“I met my husband through D&D and we are still playing regularly twice a week, some 16 years later.” — LJS, Stockport, UK
Clearly a lie. It must be. This is taken from comments on 30 Years of D&D on the BBC site. Less of a lie would be “I am now 33 and have to say that some of the most memorable moments of my life involved 20 sided dice!” — Matthew Harffy, UK. And (surprisingly?) it’s still going on today – stop this sick filth.
Nobody has ever been surprised by my gaming past, which rankles. So to up the ante I have to explain at great length the maps that I drew, the campaigns I had planned, AND THE FACT THAT I STILL HAVE THEM TO THIS DAY. In a green folder, under the shelves. This usually gives the correct response of a lowered head and a gentle shuffling motion. That or pointing and laughing. Which is fine.
But I’ve been thinking – why can’t I bring myself to play this as an adult? I mean I lost interest for a reason, and it wasn’t just social pressure, but surely there would be nothing wrong with getting it together to play this again for the nostalgia? It’s largely seen as socially acceptable to play multiplayer video games as an adult, so why not these more low-tech games? More often than not these role-playing games had the ability to put you in quite imaginative situations.
Perhaps it’s the fact that the ability to realise those imaginative situations was seldom realised. Where a simple dungeon crawl was eyes-wide fun the first 10 times, you start to get blas’ about any encounter, be it 10 puny Kobolds wielding a magic wand, or a blue dragon dressed in a smoking jacket.
In the end it’s a band of friends against the wit of the dungeon master. Now imagine all taking a turn as the DM, take away the geeky pencils and dice, but keep the rather bizarre banter, and what have you left? A PUB CONVERSATION. But better: you are in a pub, you are drinking beer, you are getting drunk. Brilliant.
I think I shall forever be playing “Pub Rules” from now on – the D&D “Levels Beer to Gin” Set.