RPGs: A Noob’s Perspective

I had just stepped outside of my apartment building into the midday sunlight, and as my sneakered feet hit the sidewalk, I noticed the bearded man across the street walking with a hiking pack and rolled up sleeping bag stacked high on his back.  He walked easily under this weight, and the first thought that entered my mind was not anything about this man or what he may doing or how I would like to go camping too.  No, my first thought was whether or not he was carrying a medium load or heavy load, and if he was able to do that without slowing him down.  He must have pretty high strength.  And what about his armor class?  Wouldn’t that affect his speed too?

I had just played Dungeons and Dragons for the first time, and already my mind had been completely taken over by this idea that everyone was character with different stats and rolled D20s to make major life decisions.  Of course, I didn’t actually think these things, but the nerd in me had pushed forward through all of my other more normal guts and after many nights of struggle, reigned supreme, waving the flag of victory.  The decision to play had been made up in my mind, and I told my friend, our GM that I wanted to try it.

It was actually Pathfinder, not D&D that we decided to start with, and that was primarily because there are so many materials still available in print.  From the perspective of a newcomer, I could easily see how the game could appear to be a level of nerdom that even the normal fantasy fans or gamers are unwilling to breach.  I myself was not far from closing in on that gap, although I hadn’t yet reached it fully.  But there I found myself, sitting at a table in my friend’s living room with a flickering candle and a rolled-up parchment next to a bowl of nacho cheese Doritos and bottles of Yuengling, ready and willing to face the fact that I really may be a nerd.

Our GM, game master, which is the equivalent to a D&D’s dungeon master, knew that our group was half noobs, so to prepare for this, he had already helped us out with our character sheets beforehand.  He also started us out at a level 5 for our short one-off game, versus having us dive in and start from scratch.  He wanted us to really get a feel for the game before having to muster up enough bravery to commit to an intense campaign.  I found this beneficial and lucky when my dwarf fighter, Burlock, single-handedly destroyed the fierce minotaur at the end of the game, something I would not have been able to do as a level 1 character.

The hardest part for me was the actual role-playing itself, which I simultaneously found to be the most fun.  Probably a good thing, since the game is a role-playing game.  I’d always been one of those quiet nerds, the type that sits in the back of class and doesn’t utter a noise, but loves every minute of what’s being taught.  So as expected, I struggled with the getting into character part of things more than anything.  Plus, having never played, I still wasn’t positive on the boundaries of this, how far you can go within the game itself.  This is something that I’m still working out as I did decide to stick with the game and join the long campaign, this time as the barbarian, Xiltharra, from the wild race of savage elves.

Despite the stigma, the idea of friends gathered around with beer and snacks, playing a game together, is not actually that nerdy of an idea.  Our game just happens to involve stepping into a different world altogether where your friends become elves and dwarves and druids and sorcerers and you journey through towns and forests and dark dungeons.

So yeah, maybe it’s a little nerdy.