Congratulations D&D

How about that.  I guess if anything deserves to be in the Toy Hall of Fame, it’s that little game which seems to have cast a longer shadow over popular culture than its often derided fan base suggests.  I never played it that much in school, being more a lover of history and historically centered activities.  Plus, I was never much of a fantasy or sci-fi fan.  My boys, however, born and raised during the high point of Pottermania and Jackson’s LoTR renaissance, couldn’t help but fall in love with the hobby.

For what it’s worth, I never put much stock in the stereotype of D&D players.  The first ones I ever saw playing it were in study hall my freshman year.  Three were football players, one captain of the football team, one class president, and a valedictorian and salutatorian of the graduating class, among others.  It didn’t dawn on me at the time that folks played D&D for any other reason than they played Poker or Monopoly.  When the reputation did drop, it seemed to be as much because society as a whole rejected it as any of those fundamentalists who often get the blame.  It seemed everyone was against it back in the day.  And I always wondered about that.

Nonetheless, I see it as a fine pastime.  It encourages reading, study and imagination.  It also pulls them away from the endless hours some kids spend glued to digital entertainment.  If the worst my boys ever did was roll a d20 and use their imaginations to combat fictional characters gleaned from myth and literature, I’d consider myself a good father indeed.