From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd

https://archive.is/PjtWt


1970s: A miracle from my brother
Anderson Cooper is a journalist and anchors rCLAnderson Cooper 360rCY on CNN.

Fletcher, my elven thief, was dear to my heart. He wore a red cape and,
in my mind, bore a close resemblance to DrCOArtagnan from rCLThe Three Musketeers.rCY Fletcher and his fellow adventurers would slay monsters and collect treasure. Ever the magnanimous hero, he hosted a party for the townspeople using his windfall of gold.

[...]


1980s: A mythology of the mind
Lev Grossman is the author of rCLThe Bright SwordrCY and the rCLMagiciansrCY trilogy.

We started hearing rumors about it when I was in fourth grade. Nobody
knew exactly what Dungeons & Dragons was except that it wasnrCOt quite a normal game; it was something weird and arcane and important, like sex
or calculus. An older boy whorCOd played it showed me, furtively, a map hand-drawn in ballpoint pen on graph paper. I struggled to grasp the
concept. Was it a board game? Like Sorry? But the pieces could go, like,
in any direction? And thererCOs more than one board? rCLIn D&D,rCY the boy said sagely, rCLthere are many maps.rCY

[...]


1990s: A good dungeon master is a good collaborator
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an actor, writer, director and the founder of HitRecord.

It was something like 1994. I was 13. My friend Nick was coming over
later, and I was getting ready. We had agreed that I would be dungeon
master that day. I was behaving a bit like a screenwriter outlining a
movie and a bit like a kindergartner playing pretend. I paced around my
room, absorbed in thought, a pad of graph paper and pencils ready at
hand somewhere on the carpeted floor. And then, I had an idea.

[...]



2000s: A community of my own
Matthew Mercer is a voice actor and co-founder of Critical Role, where
he serves as chief creative officer and game master for the companyrCOs flagship show, rCLCritical Role.rCY

One by one, they stopped coming to play. Folks who had never tried it
canceled at the last minute, feeling awkward about joining something
they didnrCOt understand. Experienced players who were looking forward to making characters and building a story together struggled to explain to
their partners why they needed to spend hours away with their rCLwork friendsrCY to play make-believe. The D&D campaign I had poured myself into fizzled to nothing. I wasnrCOt angry at my friends, but I was worried
about the death of this passion that had meant so much to me.

[...]


2010s: A characterrCOs journey rCo and my own
Ally Beardsley is a comedian and actor in the Dropout series rCLDimension 20.rCY

I was an aspiring comedian in Los Angeles and had just landed a salaried
job at the comedy website CollegeHumor. My co-worker and friend Brennan
Lee Mulligan was looking for six comedians to create a show that would
be like an at-home game of D&D. Why not? rCLDimension 20rCY became a weird punctuation to my day.

[...]
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