“The winners of the #dnd open, the War Pigs, and their DM. Congrats to them and everyone who played! #origins2016”
So...
My group and I won the first D&D Open of 5th Edition. For the uninformed, the Open was the big D&D tournament of the year. Even before they announced our table as the winners, I was completely satisfied by the experience. The adventure we played through was excellent. Both WotC and Baldman Games made it an incredible experience. Other people I spoke to who played through it felt the same. I’ll use the rest of this post to share a few thoughts about Origins, D&D, and a few other things in general that have been floating through my mind lately.
-Winning in the D&D Open was a vindicating experience for me. While my character was not the MVP of the group (the cleric and the bard were), I can safely say that there were no weak links in the group. Add to this that I made a winning entry to the One Page Dungeon contest earlier this month, and I feel like I can be proud of what I’ve accomplished with this hobby.
-Winning a D&D tournament may not seem like a big deal but it is because D&D is a big deal. In high school my best friends were the people I played D&D with on Tuesday nights (none of which attended my high school). In fact, high school was usually so miserable for me that that one night a week was often all I felt I could look forward to. While my life got considerably better after high school, my D&D groups continue to be my most consistent and most reliable friends. I love introducing people to the game and I feel a tremendous amount of pride when I see someone develop the same passion I have for it. As one of those friends once said, “we say it’s just a game but it obviously isn’t”.
-As if to prove my friend’s point, I cried more than a bit writing that last paragraph. It’s really hard for me to put into words just what this game means to me.
-Interacting with the designers of D&D at Origins was cool. Whether it was attending a seminar they were teaching, chatting with them in line at the food court, or playing at one of their tables during the Open, they were genuinely very cool people, and they obviously have a similar passion for the hobby as the people that play it. The future of the game is in good hands.
-It was also Pride weekend in Columbus during Origins. One friend I was with pointed out that it was nice to see teenage kids having fun at a Pride parade. I admitted that when I was their age, I was more than a bit homophobic. We both agreed that compared to how things were when we were their age (only 10-12 years ago), attitudes have definitely improved. I hope I never made anyone feel uncomfortable for who or what they are, and I am sorry if I did. Unfortunately I’m sure that I did.
-If you don’t play D&D you should consider finding a good group of people to play it with and give it a try. That “good group of people” part is especially important. Unfortunately there are some rotten eggs in the D&D community. If you think you’re too cool, just remember that Vin Diesel plays D&D and he’s more cool than you.
With that, I’m going to go prepare to play a game of D&D over Skype with some friends back in Nebraska.
