That ridiculously silly title was all thanks to a tumblr called “Out of Context D&D Quotes” it’s a silly website filled with many hilarious Dungeons and Dragons quotes taken way out of context and that is the perfect way to introduce today’s topic DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS!
Yep if you didn’t read my “Who am I” page then shame…no double shame on you! I love dungeons and dragons, Why? Because it’s not everyday that I can play as a 7 foot tall giant who channels the mysterious spirits of the Mad Max World (ok it’s not literally the burnt out world of Mad Max but its close enough analog). The fantastic trappings of Dungeons and Dragons began in 1974 with Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and ever since then its seen a roller coaster of social dogma that has never quite absconded from the cultural mindset. Just the mere mention of playing the game in some settings can cause social chaos..take for instance I knew a guy in college that upon finding out I played treated me as though every saturday I slaughtered a cow to Baal (Seriously the nerve of this guy! it was a chicken to Aspothet on Fridays…kidding!). This stigmatic reaction to a tabletop game was because in the 80’s some kids killed themselves, now the real kicker is that D&D had nothing to do with it. Some of these kids did play and some had social and mental disorders but that doesn’t link the murders and suicides to Dungeons and Dragons…does it?
The answer is no…I guarantee that in twenty years when a child (lets call him William Mayes) builds a beautiful skyscraper his mom will NOT be quoted as saying “Thank God little Billy played so much minecraft growing up.” Or lets say B. Mayes grows up to be a chef his father will not say “Well it started when I gave Billy Mayes here a copy of Cooking Mama for his DS not once but twice”. Here is the thing…if you try hard enough then you can draw a correlation to anything. Let’s see your siting in front of a computer and you’ve probably broke the speed limit that means computers make you a bad driver…no wait you probably cried during the final scene of Fast 7 which means you seen all the other Fast and the Furious movies which means that The Fast and the Furious made you speed…by that logic this picture makes a lot of sense
Wait Vin Diesel was in the Fast and Furious movies and he is a fan of Dungeons and Dragons which means…NO Dungeons and Dragons is responsible for reckless driving!
Seriously back to the first point…Dungeons and Dragons…why is it awesome? Well its a social experiment far more than it is a game. In the campaign I’m playing slavery is totally cool, there is no social stigma about killing someone because he looked at me wrong…basically its as though Mad Max crashed his car into the Mos Eisley Cantina blaring the Scorpions “Rock you like a hurricane”. So in this world I’m playing as a giant shaman who is actually a decent guy! He killed a slave trader that was going to kill a child to settle a debt thus my character (Eg’lath) was condemned to die but he escaped and made it into another crummy situation. Basically I’m playing what would happen to the only decent person in a world of lousy people. Thus begins the social experiment, because now I am allowed in my own mind to build up this mental notion of what would happen if I was the only good person left in a world of tyranny. On the flip side I have played a character that was a paladin of a dark god but pretended to be a good guy..this allowed me to construct the notion of a person being so totally two-faced that one side had to win and it built a figure of what would it take for evil to win over good and vise versa.
I say all that to say playing Dungeons and Dragons isn’t just some nerd game its a game that allows introspection into who we as people are…does playing a sleazy character come naturally? If so from what part of ourselves…do we consider it part of ourselves or are we building a totally new construct in our mind that allows us to deal with our own awful morality? One of my all time favorite characters to play was a rogue who claimed to be a thief king but in reality never stole anything. Its how I am in life sometimes…I want to be tough and that guy who everyone fears at work, but deep down I’m a marshmallow who is more of a peaceful bard than a barbarian.
Well its been great! Tweet me your responses @President_Doug or like comment and subscribe! I love hearing feedback and want to make sure I’m doing a good job at entertaining and enlightening you folks!
Guardians ofthe Geekiverse 