The Sisterhood of the Traveling Dice

So let's get a couple of things straight:

• I'm new to blogging.
• I'm new to RPGs.

Now, when I say, "new," I really really mean it. The only blog I read is my boyfriend's and - let's be honest here - only because I deeply care about what he thinks and how he feels (he's kind of a big deal (don't tell him I wrote that)). I had to learn how to use Google Reader for work (I was teaching a class on how to "live digitally," and obviously RSS was an important part of it), and I haven't checked it since the class concluded. So yeah, I'm not too sure how good I'm gonna be at this, given that I just rambled in my very first paragraph. Oh, boy.

And when it comes to RPGs, if you had asked me a year-and-a-half ago if I wanted to play a role-playing game ... well ... let me put it this way: my costumes have a closet within our closet.

Before I met The Mead, I thought Dungeons & Dragons was a game that had an online component to it and somehow involved miniatures as well. I guess I was envisioning some kind of an MMORPG with a touch pad of sorts where you'd place your minis. I dunno. I really have no idea. I never made it as far as to really envision the full thing 'cause I was frankly never interested enough to devote it much thought.

I can't really remember when The Mead chose to tell me that he indulged in this particular hobby, but I do remember that he presented it beautifully. He:

1. Actually explained what the game was
2. Presented it as a fascinating sociological study
3. Spoke passionately about what he liked about it
4. Appealed to my interests

He cleared up all my misconceptions and introduced "tabletop game" into my vocabulary. This was, of course, the very first of many terms I'd come to learn over the next year.

He gave me wonderful examples of how the social interactions in-game and out-of-game helped him understand relationships and communication, improving his interpersonal skills - a fascinating and unexpected notion, given that the stereotype holds that gamers are highly introverted and socially awkward.

Then he told me anecdotes and spoke of all the fun and funny things he'd done as a character and as a player. His telling of this gave me a lot of insight into who he was: what his interests were, what and who he valued, etc.

Lastly, he made the gaming experience analogous to my writing. I was pursuing an MFA in Writing at the time, and I was spending most of my afternoon writing chapters for my novel. The Mead explained how the players are like characters in a novel, and how the GM/DM is the narrator, and how in spite of the narrator's best laid plans, the characters may choose to go a different way, and the narrator needs to adjust the plot to follow them along.

That was the hook I needed. Bravo, The Mead. Bra-vo.

My interest piqued, The Mead took it a step further and got me Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress, by Shelly Mazzanoble. The book is pink. Very, very pink - much to my delight. And it's very, very girly. The Mead and I would read it in the car, especially during long treks on I-5. I would laugh at the girly things, and The Mead would laugh at the astute commentary that I still did not get.

I can't remember when or why we took the book out of the car, but we did, and we sort of stopped reading it, but that was also around the time we actually started building my character.

That's right: I have a character. Two, actually. And I already know what I want my third one to be in the distant future.

In one campaign, we're playing with two other couples and The Mead's brother. We're close friends to everyone, so it's pretty wonderful, and we get sidetracked a ton. I love it 'cause everyone's really patient with me - except for maybe The Mead, who actually gets a little exasperated with me from time to time. One of the other girls is brand new to this, too, so we're both learning along.

In that campaign, I'm an Wizard named Suheyl - a forlorn Elf who's pretty emo, as she's seen so much death, that she's conflicted about relationships and often ponders questions about life and death. She's unsure as to whether to it's worth establishing relationships that will surely be short-lived, so she often retreats into a life of solitude and study, away from heartache. Yet another part of her appreciates the brevity of life, and it's that part of her that makes her hungry for knowledge, wanting to learn and live as much as she can before she, too, comes to pass.

It's funny 'cause the smarty pants part of Suheyl is the part I relate to in real life, but the quiet, sober part is very foreign to me. I'm highly social and talkative. I enjoy positions of leadership. And it's weird taking a back seat and letting the party handle conversations and go into combat while I hang back, away from harm, figuring out what monster I can summon to fight my battles for me.

Ni Hao, the character in the second campaign I'm in, is more exciting to me insofar as she gets to take an active role in combat. Ni Hao (Hello) is a Human Monk, and her only weapons are her fists: Bu and Hao (Not and Good). She gets to run, deflect arrows, kick, and attack. AND she gets to dance! Oh, yes, dance!

She's still not a talker, like I am, but at least she's a performer, and like my girl Britney says, "There's only two types of people in the world: the ones that entertain, and the ones that observe," and Ni Hao and I for sure belong to the former.

I'm excited for that campaign, not just because I get to hang with a bunch of girls (and our male GM), but because:

• I can actually learn...
• I can dress up!

I lean too much on The Mead in my first campaign, where I constantly ask him questions as to what I should do or whether I have the power to carry on a certain idea. Since he's not in my all-girl campaign, I can actually learn independently from him.

And I get to be girly and dress up. Remember the comment earlier about the costumes? I went to China in 2008 and gathered quite a bit of really cute ensembles that I have no occasion to wear. Now I get to rock them ... with chop sticks in my hair.

So yeah ... this should be interesting ...