I suspect that this is going to be a story that is repeated all over the rpg blogosphere today. My school friends and I pretty much have RPGs as the social glue that holds us together. Over the decades each of us has had lifes ups and down. I think we have had nine wives/partners and four divorces, and ten children. Careers have taken off and others have stuggled. One of us was blinded in an accident, another has a daughter with very severe learning disabilities. But despite it all our weekends of gaming have been a space where we could leave that all at the door and kick the crap out of a troll or become a half elven sorceress with a taste for torturing captives.
I do not think for one second that this group would still be meeting and socialising if it were not for rpgs. In fact some of my friends I have ‘blocked’ on Facebook as I am so far away from their views on Brexit, immigration and social welfare that I found some of their posts offensive. The most common disagreements we have had away from the gaming table have been over Brexit and immigration. I am a ‘remainer’ and you will be shocked to learn that I tend not to keep my opinions to myself. I think Brexit is such a bad idea that I am in the process of seeking Swiss nationality so I can retain the right to free movement. Switzerland is not part of the EU but it has signed up to the Schengen agreement allowing EU and Swiss nationals freedom of movement across the entire EU. I have also re-positioned my business so that we have centres in the Republic of Ireland and Germany, inside the EU, as well as the UK. In the new year we will be expanding into Australia as well in an attempt to cushion ourselves from any catastrophic Brexit effects.
So there you are, ‘share a friendship you have because of RPGs, pretty much all of them!
It seems that all of my friends are from gaming. There are people at the station and within the department with whom I’m “friendly”, but we don’t hang out together, go out for dinner, hang out at the house together outside of work. The friends I had from college have all moved on, all but one actually. But the one constant with the friends I have now is gaming.
My daughter was at a school function and the parents were hanging out. There were only two fathers there and a dozen mothers, so naturally we sat around and chatted a bit. He happened to be working on a D&D campaign when I saw the books. Our conversation turned to gaming. That was the start of a new friendship.
He introduced me to the group he meets with regularly on Mondays, the group he had been gaming with for years and years. They welcomed me in and I was part of the “group” right away. New friends!
From that group, I’ve become better friends and we’ve hung out more, he has joined my gaming group on Saturdays. New friend!
The one friend from college about 25 years ago… he likes gaming too. Old friend!
I started to get into gaming when I was in junior high (grades 7 and 8, about 12 and 13 years old). After playing some basic DnD, I was invited to a game of AD&D. The campaign was a lot of fun, even if most of us died at the end — we survived the Banshee’s save or die, but then the DM put us up against Asmodeus and everyone except my Paladin got tempted to the dark side. The game broke up, but a few years later one of the players transferred to my high school. We soon found out we had a lot in common, especially fantasy and sci-fi novels, and made our own gaming group. I’ve lost touch with most of the other members of the group, but we stayed friends throughout all these 35 or so years. He is my oldest friend.