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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pazu" data-source="post: 797366" data-attributes="member: 679">This point bears repeating.When I first starting gaming (oh, back around 1980 or thereabouts), I had no idea that it should be considered anything strange.  There were a bunch of us in middle school who played AD&D fairly regularly, and it was during that period of time where practically everyone I knew in middle school or high school had at least "tried" the game once.Just two years later, in 8th grade, I was sitting in class flipping through whatever issue of DRAGON magazine was current at the time (waiting for class to start, honest! <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 some people started making fun of me.  Now, this was not a particularly new thing in general, but what was unusual in this particular instance was that 1) I learned that AD&D was not considered "cool", and 2) one of the people making fun of me was the person from whom I'd borrowed the issue of the magazine in the first place!I remember being so completely astounded at the hypocrisy that I was literally speechless.  I finally managed to say something to the effect of, "Hey, it's your magazine, dude!" to which he responded "At least I don't read it in public."  As if this made him a better person.Of course, in the fullness of time he blossomed into a more completely-developed <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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" /><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=":)" /> and I promptly excised him from my list of friends.Another point that bears repeating.Ironically, it was a different hobby that taught me this lesson.  During the latter part of high school and first year of college, I was desperately in (unrequited) love with this girl.  I was trying just about everything to get her to go out with me.  And at one point, I discovered that she was extremely entomophobic.I have neglected to mention until now that one of my favorite hobbies was (and is) collecting insects.But that year (1987) I stopped cold.  The entire collection went into the closet, where, due to lack of mothballing when I went away to college, it soon disintegrated into sad little piles of dust.  Beautiful specimens of butterflies from Taiwan (where I haven't been since) and exotic beetles from the Amazon (where I haven't been since) reduced to nothing.Of course (need I say it), the girl still never went out with me.  She doesn't really figure in my life anymore, but this isn't an issue with me at all.  The loss of my old collection, well, that still hits me from time to time.(Ironically, one of the big reasons I was attracted to this girl in the first place was that she was a serious gamer, comic book fan, and science fiction geek.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )But this story does have a happy ending!  I'm married to a beautiful lady who loves gaming, science fiction, comic books, and anime, we have a wonderful house, and are in several long-running campaigns with good friends.  And while my wife doesn't study insects in her spare time the way I do, she thinks the new collection is beautiful (and doesn't mind when I keep specimens in the freezer).  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> I have no idea where I meant to go with all of this.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" /> -- Pazu</blockquote>

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