And now, our regularly scheduled blog-post
Where we last left off, I was in a Waldenbooks store, in which I found a product related to Dungeons and Dragons. Since I, at the time, enjoyed Eye of the Beholder, I picked up the product and brought it home. And there, in the silence of my room, I opened the product and read through every book held within. Sure, it wasn't long reading, but it gave me an idea on where the rules came from for the video game, and also made me want to play the game so bad. The game came with pre-made characters, since rules for character creation came with the Player's Handbook (which I didn't buy). The game also came with tokens for monsters and such and a map filled with rooms. With the three booklets, one had the pre-made characters, one had the rules, and one was filled with adventures. I remember cutting up the map so I could custom make my own dungeons and such. I know, slaughtering the resale value, but I would never sell such memories.
The very first dungeon was very, very basic. A unicorn that healed travelers in this one forest and generally kept things safe was kidnapped by goblins, and then adventurers were hired to save the day. The dungeon was only two rooms, the sleeping quarters of the goblins, and the prison for the unicorn. The adventure mainly served to introduce new players to combat and skill checks. This adventure also introduced me to the difficulty of being both the DM and the PCs. It's like playing badminton and tennis at the same time!
And now that I spent two brief paragraphs on the Adventure Game (since I cannot find the kickass quote on the back of the box, beyond remembering the first sentence being something like "There is something moving behind that door..."), I shall now completely ignore it until the end to talk about the official core books... erm... the two-of-three core books that I did get. I bought the Players Handbook and the Monster Manual. I did not get the Dungeon Master's Guide. That's like getting a BLT without the T (although, I would order a BLT without the T, not the hugest fan of raw tomatoes; so a BLP without the P?). However, with the extension of the rules, and more monsters than I could wave a stick at, I was a nerd in Heaven. I was also an oxymoron in some regards; an Evangelical playing a game that many Evangelicals consider the work of Satan, but let's not delve to deeply into that mess. With the expanded rules, I began writing my own adventures. Sure, they were basic and bland as fuck, but they were still exponentially better than Twilight.
However, if Twilight was all about this guy, I would be the biggest Twihard
on the planet. Charlie: Vampire Hunter. Instead, we got Bella and Edward...
I looked forward to the times when I would have some change in my wallet. I would walk past the video game stoes right into Waldenbooks to buy up all the supplement books for D&D (and yet it never occured to me to buy the DMG). Dungeons and Dragons also revived my interest in reading, leading me to read the Lord of the Rings, the Dragonlance Chronicles, and the like. These books fed back into my imagination which lead me to buy more supplement books which would make me interested to read, which would continue this cycle that made me three things: imaginative, well rounded, and dirt poor. It isn't too much of a stretch to say that, in a way, purchasing the D&D Adventure Game saved my life.
The D&D Adventure Game gave me a place to go to when the outside world made me sad and weary. The adventures gave me a way to fulfill my wonderlust, and gave me a way to experience catharsis over the roughest things. Yes, Dungeons and Dragons saved my life.
Now, being from a rural town, I didn't really have anyone to play with, then High School happened.
And a fateful question would be asked....
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