When I was young, I loved the fantasy genre. My favorite movies were The Neverending Story, Beastmaster, The Conan movies and The Hobbit. I would check books out at the library on Greek and Norse mythology, on castles and Medieval warfare, and just about any choose-your-own-adventure book I could find. I read McCaffery, Tolkein, and the Dragonlance novels, though I was expressly forbidden from playing Dungeons & Dragons, it being 'Devil Worship' and all. In the fifth grade, I started working on My Game, a sprawling fantasy adventure RPG that was never really finished (which I will discuss in a future post), and I played every video game that Square and Enix released for the NES and Super NES. I would flip through the Wargames West catalog, in sloppy newsprint, reading descriptions of tabletop RPGs and boardgames and trying to identify the pewter miniatures in the back. I drew all the time; dragons, wizards, knights, ancient weaponry, castle floor plans, maps of places that only existed in my brain. I invented boardgames to attempt to capture it, but they were to far in scope to truly encompass what I wanted. Then, in the 6th grade, I met Bad Influence.
I wish I remembered Bad Influence's name; he was two years older than any other kids in the class. He lived with his 18 year old brother, and he smoked cigarettes. He wore dirty wifebeaters and always looked beat up, and he had a greasy mullet. I sat next to him in the back of the class. He would read his D&D books in class, and I would constantly pick his brain about this taboo "game". He showed me the basics, which seemed really complex, and the character sheets, which were very inspiring to me (as I was crafting My Game at the time). That's all I remember. I soon befriended another kid who, along with his brother, were D&D veterans. I purchased the Rifts RPG, MechWarrior and Battletech, and later Palladium RPG - but I played D&D with friends as often as I could. We played all the time - even with Palladium's and Rifts ambiguous, illogical rulesets. I remember my mom finding a DM Screen in my room and confronting me about it, under the assumption that her eleven-year-old is dabbling in the Dark Arts™. She wasn't so far from the truth.
I'll skip forward past my foray into GURPS, Friday Night RPG'ing all-nighters, the quantity of Taco Bell and 2-for-1 Whoppers and Jolt cola consumed, my questioning of religion and my introduction to heavy metal, and say it was all a coincidence. I even got my mom to play D&D a couple times! Here's the thing I've come to realize; RPGs helped me build a lot of the skills that I use on a daily basis - in some ways, they helped me survive. It taught me that there is always a system to game; that people are predictable; that there could always be a trap. It taught me to visualize problems and solutions, to create mental escape plans and to analyze any situation I happen to be in. RPGs showed me how to gather and use information, how to become organized, how to plan, and how to socially interact with people and negotiate terms. D&D was the tool that I used to become the person that I am today.
This long-winded post is really only about one thing. This is about the impact that one person can have on a life. This is kind of my way to show appreciation where it is due. I want to affect someone the same way Gary Gygax affected me. I never even met the man, and I am sad that I didn't, because I've realized only too late the valuable gift he has given me, and I'm fairly certain I am not alone. Sir, you will most certainly be missed.
So if anyone's up for some old school gaming, let me know.
Labels: Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax, nostalgia, RPG
