How A Game Changed My Life

I have had some light experiences with the idea of an open world and sandbox-style games. In these games, the main idea is to have a map, and the player has almost the entire ability to travel across this world. Being a nerdy kid in high school, I played many different video games to express myself. I expressed myself in the form of theatrical productions as well. Being a proponent of the musical arts, I naturally fell into the drama programs. I then realized my love for acting through these different plays and musicals. One of the individuals I met in these activities was named Brett Wilson. Brett was a relatively nerdy-looking kid who had curly brown hair and relatively moderate acne for a highschool sophomore.

Brett and I had grown to be pretty good friends over our love for the saxophone and the Lord of the Rings. Brett then explained to me one day that there is a way to plan a fun game entirely open. He described it as a "combination of board games and video games... except the video part of the video game goes on in your mind." I now realize that the game he was describing is Dungeons & Dragons. I thought this was interesting, and I decided that I would give it a try. The game is too complicated and has many moving parts. However, the main idea is that each character has a couple of numbers that correspond with broad character traits, such as intelligence. This then helps you decide how well your character can recall history, recall religious knowledge, and other things derived from your intellect. We planned to meet at Brett's house with our friends Kevin and Isaac. Kevin and Isaac were the same age as Brett, who was a year younger than me. I went to Brett's house at around noon Kevin and Isaac arrived about half an hour later.

Brett helped me to make my first character. "Do you want to play a character that supports everyone else, do you want to use magic, or do you want to hit things hard." I grew up watching shows like Spongebob, where Patrick was not intelligent and was more substantial than he realized. So I responded in a low voice with a sense of openness, "I want to hit things hard." Brett guided me into picking a half-orc barbarian as my first character. I decided to name him Thokk because I believe it was a strong and powerful name. It was a fun experience, and I was glad for Brett to teach me this complex and exciting game.

About a year had passed then a global pandemic caused my COVID-19 began to tear into my soul. My happiness had stopped because, in the spring of 2020, we had encountered a day when the world stopped. This event shook everyone to their core. I felt the pandemic's effects in my hometown. The senior musical that I was in was canceled and was never rescheduled. I was unable to finish my senior year in the classroom. This piled on top of me being unable to hang out with my friends just tumbled me into a bad state of mind. About a month had passed, and I discovered that my friend I have known since middle school, Seth Fischer, plays Dungeons & Dragons with his father and brother. I let Seth know that I would love to join if possible, and he gladly allowed me to play with them. Once I got accepted to play with the Fischers, I decided to look up Dungeons and Dragons on Youtube. I found this group of professional voice actors who play Dungeons & Dragons together for fun. This multi seasoned show named Critical Role helped give me ideas on how to be a better player. Before I knew it, the day to play with the Fischer's had come, and it was time to drive to the house of my middle school friend.

When I arrived at the Fischer house, I was greeted by two dogs. One of these dogs was rather large and loud, but she was petrified because I was a rather large and scraggly individual. Their small dog looks like a generic white dog that would be in a family-style sitcom. My friend then came to the door and walked me into his home. He had a computer set up and began to ask me about my experience playing Dungeons & Dragons. He suggested playing a similar style character; that way, it would be easier to jump into a one-shot. "A one-shot adventure," He explained, "Is an adventure told in a single sitting, whereas a campaign is more of a longer story told throughout multiple different sessions." I was excited and ready to play another barbarian. He pulled up this software on his computer. The software was titled DnD Beyond. I thought that this was amazing. It was also a little overwhelming looking at twenty to thirty different fantasy races possible to play. I saw the minotaur race. I was instantly reminded of the Greek mythological story with the labyrinth and the minotaur in the center. So I decided that I would play a minotaur barbarian, a gladiator, and Grymun. The one-shot background and theme were that the players were pirates, all a part of the same crew. I enjoy playing characters in video games and on stage that have weird, quirky flaws. So, I created a character that was unable to swim. I also made sure that my character was a relatively loyal follower of our captain. I then walked down the stairs into my friend's basement. The basement of their rancher style home was very simple. It had a large table that they used for gaming. There were multiple individuals seated around this table. My friend's older brother Caleb was a somewhat athletic individual who had straight, wiry hair. He is the backup quarterback for Alvernia College's football team. I also saw an individual who went by the name Mengel. He was about five foot seven, and he had average looking blocky glasses. He wore jeans, work style boots, a country-style baseball cap, and a Critical Role-branded short sleeve shirt. I also saw an individual wearing army-style digital camouflage pants, a black short-sleeve shirt, and an army cap. He had small oval-shaped glasses, and he was shorter than Mengel. He went by the name Andy. I also met an individual who was taller than me and was skinner. He looked like a wax bean that had legs and arms. He had soft pale blonde hair that was in a mess across his head. His name was Tristen Bowman, but he went by Tebow. Little did I know that all of these individuals have come to be some of my best friends to this day. They all played rather interesting characters that seemed fitting for the pirate style adventure we were going to partake in.