Salon: "How Dungeons & Dragons changed my life"

[Moyashimaru]

http://www.salon.com/technology/gaming/ ... comes_back

The Article is quite good and not embarrassing, although the accompanying photo does little to help the cause.

[Konrad]

That was a good read. Times have changed, geeks rule the world. Along the same vein is this article.

http://www.believermag.com/issues/20060 ... le_lafarge

[Primarch]

As someone who never stopped playing D and D/RPGs, I can't understand these people who 'gave it up.' Just look at all the ex-pats in Japan who have brought their hobbies with them. If you enjoy doing something, why stop doing it just because you move to a new place?
It's nice to hear that more people are getting back into the hobby, but at the same time I feel sorry for them for all the cool stuff they've missed out on doing.

[ashmie]

I think a lot of giving up the hobby for a while has a lot to do with wanting to meet girls and live it up a bit.
There just isn't time for models with a rock n roll lifestyle. They missed out on many games and ideas it's true but I think they didn't miss out on a lot of other life stuff.
For example getting so drunk it hurts and ending up spewing after forcing down yet another kebab after some awesome gig where you nearly got crushed to death in the front row. But thats ok 'cos it was The Pogues or some other favourite band. Or you stayed up all night and saw the sun rise after partying until dawn. The notches on the bedpost, the bands, the fashions, the flares, kicking out the jams, dyeing hair, causing trouble, running from police, getting thrown out, getting let back in again the next week.
Lying, cheating, getting high, listening to really bad prog rock and punk music. All these things sound terrible to me now but I wouldn't change them for all the d10s in the mythos. I'd hate to be doing those things now at 31 but I'm glad I took the time to do them. The wonderful hobby that is gaming will always be there to catch people when they fall or burn out I reckon.

[me_in_japan]

getting so drunk it hurts and ending up spewing after forcing down yet another kebab after some awesome gig where you nearly got crushed to death in the front row. But thats ok 'cos it was The Pogues or some other favourite band. Or you stayed up all night and saw the sun rise after partying until dawn. The notches on the bedpost, the bands, the fashions, the flares, kicking out the jams, dyeing hair, causing trouble, running from police, getting thrown out, getting let back in again the next week.
Lying, cheating, getting high, listening to really bad prog rock and punk music. All these things sound terrible to me now but I wouldn't change them for all the d10s in the mythos. I'd hate to be doing those things now at 31 but I'm glad I took the time to do them. The wonderful hobby that is gaming will always be there to catch people when they fall or burn out I reckon.

amen!

[Primarch]

I think a lot of giving up the hobby for a while has a lot to do with wanting to meet girls and live it up a bit.
There just isn't time for models with a rock n roll lifestyle. They missed out on many games and ideas it's true but I think they didn't miss out on a lot of other life stuff.
For example getting so drunk it hurts and ending up spewing after forcing down yet another kebab after some awesome gig where you nearly got crushed to death in the front row. But thats ok 'cos it was The Pogues or some other favourite band. Or you stayed up all night and saw the sun rise after partying until dawn. The notches on the bedpost, the bands, the fashions, the flares, kicking out the jams, dyeing hair, causing trouble, running from police, getting thrown out, getting let back in again the next week.
Lying, cheating, getting high, listening to really bad prog rock and punk music. All these things sound terrible to me now but I wouldn't change them for all the d10s in the mythos. I'd hate to be doing those things now at 31 but I'm glad I took the time to do them. The wonderful hobby that is gaming will always be there to catch people when they fall or burn out I reckon.

You had to give up gaming for that? Wow, I did that WITH my gaming group. One of the players was a part time DJ at my local night club, so getting into places was easy. My D and D group back home were all into rock, punk and booze. Mind you, I never wore flares, dyed my hair or ran from the police and I never got high since I wouldn't be caught dead in flares, dying my hair seemed pointless, I have a lot of respect for the police (several family members on the force) and didnt have any reason to run and getting high seemed more dangerous and more difficult than getting drunk.

[ashmie]

I didn't have to give up just I wanted to. From 12 I got into music and other stuff so there didn't seem the need to paint models back then. I think gaming and girls never go together as a general rule of thumb. Even these days if you think about it, it's still pretty lucky.

I wasn't saying you didn't do those things I was just saying that's why a lot of people give up gaming 'cos the two don't usually go together.

No offense meant to the force. It's a fair cop guv.

[Konrad]

The Salon article mentions this site. Geek nostalgia to the 10th power.
ttp://www.plagmada.org/Home.html

[Moyashimaru]

I'm one of those blokes who gave up on gaming in my early 20s. Boy, am I glad that I did.
I worked in a comic and hobby shop and watched firsthand as mediocre RPGs were swept away by Magic: the Gathering. Players migrated wholesale from one hobby to the other, and it seemed like RPGs were bound towards filling but the narrowest of niches.
It wasn't until 2009 when I read on Slashdot about the passing of Dave Arneson that I started to get the itch again. I thought about going back to D&D but it was so unrecognizable in it's 4th edition it set me on a quest to find a different ruleset for my new group to use.
Well, how things have changed. Sorcerer, Don't Rest Your Head, Dogs, FATE, ... The games are better, smarter. This is the Silver Age of RPGs.

[Konrad]

I worked in a comic and hobby shop and watched firsthand as mediocre RPGs were swept away by Magic: the Gathering. , ... (snip) The games are better, smarter. This is the Silver Age of RPGs.

Me too. I was working in a game store when Majic first hit. It was crazy. (Grown?) men scraping up bits of pocket change for one more pack of boosters. I should have just been asked to be paid in unopened boxes of original black-border boosters instead of money, I could probabaly retire now.
I was at Origins about the same time, ("90,91,92?) It was about 1/4 RPGS, 1/4 board/minis, 1/2 Majic. It totally absorbed the scene.
I like Moyashimaru's "This is the Silver Age" comment. I don't have much time to follow the RPG scene in detail, but there is a lot of cool stuff just on PDFs. The internet has really made it easy to get your game out there for next to nothing. And the gorgeous tomes I see coming out of Fantasy Flight must mean there must still be people who will spend acutal money in big, beautiful, glossy, lavishly illustrated rulebooks.