Introducing Significant Others...

[skeeter_dan]

A couple days ago my wife said a phrase that I never thought would come out of her mouth: "Why don't we make a couple new characters?"

That's right: she wanted to make a new character just for fun. There's no new game that she needs a new character for. It's just, instead of watching a movie that evening, she wanted to make a new character with me. After roping her in to the first game I ever DMed ("Why don't you just come and watch?" turned into "Well, you're here, may as well roll up a character"), she has enjoyed the hobby with me for a couple years now, but a couple days ago was the first indication of how much she was enjoying DnD.

For the record, she rolled up a Psion Nomad.

So, I wanted to know, what other success (or not) stories have you had with introducing your significant other to DnD?

[Dr Bwaa]

None whatsoever (yet). I keep trying!

[Maerok]

For the record, she rolled up a Psion Nomad.

Psshhh. Psionics is so broken.
That's pretty cool; I don't think mine would be too in to it, she's not a very rulesy kind of person.

[Theodoxus]

When we first met, my wife was very much into gaming. Now though, she claims she doesn't have the stamina for our typical 5-6 hour sessions... Shame really... but once 4th Ed's out, I'm planning on running shorter sessions - I'll try an coax her out then :)

[FlyMolo]

When we first met, my wife was very much into gaming. Now though, she claims she doesn't have the stamina for our typical 5-6 hour sessions... Shame really... but once 4th Ed's out, I'm planning on running shorter sessions - I'll try an coax her out then :)

Whip out the BoEF and use DnD as foreplay.

What the hell, try anything once, right?

[Jack Zander]

I introduced my girlfriend to DnD about a year ago. It was one of those "just come and watch" things too. It took her a while to catch on, but she eventually got real into it recently. I know because she asked me for a Player's Handbook for her birthday, and she also is doing her senior project on DnD.

[Collin152]

Whip out the BoEF and use DnD as foreplay.

What the hell, try anything once, right?

Why stop there?
Everything is more fun with dice involved.

[Hal]

I got my girlfriend to sit in on a session once, taking over the DM's NPC for the session (There wasn't any time to roll up a character for her).

The ultimate response was, "It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I can understand why people enjoy this."

Baby steps, I guess.

[skywalker]

My (former) girlfriend went from "Oh, no, you guys decided to play D&D, what do I do?" to "Well, I guess if Katie(her best friend) is playing it, I could try"(She used katie's character sheet) to "I might want to play" to playing a duskblade that ended the dungeon by critting on a glaive+shocking grasp attack.

Pretty good, if you ask me. But there was that one time I played D&D on our anniversary(as opposed to golf, I guess?) and she got pretty pisssed off.

[Terraspaz]

Rookie mistake... ya hate to see it.

To be fair though, I once held a "marathon session" on my girlfriend's 18th birthday. ...She was less than pleased.

[skeeter_dan]

Ooh, DnD on the anniversary...not a great move.

Hal, baby steps is the way to go. A friend of mine roped his girlfriend into playing for the first time by promising that she could play a panda. Yes, a panda. It was just a fun one-off session, but I guess you gotta do whatever it takes!

[Behold_the_Void]

I tend to just date women who share my interests, gaming being one of them. Although I seem to find LARPers instead of tabletop gamers >_>

Oh well, I can work with that.

[DraPrime]

I've never tried, because none of my girlfriends have ever been the geeky type. Yet they go out with a complete geek. Life is weird like that.

[Reinboom]

The first game of D&D I played with my now love and girlfriend and I were playing in it at the same time.
GenCon Indy, Last year. RPGA hosted game of Scions of Elemental Evil. Ironman dungeon crawl.

I played the sorcerer / wildmage premade PC, and I currently don't recall what she played. I believe her then boyfriend was playing the rogue though.

We weren't together til quite a long time after that.

[Ravyn]

Everyone I've dated, I've introduced to some system or other--it was just that in two out of three cases, they weren't dating me yet. Seemed to work pretty well, though. One of them, I even managed to get running games himself.

[wadledo]

I'm planing on getting my girlfriend addicted to Exalted and D&D eventually so I can just ask her for advice on how to make my characters.
I'm thinking a line of figurines and character sheets leading up to the bedroom.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

First gal was a dumb harlot. I blame childhood infatuation.
The other though... She finds the mechanics a pain the in the butt to deal with in character creation, but she's a wonderful rper. I happen to love rolling up new chars, it works out great.

[evisiron]

My girlfriend really liked Vampires, and other friends seemed mildly interested (new area, no known gamers at the time), so it was not too difficult to start a Vampire: The Masquerade group.

From there it was "You should try DnD, it runs a bit smoother in combat". She had played it years ago for a few sessions but didn't like it much.

She then proceeded to roll up a Half orc barbarian/ dragon shaman with a fondness for eating kittens, and one session later, was hooked. She hungers for dungeon crawls, and since the game is on pause for the minute during exams I keep hearing "damn, I want to play DnD so bad!"

It might have something to do with her character having just killed a dragon and having a crazily large horde to cash in, then being stuck in limbo for weeks.

[Wooter]

Well everyone I've ever dated has... wait, I've never dated anyone. I should do something about that.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

My girlfriend really liked Vampires, and other friends seemed mildly interested (new area, no known gamers at the time), so it was not too difficult to start a Vampire: The Masquerade group.

From there it was "You should try DnD, it runs a bit smoother in combat". She had played it years ago for a few sessions but didn't like it much.

She then proceeded to roll up a Half orc barbarian/ dragon shaman with a fondness for eating kittens, and one session later, was hooked. She hungers for dungeon crawls, and since the game is on pause for the minute during exams I keep hearing "damn, I want to play DnD so bad!"

It might have something to do with her character having just killed a dragon and having a crazily large horde to cash in, then being stuck in limbo for weeks.

That's evil, the good kind of evil anyway. I found that such a hook makes it even more jarring for the player to have the next session begin with a surprise attack from something hidden.

[Vortling]

My current significant other was playing console RPGs long before I met her. Getting her into DnD was as simple as "Honey, I'm going to run a DnD game, want to join?"

[Collin152]

That's evil, the good kind of evil anyway. I found that such a hook makes it even more jarring for the player to have the next session begin with a surprise attack from something hidden.

Suprise attack form something hidden?
Brilliant!
That's how I'll win people over to DnD!
Surprise attacks!

[Kizara]

Suprise attack form something hidden?
Brilliant!
That's how I'll win people over to DnD!
Surprise attacks!

From the darkness. :)

[Collin152]

From the darkness. :)

Sure to Not Convince them It's a Cult!^TM

[skywalker]

Ooh, DnD on the anniversary...not a great move.

Hal, baby steps is the way to go. A friend of mine roped his girlfriend into playing for the first time by promising that she could play a panda. Yes, a panda. It was just a fun one-off session, but I guess you gotta do whatever it takes!

A friend of mine made a deal with the DM to make sure his gf got to do all the cool stuff in her first game. Which was okay, I guess. No stat below a 13 and a sword worth twice your recommended WBL? It has it's advantages.

My best friend only dates gamers. This is a sad comment, but he doesn't have much to choose from

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Ha.
Ha.
Jerks.

I take pride in my ability to make players paranoid of shadows. I like to think that changing the context of attacking the darkness is a sign of good DMing.

[Collin152]

Ha.
Ha.
Jerks.

I take pride in my ability to make players paranoid of shadows. I like to think that changing the context of attacking the darkness is a sign of good DMing.

Characters. Make their characters afraid of shadows.
Players... should not fear shadows because of ones DMing abilities.

[MelkorsHalo]

my girlfriend joined the game i was running as a catfolk druid. One of the last times we played she dominated one combat, single handedly taking out 3 of the 4 necrophidii(plural sp?). She wants more, since the group hasn't played much lately, so now she's rolled up a gestalt sorcerer/blood magus//rogue for a solo campaign. i think i've created a monster.

[Starsinger]

My first boyfriend actually got me into D&D. I'd played a session or two of Rifts growing up, but that was the extent of my pen and paper RPG history. But he was talking about it with one of our teachers and they ended up setting up a small group in school.

It turns out dating the DM does have its advantages... My character ended up being the only person to survive a nasty magical plague that some dragon necromancer was cooking up, and surviving an evil cleric's casting of Destruction. Now, in my defense I did roll natural 20s both times. But I think the dice were onto us.

[Djibriel]

I have a beautiful understanding with my girlfriend. I don't talk about DnD, she doesn't talk about shoes.