Returning to an Old Custom

Photo by Michael Formichelli

Role-Playing Games, RPG's, probably saved my sanity and my social life when I was a kid. My oldest and best friends all come from the circle that started in junior high school with a table, some papers, books, and dice. Thinking about those days always puts a thick cloak of nostalgia around me and warms my insides.

For the first time in a long time, maybe 10 years or more, I find myself running a D&D campaign. I've been a role-player for a very long time now. I founded my high school's RPG club, and I think I've been table-top RPG'ing since I was about 13—I might have been younger, now that I think about it. In any case, I'm surprised at how good it feels to be doing this.

Steeped in Sci-Fi as I have been for many years, it feels a bit novel to be coming back to high fantasy-style storytelling. I put it that way because that's what destinguishes tabletop RPG's from their video game counterparts, they are group storytelling with a set of rules and some randomness thrown in (the dice). I went out about three weeks ago and bought up 5th Edition D&D (I started on 1st or 2nd, 2nd I think...) and my wife picked out her first set of dice. Watching her buy them put a big, silly grin on my face. It's a great feeling to have her joining a culture that is so important to me.

We've had several games since, and I'm happy to report things are going swimmingly. I'm very much looking forward to our next game this weekend, where once again a group of friends will meet to tell a story.