Given I am not one to bother with the likes of facebook or other social media , perhaps this is the most odd place i could throw out such feelings about a hobby of mine that has become so important to me in the last 2 years. But rant i will. When i was younger , i always thought the idea of Dungeons and Dragons was childish. I thought it was silly and so incredibly geeky to bother with such a time consuming thing that had no...tangible rewards in the end. Did i read books? Sure but those were finished stories i could imagine, not ones created over time in the minds of the players and DMs themselves. I thought it a waste of time.
Yet here i am, loving it more than any other hobby i have ever had the fortune to experience. My first experience with it was almost...6 years ago now. Though all i got was a taste of it. I got to enjoy a few campaigns that never got off the ground with a group of friends. It was short lived. Soon my days off for my job killed any chance i had to ever enjoy them. As a night crew worker and due to time zone differences, i lost my chance. It had been fun enough sure but not enough to really bother me losing it. But then...i listened to my best friend (of 9 years now) talk about the campaign he got to host every friday. The stories caught my interest but i could do nothing about it...for 3 bloody years. I worked weekends when they were free and worked the only weekday they all were free on. The campaigns started when i went to work so listen was all i could do.
Then, i was given a chance. Not too long after the campaign completed(it went on for a full 3 years lol) , my schedule changed. The load days of my work switched and suddenly i had weekends off. This gave me my chance to finally join my friends. Sure it was all online(i have never been in a campaign in person) but i finally had my chance to fully invest. Figured why not give it a shot? I was originally a writer of poetry and short stories but when i had lost all of my work i had for a novel i started, i stopped writing(and after an especially bad relationship end). So when our friend John said he was going to host a campaign every sunday, i joined in.
And so came the creation of Gnerzi Rattooth. My first character in years written by my hand and i was surprised to find i could write at full once more when the idea that i could play him for a great deal of time came to rest in my mind. I wrote him quite the bio. A egotistical and highly intelligent goblin with a magical gift greatly beyond his obviously stupid peers. Yet despite how much he hold himself above others he hated the treatment of the down trodden more than anything. He used his gifts as a witch and attunment with rats to dispense justice to those he felt were evil. Its been about 2 years now i think almost. He still lives and oddly enough despite having practically no charisma, he often leads the party. Formulating plans and doing what he thinks is best regardless of what anyone else thinks.
From there i joined yet another campaign that rotates along. Celestrio Corvax came from that one. A highly talented alchemist who uses his skills as a former performer to deadly affect, juggling bombs and throwing weapons with ease. Highly intelligent, charismatic , and practical, he despite not being the leader, often directs the parties actions as much as possible. Originally nothing but a playboy and someone who had little care in the world, when a villain from his past resurfaced he was forced to rethink things. With many events since then that have put everyone at risk, even many in the world, he took it upon himself to fix it all. The gain of a fiancee and child, with a glimpse into his future focused him even further. Though often overburdening himself, something his friends keep reminding him, he lays down every plan and event into order and in doing so, does his best to take his party on the right path to stop the plans of his former enemy and as cliche as it sounds(something he laughs at) save the world.
Those are just a couple of examples of the lives i live now in the campaigns i enjoy. I fully voice them all with the best effort i can give. Heh, voicing Gnerzi hurts my throat enough i have to keep a lot of water near my desk the whole 5 hours i play. I put everything into my characters and feel the emotions they do almost just readily as one would expect them to. I get so invested i think about the stories out of campaign and try to plan what to do next while at work listening to music. "What would they do?" i ask myself and try to plan according to the character i play.
Many other characters live through me. Aratare, the occultist or should i say magical historian who dreams of opening his own museum of magical artifacts. Richter Kronar , the leader of the Order of Cold Iron dedicated to the elimination of demons and protection of the people. Dyp , the silly and naive locathah of the deep sea who wanders and learns all he can about the world. Veknar Drarge , the giant lizardfolk who wanted nothing more than to remain a miner but destiny forced him to rise up and protect his homeland. And more.
Living these characters lives has become a....cherished past time to me and highly important. Looking back at my original attitude towards tabletop and dungeons and dragons, i can't help but feel stupid a bit. I wished i had joined the hobby much earlier but still i am so glad i have joined it at all. It's a wonderful hobby and a wonderful place to create stories alongside others.
Maybe it's silly , maybe it's a waste of time. But hell , it's the best waste of time i have ever experienced.
So ends my little rant on a site that seems to be a silly place to do it. But fuck it. I wanted to.
