Happy Birthday, Dungeons & Dragons

D&D is 30 this year, which makes me feel old. While countless millions have derided Dungeons & Dragons and ostracized people who play it, I'll stand and be counted as someone who absolutely LOVED the game back in the early '80s. Furthermore, I'll go out on a limb and say that if the game is played by the rules and people actually play their characters instead of doing whatever the heck they feel like doing, there's no better game on the face of the planet.

Go ahead. Make fun of me. I don't give a shit. Truth be told, I think playing D&D extensively on rainy days was a great thing to do when I was younger. First of all, the game boosted the hell out of my 8-year-old vocabulary at the time. How many 8-year-olds do you know that run around slinging words like "ethereal" and "polymorph" about? Secondly, I think the game did a lot to foster imagination. It is played with nothing but paper, dice and a few rulebooks. Instead of mind-numbing computer graphics, players have to actually use their imagination to envision dark towers, weird monsters and such.

Yes, count me among the D&D enthusiasts. I don't mind.