pantstributor

Of Dungeons and of Dragons

Hello Pants world!!!

Well, while Miss Posh D is on posh leave doing posh things, I’m back to say hello to everyone and write a blog post of my own. I’m following in Randy’s footsteps here, a man who self-deprecatingly claimed that he was bringing down the cool factor of this most poshest of blogs. He then wrote a very cool post about his trip to Nashville. Well Randy, today I want to write about Dungeons & Dragons. In the competition to be lame, I win Randy. I win.

Actually, I’m writing about D&D (it’s just easier to abbreviate this way, okay?) because it has been a wonderful and unexpected surprise for me. Sure, the game features both dungeons and dragons, but it also features zombies, which I also think are quite cool. You see, growing up in Ireland, I didn’t encounter Dungeons & Dragons as a cultural phenomenon in the way that Americans my age did. I liked the cartoon, because it involved swords and dragons and things whilst following the 1980s cartoon staple of combining semi-aryan heroic archetypes with weird dudes, like a winged devil riding a flying horse, or a cartoon approximation of Mickey Rooney playing Yoda.

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But I had no idea there was a whole phenomenon behind the cartoon, or that there was any connection to a tabletop game being played by thousands of people across America using little more than pencils, paper, and some dice. I also didn’t know that other Americans considered a game about elves and orcs a vehicle of Satan’s grand plan to destroy humanity. I just thought the cartoon was cool. In the years since, I’ve heard more and more about the game. Like many people, I formed an image in my mind of a bunch of sad sack socially inept white guys sitting around a table using words like “doth”, “thou”, and “hast”. I also assumed that capes were involved. I pictured an evening approximate to the one described here by the thespian Vin Diesel, in a weird knock-off of Inside The Actors’ Studio.

These assumptions were not alleviated by the terrible live action movie Dungeons & Dragons featuring Jeremy Irons, doing… something.

So, with all this evidence weighing against any involvement whatsoever with the game, how did I end up spending about a night a week sitting in a room with four other people rolling dice and scribbling numbers down on a piece of paper for about four hours? Well, the answer is a mixture of an affection for video games and Wil Wheaton.

I don’t have an affection for the actor that once played Wesley Crusher. I just meant… Never mind. ANYWAY, I was recently in Asia. Some of you might have heard about it, or observed the development of my growing food obsession. The thing is, when you work for a certain amount of hours a day and eat for a few more, you’re still left with a couple of hours to spend. This, combined with the occasional drudgery of dissertation research, resulted in a huge increase in the number of blogs I pay attention to, and the number of podcasts to which I listen. As a result, I became aware of Mr. Wheaton’s “Internet presence” and his occasional crusading for/gushing about D&D, a game he has been playing for a rather long time. Now, a few months ago Mr. Wheaton joined the gentlemen of Penny Arcade for a spot of D&D, and they made a podcast about it.

These guys were having fun. They were making fun of each other, and even SWEARING, using real curse words and not made up “progeny of peasant livestock owner” comments or something. The podcast is an aural medium, but I’m pretty sure there were no capes involved. Suddenly, this seemed something that I was interested in. That was the first step. Since then, there have been several more steps, and they have mostly involved availing of the openness and friendly nature of the people I have encountered who like playing this game. It’s a little daunting as a 28 year old to try and take up a hobby that most started enjoying in their teens. I was ready to run at the first sign of nerd elitism.

However, everyone was really nice and welcoming, and I now join a gaming group on the weekends (when I have the time) to drink beer, listen to metal, and play D&D. Seventh Heaven. Some people who like to play D&D like to get more into the role-playing aspects of it. Some, like me, don’t. But everyone is cool to each other. I have to say, it’s a nice thing. All in all, I’m happy I gave it a shot. My girlfriend is concerned about me, Henri found it particularly amusing, and everyone else I’ve spoken to about it has responded with some kind of bewilderment. But I have fun with it! I’m not even remotely embarrassed, and I have no reason to be.

But what about you, Posh readers? Do you have any hobbies that are sometimes seen as a bit odd, or mocked in the general media? It’s ok if you like stamp collecting, train spotting, or even watching cricket. Go on, SHARE.

© 2009 Poshdeluxe.