If Funny-Shaped Dice is really about anything, it is about a love of gaming and a deep desire to reconnect with the most amazing hobby and people, outside of my wonderful wife and three amazing kids, with which I have ever been connected in my entire life.
30 years later, I still have the blue 20-sider I got with that first set. My box was missing a 10-sider; the comic shop guy gave me this one instead.
My first experience with role-playing games was with Dungeons & Dragons “Basic”. Played “The Keep On The Borderlands” when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I remember it was amazing! What a great game! You mean, I can do anything I want? Whoa.
In 6th grade, I got my own copy, the old red-box edition, and I was hooked.
There is nothing like table-top role-playing with the right group of people. It is a hobby that will lead you in so many different directions and expose you to people, things and ideas you’ve never experienced before.
Through this hobby, I…
- …developed a deep and abiding love for reading
- …learned to write gooder. (Just kidding)
- …took classes in figure drawing
- …took classes in photography
- …learned a lot of European history
- …found ways to apply lessons from my high-school physics classes ((“Well…how fast, exactly, does my space craft need to go in order to reach escape velocity from the planet’s atmosphere given conditions X, Y, Z?”))
- …learned tolerance and to appreciate diversity (Gamers are notoriously open-minded)
- …learned team-work and consensus building
- …learned leadership
- …learned to strategize and problem solve
- …learned to plan and organize
- …learned to think on my feet
- …learned improvisational speaking and public speaking
- …developed an interest in The Stage (and even acted in a few stage productions)
- …developed an interest in film, script-writing and cinematography
- …learned attention to detail (have *you* ever tried to paint 25mm Miniatures?!)
A 25mm painted BugBear.
I could go on and on. There were so many positive things that I took away from this hobby, and the experiences that it provided to me, that directly contributed and influenced who I became and the successes I’ve had. I may not do a lot of these things now but I have fond memories of them.
At some point in the future I hope Funny-Shaped Dice becomes much more about contributing and giving back to a hobby and to a community that had a tremendous influence on the person that I’ve become.
I hope you’ll join me on this adventure and come back to visit often.
– Rob