Playing in odd places

mrtomsmith

First Post
The group I run for (church youth group that I mentor) is going to Disneyland in a few weeks, on the day we usually play D&D. In honor of this, I'm trying to come up with ways to play D&D at Disneyland. It seems like there should be a way - plenty of time waiting in lines, and you're already in a fantasy world - but I'm not quite sure how to organize it. It's complicated by group dynamics: we'll be wandering around Disneyland split up into groups, so I'm not sure I'll have everyone together at once. And I'd love to incorporate the Disney somehow, but I'm not sure how.

Specifics: We just ended one game world (most PCs died in an epic dragon fight, one joined the evil necromancer and took over the world), and are going to start a new 4e world soon. My first thought would be to do origin stories for new PCs. If not that, some sort of postlude on the previous game world (afterlife? return as undead?).

Help? Ideas?
 

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fba827

Adventurer
Playing a game suited for table-top (like D&D) when people are scattered and/or waiting in line might be unneedlessly difficult. You might be better off playing D&D themed games.

(I don't know the DisneyLAND rides, so I'm using DisneyWorld rides as examples) Perhaps something like: After riding the SnowWhite ride, all of you try and figure out the character sheets for the witch, snow white, and the dwarves. Best done in 3.5e or whatever edition the group is most familiar with already since you won't be able to easily have books there... Do this while you're waiting in line at the next ride to pass the time. Then after the next ride do the stats for the characters seen in that ride, and so on.

Coming up with the character sheets could be:

* individual: everyone come up with their own character sheets and we compare later tonight. Though if you won't have paper/pencil to write the ideas down, then this isn't a great option.

*in teams: this may work especially well if everyone will be 'scattered' in roughly the same groupings the whole time. and then compare later on (maybe during lunch breaks together or such. it would encourage some cooperation and a little competition.

* or entirely group done: this would be based entirely on cooperation with no competition. Though it may fall short if you have quiet people that will get shut out or if there are too many of you for everyone to actively participate (i.e. 10 people in a line, the main converation would be focused around the most vocal while the people further away from that vocal center would have less input due to outside noise and distractions)

There would, of course, be no right or wrong answer, but it would get them thinking and be both D&D and Disney based.

Obviously, this works best for rides that have -character- based themes... you'll be hard pressed to do the same for say space mountain. But maybe for something like the Haunted Mansion, it isn't character sheets but instead 'develop the background story as to how this place came about -- why are so many ghosts focused here, paying attention to period of dress and decoration, etc"

For the rides that aren't character based or wouldn't fit at all in to a D&D type setting (like space mountain) have a couple reserve Disney characters that aren't on the rides. For instance, the cast from incredibles, or little mermaid - just a couple backup ideas that won't have a ride for when you don't have a D&D theme available while waiting.

Again, they should do this _after_ riding the ride, while waiting in line for the next ride -- why? the ride will put them in 'the zone' and give them the character/setting feel.

Oh, and have point buy or prerolled ability score arrays (18, 16, 16, 12, 10, 8 -- whatever), that way everyone (if individual) or the teams (if in teams) will have equal footing to start from.

My thoughts are scattered, apologies for that, but hopefully you can figure out where i'm going with all these rambles. :)
 
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mrtomsmith

First Post
Good ideas. Getting a Splash Mountain pic with dice is definitely a great goal. And hopefully we won't be transported to a world controlled by an annoying short bald man in the process.

fba: Interesting ideas. Focusing on D&D stats rather than actually playing would simplify a lot. I would like to tie it into a campaign, but for that purpose, I could see then turning the characters and/or locations into characters and/or locations for the new 4e world. It's Points of Light, so it's easy to have a Haunted Mansion appear somewhere on the road. I don't know that I want to Disnify the world to a great extreme, but plucking a few ideas inspired by this trip could be fun.
 

Tewligan

First Post
You may well have thought of this already, but have you asked the kids if they want to play D&D while they're at Disneyland? If I was a kid at Disneyland, I think I'd be too excited about the rides and the hot dogs and the characters and the people and...haha, there's Mickey!...and the sunshine and everything else to worry about playing D&D while I'm there.
 

Eosin the Red

First Post
Why do I want to say, "In the back of a Volkswagon?"

There are plenty of places to play but not in the lines (IMO). The lines are pretty strategically designed to be ever moving without showing you how long they really are.

On a side note, you paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars for this - why not enjoy it for what it is and game later? Just sayin'

Have a blast either way.
 

HeavenShallBurn

First Post
Good for you, given it's been like 12 years since I last went to Disneyworld, the place has probably changed a lot. Some old lady riding with her grandkid had a heart attack on Splash Mountain in front of us when it dropped.

Strangest place I've ever played D&D? On the turret of an M1 using the flat blow-out panels over the magazine for a gaming surface and loose expended rounds from the co-ax as counters and measuring distance with a 12.7 shell.
 

mrtomsmith

First Post
Yes, for the record, playing D&D there was the kids' idea. Or at least they got all excited when it was mentioned - I forget who brought up the idea first. Either way, they were amused at the concept. One of them specifically mentioned wanting a picture of dice on Splash Mountain.

That said, our primary goal for the day is to enjoy the Disnosity. D&D would just be a secondary amusement, mostly to fill waiting times. And we live relatively near Anaheim, so it's not like this is the only time these kids have been to Disney.

Eosin: I'm thinking actual full dice and character sheets wouldn't work in lines, but casual role-playing with no more than a d20 could theoretically work, which is closer to my/our usual play style anyways.
 


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