D&D: the journey begins - a starting guide to D&D pt1

I've been super quiet about Malifaux recently. For various reasons getting a load of models to central London with a load of equipment is just too time consuming. When I started Malifaux it was an easy to access skirmish game. You could have a couple of crew boxes, a few supplemental boxes, cards, tape measure and maybe a few tokens.
Now though the game has ballooned in a huge range and I can't really keep up in a way that is enjoyable. I'll still do some painting and hopefully some casual play.
Luckily the group decided to do some D&D. I was a bit curious and so I decided to give it a try. I was almost instantly hooked. Here was a game without the limitations of the table top. A game that rewarded the effort of making a background, being imaginative and focused on a social gathering.
This is now my game of choice. I'd like to share my journey with you. In this series, I'll cover how to get started, a guide to getting a character to the table, the pros and cons of optimisation, why you might want to kick someone out of a group and a better way to handle it, the various accessories, podcast reviews and YouTube including the mighty Critical Role.
Let's get a couple of questions out of the way before we get started on getting started.

What is Dungeons and Dragons?

Beware the Wrath of Freya!

<tap tap> Is this thing on? Oh....errr hi! So it's been a while huh? How's the family?

One thing I've always been very much in favour of in the hobby is the promotion of awesome women in the hobby as a whole, whether they be players, painters, sculptors or all of the above and more I've not thought of. It's why I've been demoing Malifaux at Salute for the last 2 years, trying to get more women engaged and interested in the game and the hobby as a whole.

This year however has seen a bit of a switch - as the stand where I usually demo has decided to run demos of the new game coming out from Wyrd called The Other Side. The models look cool but the cost and the size of the game has precluded me from backing it, which isn't exactly ideal for me trying to sell it to people. So I am (hopefully!) going to be running demos/helping out for the lovely Annie of Bad Squiddo Games. And because Annie is very very awesome, she has also sent me a sneak preview model from her Freya's Wrath Kickstarter.

Not dead yet

Well this is a bit embarrassing isn’t it, our little twice weekly blog has crawled to a bit of a halt, to the point where twice monthly would be a surprise and twice yearly would be an improvement.

I’ll hold my hands up on this one as I’ve not posted in ages due to a complete lack of shit being given about gaming in general. This has a filter down effect on the rest of the group. Not in the way that I’m any sort of boss or leader to this mob, think of me as more like a grumpy stepdad who doesn't care if the kids do their homework.

So I figure I’ll have to step up and write something so I can at least pretend to be a good example. The problem is I’m not really doing much gaming to ramble about, and I’m not talking to enough idiots to warrant a rant. That leaves me with the option to write about the absence of gaming that I’m experiencing.