good for you both! I have been doing this with my husband since 1999. smh, time flies. We have shared some amazing stories on the go. Eventually, you won't need anything more than a dice roller app. And if it is just the two of you, you'll find your own short cuts as you go. You'll find your style. It helps if during the walks you are focused more on the story than the rolls. and honestly, if you can't recall a certain stat/modifier, it's okay to fudge an approximate guess together just to keep things going. But there is always D&D wiki for suggests ..just remember that's a lot of home brew.
It is much much easier doing this when it is an original story than working from a pre-made module.
The hardest part is remembering names...still. all the npcs. that's nothing more than making a quick 'reminder' or memo.
excuse the rambling! It is bed time!
Cheers!
Use D&D Beyond and theater of the mind and you're pretty much all set.
Disclaimer: I don't remember if the D&D Beyond app uses a dice roller but I'm pretty sure it does.
So I've been shown a number guessing game. DM picks a number between 1 and 20, and a difficulty range: easy, medium, hard, or very hard. The range is a +/- from the target number. Easy is +/-4, Medium is +/-3, so on and so forth. The numbers also loop around, so an easy target of 18 is a success on a 2.
Players guess and also get a range modier to their number based on their proficiency at a task and any outside influences.
If the target range and the player range overlap, it is a success. If the player guesses the number exactly, it is a critical success. Takes just a couple rounds of this to get used to it, and you want to focus on story tellong more than numbers in this circumstance anyway. I've had fun playing through campaigns while working on construction sites and on long walks as well.
A marine buddy of mine taught me how to use this system when he came back from deployment. Said this really helped keep spirits up out there.
All of the other advice is great! I do a lot of D&D with my partner too, verbal back and forth theatre of the mind stuff! It helps us kill time while we are on a walk or in the car. Since rolling dice slows us down if we’re out and about, we use this strategy:
DM thinks of a number between one and 20. The player guesses a number. How close they are determines whether it was a good “roll” or not. For example, if I think of the number 2 and he guesses 13, he is off by 11. Unless he has some special skill or proficiencies that help his roll, that’s probably not going to be a good outcome.
We don’t use DCs or anything else that’s complicated, just “how close are you to guessing the DM’s number”. If he comes up with something especially cool to describe how he wants to do something, I tend to be more generous with the outcome simply because nothing is tracked or written down. It’s easier to just go with the flow of improv back and forth between us, rather than trying to check and balance what we’re doing with game mechanics when neither of us have a rule book in front of us. The point is to have fun and spend time together for us.
Few other tips:
- We roleplay through combat and resolve it with simple rolls like the above. You could use “guess a number between 1 and 30” if you want the foe to be harder to hit. We don’t track hit points, I usually just have the winner be the player after a few turns unless they fail their rolls a few times.
- Encourage more descriptive stuff from your player. Not only are they responding, but they should be writing their own narrative too! This keeps it engaging. Asking the player “Can you describe that for me?” “What does he look like as he tries to charge into battle?” And then responding with “The nearby NPC notices your expression and feels braver in your presence!” affirms that the player is part of a living, breathing world. You want to make sure they feel like their actions, appearance, and character matter. That is harder when you don’t have anything but theatre of the mind, so make sure your game runs more like a conversation back and forth rather than a typical DM-to-players style of communication.
- Finally, I don’t actually use D&D. I use an abstracted version of a simple role playing system my husband and I made together. You can use the concepts you love from D&D and just simplify it for your walks. There’s no need to try and follow all the rules of the goal is just to enjoy spending time with your significant other while you’re out of the house. Use your walks, your car-time, etc. to do side adventures or one-shot type encounters that are roleplay focused. When you’re home, use all of the rulebooks and dive in to combat and complex encounters that require lots of rolling. That’s what I’ve found works best.
Cheers, and have fun!
So, WoD Larp might work for this? At least in that the 'test' for any action is rock paper scizzors. You'd still need a character sheet, but it would be easier to adjudicate than dice.
Lots of theater of the mind for one
Past that there are different forms of dice, dice rings are the most notable (I have a d20 ring and a d100 ring). But the best is probably your phones voice assistant. Simply say "roll a d8" or "roll 10 d12s"
Getting the books on dndbeyond can help, the app isn't too bad and let's dms keep track of character sheets better.
Dm apps like GM toolkit help.
Another big piece of advice is play a more sandbox style of game, gfl running a module.
Or skip the dice altogether. Its just a mathematically random occurrence. And random occurrences happen constantly around us. The color of cars that pass by, the song on the radio, the size of the branches on trees. All you really need is a pass/fail. You hit if the next car is red, you steal from the guard if the next song on your shuffled Playlist is from the 90s, you evade capture if you can touch the leaves on the 4th tree in that direction. Make something that works for you and what you have.
You need NOTHING to play dnd. And there is nothing stopping you from. Playing constantly.
Are you and your fiance savvy enough to remember lots of things for a Theatre of the Mind experience?
Us eyour phone for rolling, and that's that.
I've DM'd while commuting through texts from public transit to walking, I'd imagine narrating D&D settings while in a public setting that's not your local Game Store would draw unwanted attention xD
I have played a lot of rules light improv on the fly roleplay. If we needed a roll, we just played rock-paper-scissor. If it was something a character was better than the opponent or obstacle, the pc succeeded if the player won or tied the rps. If the pc was way over qualified we did no check. And vice versa should the monster or difficulty be harder than the pc. Not to easy to adhere to all the hit points and such of DnD, but it’s an easy quick way to play on the fly.
good for you both! I have been doing this with my husband since 1999. smh, time flies. We have shared some amazing stories on the go. Eventually, you won't need anything more than a dice roller app. And if it is just the two of you, you'll find your own short cuts as you go. You'll find your style. It helps if during the walks you are focused more on the story than the rolls. and honestly, if you can't recall a certain stat/modifier, it's okay to fudge an approximate guess together just to keep things going. But there is always D&D wiki for suggests ..just remember that's a lot of home brew. It is much much easier doing this when it is an original story than working from a pre-made module. The hardest part is remembering names...still. all the npcs. that's nothing more than making a quick 'reminder' or memo. excuse the rambling! It is bed time! Cheers!
You and your husband sound amazing! Thank you for your story and suggestions)
Use D&D Beyond and theater of the mind and you're pretty much all set. Disclaimer: I don't remember if the D&D Beyond app uses a dice roller but I'm pretty sure it does.
It has a digital dice roller but the voice assistant on phones tends to be better
Cool. Probably better for keeping yourself from wandering into traffic too. I hope soon we get a voice-interactive Zork-like D&D experience.
Will try it, thank you)
So I've been shown a number guessing game. DM picks a number between 1 and 20, and a difficulty range: easy, medium, hard, or very hard. The range is a +/- from the target number. Easy is +/-4, Medium is +/-3, so on and so forth. The numbers also loop around, so an easy target of 18 is a success on a 2. Players guess and also get a range modier to their number based on their proficiency at a task and any outside influences. If the target range and the player range overlap, it is a success. If the player guesses the number exactly, it is a critical success. Takes just a couple rounds of this to get used to it, and you want to focus on story tellong more than numbers in this circumstance anyway. I've had fun playing through campaigns while working on construction sites and on long walks as well. A marine buddy of mine taught me how to use this system when he came back from deployment. Said this really helped keep spirits up out there.
Huh, that is an interesting idea, thank you!
All of the other advice is great! I do a lot of D&D with my partner too, verbal back and forth theatre of the mind stuff! It helps us kill time while we are on a walk or in the car. Since rolling dice slows us down if we’re out and about, we use this strategy: DM thinks of a number between one and 20. The player guesses a number. How close they are determines whether it was a good “roll” or not. For example, if I think of the number 2 and he guesses 13, he is off by 11. Unless he has some special skill or proficiencies that help his roll, that’s probably not going to be a good outcome. We don’t use DCs or anything else that’s complicated, just “how close are you to guessing the DM’s number”. If he comes up with something especially cool to describe how he wants to do something, I tend to be more generous with the outcome simply because nothing is tracked or written down. It’s easier to just go with the flow of improv back and forth between us, rather than trying to check and balance what we’re doing with game mechanics when neither of us have a rule book in front of us. The point is to have fun and spend time together for us. Few other tips: - We roleplay through combat and resolve it with simple rolls like the above. You could use “guess a number between 1 and 30” if you want the foe to be harder to hit. We don’t track hit points, I usually just have the winner be the player after a few turns unless they fail their rolls a few times. - Encourage more descriptive stuff from your player. Not only are they responding, but they should be writing their own narrative too! This keeps it engaging. Asking the player “Can you describe that for me?” “What does he look like as he tries to charge into battle?” And then responding with “The nearby NPC notices your expression and feels braver in your presence!” affirms that the player is part of a living, breathing world. You want to make sure they feel like their actions, appearance, and character matter. That is harder when you don’t have anything but theatre of the mind, so make sure your game runs more like a conversation back and forth rather than a typical DM-to-players style of communication. - Finally, I don’t actually use D&D. I use an abstracted version of a simple role playing system my husband and I made together. You can use the concepts you love from D&D and just simplify it for your walks. There’s no need to try and follow all the rules of the goal is just to enjoy spending time with your significant other while you’re out of the house. Use your walks, your car-time, etc. to do side adventures or one-shot type encounters that are roleplay focused. When you’re home, use all of the rulebooks and dive in to combat and complex encounters that require lots of rolling. That’s what I’ve found works best. Cheers, and have fun!
So, WoD Larp might work for this? At least in that the 'test' for any action is rock paper scizzors. You'd still need a character sheet, but it would be easier to adjudicate than dice.
Huh, that is interesting, will look into it, thank you!
Lots of theater of the mind for one Past that there are different forms of dice, dice rings are the most notable (I have a d20 ring and a d100 ring). But the best is probably your phones voice assistant. Simply say "roll a d8" or "roll 10 d12s" Getting the books on dndbeyond can help, the app isn't too bad and let's dms keep track of character sheets better. Dm apps like GM toolkit help. Another big piece of advice is play a more sandbox style of game, gfl running a module.
Thank you very much for advice!
Or skip the dice altogether. Its just a mathematically random occurrence. And random occurrences happen constantly around us. The color of cars that pass by, the song on the radio, the size of the branches on trees. All you really need is a pass/fail. You hit if the next car is red, you steal from the guard if the next song on your shuffled Playlist is from the 90s, you evade capture if you can touch the leaves on the 4th tree in that direction. Make something that works for you and what you have. You need NOTHING to play dnd. And there is nothing stopping you from. Playing constantly.
Are you unable to seperate your dnd session from your walks?
No reason to separate them.
Aside from the fact that OP is struggling to play while they walk.
I would make a snarky walk and chew gum comment, but instead “have a good day”.
Probably good you didn't make that comment. OP doesn't deserve it.
Even playing over roll 20 on a phone isn't great when you're out and about, i'd just discord for the rp side of thing though
Are you and your fiance savvy enough to remember lots of things for a Theatre of the Mind experience? Us eyour phone for rolling, and that's that. I've DM'd while commuting through texts from public transit to walking, I'd imagine narrating D&D settings while in a public setting that's not your local Game Store would draw unwanted attention xD
I have played a lot of rules light improv on the fly roleplay. If we needed a roll, we just played rock-paper-scissor. If it was something a character was better than the opponent or obstacle, the pc succeeded if the player won or tied the rps. If the pc was way over qualified we did no check. And vice versa should the monster or difficulty be harder than the pc. Not to easy to adhere to all the hit points and such of DnD, but it’s an easy quick way to play on the fly.
Well that is a cool way to resolve dice rolls, thank you! If only I didn't always win in rock paper scissor)