In spite of a pretty darn nerdy upbringing, that was one subculture that eluded me in its purest form: Dungeons & Dragons (DnD). I never played as a kid. The closest experience I had to it were role-playing computer games in MS-DOS that I usually played by myself.
Come to think of it, I didn’t grow up with anyone who had multi-sided dice or a mind for creating challenging, fantastical scenarios. I grew up in the dawn of the computer age, where probabilistic encounters did not require the processing of a dungeon master (DM) or even … another human being.
I discovered DnD well into my 30s, and I am HOOKED.
Here’s my pitch to those of you who seem skeptical towards a game culture often relegated to be strictly for nerds. DnD is for people who like to play, perform, improvise, calculate, collaborate, narrate, and transcend. It takes a certain type of spirit to truly enjoy it.
While spending time in the trenches of the Hollywood scene, an filmmaker buddy of mine told me that he and his girlfriend are active DnD players, which makes perfect sense. Who better than creative storytelling, performing people by trade to apply their skills to an environment without limitation?
