Mae Linenberger is still relatively new at D&D, but she still knows a lot more than a decent amount of people at her experience level. She shared some recommendations for first-time players and the ups and downs of her time playing.

She first got into the game during the quarantine. Overcome with Covid loneliness, she didn’t really know what to do, until she noticed that her friends were preparing something. She said, “I had a group of friends who were doing a campaign, and I asked to join, and it went from there.”

Her favorite class to play is Sorcerer. The appeal of sorcerer is that they are an almost completely magic wielders. Magic requires spell slots and depending on the level of your characters, you can cast more spells at higher levels between rests. Sorcerers have sorcery points and can turn them into spell slots or cast spells at a higher level. They can use that to cast more spells between rests, making them a force to be reckoned with.

The funniest moment in a campaign that Mae was in was a PvP tavern brawl. A level 7 sorcerer/warlock/fighter was being rude to Mae’s character, a level 5 monk. The opponent threw a chain with a DC of 20(that means Mae had to roll a d20 and get 20 to dodge it). She dodged it and the opponent threw another chain with a DC of 15. She also dodged that and then proceeded to body slam the opponent into the ground which inflicted stun and prone, so the opponents turn was completely skipped. During this, the party’s Bard was narrating it like a boxing match in the background.

The worst DM she has ever had was a guy named Chris. He formed a party of eight people and immediately tried to wipe the entire party with a bunch of enemies that could instantly kill a person in one attack. Mae’s character died and the rest of the party fled the battle.

Her recommended way to start playing D&D is to get the Players Handbook and the Dungeons Master’s Guide, then listen to a couple of podcasts on D&D so you can see how people actually play the game. Then you want to get a standard set of dice, print of character sheets and pick the Fighter class because it is a little bit of everything and is pretty easy to learn. She also said, “Dungeon Masters should always think about encounters more in depth, because if you don’t, it might not be rewarding or it would be too hard for your party.” She also mentioned that everyone should be patient with newer players because it is their first or second time playing and they don’t really know what the need to do.