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Showing posts from February, 2014

The Most Important Lesson I’ve Ever Learned From D&D

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I've learned a lot of things from playing D&D. Tricks about storytelling, lessons about math, useless information about medieval weapons and armor. I've learned a shitload of words I never would have encountered in everyday parlance (like “parlance”). But there is one lesson that rules above them all: HAVE FUN ...is, surprisingly, not that lesson. Many people think “Having fun” is the most important rule of any game. Or life, really. If you're enjoying yourself, then whatever you're doing must be a good thing, right? Screw the rules, don't worry about tomorrow, just have fun. Simple. On the other hand, some people think exercising is fun and they’re obviously wrong. But there's also another, more important lesson and rule that goes hand in hand with “Have Fun” that I think trumps its simpler neighbor in every respect: LOOK AT EVERYONE ELSE. IF THEY'RE NOT HAVING FUN THEN YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING WRONG. I originally thought of th

Ode to My Dice

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Downstairs on my desk is a little bag full of colourful polyhedral dice.  It sits there quietly, patiently waiting for a need to draw it back into action.  It sits unmolested (except when it gets jostled, a die falls upon the floor and the cat knocks it around) and full of promise, a symbol of another age.  It represents power.  Possibility.  Excitement. I wonder if this is how Bilbo felt with the One Ring sitting on his mantle for 60 years. My original set of dice is still in that bag.  They came with the D&D Box set I got for Christmas in 1992 .  The 20-sider is orange, the 12 is yellow, the 10 is black, 8 is blue, 6 is red and 4 is green.  You always remember your first one. Funny story - My SECOND set of dice was coincidentally the exact same colour scheme.  A couple of the dice have been lost over the years so I'm not 100% certain which ones came from the first set and which from the second, but I still like to say that combined they're still my original set.