Few people would ever guess, but I was geek well before it was cool to be geek.
It wasn't a choice really. I had horrible acne. I wore braces for nearly three years. I didn't kiss a girl until I was 16. My awkward gangly stature was nearly inhuman in appearance until I was seventeen years old. I read sci-fi and fantasy novels, and I was too naive to hide the books from the opposite sex. I gave up sports for choir, theater, and orchestra. And yes, I played Dungeons & Dragons. AD&D for those of you in the know.
So when I heard the news of Gary Gygax's death this week, I took a moment and thought back to the nights I used to spend in a candle-lit basement with 4-5 teenage boys... I'd imagine I was a magician while my friend fancied himself a big warrior... Shit. That doesn't sound good, does it?
Perhaps that's what drew us in, however. No. Not the homo-erotic overtones. I mean the insiders-only aspect of the game. D&D was something that couldn't be articulated away from the gaming table. Unless the person I was talking to knew the ins and outs of pencil-and-paper role playing games, there was no way I could properly relate the epic nature of last night's adventure. And for a kid like me - for a kid who often felt like he was being kept out of some secret club, membership to which could only be attained by those adept at negotiating the strange waters of high school social circles - for that kid, the invitation-only world of D&D felt important.
I'll be the first to admit, my friends and I weren't the most diligent players. We spent more time eating Tombstone pizza than we spent sending our characters out to roam the Material Plane. But no matter how we inhabited it, that world belonged to us. We had a language and a vision all our own. And that allowed us a taste of the smugness that has since made geekdome such a powerful force in pop culture.
Dora's cousin Mate plays. I have students from Serbia and Romania who have admitted to playing (in front of their peers no less). And all of us, while we act like it's something we ought to kind of cover up, we all share a smirk that let's other gamers know, all those popular kids from high school can go suck it!
3 comments:
My condolences. I remember you gathering for D&D nights - probably toward the end of the era as girls started becoming more of a distraction...
I actually just read his obituary yesterday (guest book is here http://www.legacy.com/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=105016190 if you want to sign it). I was surprised to learn he'd spent most of his life in Wisconsin (Lake Geneva, specifically).
i was a poor addition to any group playing D&D. how i loved to role up characters, or pick through monster manuals, trying to find the most impossible of foes to sprinkle throughout a homemade dungeon adventure(an adventure i would never finish and DM). the D&D section was the first and only place i went in book stores when i was a kid, and i often checked out the only copy of the DM guide from my grade school's library. when it came down to playing the game though, i was easily distracted and like a tinderbox of giggles, often unable to play seriously for more then 10 minutes. the ryans, chris b, and hogan will attest to my complete inability to play D&D "well". did we ever get dave to play? it seems we may have tried once.
god speed gary gygax. (not sure why people say that about dead people, but it seems a geeky thing to say)
never did d&d, i was far worse. cthulhu, star wars RPG, heroes unlimited, cyberpunk, and later on magic cards were my staples. i think i saw zing and co. at gencon one year and was in awe that cool lt3s were into geeky stuff like me.
weezer: in the garage.
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