do you LIVE or simply EXIST

photo credit: fyuryu

I was sad to find out Gary Gygax had died. Gygax was a co-creator of the game Dungeons and Dragons. I never looked up to him like a hero or anything, but I have always been appreciative of what roleplaying has done for my life.

I was a very shy kid in Jr. High. I didn’t really come out of my shell until High School, when I started roleplaying. I became one of those AD&D geeks.

I played AD&D through High School and for several years thereafter when I joined the Air Force. I played with different groups of people from all over the country and outside our country.

Why am I telling you this? Because believe roleplaying games are one way to develop imagination and social skills. I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, “Geeks are not known for their social skills.” Let me give you an example.

Roleplaying games are good for development

In Jr. High when it came time for speech class, I was frozen. I mumbled my speech, couldn’t make eye contact, and my heart would nearly beat out of my chest. I hated public speaking. Outside of the classroom I didn’t make eye contact with others. I didn’t feel comfortable speaking to people I didn’t know, or even those I kinda knew.

Then, as I began to roleplay, I found it easier to speak in front of groups. It was simple: I just had to pretend it wasn’t me speaking. I became someone else, a politician, a wiseman, an expert. I even pretended to be someone else who was pretending to be me, if that makes any sense. I “steped out of myself” and in so doing, I left my fear of speaking behind.

Soon, public speaking became natural. Eventually I realized I wasn’t even pretending anymore. It was me speaking. And I liked it.

Some could say it wasn’t roleplaying in particular that helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, but just the fact that I joined a social group that happended to be composed of roleplayers. Joining a social groups is one of the points Scott Young writes about in his post You Won’t Get Anywhere With Poor Social Skills at Pick The Brain.

I choose to believe it was roleplaying, at least in my case.

Develop creativity

Roleplaying games helped develop a my creativity. Soon, instead of playing in a game, I was running them. I was devising my own adventures for groups of friends. I even created a series of adventures based on the book, The Shattered World, that drew notice from the author, Michael Reaves.

My creative nature has helped me to “think outside of the box” on many projects in my career. I’ve often been complimented, and given an occasional reward, for my creative approaches to problems.

I don’t believe I would have followed the same path had I not been a roleplayer. I have no idea where I would have ended up if I hadn’t been able to overcome my fear of public speaking. Maybe I would have overcome it another way, but I’m not so sure. I know that roleplaying helped exercise and develop my creative nature.

It’s now been years since I’ve played. I’ve grown out of it I guess.

Thank you, Gary Gygax. Your spearheading the table-top roleplaying genre helped one shy kid become a self-confident man.

Readers, tell me, what is your experience with roleplaying games?