This week has offered a journey back into the realm of Dungeons & Dragons. Specifically, I’ve begun to read the 2024 edition of the game which I will refer to simply as 5.5e because, frankly, that’s exactly what it is: an update of the core Fifth Edition rules with significant changes but still recognisably rooted in that same edition.

First impressions have been much more positive and encouraging than I anticipated. It has been a good reminder not to allow the assertions and emotional reactions of people online to colour your own sober assessment of a game system. As with Fifth Edition back in 2014, I perceive a workmanlike core engine within all the glitz that is D&D.

One insight has been to recognise Dungeons & Dragons for what it is: one very specific prescription for a pretty generic and all-encompassing multiversal high-fantasy game experience. The 5.5e books offer, more than ever before, the opportunity to run your own variation of a D&D world within the clear framework Wizards/Hasbro wants to sell you.

Given my own tastes, which are very different, why would I engage with this game? The biggest reason is that students at the School RPG Club have asked, and likely will continue to ask, to learn D&D. Their expectation is to play the current edition. Alongside this, I have come to recognise that sometimes I enjoy the easy offer that D&D makes.

The important thing for me is not so much which particular game system I use as a teaching tool, nor even the particular flavour of fantasy world that gets run. I know that RPGs are, at heart, run on methodology. The choices made on HOW the game is played have the greatest impact. I aim to remain faithful to those approaches which I value.

Alongside this effort to share my love of gaming with the students, I also recognise that when I play with D&D there is a decision to enter into the assumptions of the game’s prescription that is freeing. I can simply accept the framework and run adventures that lean into the content in the core books.

Like when we play HeroQuest – the dungeon boardgame from Hasbro – we simply accept the set-up and then allow ourselves to play in that environment. Dungeons & Dragons is very much its own entity and sandbox. Instead of fighting it and trying to make it something else, we can lean into the nonsense of the D&D multiverse and play with it together.

The last element in this delve into 5.5e has been the question of what specific adventure to begin with. Earlier in the week, I was very much drawn to finally playing the 2014 Starter Set adventure, “Lost Mine of Phandelver“. Having reflected, recognising that I would enjoy the act of scenario design far more, I’ve decided to write for Fellmyr instead.

Fellmyr is the fantasy world that I designed for playing Dungeons & Dragons at the School RPG Club. The beautiful map by Fernando Salvaterra is too good to abandon and I can easily reimagine the world in the light of Edition 5.5. There is so much lore already established that it would be a shame to waste it.

Certainly, I can change details before beginning fresh adventures in Fellmyr. New players don’t have expectations based on what happened before and I don’t have to be slavish about canon. Leaning into the somewhat ridiculously heroic and super-powered realities of D&D feels like it might be fun. How can I create an engaging gameplay experience?

In the end, I am asking myself to what extent I can enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons with the students. Yes, there are other game systems and many game worlds that I would prefer to explore at the table… but those projects are not aimed at beginners. For now, I think I will simply break out the Monster Manual and see what emerges.

Game on!