My experiences with tabletop gaming go all the way back to seventh grade.  Like everyone else, I was an awkward middle schooler with bad hair and no idea what they were doing.  But, I did have a strong group of friends (which includes my roommate), a group that would stay together to this day.  One day, our friend Zach introduced us to a game his older brothers had played when he was younger: Dungeons & Dragons.  It wasn’t long before we were all hooked.

The admittedly confusing character sheet of D&D 3.5e, which would be replaced by a streamlined version in 2014. Produced by Wizards of the Coast.

Back in 2011, the edition we played of D&D was known as 3.5e.  We would continue to play this version until we switched to 5e just this year.  Over the course of the last six years, plenty of nights were spent playing all manners of tabletop games.  We used it as a base off of which to plan an event.  There were plenty of times where we planned a night of D&D, paired with either poker or a movie.

An example of Dread being played, albeit it with an oversized Jenga set. Picture from this Geek and Sundry video.

As time went on, we began to expand our experiences with different games each of us would find.  For instance, sophomore year was defined by our focus on Stars Without Number (available as a PDF here), a space adventure reminiscent of the sci-fi western show Firefly.  Meanwhile back in freshman year, we centered on Apocalypse World, a post-apocalyptic tabletop game.  Or, there was our most recent edition with a mix of D&D 5e and Dread, a horror game played using Jenga blocks (can be seen played here), both of which we played over our final summer together.

Playing together is really what it was all about, especially over the last couple of months.  With most of us going our separate ways, playing these different tabletop games gave us one last chance to relax together and have our own little adventure.  Now, we may be spread out across the country, but our shared experiences with things such as role-playing games give us things to look forward to come winter break.  Before then, I hope to continue my history with these games with my roommate and new friends, something that will help us all de-stress from the hectic college life, especially with midterm exams going on.  Luckily for us, the Comic Swap, a store right in town, sells all the necessities for D&D.