Five D&D Resolutions for a Brand New Year
2024 looms large. Perfect time to promise to be different for about a week. Here are some D&D resolutions to try this year.
New Year’s Resolutions are a time-honored tradition. You set up some new expectations for the coming year. Hoping that with one gesture, one intention, you can alter the course of your whole life.
After all, gym memberships soar every January. Of course, gym attendance drops off about two weeks later. Because just as much of a tradition is the breaking of the promises you made to yourself that this year will be different. If you actually want it to be different, that’s a job for incremental lifestyle changes sustained over time.
But, we all fear change. So here are some promises you can make and then break for your D&D games in 2023.
Play a Different Class
As long as we’re making D&D resolutions, why not start with the most common one? This time, you’ll play something different. A new class (or combination of classes). It has all the allure of changing up the way you play the game.
Sure, you’ve been the same Bladesong Wizard/Arcane Trickster or Paladin/Sorcerer every single time you’ve started off a new campaign. It’s because it’s one of the best combos you can think of. But maybe 2023 is the year you try and play a Barbarian?
Not Buying a New Set of Dice Every Time Something Goes Awry
Well, may as well go all the way to eleven with the next D&D resolution. We all know that every situation needs the right die. You keep the green-speckled one in reserve for those big, dramatic moments where you definitely need to crit. And the silver one you use when you’re casting illusion spells.
But what happens when your dice start rolling less than spectacularly, as is their wont? When you’ve got that seventh 3 of the night, you might be tempted to put them in dice jail. But better still to just add to your collection and get an entirely new set of dice, right?
Not in 2023. Maybe instead of dice jail, you can implement a more reformative justice system where you can teach the die how to roll above a 3 through some sort of rehabilitation program. Or learn to accept them as they are.
Actually Taking Notes
Look, I don’t blame you for this one. D&D is hard to keep track of. Especially the longer you play. Every campaign is bogged down with moments of, “wait, who was this guy again? Wasn’t he the innkeeper? Why is he trying to kill us?” followed by an exasperated noise from the DM.
But how can you be expected to remember every name and detail of every NPC you come across? Even if they’re spoon-fed to you detail by detail over the adventure.
So yes, by all means, promise to take notes in your campaign this year. At the very least, take notes of how many times your dice roll above a 3 in a night, so you know which ones need rehabilitation. Your DM will remember everything else.
Not Interrupting the Villain’s Monologue With an Attack Roll
As long as you’re making promises you don’t intend to keep…
Actually Running a Game of D&D in 2024
Or for the ultimate in D&D new years’ resolutions, why not promise yourself that you’ll actually run a game this year? It’s the surest way to get your friends into the game.
All it takes is one session.
What are your D&D resolutions for 2024?
