Deborah Ann Woll Teaches Jon Bernthal Dungeons and Dragons

I don't know what does like I don't it's like a game but like you imagine you're like in the game right yeah kind of I mean it's just just yeah it's just a collaborative storytelling with some characters and you tell the story yeah I'm a dungeon master so generally I've written an arc and created a world and then players explore it and I make calls as to like how difficult it is to climb a wall or fight a monster or that kind of thing and so if you say this is a real difficult monster to

fight then you've got to come up with a different way of fighting it yeah or you know either it'll I mean it can just be like how hard you hit it and how long the thing goes but it might be how you negotiate your way out of it if you can't actually kill a dragon but it's going to eat you how do you tell it not to um so there are other kind of checks that you can do Persuasions and deceptions and intimidations and all and then you decide whether you beat the dragon the person

beat the dragon yeah there are stats there's a lot of math involved that can make that happen but like God damn you want to play D and D I mean I'll try I mean what do you think i' a to do literally right now sure all right so you what Do's see you've got a bow strapped to your back a sword and a dagger at your Hilt right so you're walking through the woods it's dark it's at night almost no Moonlight is coming through you hear a crack off in the distance something large stepped on

a branch what would you do first thing M how far away is the crack give me a perception check so then you'd roll dice and we'd see how perceptive you are let's say you roll a 13 okay and you're pretty perceptive so you have a plus three to that that's 16 so I know okay 16 that's pretty perceptive you think it's about 20 feet away okay it's about 20 feet away I think I take out my my bow first okay so take a bow you're Reed you're aimed you're right at where where the spot's coming

yeah okay slowly creeping towards you suddenly into view a little bit of ey shine in the darkness you see an owl bear this is a a 10 15 foot tall monster it looks like an owl but has the body of a bear it opens its beak and squawks at you what do you do have I ever met an owl bear before like our owl Bears we could do a history check so this is D and D you're playing D and you mean a history check so a history check would be like in your past in

your history have you experienced so how do I check yeah let Che you roll a dice let's say you have a low history you roll a 13 but you have a minus three that's a 10 so no you've never met of an owl bear in your life you have no idea whether it's threatening or not but it is squawking at you I'd be like yo are you my friend are you my foe fantastic you speak to it it yeah I try give me an animal handling check so you'd roll another one so this is what

we kind of see based on your character sheet that you've created you're going to be good and bad at different things who I create the sheet you could or I could or you could get a pre-made sheet why don't you just make your sheet that you're great at everything because you know if you're a wizard who's in school studying books to learn magic you're probably not spending that much time in the gym versus if you're you know a knight who goes out and slays Dragons you know maybe you're you're socially awkward and don't know how

to talk to people so your your interest like not be great at everything you want flaws like one of my favorite characters my friend Tommy played Vos he was a prince and the idea was that he was very you know he'd been kind of pampered his whole life and everyone always laughed at all his jokes and said that he was wonderful and handsome but he's actually not that funny and he's not that handsome he just has been sheltered so when he got out in the world and started investigating he thinks that he's This Charming Suave

individual but his stats his like literal Charisma stats are very low so he would fail constantly and part of his story throughout the campaign was him learning that he wasn't as Charming as he thought he was um so flaws are great flaws make good story but is the goal to win no what's goal there goal is to tell a great story tell a great story and there might be there might be arcs of like one big bad is like hurting innocent people and there are monsters to fight so you're you know you're motivated to be

a hero and that's what I love about D and DS is practicing being hero it's practicing protecting the innocent and stopping the bad guy and standing up for your fellow players um it's the greatest game ever created and it's just collaborative storytelling you just sit at a table it's as close as you can get to when you were seven on the Playard just like making up games and stories um and I love it uh and I will do it until I die yeah and it saved me through pandemic it saved me through strikes you know

like I always had this thing to turn to for creativity and finances frankly how finances uh people pay me to run games for them and pay me to write campaigns and and do things like that yeah yeah it's like a whole side career now but it's cool and like I said it's it's that one weird space where we're all nerdy so I don't you you do it like free of there's no nerves or insec well there's nerves and insecurity but I I don't have to worry about not being cool whereas like every time I'm on

a daredevil set I'm a little worried that I'm not cool I'm not cool enough for everybody um you know it's funny man I I and and again we were talking about this and joking about it earlier but it's like when you say like True Blood being cool and stuff like I I I I hear like I like I I I feel the exact I felt like I never could fit in because I I was always like this athlete and this boxer guy who was like trying to be an actor and like I always felt like

you know not cool enough like I could never like really like speak that that that that that language and I remember when we were you know when walking dead like first happened you know True Blood was like I remember we were at like one of those awards that like one of those like you know like I don't know like Saturn Awards or something like that I remember like you know Walking Dead hadn't come out yet but me and Sarah were there and we had to announce something and and they showed like the like the the

like it was like the True Blood cast and like it was like close-ups of their face that we and like me and Sarah walked out and I don't remember who it was but like one of the main women on that cast and she was like hey like like like that like kind of like like zombie show you know I me I was like yeah that's all Hollywood is a weird space where either you were always cool or you or you were like your story where like I was a nerd or I was a sorry I

was a jock who didn't really do this stuff but fell in love with it and then felt like an impostor because I didn't come from the weird artsy click MH or you're me who was always the weird artsy kid who then goes into Hollywood and everyone's cool and wants to party and I'm like oh I don't know how to do that you know so it's a it's a weird space where yeah I don't know I I I don't you know I at those industry parties I always end up in the kitchen doing dishes with the

Caterers because I just yeah I've done that several times like one of the Netflix parties like at Ted Sis's house you went into the kitchen start doing dishes I did dishes in the kitchen cuz I was so nervous didn't know who to talk to or how to be there so I went into use the bathroom or something like that and I I don't know I just was like oh let me get that I don't know I don't know my brain needed something to do yeah you know I think that's also why games and stuff help

me because it's like an activity and I can get to know people better if it's not just talking if it's like oh we're playing a game and I'm learning who you are yeah so there's something about like oh I need to do something like helpful for the world right now instead of just standing at some fancy house pretending that I fancy and belong yeah I don't know those things are getting easier I mean like I avoid them because I just want to be with my kids five time but they're getting easier because I feel like

I know people like I I get to see old friends you know what I mean I don't know I don't know very many people yeah that's another that's another downside of being introverted uh in this industry yeah I don't tend to hold on to those relationships very very well um it's [Music]