5 Times Dungeons and Dragons was the Greatest Game Ever.
By Adam Frank
“'I cast magic missile at the darkness.' You know how long I've been waiting to have a reason to say that?” This quote was uttered by a friend of mine in a recent game of Pathfinder, a close relative to Dungeons and Dragons. He was giddy beyond description to pretend to cast magic missile at an imaginary darkness that was blocking the path of our adventuring party. This is, my friends, what a fair amount of people were legitimately afraid of in a not too distant history. These people were fearful that this game, a game of imagination, a game of improvisation, a game of rolling funny polyhedrons was a sinister, soul rotting, child destroying game who would rend from you any real possibility of success.
Dungeons and Dragons has since lost a lot of what made it sinister. The rise and popularization of nerd culture through the internet and the nature of memes have changed, for the better, how we as a culture view this game. Simply put Dungeons and Dragons, and any other role playing game by extension, is a (mostly) co-operative imagination play.
I learned Dungeons and Dragons in the year 1994 from a gentleman named Dave Arneson at a summer camp in the San Fernando Valley (trust me here when I say this is some big nerd cred). I've been playing on and off, mostly on, since then. I'm now a 35 year old man who plays D & D, or Pathfinder, or some other role playing game, several times a month. I play the games with friends, I DM (or GM if you prefer), I study it, I read about it, I write about it, heck I've even written some third party material for it. I love Dungeons and Dragons, dearly, and it has helped shape who I am, informed friendships, and even caused its own fair share of problems.
1. 1994, The Year it All Began
I remember my mother coming to me and asking me if I wanted to go to a camp to learn to play Dungeons and Dragons. I didn't know what exactly to think about it as I don't even remember if I knew what it was when she asked (I certainly didn't know it's reputation). I said “yes” as I in no way wanted to attend a traditional summer camp. Too much outdoorsy stuff for me and I've never been much into sports or similar activities. The camp was structured like high school is structured. We had different classes that we would go to and learn various activities. One of these classes was Dungeons and Dragons, one was drawing, there were others that I honestly don't remember.
Teaching this class was an older gentleman who taught about 20 students or so the basics of ADnD or Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I explicitly remember making my first character. He was an elf wizard who I named Ranot. He had a fairly plain back story about living in a forest and having to leave his ancestral home due to some unfortunate happenings (I later spiced it up, but his is a story for a different time). I remember when I first rolled up this character (a term here meaning creating him and putting him on paper) Mr. Arneson said that I should be careful because with my hit points I could “trip over a snail and die.”
After this class was concluded I continued to play DnD with some friends. People who went to the class with me or some gamers that I would meet at my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) All Ways Gaming, though it was called We Be Games back then. I played up into and through Middle School with some good friends and we always had a great time.
2. Onward to High School
When I went to high, I chose to go to a smaller school than Chatsworth High School, I went to a private Baptist school. I slowed my gaming then as I simply didn't have time between high school stuff, working, my high school friends (who were more into video games), video games, and a little card game you may have heard about called Magic: the Gathering (something I also picked up at that summer camp).
I specifically remember one day in religion class. My teacher asked the class who there ever played Dungeons and Dragons. Not knowing any better I raised my hand, thinking that maybe he would have me tell the class a bit about the game. Nope! After exposing myself as someone who had played this machination of Satan my teacher simply threw on a video of some serial killer who said that his murders all started with Dungeons and Dragons. This ruined my entire sophomore year. I was called Satan worshiper, devil friend and all sorts of foul names a young boy who loved God ought not to have been called. The kids were malicious, I was daily driven to tears, and one day when I just couldn't take the bullying any more I went to the office to call my parents to take me home. The teacher who had started it all (and incidentally done nothing at all to prevent or halt it) was there and I snapped. I yelled at him that he started it, that he ruined high school! He simply said that I shouldn't talk to a teacher like that and if I didn't apologize he would have me suspended. I was terrified and nearly inconsolable, I managed to sob some sort of apology and waited for my parents to come pick me up.
After that experience I simply shut myself up and found friends outside of school that I could hang out with. Eventually I made some more friends at my high school, they were less judgmental, and wonderful people, most of whom I am still fairly close to. I ended up going back to role playing more often though with some of my older friends and the people at All Ways Gaming. I think the bullying had the opposite effect of what it was supposed to have.
3. My Adventures in College
Before I left my hometown for college I got a laptop. The first game I got for it was a fun role playing game titled Bauldur's Gate. It was based on Dungeons and Dragons and I had a ton of fun playing it. I remember that the day I got it I stayed up well into the night just rolling and re-rolling characters to play the game with. I loved it. This was my game, I made Ranot for it and several of my other characters that I had played at the time.
When I went to college I met a quiet man named Tim who was playing Diablo II with his roommate. If I wasn't studying or playing Bauldur's Gate I was lurking in their room, watching them play this new video game. I was astonished. Tim says that despite being a very quiet and introverted fellow he ended up becoming my friend simply because I wouldn't leave. We are still good friends to this day (In fact you can see his blog at errantd20.blogspot.com)
Eventually we started talking about Bauldur's Gate together and Tim's love of the Forgotten Realms. I found out shortly thereafter that he had never played DnD with pen, paper, and dice. I had to change this. Bauldur's Gate had a rudimentary players guide included in the game and Tim made his first character. A female dwarf named Bob. Bob had a few adventure's but eventually we had more and more people wanting to game with us. My second year in college, Tim and I were roommates and we had a group of about five or six of us regularly playing Dungeons and Dragons, BESM, Vampire: the Masquerade and other games. This eventually drew the attention of the higher ups at the Baptist College I attended.
They told us that we couldn't play these games while we were attending school. Tim and I weren't going to take this lying down. We spent the next several weeks gathering information putting together Power Points, writing papers, and generally using the skills they taught us at that school to explain why Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing games were not only not harmful but ultimately beneficial to players. Why using our imaginations in this way would only help grow us, make us better people, and by extension better students. In the end we were successful. We were able to convince the administration of this school to allow us to keep pursuing our hobby.
4. After College, Becoming the Gamer I am Today
After I graduated college, Tim, myself and our role playing group mostly stayed in touch and continued playing together, even recruiting others from the area that we knew may be interested in joining us. Then I got a gall bladder infection and this little illness would indirectly further power my love of Dungeons and Dragons.
Because I didn't have a full time job with good benefits at the time my mother wanted to keep me on her insurance and to do that I had to still be a student at college. In order to make sure I could have my (extremely expensive) surgery covered I had to go to a local community college. Due to the fact that I was also working and had already earned a degree I took mostly cake walk classes. One of these was drama. This is where I would meet one of the best Dungeon Master's I would ever know.
In this class there was a man there who always had his nose stuck in a book. He was constantly reading something or another. Sometimes he was studying a Bible, sometimes he was buried in a Roleplaying book. This man fascinated me though I didn't want to bother him. Again, he was always reading. On Halloween I dressed up as a wizard. Lo and behold this young man was also in a wizard costume! I knew I needed to introduce myself, today. After class I approached him and started up a conversation. We ended up talking for hours about everything. Eventually the conversation rolled around to Dungeons and Dragons and we set up a time to hang out and game together. I brought him into the fold and it turned out he knew some of my friends through other avenues. That was 2006, and this gentleman and I are still close friends and we game every week together.
5. Gaming at 35
Years later I still game. I still love every second of it. I eagerly await my weekly Vampire game, Dungeons and Dragons Adventure League, my monthly Pathfinder game, and a few other games I'm in. My group has changed, people have moved, or moved on. Some people don't have as much time as they used to. One of my best friends and the greatest DnD players I've ever known has passed on. Our group has changed and split.
I've also made new friends who game. Meeting them through some of my groups, or one of the great FLGS's here where I live, Borderland's Games, and Wildthings Games. I made lasting friendships at both Haven and Metagaming, two stores who are no longer open. I love gaming. I love Dungeons and Dragons. This game means so much to me now after all these years, after being teased for playing it, fighting to get it allowed, and making life long friendships through it. I am so thankful to my parents for sending me to that camp, for the late Dave Arneson for putting up with a bunch of snotty preteens and teaching us how to play one of the greatest games ever. I'm grateful to all my friends who play with me and those who once did. This game has brought such wonderful stories and memories that I call it one of my favorite games and possibly the greatest game ever.
You can follow Adam on Twitter at @Wizard_Raefend
Dungeons and Dragons has since lost a lot of what made it sinister. The rise and popularization of nerd culture through the internet and the nature of memes have changed, for the better, how we as a culture view this game. Simply put Dungeons and Dragons, and any other role playing game by extension, is a (mostly) co-operative imagination play.
I learned Dungeons and Dragons in the year 1994 from a gentleman named Dave Arneson at a summer camp in the San Fernando Valley (trust me here when I say this is some big nerd cred). I've been playing on and off, mostly on, since then. I'm now a 35 year old man who plays D & D, or Pathfinder, or some other role playing game, several times a month. I play the games with friends, I DM (or GM if you prefer), I study it, I read about it, I write about it, heck I've even written some third party material for it. I love Dungeons and Dragons, dearly, and it has helped shape who I am, informed friendships, and even caused its own fair share of problems.
1. 1994, The Year it All Began
Teaching this class was an older gentleman who taught about 20 students or so the basics of ADnD or Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I explicitly remember making my first character. He was an elf wizard who I named Ranot. He had a fairly plain back story about living in a forest and having to leave his ancestral home due to some unfortunate happenings (I later spiced it up, but his is a story for a different time). I remember when I first rolled up this character (a term here meaning creating him and putting him on paper) Mr. Arneson said that I should be careful because with my hit points I could “trip over a snail and die.”
After this class was concluded I continued to play DnD with some friends. People who went to the class with me or some gamers that I would meet at my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) All Ways Gaming, though it was called We Be Games back then. I played up into and through Middle School with some good friends and we always had a great time.
2. Onward to High School
I specifically remember one day in religion class. My teacher asked the class who there ever played Dungeons and Dragons. Not knowing any better I raised my hand, thinking that maybe he would have me tell the class a bit about the game. Nope! After exposing myself as someone who had played this machination of Satan my teacher simply threw on a video of some serial killer who said that his murders all started with Dungeons and Dragons. This ruined my entire sophomore year. I was called Satan worshiper, devil friend and all sorts of foul names a young boy who loved God ought not to have been called. The kids were malicious, I was daily driven to tears, and one day when I just couldn't take the bullying any more I went to the office to call my parents to take me home. The teacher who had started it all (and incidentally done nothing at all to prevent or halt it) was there and I snapped. I yelled at him that he started it, that he ruined high school! He simply said that I shouldn't talk to a teacher like that and if I didn't apologize he would have me suspended. I was terrified and nearly inconsolable, I managed to sob some sort of apology and waited for my parents to come pick me up.
After that experience I simply shut myself up and found friends outside of school that I could hang out with. Eventually I made some more friends at my high school, they were less judgmental, and wonderful people, most of whom I am still fairly close to. I ended up going back to role playing more often though with some of my older friends and the people at All Ways Gaming. I think the bullying had the opposite effect of what it was supposed to have.
3. My Adventures in College
When I went to college I met a quiet man named Tim who was playing Diablo II with his roommate. If I wasn't studying or playing Bauldur's Gate I was lurking in their room, watching them play this new video game. I was astonished. Tim says that despite being a very quiet and introverted fellow he ended up becoming my friend simply because I wouldn't leave. We are still good friends to this day (In fact you can see his blog at errantd20.blogspot.com)
Eventually we started talking about Bauldur's Gate together and Tim's love of the Forgotten Realms. I found out shortly thereafter that he had never played DnD with pen, paper, and dice. I had to change this. Bauldur's Gate had a rudimentary players guide included in the game and Tim made his first character. A female dwarf named Bob. Bob had a few adventure's but eventually we had more and more people wanting to game with us. My second year in college, Tim and I were roommates and we had a group of about five or six of us regularly playing Dungeons and Dragons, BESM, Vampire: the Masquerade and other games. This eventually drew the attention of the higher ups at the Baptist College I attended.
They told us that we couldn't play these games while we were attending school. Tim and I weren't going to take this lying down. We spent the next several weeks gathering information putting together Power Points, writing papers, and generally using the skills they taught us at that school to explain why Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing games were not only not harmful but ultimately beneficial to players. Why using our imaginations in this way would only help grow us, make us better people, and by extension better students. In the end we were successful. We were able to convince the administration of this school to allow us to keep pursuing our hobby.
4. After College, Becoming the Gamer I am Today
Because I didn't have a full time job with good benefits at the time my mother wanted to keep me on her insurance and to do that I had to still be a student at college. In order to make sure I could have my (extremely expensive) surgery covered I had to go to a local community college. Due to the fact that I was also working and had already earned a degree I took mostly cake walk classes. One of these was drama. This is where I would meet one of the best Dungeon Master's I would ever know.
In this class there was a man there who always had his nose stuck in a book. He was constantly reading something or another. Sometimes he was studying a Bible, sometimes he was buried in a Roleplaying book. This man fascinated me though I didn't want to bother him. Again, he was always reading. On Halloween I dressed up as a wizard. Lo and behold this young man was also in a wizard costume! I knew I needed to introduce myself, today. After class I approached him and started up a conversation. We ended up talking for hours about everything. Eventually the conversation rolled around to Dungeons and Dragons and we set up a time to hang out and game together. I brought him into the fold and it turned out he knew some of my friends through other avenues. That was 2006, and this gentleman and I are still close friends and we game every week together.
5. Gaming at 35
I've also made new friends who game. Meeting them through some of my groups, or one of the great FLGS's here where I live, Borderland's Games, and Wildthings Games. I made lasting friendships at both Haven and Metagaming, two stores who are no longer open. I love gaming. I love Dungeons and Dragons. This game means so much to me now after all these years, after being teased for playing it, fighting to get it allowed, and making life long friendships through it. I am so thankful to my parents for sending me to that camp, for the late Dave Arneson for putting up with a bunch of snotty preteens and teaching us how to play one of the greatest games ever. I'm grateful to all my friends who play with me and those who once did. This game has brought such wonderful stories and memories that I call it one of my favorite games and possibly the greatest game ever.
You can follow Adam on Twitter at @Wizard_Raefend
I remember playing BESM. That game gave me my first experience DMing.
ReplyDelete