06. Lucid Dreaming with Dice

tldr: i am a nerd in more ways than one

Over my junior year I fell in love with the game of rolling icosahedrons and way too much reading– Dungeons and Dragons. DnD is a game in which almost anything is possible. You can be the person you want to be, build a world you wish to inhabit, and deal with situations and their consequences. At first it was simply an admiration, wondering how the players made such interesting well rounded players for this world, and trying to figure out what the person running the game (The Dungeon Master) does to even begin facilitating such an open world. I had all of these questions and was always left wondering “How?” [I highly recommend Dimension 20’s campaigns on YouTube and Dropout.]

Every person that I have talked to about running a game has simply said one thing: start. And that’s what I did. When I was asked what I would want for my birthday the only thing I said was that I wanted the basic rulebooks for this obscure nerdy past time– and once I got them I began creating worlds. 

In a game of elves and goblins, it is hard to imagine how relatable game experiences can be. But dealing with the fallout of your actions/inaction is deeply human in nature. It can make you question your real life philosophies, and change your outlook on the world. In fact, for a while this was the only way I knew how to deal with the fact that I was transgender before I even knew what the word for being transgender was. This game has allowed me to deal with my gender identity, and realize certain aspects of myself that I didn’t know were there. [Interestingly enough! I ran a small one-shot with GSA friends of mine. In preparation for the game, we met at The Revue and made our characters, during which we met Ross Matthews! It was, a wild day.]

Creating random character encounters and situations, map making, and making worlds for my various friend groups to play in was never the way I pictured myself showing off my love of being somewhat creative. But for me, describing the perfect painting is so much easier than having the skill and passion to paint it in the first place. And something tells me that finding other people into TTRPGs (Table-Top Role Playing Games) at MIT, won’t be an issue.

Paige

[PS: I don’t know how they do it, but the sections in brackets would be the footnotes that are scattered in the various MIT blogs.]