This Wednesday I will take my first baby steps into my journey of the world of Dungeons & Dragons! I am so excited and I want you all to join me on this one-shot campaign on May 12th! Why has taken me into my thirties before ever attempting to play?! Well, let me take you into the true story of me and D&D!
When I was in middle school, D&D was growing in popularity. I watched the neighborhood kids act out pretend fights and listened to them tell epic stories about dragons and giants. My classmates brought cool-looking dice to school, rolling them around between classes. The cool kids always talked about it.
But not in my house. I was forbidden from even talking about Dungeons & Dragons around our home. There was never any mentioning of dragons, potions, or even dice [if it didn't have to do with the board game we were playing]. In a house that didn't even allow a TV or simple magic tricks, I went along with it. Besides, I heard the same things from all my parent's friends and all my friends at church too!
I went to a very conservative cult-like protestant Christian church. I was the most attentive child in the congregation of 5 thousand+ attendees. I never missed a service: Once on Wednesdays, twice on Sundays, and every Saturday was concert night. I did every revival, outreach, bible study, picnic, pot-luck, and baptism. I was the poster child for the church. I would get singled out during sermons as an example of what good children of God looked like! I even regurgitated every passage, every verse, and every lesson:
TV: evil.
Movie theaters: evil.
Pokemon: evil.
Chiropractors: definitely evil.
So I listened very intently as our pastor explained how D&D was the evilest;
The kids are killing each other with swords [what I find out much later in life, was LARPing] as the demons possess their bodies and distort their world, making them see things that aren't there! Not only does it encourage them into gambling [throwing dice]! But worst of all, it's teaching them how to do witchcraft and magic, and make them love the devil!
I wish I was making this up, but I was told this in a sermon once! It was believed that every bit of Dungeons & Dragons was created by a demon-worshipping cult that was trying to ferry souls to hell! I was even convinced that D&D summoned the devil directly!
Soon after, the cool kids stopped liking D&D. It was for the nerds. I wasn't part of the cool kids but I wasn't a nerd either [I thought to myself as I holed my 10-year-old body up on the couch reading two full novels a day]. I didn't think about D&D again until I was in the military.
When I joined than Navy at 17 years old, I had no idea how different my life would be. I always knew from the beginning that I would live a military life. And during my career, I was never surprised about any of it. But it wasn't until I was out of the military recanting sea stories and such that I began to realize how my perceptions of the world changed. I wasn't a sheltered child anymore. Many people around me tried to pry open the hardened innocence I sheltered myself with. And it all started with video games...
(p.s. I didn't have a TV growing up remember, remember)
World of Warcraft to be exact. I didn't play WoW because I didn't want to spend money. I was intrigued though when my roommates coming out of boot camp started playing in their of-time. I would watch over their shoulder and felt like I was a part of the community. [I took up Guild Wars, a decision that would further change my life. Different story]! As I continued on in my career as an aviation electronics tech, I began to realize that the people that the 'cool kids' called nerds were all of my colleagues. They held game nights, sometimes playing WoW through the entire night. I would hear talks about D&D. And most of them ditched Guild Wars.
I was still hardened against D&D. I spoke out against it, telling people that I would never play. But, secretly, I was very curious. And as my friends left Guild Wars for WoW I looked for another game to fill my time. (Remember, I was sheltered from the world so...here comes irony).
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I was hooked on this game! I loved and followed every storyline, every side quest, every interaction. I loved the level-up system and the armor, the spells, and the heroes! I loved character creation, creating my own story, and progressing however I wanted. I particularly loved the dragons. I would create multiple characters and give them my own backstories. I even protected Lydia!
I played this game even after my military career. It wasn't until I met my wife, played a hundred more games, had a child and the year became 2017 that I was made aware of the irony.
Skyrim is mostly D&D elements in video game form.
By this point in my life, I was aware of how sheltered I was. I started asking the all-knowing Google about it. In 2018 I was invited to play with some friends but the scheduling didn't work out (and I still was unsure of what I wanted to do anyway). In 2020 we bought D&D players guides. I created a character and spent the quarantine learning the rules [I'm no pro - but I understand the lingo now!] and watching D&D on Twitch. Now I'm ready to make the leap myself! I hope you enjoy watching D&D with me as much as I've enjoyed watching it on Twitch. I feel like I'm regaining a missed part of my childhood and I hope you enjoy it as much as I know I will!