In the midst of January, like many others, we at Taleblazers started thinking about our hobbies; their power to change us and their impact on the course of our lives. We asked Kev, our resident storyteller and balladeer, if he could tell us more about a hobby that he feels has had a profound and positive impact on his life.
“When it comes to hobbies, I’d say I have a few; perhaps more than some people but probably a lot less than others – having a good hobby or two is essential to our well-being and social development, through them we can find a few hours away from the pressure of modern life, gain purpose, new skills, have events to look forward to and increase our circles of friendship.
Of all my hobbies, the one I’m always most happy to talk about is Roleplaying.
It started in secondary school. I was not a happy student, school was a daily battle against bullies and disappointed teachers – I was an undiagnosed Comorbid Dyspraxic with Attention Deficit Disorder – Learning difficulties didn’t really exist back then, so I was labelled as lazy, disruptive and because my likelihood of being an Ox/Bridge candidate was zero; completely useless in the eyes of a grammar school.
There was one thing I did enjoy: The company. I made good friends, no, GREAT friends at TBGS. Not just one group either; I had friends that I enjoyed music with, friends I played football with (badly), computer friends, and most importantly, the friends who roleplayed with me.
Roleplaying games had been around for a while; Dungeons and Dragons had been introduced in 1974 by Gary Gygax as a way of expanding on traditional tabletop wargames, rather than control a unit of cavalry or light infantry you would instead control a single character, using their skills and attributes along with other player characters to collectively tell a story, fight monsters and wield magic, the only limit was your imagination and the consequences of your actions were determined by rolling dice and the Dungeon Master – a non-player who sets the scene and describes what happens within the game.
I don’t remember who suggested our first game but I remember it wasn’t D&D – we used the Warhammer universe instead. Citadel had released a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game and a futuristic space tabletop combat game, we liked both but were upset that you couldn’t roleplay the futuristic side (Warhammer 40.000). We didn’t have the money for official sourcebooks anyway so I set about writing the mechanics for running the 40K universe as a roleplaying game.
I don’t think I’d ever written for fun before that point. I could be a pretty good Games Master when I put the effort in and ended up running most of the games at school although occasionally Rich or Gareth might have us doing something different like Rune Master, Call of Cthulhu, Middle Earth Roleplaying Game or my personal favourite; Paranoia.
Outside of school I had a D&D group run by an older friend – he lived in Kingkerswell but drove to the Bay to pick us all up in his Devon Computers work van, four teenagers crammed in the back with no seatbelts, sliding across the floor of the van every time we took a corner at speed – it was the highlight of the week.
In our third year, Rich decided that we should have a roleplaying convention at the school and went on to organise it. I’m pretty sure I helped a little bit but this was mainly Rich’s idea and one of the first times he showed exactly how good he was at doing this sort of thing. People came from far and wide; there were stalls and games and live roleplaying, it was quite an incredible achievement and it got us in the paper too! Our success however drew us to the attention of another group.
During the late 80s, a certain degree of controversy had sprung up around Roleplaying (specifically Dungeons and Dragons) – there was a very vocal contingent of Christian groups who believed that the game was a gateway to devil worship, they also had similar notions about heavy metal music. This is now referred to as “Satanic Panic”. Rich and I liked both of these things and as we each had long hair in our press photo, we must have set off some kind of emergency Christian fundamentalist beacon.
Within the week we were called to the Deputy Head’s office (not an irregular event for me) and shown a letter from a “concerned” group who demanded that we attend a tea party to discuss the imminent danger to our immortal souls.
We went, we met them, we laughed at the fact that they lived in Hobbit Road, we ate cakes, drank tea and we tried earnestly to explain that it was just pretending, it was harmless fantasy, and that generally you played heroes and heroines, slaying demons, not raising them. Yet they wouldn’t have any of it. We realised nothing would be resolved and before either party became too frustrated we went our separate ways our pockets filled with cheaply printed cartoon stories of D&D induced suicide and devil worship.
Today Roleplaying games are more popular than ever with hundreds of Youtube channels, and millions of players. Very few people still believe that they imperil your soul; rather, their usefulness in treating depression, building confidence and awakening people’s imagination are finally being recognised.
I still game every Thursday with my predominantly Exeter-based D&D group, there’s also a group at Kent’s Cavern I recently started playing with – they really are the things I most look forward to in the week”.
Will you be taking up a new hobby in January 2023? What’s a hobby that has changed your life for the better? Perhaps you might bring a new hobby with you into 2023; whether that’s something social and creative, a new sport, or a commitment to learning more about funghi. The world is your oyster!