Geek Alert!!!

Remember Wil Wheaton? You know, the kid who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek:The Next Generation? The character most people disliked, and the one responsible for the most alcohol imbibed during a Star Trek drinking game (someone says 'shut up Wesley', you must finish your drink!). Well, it turns out Mr. Wheaton was a victim of bad screenwriting. It seems that in real life he is actually a real hoopy frood (and if you don't understand that, you're not a real geek). The spousal unit clued me in to his blog a while back but recently I've been reading it more. Check it out here: http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/
He's also written a couple of books, and I've had a chance to read a bit of one. He's actually a pretty decent writer. Quite entertaining stuff. Anyway, check out his site.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because his latest entry is about his introduction to Role Playing Games (RPG's), and Dungeons and Dragons in particular. It got me thinking about my start in the big bad world of gaming, way back in the early 80's....

It was back around 1981 or 82, and I hadn't quite started high school.
My first intro to D&D had been by my cousin L and her then husband. One evening I had stopped off at their place while a game was going on. I was given a very terse explanation (after all, I was just a dumb kid), and afterward I thought nothing more about it.
There weren't a lot of kids my age on my street, so I spent a fair bit of time by myself, drawing, reading, playing with Lego, making up my own games. One game I made up involved a side view of a tomb/dungeon/tunnel complex populated by skeletons, zombies, and treasure. This was before I knew much about D&D, and it was actually inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark. Well, one of the few friends in the neighbourhood saw this one day and commented that it was a lot like D&D. He had just started playing with the old red-box Basic D&D set and offered to show me how to play. Over several weeks we played through good ol' B2:Keep on the Borderlands, one of the classic adventure modules that old time gamers look back on with great affection. I vaugely remember I had a fighter character -I can't remember the name- who achieved the lofty height of 3rd level, which was the highest that the Basic Set supported. A while later my friend purchased the 'Expert Set', which expanded the game, allowing players to rise to 6th level, I think it was.
Guess what! I was hooked. I ended up getting my own copies of both basic D&D sets, trying to write a module or two, that sort of thing. Then high school started. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but it turned out one of my new high school friends played something called Advanced D&D. I admit I was slightly intimidated: if it's called advanced, it must be more difficult. Well, I ended up in a session or three with a school gaming group, most a bunch of older kids. I mostly remember one adventure that the DM had blatantly stolen from an Elric story (a series of fantasy books by Michael Moorcock), but I didn't realize this until I actually read the story a couple of years later. By this time the cousin unit, L, had heard that I was playing D&D, and at Christmas 1982 she gave me one the coolest presents I've ever received: The AD&D Players Handbook. You know the one, with the two thieves working to pry the gem eye out a big demon idol. Awesome! That X-mas I was also given a pretty sizable wad of cash. I guess most folks had no idea what I was into, as I was quite an introvert around home. Sweet! Well, during my week off from school between Christmas and New Year, I took my new wealth to the local hobby store and purchased all the AD&D books then available: the Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, Fiend Folio, and Deities and Demigods (yes, the early edition with Cthulu, Elric, and Ffard!). I was into this game in a big way.
Face it, this was pure escapism for me, and I needed it. I was basically a lonely kid with a single parent who was dealing with some extremely tough health issues, and grandparents -well meaning as they were- who seemed to have no idea how to relate to me. With this game I was off into a more exciting world. And it introduced me to many new friends over the years.

To be continued...