"Know Ye Oh Prince"

“Know ye oh prince…”

I am an ancient role-player, far removed from the modern assembly-line roles of today. I first took the helm of warrior, the staff of a magic-user, or the dagger of a thief, my freshman year of high school. I hid from the 1980's in a Dungeons and Dragons Redbox, opening the lid only to watch Highlander, Dragonslayer or The Terminator. My Saturdays were not spent at the mall or cruising the avenue. No, I spent my Saturdays crawling catacombs, diving dungeons and lurking in labyrinths. Together with the lost boys of my class, we expanded kingdoms, cracked treasure chest and looted the hoards of dragons.

Luckily for my parents, I never felt the craving for illicit drugs, crime, or alcohol. My addiction turned to gulping healing potions, impaling a violent enemy, or downing a tankard of ale before and after a campaign.

The sound of dice soothes me, the lines of graph paper calm me. When things go wrong and some people go to therapy or even a shaman; I suit up, dive underground, grab a torch, and start mapping the dungeons of my mind.

It is a difficult task in this Crescent City, New Orleans, a place where people role-play in the streets, living out their fantasies during a Festival, a Fete, or a Fat Tuesday. So here I am virtually role-playing, thrice removed (from my youth, in New Orleans, and on a computer) from the tombs and saving throws of my youth...

So for the last twenty years I have played virtually, far removed from that thing called table-top, hearing only dice on a dare or a nostalgic flick of my wrist. I started a play-by-post site and watched it die, moderated some and played in many oh so many. I am a traditional player and a free-former, a writer who likes the sound of dice. I adopted the term Writing by Dice or even Dice-writer, using the randomness as fuel for my words.

But what has always been important is the story. And like the great Gygax said, “A DM only rolls the dice because of the noise they make.” And oh what fear falls into the hearts of players when they hear that sound!

I discovered this site just this evening, so here I am. A solid, traditional role-player more interested in story than dice; still craving a deep dark ol’fashioned dungeon crawl.

Shall we?