Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Read Online Free PDF Page A

from your palm, like a ray of the sun,” says Morgan. “It strikes the pirate and he withers and dies.” Alex cackles. I smirk.
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    I named Weslocke after one of the very first D&D characters I ever played. I was ten years old, in fourth grade, and impossibly nerdy: I wore trousers, black socks, and thick glasses to my magnet school for gifted children.
    By that age, I’d already been sucked into many of the classic 1980s nerd interests, including Star Wars, computer programming, and listening to Weird Al Yankovic. But I hadn’t explored the realms of fantasy literature any deeper than The Chronicles of Narnia and was only dimly aware of role-playing games. So when my friend Scott Johnson produced a beat-up copy of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, itwas a revelation: In this world, I wasn’t a “neo maxi zoom dweebie” in JCPenney slacks. I was an ass-kicking, dungeon-crawling, goblin-slaying epic hero.
    I wasn’t alone. In the decade following its 1974 debut, D&D grew from an obscure hobby into a worldwide phenomenon—one of the most passionately loved, bestselling, and most controversial games ever made. It dominated my preteen years and became the center of my most important social interactions; my best friends were the guys I played D&D with. When we got together for one of our frequent Saturday-night sleepovers, sometimes we’d watch a movie, sometimes we’d go swimming, sometimes we’d throw firecrackers at each other or ignite pools of lighter fluid in Scott’s driveway—but we’d always play D&D.
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    It’s the pirates’ turn now, so Morgan takes over the action. After my spell fried their comrade, the pirates decided I’m their biggest threat, so Morgan moves their minis to surround me—one in front, and two on either side. They attack with their spears, and two connect. Suddenly, I’m down to only 55 of my 82 hit points.
    Everyone in the fight has made a move, so the initiative order starts again from the top. Jhaden pivots and hacks at one of the pirates but doesn’t drop him. Ganubi falls back, draws his bow, and fires an arrow, which misses. Babeal zaps one with a Magic Missile spell, but only for 16 hit points.
    I decide to get clever. I announce to the table that I’m casting a spell, Blade Barrier, which summons an immobile curtain of whirling blades into existence. I evoke this barrier, I explain, in a circle directly around Weslocke: the eight squares on the grid bordering my own, three of which are currently occupied by pirates.
    Morgan will have to roll high for each pirate to successfully dodgethe blades and back out of the curtain. If they don’t, they’re going to be chum.
    He tosses the dice. One dies instantly, shredded by the blades. Another makes his roll and jumps backward, taking no damage. The third also dodges successfully—but instead of pushing his mini away from mine, Morgan picks up the figure and drops it right in my square.
    “The pirate jumps forward to escape the blades and crashes into you,” he explains. “You both collapse to the ground.”
    I have trapped myself inside a cage of whirling knives with a raging fish monster.
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    Playing D&D might be uniquely rewarding, but it’s not always easy. Role-playing games carry a lot of baggage, and devotees run the risk of being branded as nerds, weirdos—or even criminals.
    To be fair, this prejudice has some root in reality. The game does tend to attract fans of fantasy literature, mythology, mathematics, and puzzles—in other words, nerds. They value the community they find among D&D players and strive to be welcoming to others; the game table becomes a place where outcasts can feel comfortable. It’s admirable, but it does the hobby no favors in the PR department.
    I don’t know if I played D&D because other kids my age thought I was a nerd, or if they thought I was a nerd because I played D&D. Causation and correlation tend to get confused when some hormone-addled thirteen-year-old bully is