by Elton Gahr

Created on: March 14, 2009

Over the last twenty five years Dungeons and Dragons has slowly grown from a marginalized hobby that come out of wargamming into a major hobby which has spawned hundreds of other pen and paper role playing games as well as many computer role playing games but still after all that time there is something special about Dungeons and Dragons itself, but what is it that continues to draw us to pen and paper games when on-line role playing games require so much less effort.

The games are primarily escapism. That idea has sometimes been degraded by people who believe that the idea that you may need to escape somehow implies an inability to deal with reality. The truth is that fun is built into our very nature, and with the stress of modern day life nearly everyone has some type of escapism. It can be watching TV, playing sports, reading a book, or playing a role playing game like Dungeons and Dragons.

Beyond the simple enjoyment of entering a Tolkenesk world and pretending to be wizards and warriors fighting dragons and zombies there are many other things that draw us to the game of Dungeons and Dragons.

First is the idea of having a character. There are very few games outside of role playing where you can really try to step into the mind of another character. In games like monopoly or poker you have no character just a piece and generally in other games where you do have a character, such as many video games you have a specific character made for you by the video game designer. Neither of these really allow you to empathise with the character or to create those characters which really connect to you personally.

Next is the fun of collaborative storytelling. Gone is the age when people sat around the campfire telling stories to each other. Oh we may do it on rare occasion but the truth is that in large part the age of friends telling friends stories is dying, replaced by Hollywood creating stories that appeal to the widest possible audience.

When you play a role playing game your character really can push and change things. You can grow into an important hero or learn to be a great villian. You can save the princess or ignore her plite and search for treasure and every decision makes the world a differnt place than the one it would have been, but more importantly if done right it makes an interesting story.

The final part of my enjoyment of Dungeons and Dragons is the exploration of the unknown. Humans have always been explorers, but we now live in a world without those dark parts of the map where no one has been, so where to do the adventurous go? Explore those dark places in a game. It's not the same as Lewis and Clark traveling across the Louisiana purchase mapping it for the first time, but it's probably as close as most of us are oging to get.

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