Friday, February 28, 2014

Have You Learned Nothing???

More Marker Experimentation
The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

Day 28: What's the single most important lesson you've learned from playing D&D?

I learned that everyone is different.  They have different reasons for coming to the table.  They have different goals for themselves, and their characters, while playing.  Some want to solve problems.  Some want to avoid problems.  Some even want to create problems.

Humanity is a diverse tapestry of personalities - even the very small subset who play D&D.  Before I started playing, I didn't have much experience with people, and figured that everyone was pretty much like me.

Well, I was eleven when I started to play. :)

The gaming table is a little crucible of life.  It's a social game where you are expected to be acting like someone else.  Actually, what happens is most people just act MORE like themselves - more like who they really are without societal constraints.  People get magnified.

Decades of DMing has shown me a lot of interesting interactions.  Friendships were destroyed simply because a player refused to wake his character up for a fight with orcs.  Well, another player did kick his head in multiple times trying to wake him up.  It escalated quickly.  My own relationship with my sister hit a big bump when I refused to let her take a bag she had in the real world into the imaginary game.

Over the years, I've tried to be an arbitrator - a table-top ombudsman - to help settle differences.  But sometimes, people are so different from one another the best thing is to not to keep them in the same crucible.

The differences are not all negative, of course.  I've seen many people far smarter than I play - and been marveled by their ingenuity.  Wittier people as well who have set me off laughing until my stomach muscles hurt.

It was irritating when I was younger, and people were so far from my point of view that I felt like I'd never be able to communicate with them.  But nowadays, I really like it when people are different.  You know, different almost to the point where some type of calamity might happen if we sat in the same room together too long - but not quite passing that line.

Vive la différence.

- Ark

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Nothing Different

The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

Day 27: If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything different when you first started gaming?

No, I wouldn't do anything different.  I think tomorrow's question is more relevant, anyway.

In the meantime, over to the left is my third try with Prismacolor markers.  I think I'm getting the hang of them.  The big problem is that I don't have an oranges, reds, or yellows.  If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably grab some warmer colors. ;p


- Ark

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

Day 26: Do you still game with the group that introduced you to the hobby?

No.

But here is a picture I drew to distract you.  Okay, not really - just still practicing with those new markers.

- Ark

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

A Tale of Fire and Ice and Grass and Wood

The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

Day 25: Longest running campaign/gaming group you've been in.

That's kind of like two questions in one.  Gaming groups are kind of hard to nail down for me - they grow and change over time.  So it's hard to say where one group ended and another began.  Campaigns can be that way too if you stick with a setting and always play in it, no matter who is around.

So, let's limit this to a campaing with a specific group.  Okay - that's easier for me. :)

It would be the Sea of Tears campaign - lasting from the summer of 2008 to the summer of 2010.  It was (gasp) a 4e game in a world that had been flooded so that only the tops of mountains stuck out of the sea.  I had just returned from a lake vacation - thus the aquatic feel.The campaign focused on a save the world plot, and after two years, the party did indeed save the world - twice.

It was a fun campaign and I met some great people.  Sadly, we lost a player at the end due to cancer.  Give the blog a search for Sea of Tears if you are interested in more about it.

- Ark

Monday, February 24, 2014

What is Best in Life?

Prismacolor marker experiment.
The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

Day 24: First movie that comes to mind that you associate with D&D.  Why?

Conan the Barbarian.  Why?

"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women."

That's why.

- Ark

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Black Blade

The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

Day 23: First song that comes to mind that you associate with D&D.  Why?

"Black Blade" by Blue Öyster Cult.

Why?  Why?  Because it was written by fucking Elric of Melniboné, that's why.

Oh, and we whee listening to A LOT of Blue Öyster Cult at the time. :)

- Ark

Saturday, February 22, 2014

D&D Books

Coffee shop patron in a small Texas town.
The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge


Day 22: First D&D-based novel you ever read.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight was the first D&D novel I read.  My mother had read Quag Keep years before, but her description of it never interested me enough to pick that one up.  I immediately fell in love with the world of Dragonlance.  Fizban was awesome, and even the Kender couldn't sway my interest.

I even remember fretting all summer long (1985) over the sickeningly sappy love triangle, waiting eagerly for Dragons of Spring Dawning to come out.

Then there was the series that went back in time - which was kind of interesting.  But all the stuff that was printed after that - meh.

A year or two ago I went back and read Dragons of Autumn Twilight again.  Nostalgic, yes, but it definitely fits into that whole YA thing, and doesn't really lift it's chin above that pigeon-hole.

The Boy loved the series - that's all that matters. :)

- Ark