Why I Game

So, I play role-playing games. I'm not ashamed to admit it, especially in this new, sparkling age of geek-culture prominence. I some times have to explain to people what role-playing games are, and even then it's hard for some people to get their heads around. Like most things, the ability to grasp a concept depends to a large degree on what your experiences have been and what you have exposed yourself to. 


By role-playing games I mean table-top, pencil-and-paper games. The most famous of these is Dungeons and Dragons, but there are RPGs for every taste and fancy, and they cover pretty much every genre, setting, or historical era one can imagine.


I think I play RPGs for a number of reasons - if reason is the right word. The first that comes to mind is that when gaming, I get to sit around a table with a bunch of fairly like-minded people and make up a story. Collaborative creativity is a wonderful thing, and something I very much enjoy. As a professional colorist, I get paid to be creative - and that's a marvelous thing for which I am thankful - but I do it alone. My general introverted nature and propensity for detail is what makes that possible. Most weeks, our Tuesday-night game is the only social, non-family thing I do.


There's a lot of banter at the gaming table. This is my big chance to chit-chat about what's happening in the lives of the people gathered, about movies, tv shows, comics, recent news, and whatever someone is reminded of by something that is happening in the game. We're pretty respectful of why we all came together, so that doesn't derail the game itself too much.


Unusual sorts of things that happen in RPGs. I guess that's kind of the point! Accumulations of scenarios and challenges and the abilities and traits of the characters we're playing and the things those characters succeed heroically or fail spectacularly at can produce situations that are so far outside the normalcy of life that one hears things at the gaming table that would not, even could not, be heard anywhere else - and they are often hilarious. I look forward to my own tear-inducing laughter every week.