"Fifteen Years"

It's 3am and I'm awake...again.

The part of insomnia that's really miserable these days is the state of my eyes. Once upon a time, I'd wake up in the middle of the night and just read a book until my eyes got tired again and get back to sleep (this didn't always work, but often enough). Now, my eyes are so bad, I can't even read my computer screen...it's just a big, bright blur. Fortunately, I don't need to be able to read to type...although I imagine my typos are fairly horrendous.

White on black text, however is easier to decipher (probably a way to change my blog settings, if I could read them...), and so I skimming the latest Reddit mailbag to see if there was anything "juicy." And I came across a player complaining about her DM "hating" on her characters because they're too effective (*sigh*) and he keeps introducing house rules to nerf their effectiveness.

[what kind of characters, you ask? how about clerics. how about rogues. Like...the basics. Just another shitty DM who can't handle the game mechanics of D&D...]

Anyway, she was writing that perhaps this is perhaps on her, not the DM, because she's been playing since elementary school and has some fifteen years of experience, mostly as a Dungeon Master, and...

Fifteen years?

Fifteen years?!

Fifteen years is a long f'ing time. The last time I worked a regular job-type job, I worked there for fifteen years, and that was (perhaps) about five years too many. Hell, I was there long enough to be vested in the pension plan (this was back when companies still offered pensions...). Fifteen years was definitely the longest I'd worked at ANY one place....

Fifteen years ago, I had no children. I've packed a lot of living, a lot of life experiences into the last fourteen years of being a father...so much so that remembering my child-less life before is just...ancient history or something.

Fifteen years. Fifteen years from now, my son will be almost 30 years old. Hopefully long graduated from college and having a career of his own...maybe even working on a second career. Possibly having a family of his own. Hell, in fifteen years, I might be a grandfather (still won't be retirement age...assuming Social Security is still around  in fifteen years...).

Fifteen years. The person writing this Reddit letter is probably closer to 30 than 25. Can you imagine? A person with fifteen years of D&D experience under her belt, almost 30 years of age, and the only D&D she knows is 4E and 5E? Because they started publishing 4E in 2008, seventeen years ago. And yet, after fifteen years of regular play...especially regular play as a Dungeon Master...I'd daresay ANYone qualifies as a "seasoned veteran" of D&D gaming. Regardless of the editio played.

Yes. Regardless of the edition being played.

Yesterday, I actually wrote that someone was playing D&D wring (because they are), something I've tried hard to avoid putting down in print for years (I've been writing this blog for more than fifteen years, just by the by). Oh, I'll belittle and berate and bully and happily write there are better ways, smarter ways, more effective ways to play the game...sure. But I try really hard not to just put my foot down and say "you're doing it wrong." Because A) who made me the damn expert and B) if they're enjoying their game play, aren't they de facto doing it "right" and C) even if I am right and even if they are wrong, who cares? Will me writing it down stop them from playing how they play?

So I try not to come right out and say "you're playing wrong." I've done it a couple-four times over the years, but I generally have to be pretty worked up. And I often feel "low" after doing so.

NOW...can I even imagine telling a person with fifteen years of solid experience "you're doing it wrong?"

No. I really can't. Because fifteen years is a LONG ASS TIME. And if your passion and love for the game has lasted a decade and a half, to the point that you are still playing, in an age when almost NOTHING lasts fifteen years (aside from familial relationships and our closest friendships)...a fifteen year vocation/hobby is nothing to sniff at. You're not doing something "wrong;" you are doing something very, very right...at least, you have proven that it's "right" for you.

I am...and have been...possibly/probably too hard on these 'young whippersnappers' (30 year olds). It's just tough for a geezer like me to treat people who've never not known the internet with the degree of seriousness and respect that they (probably?) deserve. For that, I apologize...although, I'm sure that 20 years from now, they'll feel much the same about "kids" in their mid-to-late 20s who've never not known A.I.

It is what it is. 

Anyway...it's getting on towards 4am. I'm going to try to get some sleep...we've got a really huge day ahead of us, celebrating Sofia's birthday and such before kids skip town for Easter (Spring) break.

Happy Good Friday, folks. Sorry for the typos (I'll edit this later...when I can see more than a blur).