First: Go read Wil Wheaton’s latest blog post on role playing games and imagination. It’s ok, I’ll wait….

I relate completely to what he's talking about here. My first RPG was Runequest. I was in my early teens and my older cousin (Gregory) was visiting for the summer. He invited myself and two other cousins (James & Eddie) to play. We shut ourselves in Grandma’s sewing room/spare bedroom and played for hours.

I can still see the summer sun shining in that front window as Greg opened his book and started us down a path into a cave, where we fought a giant snail. He showed us a picture of the beast. We were so excited. It captured our imaginations immediately. We were also young enough to not care about appearances. We were bouncing up and down on the bed and waving our imaginary swords around. When the time came for healing, there was laying on of hands for the magic to work.

The magic *did* work. It worked so well that the following summer when I was visiting James & Eddie they had already picked up D&D books of their own. They had a monster manual and a gods and goddesses book. I couldn’t tell you if we actually ran a session or not but, I know we built characters and argued about monsters and gods and whether or not girl fighters wore chainmail bikinis. What I can tell you is that I had fun in the basement of that summer home in Shasta. (Yes, yes, I know.)

I had so much fun my father bought me a starter set for Christmas. I still have the dice, although I’m not sure what happened with the box and books. I’m afraid they didn’t get used much. No one in the ghetto was interested in my strange ways.

I finally had a chance to do some real gaming in college. There was some D&D that happened and then the group I hung out with started a Shadowrun game. I loved reading those books and just letting my brain run around in that world. My GM was a Story Teller. She was absolutely amazing. We didn’t have figures or maps. All we had were handfuls of d6s and lots of role playing. I loved it.

I’ve since played a bunch of different systems, usually no more than a couple of sessions. Most recently though I played D&D (a blend of 3.0 & 3.5) and I’m currently in a Star Wars game. I’m having a great time, but these guys play with maps and figures and that definitely changes the game for me. It tends to take me outside my character.

I’ve found that I do my best role-playing and have the most fun when we’re bantering and planning in character. Don’t get me wrong the fights are fun, but they involve strategizing and thinking about how my character is *supposed to respond*. I find I don’t work at the same instinctual level when I’m looking at a board.

Ultimately though, I’m still having fun. I’m still using my imagination and spending time with friends. The magic is just a little less real which may simply be a side-effect of adulthood. (But that’s a post for another day.)