I grew up in a household wherein gaming was a near daily occurrence. My mom had my sister and I playing Settlers of Catan as early as 2000 when I was just 8 years old. I’ve been obsessed with board games ever since, and the same goes for video games.
Naturally, I was always fascinated by the idea of tabletop roleplaying games, but I didn’t have the chance to play until 2009. That’s when I started my first Pathfinder campaign, and I was immediately hooked. The thrill of our group’s struggles, our failures, and our victories was addictive. I obsessed over my character’s stats and backstory, I roleplayed my little heart out, and from then on, there was no going back. I went on to play the same character type for every campaign after that – basically a heightened version of myself with badass magic powers – and as a teenager, it was the most thrilling form of self-expression I had at my disposal.
Since then, I’ve grown up quite a bit and found a new appreciation for gaming as a means of telling a story as a group, solving puzzles together, and getting to know people better. However, there is still a small part of me that simply enjoys that self-expression. At the heart of it, these games are a creative endeavor undertaken by a group of individuals who all want to articulate something. What we create together can be altogether different from what we set out to create as individuals, and that’s what makes it so special. That’s why I game.
Dustin and I went and got tattoos together in July (pictured above) and no lie, that was easily the nerdiest thing I’ve ever done. Yes, I’m including starting an […]
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