It’s time for another edition of What We’re Playing. This week it’s a video game you might have heard of called Minecraft. Does that ring a bell?

We’re joking, of course. Everyone’s heard of Minecraft, right? It’s only one of the most popular and successful video games of all time with 126 million players around the world. Yep, that Minecraft. 

Since some of us here at The Flickcast have kids, we’ve been trying to find ways to entertain them and distract from the monotony of quarantine. Fortunately, during the last year or so, we’ve discovered Minecraft . . . and, of course, we love it! Kids and adults alike!

If for some reason you’re not familiar with Minecraft, here’s a bit of info about the game from the Official Minecraft Wiki:

“Minecraft is a sandbox construction game created by Mojang Studios founder Markus “Notch” Persson, inspired by Infiniminer, Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and Notch’s past games Legend of the Chambered and RubyDung. Gameplay involves players interacting with the game world by placing and breaking various types of blocks in a three-dimensional environment. In this environment, players can build creative structures, creations, and artwork on multiplayer servers and singleplayer worlds across multiple game modes.”

We mostly play in “Creative” mode where you build amazing structures and contraptions out of various blocks in the game. However, if you’re looking for more of a challenge, switch to “Survival” mode where you’re forced to find or grow food, build shelters and fight off hordes of monsters including spiders, skeletons and zombies. Whatever you choose, it’s all fun . . . and you just might learn something too. 

Being at home during a pandemic forced us to find new ways to entertain ourselves. One of the ways that’s worked best for us is playing games online. So, in that spirit, we’re kicking off a new series at The Flickcast called What We’re Playing. 

Each week we’ll highlight a game we’re playing at home. For the first installment of What We’re Playing, we turn to an old favorite: Dungeons & Dragons. 

D&D was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and first published in 1974. Since then its popularity grew considerably. Even with a slump in the late 80s and early 90s, D&D is still played by millions of people around the world. That popularity has exploded even more during the last year or two. You can probably guess why.

If you’re not familiar, or have never played, you may wonder “What’s D&D?” For that we turn to Wizards of the Coast, the company who publishes the game. From their official D&D website:

“The core of D&D is storytelling. You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more.”

Sounds fun, right? Traditionally, D&D is played by a group of friends sitting together at a table. One person is the Dungeon Master, or DM. This person creates and runs the game, spins tales of adventure, plays all non-player characters (or NPCs) and generally is the go-to for all rules and what happens during the campaign.

The players (not the DM) create characters of their own and rollplay them during the game. You can choose from a variety of character occupations including fighter, ranger, rogue or wizard and races such as human, elf, dwarf or halfling. Then, once characters are created, players explore dungeons or ancient ruins, interact with NPCs and creatures like Orcs or Giants and even, yes, fight an actual dragon.

That’s how it’s usually done . . with everyone together around a table. But what if getting together isn’t possible?