Confession: I am in no way a computer person, despite having been exposed to a TSR-80 back in the sixth grade. We played with the Basic programming, but I quickly got bored making a message repeat or pixels randomly appear on the screen. This was about 1981, way before anyone (besides Bill Gates or the guys at Apple) knew how important computers were to become. ANYWAY, I say that only because I just tried to add a really cool Dragon gif to this site, but I have a feeling it will only appear as an image. Drat.
I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons about the same time as that TRS-80. A friend, Pat Shaughnessy, invited me over to play at his house, and from that point on I was hooked. Looking back, I'd say a big reason for this was because I had just read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy the year before, so fantasy was a genre I was just learning to appreciate. Unfortunately, the game sessions would devolve into our going outside, running around in the woods and whacking each other with sticks. Then at the end of sixth grade, Pat went to BC High (or was it BC Junior High?) and we slowly lost touch. Since he was the DM and I knew no one else to run a game, we stopped playing.
Junior high was two crappy years of school, but over the course of those two years, friendships began to coalesce that would firm up through high school - friendships that (for better or worse) were centered on D&D. Pete had been a friend since I moved to that town in fourth grade, but Karl, Tom and Steve were all guys I met and became friends with mostly over the course of eighth grade. Karl had played D&D with his older brother, and he was interested in starting up a group with more guys. Throughout high school, the five of us would meet almost every day after school to play D&D, watch a movie or just hang out. I won't go into detail about those years and what those friends meant to me, but suffice to say that my life would be radically different if it weren't for them and D&D.
The first week of college, I put up a sign on the floor of my dorm asking if anyone were interested in playing D&D, and the posting was answered the next day by Greg, a guy I still play D&D with to this day (I can't believe it's been 21 years!). Throughout college we played with a group that expanded up to 10 people, but after college our group settled down to 5-8 people. Nowadays I play remotely with them while they meet once a month in MA. I've played with a few different groups here in Portland, but still that group back east remains the best (and Greg one of the best DM's).
It's very difficult for me to say exactly why I like role playing as much as I do. When it's done right, it's a creative, social activity that lets the players imagine they're adventuring like in a book or movie. It involves a certain degree of acting, problem solving, and group interaction (both real and through your character); and it satisfies that craving for winning battles, gaining treasure and improving your skills/getting stronger.
There is a lot more to be said on the subject, but for now this is a good run-down of my history with the game. Now I'll submit this post and see what the dragon gif looks like...
