1981: Belated or sad milestone, take your pick

I’m going to keep the above artwork/banner/header for my site a little longer because it is tied to this story I failed to complete on time; stupid health and weather.

So why did I go with the old, rather cheesy-looking original D&D books? Around this time 30 years ago I was introduced to the hobby by Dan Blankenberger and if my parents could travel back in time, they probably would’ve prevented him from going to St. Agnes. Seriously.

Dan had just transferred to my school in the middle of the year and when he introduced himself to the class, he said his father worked for the Social Security department, he had grown up in Indiana, he had three brothers and one sister and he was into the game Dungeons & Dragons. Having been the new kid several times myself, I figured I’d help him out since the various cliques at St. Agnes weren’t terribly friendly. I was also in need of a new friend after discovering what jackasses most of my classmates were; years later I’ve realized it was their blossoming drinking, drug and sex addictions.

As for D&D, I had heard about it through Games magazine: they did a big article covering the game and how it “worked” back around 1980. In their annual “Top 100” feature from the December issues, D&D and some other title called Traveller were always listed too. I already had an interest in the Middle Ages since I was younger and by the age of 12 I was starting to discover the “gateway literature,” aka J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. Now with Dan entering the equation, I could receive me a better, more elaborate clarification and demonstration.

I don’t remember Dan presenting a coherent explanation at all (he was my age), but what I did hear was intriguing: rangers, elves, goblins, dragons, gold, battles, magic, evil gods, castles, underground cities, so on. He may have been talking about his character or the current storyline an older brother was running (I’m using layman’s terms, D&D is awash in its own technical jargon).It didn’t matter, his anecdotes were enough…I had to play this game. Poor Dan. Looking back, I don’t think he was as enthused since he already siblings to share this hobby with and he was more interested in watching HBO at my house; he probably didn’t have much privacy at home either.

Still, Dan entertained me by setting up and refereeing an adventure with my very first character Landrew (ripped off from Star Trek). He had other motives too. To make sure my warrior survived, Dan had a character of his own accompany me; he planned to have this companion built up to take on quests managed by his older brother. In short, Dan was performing a weird silly version of cheating. Today’s equivalent would be buying a powerful World of Warcraft character/account off eBay or from those Korean gold-mining operations. Even if I knew better, I didn’t care. The experience was exciting and in some ways…addictive. Not addictive like drugs, more along the lines of dying to know what was next. It was the same thrill I received from seeing Star Wars for the first time. Remember how the movie ends? Inconclusively! The Rebels had only handed the Empire a temporary setback and Lucas wouldn’t deliver a sequel until 1980! I couldn’t wait that long when I was nine, hence all those awesome toys came to the rescue to fill the void for millions of kids. Dungeons & Dragons was the equivalent of Star Wars toys for kids turning into teenagers (and older) except they could make their own epic fantasy sagas.

Then Excalibur hit theaters. This really fueled everybody’s interest in Fantasy. Dan’s older brother started running a lunchtime game with the eighth graders; I wasn’t allowed to play being an unpopular seventh grader, same for poor Dan. We had to settle for the daily football tag competitions.

School ended by early June and I figured there would be more time to enjoy my newfound excitement. Sadly Dan’s family moved to the other side of Springfield by the middle of the month. This brought my brief friendship with Dan to an abrupt end; being adolescents, we didn’t have the resources to stay in touch.

Aunt Helen’s sudden death interrupted any attempts or contemplation on the matter. The loss of this relative was very painful, especially to Grandma. After the funeral, Mom had a brilliant idea. She had me stay with Grandma for a couple weeks to help her overcome her grief. Teenagers are probably the last people on Earth to help comfort the elderly. I can’t remember how Brian got to be off the hook for this. Bored out of my skull and self-absorbed, I cajoled Grandma into the 12 clams for the D&D basic set from the nearby KB Toys. I was on my way to figure out what Dan didn’t teach me.

When I returned to Springfield, I recruited my brother and the other neighborhood kids to check it out. The hours we wasted plundering the numerous caves in the Borderlands (the only adventure the set contained). D&D was really just another Summertime activity we did between kickball, ghost in the graveyard, baseball and riding our bikes through Washington Park. Nobody morphed into the stereotypical overweight uber-nerd.

For my birthday I received more money to get additional stuff which was relatively easy. Due to the hobby’s growing popularity with mainstream America, I could find stuff at the mall’s B. Dalton or Waldenbooks. Later on I learned that the best place in Springfield was a local hardware store. Sounds weird initially yet it makes sense later. They had a section dedicated to traditional hobbies: model railroads, RC planes so this was just a logical extension of the department to them. Onward I went.

Looking back it seems as everything was going TSR’s way in 1981 (the game’s original publisher). Dragonslayer appeared in theaters by July to keep the momentum Excalibur started and there was talk of a Conan the Barbarian movie. Knock-off products tried to capitalize on the newfound interest: The mediocre Dark Tower board game featuring Orson Welles in the commericials; horrendous video games: Venture in arcades and Adventure on the Atari. TSR gained a partnership with Mattel Toys for equally crappy stuff: D&D for Intellivision and an electronic board game.

The era was running in D&D’s favor too. Computers were very expensive and didn’t do much to justify their price tags. Home-based videogame systems were primitive with catalogs of fun yet rote games; something immersive was years away. Few knew about the Internet and it was confined to universities. What else was there to entertain a 12-year-old nerdy kid in the Midwest?

My 30 years with D&D has been a rather positive experience despite what Mom and Dad have said or thought over the years. In many ways I’m also very fortunate. Not many gamers (as their called) ever met the primary author Gary Gygax and even fewer worked with him. I wish I could say it was a pleasure; Gygax was a egotistical douche who believed his own mythology. I can say that I never thought I would work in game publishing when the opportunity presented itself 10 years later…a story which has its twentieth anniversary this Fall.

The hobby has given me much more than a short career. Through it I made many friends in high school; lugging a Player’s Handbook around was a precursor to modern social networks; college: it was a good break between binge-drinking sessions (I exaggerate); and beyond. I probably would’ve never read the lesser-known Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors whose DNA is in D&D; it’s not all Tolkienesque. It gave me an outlet to maintain the typing skills I gained from Strake Jesuit and extended toward my interest in Desktop Publishing: Wow, QuarkXpress could help me make a clear, concise character sheet. Eventually, it helped me overcome my mental block with writing which a lifetime of formal education inhibited by making it a joyless task.

For thousands of computer science workers, D&D’s randomization provided the guidelines to write code (character generators were common) which they do for a livelihood. The story/roleplaying element inspired hundreds of authors, actors, musicians, writers and obviously, comedians (Stephen Colbert is a famous one). The culmination of both elements and the complex rules became the foundation for online games like World of Warcraft (WoW), Everquest, City of Heroes and the licensed settings.

Nowadays, my dedication has waned. At my age it takes some effort to find people to play and the arguments it caused 30 years hasn’t changed. Certain people just drain the joy from it too with their passive-aggressive bullshit, hence my being tossed out/leaving the last group three years ago.

Personally, I find the strides through computers a double-edged sword. On the upside, products like WoW have solved some of D&D’s problems: always having someone around to play with; knowing the rules; an impartial referee; no need for preparation, you just log in and go. The negatives D&D has got amplified through WoW: it caters to the socially retarded; there’s nothing to enforce roleplaying, it is a complicated version of button mashing; and the imagination incentive is removed but I think most Americans are comfortable with their laziness. This cascades over to the traditional tabletop game for me being ruined. You invite some people, usually younger, and their D&D characters are merely extensions of the videogame Gauntlet going “Pew! Pew! Pew!” with lightning and poor roleplaying which makes Stallone look like a master thespian. The recent Fourth Edition tried to capitalize on this mindset. I think it’s failing miserably but I’m probably wrong once Hasbro (the current owner) whips out a balance sheet.

Will I retire? Grow the hell up as my parents would say? Not likely. I have had my interest and involvement ebb several times before, especially when GDW ended badly. The people behind Pathfinder which is derived from D&D appear to be doing a great job so I throw them a few bucks occasionally. Plus someone is looking to start a new game, if I have the time, I may take him up on his offer.