so...

Suddenly it's 1982.

I say this only because I see my wife, sitting on the floor of our rec room, surrounded by a variety of game manuals, preparing an adventure for this Saturday night.

When I first started playing role-playing games I was a sophomore in high school. When I first started running a game, I was a junior. I would spend hours--more hours than I spent on homework, if I'm forced to be totally honest--scouring through the four Dungeons and Dragons manuals that were out at the time, carefully constructing game worlds and scenarios for others to enjoy. And I loved it.

The act of creation is cathartic. Amazingly so, in fact. It gives you a sense of accomplishment unlike almost any other thing. To have your ideas brought to life in any way brings a sense of satisfaction, a belief in yourself, and a sense of completion. Something that you thought of has seen its way to the finish, or at least the start of a finish.

You see, unlike most stories, when you are playing in a role-playing game, you aren't the only storyteller. If you are running a game, you are simply presenting the situation where others get to step in and tell you what happens. You are the archetect of the tale, but in this case the characters truly have their own lives. The players are just as important as the gamemaster, since they dictate what happens.

Of course, the gamemaster is still the archetect of what happens. So, even if you have the best players in the world, the story can still fall flat if the gamemaster hasn't created the right tale. Or worse, if they have too much ego involved in the game. I was in one game where, when the story reached its pinnacle after several weeks of play, the characters got to sit out and watch as the gamemaster told us what happened in the game. Our characters were nothing more than sideline participants as he told us--over the course of almost two hours--what happened around us. Perhaps the worst game that I've been in.

Another gamemaster was so egotistical that if the player's in his game ever came up with a way around what he had set for his plot, he found a way to cancel what they did. At every turn, the players were upstaged by the antagonists of the game, making everything the players did with their characters seem futile and pointless. The players lost interest and the game lost all manner of direction. (Sadly, that game is still going on, and I dread having to go back to playing it...and I hope that gamemaster doesn't read my blog, because he is a good friend and I don't want to hurt him.)

And now I sit here, watching my wife prepare for the game that I will play in two days from now. She is an amazing storyteller. She has a unique voice and a powerful imagination. And she runs a hell of a game. That's not just me saying it because I love her, either; all of the players in her game feel the same. She has been able to create something that we all look forward to playing. And she prepares better than anyone I know. Far better than I ever have.

Still, no matter how much preperation you do, you can't control what others do with what you lay before them. But if you prepare well, and you have the right mindset and trust in your players, you can create a storytelling experience unlike any other that is offered in this world today.

I've been playing role-playing games for over 26 years, and I love it to this day. Sitting here seeing my wife happily immersed in her game creation moments only tells me that the stories that in my future are only beginning. And I couldn't be happier.