Game night

Wednesday nights are Game Night. This is the night of the week I get to stop being me for a couple of hours and usually pretend to be somebody or something else (like "successful"). That's right, I'm talking about Role-Playing Games, those much maligned time-vacuums that conservative parents assume are going to turn their offspring to witchcraft and devil worship. (Much in the same way, one assumes, that participation in team sports and their attendant communal showers are going to "turn" all comers down the road to homosexuality - seriously, I wouldn't want to dance around a fire naked with ANYONE I've ever sat at the gaming table with, no exceptions).

Let me say at the outset that what I engage in is "pencil and paper" or "tabletop" RPGs. I have never LARPed, although I don't stand in judgement over those who do (I just think some of them should shower occasionally; and while we're on it, if you can manage to stay in character for the whole time you'll start to gain the same credibility as historical reenacters), and while I've tried playing electronic RPGs and MMORPGs, I enjoy the interaction and meta-gaming that you get with a group of witty and like-minded individuals, all inhabiting the same imaginary construct.

A lot of non-gamers - at least the ones who don't try to call my sexuality at the first mention of RPGs (hey, I'm not the one taking showers with the team here) or try to explain to me why my recreational activity choice is an abomination against God - ask me what's involved and what I get out of it. Some can't understand why I like playing "kids' games". When I quiz them, their own experience of games is usually limited to Monopoly, Pictionary, Cluedo or something along those lines. That's like asking what's the big deal with making Wimbledon considering you've played some handball in your lunch hour and it doesn't seem that challenging.

I think a lot of people don't "get" gaming (whether it be tabletop gaming, LARPing, online gaming or wargaming) because it is so far outside of their own experience that they can't imagine it being a pursuit for normal people. And it's true, some gamers are a little socially inept. So are some coin-collectors or professional sportspeople or accountants. Most, however, are regular folks who work straight jobs and have families and live in houses instead of tipis or geodesic domes. I've been in games with students, book editors, engineers, computer programmers, scientists, warehouse managers, pilots, project managers, writers and cooks.

I can't speak for the whole hobby, but I think that the point of commonality between myself and the other gamers I've sat at the table with is that, to a greater or lesser degree, we are all frustrated actors. Because role-playing games are all about taking on a role, i.e. a persona that may or may not exhibit similar traits to you, but isn't you, and acting out their actions in a described situation (usually one involving some kind of conflict, like chasing Nazis through 1930s Europe or piloting a tramp trader spaceship into an unknown solar system, or fighting a DRAGON in a DUNGEON. It's an escape from the mundane, and a chance to exercise your imagination. It's a pastime for the thoughtful (someone once quipped that "Fantasy Football is Dungeons & Dragons for people who, in High School, used to beat up the kids that played Dungeons & Dragons").

Playing a role-playing game gives you a chance to step outside of yourself. To react to a hypothetical situation in a way you yourself may not, and to explore the possible consequences. It gives you a chance to learn a little about yourself. And to kill orcs. I mean, what could be healthier than that?