On Dungeons and Dragons, Part I

And now, to ramble about something completely different

I've been a nerd for practically the entirety of my life. One of the earliest Christmas gifts I can remember getting, besides some sort of mechanized construction yard playset type thing, was my first Game Boy. I still own it in fact, though it doesn't work anymore, sadly. Since then my interest in gaming has only grown. Despite this, I have always tried not to become some sort of "super nerd," or basically what everyone thought a nerd or geek actually looked or behaved like, at least during the 90s and early 2000s. Super socially awkward, not that good looking, didn't use deodorant, and so on. Mind you, I didn't particularly care about cultivating some sort of social image; I just really didn't want to be one of those kinds of geeks. And more often than not, partaking in table top role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons put you squarely into the center of such a group. Even daring to whisper the cursed letters "DnD" together at the lunch tables for ever doomed one to be ostracized from any socially progressive groups for the rest of your life! Or at least that's how younger me felt. Younger me was also not the brightest, though I personally feel there was at least some semblance of actual truth to that thought, at least for a person at that age.

Basically middle school and high school are bitches.

These bastards cost an arm and a leg

When I wasn't working on one of my high school's theater productions, I would often hang out after school anyway, mostly because going home meant doing homework. Every so often during these afternoons of procrastination, I would find myself sitting in on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign a few of my friends (plus one teacher) were running. I feared no social ramifications here, for the majority of the school had long since gone home or moved outside for other activities. Besides, I had to take the late bus home, which left only an hour after the actual buses did, and therefore could not stay longer to actually partake in the rolling of dice. When I would later hang out with said friends, they would laugh and retell stories and moments from their adventures together, and share their inside jokes. At first I was indifferent, but over time I grew more and more curious. I wanted to know the context to their discussions. I had some rudimentary knowledge on the basics of the game, but beyond that I had no idea of any of the meaning behind a lot of the numbers. Like I mentioned, I lacked context, and eventually that's truly got me to desire a taste of the forbidden nerd fruit. And after taking my first bite, I only wanted more.

I barely remember the majority of the first campaign I participated in, one of many, many unfinished campaigns I've participated in (I envy my cousin and the game he plays in, which has been consistently running for something like 5 years now). However, the few moments I do remember are quite telling, I feel, of one of the greatest strengths of any game of Dungeons and Dragons, the ability to be personally involved with the narrative. My party was on some sort of journey, and we were travelling along a mountain path. It was getting late and, if I remember correctly, the weather was turning nasty, so we quickly sought out the refuge of a nearby cave. But, much to our dismay, a troll had already taken up the cave as it's own residence! Now, obviously this was meant to be a simple encounter of "we fight monster, we kill monster." However, I, in one of many moments of "how can I disrupt the DM's plans (that's dungeon master for you uninformed folks)," managed to be very lucky with some dice rolls and somehow used one of my bullshit powers the DM had given me to convince the troll to be my personal bodyguard. Seeing the frown on my friend the DM's face and the laughter and smiles coming from my other friends with me in our party, I truly felt not just my character's victory, but my own victory.

It is because of that very feeling that Dungeons and Dragons excels as a storytelling experience. In most any other medium you are only a passive observer, seeing, reading, or hearing about things other people are doing or have done. The closest form when done right, in my opinion, is videogames, but even then you're experiencing the whole story vicariously. With the right amount of creativity and imagination, along with a group of similarly like-minded individuals, you get to experience the story of your DnD game first hand. And I think that's something truly unique about the game. It's no different than stepping into a role from a play, only instead of having to memorize lines and blocking, you create your own as you go. Which is exactly what you do with a "role playing game," though most people can't seem to get past the details and stats of being a level 12 wizard and using your +2 Axe of Chopping to see the much more interesting innards.