Don't be scared, you won't need all of those. At once.

Don't be scared, you won't need all of those. At once.

Nerd Games (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love RPGs)

You start work at a new office.  You meet someone on the subway or a streetcar, and conversation starts.  For someone like me (men in their early twenties), mentioning to someone you play video games still has a bit of a nerdy connotation to it.  Although video games have definitely become a mainstream form of entertainment for boys and girls alike and even more significantly men and women, if you ask someone you just met if they’ve played Fallout 3 or Oblivion, you run the risk of sounding like a nerd (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  You may even come across as childish, although  it’s become popular opinion that video games can and are played by men and women of all ages.   All said though, it’s not really too big of a deal.

Now try the exact same situation, but instead of asking your new-found friend if they have played the new Call of Duty or Batman: Arkham Asylum you ask them if they know what Dungeons and Dragons is.  Completely different story.  Telling someone in 2009 that you play Dungeons and Dragons is like telling someone in 1989 that you play video games – or Dungeons and Dragons, for that matter.

Playing in a basement is not a requirement.

Playing in a basement is not a requirement.

Now comes the part where I explain what Dungeons and Dragons is to the people who are ready to skip the rest of this article and Youtube “Cats Doing Things That Are Mildly Amusing.”

Dungeons and Dragons is a roleplaying game that has been the biggest influence for every other RPG ever made since.  Ever. Oblivion, Mass Effect, Diablo, you name it.  Even games like Mafia Wars on Facebook are a result of the core idea of roleplaying games. It is played by 2 or more players and one Games Master (GM).  The long and short of it is that each player creates a character according to the structure of the game, following a procedure to define their character’s various abilities and modus operandi.  The actual playing of the game is essentially that the GM is telling a story, in which all of the players are playing the roles of their respective characters.  Hence, role playing game.  There is a combat system so when the party needs to throw down it’s easy and fun to play and the rest of the time it is relatively free-roaming, with the GM providing narrative and some direction to the party who can act as they wish to accomplish the goal (save the girl, get the rock/sword/etc.).  And along the way you earn experience, which makes your characters gradually more badass, and gold, which allows you to buy more badass equipment for your characters, further increasing the badass quotient.

Sound familiar?  It should – it’s every RPG of all time.  So what’s with the stigma associated with paper-and dice RPGs?  The only difference between what I explained above and say, World of Warcraft is that the stories are invariably more interesting, the dynamic of the party is more story-driven, and instead of developing carpal tunnel syndrome clicking incessantly you roll dice to determine the outcome of combat and some skill-based checks here and there.  Also, you play across a table – not across a city, province, country or continent.

I haven’t been playing paper-and-dice RPGs for as long as I have been video gaming.  I was introduced to a great game called RIFTS by a good friend of mine when he moved to Toronto from Montreal.  Since then, I have kept playing with a group of friends throughout high school and during our respective post-secondary educations.  Sometimes a game is called off for a date or prior engagement, but we play once a week pretty regularly.  We’ve gone through elves, dwarfs, humans and half-orcs.  We’ve played rogues, wizards, sorcerers (yes, there’s a difference), fighters and clerics.  Dragons?  Slain ‘em.  Dungeons? Crawled ‘em.

Chapter 4 is how to play a half-elf without sounding like a douche

Chapter 4 is how to play a half-elf without sounding like a douche

But I digress.  The stigma of being a RPGamer – I just made that up, by the way, (edit: No I didn‘t – thanks, Google) has kept a lot of people from enjoying this great genre of gaming.  The fact that most people will play more FarmVille in their lives than RIFTS or D&D is depressing to say the least.  I will say that as much as I despise it, World of Warcraft has done more to bring paper-and-dice RPGs into the mainstream (by way of their similarities in a community-multiplayer idea) than anything else in the last 10 years.  A game that you really can’t play by yourself sounds like a hard idea to pitch to traditional gamers, but it worked.  Oh boy, did it ever work.

Although WoW brought the Diablo-esque MMORPG into mainstream culture, it’s still seen as a nerdy activity by most, and paper-and-dice RPGs even more so.  But I say great – I enjoy having a group of like-minded friends not worried about what everyone else is thinking, ready to play the nerdiest game we can think of.  It doesn’t hurt that some awesome celebrities play D&D – Vin Diesel is a class-A nerd, along with Robin Williams (although I’d imagine getting him to sit at a table for more than 10 minutes is more difficult than learning the game), Marilyn Manson, Stephen Colbert (getting him to shut up for a minute is probably even more difficult than getting Robin Williams to sit still) and of course, the ever-awesome Kevin Smith (who I would imagine runs very dialogue-heavy campaigns).

So the next time you meet a stranger and are looking for something to say, try asking if they have ever played a video game.  If they say yes, you could try asking if (gasp!) they have ever tried D&D.  You can always say “me neither” if they say no.

Just watch out for those Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) people.  You know, the ones that dress up as their characters and swing Styrofoam swords at each other?  Stay away from them; those guys are nerds.






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