Let's start where any adventure starts... The beginning (big surprise...). I had always heard about Dungeons and Dragons, but never knew much about it outside of its fantasy setting. One day, in my Senior year of High School, I was with my friend Jenkins in the cafeteria and he was working on a character for D&D (this was back in the 3.5 days). He was working on a Wizard, a Wizard with a throwing dagger that had Returning on it so it always came back to him. This sounded awesome so my interests were definitely peaked! As the weeks went by I heard more about the game and eventually I wanted to get in on the action. Soon I was at a friend's house rolling up a character.
Jenkins had invited me to join a one-shot his friend Jeff was running and my friend Babs was also playing. I decided to be a Dwarven Fighter. The hours seemed to go by as I made the character; all the information, numbers, pages and books (there were stacks of book), weapons and dice felt a bit overwhelming and I was confused about some things and still not sure how the game played. Once I was finished we started and everything started to make sense. We were three adventurers hired to investigate a string of disappearances that were plaguing a small farming town. It didn't take long before we found out Vampires were behind everything. So there we were, three comrades in arms fighting Vampires in a field on a moonlit night! Babs, who was playing a Paladin, was on his mount using Turn Undead to control the Vampires' movements to force them to run past me which gave me the chance to swing my Great Axe at them. It was about this moment when I realized that I loved Dungeons and Dragons!
Over the next few months I played many different games of D&D. One day I'd be a nimble Rogue tumbling past enemies and stealing gold, the next week I'd be a Monk breathing fire with the power of his mystical tattoos or a Ranger fighting off hordes of Kobolds with a sword and dagger. Eventually I even started being the Dungeon Master and sending my buddies on adventures. Then it was time for college and my friends went back to school since they had not graduated yet. We still lived in the same town, but didn't have any time to meet anymore.
About two years ago I found out that one of my good friends from college had most of the 4th edition D&D books and it turned out some of my other friends
were interested in playing too, so it was time for me to jump back in to adventure! After I read up on the 4th edition rules my new group of friends and I started playing together. At first we'd play what I call Colosseum, which is just combat encounters against random groups of enemies. This helped everyone get the hang of combat and understand a bit about character creation. Soon we were doing one-shots and starting (but not finishing) campaigns. Some of my friends even took the reigns and DMed and I was able to enjoy being a character in adventures. Eventually we did some games under 3.5 rules and now we are in a Star Wars d20 campaign and I'm finally seeing a story I've had in mind since High School come to fruition! My friends and I are having a lot of fun in Star Wars now.
So now, whether we are fighting in dungeons or having drinks in a cantina with some Rodians, I am able to share lots of laughs and adventures with my playgroup. These moments are what make RPGs so fun and exciting. If you haven't already, I suggest trying out a Role Playing Game with some pals. Go forth and explore!
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