I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons recently. Every other Saturday, I head out to Keeseville and roll dice with a great friend, his kid, an old friend, his wife (a new friend), and another new friend. Tonight, we squashed some giant scorpions using throwing darts, swarms of rats, and moonbeams. Oh, and a magical cat by the name of Mr. Gordo. And a band of talking dogs. It's quite fun!
I play a 200 year old 3'6" halfling rogue thief named Crowen. Crow hates all children, teenagers, and babies. He's also cranky. And a thief. He's not what you might consider wholesome, or polite, but he sure is a fun character to play.
I play with a couple of elf twins. One of them can manipulate time, the other, space. They know their business. Another fellow adventurer is a minotaur paladin. He's always trying to convert people to worship a purple crystal with him. He often succeeds. Or last companion is a druid. He can shape-shift himself into a bear, a shark, and other pretty gnarly creatures. Cool powers!
As we roleplay these characters, everything is improv. No one but the Dungeon Master knows what's going to happen next. And even he doesn't know where we will take his story. He gives us a description of the world around us, and we decide what our characters would decide to do next.
As we make decisions, we roll different kinds of dice to see if what we want to do succeeds or fails. Sometimes we roll six-sided dice, sometimes ten-sided, sometimes four. Different curving call for differently numbered dice. The most commonly used dice are the twenty-sided. When you roll a twenty, you guarantee that what you want to happen, happens. This is rare, and usually pretty exciting. Conversely, sometimes you roll a one, a critical failure. This is usually pretty hilarious (especially for those who didn't roll the one). Though, the consequences are usually rather disastrous (snicker, snicker).
Although there was initially some mild social anxiety for me, having never met a couple of these folks, I get a little more comfortable every time we get together (I've now played with them for three sessions). The more comfortable I get, the more fun I can have with the role-playing aspect of the game. Generally speaking, the more we stay true to the characters we've created (especially their flaws), the more interesting it is. It's been a great experience, joining this crew every couple of weeks. I'm really enjoying it, and look forward to the next session.
In between game nights, I've also been painting miniatures. These are tiny figurines that we use to represent our characters and other npc's (non-player-characters) set up on paper maps rolled out on the large dining room table. I've painted three minis so far. A skeleton archer (Skelly),
a cute little pug (Patrice),
and a battle kitty (Hector).
Oh! And the piece I'm really proud of; a dice holder.
It's a mimic, a trap monster that pretends to be a wooden barrel. It's got large, yellowing teeth and a creepy eyeball.
I hope everyone finds something they enjoy doing. Whether it's a quiet, solo activity like painting, or a social gathering of some kind like D&D, I hope all of you discover the stuff that brings you happiness, and are able to make time for it. I consider myself very lucky that I have the time for this and there's an outlet for it. And my family is happy for me to be enjoying a new passion. It's an incredible combo!
To some of you, what I'm going to say next may sound stupid. And to the others, the more broken ones, you'll get it. One of the many roadblocks I set up to forestall any happiness is guilt. The minute I discover I'm enjoying something, my brain immediately feels like I shouldn't be doing this. I'm supposed to be working, taking care of something for someone, or housekeeping, or fixing something, or... generally being productive in some way. No. I mustn't selfishly spend time with a personal hobby. I'm neglecting my family (despite their repeated encouragement to go and enjoy myself). So, there is always the taint under the surface of any good time. But there are the rare moments of pure, uninhibited jubilation (how many times have you seen those two words paired up like that? "Uninhibited jubilation"...), where my tight grip on irrational guilt loosens just a little. Just enough for a bit of laughter to sneak through the roadblocks I set up for myself.
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