My love of Fantasy Role Playing Games (FRPG's) began a long time before I knew that Dungeons and Dragons existed. Believe it or not, it was the Walt Disney movie Sleeping Beauty that started it. When Prince Phillip went chopping his way through all of those little goblin critters on his way out of the dungeon and fought Maleficent in her dragon form, my 5-year-old imagination was hooked. Then, when I was 7 or 8, my dad acquired a Commodore 64 computer. What I wouldn't give to know the name of the first dungeon crawl I played on that old gem. You explored a dungeon, finding treasure and figh
ting goblins, trolls, ghosts, (dreaded) drakes, and other monsters. When you were killed, it played a little midi version of the death march. Then, along came a game called Questron 2, which actually had a story beyond going deeper and deeper into a dungeon killing monsters. Not long after initially being introduced to Questron 2, an Apple IIgs replaced the Commodore, and with it came a bunch of my uncle's games that wouldn't play on his new Macs. In addition to the Apple version of Questron 2, I now had Wizardry I, II, and III and Bard's Tale I, II, and III. I was a 9-year-old in absolute heaven. On Saturdays I would get up long before anyone else to rush
through my chores so I could play my computer games. Bard's Tale III: The Thief of Fate was the "newest" and had the best graphics, so naturally it drew my main attention. Some of the quests/puzzles in the game were a bit tricky for a 9 year old kid, but I persevered, started over, persevered, and started over until at last when I was 14 I finally beat that blasted game.
When my dad got home from Operation: Desert Storm in the spring of 1991, he started playing a pseudo-RPG with us where he would tell the story and we would say what we wanted our characters to do. It was very simple, but I was enthralled. Then one day in the fall of 1991, I picked up The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien for the first time. I'll just say that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led to more fantasy novels from the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms series, and more FRPG fun.
When I got home from my mission in 2001, I picked up a copy of Icewind Dale and discovered that computer games had come along way indeed since The Thief of Fate. That winter, when I wasn't at work in St. George, coaching the wrestling team at my high school, hunting varmints, or sleeping, I was forging my intrepid party farther in the frozen wastelands of "Faerun" (the world in which Icewind Dale and other Forgotten Realms stories take place). Having been a while since playing DnD, keeping the characters in my first party alive required nothing short of tactical brilliance, and sometimes the only thing that worked was starting over from a saved game several times.
After Icewind Dale, came Icewind Dale II and eventually my latest "spare time killer" Neve
rwinter Nights. As the games have gotten newer and (in most cases) better, I've come to the conclusion that I still like Dungeons and Dragons. All of the computer games I've played in recent years (except for the Diablo series) have been based on the official DnD rules (and the Bard's Tale series was loosely based on them as well). DnD rules make for a game environment where character development is (for me) almost as fun as progression through the story. I can begin a game with a character or group of characters that I have imagined up, and play them entirely and consistently according to my imagination.
I attribute a good deal of my "imaginativity" and creativity to my experience with fantasy and FRPG's. Nicole just rolls her eyes when I say that, but where else would a 9 year old kid find the necessity of using creative solutions to problems in a manner that he likes? Although I greatly enjoy reading, sometimes it's kind of fun to play an FRPG where you are (in a way) writing your own book as you play, especially in the games that allow for good character development and widely varying options for different types of characters. Aside from the imaginatory and creative benefits I've gained from reading fantasy and playing FRPG's, it makes for a nice escape from reality every now and then (since I don't play nearly as much or as often as I used to), and isn't that what taking a break is all about?
2 comments:
ya, you are a wierd can, but I love you anyway. you need to put a photo of you on there, in addition to some fun links and then you'll be set. Oh and Jayden and Chelsea say that because you are the named F.U. you need to have photos of them on here, too.
i'd say this is the best post i've seen to date, although alex was the one who introduced me to frpg's, meaning my fascination with them is likely not as aged as his own. with the advent of our moving farther away, i now regret not having "made" a little more time for the pen(cil) and paper form of d&d while we lived next door.
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