Heal: Has Tabletop gaming ever helped you or one of your players. While it is difficult to think of a particular incident in which the game has gotten me through a real slump, DMing (and playing) are often some of the things I look forward to the most, and feel the most joy from, and when I hear the same from players it always dispels any poor self esteem that's kicking around. I also love the continued positive interaction with friends since college, for which games have been a powerful structuring element, so that is definitely helping ^^!
History: when did I start?The summer of my first year of high school, I had already had the books and dabbled a bit in playing with my brother and a friend, but we had no concept of what the game could be like until that summer. Me and my brother were sitting in the school library, checking out books for the summer, and discussing how they might lead to dnd missions when some seniors over heard us, and started up a conversation, in the end we were invited to join their group for that summer, since half their players had already left, to this day that may be the finest summer of my life, and some of the best dnd I’ve ever played.
Thievery: absolutely, and without shame (though I think of it as sharing ideas^^) one in particular comes to mind, for the latest campaign (and its multiple iterations) I had players build a few key NPCs into their backstories and boy has that paid off spectacularly, contributing in so many ways to making the world real and interesting for them.
