"As you slowly push open the ancient, rusty iron door an acrid smell fills your nostrils; The scent of death and decay fills this place, mixed with the musty dampness of a dungeon. The room is dark, only dimly lit by a candle in the far corner of the room, but you see silhouettes of furniture."
"Oh, this just -screams- trap. Can I hear anything suspicious?"
"Roll perception and find out."
"I rolled a 16."
"You don't hear anything out of the ordinary, save for the steady drip of water."
"Alright. I'll light a torch and proceed into the room."
"As you walk into the room, the iron doors slam shut behind you! Two kobolds attack you from either side, one with a battle axe and the other with twin shortswords! Combat has begun; Roll initiative."
When I was 12, I was snooping under my parents bed and I found an old book. Eagerly, I pulled it out and wiped away the dust from the cover. The book was titled "Dungeons & Dragons: Player's Handbook." I had heard the name before, and the utterance was usually followed by a snicker or an eye roll. Nevertheless, I was curious. I opened the front cover and discovered dozens of sheets of paper. Lists of spells, maps of fantastic imaginary places, rich character descriptions and hundreds of numbers that I didn't understand fluttered to the floor. In that moment, I was struck with awe. These pages held the chronicle of a thousand adventures, all of which took place within the minds of my father and his high school friends. For the rest of the day, I studied the papers and flipped through the handbook. I grew excited; I was ready to create a new world with my friends. But the next day, when I brought the book into school to show my classmates, they laughed. Why would I want to play a game where I had to do all the work? Why play Dungeons and Dragons when you can play the Playstation instead? And so, I slid the book back under my father's bed and never touched it again.
Five years later, the book had been wiped completely from my memory. I was content with my video games, and spent hours during the summer staring at the television as my fingers made the same motions over and over again. But one Saturday, a friend asked me if I would come with him to his friend's house. They were scheduled to start a D&D campaign that day, but one of the players cancelled at the last minute and they needed a replacement. Immediately my thoughts turned again to my father's book, and without hesitating I accepted. We traveled half an hour away to get to his friend's house. Along the way, doubt began to cloud my thinking. What if I'm terrible at this game? What if I don't like the people? If I don't like it, will they be upset if I leave?
Thankfully, all of my concerns vanished from my mind when we arrived. These were cheerful, welcoming people, and they quickly accepted me into their group. The session started with character creation, a process that took much longer than I expected, but it made me even more excited to get started. When the characters were finished, we jumped right into the game, with everyone explaining rules to me as we went. Within ten minutes I knew all of the basic rules of the game, and I was having a blast creating a story with complete strangers.
The next few weeks were filled with wild and incredible stories: A goblin army invading a small town and slaughtering its inhabitants, a city official giving a criminal organization the means to wreak havoc, stirs of an ancient and terrible beast, slowly awakening from its slumber. Our party met all of these challenges head-on, resolving them in whatever way we could. We were forced to wrack our brains for answers to puzzles, had to escape from dangerous situations and, above all, we had to cooperate.
The game also became a kind of weekly cleansing ritual for me. For a few hours, I was able to step inside the mind of another person; my character's reality was also mine. All of the stress of my day-to-day life vanished when we started playing, and I was able to lose myself. It had the same affect as reading a book does, except I was able to change the story with my actions.
The most amazing part about the game, though, was the way that it brought us together. Our adventures ended a long time ago, but we are still very close friends. Any time you get together with a group of people to create something, the bond between you grows stronger. Every person in the room adds to the experience, lending their minds, experience, and personality. No matter who you share the experience with, the end product will always be incredible.
Since my first experience with Dungeons and Dragons, I have been in several campaigns, each one filled with new faces, adventures and memories. All of them have been fun, and I didn't even need a controller to play.
"Hey, this roleplaying thing sounds awesome! How do I start?"
"Ah, dear reader, it's quite simple! There are tons of games to choose from, including Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder and Warhammer 40k. If you're interested, visit their websites! Even better, find a friend that likes to play. They'll be happy to play with you!"
