Nostalgia for D&D

[Lalato]

Look an article about nostalgia for d&d on a mainstream news site...

How "Dungeons & Dragons" changed my life - Salon.com Mobile

Enjoy

Edit: Here's the same article in a more reader friendly format. I posted the mobile version of the article earlier as I was on my phone when I first saw it.

http://www.salon.com/technology/gam...re/2011/03/08/dungeons_and_dragons_comes_back

 

[Wik]

I tried reading it. I really did.

But the block o' text defeated me and took my stuff.

 

[saskganesh]

good piece. I got back into tabletop rpgs regularly 2 years ago, and started DMing again very recently. I'm having a blast and my newbie players (we are all in our 40's) are as well.

now my brother is married to another gamer, and they haven't figured out yet what to do with their 4 year old son. he doesn't know what the game is, and is too young to play but has seen maps and manuals lying around and is attracted to them because they are colourful. I think its inevitable at some point that he will play but not for a few years yet.

the knotty issue for them is that other parents might have issues with the game and they are also concerned about career blowbacks. I think they are being paranoid, but then again, in their house, it's their "house" rules.

 

[jonesy]

He has an interesting viewpoint. Leaving D&D at the height of satanism claims, and coming back after assuming that the game was dead. And how that changed the way he looked at the whole thing.

Also, the reality TV web series about porn stars playing D&D that he advertises (I Hit It With My Axe) is really fun.

 

[Stumblewyk]

Good read. The author's book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks has been on my "to read" list for a while now.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the "Tavis Allison" mentioned in the piece is TayBehemoth here at ENWorld. I only know that because I've read quite a bit of his blog The Mule Abides.

(Yup, turns out the first article on The Mule Abides is in fact about this article.)

 

[NewJeffCT]

Look an article about nostalgia for d&d on a mainstream news site...

How "Dungeons & Dragons" changed my life - Salon.com Mobile

Enjoy

Thanks for the article - XP given!

I was out of D&D for several years in the early to mid 90s - my group from high school & college days had grown up and moved away from CT to Texas, NYC, and elsewhere.

Then, I went & got married in 1998. Unfortunately, my marriage almost immediately went bad for reasons I won't discuss on here.

In order to keep my sanity, I used this new-ish thingy called the Internet and found a gaming group that was fairly close to my home. I hit it off with this new group right away and I was in a fantastic campaign that ran from September 1998 through late 1999 (2E Days)

So, to get out of the house for 6-7 hours every Saturday was a blessing to me, and gave me an escape from my brief, but miserable, marriage. And, it obviously gave me something to look forward to every week.

We had some bumps & bruises in terms of gaming after that over the next few years (end of 2E days, as well as the start of 3E years), and then I got a job that required both a long commute and crazy hours, so my gaming was very limited until 2007 - by which time, I had moved, gotten remarried, spawned and gotten a new job.

So, I can really appreciate people being out of gaming and then getting back into it.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I posted a thread here with the nearly identical title almost three years ago to the day. It was in response to Gary's death and I, getting rather nostalgic waxed poetic how D&D not only changed my life, but most likely saved it. It focused some of my less savory youthful tendencies into something creative and inclusive.

I'm too lazy to search for it, but basically anytime I read something like this, I feel much more compassion for my fellow human beings than I did just the moment prior. I hang here because you guys, like myself are gamers, it easy to understand that even though we don't always agree (and boy is THAT an understatement) we always get each other. It's nice to know our number is not just growing every day, all be it some what less direct manner, but also that we are regathering those that have left the fold.

 

[Lalato]

Yeah, it's a great article. It reminded me of the reasons I returned to the fold around 2000-01. I wasn't happy with myself or my life at the time so I sat and thought about all of the things that truly made me happy over the years. D&D was among the things I thought of. I made it a goal to get back to the things I enjoyed, and I've been very happy ever since.

 

[thedungeondelver]

I got back into D&D in 1998/1999. I've gamed since I was 12, but hadn't touched D&D in over a decade, and even that's only if you count my abortive attempt to beat POOL OF RADIANCE on my Commodore 64.

What really put me back in the mood was when a co-worker loaned me a copy of [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Extra-Life-Coming-Age-Cyberspace/dp/0465012361"]EXTRA LIFE[/ame]. While the book is about growing up around computers there's more than a little mention of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS in the book (particularly the chapters EXPERIENCE POINTS and DUNGEON). It was really that, plus finding my copy of B2 KEEP ON THE BORDERLANDS and a PLAYERS HANDBOOK which to this day I have no idea where it came from as I didn't own one back in the day which kickstarted my desire to get back into the game.

For years I'd played everything but D&D, including CHAMPIONS, VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE (once or twice), CALL OF CTHULHU, MECHWARRIOR, HEAVY GEAR, STAR WARS, ROLEMASTER, SPACE MASTER and about a dozen others I couldn't remember now if you put a gun to my head.

But after reading EXTRA LIFE, I realized that D&D was my first RPG love and the rest is history.