Once upon a time, when times were different, a girl was handed her first set of dice. Little did I know that night was going to open the door to something that I would enjoy being part of for years to come.
The first time I got invited to a roleplaying session, I remember my reaction quite vividly. I wrinkled my nose, twisted my lip and said no without a second thought. I didn't want anything to do with sitting around and pretending that I was casting a spell or some such nonsense. I could think of better ways to spend my weekends. However, I am guessing that was not the first time a reaction like mine had been given, because I was asked again. This time, it was to just sit and observe. If I didn't like what I saw, then I would never asked again. I went, prepared to be underwhelmed and practicing my rejection speech in my head. These were my friends, after all. No need to be nasty.
They pulled out pencils and character sheets, books and guides. Then the discussion of who they were to become started. I am not sure what it was about the character creation process that tapped into my curiosity. The thought that went into crafting a character, making a person that you were to play, it was like making a character for a performance that was happening in real time. And perform they did. Perform we did.
From that moment on, roleplaying became an almost weekly ritual. In the same way people got dressed up and went out to bars and clubs, I grabbed my bag of dice and headed to a friend's house to immerse myself in a world of make believe. I credit a large amount of my ability create characters and build worlds to those nights where I sat on couches, drinking Mountain Dew and eating Papa Johns, listening to the elaborate setups and situations our characters found themselves in. Imagining city streets and back alleys, weighing words of NPCs, wondering if they were friend or foe, always thinking "What would my character do?".
Unfortunately, time changes things. Too soon I was packing up my life and moving forward with it. All of my roleplaying circle did much the same and our nights together are now nothing more than fond memories I replay in my head from time to time. Like old home movies stored away in a dusty beaten up box somewhere. Fighting enemies, solving puzzles, battling in arenas, arguing amongst ourselves, buying my first set of dice, being taken to my first game shop, looking at figurines, so many good memories from those times I would have missed out on because of a preconceived notion that wasn't even mine to begin with.
I miss those days now. I miss them a lot.
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