20th January, 2009 - 10 Things I Love About Dungeons and Dragons #7

The seventh thing I love about Dungeons and Dragons is the Rule Books. These are quite distinct from the rules which I mentioned at number 5 in this list. The rules themselves could be printed off from the compter nowadays, but it would not be the same. The game’s designers have hit on the idea of producing beautiful hardback books that are made to look – well – like Books of Spells that a magician might have. They are clearly designed to appeal to our adolescent notions of the type of thing that Merlin might have consulted when Arthur was in a tricky situation.

To the outsider, these books look foolish and childish; the kind of thing that ought to have been left with The Scout Handbook, The 1979 Victor Annual and the Figurini Panini Sticker Annual. But the player of Dungeons and Dragons is by nature an outsider – the type of person who accepts ridicule and derision as part of everyday life. We are prepared to suffer for our magic.

I read my rulebooks in the pub at lunchtimes.