The 38-year old Dungeons and Dragons campaign

Robert Wardhaugh, a history professor at the University of Western Ontario, has been running a Dungeons and Dragons campaign for thirty-eight years.

The campaign setting sounds rather interesting:

"Being a history professor and always loving history, I wanted to create a world where I was able to use the history of our world. My world is an alternate Earth, so you can be Roman, you can be Greek, you can be Sumerian, you can be Babylonian, you can be First Nations," explains Wardhaugh.

I’m really quite impressed by this accomplishment. It’s one thing to have played various role-playing games—including some extended campaigns—for many decades. (I’ve been playing, off and on, for almost four decades now.) But to keep the same campaign going for so many years it truly remarkable. 

Also, I was amused to learn that this campaign is based in London Ontario. I grew up in London—it’s where I learned to play role-playing games, and where I ran various AD&D and MERP campaigns (as well as dabbling in numerous other games) from around grade five until the end of high-school. (I would not describe London as an especially exciting city—it’s definitely the world’s #2 London—so it may be easier to keep a game going there over many years than, say, Toronto.)

This is a great accomplishment. I’m envious of Wardhaugh for what sounds like an amazing campaign. But I’m depressed when I realize that, should I keep my current Greyhawk campaign going for another 38 years, I’ll be dangerously close to the “venerable” age category for humans! 

RPGs as an escape to a kind of normalcy during abnormal times

I enjoyed reading, and hence recommend, this article: “Plague Comforts: Dungeons and Dragons is the Real World Now,” by Will Peischel.

I certainly have found playing RPGs online to be a great way to stay in touch with old friends (in my case, a couple of friends from my undergraduate days). And gaming over the years has provided a kind of ‘structured escapism’ that has helped me deal with the stresses and uncertainties of adulthood (which frustratingly seem to become more, rather than less, acute with each passing year).

Unlike the author and many of my friends, though, I’ve had far less time than usual to devote to my hobbies, including role-playing games, thanks to the pandemic. Indeed, I haven’t been running any games myself. However, I recently joined a Mythic Babylon campaign, and hope that I can resurrect my Greyhawk campaign sometime next month. I could use a partial return to 'normalcy.'

The Elite Hollywood Dungeons and Dragons Club

If you have seven minutes or so to kill you might enjoy this Variety story and video on “Hollywood’s Elite Dungeons and Dragons Club” (the sound quality of the video is better here). 

The Dungeon Master of this ‘elite’ group is Joe Manganiello. Among the players (in addition to actors like Vince Vaugh) are Kyle Newman, who is one of the authors of the excellent Art and Arcana book (the history of the art of Dungeons and Dragons), and D.H. Weiss (co-creator of the Game of Thrones HBO series, which I was quite fond of despite the final season [which I found disappointing but not terrible]).

While I generally find these kinds of stories somewhat diverting, I don’t really care about or ‘follow’ celebrities. I only know who Joe Manganiello is because he sometimes shows up in D&D or RPG-related stories and segments, like this one from Stephen Colbert’s show from two years ago. (He does seem like a decent fellow, though, and his gaming basement looks amazing.) 

Insofar as these tales of celebrities enjoying Dungeons and Dragons helps to promote and further destigmatize the RPG hobby, though, I am happy to have them appear. (But as much as I like D&D 5th edition, it would be nice if a different role-playing game might be mentioned in these ‘mainstream’ articles once in a while.)

[Picture by Chuck D of “Public Enemy”]

Another article on the popularity of D&D

There is an article on the current popularity of Dungeons and Dragons in today's New York Times: "In a Chaotic World, Dungeons & Dragons Is Resurgent."  It's a nice piece, and I'm glad that the game is doing so well these days (including with a wider range of kinds of players than ever before).

I certainly like 5th edition far more than the previous two. In fact, I'm running a 5e D&D game right now. But I just wish that other role-playing games would be mentioned sometimes in these articles! It's a bit frustrating that 'RPGs = D&D' for most journalists.

*sigh* 😞

Role-playing games and self-discovery

I thought that I would mention a couple of recent first-person essays on role-playing games in the popular press. Both essays reflect on how playing RPGs helped the authors learn about themselves and develop in important ways.

Recently in Vox: “The best $1.16 I ever spent: a set of loaded Dungeons & Dragons dice” by Jessica Xing.

And in the Washington Post: “How my role-playing game character showed me I could be a woman” by Joan Moriarity.

I found both essays rather interesting. They were written from perspectives radically different from my own. Nonetheless, I can relate to the power of role-playing games in self-discovery and self-development. I know that I would’ve been a very different person—less imaginative, far more shy—had I not opened up the blue ‘Holmes’ Basic Set of Dungeons and Dragons (the one with chits!) many decades ago…

Video that explains Dungeons and Dragons to the uninitiated

This Vox video that explains Dungeons & Dragons (and, to some extent, role-playing games more generally) is pretty good. I especially liked the discussion by the participants about why they play the game (8:00-9:40).

Next time I'm asked by a non-RPGer to explain the hobby that has been a disturbingly large part of my life since the age of 10, I may simply refer them to this video.

Here Be Monsters

There is an interesting – though very speculative and somewhat rambling – article entitled ‘Why We Invented Monsters’ over at Salon. People familiar with this blog may find it to be an enjoyable, if unusual, read. It’s not really scientific (despite its pretensions), but certainly grist for a chat over a few pints…

'Tea Party Hobbits'?

I (almost) never talk about politics on this blog, and I don't really intend to start now, but I found this piece on the current brouhaha in Washington over lifting the debt ceiling at Talking Points Memo rather amusing. Especially this part:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) liked the analogy so much, he worked the piece into a floor speech calling on said "Tea Party Hobbits" to back a compromise on the debt ceiling.

Clearly hurt, Tea Partiers responded with LOTR reference of their own. Mark Meckler of the Tea Party Patriots told CNN that "Clearly he's been corrupted by the ring of power." Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), an avowed fan of fantasy-inspired prog rock, took to the Internet to embrace his new title. "To those referring to 'Tea Party hobbits': I'd rather be a hobbit than a troll," he wrote, attaching a picture of Gollum. His followers quickly corrected him, however, noting that Gollum is not actually a troll but a corrupted hobbit. Go figure.

I find it hilarious that some of Rand Paul's 'followers' felt the need to correct him on Gollum's hobbit heritage!

(Also somewhat amusing is that Legolas, a Sindarin Elf, is used in the picture instead of, say, Frodo.)

Anyway, back to talking about RPGs...

Salon Article on Dungeons and Dragons

The article can be found here.

It’s not bad!

Unlike the author Ethan Gilsdorf (who, in case anyone is curious, has a website to promote his upcoming book, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, here), I never completely abandoned role-playing games. Even during those long dry years when I wasn’t playing at all (especially the mid-late 1990s), I would consistently purchase the occasional RPG book (at least once a year), and make tentative plans to start again ‘soon.’

The concluding section of the article (about 1/5^th of its length) reads somewhat like a promotion for Wizards of the Coast and the game that they presently call ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ (but which bears only a superficial resemblance to Ye Olde Game). That is somewhat unfortunate, but I suppose inevitable in an article intended for a general audience. The rest of the article, though, is enjoyable and worth reading. (I certainly agree with the author’s observations about the appeal of D&D to awkward male teenagers in those crazy years of 1979-1984.)