It looks like pen and paper roleplaying just moved up (or down, depending on how you look at it) in the geek hierarchy.
I present to you, “Dungeons and Dragons For Dummies.”
This book shares shelves with the recently published:
- Fitness For Dummies, 3rd Edition
- Mormonism For Dummies
- Baby Massage For Dummies
- Living With Hepatitis C For Dummies
Looks like this particular hobby got a lot more acceptable. Just like Mormonism and Hepatitis C.
It has come a long way since the “It will eat our children’s souls!” days.
I always think about playing every now and again. I never ran a game, but there are a lot of people I do know that play. I like the creative aspect, and reading the source books.
They’re like tourbooks to lands that don’t really exist, filled with complex societies, city maps, flora and fauna, weather, natural (and unnatural) phenomena, and interesting characters.
Yes, I understand you can get the same thing out of reading a fantasy novel. But reading it in the form of a “guide to” rather than a “novel about” provides you with details and gives you a sense that someone dreamed this place “in the whole.”