I’ve Created a Monster

Well, I haven’t created so much of a monster, as I have a 1^st level Brawny Rogue.

Last night was the first time I’ve ever played Dungeons and Dragons, and as we wrapped up to head to our respective homes, I found myself wishing that I’d done this years decades ago.

Basically, I blame Whil Wheaton (yes the ‘h’ in ‘Wil’ is on purpose) and Mike and Jerry from Penny Arcade. Both Wil and Jerry are old hat at D&D, but Mike is brand new. I’ve both read about and heard from Wil about how awesome the game is, and with Mike a quick convert, it really began to eat at me.

These guys are geek icons. I feel I identify with them on various levels, and I find them immensely smart and talented. I felt as though I’d really been missing out.

So, I talked to an old friend and ex-coworker, Paul. Paul and I worked together at directnic.com from early ’02 to mid ’05 (his tenure was /much/ longer), and he and I became good friends – one of the handful of people I’ve kept in touch with regularly since my departure. Anyways, Paul’s been more or less playing this fell game for as long as I’ve been alive. I’m 30.

I’m just going to let that set in.

…

After talking for Paul about my interest in getting a game together, we figured that after the wedding (which he was a groomsman in) we’d talk a bit more seriously about actually doing it. I’d also talked to Allen about it, and he was definitely interested. Well, Paul talked to my old boss Chris, and also to his old roommate Will who also worked with us at directnic.com and I see all the time. Well, Will talked to our friend Lando, and before we knew it, we had a group.

We met up once at the best bar on the Westbank (where most of this group lives) to really get things going, and got together the following week for character building and basics on game mechanics. Allen and I couldn’t make it for various reasons, unfortunately.

But last night. Ohhhh, last night. We were all able to meet up, and let me tell you, I picked it up pretty quickly and really had a blast. The only downside is that I wish we’d had more time to play, and that I didn’t have to wait to weeks to play again (to make things easy, we’re playing every other Tuesday).

At Paul’s suggestion, I built my character off of a character I was already familiar with: Batman. He’s a brawny rogue, and fun and easy to play.

I even had the wife alter an image (she removed the mask) of some Batman-in-the-Old-West fanart:

Chris created a warlock, Allen created a tiefling (humans with demonic ancestry) based on Hellboy, other Will created a cow-farmer-turned-fighter named Philadelphia Collins, and Lando created a character named Pablo the Escobarbarian. Need I say more?

Well, I’m hooked. Thank you Wil, Mike, Jerry, Paul, and Chris for helping me to find a missing piece that I didn’t even realize was missing.

And thanks to my wife, Bea, for putting up with my overwhelming and ever-expanding nerdery and geekery – which is exactly how it should be (both the putting up with and the expanding *.ery).