To anyone who knows me already knows, I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was 12.  I started out like most kids that age, cracking open a 1st edition book in my friend’s basement and making a character on plain ruled paper.  Those days were still when D&D was considered “of-the-devil”, which of course made it all the more cool to play.

We wasted away afternoons and sleepless evenings plunging our little guys into caves and keeps, fighting orcs and dragons, plundering hoards and slaughtering evil minions.  It ignited our imaginations and occupied our little nerdy brains.

Growing up, that feeling remained.  I played through high school and into college, eventually grabbing hold of the Dungeon Master reigns, and escorting my friends through adventures I created.  It was like writing fiction, except that someone else can come in and change the rules of your story.  It was a lot of fun, to stay “on your feet” and have to overcome challenges thrown at you by players who don’t want to play to your script.

For the last 20 years, I have been playing with the same group in Colorado.  We got to know, not only each other’s gaming styles, but crafted our own language of Dungeons and Dragons, and established a rich history of previous campaigns and characters, and we all became very intimately familiar with our PC’s as much as our real-life friendship.

I was a little intimidated to bring my wife (then-girlfriend) into this conclave of nerd-ery.  Being such a tight-knit group, quoting Monty Python and a long lineage of in-jokes, I thought spending 4-6 hours around a table moving little miniature figures on a square grid would be the truest test of her commitment to me.  And like a true champion, she overcame those challenges and became a full-fledged member of our gang.

So, when I moved my family out here to Utah, it was no surprise one of the biggest things I had to sacrifice was playing with that group of folks.  We tried playing via webcam, but it wasn’t the same as being there.  We soon had to call it quits, and I was left without my main form of entertainment and distraction.

Then, last June, those bastards at Wizards of the Coast (the company that publishes D&D) come out with a whole new edition of the game.  With updated rules and streamlined game mechanics, it was a nerd’s wet dream.  The only problem was, I had no one to play with anymore.

For the next six weeks, I voraciously devoured the source books, reading through all new classes and races, and their powers and abilities.  I literally drove my wife crazy with my constant talking about it, and a little more than my own share of obsession. (yes, I can get a little obsessive sometimes)   She finally said, bless her heart “why don’t you go any play somewhere?”

I soon found a game of pick-up D&D (yes, they have those) down at a nearby hobby store, so down I went.  It was a definitely different experience from my regular gaming group, but it did serve to whet my whistle for more.  Since those games were on a Wednesday, it was difficult for me to leave a wife with two very, very young kids alone for 4 hours while I pranced off to play at being a wizard (or in my case, a Dragonborn Warlord).

So the quest for a new gaming group began.  I posted a message out on the hobby store’s forum, and within a couple of weeks, started getting some responses.  Initially I wasn’t that optimistic that I would get people that shared my image of the game (something a little more casual and not taken quite so seriously, but still grab the imagination and have fun), but as I started dialogue with the folks who responded, I began to get excited.

When we finally scheduled our first new gaming session, I was a little nervous.  After all, not only had I not gamed with these guys before, but I had never run a 4th edition session.  That first time went really well, the guys were really cool, and it seemed like everyone had fun and looked forward to the next session.

We’ve had four sessions now, and we are really starting to get into a groove.  The guys are really relaxed at the table, cracking jokes and commenting on the current in-game situation, and my wife is even having fun (even though she’s not playing her favorite class, the Druid).  So, even though it’s not the group of guys I’ve been playing with since college, it is still D&D, and it is still fun.

Now, my brother has expressed an interest in playing.  This is my older brother; the guy who gave me pinkbellies and played ten fruits on me as a kid (ten fruits is something you play “on” people, not “with” people).  WHen he initially said he wanted to play, it was safe to assume he was merely using this as an opportunity to make fun of this little brother.  But, once he met my friends at my Halloween party and they offered to run an intro adventure for him, I realized that he might actually be sincere.  So, while I’m a little afraid at someone breaching my little nerd universe, I am also excited at being able to share something that I really enjoy with someone in my family.

Who knows, he may just become another gaming nerd like me… or at least, he’ll have fun.