Dungeons and Dragons

Or what we did before computer games...

I must have been 8 when I first discovered Dungeons and Dragons.

Inspired by Ian Livingstone's fantastic Warlock of Firetop Mountain book (check out the artwork here Fighting Fantasy fans), I tried to hunt down anything else to explain what this strange topic was all about. I picked up a book called 'What is Dungeons and Dragons' which was the the only thing in my local bookstore and I read this before I ever got hold of my first D&D basic set.

This slightly odd book tried to explain what D&D was all about to someone who had never seen or played it. It had a story which described a parties adventure and a vague description of the mechanics but the main message was 'you need to actually go and by a D&D set if you want to play'.

Well eventually I found the original D&D red box basic set (still my favourite version) complete with 6 weird shaped dice which I remember had engrved numbers in the yellow plastic and you had to rub over them with a green crayon to make the numbers visible!

And so began one enourmous collection of rulebooks, dice, graph paper, lead figures and various other paraphenalia that bought the realm of Dungeons and Dragons to life.

The main problem I had was of course finding anyone to play it with as D&D does not work well as a solo game ;). I remember starting our school D&D club and pulling together some unlikely groups on the promise that if they took part they would get to kill stuff with giant axes. Parents and teachers not amused.

I have to say I gave it all up after the advent of the computer RPG as it made life much simpler. Computers never argue about how many magic missiles you have left or who gets the biggest share of the loot. But I still miss the arguments, tantrums, ripped up character sheets and fights that used to break out as 6 bewildered kids tried to fathom out what is probably the deepest most complex game ever invented...