Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Is it the group interaction?
Is it the shared roleplaying?
Is it the fantasy milieu?
Is it the four-sided dice?
Why do you play D&D?
Assuming that this means "rpgs" instead of "D&D", this is pretty easy, if long-winded, to answer.
As a child, I enjoyed reading immensely; I still do, of course, but when I was young I read tales from the Greek myths and from the tales of Camelot extensively. I wanted to
be in those stories! While I enjoyed early attempts at writing similar stories, something was missing.
As the son and grandson of double veterans (father in WWII and Korea, grandfather in Boer War & WWI), I also grew up in a household were discussion of military history (and history in general) was common coin. This led to me wanting to know more about the arms and armour of the heroes I had read about. Along the way this refined my interests towards a fascination with the Middle Ages, especially onces I saw the October 1966 copy of National Geographic with its full depiction of the Bayeaux Tapestry! At that point, I knew I would always be fascinated with Anglo-Norman England!
Mixing these fascinations, my father introduced my brother & me to wargaming in about 1969. At first this was the usual AH/SPI stuff at first, but then we became drawn to miniatures wargaming. Down to Cambria, CA, we went to Jack Scruby's
The Soldier Factory and my first minis (this would be around 1971, 72). For the next several years I painted my knights and men-at-arms. But, O!, the arguments in the game! "Nu uh! You can't spot me from there! Can to! Y'gotta roll your dice in
front of the hills! You didn't win, you
cheated!"
...too many arguments, too much animosity...
Then I found D&D.
No sides -- everyone was together! Minis weren't needed, so those who couldn't paint still felt part of things! No big table was required, where cats could wipe out the game! And best of all, your heroes could do
heroic things!
Of course I eventually dropped D&D (about the time it became AD&D), but for 30+ years now I have been a roleplaying addict! I have been able to bring friends together in strange situations, have great social interactions, indulge in my love of oddball research (costumes, armour, food, mythology, history, philosophy, occult, etc.), and play out aspects of the tales that I loved so well for so long.
And on top of this, there are fewer arguments and less hurt feelings simply because there are now Winners and Losers at the end of the game.
Yep, love me them rpgs!
