D&D

If you are a geek/nerd you know who passed away recently. While most of Wisconsin mourned the loss of Brett Favre, my surprise was interrupted by the passing of Gary Gygax.

While I enjoy football and I had hoped the Packers had gotten to the Super Bowl, my reaction to Mr. Gygax's death reached deeper into my soul. My geekness really started with the purchase of my D&D books in the late 70's. I remember as if it was yesterday....

My mother went to the doctor quite a bit as I grew up. During one of these trips we stopped at a craft shop where most times I was bored out of my mind. Way in the back was a hobby section and I found a rack of books. I read through the covers and I realized this was a game I could relate too. I convinced my mother I needed to buy these books. I bought the Player's Guide and the Dungeon Master's Guide. I had no knowledge how I could play, but I knew these books would unlock a deeper part of my subconscious than anything else I had ever played.

I read through the books and thought they were great and I couldn't wait to begin to play. I bought a couple of modules and rolled up a couple of characters. Not only was I the DM, but I created the characters trying to kill lizard men and kobolds. I couldn't get enough dice, modules and books I easily became addicted to this game. However, I was missing something. A group of guys where the game would really become fascinating.

I fell into a group of like-minded guys at school. I think it was sort of one of those things that the four of us were interested in computers, sci-fi movies and books that playing D&D was a natural progression. Going to high school became my geekfest. I started to collect comic books (argued about plots), designed computer games and spent weekends playing D&D. My first character ('Xexuse' pronounced X-zuse) was my hero. When the group wasn't playing I'd spend hours re-writing my character sheet, look up magical items in the books I wanted to collect and jotting down his personal history. Sad as it sounds, he also became one of my friends.

For the next ten years or so, other RPG's came into my life and D&D sort of fell by the wayside as we played Rolemaster, Traveller, Car Wars, and other P&P games. Our diet consisted of Doritios and Mountain Dew these were the staples of our playing. Two bags of chips and two 12 packs of Dew. I think the game had tie-ins to those companies as anyone who played D&D ate and drank the same thing....How did that come to be? I never saw the memo or read it in a magazine that D&D required Doritios and Dew....must have been the letters.....

In my recent posts about the Internet about my gaming and such it all started with that simple game. I often wish I could find a group and play again. In the article mentioned above, it was noted that GG continued to play his game until January. That's so cool...

RIP GG!

cya laterz,
moi