When I was younger, we didn’t have a whole lot of limits on what we could and couldn’t consume in terms of media. I think I started watching rated R movies when I was around 6 or 7 years old. Of course, I started with the greats: Predator, Rambo III, Commando and the like. I guess my dad was really into burly dudes shooting machine guns, so I was into it, too.

However, through all of the blood and gore, there was one thing that my mom was always adamant that we couldn’t watch: anything with magic. Now, I don’t begrudge my mom for this choice. She was an awesome mom and did a great job with my brother and I. But it is pretty funny that I went to go see Terminator 2 in the theaters but wasn’t allowed to watch Escape from Witch Mountain. Even as my mom relaxed about this over the years, I remember being nervous when anything I was interested in had some kind of magic involved. In fact, I kept it a secret from her that I played RPGs for several years through middle school and high school.

This mindset actually kept me away from trying Dungeons and Dragons until a couple of years ago. After my first game I was so enthralled that I had to ask myself: why did I wait so long to play this?

Really, Dungeons and Dragons is the perfect kind of game for anyone that loves reading or telling a good story. It’s an organic story in the truest sense, because the players and the DM work together to create an epic tale, and see it played out every time they convene together for a campaign. I actually saw an article recently on Write Anything about how D&D games are perfect for aspiring writers, because it teaches them to write on the fly, how to build worlds and how to adapt to unpredictable curve balls like players that name themselves John McClane and roleplay the game like Bruce Willis’s character from Die Hard (yes, that’s happened in a game I’ve played). I’ve never tried out the DM thing before, but this makes me want to give it a go. It’d certainly be a nice testing ground for certain ideas.

Anyway, I definitely think the game is something worth checking out if you’re at all interested in stories and you’ve been avoiding the game due to its social stigma. I’d even recommend watching the episode of Community that’s nothing but a hilarious D&D game. It’s comic gold.

How many of you guys have played D&D before? Got any other unique board games you like to play?

Source – Write Anything

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