I’ve been a Dungeons and Dragons player for a long time. Like any other passion, the game has come in and out of my focus over the last 25+ years; sometimes just to check out how it has changed, and sometimes to dive in and roll some dice.
Obviously, I’m not unique in this. Many of us have “outgrown” things in our past – pushing them aside to make room for spouses, kids, jobs, and other interests. I don’t build model cars any longer – nor rockets. I am still a “Lego fanatic” yet haven’t built with them for years. I haven’t recently ‘played’ with many of those toys that I coveted SO much in my youth.
Yet D&D still calls to me.
So Eric and I opened a game store. We talk up D&D and role-playing. I express my sincere belief that kids will find that D&D is cool and exciting, despite (or perhaps because of) the huge number of video game options – all which seem to really be “much of the same” with better graphics, more challenging bad guys, or more ‘realism’. I believe – in these days wherein the computers and consoles, cell phones and netflix are so ubiquitous – that a fundamental part of our “human-ness” is being denied.
Imagination.
These games that we play on our computers, our consoles, our portable gaming machines – they all share one thing in common. You – as player – are participating in a forgone conclusion. The boundaries of the game, while vast, are always there – and are easy for us as the smart human player to perceive.
Role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons have no set boundaries. None.
I believe it is this single simple observation that defines why – as humans – we need things like D&D. More so now than ever – since our opportunities to exercise our imagination are become harder and harder to find. We as a society are so wrapped up in schedules and after-school programs, teleconferences and soccer practice that we’ve – collectively – lost sight of an important growth step for kids and adults alike.
Dreaming without bounds.
In a fascinating essay titled “How Dungeons and Dragons Changed My Life”, Salon author Ethan Gilsdorf writes about how he himself has experienced first-hand the return to the days of D&D. In this article he maintains that Dungeons and Dragons is more “at home” now than it was when it was first released – ahead of it’s time if you will. I encourage you to read his piece as he does a much better job conveying this idea than I do.
If nothing, I hope this will encourage at least one person out there to try something new (or perhaps old, yet neglected)- play a role-playing game. Don’t worry about what others will think; don’t fret about the “odds”; forget your homework or deadlines for an evening. Try picking the lock of that guard-tower. Hotwire the controls of that computer-controlled feeding console to make the alien ambassador sick. Plant some evidence on your informant to make her the scapegoat. Don’t worry about winning, losing or finishing. Lose yourself in the story
Consider this stuff the Bowflex for your brain.
This a great post. I have been running encounters at the store for the last two sessions and was playing prior to that before I was recruited to bring a little fantasy into the minds of new players.
I have been playing D&D since the days of the basic boxed game and playing Keep on the Borderlands.
That is why I decided I wanted to try a campaign on Saturdays at the store for all who want to try the game. With the ever growing crowd at Encounters night I am sure some people will want to be able to get more than just an hour of two of rolling dice and playing the fighter or wizard they get at encounters.
I am excited
It is indeed an exciting time in the RPG world; our society has unwittingly come to crave this type of interaction. To me, a well run gaming session (and note, that does NOT equate simply to a “good GM” – it requires a common goal by all players involved) hearkens back to the days where humans gathered around the fire and listened to elders tell tales – part history, part fiction.
Frank, your comment gives me hope. I was an AD&D 1st ed. player up through college before other things took over. When I started getting back into gaming my friends introduced me to the then new 4th ed.
My introduction to it was if it was a tactical miniatures game and role playing was almost non-existent. My hope was that wasn’t the entirety of the game. Who knows if I’d be able to join your campaign but at least it encourages me to give 4th ed. a second look.
4th Edition is a very tactical version of the game. I will not deny that but it also has opened up a lot of aspects of character creation the older editions did not. Fighters for instance no longer just swing a sword every round, they have power choices that help protect the party, or deal more damage.
If you want a role-playing game it is still there, in fact the DMG/DMG2 and the DM Toolkit (essentials line) are all about adventure/campaign/encounter building and that is its main focus whereas the PHB1,2 and 3 and the 2 Heroes books from Essentials and the Rules Compendium (I totally suggest this book for anyone looking to get into playing) cover all the character creation and game mechanics (though the compendium does not have character creation rules)
Roleplaying is brought to the table by the DM and the Players. Anyone who says that 4th edition is not an RPG but an MMO or a Tactical Mini’s game only have had a bad experience and have a bad group or bad DM or both. I am not slinging stones but it happens.
If you want to drop by on the 26th please do. It is an open ended campaign where I do not expect everyone to make it all the time but I do hope to have a core group established.
I agree with Frank on 4th ed.
I grew up playing video games and always loved the RPG genre but didn’t really play any D&D until recently. I was familiar with many of the 3.0/3.5 rules thanks to games like Neverwinter Nights the relied heavily on them, but whenever I would try and explore them beyond the game it always seemed to be more complicated and I wouldn’t bother. To be fair, part of that problem was also that I had no friends who were playing it, so I had nobody I could ask or even get a campaign going with.
So, around when 4th edition came out a friend of mine decided to put a game together and I was happy to join in. Considering everyone playing was new to 4th and had varying experiences with previous editions, it was fun to all be learning at the same time. There were differing opinions on the system, but I really liked it.
Once we got past some “warm up” I began to see that the system was really simple. My perception was that the goal behind 4th ed was to give players an easy to understand foundation and to make the gameplay less complicated so that there would be less arguing about the rules and more emphasis on the role playing. I prefer that.
I was fortunate in my first game to have an experienced player who did things that were character driven rather than game driven and I got to see how much more interesting that made the game. His character was reckless and impulsive and it got us into trouble we could have easily avoided. It helped us get away from those metagaming planning moments.
I may have to try and make this Saturday campaign you’re planning. I have a hard time making the weekday events because I watch my daughter all day and by the time I drive out there, I’m already tired. On the weekends my wife gets to handle most of that stuff, so I can probably make a steady game then.
Is there a specific time when the game starts?
And nevermind my question on when the game starts: Just saw your post on the forums.
we just need to get the store to add the day to the calendar and put down noon as the start time.