D and D

I attended my first (and probably last) D and D game on Friday. For those of you who remember the 70's, it's one of the first role-playing games to make it big world wide (besides the usual courtship rituals.) I will write more about it later, but it DID strike me that D and D games are the Nerd equivilant of literary saloons, where fantasy elements from a number of different ur-text (LOTR, Star Wars, Star Trek, TNG, just to name a few) can mix together freely without fear of censure. For example, not only was I a muscled street rat in search of three magic foods (nor surprisingly, one of them mushrooms) but I had an Elvish blade that glowed blue in the presence of Orcs as well as a phaser set on stun. It's guided conversation: our Master strummed his guitar and made the game up as he went along. The other players--a director, a playwright, and a stockbroker--were familiar with the game and one had brought a seven-page script with his background story. I quickly realized I was outclassed big-time and kept my snarky comments to a minimum. What did surprise me was this: cast as a street thug with muscles, each time I was met with a challenge---"What do you do?"--I automatically thought not of what I would do, but of how this character would think. Interesting, as this alter ego made choices I would not normally consider...could this game be addictive? Anything that brings together lonely and/or creative people will create a certain bond--the strength of that bond may well lie in how badly you need it to tie the rest of your life together. More on this topic after I channel my Inner Goddess to help me rearrange the furniture again...