When I was Younger...
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Thursday, March 06, 2008
So long Gary Gygax!

My brother Nick, who was older than me by several years had some early adopter friends who taught him and his pals and he taught me. My first D & D experiences were playing with my brothers high school friends while I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I had fun, mostly, but some of Nick's friends were pretty mean to me which was not fun and I would occasionally have to retire to the bathroom to cry after being abused by one of these jerks. (I remember one time in particular when I was killed by one of the jerks and the Dungeon Master, a friend of Nick's, took me aside and said that he was going to resurrect me as a Barrow Wight so that I could take revenge on the asshole that killed me. That was nice of him...)
We played nearly every weekend for a couple of years. As my brother's friends got jobs and girlfriends, I had to teach my own friends and we played a ton sometimes in school.
I loved to draw my various characters fighting the variety of monsters that lived in the D & D worlds.
I was way into sword and sorcery stuff as a kid anyway and D & D just amplified it. It was fun to pretend to be a cool hero and go on awesome adventures and you could go anywhere you could imagine!
I remember our parents (and others) asking, "Who won?" and my brother or my friends and I looking at each other knowingly and saying, "Nobody!" This always seemed to confuse the people the most. "No winner?!? Maybe there wasn't even a dragon OR a dungeon?"
I haven't played D & D since a brief resurgent moment in College, but I see the way that D & D has spawned a whole lot of our current pop culture.
I may try and whip up a game this weekend to honor Mr. Gygax for the great fun he provided me when I was younger. Thanks Gary, I hope Valhalla or the Elysian Fields or whatever is all you imagined!
Labels: "d + D" d + d "dungeons and dragons" games fantasy role-playing