thesameguy
January 22nd, 2014, 07:29 PM
Me and D&D. Crazy stuff.
I don't remember the first time I played Dungeons & Dragons. I'd have to guess it was '85 or '86? My cousin - who is one of the smartest people I have ever met (and now a Superior Court Judge :lol:) brought some AD&D materials to a family function and I was immediately hooked. For my birthday I begged for the "red box" and then coerced my sisters to learn & play it with me on a camping trip. Going back into school, nobody I knew played it or had any interest so my only outlet was visits with my cousin which were relatively few and far between.
Heading into middle school, everything changed. I met some folks who played AD&D and we played a LOT of it. Weekends, weekdays, it didn't matter. Sadly, around that time all the conservative anti-D&D propaganda started to appear and it became a real issue at school. Kids got detention for having D&D materials with them, etc. Suffice to say, playing was not a popular pasttime. But, we didn't care. There were probably 20 of us in "my" group, and without a doubt sitting around on Saturday eating pizza and playing D&D are some of my fondest memories of school. Despite being an enormous distraction from schoolwork, it was at the same time a huge contributor to my success. Reading, writing, 'rithmetic and a myriad of subtler skills were honed preparing and playing.
After middle school, my family moved up to Sacramento and the experience was never the same. Whatever magic there was in that core group just couldn't be recreated in NorCal, try as I might. Over many years, through high school and beyond, I tried to put it back together but just couldn't. All the false starts weren't without some wins, though:
1. First and foremost, I met my first serious girlfriend through D&D. She gave me experience points, I gave her my virginity.
2. My high school English teacher yelled at me for using colloquial grammar in a research paper, and told me she's give me the points back when I got published. No worries, wrote some D&D fiction for a magazine and gave her a copy of my paycheck. A+
3. I got into a serious Dragon Magazine collecting binge in high school and spent a week in SF hitting all sorts of awesome small comic book shops and raiding their back issues. Tons of fun, learned to navigate SF, and met a bunch of cool people.
4. D&D got me started on my career path, and even gave me a head start. When I couldn't find people in my area to play D&D with, I took to the BBS and learned about MS-DOS, modems, ANSI, and all sorts of '80s and '90s computer stuff.
5. As a result of haunting comic book shops and playing with computer things, I ended up meeting the guy who I would have to call my best friend. We've known each other for 23 years now, we've run businesses together, been millionaires together, and done a remarkable number of wacky things together. Our lives eventually took on different path (he took the path that sucks, I took the path that rocks), but we both know we'd be there for the other in a heartbeat. Worth the price of admission.
Thinking about all this stuff makes me nostalgic. I may have to dig out that Dragon Magazine collection tonight.
I don't remember the first time I played Dungeons & Dragons. I'd have to guess it was '85 or '86? My cousin - who is one of the smartest people I have ever met (and now a Superior Court Judge :lol:) brought some AD&D materials to a family function and I was immediately hooked. For my birthday I begged for the "red box" and then coerced my sisters to learn & play it with me on a camping trip. Going back into school, nobody I knew played it or had any interest so my only outlet was visits with my cousin which were relatively few and far between.
Heading into middle school, everything changed. I met some folks who played AD&D and we played a LOT of it. Weekends, weekdays, it didn't matter. Sadly, around that time all the conservative anti-D&D propaganda started to appear and it became a real issue at school. Kids got detention for having D&D materials with them, etc. Suffice to say, playing was not a popular pasttime. But, we didn't care. There were probably 20 of us in "my" group, and without a doubt sitting around on Saturday eating pizza and playing D&D are some of my fondest memories of school. Despite being an enormous distraction from schoolwork, it was at the same time a huge contributor to my success. Reading, writing, 'rithmetic and a myriad of subtler skills were honed preparing and playing.
After middle school, my family moved up to Sacramento and the experience was never the same. Whatever magic there was in that core group just couldn't be recreated in NorCal, try as I might. Over many years, through high school and beyond, I tried to put it back together but just couldn't. All the false starts weren't without some wins, though:
1. First and foremost, I met my first serious girlfriend through D&D. She gave me experience points, I gave her my virginity.
2. My high school English teacher yelled at me for using colloquial grammar in a research paper, and told me she's give me the points back when I got published. No worries, wrote some D&D fiction for a magazine and gave her a copy of my paycheck. A+
3. I got into a serious Dragon Magazine collecting binge in high school and spent a week in SF hitting all sorts of awesome small comic book shops and raiding their back issues. Tons of fun, learned to navigate SF, and met a bunch of cool people.
4. D&D got me started on my career path, and even gave me a head start. When I couldn't find people in my area to play D&D with, I took to the BBS and learned about MS-DOS, modems, ANSI, and all sorts of '80s and '90s computer stuff.
5. As a result of haunting comic book shops and playing with computer things, I ended up meeting the guy who I would have to call my best friend. We've known each other for 23 years now, we've run businesses together, been millionaires together, and done a remarkable number of wacky things together. Our lives eventually took on different path (he took the path that sucks, I took the path that rocks), but we both know we'd be there for the other in a heartbeat. Worth the price of admission.
Thinking about all this stuff makes me nostalgic. I may have to dig out that Dragon Magazine collection tonight.