3 Common New Year’s Resolutions with a D&D Twist

A new year is a time for new resolutions: promises to ourselves to make the next year better, to improve our lives in the ways we can so we’ll make it to the next year happier, healthier, and more content. Making resolutions is easy, though - it’s keeping them that’s the hard part! Here at Young Dragonslayers, I’ve seen how Dungeons & Dragons can increase creative thinking, confidence, empathy, and so much more. What if the power of D&D could also help me keep my New Year’s resolutions? What if the safe play space of the game made hard resolutions easier - and made me more invested in following through? I’d certainly like to find out. So I took three of the most common New Year’s Resolutions and made them for myself…with a D&D twist.

Fail Spectacularly (In My D&D Rolls)

You might roll a natural 20…or you might fail. The fun is in finding out!

Failure, on its surface, goes against the spirit of a New Year’s resolution - isn’t the whole point to be more successful? But in recent years, there’s been an increasingly common resolution to get rejected 100 times. Some have aimed to get rejected from 100 auditions, some from 100 poetry collections, others from 100 romantic interests. The thinking behind it is this: to be rejected means to have tried. Often, failure has little to do with you and much more to do to factors outside your control. And few places is this truth more clear than in Dungeons & Dragons. 

Failure is, quite literally, a roll of the dice. Even if your barbarian has a +4 to Strength and Proficiency in Athletics, they could still roll a 3 to climb over the castle wall and end up falling right back where they started. That’s how the game goes! So I resolve this year to fail spectacularly. To attempt ridiculous, awesome things that make my Dungeon Masters say “you can certainly try.” Try to seduce the dragon, backflip over my enemies, and call upon my god to lead me to the ancient treasure, only to get burnt to a crisp, fall on my face, or follow my divine instincts directly into a trap. Because nat 20s are great stories, but so, too, are hilarious nat 1s. Everything players try moves the game forward and makes a great story. And I don’t want to waste my year hemming and hawing on the sidelines, holding on to my spell slots while everybody else has all the fun.

Read More In The New Year (with D&D Books)

At the beginning of every year, ambitious readers everywhere eye their Goodreads goals from last year and wonder just how many books they might read the next year. I admit, I’m a bit of a book nerd, so this resolution might be easier for me than for others. But one surefire way to read fewer books is to read stuff you don’t care about - and a great way to read more is to read about your passions, whatever they may be! Even I love scrolling through clever memes or watching YouTube videos about D&D, but there’s something about reading, especially something as long as a book, that really goes deeper, engaging your brain and keeping your mind on what you’re reading, day-in and day-out. Here are some of the D&D books I resolve to actually finish this year - why not join me?

Become A Good Dungeon Master

The new Dungeon Master’s Guide has some helpful tips and ideas

The new version of the Dungeon Master’s Guide came out last year, and I’ve liked what I’ve read so far! Not only have they build a new set of rules to streamline the game (more on that in a previous blog post), but they brought in D&D experts like Jennifer Kretchmer, Matt Mercer, and Deborah Ann Woll to make the book a true guide for Dungeon Masters to create the best games possible - everything from agreeing on a tone from the outset to resolving rules debates in the middle of a game! I’m hoping that by the end of this year, I’ll have read every word - and become that much better prepared for my Dungeons & Dragons games.

Improve Your D&D Combat

Live to Tell The Tale can tell you the best fighting style in D&D for your character

Keith Amman has been playing D&D longer than I’ve been alive, and boy, does he know his stuff. Diving deep into the mechanics and strategy of 5th Edition, he’s penned several tomes of advice for those wishing to maximize their tactical advantages. This strategic knowledge is exactly what I need to prepare for my players who like a challenge (and my fellow party members who are known to run headlong into danger). The Monsters Know What They’re Doing is a guide for Dungeon Masters to play monsters as intelligent creatures (not mindless piles of hit points) and Live to Tell The Tale is a guide for players to be able to face said monsters with all of the battle capabilities available to them. If I can read both, I’ll be unstoppable on either side of the DM screen!

Create Your D&D Character’s Backstory

The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide has some good backstory ideas for a D&D character - and many more!

Creating a character backstory is not one of my strong suits. I’m much more at ease coming up with a few mannerisms and some motivation, throwing a character into the fray, and seeing what happens! For me, coming up with a long complicated story as for how they got there feels way too intimidating. But The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide, by experienced TTRPG player and Game Master James D’Amato, takes the process one element at a time, giving examples, ideas, and prompts to help guide you in creating a backstory for your character. Next campaign, I’m rolling up with a full character with an epic backstory!

Face Your Fears (By Being Cringe in D&D)

Go all in with your ideas for a D&D character!

Many New Year’s resolutions involve facing our fears, doing the things that scare us to prove that we can (and see that perhaps it wasn’t as bad as we thought). And a lot of us are terrified of being “cringe.” To be cringe is to be publicly passionate and openly mockable. I get it. I once made a super cool rogue/artificer multiclass with a custom race (Medusa), who was more-than-loosely based on one of the characters from one of my favorite TV shows. And the first game I played her in, I choked! I didn’t want to be made fun of, so I played her as mild-mannered and boring: not at all the geeky, obsessive thrill-seeker that inspired her. And you know what? It wasn’t very fun. 

But I got a chance at redemption. I brought the same character to a game with my family whom I’m much more comfortable around (and let’s be real, used to some level of mocking from). And this time, I went all in. I commissioned art of her. I put on a (very bad) accent. And she went around causing a ton of chaos, summoning a squirrel homunculus to steal chocolate, and naming each of the many snakes growing on her head. It was so much fun. So this year I resolve to be my best, weirdest self in all of my D&D games and have that much fun every time!

If you want a supportive group to enjoy playing your wildest character, try and fail in a safe environment, and nerd out about all the D&D goodness you’re reading about, we’re here to help. Every week, professional Dungeon Masters (like me!) run D&D games at Young Dragonslayers. They’ll put you in groups of other tweens and teens with similar play styles and schedules and help make your D&D dreams a reality. If your New Year’s resolution is to actually play Dungeons & Dragons this year, why not give our games a try!