T-shirt #32: Dungeons and Dragons

T-shirt #32: D&D: Got game?

Warning! Today's blog entry must be short. It's Monday. Start of the work week. There's work to do.

I am playing Dungeons and Dragons again. This is somewhat of a big deal.

Okay, technically, I am playing PATHFINDER, which is a revision of the core source rules for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. But it is what it is. Gamers will stipulate that it is Pathfinder NOT D&D. But to the rest of the world, it's D&D.

Games are important. I need games in my life. This is part of self care. Luckily, there others who want to do some gaming, too. I am also gathering with friends to play board games from time to time. But that's a post for another time.




These action photos show me representing the greatest role playing game of all time by wearing one of my D&D T-shirts for our semi-regular Sunday gaming session. Not everyone included in the "our" pronoun wishes to be identified. Suffice it to say, we have a knowledgeable and masterful Dungeonmaster and a four person party, including a dwarven cleric, a half-elven thief, a very big and strong human fighter, and myself, a female sorcerer half-breed, a mix of gnome and Gold Dragon blood.

Yesterday, in our third of the introductory modules of the Pathfinder Society, I got lucky as opponents failed their saving throws against my Sleep spells, while my companions were blinded and falling prey to treacherous terrain (literally falling due to some spell that made the floor slippery). It was a fun time just like our previous two adventures, and we will be continuing our play again soon.

I am going to date myself here but that cat has already escaped the bag, even as recently as yesterday when I confessed to receiving one of my first comic books in 1967. I played my first game of D&D in 1977, not long after the release of the Star Wars film, which is only important to me as a way to remember the year. My friend Steve Curl had played the game one time. He came to my house with a pocket full of dice, a map he had drawn, and a wandering monster table that he had committed to memory. We did not possess any rule books yet. Steve served as DM, and I played a single character, a fighter, I think. Though I have had many more epic and complex adventures since then, that first adventure was possibly the most enthralling and stands out as the most entertaining of them all. I do not remember all the details. But I do remember dispatching some skeletons and other random monsters. At one point, I fell into a pit and broke my leg, which caused me all sorts of problems as I tried to splint it and carry on by myself in a hostile environment. This first game session hooked me on D&D for life. I have played off and on ever since.

I could write several pages on what D&D, and games in general, have meant to my life as well as the cultural significance, but remember, I claimed that this would be a short entry, by necessity. And so it is.

I am just happy to be playing semi-regular games of D&D again. It's been a long time.

- chris tower 1304.22 - 8:35
Photos courtesy of Liesel MK Tower and Mark Peeters