by Asaria Setemyr

Created on: April 05, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Why do I play role-playing games? I realize that as a woman, I'm a rather rare variety when it comes to fantasy games. It's quite simple for me though, I have always been artistic and creative at heart and leaped at the chance to be involved in a game that depended on both qualities.

I was introduced to Vampire: The Masquerade when I was 17 by a fellow mall-rat. No table top version for us though, it was to my delight, all live action. The thrill and excitement was that could play anywhere we wanted, with any number of people. The mall was our favorite place to play, we used the corridors as safe havens, the food court as our meeting place, and the arcade as our castle (The arcade manager did not mind, I am sure he made quite a few dollars off of our "planning" sessions) . My 5th generation Gangrel was an incarnation of myself,as perfect as I could make her. The ability to control the way others saw me was attractive. As our game grew more complex, more players became involved and it was a great way to meet other people of similar mindsets. There is something comforting about having other people of like-minds surround you. You know that you're not the oddball nerdy gamers that are portrayed as losers on many television shows. You know that all the bad press that these games received are simply due to the idiotic and immature actions of a few people. You know that it is all in good fun.

Fast forward to almost 2 years later, I had graduated high school 6 months earlier, was looking for an apartment to share with my best friend, and role playing games were the farthest thing from my mind. The Vampire game had fizzled, going the way that many high school friendships go. Though I still remained close friends with a few of the former group, most of the other vampires had moved on to bigger and better things. While my best friend (We'll call him Mike just to make this story a bit easier to tell) and I were visiting some other friends (We'll call these friends Tom and Lisa) one night, I was introduced to a friend of theirs who was staying with them for awhile (Just for giggles, let's call him George). Mike and I often stayed for several hours during our visits, and the visits were several times a week, so it was nothing unusual that we stayed there for a few hours that night and learned that the George was an avid fan of Dungeons and Dragons. Bummer- he was cute too, but I simply had no interest in getting involved in another RPG. I rolled my eyes and went back to playing with my Tom and Lisa's infant child.
A few days later after I had sat through listening to them play this game (And it was all table top and dice rolls! Boring!) I decided to join in just to ease my boredom- not to mention that George was still the "Dungeon Master" and I still thought he was pretty attractive. Everything rolled back over me. Even though this was a table-top RPG, the creativity and artistic knowledge still came into play. Role playing games rely on a persons wits and knowledge in order to fully succeed in whatever mission is lined out, and I excel in challenges such as that.

Oh, and as for George the Dungeon Master- I married him. So in a nut shell, I guess it could be said that I play role playing games because RPG's found me the love of my life.

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