Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't get me wrong, the significant percentage of our readers which is currently preparing to pelt me with d8s for insinuating that tabletop RPGs are for kids. (You'd better be using those, because unless you're a dead shot with d4s, they have the best sharpness/amount of corners ratio for taking an eye out. Trust me, I know.) I'm not saying that at all. I know for a fact that it's possible to have a fulfilling as fuck life playing them well into your middle age. I'm just saying I personally didn't.
But back in the 1990s, I walked the fuckin' walk. D&D, AD&D, MERP, RuneQuest, Shadowrun, Call Of Cthulhu, Paranoia!, bullshit indie games no one could ever figure out, a self-made one that brought people to punches on a nightly basis -- you name it, I've pathetically failed at a dexterity roll to scale it. Had a posse, had a crew. Been a player, been an extremely awful GM. Swallowed tears as my pet puma died. Go ahead, tell me I don't know my shit.
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My only failing was a tendency to dive in whenever a gelatinous cube rolled along, screaming "Jell-O party!"
But at some point, it all went away. High school ended. I moved to another town. People started studying shit and getting girlfriends this way and that. Some were tenacious and kept playing, but I just couldn't find the time anymore. Even so, I've always regarded those dragon-slaying days as some of my best memories before legal drinking age, so it seemed like a good place to start.