My Introduction into Roleplaying. Part 1: The Professor
When I learned to paint miniatures, I had a friend who was a master painter and she offered me the following encouragement: “Never go back and repaint your old miniatures” she said, “let them stand as a testament to your journey as a painter. That way you can look back and see how far you have come.”
I have over 10 years behind the screen as a storyteller and game master. That’s a lot of “old miniatures” to look back on, all of the characters I have played or encountered, all of the campaigns I have run or been a player in. I wasn’t born a role-player or a game master, although the argument could be made that I was born a storyteller. Now with the launch of Open Heart Games, I have been reflecting on my journey into the world of roleplaying. How did I get here? And what have I learned along the way? What can I share with people who are interested in roleplaying or in becoming a game master? To answer these questions, I have to go back to the beginning of my journey into roleplaying. Which was something I happened upon largely by accident.
It was summer and a large circle of my high school and college friends had been playing Dungeons & Dragons and trying desperately to get me into roleplaying. Try as they might, I was not having it. I played plenty of board games, and even some card games, but roleplaying was something that was strange to me, largely because I didn’t understand it. Then, one of my friends invited me over to his house to build a character. Just to build a character. Presented with this “no strings attached” opportunity, I finally caved.
The game system was D20 Modern and I built a charismatic hero, modeled after a very idealistic vision of myself. His stats made him really good at the talking. . . and not so good at the fighting. As we finished up building the character, my friend said to me, “Well, he is going to need a name.”
At the time I had aspirations in academia and was weighing the thought of pursuing a doctorate. “Lets just call him ‘The professor’” I said. And with that, my first character was born.
“Well, now you just have to play him.” My friend said, gleefully. This “let’s just build a character” exercise had been a ploy all along and I had taken the bait. The exercise had taken a few hours to complete and It did seem rather a waste not to put this character to good use. So when my friend told me that the game would be that weekend, I decided to give it a shot.
I remember feeling slightly uncomfortable during my first roleplaying session. I suppose I didn’t really know what to expect. There were no “live play” sessions on Youtube that you could watch like there are today. Dungeons and Dragons still had an air of mystery about it. Growing up in the nineties we were not too far removed from the D&D panic of the eighties and in our small conservative town, an interest in Dungeons and Dragons and roleplaying were viewed as peculiar to say the least. But as someone who grew up reading fantasy novels, playing Diablo, and being a huge Star Wars fan, “peculiar” seemed almost inviting.
It wasn’t long before I was immersed in the session. As an ex-theatre kid I relished the freedom my silver-tongued character provided to me. I was able to convince people that their trust in us was not misplaced, that we were worth more than what they were paying us, or that we weren’t worth the fight. Up to this point, the rest of the party had just been shooting their way through nearly every situation. My character was a welcome addition to the party and everyone was having a good time, myself included. All too soon, that first session was over. “Hey Karington, will you join us next week?” The GM asked. My eyes lit up at the question. “You bet! I will see you next week!”
And with that, I had joined my first campaign. We had so much fun that summer and The Professor, well he did alright. He successfully negotiated the party out of (and sometimes into) a fair amount of trouble. Did he have an elaborate backstory, a semblance of a story arch, or any inkling of character growth? Absolutely not. But did I have fun playing the character? Absolutely yes!
So what’s the takeaway here? If you are still on the fence about roleplaying, I implore you to give it a try. It’s okay not to feel 100% comfortable right away. It’s okay not to have a perfect character. It is ok to not have an overly elaborate backstory with interwoven plot hooks. What matters is that you give it a try and let yourself have fun. You may be surprised at what can happen. You may fall in love with roleplaying just like I did.
Next week, I will continue the story of my roleplaying journey. I will be talking about my first campaign as a GM and what lessons I learned from it. ‘Til next time!
Take Heart!
Karington Hess
Game Master and Founder of Open Heart Games
