Flapping in the Wind

Sometimes you've just got to let it all hang out.

Like a fat man in a shirt three sizes too small for him, I publicly offer myself up for ridicule so that you can feel better about yourselves and your place in society. No, I haven't joined the Shriners. I tried to but apparently you have to be an old man with no shame to join so I forwarded them o­n to Elysium. In this case I've taken the plunge into the glamorous world of Dungeons and Dragons of the pen and paper variety and by god I'm dragging anyone within arms reach down with me. Both hoochie and Gaald have rolled up characters for our first ever Sunday of dice rolling, nerd jokes and arguments about whether or not it's cool for a Half-elf to have blue eyes. I'll give you a hint, it's not cool and nothing you can do will ever change that.

I want to make fun of you, but I feel a bit overwhelmed.  I can't find a good foothold to start from. - Elysium

I'm not exactly sure why it is that playing video games seems somehow more socially acceptable to me than playing a D&D game face to face with real people. It must be some remnant from junior high when during exams and lunch hours the nerds would play their little pen and paper games while we mocked them behind our juice boxes. We'd follow that up with going home and playing the Super Nintendo for hours but at least we got to sit next to girls o­n the bus.

That's all behind me now. As an adult you have to move past the stereotypes from your childhood and see the value in things you may not have appreciated before. For example, who knew painting thumb sized figures would be so much fun? I spent a good four hours listening to the cast commentary o­n The Two Towers DVD and painting a couple figures I picked up for our game. I can see why some people buy Warhammer figures, paint them and then never play the actual game. It's nice to create something with a good end result even though you have no talent.

*insert starting Gamers With Jobs joke here*

I'm sure those of you "in the know" are probably shaking your heads at the idea of three people, new to the game, trying to run their own campaign. That was the original plan but we've since been rescued by a friend of ours who just happens to have played and DMed all sorts of games since the early eighties. He's normal and he doesn't smell funny either so everything should work out great! We're meeting this Sunday for our first session and both hoochie and I plan o­n going full hilt and trying to roleplay our characters as much as possible. None of this "my character says hello to the wizard" stuff. WeÂ'll be speaking AS our characters when the time for conversation comes. ItÂ's a little scary but hoochie has training as an actor and I might be drunk so it should work out ok. I will of course fill everyone in o­nce the session is over, we all need a light ego boost o­nce in a while.

As an added bonus today I want to share a Bloom County strip posted as part of Comics.com o­ngoing Bloom County re-run.

If o­nly they knew.

- Certis