In October of 2020, I needed a distraction from events in my life. Toastmasters led me to return to a hobby that I loved, was introduced to in high school, yet left a few years after I graduated. I was on Meetup one night doing something Toastmasters related and saw a Meetup event for a local in-person Dungeons & Dragons group. I figured it was kismet, as Toastmasters and Dungeons & Dragons are about as far apart as one can get. Or so I thought at that time; that’s another story, however.
I took a chance and reached out to the event organizer. He was kind, helpful, and friendly. Little did I know that he would become a true friend soon after this. We started to play and it took me a while to get my footing in this new version–fifth edition, or 5e for those familiar with it. I was rusty, like a rusted, disused, neglected short sword. I had, however, joined Toastmasters several years before, so I had that chemistry going for me, as well as my experiences in theater in college . . . and the great teacher of life as well, of course.
Then the pandemic struck in March of 2021. Play stopped entirely. I kept in touch with my friend, our group’s Dungeon Master (DM), and we both lamented that we wanted to play. I was unable to play online due to technological limitations and he only wanted to play in-person. We were at a standstill.
I therefore turned to watching videos on YouTube to brush up on this new edition, as well as read the player facing source books, as I didn’t want to pull back the veil, as my friend likes to say, of 5e like I had with 1e and 2e. Kenn Kihiu has this to say, “A student of the game is the player who only wants to get better. The player who loves instruction and correction. The player with more heart than ego. The player who does not drudge the daily practice but revels in it.”
That was me. I watched the following YouTube channels: Dungeon Craft, Taking20, Nerdarchy, Ginny Di, and a smattering of others like How to Be a Great DM, Geek and Sundry (of course), D&D Beyond, XP to Level 3, and Seth Skorkowsky. I picked up a lot of player tips along the way to make me a better player and make better characters. (Which I made a lot of. This was the other thing I did to maintain my interest in the game.) My DM, now friend, and I spent a lot of time discussing the finer points of the game we both love. I also took the occasional dip into the DM side of things and watched Matthew Colville’s channel along with the occasional DM related videos on one or more of the aforementioned YouTube channels.
I would fill up a voluminous tome with all of the information I learned from all of this study and becoming a student of the game if I were to list it all here. And the learning continues, both in real life now that my D&D group resumed in-person play again (which may be in doubt again because of the Delta variant), my becoming a member of the Dungeons & Toast Toastmasters club, stepping behind the DM screen for the first time in an age, watching even more YouTube channels and YouTube videos, reading even more D&D source books and talking with my friend about the game of D&D and exploring the hobby that I love.
Got a question? Just ask. I may even have an answer for you! Now go out there and make yourself a student of the game!
Sources Cited:
“Becoming a Student of the Game,” The Learning of Life, 1 September 2021.