Like Damon Law (who wrote an earlier editorial) I began hearing rumors about D&D Online in 1999. About the same time I heard that Peter Jackson was beginning work on a live action film version of The Lord of the Rings. Three months after that I learned that Verant and Bioware had begun working on a MMORPG of Star Wars called Star Wars Galaxies, and that the D&D Online project I had heard about was also being created by Bioware and was going to be called Neverwinter Nights. All I can say is "It's a pretty damn good time to be alive."
I'm 32 years old. I am a member of a large number of people in my age group that answer three questions the same way. The questions are: "What book (or series of books) helped to shape your childhood/adolescence more than any other?," "What movie helped to shape your childhood/adolescence more than any other?" and "What game helped to shape your childhood/adolescence more than any other?" The answers are The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Dungeons and Dragons.
I remember reading The Hobbit for the first time when I was nine years old. I remember it so well because it was just after my Mom and Dad had separated, and I had a real need to escape this world, if only for a little while. The Hobbit was the first "adult" fantasy novel I had ever read. Once I read that, The Lord of the Rings followed. When I read those books I was taken to Middle Earth. I became Frodo, Strider, or Gandalf. It was not simply a third person experience for me.
That same year Star Wars came out. I remember being scared to go into the theatre. I had seen a poster in the lobby of all the aliens in the cantina. My father dragged me inside; I'm sure glad he did. I was glued to the screen as soon as I saw the first fire fight in Princess Leia's ship. I identified with Luke Skywalker (I didn't realize how much of a whiner he was until I was at least 15), and I stood up and cheered when the Death Star was destroyed.
Less than a year later I found a blue box in the corner of a bookstore that helped to shape the rest of my adolescence: Dungeons and Dragons. It was a simple concept: a loose set of rules that allowed players to enter a world of fantasy. Here was the template to create a universe where I could be the hero I had always read about or seen in a movie. I read everything I could get my hands on. Unlike Damon, I bought everything that came out that had to do with Dungeons and Dragons. I was Gary Gygax's best friend. When a new module came out, I bought it. A new rulebook? It was mine. I bought figurines, magazines, supplements, and always looked forward to what was coming out next.
There was only one problem. I didn't have much of a chance to be a real "gamer." I didn't have any friends who would play on a regular basis. Also I'm afraid my Mom didn't like me spending too much time playing D&D, especially after seeing that ungodly made for TV movie "Mazes and Monsters" (it took me years to come to like Tom Hanks after that one). Those facts didn't really bother me, however. When I read modules, I didn't look at them as game supplements. They were a safe means of escape into another world, a world that I wanted to learn more about.
In fact, the only thing that bothered me about the modules was that there wasn't enough information. I wanted to know the stories behind the npc's. I wanted to know the motivation that drove the monsters to do what they did. That's why vampires and liches were my favorite monsters: you could build really good stories around them. And like Damon, The Fiend Folio and Deities and Demigods were my favorite game supplements, because they were rich with the stories and histories I loved.
Things changed when I went to college. I played D&D at least twice a month all four years of college, mostly as a DM. I created modules. I took great pride in telling stories and immersing the players in the fantasy world I had created. I would interweave a TSR module here and there into my world, but only if I could make it fit. Those sessions were some of the best nights of my college life.
But by the time I had graduated from college D&D had changed. D&D had started as a small, loose set of rules and the rest was up to you. In ten years it had become something completely different. The rules system had grown way too complex and contradicted itself time and time again. In college when we played and someone suggested an idea, I as DM would assign a percentage of success and roll the dice. After college I tried to join a new group and they would pull out fourteen handbooks and adhere to "combat tactics" during battles. I just wanted to be a hero in a new and different world. I wanted to explore. I had no desire to roll d20's twenty seven times and take 45 minutes to fight a battle that would have taken 5 minutes if I had been running it when I was eighteen. So I quit.
I may have quit pen and paper D&D, but I never quit having the need for fantasy. I have played the majority of computer RPG's that have ever come out, hoping to find something that gave me the same thrill I got playing D&D. I have fallen in love with many fantasy authors since college, including Donaldson, Kurtz, and Jordan. I have even tried my hand at writing myself. Everyone has a psychological need for the temporary escape from reality, and my need had been fulfilled through D&D. Nothing else had been able to take its place.
Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II were as close to computer D&D that I had found. Then I heard that WoTC had put out a 3rd edition set of rules for D&D. I held off for several months, but I finally broke down and bought the core books. I was more than pleased. They had thought everything through, creating a comprehensive set of rules that covered most scenarios yet remained efficient and easy to apply. Then I watched the demo for Neverwinter Nights. And I heard the words "User created worlds…controlled by an all-powerful human dungeon master." Could it be? Pen and paper D&D on the computer?
I've been perusing the NWN Stratics boards for a couple of months now, putting in my two-cent's worth here and there. I have enjoyed the threads discussing the module vs. the persistent world; I have enjoyed watching the bashing of pk'ers. I've also tried to generate discussions on module ideas. I understand the desire for groups who want to create a persistent world where dozens (or more) players can explore day or night. But for me the real breakthrough of this game will be the single party modules that will be created by users. I will have a world for small groups to explore, but the story will be one that evolves and grows with the players that go through them. It will be a world where the players will make an impact on a personal level, not one where hundreds of players will run around trying to level up the fastest and kill all the foozles they can find. It will be a world where a story is told, where a mystery will unfold, and where players will know they are the heroes.
I saw on the news that last week was the 20th anniversary of the rollout of the IBM PC. That means it has been about 19 years and 51 weeks since we began wondering what it would be like to truly play pen and paper D&D on the computer. It may be a few more months before we can get our hands on it, but that's okay by me. In the meantime I've got a world to create - a world where I might provide someone with the kind of escape that I had when I first read Tolkien, or the rush I felt when I first saw The Death Star explode, or the joy I felt when I got my first copy of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Good luck to everyone… this is going to be a great ride.
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