Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
For Dungeons & Dragons, the magic is in the memories
The Post talks to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper; Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians trilogy and the (wonderful!) Bright Sword; actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Critical Role Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer; and Dimension20 cast member Ally Beardsley.
The Post talks to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper; Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians trilogy and the (wonderful!) Bright Sword; actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt; Critical Role Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer; and Dimension20 cast member Ally Beardsley.
Anderson Cooper said:My brother, Carter, two years older than I was, came to it first after our father died in 1978. It allowed us to lose ourselves together and gave us a brief respite from the sadness that had descended on us. When we were playing D&D, we weren’t stuck in the silences of not talking about him. We could talk about D&D.
Lev Grossman said:Then one day my friend Ben called and said his brother had a copy of the game. Did I want to play? I did. I hung up the phone — it was a rotary phone, the kind that’s firmly attached to a wall — and solemnly announced to my family: “This is the greatest day of my life.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt said:And as I’ve grown from a 13-year-old D&D player into an adult in the working world, that spirit of collaboration has only revealed itself to be more and more valuable. These days, I put much less weight on my own ideas and much more on what becomes of them once other people join in the game.
Matthew Mercer said:One by one, they stopped coming to play. Folks who had never tried it canceled at the last minute, feeling awkward about joining something they didn’t understand. Experienced players who were looking forward to making characters and building a story together struggled to explain to their partners why they needed to spend hours away with their “work friends” to play make-believe. The D&D campaign I had poured myself into fizzled to nothing. I wasn’t angry at my friends, but I was worried about the death of this passion that had meant so much to me.
Ally Beardsley said:I created a character for the campaign who was transgender. I had started going by the gender neutral they/them pronouns at work and among friends, but sourcing hormones or getting surgery seemed equal parts expensive and invasive. A fun thing about fantasy is stripping away the crunchy, real-world limitations and asking yourself: “What would I do if I could do anything?”