ELI NATINSKY PORTFOLIO
  • Homepage
  • Writing
  • Video
  • Blog
  • Recommendations
  • About Me
  • Contact

​Coming of age included playing Dungeons & Dragons

7/28/2017

0 Comments

 
Any Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fans out there?
I enjoyed playing the fantasy role playing game (RPG) when I was a kid, and I was intrigued to learn actor Joe Manganiello of “True Blood” and “Magic Mike” fame did, as well. He still plays, in fact, now appearing on "Force Grey: Lost City of Omu," a D&D quest played on Twitch.tv. Manganiello was recently interviewed by “The Hollywood Reporter,” and he said one of the benefits of the pastime is: "You meet your own kind.” 
Picture
Joe Manganiello
Manganiello’s D&D experiences led me to consider my time creating character sheets and rolling five sided dice. I took part in the contest nearly every weekend during the school year from fifth though eighth grades at my local recreation center. It was the highlight of my week, and this was especially true during winter. I grew up in Metro Detroit, and the anticipation of weekly sessions made Michigan’s snowy season more bearable.
 
What is D&D? The official website offers this overview: “The core of D&D is storytelling. You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more.”
 
The folks I steered included Bob Zobar, an elf fighter, Martin Greenstone, a human cleric, and Ogie, a magic user who was also human. (I have no idea where I came up with these names.) The character that I most related to was Bob because, at the time, I thought of elves as diminutive and I’ve always been on the small side. But, as I later learned from “Lord of the Rings,” elves like can also be tall and graceful.

Our dungeon master (DM) was Ned, a fellow in his 20s who was hired by the rec center. Who is the DM? David M. Ewalt in “Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It” describes him/her as “author, director, and referee. A good DM must be creative, designing a world from scratch and spinning it into narrative. But they must also possess an ordered, logical mind, capable of recalling and understanding hundreds of pages worth of rules.”

Ned created an air of mystery and suspense by propping up his loose leaf binders and game manuals to create a wall between himself and the players. We never knew what he was planning and the challenges he might send our way. Ned also had a flare for the dramatic, donning the personas of the beings and creatures we encountered. He especially delighted in frustrating us by playing adversaries that were none too bright. (“Wha? Huh? Who?”)
One of our conquests involved successfully dispatching a demon in a homeowner’s basement. How it got there was never explained. Our characters were rewarded with treasure and experience points (more points = more abilities). Another time, we fled a castle after unsuccessfully battling its inhabitants, a horde of giants. They were big and strong, and we were far outnumbered. And, on another expedition, we explored a dungeon with several rooms. The entrance was in a restroom tavern, and it could only be seen once a member of our party ate the soup du jour. One of the folks we encountered in the subterranean world was a piano player who took requests. (Ned had an interesting sense of humor, eh?) 
Picture
Manganiello and friends play D&D.
Getting back to Manganiello, the thespian also explained that the game helped prepare him for a career in the entertainment industry. He often served as DM growing up, and he compared this to his role in show business in that one is “creatively cooking up adventures the way a modern-day showrunner or producer would. ... It was building characters and story arcs and auxiliary storylines. Little did I know I was flexing all the muscles that I ended up using in my chosen profession.”
 
I completely agree with Manganiello, and some of what he said occurred to me about 10 years ago. That was when Ned and I reconnected through Facebook, and he asked: “Is this the same Eli whose life changed when he started playing D&D?” What an interesting thing to say! I thought about it, and I realized he was right. The game did alter my world in that it provided a social and creative outlet when I was still trying to figure out the type of people with whom I wanted to surround myself, as well as my own talents and interests. 
0 Comments

    Author

    I'm Eli Natinsky and I'm a communication specialist. This blog explores my work and professional interests. I also delve into other topics, including media, marketing, pop culture, and technology.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

  • Homepage
  • Writing
  • Video
  • Blog
  • Recommendations
  • About Me
  • Contact