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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dexterward" data-source="post: 1607219" data-attributes="member: 15087">Well, Yes and NoI answered no to the poll because I need a category that says "yes, all of the above". I got into D&D in 1979. A friend of mine was a councilor at the local Boy Scout camp and he was introduced to the game by a fellow councilor. The next evening around a camp fire he told me about this great game where you could be a medieval type character killing dragons, orcs, and other beasties.  Needless to say, I was completely enthralled by his D&D exploits.  At the end of the week when I came home from summer camp, I went out and bought the game at a local hobby store. I read the books from front to back several times over, and decided that I would rather play this neat game then be a DM. So, I convinced my mom to run a game for me and my two younger brothers. The session went well, but my brothers never really took to the game. This was my first mistake. While my mother is a very open minded person, she could not understand why I wanted to spend so much time playing this funny little game. When my father figured out what the game was about he decided that the best way to stop me from playing was to make fun of me in front of my friends and family. He continues to do so to this day, but usually the subject doesn't come up.  My second "conversion" took place in high school. I was never the most popular person in school, and when the local jocks caught me reading the monster manual, the real fun began. They would constantly make fun of me and my hobby, to the point of trying to steel my books and destroy them. When the news story broke about a college student getting trapped in sewer tunnels matters became worse.  The third time was in catechism class at the local Saint Pauls UCC. By this point everyone in my high school knew about my hobby. And to make matters worse, the jocks that loved to torment me at school were in my church. The pastor, deacons, and other church leaders tried to get me to see the "light". "D&D is bad, due to Satan's influence". Of course, 60 Minutes just happened to run a piece about a troubled teen that played D&D who committing suicide at the same time. I never onced stopped playing D&D, but I must admint that all the years of torment and grief I suffered has tainted me. To this day, I don't talk about D&D in public. I feel very uneasy when someone brings up a D&D topic and I am not with people I know that play the game. At game conventions, my FLGS, and D&D related web sites like ENWorld I can talk about D&D with out that feeling of angst. I know its not rational, but that dosen't stop the uneasy feeling I get.  Dexterward</blockquote>

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