Thank you, Gary Gygax RIP....
Why I prefer D&D geeks over sports heros...
The opportunity to explore characters by using an arbitrary dice roll that suggests a characters core persona and problem solving within those constraints. You can forgo your own assumptions, limitations or fears held about yourself and try out solving conflicts with different circumstances. The general world around bays at the moon with massive pride for team athletes is considered sane yet bores me to tears. D&D allowed me to explore histories and languages and appreciate the massive amounts of human brain power necessary to build a society. I've never gotten that from baseball, football, hockey, or even horse racing. Fantasy role playing let me explore and open up my perspective. Surrounded by others who wanted to learn in a fun environment I could address social ills such as prejudice and truly get another point of view. I will never know the pain of being an outsider entering another culture and trying to survive and make gains. Yet in a game I could be forced to try to communicate in order to bargain and not insult other cultures. Empathy.
I am never going to participate in the Olympics, but I watch and appreciate the beauty and hard work. I can with a group of friends explore things I can do here but haven't been given an opportunity. Years ago Bill gave me a gift of trying to run an all girl game. One guy crashed it, but the opportunity to play with girls, and all their characters decided to go shopping. One thing I FEAR greatly about being a human woman is my complete lack of understanding of this phenomenon, yet in a play world it was safe and very funny.
Fantasy role playing has given to me FUN, ADVENTURE, FRIENDSHIPS, and some very lovely lessons I can take into the hard real world.
People who don't understand or haven't experienced this, well they don't have to, I'm not going to call them names like geek, nerd, weirdo, spazz. I can over look their prejudices because it comes from a place of fear, they fear a game that requires individual thoughts for a groups progress.
POLO
Peace Out, Love Out to everyone!
The opportunity to explore characters by using an arbitrary dice roll that suggests a characters core persona and problem solving within those constraints. You can forgo your own assumptions, limitations or fears held about yourself and try out solving conflicts with different circumstances. The general world around bays at the moon with massive pride for team athletes is considered sane yet bores me to tears. D&D allowed me to explore histories and languages and appreciate the massive amounts of human brain power necessary to build a society. I've never gotten that from baseball, football, hockey, or even horse racing. Fantasy role playing let me explore and open up my perspective. Surrounded by others who wanted to learn in a fun environment I could address social ills such as prejudice and truly get another point of view. I will never know the pain of being an outsider entering another culture and trying to survive and make gains. Yet in a game I could be forced to try to communicate in order to bargain and not insult other cultures. Empathy.
I am never going to participate in the Olympics, but I watch and appreciate the beauty and hard work. I can with a group of friends explore things I can do here but haven't been given an opportunity. Years ago Bill gave me a gift of trying to run an all girl game. One guy crashed it, but the opportunity to play with girls, and all their characters decided to go shopping. One thing I FEAR greatly about being a human woman is my complete lack of understanding of this phenomenon, yet in a play world it was safe and very funny.
Fantasy role playing has given to me FUN, ADVENTURE, FRIENDSHIPS, and some very lovely lessons I can take into the hard real world.
People who don't understand or haven't experienced this, well they don't have to, I'm not going to call them names like geek, nerd, weirdo, spazz. I can over look their prejudices because it comes from a place of fear, they fear a game that requires individual thoughts for a groups progress.
POLO
Peace Out, Love Out to everyone!