Gaming Gateway Drug

When I was a kid, I loves the cartoon, "Dungeons & Dragons" so much, and when I found out it was based off of a game, I had wanted to play it so badly.

I didn't get a chance to play D&D until I was in college, and I loved it. I really consider D&D my gaming gateway drug because I am probably a little addicted to roleplaying games.

I gamed a lot the last few years of college. I LARPed (Vampire: The Masquerade mostly) almost every Saturday, and I dabbled in other table top games like Star Wars and White Wolf.

After I left college, I couldn't find a gaming group. I went to a LARP in Grand Rapids once with my friend, Sara, but it was odd and I felt out of place so I never went back. It would be several years before I would game again.

When Todd and I moved down to NC, we met Alice and Josh (they were online friends with someone I was friends with), and they introduced us to Hero Games. I love, love, love Hero Games system so much because it focuses more on the roleplaying than the combat and system mechanics.

We played nearly every week for several years, until they moved out of the state. Their move also was when I was about to pop with Emily, so I wasn't going to be able to game much with a newborn anyway.

Even engrossed in new motherhood, I really missed gaming and really wanted to get back into it. When Emily was almost a year, I went to GA to play in a LARP with my cousin and his wife. It was different than any LARP I had played in before because it was a boffer weapon LARP.

Since it was my first time, I was an NPC, and I ran around all weekend fighting and dying. It was awesome! I played again a few months later, and now I can't wait until the first game of this year comes around.

To make things even better, my best friend's husband is a Hero Games GM, and we have figured out a way to play (we hope) while the kids play. Luckily, their daughter and Emily are BFF's and play together remarkably well for kids their age. This Sunday is going to be our first game and I cannot wait! I'm going to play a fire mage who is kind of like Harry Potter (in she probably will have to defeat the bad guy at some point).

And it all started with D&D - it's a gaming gateway drug.