Adult Dungeons and Dragons.
Heh - with a title like "Adult Dungeons & Dragons," I wonder what kinda weird scary google hits this will get? But that's not what this is about. This is about the fact that here I am - a thirty-something with a wife, two kids, a demanding job, a mortgage, a very exciting side-venture creating and selling unique "indie" videogames, responsibilites and stuff - and I still play Dungeons and Dragons regularly. A game I got into as a twelve-year-old. We just finished a five-year-long campaign last night - something utterly incomprehensibe to me when I gazed upon those fanciful covers and imagined the adventures contained therein in 1981 - five years was almost half my lifetime back then.

For some reason, when I was in high school and college I kept assuming that when I got married, I'd have to quit playing Dungeons & Dragons (or other role-playing games, also called "RPGs"). It was something I loved but played all to infrequently in junior high school and high school. But back then it was a fad. It gained a lot of negative press (just like videogames are getting now), which only added fuel to the fire and made TSR (the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons) go from a tiny hobbiest shop to the father of an industry. And then the fad ended, and so did TSR's fortune, as it gradually bankrupted itself.

The hobby keeps resurging every few years. In the 90's it was the Storytelling system by White Wolf, which took gaming from the usual action-heavy "beat up the villain of the week" flavor to something a lot more psychological with character-driven drama. And, sure, lots of beating up villains too. But it attracted a lot of female players, something D&D was never good at. (Except in my post-college group, which was started by a couple of fine ladies.)

In 2000, it was the new "Third Edition" of Dungeons and Dragons, which got a ton of marketing (including an absolutely AWFUL movie, which some people still claim they liked). A bunch of old-time players got interested in playing again, and a few new players besides - although unfortunately too many new players can get a similar but more convenient experience playing the latest of a crop of MMORPGs. But ah, well.

Anyway - I met my wife at a dance, but we got to talking because as part of the conversation I committed a social faux pas and admitted that I played Dungeons & Dragons. Instead of brushing me off completely, she said she'd played it a few times as well. So we kept talking the whole night. This was all out-of-state at a conference at the time, so the next day she went back to California, and I went back to Maryland, but we stayed "pen pals" (back before anybody really had email) for a couple of years. Then we ended up at the same college.

I wish I could say the rest was history, but in truth it was a lot more complicated than that. But I digress.

Anyway in college we both ended up playing - both of us did a LOT more gaming in college than we'd ever done in High School. But it was cheap social entertainment, which is pretty dang critical when you are a college student on an almost nonexistant budget. We got married while still in school, and kept playing (the cheap entertainment thing became a LOT more important when we were living on rice, beans, and ramen noodles).

My wife, Julie, told me about her gaming experiences as a teenager. She had a bunch of gamer friends who introduced her to Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, and a few other games. They'd hang out at her friend Sara's house. Sara's parents pretty much gave them free run of the basement. They would provide plenty of munchies for the kids, and except for periodically popping in to see how everyone was doing, left them alone. They all thought that Sara's parents were just AMAZINGLY cool.

Later, as my wife and I discussed this, we realized Sara's parents were AMAZINGLY smart. With all the trouble their peers were getting into, here these kids were having clean, sober fun in a place with (some) parental oversight. WILLINGLY. This was all because of this controversial game that so many misguided religious zealots and parents groups were quick to condemn as "Evil" and a scapegoat for everything from suicide and drug abuse to satanism. Pretty much every youth woe except teen pregnancy - considering the lack of sex appeal of the stereotypical D&D player, this oversight wasn't surprising.

So when my wife and I suddenly realized the method to the madness of Sara's parents, we decided that not only would we not feel guilty about continuing to play, but we'd definitely encourage our kids to adopt the same hobby if they felt remotely inclined. So far, that's kinda working - some of the "next generation" of our gaming group are getting into it.

Now that we both have family members with Alzheimer's disease, Julie and I have talked about the importance of staying mentally, physically, and socially active when we get old and gray and start yelling at kids to stay off of our lawn & stuff. Well, we'd have to find some other source for physical exercise, but socially and mentally Dungeons & Dragons would certainly fill the bill. So we've talked with our friends, and we decided we're all going to live in the same old folk's home where we can sling dice over our strained peas and stuff. We'll be these hardcore gamer octogenerians who say over our false teeth, "Dude, I just rolled a critical hit on the black dragon with my +3 Dragon Slaying Sword! He's going DOWN! What kind of XP do I get?"
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:59 PM (Permalink)