Scratching that itch between sessions

[1 min read]

Restarting D&D back in June 2021 after 15-20 years without playing made me realise that as far as entertainment goes, it is king of the castle - even ahead of my beloved video games, watching football, and binging Netflix series. 

But my campaign group can really only play every 3-4 weeks, which leaves a lot of downtime thinking about the game, with no real outlet. So I explored many avenues to scratch that D&D itch, see below:

• Educate yourself through Podcasts (e.g The Dungeoncast) and Youtube (e.g. Dungeon Dudes)
• Create a character. I use D&D Beyond's character creation tool
• Flesh out the back story of a character, like this one for Sigurd Jarlsson
• Play in one-shot adventures by finding online games. I use Start Playing Games but you can use Roll 20 LFG as well
• Play a board game from the D&D Adventure series, check out my early impressions of Wrath of Ashardalon
• Play the video game closest to the real thing, Baldur's Gate 3 from Larian Games [early access]
• Run combat scenarios using your existing or new characters. I use Above VTT with D&D Beyond
• Play published adventures solo! I am currently reading DM Yourself and plan to run Rime of the Frostmaiden or Lost Mine of Phandelver as a way to test it
• Write a blog, like this one

Finally, if you really want to make sure you can always get your fill of D&D, become a Dungeon Master because (a) you will always be in demand from other players and (b) there is a lot of prep required so no downtime ever!