Dungeons and Dragons

Over the weekend my friends and I began a geek journey together. It one of the most quintessentially geeky activities that has ever existed: Dungeons and Dragons.

Cover of the original Dungeons and Dragons Rule Book

Dungeons and Dragons was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974. Since that time Dungeons and Dragons has brought nerd friends together, gave them an outlet for their imaginations and protected their virginities better than any chastity belt ever created.

Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game. To play, one player will act as the Dungeon Master. This player will create a storyline, develop quests, and create dungeons filled with enough monsters and traps to make the other players curse them incessantly, while still having fun. The way in which this is done varies between game to game. Some games and decked out with full scale board to cover the dungeons with players using miniature figurines to move their characters around like a board game. When I played with my brother when I was 10, it was all just a lot of him talking with lots of graph paper as references.

Yeah, you try remembering where in this maze you killed the Goblin that probably had the key.

The non-Dungeon Master players create characters to live in the fantasy world your egomaniacal friend in charge has created. These characters derive heavily from the Tolkien mythology. You can play as a dexterous elf thief, or a brave human ranger, or even an eccentric gnome illusionist. You can choice race, battle-class, looks, gender, equipment, etc. Once you have done that you are ready to take on your dungeon. The best Dungeon Masters create quests that are challenging but not impossible. The game isn't fun if you're always going to die. Although, I believe that all Dungeon Masters secretly hope to annihilate all of their friends to get their jollies.

While you may think that is your friend behind the screen, it is actually the face of pure evil.

In the end, whether the players win or lose will come down to their preparation with the right equipment and spells and a significant amount of luck. Nearly every decision in Dungeons and Dragons is decided through dice rolls. You roll to see how strong you character is. The Dunegon Master rolls to see how bad-ass his monsters are. Need to swing you sword at that giant spider? Roll the dice. Need to search a room for traps? Roll the dice. Need to see if you have a successful bowel movement? Roll the dice.

Dungeons and Dragons isn't the only role-playing game out there. In addition to countless other fantasy RPGs, there are some for science fiction, vampire slaying, even Dragonball Z has its over version. Get enough nerds interested in anything and they'll make a role-playing game out of it.

Not going to lie, was so tempted to pick this one up in the middle of my addiction.

Dungeons and Dragons does remain the most popular role-playing game, and it is the one most often referenced in pop-culture. The game has inspired a cartoon series, an Online MMORPG video game and even a really terrible series of movies based on the game.

Come on Jeremy Irons, you're better than this.

Anyways, next time I will chronicle my friends' start as we create our characters. It was an interesting afternoon so ya'll should check it out when it goes up.