I have a confession to make. I never played “Dungeons and Dragons” when I was younger. Meeting me as an adult, you might suspect otherwise - I own very nearly every video game system back to about 1984, have several Star Wars toys, own several comics, and find complicated things interesting. That just about takes me to the top of the “geek” tree among my peers.
This “never played D&D” thing came back to haunt me while we were walking around the shops on Thursday night. In the UK we have a chain of stores called “The Works” - they typically stock remaindered books, stationary sets, and so forth - and are a magnet for people like myself who are not drawn to labels, and hate paying the “full” price for things (the same price that will fall as soon as something newer/better/more fashionable appears).
Actually… time for a bit of thread drift. How can the same shampoo/washing powder/toothpaste or whatever claim to be better every single time they put a different packet on it? Can there not be some law like with tobacco, that they have to display in large print “THIS PRODUCT IS NO BETTER THAN THE PREVIOUS VERSION”.
Sorry about that. Where was I?
Oh yes - I was walking around the cheap bookstore, and came across the remaindered games. There is was - “Dungeons and Dragons”…
I might not have looked twice at it, but they were offering it at half price. I’m not going to admit that I knew it was half price. That would be tantamount to admitting I had it on my Amazon wish list last Christmas. The rest of this story isn’t even worth telling is it - you can see that the box in the photo above is sat on my desk at home.
I’m wondering if learning how to play this board game is going to affect me. Will I grow a beard? Will I suddenly start to like the idea of black t-shirts with heavy-metal band logos on? Will I become obsessed with death? Will I feel a yearning to make small figures out lead and spend hours painting them? (as another side-step, go watch this movie)
I’m hoping I am old enough to escape the slide into the gaming culture that I see every time I pass a “Games Workshop” store. I have only walked into one once - with W at my side for moral support - to find out if they had a “starter set” or something (it was a rainy day, and we felt like buying a board game). The shop was populated by young men of a certain age with a certain lack of social skills. Even the shop assistant that dealt with us - while personable and very informative - reaked of “don’t get out much”.
There is some more back story to my brushes with the “Gaming” fraternity. We were in PC World a while ago buying some printer paper, and wandered over to check if there were any interesting games out. It’s worth pointing out that in my early 20s I wouldn’t have had to look - I would have known - I’m not sure if I’m happy about that memory or not. Anyway - as W is a “Lord of the Rings” fanatic, I picked up the Dungeons and Dragons computer game, and read the back of the box. I started involuntarily snorting, and walked towards W, pointing at the box, unable to communicate what was causing such hilarity. Apparently this very special edition of the game came with free ‘Boots of Infinite Striding’.
While walking through Paddington Station in London the other week, some girl burst past me with knee length boots on, and the thought popped into my head… “ah - that’ll be those Boots of Infinite Striding then…”