8 Times The Wicked Soundtrack Matched My D&D Campaign Perfectly
Now these songs are stuck in my head and I can’t stop thinking about Dungeons & Dragons!
Some Dungeons & Dragons stories become legendary: a perfectly timed natural 20, a ridiculous use of a spell or item, or a plan of attack the Dungeon Master never expected. I've been a Dungeon Master for a while, so I’ve been witness to many such moments. Now, whenever I see a meme template, hear a song, or watch a movie, somewhere in the back of my head is a D&D story that fits right along. So of course, with the upcoming release of the Wicked movie (and the soundtrack I've had memorized since 2009), my brain has been pairing up my favorite songs with my favorite D&D stories, which I have decided to share with you. Enjoy these moments from my many D&D campaigns along with a matching song from the musical Wicked.
Defying Gravity
Tell them how I am defying gravity!
I'm flying high, defying gravity!
You don’t need a broom to fly in D&D, but it certainly gives you points for style
There are many spells and abilities that allow one to “defy gravity” in Dungeons & Dragons, which have been used to many hilarious effects. But my favorite comes from one precocious character: a dragonborn sorcerer with the Fly spell. Now, most characters use Fly for similar purposes: escaping danger, spying on people, or getting to hard-to-reach places. Not this sorcerer. Using an elaborate combination of nature magic and clever costuming, she had fooled a group of hostages into believing she was a tree goddess. The guards holding the hostages were busy fighting off the rest of her party, who were yelling for her to stop messing around and come help. Unperturbed, she cast Fly on herself, successfully grappled a guard, and flew into the air. Crying “HELICOPTER, HELICOPTER,” she spun the guard around and dropped him onto the remaining guard from 60 feet in the air. Thanks to an excellent Dexterity check (and good luck on the roll for falling damage) both guards were defeated; from that day forward, HELICOPTER became a legendary maneuver in that party.
No One Mourns The Wicked
Good news! She's dead!
The Witch of the West is dead!
The wickedest witch there ever was
The enemy of all of us here in Oz
Is Dead!
They didn’t throw a party when their criminal companion left, but they got close!
Charlatans, rogues, part-demons, and more - there are plenty of character options one might describe as “wicked” in Dungeons & Dragons. One particular character combined several of these: the criminal background, drow ancestry and thief subclass of rogue. Over just a few sessions, he’d attempted to steal gold, a holographic parrot, an engraved sword, and an entire ship. Along the way, he had broken a guy's arm, disguised himself as a pirate captain, and left a path of chaos that the rest of he party tried desperately to clean up. After the party finished dining with a wealthy merchant, this rogue decided to retrace his steps for a solo heist of the merchant’s mansion. A couple of botched rolls later, and our criminal friend was no more; the party happily moved on to ally themselves with the player’s new character, a human fighter. “Should we have a moment of silence?” asked the paladin. “Nah,” said the player, pulling up a new character sheet, “he had it coming!”
What is This Feeling?
Ev'ry little trait, however small
Makes my very flesh begin to crawl
With simple utter loathing
Pictured: the party druid, transformed into a cat, filled with hatred
Conflict is the key to all good storytelling - without it, there would be no story to tell! Sometimes conflict is a political struggle between factions. Sometimes it's a hardy series of battles. And sometimes, it's just two party members who really, really don't like each other. Such was the case for the owner of a tavern and a druid who walked into his establishment one fateful day. This druid, keenly attuned to nature, noticed eel designs carved on the walls and magic crystals lighting up the tavern. When he shone a light on the crystals, they projected ethereal eels onto the walls, revealing a door to a temple right underneath the bar! And, though the owner ushered the patrons to safety, the druid found it hopelessly irresponsible to run a business above a dangerous temple filled with fish people. He was so perturbed by this that he counted up every OSHA violation through the entire adventure, which culminated in, I kid you not, a literal court case where the outcome was decided by the roll of the dice. The business owner got to keep his tavern, but the druid never let go of his grudge.
Dancing Through Life
Dancing through life
Swaying and sweeping
And always keeping cool
In D&D, bards like to party hard!
This kind of freewheeling easy-breezy type has the perfect class in Dungeons & Dragons: the bard. Though there are many ways to play one, the stereotypical bard is a charming partier always looking for a good time, a chance to be the star of the show, or someone to romance. One day I decided, just for fun, to run a one shot with a party entirely composed of bards (my players dubbed this the “Oops, All Bards!” one shot). The party formed a band consisting of a half-orc glamour bard who used her illusory magic to supplement her strength, a tiefling sword bard with strong Diva Energy, a gnome lore bard who served as the somewhat-ineffective hype man, and a clueless halfling who spent most of the adventure playing video-game music on a pan flute. No, they didn’t have a damage-dealer, a tank, or divine magic, but they sure did have a good time!
Popular
It's all about popular
It's not about aptitude
It's the way you're viewed
So it's very shrewd to be
Very very popular
Like me
They may not all wear pink dresses, but D&D NPCs can still be quite popular with players
One of the fundamental truths of D&D is that the party will inevitably become attached to a non-player character, or NPC. Perhaps the artificer who gives them awesome magic items, the cleric who healed their fallen friend, or even the silly bard who is a source of entertainment. And I had crafted many interesting NPCs for this adventure: a priestess offering blessings to all who asked, a zany tabaxi armorer with a bad habit of throwing daggers at inappropriate times, and a cute half-orc couple consisting of an enthusiastic cook and a shy tuba player. Were any of these characters popular with my players? No. Instead, while the tuba player performed at the Battle of the Bards, a tiefling rogue asked if anybody in the crowd looked rich, and I made up a pompous wizard on the spot. Naturally, the party was obsessed. I had to come up with everything from his (very bad) British accent to his blond hair and uppity attitude in about 10 seconds, but a natural 20 on the bard's Charisma check meant that he joined the party on their adventure…for the next two years of the campaign.
One Short Day
One short day
In the Emerald City
One short day
Full of so much to do
Ev'ry way
That you look in the city
There's something exquisite
You'll want to visit
Before the day's through
This is about how my D&D party felt after their shopping spree
There are many beautiful and exciting cities in the world of Dungeons & Dragons filled with taverns, tailors, blacksmiths, and other interesting merchants. My party came upon one such city with a winter wolf they had just adopted from an alternate timeline 100 years in the past (don't ask), wanting to fill out his inventory and upgraded their own. In the market district, they collected a set of magical lucky dice, a deck of cards, pan flute, a regular flute, painter’s supplies, weaver’s tools, a compass, two sets of painter’s tools, calligrapher’s supplies, and a custom spiked shield (from an idea that the player had homebrewed themself)! But they spend the most gold by far on their new wolf pet. He got a custom chrysoprase collar with his name (Trassel), three green bow ties to match his eyes, and commissions from the tailor and armorer for a dog versions of common clothes, traveler's clothes, and half-plate armor. Now that’s a dapper dog!
Wonderful
It might be keen
To build a town of green
And a wonderful road of yellow brick
Dungeons & Dragons cities come in all shapes and sizes
Maps in D&D are filled with all different kinds of biomes with their own cities, landscapes, and even monsters. But one city was founded, not along a coast or on a mountaintop, but an extradimensional hole. It started small, with a player choosing the portable hole item and having their sorcerer shove a valuable sarcophagus inside. In a classic DM blunder, I failed to read the item description, which has such constraints as the hole only being 10 feet deep, having a limited air supply, and not being that hard to break out of (a DC 10 Strength check will do). So a few enemies ended up inside the hole. Then some dirt, trees, a duplicate sun, and a supply of food. By the end of the adventure, the hole was packed full and housed such characters as Kermit, Link, Pikachu, and Kirby. Eventually, the sorcerer convinced an elite bard to broadcast the news of this idyllic society via his team of scrying wizards, and the hole grew in population several times over.
For Good
I do believe I have been changed for the better
Because I knew you
I have been changed for good
A D&D party can become friends in real life, too!
Playing Dungeons & Dragons is an experience unlike any other. By meeting every week with the same group of people and going on an adventure together, you grow closer, forge friendships, and come out the other side with some truly amazing experiences (and, as you can see, some wild stories). Perhaps my favorite campaign I ever ran lasted two years; now many of the players are good friends, even though many of them have graduated or moved, and they’ve got on to run campaigns of their own. It’s been so cool to see the effect this one game had on all of them and watch them grow into talented Dungeon Masters in their own right!
Create Your Own Dungeons & Dragons Moments
All of these stories happened because of intrepid D&D enthusiasts like you! If you enjoyed hearing these tales and want to create moments of your own, why not join a campaign? All of us Dungeon Masters at Young Dragonslayers run groups for tweens and teens every week where characters are made, dice are rolled, and all sorts of wild adventures occur. Click the button below to learn more - next time I promise I'll read the item description!
