Rolling for purpose - the beginning.

I can imagine every DM say "I have the best group ever". I'm sure there are alot of great groups out there, but man. My group is exceptional! To tell you the tale of this amazing group, I should start at the very beginning.

I've always been a weird one, not having many friends and always goofing around with fantasy and my imagination. It might have started when me and a friend (mostly him at that time) drew Stick-men. All shapes and sizes, magical abilities and whatnot. I saw them as more than lines on a paper, they were warriors with destinies, soaring through the schoolyard battlefield! It blew my mind. My imagination is very vivid. I can almost see everything unfold in front of me. That friend changed school for a while and the stick-men kinda died out. But I was running around fighting hordes of enemies in the yard back home. After watching movies I reenacted them outside. I've stormed Normandy, fought Orcs, Uruks and Trolls, I've defeated Sith lords and held off monstrosities. This would go on for many years.

I've always loved movies, TV shows and games. It allowes me to transport me to a realm I could be a heroic figure. But for some reason, D&D would be for the nerds. The cavemen and basement-dwellers. As if I wasn't one of them allready.

Then came Stranger Things. Yes, the TV shows that depicts D&D in a very different way than that I later got used to. It made me think: maybe this is fun?

I started doing some research and I ended up at Critical Role. You've probably heard about them. They were like maybe 3-4 episodes into campaign 2. I watched, I was intrigued. And I was sold. I needed more. I binged it, waited for more to drop, couldn't try enough, needed more and signed up for an online group. The DM was nice, it was a homebrew and I thought: wait, you don't need to follow a certain world? Mindblown again. It sadly only went on for 3-4 sessions until it got canceled. I thought, if you want it done right, you better do it yourselves. So, I started my own group. Got a few friends and a coworker involved. The group had a rickety chemistry, and, as all groups have: a scheduling conflict. It went on for 20 or so sessions. Some around 4 hours long, and some just a couple of hours. Eventually the chemistry and scheduling conflicts made it hard to continue. I also joined as a player in different group, and found out how a group should play together. Much better chemistry and an amazing DM. Every DM should have another DM to bounce ideas of. I've learned so much from him!

Being a player did scratch the D&D itch.. For a while, but I needed more. I needed to unfold my fantasy. So after a long while where I dreaded the search for people, and getting another group with poor chemistry I decided to jump in and post in a dnd Facebook group. Turns out, this woman had always wanted to play D&D. She did not want to play in the native tounge, but wanted an English speaking group. And I thought, sure: we usually do the descriptions in the native tounge, but the dialogue flows so much better in English. Let's give it a go! Turns out, she had two American friends who also wanted to try D&D! The more the merrier! I brought back one friend of my first group, and "forced" another mutual friend of us to join. He wasn't the type to play D&D and wasn't as "nerdy" as the rest of us, but boy would that change!

We had our session 0 and we all instantly clicked! It was as if we all had been friends for years. We dedcided to play every 14 days on Sundays. This is part of the reason i can say with full confidence that "I have the best group ever": we decided to make a day out of it. We bring food, snacks and drinks, and then we sit down and play for 8 (or more) hours straight. Sure we have breaks and we eat good food, but we are spending the majority of the day, playing D&D.

I love these beings. It's amazing how they play of eachother, the chemistry and banter. How one just naturally took the role of the crazy Chaotic Neutral gnome, and his wife took the role of the Lawful Good do-gooder to keep him in check, and everyone bounced of them and found their own beautiful and perfect roles. Goofy, honest, brutal, but also best friends. The group have saved people, made mistakes where people died, cried together when a character died, rejoiced when they got revived, panicked at the meeting of an enemy, stunned at the reveal of a BBEG (a guest player that took the DM seat after the reveal), joy as they slayed him, and then more panic as that threw the world in chaos.

My group masterfully nails the RP, they takes notes (oh my god, our note-taker is a scribe out of this world!), they learn and they remember. They tell me about how they get goosebumps throughout the story.

This group changed my life for the better, and I strive to be a better DM for them. I struggle, and I have the "DM curse" where as soon as they leave I think "it's not good enough". But man, they stay for 8 hours to do this. I'm lucky! I am so thankful for my group and I am so glad to call them my friends.

I have the best group ever.