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 On 12/15/2013 at 04:32 AM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
I just finished David M. Ewalt’s book Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It. He covers games for Forbes Magazine. Of Dice and Men is a great book covering the history of the game right up to the present day; however, it’s more than just a history book, it’s also a very personal account of Mr. Ewalt's life-long experience with the game. He plays in a regular group, goes to GaryCon and GenCon, visits the birthplace of the game in Lake Geneva, WI, and participates in a Live Action Role Playing experience all told in the book. He also writes about the founding of TSR and the lives of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, creators of the game. So I thought I’d relate my own experiences with Dungeons & Dragons.
I got the books for AD&D in High School sometime in the early eighties during the height of its popularity. I had the Players Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Manual, Field Folio, and adventure modules: B1 – In Search of the Unknown, B2 – The Keep on the Borderlands, B3 – Palace of the Silver Princess, G1-3, D1-3, Q1 – Queen of the Spiders super module, S1–4 – Realms of Horror, and X2 – Castle Amber. I love the fantasy art on the covers of all these books. I was also a brief subscriber to TSR’s official magazine of fantasy role-playing games Dragon Magazine and later I began to collect old issues that I came across in used bookstores along with a few White Dwarf magazines (a similar publication from the UK).
In high school, I only had one friend who played D&D but I think, on occasion, I got my sister to play and maybe another friend, but it was never a regular thing. My friend and I played some of these scripted adventures (or modules) together and wrote loads of character sheets. I started designing my own adventure by laying down descriptions of a world, its history, and a world map. I also did some character background writing, and drafted some building designs with dungeons like the one above. I never got a chance to DM an adventure in that world though.
While I was in college in the late eighties, I had a roommate my second year with whom I played various games including a few sessions of D&D. I actually went to a group once as well and we played through an adventure with perhaps four of five people plus my roommate as DM. It was fun but it didn’t last very long. I have a vivid memory of playing D&D on a rooftop of one of the off campus houses that my roommate’s girlfriend lived in. I was DM and did a “theater of the mind’s eye” description as we played and was unfairly mocked by my roommate’s girlfriend. It was particularly hurtful to me. I was, and mostly still am, very shy and socially awkward. It became just another brick in the wall of my mistrust of social interaction and made me avoid future D&D sessions.
I didn’t play D&D again until 2006 when I started getting into comics and saw the Dungeons & Dragons Miniature’s Game packs at the comics store. The figures were cool and the system simplified to just a war game battle between monsters. I thought I could get some friends into it but instead started playing AD&D (old first edition rules) with my friend from high school and used the D&D Mini figures as a visual aid. It was fun, but I couldn’t help messing with the system for the sake of humor. Eventually I behaved, but I really wanted my character to get punished or something to continue the joke. I felt very limited by D&D’s rules. I couldn’t get arrested. I wanted to end up as a literal basket case (be put in a basket like they did in medieval times) and end the session with me yelling curses at my tormentors. In my opinion, you’ve got to follow the course of the session no matter what the consequences. There’s an account of a problem player in Of Dice and Men who wanted to play as a totally ridiculous character every time. I thought his choices were hilarious and would’ve loved to DM that guy because I would’ve let that comedy run its course. Part of why I wanted to mess with the game was that I hate the basic premise of adventuring for the sake of gaining treasure. Is there no other goal worth adventuring for? I have in mind a version of D&D that is all about humor, the goal being getting the biggest laugh at the end. Sometimes D&D can take itself a little too seriously like the way war gaming does.
And that's my history with D&D. I think I'm still as interested in fantasy worlds and playing in them as I ever was.
The "humor is the end goal" approach is how I play Apples to Apples. I don't care if I lose the game, if I have the best jokes, I feel as though I won. 
Sorry your roommate's girlfriend was an asshole to you, though. I can't say I'm into role playing, but more power to those who are. I know Vin Diesel was big on it, and even wound up writing a foreword for one of the D&D books.
Those Ewalt books sound interesting.
I watched my sister's family play Apples to Apples at Thanksgiving. It looked fun.
My D&D experiences started with playing some of the videogames in DOS. 
I haven't played many of the D&D games other than Advanced D&D for Intellivision. And oh yea, Daggerdale on XBLA. And D&D: Heroes on Xbox. I'd love to try the PC ones out. Looks like D&D: Dragonshard is available on GOG but the classic ones I don't see anywhere. However I think I have Pool of Radiance on NES.
My first boyfriend in high school and I were thrown out of the first D&D game we participated in for not taking it seriously enough. My crime? When told I had been confronted by a pack (herd? gathering?) of giant spiders and asked what I was going to do, I answered "I whip out my flyswatter +10 and start smacking them" and then Paul and I started giggling and couldn't stop. We were ejected from the game within seconds.
He should've just given you a initiative penalty that round for giggling. I think it's funny when you make a joke and then all you hear from the DM is the rolling of dice behind the screen. That always cracks me up. He/she is planning something for you. What could it be?
I always wanted to play D + D, but having people to actually play it with was a problem. I'm not very sociable. I had bought a bunch of D + D stuff and tried to get my brother into it. We played for a little while, and it was fun while it lasted. I still have some of my miniatures. Like that barbarian giant in that fifth pic. (he's in the middle with the club)
I never got into a regular group. There are a few solo adventures that were made, but it would be cool to come up with some sort of solitaire version for us lonely folk. I guess I could just write a fantasy novel. That's sort of solo D&D.
I love the miniatures. I wanted to collect them all but they discontinued the Miniatures Game a while back. They're still around on ebay I'm sure.
I never got into table top D & D...I came along at little too late. By the time I was 6, the video games were front and center. But I do understand the allure behind why so many got into D&D though. I also agree with you that the whole "adveture for the sake of treasure" is kinda old now. and yes...war games do take themselves way too seriously these days.
Of Dice and Men mentions that video games and then Magic The Gathering kind of replaced traditional D&D in the 90s but that when Wizards of the Coast bought it, they were able to renew some interest by putting out revisions to the old rules that made sense to a 21st century audience. I still like the first edition rules, as complicated as they are.
I played this a bit when I was younger, and wish I played it now. It's such a great game. Maybe someday I'll get into it again.
Me too.
I will say one of the best parts of my youth was getting a new Dragon magazine in the mail.
I love those covers. Wizards of the Coast is publishing it again in digital form.
I want your experiance. I wanted to experiance that but never could. Was in a christian high school so D&D was FORBIDDEN. (I even had my treasured import video game magazine taken away with the Lords of Thunders screen art al over it).
College most of my peers were interested in beer, guns and girls and had little interest in games besides D&D. The closest I got was Magic the Gathering but only had one session.
Can I have your experiance please?
The first edition DM guide has a demon on the cover. The Player's Handbook has a statue of a demon on the cover, the Monster Manual has a red flying lizard that looks kind of like a demon and the Fiend Folio has a Githyanki on the cover that looks like a cross between The Mummy and a Vampire.. They all kind of look like occult or santanic books. Of course if you judge a book by it's cover than you really don't know much about it.
I want David M. Ewalts experience. Maybe we can all swap.
But then again. It would be horrible if we had to go thru what this guy went thru when it came to D&D. in and out of the movie...
Mr. Ewalt talks about that Dungeon Master book and how it was mostly untrue. James Egbert was a prodigy who had a depression problem totally unrelated to D&D. It makes a good story though just like the play that made Salieri the secret murderer of Mozart. Great story. Total bullshit.
The Spoony Bard's story is interesting. He played D&D at lunchtime in full view of his peer group. I always played alone or at home with a friend. I was the outsider's outsider and wasn't reviled as a deviant because I was not obviously a nerd. I had my issues with bullies in 5-8th grade and fought my way to being left alone for the most part. I kind of wish I'd been in the nerd group. Being in a group is better than being alone, even a group under attack.
I had a similar experience. A girl from my HS (along with her obnoxious friend) made fun of me for carrying around my AD&D books. At that time I was still learning how to draw so I'd often refer to the books if I wanted to sketch a dragon or a wizard. Additionally my home life was pretty fucked up so I used ANYTHING to escape.
Granted, it didn't make me "hate women" and the girl I mentioned even sincerely apologized to me later. I could tell she felt bad because she was literally crying. I think deep down she knew just how bad she made me feel. Still, it does "hurt" doesn't it?
I should have a thicker skin than that, but being a bit of a loner, I'm not used to social battling and tend to shut myself away when verbally bruised.
I think in your case you should have smirked,shrugged,and given her the finger! Yeah, I know she was your friend's GF but I think at that moment he probably would have understood. lol. The problem is we're not always prepared WHEN these things happen. We always think to ourselves "If I could re-live that I would have done it "this way!" Yet gradually we do get a tad better at reacting to the crap in our lives.
It's just practice. I got to get more social to learn me some skills. I just tend to isolate myself too much. I fit the writer stereotype a little too well.
Me too I'm afraid. lol. I'm still very much an isolationist myself. I've gotten better at socializing in some respects but I rather not socialize at all. (At least when it comes to life beyond my monitor)
Ha! Yea. Intimacy issues. I hang out at the same coffee shop day in day out but I still only know a few names of people who work there that I see every day. It's embarrassing. I'm trying though.
It's cool to see so many people with some interest or background in the tabletop D&D. I still try to play pen and paper rpgs when I can, but real life tends to get in the way of my friend and I getting together to make that possible.
Seeing how there are so many people still interested, maybe we should all group up and play online somehow.
I want to be a Druid and talk to and command plants.
Yea, like this guy.
Done!
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