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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 43508" data-attributes="member: 259">Well, my main point is that I found it easier in high school to be feared than to be mocked.  As an adult, I'd rather not be feared OR mocked -- but when I was sixteen, it was kind of a power trip.  Especially when people were afraid of me for ridiculous reasons.Here's my childhood D&D story, since we're sharing <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.When I was in the seventh grade, my parents decided D&D was hurting my school grades (they may have been right -- or gee, maybe it was because our home was tense as a guitar string around that time).  Plus they thought it was going to make me grow up into a psycho serial killer -- or worse, join the army.  So they forbade me to play.I invented a library study group at school, told them I was going to that.  They found out, and took away all my books.After a couple of months, I wrote a letter to TSR.  "Dear TSR," I said.  "My parents think that D&D is bad for my schoolwork and Satanic and stuff.  Do you have any research showing that it isn't?"I know that knocking TSR is pretty de rigueur, and I agree that a lot of what they did is crap.  But boy, on this case, they sure came through.  A few weeks later, I got a packet from them with articles by Joyce Brothers, essays by theologians, research from peer-reviewed journals, and more, showing the positive moral and intellectual influence that role-playing games could have.I showed these to my parents.  They didn't necessarily agree with all the articles, they said, but they were so impressed by my initiative that they'd let me start playing again, as long as I did it responsibly.  "Stay here," my dad said, "and I'll go get the books.""Don't bother," I answered, and went upstairs and retrieved them from the place where they'd been hidden.It's always good to get in the last jab with your parents <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.Daniel</blockquote>

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