Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="jerichothebard" data-source="post: 1495864" data-attributes="member: 4705">Prefer not to say on a public forum, 29, San Francisco Bay Area, CAaka JerichotheBard on Enworld.org and Calai RedLeaf on Yahoo's adanddplayers group.I get to be braver, stronger, wiser, smarter, faster, handsomer, and just generally more than I am in real life.  For an evening or a weekend, I can perform miracles, save damsels, slay dragons, kick butt, cast spells, right wrongs, raid tombs, drink ale, and live dangerously. It's a social outlet, a low-pressure way to kick back with the guys (and some of the ladies!) and forget about the troubles of work and school and real life.And finally, for me at least, it offers a glimpse into my own being.  Often the characters I love best are the ones that are the most troubled.  As many psychologists have discovered, role-playing can be a powerful tool for self-examination.  As the character develops his own life, he often shines a light onto mine.As a result, I have learned much about myself, good and bad, through the game.  A couple characters in particular taught me a lot about some anger issues I didn't even know I had - and helped me to deal with it. Current: Argus, a dwarven cleric of Luck and Magic (level 2) / rogue (level 2) - sneakin' for goodness!andJericho, a half-elf cleric of music, knowledge and sunlight, level 6Favorite: Caliban, a changeling Fire mage (somewhere around 17th level, I think).  There are so many to choose from!  Ultimately, my favorite memories are the ones where the games were challenging without being rigged, and where the characters come alive and begin to take their own initiative.  Much like writers sometimes say that their characters begin to develop in ways they didn't expect, and react in ways that they can't control, so do mine.In particular, some of the best memories are the ones where I got to match wits with my friends - even when I didn't win!  For example, one of my favorite memories is actually the death of the only character I have ever had killed.  One of my close friends was playing a new character, a sort-of semi-retired villain, and through a long series of coincidences, wound up being assigned to kill my character.  I spent the entire evening trying to weasel out of it, and he was one step ahead of me the entire night.It was awe-inspiring to watch him plan everything out, and know there was no way out of the trap.  To know that every time I thought of an out, he was telling the DM what he was doing to counter that very thing.  It was also great because we were both able to keep meta-game knowledge out of the picture.  Although I knew what he was doing, and he knew I knew, we both played the characters strictly from their perspective and with only their bank of knowledge to draw upon.  This is actually very difficult, particularly when you are aware that it is likely to cost your character his life.It was also - and this made it, finally, palatable - totally in keeping with his character and the plot-line that the DM had, not exactly intentionally, set up for the evening.  Had it been a contrived setup, I would have been upset, but he was doing exactly what his character would do in that circumstance, and doing it as well as he could.  My overriding feeling that night was simple admiration - for his skill as a role-player, for his cleverness, for outthinking me every step, for being dedicated enough to the concept of staying in character to go through with it, even as he (as a player and friend) felt bad about it.See my answer to the appeal question.  That should pretty much sum it up. I have had a number of different gaming groups in my life.  The first was my geek high-school friends, and we gamed together and hung out and generally were friends for many years.  We would often spend whole weekends hanging out together and gaming until late into the night.  I was fortunate that my parents trusted me, and my friends.Later, after college, I hooked up with a group at a game day run by my local game shop. They never really became friends outside of the games, but I played in that campaign for several years.Recently, a couple of the gamers from this group joined a different group, and asked me to join as well.  This campaign has just gotten off the ground.A while ago, I started an on-and-off campaign of my own with some of my personal friends, which has been great.  We don't always play when we're together, but try to as often as is feasibile.Pretty much all these gatherings are the same, and always have been.  Snack food, dice, bad jokes and Monty Python quotes, laughter and good times.  Occasionally, we even get to the plot line of the campaign.  The only real difference between now and my first game is that we are now old enough to drink beer instead of Mountain Dew.I hope this information helps with your article.  I suspect that you are swamped with replies.  I am available for any further questions you might have!jtb</blockquote>

Verification