually a squeal to Web of the Spider Queen and because I didn't play that I don't know if I missed some important information, which might have helped play in my adventure. My boyfriend did explain some of it to me and the background you get from the Council of Spiders is pretty sound. Still though, playing that adventure first would have been beneficial. Secondly, the ending of this adventure wasn't very good in my opinion. I was expecting something far better and greater. Okay, maybe not an all out fight with a dragon or some large monster, but a more satisfactory conclusion then the anticlimax of things just returning to normal would have been good. Saying that it's still a good adventure.

Finally, I'm happy to say that I've decided to play another season of D&D! So, there shall be more on this blog about my adventures. I've heard that things are slightly changing in the encounters though and that we are going to be given more chance to RP. That should be interesting! Next Wednesday will see the creating of new characters, so if you fancy trying out D&D then I've linked the website you need at the bottom. I also found this image whilst searching today and I thought it was cool, also if you click on the link and read about it, it becomes even more interesting and just goes to show that D&D is an ever expanding game of possibilities.  

Images from:

 http://imperioliancount.wordpress.com/dungeons-dragons/
http://www.pocketplane.net/volothamp/chap8.htm
http://dungeonsmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/council-of-spiders-cover.jpg
http://torontoist.com/2012/08/dungeons-and-dragons-and-improv/


http://www.wizards.com/dnd/
 

Dungeons and Dragons- This Is How We Roll (Part 1)

 

Hi readers,

I'm just back from playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and thought I'd share my experience. This wasn't actually my first time at playing the role playing (RP) board game. A few years back for Christmas my family got a box game of it with everything already set up and the rules made simpler. This game came with us on holiday, mostly camping or the narrow boat because it's actually a great way to pass a good few hours whilst its raining or you've broke down etc. This was my first introduction to D&D and I enjoyed playing it because it was fantasy and adventures and something completely different to tradition/normal board games, which like most families we've been through them all.

My second encounter with D&D was with my ex and two of his friends some months back. We played at his house and did a small, self-contained game. This involved a lot more RP then the box game of course, but those guys really got into the spirit of the game. As for me, I struggled on the complexity of dealing with all the rules and numbers. I've always been bad with numbers and remembering things. However, I did like it and was keen to learn and play again. Then when we broke up I told myself that I wasn't going to let that stop me from having another bash at D&D. I was still interested in it, but I just needed to find someone to teach me.

Luckily, less then 2 months after the break up I met someone else and it was actually because of D&D that we got talking. We've been together 3 weeks now and today was our 5th date. I guess nearly all girls would never concerned going to play D&D on a date. But it's becoming very noticeable to me that I have a nerd side which needs to be embraced. I class myself as a secret nerd, because I'm still unwilling- as of yet!- to admit it fully. So, this evening I had another go at playing D&D and this time it was in a Manchester shop which supports such games and others of course. People gather to learn how to play all kinds of things there, which I think is really good because sometimes you can get one of these RP or fantasy games home and not have a clue what to do with it! This evening we got told that all over the world people were sitting down to play the same adventure that we were about to go on because that's the way these massive things work. (Yeah, I'm still trying to get the hang of it all, just bare with me.)

(D&D dice- more covered in numbers then your normal dice....)

 

I'm so not going into the whole this is how you play D&D and make characters and stuff like that. There's lots of websites with that information on and frankly I'm still a newbie at this. Here's the official D&D site if you want to check it out - http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Default.aspx . Also, I decided that I'm not going into the whole story and background that we are currently playing because and though I'm not confused by it, I'd rather not spoil it for people. But I shall do a little bit about the interesting events that happened in our game and my experiences of becoming a D&D player. 

 

Firstly, for the people who don't know what D&D is about and are busy wondering what's going on. D&D is actually all about telling stories. The players choice characters/heroes and the Dungeon Master (DM) who is in control of telling the story also has control of the enemies/monsters and is there to guide the heroes through the story. The game is played on a board which represents the area of the world that the heroes are currently in. There are so many different areas and so many boards!

 

The players have character sheets which have lots of information in both word and number form printed/written on them. This is each heroes stats and has normal stuff like; their name, race and language(s) spoken. There is also weapons,other items, equipment and treasure/money. A range of different skills can be picked and these are mostly chosen on the race of the character. There's things like; heal, thievery, nature, stealth, athletics and perception. Skills are useful for a large number of things like stealth would be used to sneak up on enemies

 

The main last point is about fighting. Heroes have to fight lots of different monsters, it's not just dragons all the time as the name suggests! There's a whole range of stuff from wild animals to supernatural to goblins to harpies. The health of heroes is measured in hit points and this are effected when damaged (in any number of ways) happens. For attacks there are a few things that can be done and it's actually not as simple as drawing a sword and attacking said monster....though I guess you could do that...My character can choose to do tricks to aid in the fight like knocking a monster on to its back or setting a trap, before attacking. You also get experience points too and can level up. The goal of the game is to complete the adventure and get the rewards.        

 



(A game in action)

 

 

The adventure we started this evening was all about the Drow race  and their quest. The Drow are dark elves and therefore evil. There's an awesome website my boyfriend showed me which has lots of information about them and also about D&D. http://www.kismetrose.com/dnd/MyDrow.html . I see no real need to go into this because you can just read about it all there. For the first part of our adventure we had to fight off some strange creatures. If the DM said their names I don't actually recall them. My boyfriend attacked the first one and got pinned to a wall and no one was able to get him down until close to the end. It was rather funny, though his hero almost died when someone did kill the monster and he fell to the floor. I almost died too, because I had to fight this ooze monster which poisoned me and I just couldn't get away in time. However, we both made it through and our heroes can carry on next week. In the end we did mange to kill all the monsters and move on into the next room and to the next bit of the story. Then it was home time. You play a chapter of the story once a week for between 6/8-14 weeks. We are playing 8 weeks.

I was really worried about playing D&D this evening. I felt the same the first time I really played it as I was scared I'd mess up or look like a fool in front of the others for not knowing how to play. I felt that again this time, though I was pretty much in the same boat as everyone else, as it was their first time and no one knew how to play. But my other fear was that I might have been the only girl there. Kismetrose has a great article/essay about being a woman and playing D&D. http://www.kismetrose.com/dnd/Women.html There were two other women there, so it was that bad, but it's just so rare they have girls in shops like the one I was in. Games like these have never really been seen as women's games and men have dominated playing them. Maybe it's because there's a level of immaturity in playing them and men are better connect to their inner child then women? There's also a level of escapism which seems to appeal more to men. I love escapism, I do it in my writing all the time. On reflection, I can't really explain my nerd side or why I enjoy such related things. I've never been a typical woman though and perhaps that has something to do with it?

Anyway, I'm please to say that I did like D&D and I plan to go back next week and carry on playing. It might be a hard game to understand, but it's easy enough to play. Also the social atmosphere was good in the shop and I wasn't treated like I shouldn't have been there or made to feel silly because I didn't know what to do. And as you might have noticed in the title of this post I added the (Part 1) because I strongly believe I shall be writing about D&D again, though if I decided to write every week about it or just to start that way and then just add the events into different posts, is still to be decided.

Finally, if you've read through all of this and decided that playing D&D might be for you then go and check out the official website and find a game near you. Also girls don't be scared to embrace you nerd/geeky sides! Though beware that interesting things can happen when you do....

 

Photos from:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dungeons-and-Dragons-Dice-D-D-Dice-Set-Purple-Steel-/190541147414

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dungeons_and_Dragons_game.jpg

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drow-Underdark-Supplement-Dungeons-Dragons/dp/0786941510/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346280662&sr=1-1

http://comicsforge.com/2012/01/dungeons-and-dragons-1-2010/


(Ps. for whatever reason Blogger.com doesn't accept the 'and' sign symbol. So I had to go back through this and take them all out before publishing and that's why Dungeons and Dragons became DD.)