Learned Lesson – Day 28 D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop

This is the final day of the of d20 Dark Ages’ D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge! Based off of the challenge’s prompts I will be sharing personal stories about my history with Dungeons & Dragons every day in February. You can hop to another participating blog by using the links at the end of the article or click here to see my previous answers.

Day 28: What is the single most important lesson that you have learned from playing D&D?

The single most important lesson that D&D has taught me that there is no such thing as a “doer”.

I’m a nervous guy. I can put on a good show for my friends but my humor and boisterousness is my attempt to drown out my own insecurity. The adolescent that chose not to join clubs and play organized sports because he was afraid of failure is still loud and clear within my head. I know that I’ve missed too many opportunities by opting out before I ever had the chance to succeed.

In order to rationalize my fear I conjured up a classification of people that I’ll call “doers”. Doers were those special people that had the x-factor that I lacked. They were born under the proper sign, were gifted with genius, had A-type personalities, whatever. Doers were the people that did things and I was simply a different species.

Then I joined a Dungeons & Dragons game at 19.

It was my roommate’s game. I started to realize that the fun and camaraderie were the product of a bunch of normal people sitting around a table. I could identify with these guys as peers, as nerds, as friends, they weren’t some sort of superhuman doer. It was inevitable that I would work up the courage to pick up the mantel of Dungeon Master myself.

Naturally, my first few games were short, clumsy, and terribly flawed. Those early games were “failures,” no doubt; my teenage self would have lost sleep over them. But for the first time in my life I was sticking with something despite my fear of failure and I was being rewarded immensely for it. I was becoming proud of what we were creating and, more importantly, proud that my friends kept coming back each week. I’m sure my players never thought much of them, but I still carry every post-game smile and “thank you” with me in my heart.

Dungeons & Dragons, and role-playing in general, has destroyed my shitty idea of “doers”. There is no special lottery to win that gives you the means to accomplish things that you set out to do. All you need to be successful is bravery, and we can all manage that.  We can all be good at things. We should all try the things that we want to do. And we can all be valuable to others.

Here’s to 40 more years of games.

Powered by Linky Tools: Click here to view the other participating blogs!