Hello,
I’m looking to get into Dungeons and Dragons and am wondering if there’s a D&D group at Auckland Uni that anyone knows of?
Thanks
You want to get in touch with the America Club, which despite the strange name is the Auckland university roleplaying club. They meet every Tuesday and everyone is welcome. Someone who goes along regularly will be able to post more information here, or you can find their stand at orientation week 
Good day,
As the President of AMERICA, I’m happy to let you know that we have tabletop roleplaying, often including D&D, every week on a Tuesday night, between 7-10pm. We meet in the Commerce A block on Campus currently, and in the lower common room buring semesters.
We’re already meeting each week, so we’d love to see you.
Also, we’ll be running three Oreintation 'One off" Nights, where you’ll bne able to try your hand and various types of games that last a single evening, the first nght of which is the 28th of February.
Do feel free to drop in though before O-week and meet some people.
We are all rather friendly, willing to help you get settled into a game and open to chatting about the hobby and other things which tend to have a cross over in their dedicated fan base with that of roleplaying such as: movies, anime, larping, steampunk, books, scifi, medieval reenactment, cardgaming, computer gaming, wargaming or other various topics (It’s SO much simpler to say “geek stuff” but I understand some people dont like me using that term 
)
Pop in and look for “Rob”, “Karen” or “Cameron but not Pitcam Cameron or Joey Cameron” (We’re going to have to start culling people named Cameron this is getting silly) we’d be happy to point you in the right direction for your gaming needs.
Hi guys,
Thanks for your replies, it sounds great
I know nothing about D&D… should I learn the rules somewhere online before going along to the group or do newcomers just pick it up as they go along?
Do I need to bring anything with me, pen/paper etc.?
[quote=“CaveGirl”]Hi guys,
Thanks for your replies, it sounds great
I know nothing about D&D… should I learn the rules somewhere online before going along to the group or do newcomers just pick it up as they go along?
Do I need to bring anything with me, pen/paper etc.?[/quote]
There are… simpler roleplaying games around than D&D, if you’re coming in new to the hobby. For tabletop roleplaying, yes, it can be helpful to bring some pen and paper with you. For D&D in specific, you’ll need some dice, but other people will probably lend you some if you’re new. (It’s all twenty sided dice in D&D right now, right?) You should probably be able to find a Player’s Handbook at your local comic or games shop, at least as something to flick through and get an idea of what it looks like.
There’s a lot of different kinds of roleplaying out there - what is it about D&D that’s got you interested?
(I’m not part of AMERICA or anything, or even in the same city, just a random bystander.)
Hi Stephanie,
I’ve heard people raving about D&D and have had several people suggest I have a go at it. I’m open to all types of gaming and this is one I haven’t tried, so I’d like to give it a shot. It might end up not being for me but we’ll see.
I haven’t heard of any other tabletop roleplaying games besides D&D which is why it’s the only one I’m exploring at the moment.
D&D (especially 4th edition) is pretty simple to get going. There are a metric ton of books available but if you start with only the basic ones the options aren’t too overwhelming.
I’m having trouble thinking of simpler systems than “roll a die, add a number, compare to target number” - maybe Savage Worlds. D&D is a great intro game, and there’s enough to it that it can keep you going, well, forever really. I’ve been roleplaying just over 20 years now and I’m still playing D&D (3.5 edition, I find 4th edition too simple), and still finding new things to do with it.
But as you say, give it a go and if it’s not for you there are many many other systems to try
[quote=“Viperion”]D&D (especially 4th edition) is pretty simple to get going. There are a metric ton of books available but if you start with only the basic ones the options aren’t too overwhelming.[/quote]Fair enough. I haven’t played it since 2nd ed, which was very heavy on the number crunching.
My long term group uses Fate, and a de facto simplified version, at that. The dice rolls pretty much give you High, Low or So So, and you have Aspects (like “Married To My Job” or “Attention Junkie” or “Natural Philosopher” or whatever) which you can use to influence dice rolls or stipulate stuff about the setting. (It can be run at a more detailed level than that, but we don’t.) The thing being that aspects and skills are freeform - you stipulate what things matter to you and that gives the GM information about what direction to take the game. But it’s configured to narrative-heavy, story-game type roleplaying, whereas I think that D&D’s strength has always been it’s good support for people who like tactical/strategic gaming.
CaveGirl - sorry, I’m not trying to derail the conversation. The good bit about turning up to a club is that you can try out a bunch of different systems and meet new people and find out where your roleplaying sweet spot is. Good luck!
[quote=“Stephanie”]CaveGirl - sorry, I’m not trying to derail the conversation. The good bit about turning up to a club is that you can try out a bunch of different systems and meet new people and find out where your roleplaying sweet spot is. Good luck![/quote]I totally agree - I’ve found that people very new to roleplaying can get lost in a heavily narrative system, but if you enjoy telling communal stories, that sort of system can be awesome 
Theres not alot you’ll need at first. Most people have extra dice to lend…pen and paper can be useful.
As for finding a game thats your “style” theres alot of games and game systems run at uni, and a good sample will be run across the first few weeks of uni to showcase the games (likely inclueding one game that uses a jenga tower instead of dice which is pretty fun).
I’m more of a pc/console gamer but I do enjoy strategy games, Risk being a favourite.
Okay well I shall definitely stop by the America Club stand during O-week, and if I can pluck up the courage I might pop in to a Tuesday night meeting before then.
Do check it out.
Out of interest FPS (shooter) or RTS (stratagy games) or RPG computer gamer?
A bit of everything really, though most of the games I play or have played are pretty mainstream and more on consoles than pc. When I was younger it was all about Sonic and Alex the Kidd on Sega, then evolved into games like Zelda, Pharaoh, Tibia (smh) and nowdays more mainstream games like Assassin’s Creed, COD, Far Cry, Portal, Resident Evil and Silent Hill. I’ve found a website that has lots of old school nintendo games which has kept me busy over the summer
What is this magical website!
It’s www.playr.org and there are some old Zelda games there that are pretty cool. Though nothing beats Ocarina of Time.