I'm too "cool" to game

[aurin777]

Hey there. I thought I'd share this with you all here. Let me jump right in... about my senior year of highschool my friends and I noticed something: we had all not grown out of gaming, but rather we have become too absorbed with image to game. We spent all of highschool hiding AD&D books from girlfriends and other friends who didn't play, as well as lying to find reasons to get time away from others to game. Once, a friend of mine and I told our boss that we couldn't work on a friday night because we had to visit a sick friend in a city close to ours who was in the hospital. Little did our boss know that our sick friend was actually the last segment of Return to the Tomb of Horrors.

After my senior year I moved away for college and my gaming group all went to the same place (or close by), but we left the books at home. Now we have a few books here, but we fear to bring them out as someone may find them under a desk and begin to ask questions. In fact, all of my 3e books are in a box in my closet marked "drug paraphernilia." In a vain attempt to regain some of our gaming past, I began to work at the local gaming store my sophmore year of college, my excuse being "Hey, everybody needs a job, and I used to collect comic books when I was a kid so I know a lot about those things." Simultanously I was scooping up all the new 3E books as they came out, as well as reading all the ogl stuff for material I liked.

Now here I am, not having been in a game in close to three years, except one we play 3 times a year when we go back home to visit another friend of ours during the holidays. I think of the old days and our Dark Sun game... the planescape game we never ran but always wanted to, and now I sit in front of my monitor and wish I could play Fading Suns, or get into a game of d20 Modern, or just pick up the good ol' PHB and make and roll up a dwarven fighter and jump back into things.

But no, I'm too "cool" to game. *sorrowful sigh*
~~Brandon

 

[Olive]

duuuuude...

you don't have to TELL everyone you game! I was too cool to game, but did on the sly, but more and more of my friends found out, and didn't care. they thought it was wierd, but they didn't care.

 

[dema]

Man oh man,

Just tell people you like to slay demons, and ride dragons.

I don't know why but when I begin to speak about my adventures as if they are real, well they are of course, the girls at work begin to evaluate me. I work in a mental health residence, but still.

There are demons, I swear. And there are these holy books that have rules for killing them. Plus you need these cool dice that help you kill the demons. Tis all real.

Too Cool for DND? heh- DnD was a good part of my life, I admit to and proudly talk about role playing.

People ask what did you do friday night? Well one answer can be chilled with some friends and killed some freaky monsters.

Nuff said.

 

[WanderingMonster]

In fact, all of my 3e books are in a box in my closet marked "drug paraphernilia."

Mmmm. Much cooler. My parents would be relieved, let me tell you.

Mom: "Oh thank God. It's a probably just a bong and some crack pipes. At least he's not doing the D&P"
Dad: "That's D&D, Marjorie."
Mom: "Well how, praytell, would you know, Howard?"

 

[Slomoot]

Actually this got me to thinking, how do you explain a hobby like this to people? I wish I could count the wierd looks given by girlfriends over the years as I tried to explain to them it was't that wierd... (although just saying "thats my roomates" seems to work better ) Anyone have any crazy experances? I remember my roommate and I going to meet the guys next door on a friday night (very intoxicated I might add...) and found them to be playing D&D, it scared the crap out of them as they percieved us to be drunk frat guys coming to "root them out"....

peace
Miles

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

If you're concerned about your image (which you shouldn't... but that's a topic for a rant of mine and i might get to that in a few lines anyway... moving right along) then game, but don't announce to the whole world that you're a gamer. Let's face it, the whole world doesn't love RPGs like we do, and you know what? I'm glad that they don't. Everyone needs their own little quirks, everyone needs some hobbies, and I think RPGs fill the position marvelously. Don't bother hiding your books in a box marked "drug paraphanalia," just leave them on a shelf. If you truly have friends and not just "friends" they aren't going to disown you because they find D&D books in your collection of stuff! Hell, maybe if someone who isn't a gamer and he/she sees your books, they might ask you about it...or ask you to play!

< begin rant.... >
Why care what anyone thinks about you? You are you, and you are great! If someone doesn't like you because of what you are, then ignore them, and let them consume their own crap! I went through three years of absolute misery in middle school trying to hide what I was: a nerd! By trying to act cool, I just removed any shred of personality from myself--i hardly had a sense of humor and I NEVER smiled. Most people who knew the real me told me that I "walked around with a rod shoved up my ass." At the end of 8th grade, I met my best friend, and she changed my life. She got me to lighten up and to just be myself. It was great advice I had ignored before but it finally sunk in when she told me.

I've had a great time in high school because of my attitude now--I've found new friends, new hobbies, and new activities. Hell I'm going to be studying what i'm studying at University next year because of my attitude. (A high school history teacher and drama coach, if anyone was wondering)

Be yourself. Love yourself. If someone doesn't like you, just ignore them and tell them to bite you (not to their face, necessarily). If they don't want to be friends with you, then that's their loss entirely.

Don't give up anything you love just to try and stay "cool." I'm a nerd and I'm DAMN PROUD OF IT!!!! You should be too.

< /rant >

Jesus Christ, I sound like Stewart Smalley... i think it's damn good advice though.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

eh, I've found that noone really cares. Well, scratch that anyone with a hobby is bound for some encounter with girlfriends that will be unpleasant.

Outside of that, however, I find that people are generally pretty flexible as long as they are comfortable with me in the first place. I like to think that I bring a lot to the friendship table and I've found that most people aren't deterred by such a silly, and avoidable, little habit.

I do avoid trying to convert anyone who hasn't shown interest, and I generally only bring it if I can make it relevant.

When someone asks me about my books, I bear them proudly and openly in order to attract the attention of other gamers, I explain that I find the books to be interesting intellectual exercises.

And yeah, in the long run the competition between drug paraphenalia and DnD books is close match in my parents' eyes.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I think Dr. Strangemonkey is pretty much right. I really haven't met too many people that cared, and the ones that did raise an eyebrow never said anything more (must have been that feral gleam in my eye!) Luckily I ended up with a girl that found gaming to her liking, so I haven't had too many issues on that front either.

One interesting thing is that I've spent a bit of time at local gamings stores (sorry, but the acronym FLGS annoys me for some reason), and the one thing I've noticed that all gamers have in common is absolutely nothing. I've seen people who could have been doctors in there buying books, and I've seen ordinary looking folk there as well. Of course there were a few geeks, but hey, is there anything wrong with being a geek?

My advice is get out of the proverbial closet, stop making excuses. You never know who you might run into that also games. The next thing you know, you'll have a game going.

 

[tleilaxu]

you don't have to tell anyone if you don't want to. man... i always hid DND from my girlfriends until my current girlie of more than 2 years now. We live together, so it is awfully hard to hide those DND books.

Thing is, she doesn't care. Never underestimate the power of apathy. To her I am just going to hang out with my male friends and she doesn't care what we do there. She shows no interest in DND at all. This is a good thing. It is a big weight off my shoulders not to feel like i need to hide something.

 

[Malin Genie]

I've seen people who could have been doctors in there buying books, and I've seen ordinary looking folk there as well.

What are you saying about us? Huh? We look different to regular people?

(The really fun thing about the combination is describing the sucking chest wounds and comminuted fractures as the party tips into negative hp .... muwahahahahahaha)