Wait… Dungeons & Dragons is HOW old?!
Dungeons & Dragons is 50 years old. FIFTY. To paraphrase Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous, “How old does that make me then?”
I mean, I already know, but it’s still a little bit sobering to realize that I am older than D&D. It’s one thing to be Gen X and be older than say video games or the internet, but Dungeons & Dragons? Oof, that hit hard.
It’s not like I was making a character and rolling dice at 2 years old, but to sit and think about the impact D&D and other tabletop role playing games have had over the course of my life, and in more recent years on the course of my life is both cool and weird.
Earlier this month, I was on the Gayming Podcast with other Twitch streamers talking about 50 years of D&D, when we started playing, what it means to us and why it’s something that attracts LGBTQIA+ players, old and new. It was a great conversation, and I really like being the odd podcast getting to talk about something I enjoy.
I wish I could promote myself more as a podcast guest, except I’m more the “I know a little about a lot of things,” instead of the specific expert on one aspect of pop culture. So very often I can sit there, nod and smile with the best of them, but without some studying ahead of time, deep dives are not my forte.
But I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons, albeit not consistently, since the early 80s. And I suppose I can admit now after all these years that my first time playing was atrocious. There was too much math, the rules were rough for a grade schooler to assimilate without more than a few read-throughs and I remember my first gaming group, made up of school friends, was enthusiastic, but not very good at playing.
It wasn’t until high school that I was able to enjoy better times at the table, but then found out that all tables aren’t very welcoming to Black gamers, let alone queer gamers, so my love for the hobby sort of fell off. In college I played Vampire: The Masquerade (tabletop and LARP) and moving to DC, I played some d20 Urban Arcana, but never really found a consistent gaming group. And between work, trying to find some leisure time, and being in an environment where I could just enjoy being out, I wasn’t super on the look out for one.
Fast forward to 2020 where, while staying inside due to the pandemic, I was invited to take part in streamed Dungeons & Dragons games, join the cast of Rivals of Waterdeep, play in D&D one-shots and some other TTRPG games and it’s been great. Our show won awards, we got to play live onstage at PAX Unplugged, I’ve gotten to present a “TTRPG of the Year” award at the Gayming Awards, and there’s no way elementary or high school me would have believed that 40 years later this game would be a significant part of me life.
And that’s pretty cool. I do have thoughts of, “How much longer is this gonna last?” because it’s not my main job, though it is among my main creative side jobs, and I don’t think I’m alone in wishing that Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast had made some very different decisions in recent years, so I wonder if we’ll ever see the bubble burst for D&D as a product or IP.
But for people getting around a table, in person or virtually, and telling stories together to create a world they can play in? That’s not stopping anytime soon and for as long as people are willing to sit down with me? I’m happy to lend my dice, my voice and my sometimes over-the-top characters to keep the fantasy alive. 💖
