Role-playing has to be one of my favorite things ever. I love it, and I love my group too, even if they drive me crazy sometimes.
But I’ve had plenty of people ask me what D&D’s about, and I feel like I can never quite explain it. I do my best, but sometimes, it’s so difficult to capture everything. It’s not just getting together, rolling some oddly shaped dice, and killing some orcs; it’s about spending time with your friends, stretching your imagination, and above all, having fun. It’s forming inside jokes, messing up, and getting into arguments.
Just tonight, I had one of the most awesome sessions of D&D I ever had. All I planned was a short fight against a half-dragon halfling were-rat swarm (and don’t worry if that confuses you, it was supposed to be a “what the hell” type of fight). It was supposed to be interesting, but not too difficult.
Except the barbarian absolutely refused to roll well. As the rats swarmed over him, they tore him apart, they infected him with diseases and lycanthropy, and he was nauseated almost the entire fight, and he was pretty much the only one who could deal respectable damage to them. He rolled four 1’s and four 3’s in a row, that’s a one-in-25,600,000,000 chance. And every time, we laughed. We laughed as every buff they could throw on him ended up failing, and we laughed until it hurt. And then, when they finally took down the enemy, there was a sense of triumph.
So they went back to town, and I started winging things. Through a long, contrived series of events (and much arguing, yelling, threats, and character interactions), they’ve managed to raise a militia of 250 men against an army of orcs coming to sack the town. While trying to find a way to extend their currently three month lifespan. And avoiding being murdered by another aspect of their personality.
And the thing is, this was all awesome, at the time. It’s still awesome in memory. But for anybody who happens to read this, it won’t carry the same emotions. It may be incomprehensible, for all I know.
So I guess, in the end, role-playing is just having fun and making memories with friends, like anything else. But I’ll tell you this: it’s my preferred method of having fun.
