Page 8 of Dating and Dragons

Everyone gets settled into their respective seats, swiping at their hair and messing with their dice. I tiptoe over to Sloane to check out the livestream visuals on the laptop. Sloane is projected in a square box on the left-hand side of the screen, while the others are framed in two rectangular boxes, one above the other, on the right side. Logan and Mark are in the top rectangle because they’re sitting next to each other at the table, and Kashvi and Sanjiv fill the other rectangle.

I don’t have a lot of experience with livestream D&D games, though Caden and I used to listen to a D&D gamingpodcast together—The Smiling DM.Like Critical Role, that group is also super-famous with tens of thousands of followers and a professional setup. This doesn’t look as polished, but they’ve managed to replicate the same idea. Because Sloane is the DM, it makes sense that they have one camera only on them, while the other cameras let viewers see the rest of the players so they can watch interactions and facial expressions. And the bookshelves behind them create a nice ambiance. Kashvi and Sanjiv are lucky their parents are cool enough to allow them to take over the basement for this. My parents definitely wouldn’t be.

“You haven’t started streaming yet, have you?” I ask over Sloane’s shoulder.

“No,” they reply with a laugh, “or I’d be pushing you out of the camera frame. Our livestream runs every Saturday from two to fourp.m., and we don’t start until that exact time. We post the schedule online and viewers get annoyed if we start early or late. That’s one of the best ways to lose viewers—inconsistency.”

I nod, starting to understand why Kashvi and Sanjiv questioned if I was up for this. It’s already way more serious than anything I’ve done.

Sloane points at the bottom of the screen where there’s a chat box. “If people subscribe to our channel, then they get extra benefits like access to the chat room and unique emojis. It’s too much for me to monitor the chat during the session, but it’s fun to look back at it afterward and see what people were saying.”

There’s a notice at the top of the chat:No rules lawyering or backseat gaming.

“What’s this?” I ask, and point to the warning.

“Ugh, some people love to get on and tell us how we’re doing everything wrong. It’s annoying, so we added that.” They look at the clock. “Okay, it’s time.” They gesture for me to sit by the wall so I’m not on camera. Luckily, if I squint, I can still see the screen. “And we’re live in three…two…one….” They click a button and everyone straightens.

As soon as the livestream opens, viewers start rolling in. My eyes widen at the numbers. Thirty, fifty, eighty. They just keep coming. To watch a D&D game run by teenagers? This is definitely not what I was expecting.

“Wow,” I say, before slapping a hand over my mouth. The others stiffen but don’t look my way. Whoops, I guess this’ll be a silent session for me.

“Welcome to all our viewers. We areDon’t Split the Party,and you’ve come on an auspicious day. For months, this party has battled everything from goblins to giants all in the hopes of reaching the wizard’s tower so they can recover the stolen wardstone and return safely to their homeland. It all comes down to today. Will they roll well and survive, or will today be their last?”

The others smile at each other. “I’m ready to avenge my mother’s death,” Mark says.

“And I’m ready to annihilate this wizard,” Kashvi says.

“You’ve certainly waited long enough. Let’s do this,” Logan says.

Sloane hunches forward, their face intent and voice low. “You stand in front of the massive wooden door to the wizard’s tower. The large trees surrounding the tower sway ominouslyand the sky is shadowy at twilight. The world is perfectly silent, as if every bird and beast is also waiting for the fight that is about to happen. How would you like to proceed?”

I notice that all the faces swivel to Logan, as if he’s the defacto leader of the group.

“What do you want to do, Hathor?” Mark asks.

“I’ll detect and dispel any magic the wizard has left,” Logan replies, but he’s not Logan anymore. He has a Scottish accent, and he sits up to make himself even larger than usual. He must be playing a magic user—probably another wizard—if he’s using spells.

“I run in first,” Sanjiv says as soon as they’ve broken down the door. “There’s no way there isn’t something else waiting to kill us in there.”

“You’re not going without me,” Kashvi replies.

“Good, because I don’t want to die today,” Sanjiv replies, and they share a grin. I couldn’t tell earlier if she got along with her twin brother, but they definitely seem to be a teamnow.

“You make it up a dozen steps before you hear the ear-bleeding sound of metal raking against stone.” To my amazement, Sloane pulls a rock and a small (but real-looking) sword from under the table and scrapes them together to create the sound effect. The grating noise sends shivers up my spine.

“Could it be a cage door opening? Maybe the wizard is releasing something?” Mark asks.

“Maybe.” Logan’s eyes cut to Sloane, who is smiling. Never a good sign.

“It’s a good guess,” Sloane tells the group, “but what youheard wasn’t a cage door…. It was armor. The clanking and scraping grow louder until you can barely think, and then five animated suits of armor come into view, each wielding two short swords.”

The party jumps into action again and I sit back, caught up in the role-playing. I’m blown away by how immersed each of them is in the game. It’s as if theyarethe characters and nothing can distract them. We weren’t nearly this committed in my last group. The five of us—Caden, Paige, Makayla, Travis, and myself—spent as much time joking, eating, and messing around as we did role-playing and running through encounters. Actually, it was probably closer to a 70/30 split. We barely made progress with the campaign.

But here? They joke with each other, but it’s only within the context of the game. No one’s interrupting to complain about the latest essay in Mrs.Calson’s class or bringing up the fight that broke out in the north hallway on Friday. And how can they all do accents? I don’t know any accents.

They polish off the armor and begin their search for the wardstone. I’m not sure what’s going on since this is my first time at their game, but I get the impression that Logan’s character and this evil wizard have some serious history—maybe they’re brothers?—and Logan is definitely giving it his all. The wizard sics some harpy minions on the party to distract them, and Logan half stands in his chair, screaming and sending orders. The twins work together, killing anything in sight, while Mark heals whichever party members need it. By the time they’ve defeated the wizard and the session ends, my heart is racing and I fall back against the chair. It’s almost like watching actors onstage as they improvise their lines. It’sincredibly impressive. Especially Logan. You’d think he really had a lifelong feud with his evil wizard uncle.

I’ve been too caught up to watch what’s happening on the screen, but I now see that the number of viewers has climbed to one hundred fifty. I take a deep breath. This is cool and all, but am I ready to have that many people watch me role-play live? What if I get confused and say something stupid? I mean, let’s be real, the question iswhenI do that, not if.

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